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Manifesting an App (Junior Bankers & Mental Health): NYU Stern MBA Change Essay

NYU Stern MBA Essay: Change: _________ it (350 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)

In today’s global business environment, the only constant is change. Using NYU Stern’s brand call to action, we want to know how you view change. Change: _____ it. Fill in the blank with a word of your choice. Why does this word resonate with you? How will you embrace your own personal tagline while at Stern? Examples:
Change: Dare it.
Change: Dream it.
Change: Drive it.
Change: Empower it.
Change: Manifest it.
Change: [Any word of your choice.]

******

Background Information: Mental health among bankers is an issue that is gaining momentum. Even Goldman Sachs has now set limits on working hours for junior bankers. The applicant addresses a larger problem that bankers face – the pressure to deliver. 

Theme: Mental Health

Theme (Explained): Mental health crises affect close to 40% of all professionals and 65% of all bankers. 

From policy intervention to systemic changes, the solutions quoted in MBA essays are diverse. Few applicants have incorporated solutions that help bankers manage their moods.

The technology intervention through an App is the core of the narrative.

Profile: Consultant

Industry: Finance, Technology, Entrepreneur

MBA Essay Strategy: Technology intervention or technology solution in MBA essays often doesn’t spend enough time highlighting the human angle of the problem. 

With a culture that encourages the relentless pursuit of deals and profits, junior bankers are often engulfed in a culture that peels out any empathy for a world outside the deals. The applicant didn’t fully realize the negative transformation until her brother joined an Investment Banking firm. From an empathetic and ‘happy’ person, he began relying on mood-elevating and sleep-depriving pills. 

The journey of the applicant narrating a tragedy from 2001 to building an App that is helping junior bankers manage their mental health through timely intervention is the core of the Stern Manifest It Narrative.

Opener: The opening line builds intrigue about the tragedy before expanding on the financial maneuver that triggered the tragedy.

NYU Stern MBA Change Essay Sample: Manifest It (Helping Junior Bankers Manage Mental & Physical Health) (347 Words) 

9-11 is a reminder of our family's deepest anguish. 

My uncle, a star trader, maneuvered a technique in a trade that works only in 1 in a thousand times. To show his commitment to the investing strategy, he bet on a rising internet startup - <_y>. The crash of 2001 wiped out his entire savings. The note in his Queens home, before he ended the humiliation, was a moment that my grandmother ..

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Download F1GMAT's NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide for the Complete Sample Essay

NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide

Short Answer: What are your short-term career goals?

Question 1: Change: _________ it (350 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)

In today’s global business environment, the only constant is change. Using NYU Stern’s brand call to action, we want to know how you view change. Change: _____ it. Fill in the blank with a word of your choice. Why does this word resonate with you? 

How will you embrace your own personal tagline while at Stern? Examples:
•    Change: Dare it.
•    Change: Dream it.
•    Change: Drive it.
•    Change: Empower it.
•    Change: Manifest it.
•    Change: [Any word of your choice] it.

Question 2: Personal Expression (a.k.a. "Pick Six")

Download F1GMAT's NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide

About the Author 

Atul Jose

I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.

 

For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.

 

My work covers the full MBA application deliverable: career planning and profile evaluation, application essay editing, recommendation letter editing, mock interviews and interview preparation, scholarship and fellowship essay editing, and cover letter editing for funding applications. Full bio with credentials and admit history is here.

 

I am the author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, the best-selling essay guide covering M7 MBA programs. I have written and updated the guide annually since 2013, which makes the 2026 edition the thirteenth.

 

The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.

 

Contact me for school selection, career planning, essay strategy, narrative development, essay editing, interview preparation, scholarship essay editing, or guidance documents for recommendation letters.