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Essays help us learn about who you are rather than solely what you have done.

Other parts of the application give insight into your academic and professional accomplishments; the essays reveal the person behind those achievements.

Essay Questions

We request that you write two personal essays.

In each essay, we want to hear your genuine voice. Think carefully about your values, passions, aims, and dreams. There is no “right answer” to these questions — the best answer is the one that is truest for you.

Essay A: What matters most to you, and why?

For this essay, we would like you to reflect deeply and write from the heart. Once you’ve identified what matters most to you, help us understand why. You might consider, for example, what makes this so important to you? What people, insights, or experiences have shaped your perspectives?

Essay B: Why Stanford?

Describe your aspirations and how your Stanford GSB experience will help you realize them. If you are applying to both the MBA and MSx programs, use Essay B to address your interest in both programs.

Both essays combined may not exceed 1,000 words. We recommend up to 650 words for Essay A and up to 350 words for Essay B. We often read effective essays that are written in fewer words.

Editing Your Essays

Begin work on the essays early to give yourself time to reflect, write, and edit.

Feel free to ask friends or family members for feedback, especially about whether the tone and voice sound like you. Your family and friends know you better than anyone. If they think the essays do not capture who you are, what you believe, and what you aspire to do, then surely we will be unable to recognize what is distinctive about you.

Feedback vs. Coaching

There is a big difference between “feedback” and “coaching.” You cross that line when any part of the application (excluding the letters of recommendation ) ceases to be exclusively yours in either thought or word.

Appropriate feedback occurs when others review your completed application — perhaps once or twice — and apprise you of omissions, errors, or inaccuracies that you later correct or address. After editing is complete, your thoughts, voice, and style remain intact. Inappropriate coaching occurs when you allow others to craft any part of your application for you and, as a result, your application or self-presentation is not authentic.

It is improper and a violation of the terms of this application process to have another person or tool write your essays. Such behavior will result in denial of your application or revocation of your admission.

Additional Information

If there is any information that is critical for us to know and is not captured elsewhere, include it in the Additional Information section of the application. Pertinent examples include:

Extenuating circumstances affecting your candidacy, including academic, work, or test-taking experiences
Academic experience (e.g., independent research) not noted elsewhere
Explanation of why you are not using a current supervisor as a recommender

This section should not be used as an additional essay.

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7 Common MBA Essay Questions and How to Tackle Them

There are a handful of business school essay questions that seem to capture the heart and imagination of many an MBA program.

It seems that, across the board, admissions committees feel these queries offer the best insight into the minds of their applicants. You are likely to see a version of one or more of these common MBA essay questions on your b-school application . These tips will help you craft the perfect answer.

1. Describe your specific career aspirations and your reason for pursuing an MBA.

This may be the most important essay question you tackle. You must convince the admissions committee that you deserve one of their few, cherished spots. Reference your background, skills, and career aspirations, demonstrating how this degree is a bridge to the next step in your professional life. Be sure to speak to how this particular program will help you realize your potential.

It's okay to present modest goals. Deepening your expertise and broadening your perspective are solid reasons for pursuing this degree. If you aspire to lofty goals, like becoming a CEO or starting your own company, be careful to detail a sensible (read: realistic), pragmatic plan.

2. What are your principal interests outside of work or school? What leisure and/or community activities do you particularly enjoy?

There's more to b-school than the library. The best programs buzz with the energy of a student body that is talented and creative and bursting with personality. These students are not just about case studies and careers. Describe how you will be a unique addition to the business school community.

B-school is also a very social experience. Much of the work is done in groups. Weekends are full of social gatherings or immersion experiences, and the networking you do here will impact the rest of your career. Communicate that people, not just your job, are an important part of your life.

3. Who do you most admire?

The admissions committee wants to know the qualities, attributes and strengths you value in others and hope to embrace. Drive, discipline and vision are fine examples but try and look beyond these conventional characteristics. Tell a story and provide specific examples. If you choose someone famous (which is fine), remember that you risk being one of many in the pile. Instead, consider a current boss, business associate, or friend. Know that your choice of person is less important than what you say about him or her.

4. Describe a situation in which you led a team. What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?

The committee isn't looking to see how you saved the team through your heroic efforts (so put yourself on ego alert). They want to see how you helped foster an environment in which everyone contributes, illustrating that the sum is greater than its parts. B-schools like leaders, but they like leaders who can help everyone get along and arrive at a collaborative solution.

You should shift gears for this question. Almost the entire application process thus far has asked you to showcase "me-me-me." Now the focus of your story needs to be on the "we" and how you made the "we" happen.

5. Our business school is a diverse environment. How will your experiences contribute to this?

This essay gets at two concerns for the admissions committee: (1) how will you enrich the student body at this school and (2) what is your attitude toward others' diverse backgrounds?

Diversity comes in many shapes. If a grandparent or relative is an immigrant to this country, you can discuss the impact of his or her values on your life. Perhaps you are the first individual in your family to attend college or graduate school. Maybe you are involved in a meaningful or unusual extracurricular activity. Whatever you choose to write, it's vital that you discuss how it contributes to your unique perspective.

6. Describe a personal achievement that has had a significant impact on your life.

Don't pull your hair out just because you haven't founded a successful start-up or swum across the English Channel. Smaller accomplishments with a lot of personal significance are just fine if they demonstrate character, sacrifice, humility, dedication, or perseverance. A good essay describes how you reached a personal objective and what that meant to you. Maybe you didn't lead a sports team to a victory. Maybe the victory was that you made it onto the team .

7. Discuss a non-academic personal failure. What did you learn from the experience?

Many applicants make the mistake of answering this question with a failure that is really a positive. Or they never really answer the question, fearful that any admission of failure will throw their whole candidacy into jeopardy. Don't get crafty. You should answer with a genuine mistake that the committee will recognize as authentic.

Write about a failure that had some high stakes for you. Demonstrate what you learned from your mistake and how it helped you mature. This is a chance to show b-schools your ability to be honest, show accountability, and face your failures head-on.

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MBA Essay Examples, Tips, and Analysis

Y our MBA application essays are your best opportunity to share meaningful life experiences that hide in the “white spaces” of the resume and to tell admissions officers not only “what” you have achieved but also “why” those achievements are meaningful to you.

Your MBA application essays are going to be crucial if you are competing for a spot at one of the world’s top business schools.

These resources will show you how to excel in the rigorous MBA essay writing challenges ahead of you, provide you with the guidance to create MBA essays that will impress admissions officers, and share MBA essay examples that illustrate our advice in action.

Second, we survey the five most frequently asked MBA essay questions. We preview video essay questions and link to detailed guidance on how to tackle this emerging class of application essays.

Third, we will teach you how to choose topics and stories for your essays and share a story-outlining technique to help you tell those stories.

Common MBA Essay Forms: Persuasive versus Narrative Essays

There are two primary forms that MBA application essays take: persuasive essays and narrative essays. In a persuasive essay, you must persuade your reader that your argument is a sound one. An op-ed column in a newspaper is one example of a persuasive essay.

The classic “What Will You Contribute to the Class?” question is an excellent example of a persuasive essay question that MBA programs like to ask. The essay you write must persuade the admissions committee that you will enrich next year’s class. You will generally present evidence from past experiences and achievements to support your claims about what you can offer the MBA community.

The other style of essay you’ll encounter in your MBA applications is the narrative essay. Certain MBA essay questions don’t sound like questions at all; they are, in fact, an invitation for you to tell a story. We refer to these as narrative essays – but others call them behavioral essays or expository essays.

The Leadership Story Essay is a perfect example of a narrative essay. It’s one thing to claim to be a leader – but it’s quite another to show the admissions committee that you’re a leader by telling a captivating leadership story in which you played the starring role.

While MBA essays often fall into these two categories, the actual prompts will differ from school to school. Let’s discuss the five most frequently asked MBA essay questions. ↑ To the Top

The Five Most Frequently Asked MBA Essay Questions

Every business school application requires you to answer one or more MBA essay questions. Although the essay prompts differ from application to application, we identified five types of MBA application essay questions that appear again and again.

Career Goals Essays

A career goals essay question regularly appears in one form or another on just about every MBA application. Even if you aren’t required to write this type of essay, you will almost certainly be asked about your post-MBA career goals during an admissions interview.

Admissions committees ask about your career plans because they want to understand what you aspire to do after your MBA and how the MBA degree fits into your career plan. As it turns out, a strong career goals essay is one of the best tools in your application to stand out from MBA candidates who don’t have a compelling career vision or haven’t effectively articulated their professional goals in their MBA application essays.

Leadership Essays

Leadership essays are your absolute best opportunity to convince MBA admissions committees of your leadership abilities. Remember that MBA admissions officers will be interested in your leadership achievements both inside and outside of work.

You probably won’t be asked directly, “Are you a leader?” Instead, you’ll be asked to tell stories about your leadership achievements. When given the opportunity, you need to supply evidence that you can rally other people and motivate them to work together to achieve an important shared vision or goal. Therein lies the objective of a great leadership essay.

Why MBA? and Why Our School? Essays

The “Why MBA? Why Our School?” essay is your chance to convince admissions officers that their school is the perfect fit for what you need from an MBA program. The best answers to these types of questions are both personal and specific. You need to effectively convey what you are looking for in an MBA program and tell the admissions committee why their school will best satisfy your learning goals and help you achieve your career development objectives.

“What Will You Contribute?” Essays

The “What Will You Contribute?” essay presents you with an opportunity to tell the MBA Admissions Committee why you would be a valuable addition to their incoming class. The schools are looking for candidates who can put in just as much as they take out. One critical thing to understand when preparing to answer these questions is that concrete and tailored answers about what you can contribute to each MBA program are crucial.

Professional Experience Essays

The professional experience essay is an executive summary of your career thus far. A resume is a record of jobs and achievements — a Professional Experience Essay provides the connections and interrelationships between those jobs and brings your resume to life. An effective Professional Experience essay will give the admissions committee a sense of the career decisions you’ve made, your major achievements in each step of your career, and the skills and knowledge you’ve acquired along the way.

