For the 2024 entering class, Yale has offered applicants the option to choose from three prompts: A commitment Essay, an Essay about Community and how you found meaning from it, and an Essay about the most significant challenge you faced and how it shaped you as a person.
1) Commitment Essay: Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made. Why is this Commitment meaningful to you, and what actions have you taken to support it?
If you are choosing the commitment essay, you need at least 2-3 instances where you could demonstrate a value or a cause, or a personality trait that influenced an outcome. I have included examples of listening, equality, learning, clean tech, and perseverance in F1GMAT’s Yale MBA Essay Guide. But you can turn around any interesting personality traits into a narrative about Commitment if the challenges you overcame were unique.
2) Community Essay: Describe the community that has been most meaningful to you. What is the most valuable thing you have gained from being a part of this community and what is the most important thing you have contributed to this community?
Community generally refers to the area where you grew up. But for Yale, the admissions team is expecting some narrative about identity. If you come from a low-income family and there was an organization or an association that helped you with education, then the community is the group of teachers and mentors who helped you overcome the hurdle. Your contribution or IMPACT will be measured by how you helped other candidates from similar backgrounds as yours choose or grow in their careers.
Many write about peers with similar interests as their community. The only challenge is that it should not be an interest for a summer. It should be consistent, like an interest in music, stand-up, sports, or any performance art. And you have contributed back to the community through mentorship and offering guidance in building their skills.
3) Significant Challenge Essay: Describe the most significant challenge you have faced. How have you confronted this challenge, and how has it shaped you as a person?
If you are going for a personal experience, the examples should be related to an illness, an unexpected death in the family, an accident, or the IMPACT of war on the lives of your loved ones or your own life. Confronting the challenge should not turn into a hero’s narrative. There should be moments of vulnerability, learning, and transformation that give you a new perspective on seeing the world.
If you are going for a professional example or an example from your college, you need to capture the before and after of your personality. How you saw the world before the event and how you saw it after should be clear and framed to demonstrate how that one event changed you as a person.
Which Yale Essay Prompt Should I Choose?
Applicants from a minority demographic by ethnicity, the community essay is for you. If you had a unique personal setback by any standard and you overcame it, then the significant challenge essay is for you and for all other applicants; focus on the commitment essay.
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