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Sample Wharton MBA Essay - Gain professionally from the Wharton MBA? (473 words)

The applicant wants to transition from Technology Consulting to FinTech & Strategic Management

Wharton MBA Essay #1 Strategy: Most essay narrative directly lists the expected professional gain. All of them sound like a reverse advertisement of Wharton MBA. What the admission team needs is the context for the professional gain. Without citing an interesting project you worked, or the motivation for Wharton MBA, the essay will sound cliched.

Wharton Value: Wharton Business School proudly mentions analytics and data-based decision making as a value that differentiates it from other top Business School schools.

Wharton MBA Essay #1 Narrative: For the sample essay we have used a fictitious profile – a Consultant, who has worked with a Technology giant and noticed its core value eroding since the maverick Founder’s demise. An unethical leadership decision is used as an opener to capture the admission team’s attention. The applicant then compares decision made under a tough condition to leading an expedition, and cleverly transition into how Wharton’s expeditions would help him gain leadership skills.

The narrative then switches back to the applicant’s experience with the technology company and introduces analytics as a tool for making smarter decisions. This experience is matched with ‘Analytics’ and ‘Wharton MBA.’

The second half of the essay goes into the specifics of the program – curriculum, experiential learning, professors and student-led clubs as four tools for professional gain. The essay concludes with the majors the applicant would like to choose.

P.S: This is just one permutation on the numerous story arcs you can create for Wharton MBA Essays. Your pre-MBA experience and goals determine the essay structure. For help in writing or editing essays, subscribe to F1GMAT’s Essay Review Service. If you are not sure how to structure the essay, use W-Pattern narratives. Read the Chapter - Capture the ‘W’ Pattern in your MBA Essay

Sample Wharton MBA Essay 1: What do you hope to gain professionally from the Wharton MBA? (473 words)

While consulting for a Technology giant, it became apparent that the strategy to maintain the sales volume for one of their premium products was an intentional slowdown of old models. The leadership took the easy way out instead of weathering the market uncertainty its legendary Founder masterfully navigated. Although it might sound trivial to compare trekking to managing a multibillion-dollar enterprise, leading expeditions has exposed me to the fragility of life, the toughness required to push forward despite uncertainty and the fortitude to take a step back when the environment is deceiving. The expedition team at Wharton MBA’s leadership ventures is a group that I would like lead, beyond Antarctica and Kilimanjaro.

For the technology giant, we dug deeper into the sales forecast of all their products. By using our in-house analytics tool, we integrated sales volume, volume prediction from social media, competitor sales data and release schedules of product, to forecast sales across all product categories.

Data didn’t lie.

A device that was panned a failure saw a record increase in sales among fitness fanatics. Innovation in contactless payment, helped the company find a new revenue stream. Unfortunately, intelligent analytics can reveal catastrophic news. An Asian Tech giant
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For Complete Sample Essays and 7 Professional Gains, Download F1GMAT's Wharton MBA Essay Guide

F1GMAT's Wharton MBA Essay Guide

Essay 1: Two short-form questions

What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (50 words)
What are your career goals for the first three to five years after completing your MBA, and how will those build towards your long-term professional goals? (150 words)

Essay 2: Long-form essay: Taking into consideration your background – personal, professional, and/or academic – how do you plan to add meaningful value to the Wharton community? (350 words)

Download F1GMAT's Wharton 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.

 

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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.