MBA Application Video Essays

MBA admissions committees are increasingly relying on technology to help them evaluate and manage their growing applicant pools. MBA application video essays are becoming a popular tool, as MBA programs can use them to learn far more about candidates than the traditional application permits. In recent years, leading MBA programs including Kellogg Northwestern , MIT Sloan , and Chicago Booth have incorporated a video component into their evaluation process. Video essays are excellent screening tools that allow admissions officers to assess candidates’ professional presence and communication skills.

Free MBA Essay Writing Course

Please enter your email below to gain 30 days of free access to our MBA Essay Writing course. Learn about the five most frequently asked MBA application essay questions and access our brainstorming tools and sample essays.

No matter which type of MBA essay question you are tackling, your primary objective is to provide evidence that proves you possess the qualities that admissions committees value most. By doing so, you will move one step closer to an acceptance letter from a top business school.

Now that you have a better picture of the classic MBA essay questions you’re likely to face, let’s cover selecting the strongest stories to present in your MBA application essays.

How to Choose the Best Stories for your MBA Essays

Story selection is something all MBA applicants wrestle with. When you first read the MBA application essay questions, it may be hard to figure out which topics to cover or which of your stories to tell. We’ll explain how to go step-by-step to choose your best stories. Here are the steps:

Research the School’s Fit Qualities

Categorize the question.

Brainstorm Topic/Stories

Choose a Topic or Story

To choose your best stories, you need to know what qualities MBA programs truly value when evaluating applicants. You want to tell stories that prove to the admissions officers that you possess the attributes they seek in MBA candidates. We refer to these as the school’s Fit Qualities . You might think of them as the highest-common denominators among the candidates who are accepted.

Early in your MBA essay writing process is the time to make some strategic choices about which qualities and strengths you will put front and center in your MBA essays. If you attempt to feature all of your strengths, you run the risk that admissions officers will finish your essays with no clear idea of any of them. Instead, select three or four of the qualities that your research tells you the school you are applying to prizes most of all.

Second, study the essay question to determine if it falls into one of the five essay categories discussed earlier in this article.

By categorizing each question, you’ll have a better idea of what the admissions committee will be looking for in your response. You’ll know the criteria for scoring top marks in that essay style, which will guide your application essay design decisions.

Brainstorm Topics/Stories

Third, you are ready to start brainstorming potential topics and stories. Remember that your central objective is to find opportunities to feature the key elements of your application strategy .

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you to choose your best topic or story:

Are you the star of the story or supporting cast?

With very few exceptions, you need to write stories where you play the starring role. Don’t make the mistake some applicants make of writing a thrilling story about their parents’ hardships and triumphs, leaving little room for their own.

Did the experience occur recently?

It is usually best to choose stories that happened within the last three years. If an older story is incredibly compelling, then keep it on your list. However, bear in mind that admissions officers are rarely interested in reading about your high school glory days.

Does the essay feature several Fit Qualities?

Review your topic ideas objectively and ask yourself if they exemplify the school’s Fit Qualities. Because you’ll be limited to telling only a few stories, you’ll want to choose the ones that feature a few different Fit Qualities if at all possible.

Once you have selected your best stories, it is time to create an outline to organize your thoughts before jumping into the writing process. ↑ To the Top

How to Outline Your MBA Essay Stories

The persuasive essay writing style is prevalent in university and work settings, so it may have been some time since you were asked to write a story. For that reason, we want to share a powerful outlining technique called the STAR framework that will help with the “story-telling” essays you may be asked to write in your MBA application.

The STAR framework is designed to help you tell a concise story with a beginning, middle, and end.

The “S” in STAR stands for Situation .

The Situation is the time, place, and context of the story; you can think of it as the setting, but it might also include the broader challenge or conflict you or your organization faced. In essence, this is the set-up of the story.

“T” in the STAR acronym stands for Task . The Task is your role and goal in the story. What were you expected to accomplish by the end of the story? An effective story has built-in conflicts and complications.

The Action of the story is what admissions officers are really interested in because this is their chance to see your strengths and qualities in action. While it won’t be necessary to write down every step you took at the outlining stage, you’ll want to jot down the highlights.

Below is an MBA essay example told using the STAR framework. It outlines a story written by a candidate who served as a donation chair for a fundraising event for a non-profit organization.

Task: Assigning specific jobs to committee members, checking on their progress, helping teammates meet agreed-upon deadlines for obtaining the donations, and offering other assistance

Action: Motivated my team by having them meet Literacy Now children. Assigned tasks and checked in regularly. Successfully mediated team disputes. Visited 20 restaurants and called 12 wineries. Ensured deadlines were met.

Sample MBA Essays: MBA Applicant Beware!

MBA Prep School’s guide is replete with essay writing tips, and we do provide excerpts from sample essays to illustrate the most common MBA essay categories. However, while you will find page-after-page of helpful advice and building blocks for constructing your own original MBA essays and stories, we don’t publish an extensive catalog of MBA essays written by MBA Prep School’s past clients.

The problem with collections of sample MBA application essays is that they can mislead you into thinking that if you can just replicate one of those sample essays, you’ve got your golden ticket into business school. Unfortunately, the opposite can be true. The reason those essays “succeeded” is because they were an integral part of a complete story about an impressive human being whom the admission committee concluded belonged at their business school.

And the scary truth is that reading MBA essay examples might even harm your chance of admission for several reasons:

1. They might stunt your creativity and ability to express yourself. If you are trying to mimic someone else’s essays – the content, the style, or the approach – your story and voice are likely to get lost in the process. Admissions committees want to be impressed – but they want to be impressed by you. Feature the traits and tell the stories that depict “you” at your best.

2. Sample MBA essays can undermine your confidence in your MBA candidacy. The essays that get published as samples are often truly eye-catching, dramatic, and sensational – stories of exceptional accomplishment, rare feats, or extreme obstacles. It may seem, in comparison, that none of your stories stack up. The good news is that the whole package is what matters, not a single defining moment in a candidate’s life.

The last thing you need is to doubt your abilities or have a crisis of confidence when you’re trying to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard). Trust in your own experiences and tell stories about what you – and only you – will bring to the MBA program.

3. Admissions officers can tell when you’ve “sampled” from sample MBA essays. The pesky thing about MBA admissions committees is that they’re filled with brilliant people who know how this game is played and what resources are available. They can spot themes and clichéd stories inspired by sample essay collections. More importantly, they can sense when you’re telling someone else’s story or when the story doesn’t ring true to your MBA application’s other elements. Don’t give an admissions officer reason to doubt your authenticity by risking even the appearance that you “sampled” from MBA sample essays that are swirling around on the Internet.

At MBA Prep School, we work with clients we believe in and help them tell their stories, not someone else’s. Remember that the MBA application process is not a storytelling contest; even if it were, the winners would be chosen based on the authenticity, originality, and integrity of the stories they tell!

Final Thoughts

Critics of MBA essays often wonder if they still have a place in the application process when admissions committees can rely on quantitative data points to choose among applicants. However, your transcripts, test scores, and resume are historical documents that only tell a fraction of the story. Your MBA essays represent a powerful opportunity to communicate your goals, strengths, reasons for applying, and potential contributions to the class.

The process of writing MBA essays provides you with a rare opportunity for self-examination and self-expression. Many applicants value the introspection required of them in the MBA essay-writing process and find they can better articulate their strengths and goals during their subsequent MBA interviews as a result. By putting ample thought and effort into brainstorming and writing your MBA essays, you will almost certainly increase your odds of being accepted to a top MBA program.

How to Approach the Top MBA Essays

a desk with the tools to write the Top MBA Essays

While there are an increasing number of compelling MBA programs around the world, with impressive rankings and strong alumni networks, the M7 schools continue to be attractive choices for MBA hopefuls.

For those planning to apply to one or more of the M7 schools this winter, Personal MBA Coach is here to help you navigate the essay-writing process.

Accessible to all Personal MBA Coach newsletter subscribers, our free M7 Essay Analysis e-book features our exclusive guidance on how to approach the 2023-2024 application essays for each of the M7 business schools.

Below, Personal MBA Coach shares the required essay questions for all of the M7 schools, as well as some quick tips for how to respond successfully to these top MBA program essays!

Stanford GSB Essays

Number of Required Essays: 2

Essay 1: What matters most to you, and why? (650 words suggested)

Personal MBA Coach’s Quick Tips: Take considerable time to reflect upon what you are most passionate about. In an ideal scenario, you have acted on this passion, and it is reflected in more than one aspect of your life. Think carefully about why this passion is important to you, and do not forget the WHAT here. At the end of the day, a cause or passion that you have done nothing with will not resonate strongly with the admissions committee (or be very believable).

Essay 2: Why Stanford? (400 words suggested)

Personal MBA Coach’s Quick Tips: For this second Stanford GSB essay, start by setting up why you want an MBA, including your goals and the skills needed to make these goals a reality. Then, make it clear how Stanford specifically will help you fill these skill gaps, mentioning classes, clubs, and programs that interest you. Do not forget to detail what draws you to Stanford’s culture as well!

For more Stanford GSB essay advice, check out Personal MBA Coach’s full blog here .

Wharton Essays

Personal MBA Coach suggests that you consider each Wharton essay individually while also making sure that your two responses complement one another.

Essay 1: How do you plan to use the Wharton MBA program to help you achieve your future professional goals? You might consider your past experience, short- and long-term goals, and resources available at Wharton. (500 words)

Personal MBA Coach’s Quick Tips: The first Wharton essay gives applicants the opportunity to reflect on their high-level aspirations. As you consider your future, think about your skill gaps and how attending Wharton will enable you to close these gaps. Cover the opportunities you want to avail yourself of on campus and be sure to demonstrate a clear understanding of Wharton’s culture.

Essay 2: Taking into consideration your background – personal, professional, and/or academic – how do you plan to make specific, meaningful contributions to the Wharton community? (400 words)

Personal MBA Coach’s Quick Tips: This second MBA essay question gives candidates a chance to showcase previous accomplishments and potential contributions to the Wharton community. Applicants can choose from impressive extracurricular accomplishments, specific talents, and/or distinct professional skills. A powerful response will highlight multiple contributions that clearly unite your personal story , career goals, and passions!

Get Personal MBA Coach’s detailed guidance on Wharton essays 1 and 2 here .

Harvard Business School Essay

Number of Required Essays: 1

Essay: As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA Program? (900 words maximum)

Personal MBA Coach’s Quick Tips: The HBS essay is an invitation to reveal what is truly interesting about you and let the admissions committee “meet” the person behind your MBA application.

That said, responses will vary significantly for everyone. Do not try to write what you think the admissions committee wants to read. Instead, consider the unique value that you will add to the HBS community.

Strong essays often share a detailed personal story, or at least some kind of personal anecdote, which is usually tied to a recurring theme within your HBS essay. However, be wary of trying too hard – you do not need to describe a super traumatic personal experience to impress the admissions directors.

Looking for more HBS essay advice? Visit our full blog here .

MIT Sloan Cover Letter

Rather than asking applicants to submit a standard MBA essay, MIT Sloan requests that candidates submit a cover letter.

Cover Letter: MIT Sloan seeks students whose personal characteristics demonstrate that they will make the most of the incredible opportunities at MIT, both academic and non-academic. We are on a quest to find those whose presence will enhance the experience of other students. We seek thoughtful leaders with exceptional intellectual abilities and the drive and determination to put their stamp on the world. We welcome people who are independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative — true doers. We want people who can redefine solutions to conventional problems, and strive to preempt unconventional dilemmas with cutting-edge ideas. We demand integrity and respect passion.

Taking the above into consideration, please submit a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA program. Your letter should conform to a standard business correspondence, include one or more professional examples that illustrate why you meet the desired criteria above, and be addressed to the Admissions Committee (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation).

Personal MBA Coach’s Quick Tips: Here, applicants must think about their most noteworthy accomplishments, making it clear what they will bring to the Sloan community. Approach the MIT Sloan cover letter as you would approach any other professional cover letter. This means that you must tell the reader who you are and specifically ask for a place in the MIT Sloan class.

Get more of Personal MBA Coach’s MIT Sloan cover letter advice here .

Chicago Booth Essays

Essay 1: How will the Booth MBA help you achieve your immediate and long-term post-MBA career goals? (250 words minimum)

Personal MBA Coach’s Quick Tips: This first Chicago Booth essay is a standard goals question (for more tips on how to approach this as well as other types of application essays , check out our How to Write Winning MBA Essays blog ). Think about your short- and long-term goals, highlighting how you developed these goals and identifying your higher-level aspirations. Do not forget to think about your skill gaps and how a Booth MBA will help you achieve your post-MBA goals. You will want to detail the classes, programs, or clubs that you hope to take advantage of.

Essay 2: An MBA is as much about personal growth as it is about professional development. In addition to sharing your experience and goals in terms of career, we’d like to learn more about you outside of the office. Use this opportunity to tell us something about who you are… (250 words minimum)

Personal MBA Coach’s Quick Tips: This MBA essay prompt encourages candidates to reflect upon the personal aspects of their profile. Use this as your opportunity to show what differentiates you from other applicants. Possible topics to cover include values, passions, extracurricular activities, and hobbies.

Learn more about tackling the Chicago Booth essays here .

Kellogg Essays

Essay 1: Kellogg Leaders are primed to tackle today’s pressing concerns everywhere, from the boardroom to their neighborhoods. Tell us about a time in your life where you’ve needed a combination of skills to solve a problem or overcome a challenge. Which skills did you use? What did you accomplish? (450 words)

Personal MBA Coach’s Quick Tips: While most share a professional story for this first question, leadership examples in your extracurriculars could also work here. A successful response for this Kellogg essay will showcase your strengths and specific skillsets.

Essay 2: At Kellogg, our values are based on research that concludes organizations comprised of leaders with varied backgrounds and perspectives outperform homogeneous ones. How do you believe your personal and professional experiences to date will help to enrich the Kellogg community? (450 words)

Personal MBA Coach’s Quick Tips: This second Kellogg MBA essay is new, replacing Kellogg’s longstanding “values” essay. When answering this prompt, ask yourself what makes you special— and tell the admissions committee how you will bring your unique traits to Kellogg.

For more information, visit Personal MBA Coach’s full Kellogg essay analysis blog here .

Columbia Business School Essays

Number of Required Essays: 3

Essay 1: Through your resume and recommendation, we have a clear sense of your professional path to date. What are your career goals over the next three to five years and what is your long-term dream job? (500 words)

Personal MBA Coach’s Quick Tips: This Columbia Business School essay prompt enables you to show how you envision your career unfolding. The school asks for a short- and long-term dream job so make sure you include both. Although candidates should have lofty goals here, these goals should also align with their short-term goals and story as a whole.

Essay 2: The Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership (PPIL) is a co-curricular program designed to ensure that every CBS student develops the skills to become an ethical and inclusive leader. Through PPIL, students attend programming focused on five essential diversity, equity, and inclusion skills: Creating an Inclusive Environment, Mitigating Bias and Prejudice, Managing Intercultural Dialogue, Addressing Systemic Inequity, and Understanding Identity and Perspective Taking.

Tell us about a time when you were challenged around one of these five skills. Describe the situation, the actions you took, and the outcome. (250 words)

Personal MBA Coach’s Quick Tips: This question directly addresses a topic that is continually top of mind for admissions directors at most business schools: DEI. It is ok to think about DEI broadly here. As you write this essay, be direct and authentic and of course avoid being preachy or judgmental.

Essay 3: Why do you feel Columbia Business School is a good fit for you academically, culturally, and professionally? (250 words)

Personal MBA Coach’s Quick Tips: CBS’s third MBA essay gives applicants a chance to share what attracts them to CBS. This is the perfect opportunity to talk about the classes, clubs, and additional programs that interest you, such as speaker series and immersion seminars. Be sure to cover classes and programs that are specifically unique to Columbia Business School!

Columbia Business School applicants can access our additional CBS essay advice here .

Ready to get started? Check out our Comprehensive Packages to see how Personal MBA Coach can help you craft your MBA application essay to any of these schools!

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Sample Essays from Admitted HBS Students

Sample HBS Essay [2020]: Vulnerable But Invincible
Sample HBS Essay [2016]: The Mechanical Engineer
Sample HBS Essay [2015]: The Author

I read the new 2020 Harbus MBA Essay Guide wondering what I was going to gain from it. I’ve been reading HBS MBA application essays for 26 years. I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. I also had read the previous Harbus MBA Essay Guide , and the question Harvard is asking hasn’t changed since that one was published. However, while I started The Essay Guide a skeptic, I quickly saw its value, and can whole-heartedly recommend it to HBS applicants.

Even after having read hundreds of HBS essays, I still found it worthwhile to read The Essay Guide . For applicants who have preconceived notions of what an admissible essay should be, The Essay Guide will open your eyes to 22 successful and different responses. For applicants who are wondering how on earth they should approach their essay, the guide will give them 22 different answers.

For me it reinforced several valuable lessons:

There really is no template for a successful HBS essay. The diversity of essays that are acceptable — no pun intended, well maybe a little intended — to Harvard Business School is striking.
The commitment of most of the authors to telling their story is also noteworthy. Several said they asked friends to confirm that the essay really mirrors them. Others wrote that they were determined that the essay present an authentic portrait of them.
Most of the students wrote the essay over the course of months. Give yourself time to draft a persuasive, introspective, and authentic essay.

Harvard’s question is a fantastic one. It is a probing one. And it requires you to probe yourself so that you can provide a profound reflection of you as you tell the HBS admissions committee what you really want them to know.

A successful Harvard Business School application essay [2020]

This sample essay is from The Harbus MBA Essay Guide and is reprinted with permission from Harbus .

Essay: Vulnerable But Invincible

Home country: USA

Previous industry: Consulting

Analysis: The author takes a rather bold approach here. She uses the essay to point to the times when she showed vulnerability in the workplace. This essay presents a strong example of how an essay can be used to complement different aspects of your personality – while resume and application can be used to highlight accomplishments, the essay has been intelligently used to show author’s capacity to be strong enough to talk about situations when she broke down in a professional capacity, but took lessons from each of these situations and employed them to her strength.

I have cried exactly four times at work.

The first time was early in my career. It was 2AM and I was lying in bed struggling with an Excel model. An overachiever my whole life, I was wholly unused to the feelings of inadequacy and incompetence bubbling up inside me. After clicking through dozens of Excel forums with still no right answer, I gave up and cried myself to sleep, vowing to never let myself feel so incapable again.

The second time was a year and a half later. I was unsatisfied with my project and role, and questioning my decision to be a consultant. That uncertainty must have been apparent to everyone, because my manager pulled me aside and bluntly told me that my attitude was affecting the entire team. I cried in front of him, devastated that I had let my doubts bleed into my work.

The third time was just a year ago. I was overseeing a process redesign and struggling to balance the many changes needed. The Partner called me into his office to say, “I’m worried our process is not as sound as it needs to be. I need to know that you care about this as much as I do.” I nodded, say that I do, then ran to the bathroom to cry, overwhelmed by how much change I knew was coming.

Each of the first three times was driven by frustration and anger. I had tamped down my emotions to the point where they overwhelmed me. Particularly as a young woman in business, I never wanted to be viewed as a stereotype or incapable. I was ashamed of my tears and terrified at how others would perceive me.

However, each of those experiences proved to be a turning point. My tears motivated me to ask for help when I needed it, pushed me to restructure my mindset and approach, and gave me a moment to breathe, rebalance, and reprioritize. In each case, my work was better for it. I have also used each experience as a learning moment. Each time I asked myself what decisions led me to the point of tears, and what I could have done differently. I could have raised my hand earlier for help, initiated a conversation with my manager about my uncertainty and dissatisfaction, or involved the Partner more actively in the planning and prioritization. While I can’t change the past, I can learn from it, and am more considerate of such outcomes when I make these decisions today.

Emotions are an inevitable part of the human experience, and as such, an inevitable part of the office. Rather than keeping them at bay, I have begun embracing my emotions to be a better manager and leader, and build more authentic connections. As a manager, I understand my team as people, not just colleagues. I have regular conversations with each of my team members to understand their individual goals and motivations, so I can take those into consideration when building the team structure and delegating responsibilities. As a leader, I invest in traditions and events that foster camaraderie and high morale. I am the proud founder of [NAME OF OFFICE PROGRAM] in the office, a beloved tradition that is now an integral part of the office and that I hope will continue even after I leave.

The fourth time I cried was at the rollout of a process redesign I oversaw. This was our first time demo-ing the new process end-to-end for the rest of the team. As the demo progressed, I felt the team’s energy turn from nervous anticipation to dawning excitement, and finally to sheer awe and amazement. As the demo ended, one of my teammates turned to me, and asked in a hushed voice, “Are you crying?” And I was. This time, I cried not with frustration or anger. This time, I cried with joy for our success and with pride for my team. Embracing my emotions allowed me to show that tears are not shameful and don’t need to be hidden in the workplace. I am no longer ashamed of my tears, and I am proud to demonstrate that a strong leader can be pragmatic and emotional all at once.

Word count: 705

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Author’s comment: “I started early on my essay (~ 3 months before the submission deadline) because it was important to me to iterate and be thoughtful. I started by laying out potential themes and stories for my essay, and while there are a lot of similarities, the core message changed quite a bit. Don’t get too attached to any one story or theme and allow yourself to let go of a draft if it’s not the right one. What I found most helpful was having 2-3 close friends that I trust wholeheartedly review multiple drafts, because they were able to provide continuous feedback and help me combine pieces from multiple drafts. None of them had ever gone to or applied to business school, but were experienced in writing and communication (e.g. one is a screenwriter) which helped me focus on communicating MY story more so than what is the story that HBS Admissions would most like.”

A successful Harvard Business School application essay [2016]

This sample essay is from The Harbus MBA Essay Guide and is reprinted with permission from Harbus.

Essay: The Mechanical Engineer

Author’s home country: United States of America Author’s previous industry/profession: Operations consulting, operations management Author gender: Male

Analysis: The author focuses his essay on two themes – his professional experience as an operations consultant and an experience which motivated him to go for an MBA. Through the essay, the author is able to highlight his professional skills, achievement as well as give a clear picture of his long-term career plans and his reasons for doing an MBA.

I’m [APPLICANT’S FIRST NAME] and I have journeyed here from the hallowed grounds of [APPLICANT’S U.S. NEW ENGLAND HOMETOWN], where I spent my formative years amid wild dreams of achieving greatness by setting world records and winning the Olympics. As I’ve hung up my [OLYMPIC SPORT’S TRADITIONAL SHOES] in favor of business shoes, those dreams have evolved into a desire to achieve greatness in a different arena. Today, my dream centers on helping companies leverage technology to propel their operations into the future, providing unparalleled customer service and delivery, with an operational efficiency to match.

I graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in [GRADUATION YEAR] and spent my first 3 years out of college working as an operations consultant. It was my job to walk into a manufacturing plant and drive significant operational change – for example, I once spent 3 months walking the sticky floors of a milk plant in [MID-SIZED U.S. SOUTHEASTERN CITY] helping plant management boost throughput by 30% in order to take on a new customer. We accomplished this goal with zero capital spend, a feat many had believed was impossible. In our projects, the biggest challenge was almost always convincing managers to reach for that extra tad of unseen opportunity hiding within the operation, because oftentimes it was very difficult to look beyond the daily struggles that plagued their operations. I worked directly with 5-8 person “rapid results teams,” coaching them on how to think about operational improvement, motivating them to sprint towards it, and leading them through the analysis required to capture it. I left those milk, water and oil sands plants with many enduring friendships and inspiring operational victories borne from our journey from ambitious goals to concrete results.

<< READ: What is HBS Looking For? >>

I’ve spent the past two years working in supply chain management at a private industrial goods supplier. I chose direct management because I wanted to drive these same inspirational improvements in an operation I owned. My role was to manage and improve the operation, and through my experience, I learned the nuts and bolts of the supply chain industry. However, my dream of innovating supply chain operations pushed me to consider transitioning to an organization with an ambitious, transformative purpose. In fact, last year I had a unique opportunity to reflect on what type of impact matters to me. This opportunity was my first ever trip to [NORTHWEST AFRICAN REGION], the place of my family’s origin.

On the second day of the trip, I journeyed to [LOCAL NORTHEASTERN AFRICAN TOWN], a small town nestled next an enormous active volcano that is surrounded by a wide expanse of rich volcanic soil, which is used to make wine. This wine is sipped by adventure-seeking tourists relaxing after a long day on the volcano, and thus the town’s two major industries, wine and tourism, are sustained. When we arrived at the town, I was shocked to see it buried by an avalanche of volcanic rock from an eruption [A FEW YEARS PRIOR]. As our guide lamented on the dreary prospects of the Page 2 of 2 town, I was amazed to see just how important these two industries had been to its development.

Through this real world example, I was able to clearly visualize the impact businesses can have on their broader environment, an understanding that had not been as evident to me while working in the larger, more complex American economy. For example, I had spent hours walking among the dilapidated buildings speckling the warehouse district in Cleveland, but only after my trip did I connect them to the decline of the Midwestern manufacturing industry. Upon my return, armed with this broader perspective, I decided my next step would be to attend business school. There I would gain the technical, operational and leadership skills to make my transition to an organization whose goal was to drive change in its broader industry and community, as those wine and tourism companies had done in [LOCAL NORTHEASTERN AFRICAN TOWN OF FAMILY’S ORIGIN].

So, that is how I arrived in front of you today. My goal is to humbly learn as much as I can from our section, our professors, and our experiences. I am excited to get to know you, and will always do my best to support our section intellectually and athletically (we will be the future section Olympics champions!).

How about yourself?

Word Count: 711

Author’s comment: While the initial draft of my essay did not take more than an hour or two, it was the revision process that I spent a significant amount of time on. I think the most important part of the essay writing process is to ensure that your story and personality come through – and this is perhaps the most difficult part! To help with this, I had individuals who were not as familiar with my story and why I wanted to go to business school provide me with feedback in addition to those with whom I worked closely.

Linda’s comment:

I would hate for any of you to read this essay or any of the other essays in The Harbus MBA Essay Guide , which I recommend, and think “This is a great template. I’m going to tell a story just like this one!” Bad idea. Wrong response.

The one take-away from this essay and the other successful essays in this book is that the reader feels a little like s/he is meeting the author – not someone else and not some masked being. Individuality is the common thread in those essays; it isn’t brilliant prose or incredible writing. It’s authenticity and humanity. And yes, the author is accomplished too.

I chose this essay from the Harbus collection because I know there are many engineers applying. Some — both in and out of their field — think of the profession as boring or common. But this essay is neither boring nor common. I loved it because the writer comes to life, and his passion and personality shine through. He doesn’t get bogged down in technicalities, industrial jargon, or an alphabet soup of acronyms. He tells his story with energy and clarity, from his perspective, and with a focus on his impact.

Now that’s an example you can follow: Tell your story with energy and clarity, from your perspective, and with a focus on your impact.

Check out what recent applicants have to say about working with Accepted:

A successful harvard business school application essay [2015], the 2014-15 harvard business school essay question:.

You’re applying to Harvard Business School. We can see your resume, academic transcripts, extracurricular activities, awards, post-MBA career goals, test scores, and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?

This sample essay is from The Harbus MBA Essay Guide and is reprinted with permission from Harbus.

Essay: The Author

Author’s Background: Finance & Media

The author sets the stage for the remainder of the essay by first presenting a notable accomplishment of hers and then explicitly illustrating the entrepreneurial drive and diligence she used to see it through. More importantly, the author’s opening introduces a theme – storytelling – that is consistently interwoven through different stages of her life. The reader is lead through the author’s childhood, professional and extracurricular experiences, along with accomplishments, all the while being reminded of the integral role storytelling has played. Beyond highlighting her gift, or passion for the art of storytelling, the author goes on to connect this theme with her future career ambitions, as well as describe how this could also serve the HBS community.

In 2012, I realized a life ambition – I completed my first novel, all while working full time at [Top U.S. Investment Bank]. I could not wait to share it with the world and eagerly went in search of a literary agent. But each agent I contacted declined to represent my novel.

Storytelling is my lifelong passion; it saw me through a difficult childhood. After my father left, my mother raised me as a single parent in [U.S. City/State], a rural Bible Belt town two hours south of [U.S. State]. We did not have much money and that coupled with my bookishness made me a target for bullies. Books and writing were an escape; they gave me an avenue to articulate the feelings of abandonment and powerlessness I otherwise did not want to express. Writing made me happy and the more I wrote, the more my talent blossomed. I began to win awards and my work was published in youth literary journals. These experiences made me more confident, a key part of my success later in life. It all started with a pen, a notebook, and my imagination. Nevertheless, I was passionate about my work and was determined to put it into readers’ hands. In true entrepreneurial fashion, I self-published my novel through the digital platforms Smashwords and Createspace. I worked with a promotional expert to organize a month-long book tour to promote the book to prominent book bloggers and their readers. The result? My novel has received multiple 5-star reader reviews, from Amazon to Goodreads, and was a semifinalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

Stories are an integral part of the human experience. They uplift and inspire, give us permission to dream and to visualize what could be. Storytelling has been an integral part of my career, from building financial models at [Top U.S. Investment Bank] that illustrated my expectations for the companies that I covered to delivering a presentation to [International Daily Newspaper] ’s chief revenue officer explaining why reducing ad prices for tender house advertisers would not lead to an increase in revenue.

My passion has also informed my growth as a leader; I believe my most impactful expressions of leadership have been my efforts to help others write the narratives of their own lives and careers. At [Top U.S. Investment Bank], I created an informal mentorship program for female and minority interns and first-year analysts in the research division and led a “soft skills” class to help new analysts handle difficult interpersonal situations. For four years, I’ve mentored a young Hispanic woman through Student Sponsor Partners, a nonprofit that gives low-income students scholarships to private high schools. Being a mentor gave me the privilege of guiding another first generation college student along what I know can be a lonely, difficult path. This fall, she started college with a full scholarship.

Storytelling will be a part of my future career path; as an MBA graduate, my goal is to obtain a position in strategy and business development at an entertainment company that specializes in film or television. Long term, I want to start a multimedia and merchandising company with a publishing arm (books and magazines) as well as film, TV, and digital operations. Using strong, fictional heroines and informative lifestyle content, my company’s goal will be to educate and inspire women to become their best selves. My particular focus is creating compelling, multidimensional characters to inspire young women of color, who are constantly bombarded by negative images of women who look like them in media.

I’m pursuing a Harvard MBA because I want to become a better business strategist and strong general manager. Also, I want to further develop my leadership and presentation skills as I will manage professionals on the content and business side; it will be my task to unite them behind a shared strategic vision. Specifically, I want to learn how to motivate teams and individuals to perform at their highest level, and to become more adept at persuasion and generating “buy-in” from others. Harvard’s unique approach using the case method and emphasis on leadership development will challenge me to grow in both these areas. I also feel that I have much to contribute to Harvard’s community. My varied background in finance and media has given me a unique perspective that will be valuable in classroom discussions and team projects. I want to share my passion for the entertainment industry with my classmates by chairing the Entertainment & Media club and planning conferences, career treks, and other opportunities.

My background gives me the capacity for fearless thinking that is needed to meet the challenges of the entertainment industry’s shifting landscape. A Harvard MBA will strengthen that foundation and help me to become the kind of dynamic leader who can bring the vision for my own company to life and be at the forefront of entertainment’s structural shift.

Time & Effort: “It was about 6 or 7 drafts. Not sure on the hours.”

Word Count: 805

This sample essay is from The Harbus MBA Essay Guide and is reprinted with permission from Harbus . We highly recommend the book!

If you would like advice on responding to this year’s HBS essay question, (which is different from the 2014-15 prompt) please read our Harvard Business School essay tips .

Linda’s comments:

Bottom line: You want your readers to feel like that they are meeting you — not someone else, not a scripted piece of shallow PR devoid of personality and humanity, and not some phony combo of you and the author of an essay in a guidebook or on a website. They really and truly want to meet you!

So think about your story.

Applying to HBS?

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Related Resources:

• Get Accepted to Harvard Business School , a free webinar • Harvard Business School MBA Essay Tips & Deadlines • What is HBS Looking For: Analytical Aptitude and Appetite , The Habit of Leadership , Engaged Community Citizenship • M7 MBA Programs: Everything You Need to Know in 2022 • More sample MBA application essays

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INSEAD MBA ESSAYS (3 SAMPLES)
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STANFORD GSB MBA ESSAYS (3 SAMPLES)
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ROCHESTER-SIMON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ESSAY (1 SAMPLE)
GEORGIA TECH. COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT ESSAY (1 SAMPLES)
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SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY- LEAVEY B-SCHOOL ESSAY (1 SAMPLE)

Reader Interactions

Janice Stevenson says

October 10, 2017 at 3:18 AM

nice samples! Thanks

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May 23, 2017 at 11:38 AM

Dear MBA Admission Gurus: I am looking for a guidance in my MBA application process. Please let me know how you can help me.Thanks.

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May 23, 2017 at 11:41 AM

Hi there: Thanks for taking the time to post in. We have responded to you via email. For immediate assistance, do feel free to dial MBAadmissiongurus now Cheers! David

Tracey Scott says

August 9, 2014 at 8:07 AM

Hi Gurus, I currently work as an equity research analyst and am planning to go ahead with a US top 10 MBA program. My Gmat score is 690 and I have been at work (Full-time as an analyst over the past 3 years). I seek assistance in differentiating my case. Please advise. Thanks, Tracey

August 9, 2014 at 8:10 AM

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7 tips for writing a winning mba application essay.

Nervous about your MBA admissions essay? You’re not alone! Many applicants wonder how to put their best foot forward in a business school entrance essay.

In this article, I’ll tell you what admissions committees look for in application essays and offer MBA essay tips on how to make yours stand out. We’ll also take a look at the different kinds of business school essays and a few examples of MBA essay prompts.

Why Do Business Schools Ask for Essays? What Do They Look For?

Business schools ask for essays for several reasons, all of which help admissions committees determine whether you have the skills and traits to succeed in an MBA program.

First, MBA admissions committees want to see how you write. Communication skills—including concision, clarity, style, and fluency in English—will be essential to your success in business school. One way of discerning your level of writing ability is to require an original writing sample. In an MBA essay, you have to get your point across straightforwardly, elegantly, and concisely; being able to do this is a key element of succeeding in business school and the world of business in general.

Also, MBA admissions committees want to get a sense of who you are on a more personal level. MBA application essays tell admissions officials about you not only through what you say, but in how you say it. Are you self-aware, for example, and can you reflect on past challenges or mistakes in a thoughtful way? Do you demonstrate insight into who you are and your goals? How you answer questions about yourself, your career, and your journey can help MBA admissions officials discern your level of critical thinking and personal insight.

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You can have countless accomplishments, but to succeed in business school, you’ll also need to fit in with the campus climate, work well with your peers, and contribute to campus diversity in a meaningful way. The MBA essay is a place for you to talk about the background or experiences you have that are unique to you and that you believe could differentiate you from your colleagues and/or provide a fresh perspective to campus.

Finally, essays are a way for you to showcase the qualities that most MBA programs say they are looking for in applicants, such as leadership skills, community involvement, problem-solving skills, communication skills, clear goals, and a strong sense of ethics. Some of these traits might not be readily apparent from a resume alone, and an MBA essay can be a place for you to elaborate on how you’ve cultivated them in yourself.

The MBA essay is a great place for you to showcase your communication skills and dedication to community service.

MBA Entrance Essay Sample Prompts

Most MBA entrance essays ask you about one of several things. Many of them are variations on similar questions: the open-ended question, the leadership question, the personal growth question, questions on short- and long-term academic and career goals, and the diversity question. For each one, I’ll give an example of a real MBA essay prompt from 2016 or 2017.

#1: Open-Ended

The open-ended MBA application essay question is just that: open. It allows you to tell your own story, giving you quite a bit of freedom but also little to no guidance. For that reason, many applicants find it to be the most challenging MBA essay prompt.

Harvard Business School has only one essay for its MBA application, and it’s the quintessential open-ended MBA essay question. This is the prompt for 2017-2018 applicants.

As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program?

Note that, as in other open-ended MBA admission essay prompts, this question asks you to decide what you’ll write about. Successful Harvard applicants and HBS admissions counselors have advised applicants to use the prompt as a chance to demonstrate their past use of an especially desired trait, such as problem-solving skills. For example, many successful applicants use the prompt to describe a scenario in which they faced and overcame a challenge, especially as a leader or alongside a team.

Notably, Harvard also doesn’t list a word limit, so you can decide the appropriate length for your essay. However, most admissions counselors will advise you to keep it concise and straightforward.

#2: Leadership

Another common MBA essay prompt asks you to demonstrate your experience and skills as a leader. Leadership qualities are listed by nearly all MBA admissions counselors as fundamental to a career in business and, thus, to a successful business school application.

Let’s look at a sample leadership MBA essay prompt from Kellogg.

Leadership and teamwork are integral parts of the Kellogg experience. Describe a recent and meaningful time you were a leader. What challenges did you face, and what did you learn? (450 words)

In a response to this kind of prompt, you should be as specific as possible. Name the company you were working for or specifically describe the project you were heading. Who was on your team? What were your objectives? Did you meet them? How could you have done so more effectively?

While you shouldn’t be overly self-deprecating, don’t be afraid to address the challenges you met and how you overcame them (or would overcome them now, with more experience and knowledge). Remember that one important aspect of leadership is accountability, so if there were problems, don’t solely blame your team for them. Instead, reflect on how you successfully worked with your team to solve the problems, and/or on how you could have done so more effectively or efficiently.

#3: Personal Growth

The personal growth MBA admission essay prompt will ask you how you’ve changed in the past and how you want to grow in the future. Here’s one example from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.

Pursuing an MBA is a catalyst for personal and professional growth. How have you grown in the past? How do you intend to grow at Kellogg? (450 words)

Don’t be afraid to get a bit personal with these kinds of prompts . They’re meant to gauge something about your personality and who you are, rather than only what you’ve done.

Many successful MBA admission essays that respond to these kinds of questions follow a past/present/future format. Ask yourself what traits you’ve gathered over the years that have benefited you personally and professionally, how you’ve improved, and what you’ve learned. What experiences have shaped you? Be as specific as possible.

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Then, take stock of yourself now: your career, your education, and where you see yourself in the future. What do you need in order to get there?

Finally, most essay MBA prompts in this vein (like Kellogg’s) will ask you how they can help you move towards that personal or professional goal. Be as specific as you can, focusing on the particular strengths of the prospective MBA program and how they match up with what you want to improve about yourself as a person, colleague, and leader.

You can use the MBA essay to showcase how you've grown personally and achieved your goals.

#4: Your Plan

Some MBA application essay prompts will ask you about your career goals and how attendance at a particular business school will help you to achieve them. Let’s look at one from the USC Marshall School of Business.

Essay #1 (Required) – What is your specific, immediate short-term career goal upon completion of your MBA? Please include an intended position, function, and industry in your response. (word limit: 100)

As you can see, questions like these often request brief responses. So get straight to the point, and give details. Name a specific job you’d like to hold, what you’d like to do there, and even particular companies if you can.

Questions like this one will require some research. Research alumni from your prospective business school who’ve ended up in positions comparable to ones you’d like to hold in the future, particular companies and positions that match up with your personal and professional goals, and specific coursework or industry experiences offered by your prospective business school that would help you get there.

#5: Diversity, Culture, and Community

Finally, some MBA essay prompts will ask you how your unique background and experiences would contribute to the overall diversity and collegial atmosphere of a school’s campus climate and community. Here’s one example from USC.

Essay #2 (Required) – At Marshall, we take pride in the fact that our students work collaboratively, both inside and outside the classroom, to create a culture, a community, and an environment that truly defines what we call the Trojan Family. Please describe the contributions you expect to make to your classmates during your time at USC. How will they benefit from your presence in the program? (word limit: 500)

You can respond to questions like this, depending on the wording of the original prompt, by discussing your cultural background, identity, and/or personal experiences that have given you particular insight into a given community or that have lent you a unique perspective that could be valuable to your colleagues as you collaborate.

You can also discuss past community service projects or issues you’re passionate about and how you plan to carry those experiences and passions into your work at your prospective MBA program.

What makes you unique? Showcase it in your MBA essay.

7 MBA Essay Tips

Writing MBA essays takes a particular skill set. Let’s go over the top seven MBA essay tips for making your application essay shine.

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#1: Write Early and Often

Even though MBA entrance essays are brief, they take a lot of polishing. Writing MBA essays takes time.

Don’t expect to write yours at the last minute or knock out a quality essay in a day. Most students need several drafts to make sure they’re getting their points across as elegantly and clearly as possible.

Start your essay well before the application deadline, when you don’t yet feel any pressure. For several weeks, don’t try to write at all. Instead, before crafting your essay for MBA admission, take notes on your past, present, and future. What have you learned? What unique experiences have you had? What have been the most meaningful projects you’ve undertaken? Ask friends, family, and mentors to tell you what they value most about you or what they see as your greatest personal and professional assets.

Only once you’ve gathered this material should you begin your first draft of your MBA application essay. Start with an outline for each one that includes the story you want to tell and the main points you want to get across.

Once you have a clear outline, you can start drafting. Taking the writing process seriously from start to finish will give you a much better product in the end than trying to write something hastily right before the deadline.

#2: Show, Don’t Tell

MBA admissions committees want to be able to tell that you have the qualities that are necessary to succeed in business school, such as leadership skills and integrity.

Your MBA admissions essay can be a great place to showcase those qualities. However, remember to show, not tell. Saying “I have strong leadership skills” doesn’t tell an admissions committee much. Through an anecdote about, say, meeting a difficult deadline or overcoming an obstacle, a reader should be able to tell that you have the qualities of a strong leader without your having to say so explicitly.

#3: Research Your Goals

When describing your future goals, be as specific as possible. Business schools know that your goals may change in the future, but stating specific goals now will show that you’ve done your research and have an idea of what you want and how an MBA program can help you get there.

Before writing your essay for MBA admission, research the ins and outs of the industry you want to enter, the position you’d like to have, companies you might like to work for, and coursework and internships or fieldwork that could aid you on your way to those goals.

#4: Keep It Concise

Never, ever go over a stated word count limit when you’re writing your essay for MBA admission. It might be tempting, but business schools want to see that you can get your point across concisely and straightforwardly.This rule goes for MBA essay prompts that don’t have specific word counts, too: sometimes, less is more.

One of the biggest mistakes applicants make in writing an essay for MBA admission is to use too much flowery language to come across as more professional. If you do this, it can be distracting and cause the admissions committee to miss the main points you’re making.

Bottom line, trim anything extraneous from your essay —that is, anything that doesn’t actively support the main point(s) you’re trying to get across.

When it comes to an MBA essay, sometimes less is more.

#5: Show Self-Awareness

It might feel tempting to use the MBA admission essay as a space to list all of your accomplishments (and since your resume is already part of your application, this is unnecessary), but MBA admissions committees would rather see that you have insight into both your strengths and weaknesses. No one is perfect, and in your essay for MBA admission, you shouldn’t try to come across as if you’ve never made a mistake or faced a challenge that you’ve had to learn from.

Also, in business school and the business world at large, bouncing back from failures, being flexible, and problem solving are all essential skills. All of them require a thick skin and awareness of what you could do better.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t showcase your achievements, but if you’re asked about personal growth or an obstacle you’ve overcome, be clear about what you could have done more effectively in the past (at a job or in your education, for example) and the steps you’ve taken or will take to sidestep that mistake in the future.

#6: Share Your Personal Journey

Many applicants would prefer to focus only on their professional backgrounds and goals in their MBA essays, but you shouldn’t be afraid to get personal in your essay. You don’t need to tell your whole life story, but especially in response to questions that ask about your growth over time, you should showcase your personality and give the admissions committee an idea of your personal background and experiences.

#7: Ask for Edits

It might seem obvious, but many applicants don’t do it: proofread your work! When writing MBA essays, revision is key. Turning in an MBA essay with typos and other errors will come off as thoughtless and unprofessional.

You should also get a second (and, perhaps, a third and fourth) pair of eyes on your essay to make sure it’s coming across as you want it to. Going through several rounds of drafts is a necessary part of the writing process to ensure that you’re putting your best foot forward in your MBA entrance essay.

Revise your MBA essay until it comes across exactly how you want.

What’s Next?

Worried about how your GMAT score matches up to other applicants’? Find out more in our list of average GMAT scores by school.

Concerned about your chances of getting into an MBA program? Our guide to business school acceptance rates will help.

Ready to apply to business school? Check out our top eight tips for applying to MBA programs here.

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Author: Laura Dorwart

Laura Dorwart is a Ph.D. student at UC San Diego. She has taught and tutored hundreds of students in standardized testing, literature, and writing. View all posts by Laura Dorwart

MBA Essay Prompts and Essay Examples

With sample essays from harvard, kellogg, stanford, and more.

Featured Expert: Nirusan Rajakulendran, MBA

MBA essay questions and answers are helpful in tackling the MBA application essay. Knowing the MBA essay questions or prompts ahead of time lets you know what top MBA programs are looking for and reading some sample essay answers is a great way to begin brainstorming your own answers. The MBA essay is a critical part of your application, so many students consider hiring a grad school essay tutor to coach them on the writing aspect. Others can rely on MBA admission consulting to provide feedback on their essay draft. MBA essay questions typically stay the same year to year, but you might be thrown a curveball once in a while. In this blog, we’ll look at what you can expect from MBA essay questions and answers, as well as some prompts from top MBA programs and sample answers for each.

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Article Contents 10 min read

Mba essay questions and answers.

Many of the top business schools use MBA short essay questions and prompts as part of their applications. The MBA essay is different than the MBA statement of purpose or MBA personal statement, which both focus on your personal motivations and future career goals. Most MBA programs provide specific prompts for the MBA essay, with questions curated by the admissions committee.

While the MBA essay questions and prompts may change from year to year, most schools stick with what works and ask all applicants the same probing questions about their personal motivations. A common essay question is “ why do you want to pursue an MBA ”. These type of questions are designed to gain a deeper insight into the applicant’s personal, professional and academic life. Admissions committees ask these important questions to see if you can both write a concise, insightful and poignant essay, and also to determine whether you are a good fit for the MBA program. For many programs, the essay is vitally important to the overall application, and can determine whether you’ll need to start your MBA interview prep or not. In fact, many of the most common MBA essay questions are similar to MBA interview questions , and ask applicants why they chose to pursue an MBA, why they chose particular school or how their strengths will contribute to the school’s MBA program.

However, a number of the top MBA programs ask the same questions each year, and the admissions committee are looking for certain traits and strengths in their applicants. Below we’ll look at some of the MBA essay questions asked by top MBA programs, as well sample answers.

The Stanford Business School requires all its applicants to submit two MBA essays. Both essays have a maximum word count of 500, so they are asking for short essay format. For Essay A, Stanford MBA asks applicants to answer: “What matters most to you, and why?”. For Essay B, the question is a simple: “Why Stanford?”. These both seem like simple questions, but they can be tricky to answer in practice. Read the sample below for an answer to the first Stanford MBA essay question.

Prompt: What matters most to you, and why? For this essay, we would like you to reflect deeply and write from the heart. Once you’ve identified what matters most to you, help us understand why. You might consider, for example, what makes this so important to you? What people, insights, or experiences have shaped your perspectives?

I have found both in business and in life, that having direction, having a purpose and goals, are vital. And the root of direction, in my experience, is organization. Organization might seem a strange thing to prize so highly, but to me it is essential to be organized lest we become disorganized. In disorganization, nothing can be planned, no goals can be accomplished. It breeds only aimlessness and purposelessness.

My dislike of disorganization can be traced back to my grandfather. For over 25 years, he owned a hardware store and handyman shop which he operated alongside my grandmother. Grandma’s office in the hardware store was tidy as a church. She did the books, hired and fired the staff, dealt with customers, sales and payroll. She was the skeleton, the structure holding the business together for decades. My grandfather’s shop could be featured on an episode of Hoarders. Shelves of boxes in disarray, tools laid haphazardly on benches or tables, sawdust and wood shavings littering the floor. Yet in this madman’s chaos he was never lost. He always found what he needed. His skill and passion for carpentry, for craftsmanship was undeniable. His creations were sold out of the store, and his expertise was highly valued by customers. It was a business marriage that somehow worked.

When my grandmother passed of a sudden heart attack, everything changed. The existing staff did their best to fill my grandmother’s shoes, but business started a slow decline anyways. My grandfather let disorganization creep into his time management. He ran behind on projects without my grandmother’s prompting and refused to enter her office. When I took it upon myself, I discovered an organized, if dusty, office. I managed to slide into my grandmother’s old job, but not her old role. My grandfather resisted attempts to organize his shop, saying it was organized the way he liked it. After some fruitless fights, I decided to try a new approach. I asked him to take me through his organization system and explain it to me. The way I saw it, the business he had built and nurtured his entire life wouldn’t survive if we couldn’t learn to balance his creative genius with organized structure. I wanted to understand his way of thinking so I could preserve the side of the business that was my grandfather. My grandmother, in her hyper-organized glory, had left behind everything we needed to continue. If my grandfather were to pass, there was no one who could replace him and keep his business and legacy behind. There was no sense of direction. Of organization.

My grandfather spent an entire day explaining his system to me. I followed behind him, taking notes and making labels. I recorded his organizational system, nonsensical though it was to all but him, so I could preserve the spirit of his goals and direction for the business. But without knowing how it was all organized, I would not be able to carry on his role. (word count 496)

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For those who want to know how to get into Harvard Business School , there is only one required essay for the MBA application. This year, the school has imposed a maximum word limit of 900, though it is acceptable to stay within the 500-to-700-word range. The Harvard Business School essay is considered vitally important to the admissions committee, so it can be a significant factor in your overall application. Hiring an MBA essay consultant might be a good idea to tackle the Harvard essay, so you can be sure to submit a polished and succinct document. Or read some Harvard MBA personal statement samples to get an idea of what to write about.

Prompt: As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA Program?

I’ve often been accused of being unable to commit to anything. Of being too flaky. Of changing my mind or jumping from opportunity to opportunity, hobby to hobby. This has always been said with an air of censure and disappointment. It’s always set off my internal defense mechanism because I never understood why having many interests or pursuing them could be bad. When I decided to apply to this MBA program, there were plenty of naysayers. Those who thought I wouldn’t be able to commit to this program. Yet I arrived at the decision to pursue an MBA after learning a vital lesson about myself, and it is this lesson I would like to share with you.

My apparent flakiness comes from my childhood upbringing. As all children of military parents, I was often moved around, bounced from school to school. We never learn to put down roots, and we get used to changing environments and having to start over from scratch over and over again. This creates a pattern, but it also builds resilience and flexibility. It plants the seeds of determination to see things through when they really matter. As I grew up and applied for university, I received some surprising feedback from family members when I was rejected from the programs I applied to. Their response was to shrug their shoulders and tell me I wouldn’t have been able to commit to a four-year degree anyways. So it was for the best. At first, I believed them, but eventually my decision not to try again weighed on me. I reapplied for school, and this time I was successful.

Throughout school and even after I graduated, I bounced from job to job, never really satisfied. Once again, it reinforced the view others held of me and the view I held of myself. I couldn’t commit. I had no structure. But I came to realize that it wasn’t me. I wasn’t satisfied with my job because it wasn’t a good position for me. It wasn’t what I really wanted. I quit my job. I booked a ticket to travel abroad for a year. In this short year, I truly examined what I wanted to do and what I did not want to do with my life. I landed on business, and realized I needed an MBA. It was a thought I’d always kept in the back of my mind, and now it was inescapable.

My view of myself as someone who couldn’t commit was shifted. I’m not flaky. I’m adaptable. I know how to pick myself back up again and rise to a new challenge. I am ready for the challenge of getting my MBA and working in business. If I don’t get accepted, I know I can try again and succeed. I believe my apparent inability to commit was really evidence of dissatisfaction. And my background hasn’t made me flaky, it’s made me strong enough and adaptable enough to succeed in business. (word count 494)

The Kellogg Business School focuses on values and leadership in its essay question prompts. Below we’ve included one of the essay prompts provided by the Kellogg Business School for its MBA applicants, as well as a sample answer. The essay prompts all have a word limit of 450 words.

Prompt: Kellogg’s purpose is to educate, equip, and inspire brave leaders who create lasting value. Provide a recent example where you have demonstrated leadership and created value. What challenges did you face, and what did you learn?

My first opportunity to step into a full leadership role at my job came very recently. I have been working as an assistant manager of a restaurant for many years, and the last eight months as the assistant manager. In this role, I have been able to cultivate in myself many useful skills of team management and leadership. But I have always had my manager to back me up and act as my leadership mentor. She has always been able to provide final say and take the reins as needed. Months ago, she was placed on short-term leave to treat an unexpected injury, and with our operation being typically short-staffed, I was thrust into the role of temporary, full-on manager. At first it felt like diving out the plane without the skydiving instructor strapped to your back for the first time. It was intimidating, and it took some time to adjust. And, of course, it didn’t take long for the first real test of my leadership skills to present itself.

An ongoing conflict flared up among the waitstaff soon after our manager was placed on leave. It had started as a scheduling conflict, with two members of the waitstaff each wanting prime shifts but not wanting to work alongside one another. The newer member of staff often accused the more senior member of being controlling and using their seniority to win workplace disputes. The interpersonal conflict was spreading and affecting the rest of the staff, but no compromise had been reached. I had tried to resolve it in the same ways my manager had when creating the schedule or assigning sections. We reached a turning point during a particularly busy shift where I asked the senior staff member to assist on the lounge bar. I noticed her proficiency behind the bar. An idea formed.

I proposed to her that she move behind the bar full-time. That way, both she and the other staff could keep their desired shifts, but they wouldn’t need to interact directly. As a bonus, the senior member of staff wouldn’t suffer on tips and the remainder of the staff wouldn’t be caught in the middle. The reason she hadn’t been moved behind the bar already was no one had realized how much she was suited to it before. I spoke with her and discovered how much she enjoyed working as a bartender. Upon speaking with the other staff member, I was happy to hear how much better their shift went when they didn’t feel “supervised” by the other senior waitress.

By the time the manager returned to work, the interpersonal conflict had fizzled, both parties were happy with their change in positions, and the rest of the staff were visibly less stressed by the entire thing. In managing this conflict, I realized the importance of seeking new solutions, keeping open and honest communication and establishing clear outcomes with both of the staff members. It also taught me to really listen and observe my staff’s behavior. (word count 499)

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There are many other top business schools which require an MBA essay, MBA cover letter , an MBA motivation letter or otherwise ask students to submit optional essays as part of the application process. Below we’ve covered some other essay questions and prompts from top business schools in the US.

The Haas School of Business also invites applicants to submit an optional or MBA diversity essay to talk about any adversity the applicant has faced. These prompts are similar to the AMCAS statement of disadvantage examples , and might include explanations of gaps in education or significant barriers an applicant has overcome to get their education. There are a variety of different prompts listed on the school\u2019s website. ","label":"Haas School of Business","title":"Haas School of Business"}]" code="tab1" template="BlogArticle">

To write an MBA essay, use short essay format and stick to 500 words or less, depending on the word count limit. Your MBA essay should be succinct and well structured, with appropriate personal anecdotes and plenty of detail. It’s important to grab the reader’s attention with this and provide some insight into yourself and your experiences. Also don’t be afraid to use a bit of storytelling and creativity to get your point across!

The best MBA essays will of course address the prompt provided, but the key is to do so in a way that is authentic, insightful and meaningful. Storytelling can be a powerful tool here, but make sure you are also making a strong and clear point. Answer the question you are being asked and provide as much detail as you can in the space provided. Go beyond a surface level answer and give the admissions committee a look into your personal experiences.

Usually yes, schools keep the same MBA essay questions or prompts every admission cycle. Once in a while the admissions committee will shake things up, but you can expect to see the same type of questions asked each year.

To effectively answer MBA essay questions, be sure to address each part of the question fully. Don’t leave anything out of your answer and keep a genuine, authentic voice. Also be sure to remain within the word count limit. Keep your writing concise and make your point clearly.

Yes, the MBA essay is typically a required part of the application to any MBA program. For top MBA schools, the essay is critically important to your overall evaluation.

If an MBA program offers an optional essay, it is a good idea to write one or respond to one of the provided prompts. Any additional essay can only strengthen your application, and optional essays are great ways to expand your application profile.

Start your essay with a short introduction of who you are, where you come from or what your goals are. Most MBA essays have a word count of 500 words or less, so it’s important to introduce yourself right off the bat and tell the admissions committee what they need to know about you.

Yes, the MBA essay is a very important part of your MBA application. Most admissions committees consider the MBA essay a critical evaluation factor when reading your application, and it can determine whether or not you get an MBA interview at the school.

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The Iconic HBS Essay is Gone. How to Master the New Prompts.

June 2024 marked a significant shift in Harvard Business School’s MBA admissions process, with the first major update to the essay component of the application since 2016.

That is, the 900-word, open-ended HBS essay— As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program? —has been discontinued in lieu of three shorter prompts.

In this article, we’ll cover the new HBS essays, speculate on why the changes were made, and give our best advice on how Harvard Business School applicants should tackle the new essay themes.

The Harvard Business School Essay Is Now “Essays”

Harvard Business School’s MBA essay prompts for 2024 appeal to “business-minded”, “leadership-focused”, and “growth-oriented” individuals.

The prompts are:

Business Minded

Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you strive to make on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)

Leadership-Focused

What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)

Growth-Oriented

Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)

At first glance, MBA applicants might feel some relief when reading the requirements for these new prompts. Yes, they’re 100 words shorter, but there’s also much more guidance about what to write about—it would seem.

However, the narrower the focus, the easier it is for you to “lose the thread” and get bogged down in the language of the prompt.

Increased specificity can also lead to formulaic responses, which lack the personal storytelling that helps your essays standout. (It also increases the chances of applicants turning to ChatGPT or other LLMs for assistance).

As a result, we feel that you’re going to have to work a little harder to distinguish yourself when responding to these prompts—and you’re going to have to resist the temptation to use ChatGPT for your HBS application .

How to Approach the New HBS Essay Prompts

The biggest pitfall MBA applicants fall into with specific, shorter essays like these is to respond too directly to the prompt without considering the bigger picture.

When approaching the essay writing process, don’t worry too much about the exact themes in each prompt. Instead, reflect on the reasons you feel you should be admitted to HBS in general.

Think through your answers to the following questions:

Why are you qualified?
What do you hope to do post-MBA?
How has your background shaped this motivation?
What in your background provides evidence that you will be successful in your goal or goals?
What impact will your success have on the wider community, career path, and so on?

By orienting yourself to the bigger picture, you can avoid focusing too narrowly on “curiosity” or “leadership qualities.”

Next, think about the topics you don’t need to address in your essays. Factors such as academic ability and career experience will be covered separately in the application or the resume.

Decide what hasn’t been addressed elsewhere, and strategize on how to work this information into the prompts provided.

This is where a consultant can mean the difference between a generic essay and a memorable and highly impactful response. An MBA admissions consultant can help you think through your motivations and craft MBA essays that seamlessly complement your application while showcasing your personality.

If you’re looking for even more insight about how to tackle the three HBS prompts, consider our advice on writing a strong MBA personal statement—including 4 common mistakes you’ll want to avoid .

Why was the Harvard Business School Essay Changed?

We don’t have any insider information on why the original HBS essay prompt was replaced, but we can speculate generally on some factors that might have led to this moment.

New Director of Admissions, New Essays

In October 2023, Rupal Gadhia joined Harvard Business School as the Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid. These changes coincide with her tenure, and we can safely assume that this is not a coincidence.

Typically, when admissions essays shift from longer, open-ended prompts to shorter, more focused ones, it’s because many applicants were not effectively addressing the essay’s purpose and were using the space ineffectively.

Perhaps the regime change paved the way for this update—perhaps it was even in the works for some time.

In addition to a new Director of Admissions, the HBS essay updates also seem to align with a change in the types of candidates HBS is seeking to admit.

A culture shift in the Harvard Business School Admissions Committee?

In previous cycles, Harvard Business School has been quite direct about its interest in individuals with a “habit” of leadership and an analytical aptitude and appetite.

However, this cycle sees a shift towards a broader, softer set of qualities, potentially setting the runway for a minor increase in non-traditional MBA admits.

These qualities directly correspond to the new HBS essays, and Harvard Business School gives some guidance as to how certain candidates should interpret the purpose of the new prompts.

As stated on the “ Who Are We Looking For ?” page, the HBS admissions team will look for individuals who…

Business-Minded: “are passionate about using business as a force for good – who strive to improve and transform companies, industries, and the world.”
Leadership-Focused: “aspire to lead others toward making a difference in the world, and those who recognize that to build and sustain successful organizations, they must develop and nurture diverse teams.”
Growth-Oriented: “desire to broaden their perspectives through creative problem solving, active listening, and lively discussion.”

Now, it is important to remember that Harvard Business School relies heavily on its donors and its reputation with recruiters, who in turn depend on the MBA class composition as it stands today. So we are not likely to see a large shake-up of the school’s MBA class profile overnight.

Further, it’s impossible to predict what industries and profiles are likely to benefit from these changes in admissions criteria.

But if the essay prompts and changes to admissions criteria are genuine and indicative of a broader shift in admissions committee thinking, then we can expect to see individuals who invest in others (especially those who are different from themselves) fare quite well.

Wrapping Up

These changes to the HBS application essays coincide with the appointment of a new Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid and a subtle broadening of the admissions criteria for HBS’s MBA class.

While these shifts may not lead to a dramatic change in the class profile overnight, they do signal an evolving approach to assessing candidates.

For applicants, the key takeaway is to pay close attention to the new essay prompts without getting bogged down by the specific themes.

It’s essential to maintain a holistic view of your MBA applications, emphasizing your overall qualifications, goals, and the unique experiences that align with each program’s values.

Engaging an MBA admissions consultant can be a strategic move, offering you tailored insights and helping you craft Harvard MBA essays that stand out. By focusing on the bigger picture and strategically addressing the prompts, you can present a strong, authentic application that highlights your readiness for the HBS MBA program.

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What Is an MBA Essay?

The term MBA essay is often used interchangeably with MBA application essay or MBA admissions essay. This type of essay is submitted as part of the MBA admissions process and is usually used to provide support for other application components like transcripts, recommendation letters, standardized test scores, and resumes.

Why You Need to Write an Essay

Admissions committees sort through a lot of applications in each round of the admissions process. Unfortunately, there are only so many places that can be filled in a single MBA class so a vast majority of the candidates who apply will be turned away. This is especially true of top MBA programs that receive thousands of applicants each school year.

Many of the applicants who apply to business school are qualified MBA candidates —they have the grades, the test scores, and the work experience needed to contribute to and succeed in an MBA program. Admissions committees need something beyond a GPA or test scores to differentiate applicants and determine who is a good fit for the program and who is not. This is where the MBA essay comes into play. Your MBA essay tells the admissions committee who you are and helps to set you apart from other applicants.

Why You Don't Need to Write an Essay

Not every business school requires an MBA essay as part of the admissions process. For some schools, the essay is optional or not required at all. If the business school does not request an essay, then you don’t need to write one. If the business school says the essay is optional, then you should DEFINITELY write one. Don't let the opportunity to differentiate yourself from other applicants pass you by.

MBA Essay Length

Some business schools put strict requirements on the length of MBA application essays. For example, they may ask applicants to write a one-page essay, a two-page essay, or a 1,000-word essay. If there is a desired word count for your essay, it is very important to adhere to it. If you are supposed to write a one-page essay, don't turn in a two-page essay or an essay that is only a half-page long. Follow instructions.

If there is not a stated word count or page count requirement, you have a little more flexibility when it comes to length, but you should still limit the length of your essay. Short essays are typically better than a long essay. Aim for a short, five-paragraph essay . If you can't say everything you want to say in a short essay, you should at least stay below three pages. Remember, admissions committees read thousands of essays - they don't have time to read memoirs. A short essay demonstrates that you can express yourself clearly and concisely.

Basic Formatting Tips

There are some basic formatting tips that you should follow for every MBA essay. For example, it is important to set the margins so that you have some white space around the text. A one-inch margin on each side and on the top and bottom is typically good practice. Using a font that is easy to read is also important. Obviously, a silly font like Comic Sans should be avoided. Fonts like Times New Roman or Georgia are typically easy to read, but some of the letters so have funny tails and embellishments that are unnecessary. A no-frills font like Arial or Calibri is usually your best option.

Formatting a Five Paragraph Essay

Many essays - whether they are application essays or not - utilize a five-paragraph format. This means that the content of the essay is split into five separate paragraphs:

One introductory paragraph
Three body paragraphs
One concluding paragraph

Each paragraph should be about three to seven sentences long. If possible try to create a uniform size for the paragraphs. For example, you don't want to start with a three-sentence introductory paragraph and then follow up with an eight-sentence paragraph, a two sentence paragraph and then a four-sentence paragraph. It is also important to use strong transition words that help the reader move from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph. Cohesion is key if you want to write a strong, clear essay.

The introductory paragraph should start with a hook - something that captures the reader's interest. Think about the books you like to read. How do they start? What grabbed you on the first page? Your essay isn't fiction, but the same principle applies here. Your introductory paragraph should also feature some sort of thesis statement , so the topic of your essay is clear.

The body paragraphs should contain details, facts, and evidence that support the theme or thesis statement introduced in the first paragraph. These paragraphs are important because they make up the meat of your essay. Don't skimp on information but be judicious - make every sentence, and even every word, count. If you write something that doesn't support that main theme or point of your essay, take it out.

The concluding paragraph of your MBA essay should be just that - a conclusion. Wrap up what you are saying and reiterate your main points. Do not present new evidence or points in this section.

Printing and Emailing Your Essay

If you are printing out your essay and submitting it as part of a paper-based application, you should print the essay out on plain white paper. Do not use colored paper, patterned paper, etc. You should also avoid colored ink, glitter, or any other embellishments designed to make your essay stand out.

If you are emailing your essay, follow all of the instructions. If the business school requested it to be emailed with other application components, you should do that. Do not email the essay separately unless you are instructed to do so - it could get in someone's inbox. Finally, be sure to use the correct file format. For example, if the business school requested a DOC, that is what you should send.

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Application Advice: How to Approach the Booth Essay

Starting your application here are five questions to ask yourself before drafting your essay..

By EW Admissions FT Admissions
July 16, 2024
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Alumni and students routinely describe applying to Chicago Booth as a life-changing decision. This is why we encourage candidates to use our application not only as a means of gaining admission, but also as an opportunity for self-reflection and to prepare for this exciting next step. One of the best ways to communicate your MBA motivations and connection to Booth is through the essay portion of the application. The essay prompts for this cycle are as follows:

Part-Time MBA Program:

Why are you seeking an MBA from Chicago Booth, and why is Chicago Booth's Evening MBA or Weekend MBA your program of choice? (maximum 400 words)
Optional Essay: If there is any important information relevant to your candidacy you were unable to address elsewhere in the application, please share that information here. (maximum 500 words)

Full-Time MBA Program:

How will the Booth MBA help you achieve your immediate and long-term post-MBA career goals? (250-word minimum)
An MBA is as much about personal growth as it is about professional development. In addition to sharing your experience and goals in terms of career, we’d like to learn more about you outside of work. Use this opportunity to tell us something about who you are. (250-word minimum)

Before starting your application and writing your essay, here are five questions we suggest you ask yourself:

What inspired me to pursue an MBA? Take time to reflect on your personal and professional experiences, relationships, and goals. Did you know you wanted to pursue an MBA during your prior educational training? Is there a family member, friend, mentor, or professional colleague who influenced you to pursue an MBA? Are you looking to better understand your industry, develop leadership skills, or improve your career? There is no right or wrong answer, we just want to understand why an MBA is important to you at this stage in your life.
What do I hope to accomplish professionally? There are innumerable ways our students and graduates use an MBA to transform their careers. Whether it's a job promotion or a career pivot, a Chicago Booth MBA will open doors that can change the trajectory of your career and influence your professional goals. Have a clear plan for what immediate and future success might look like for you. Take time to assess where you’ve been, where you are now, and where you want to be. Think deeply about how a Booth MBA can fill any gaps and help get you there.
How will I apply what I learn in and out of the classroom to my current or future role? The Chicago Booth MBA experience will provide you with the space to learn frameworks you can directly apply to your current role (for Part-Time students) or future role (for Full-Time students). The skills you develop at Booth continue to be one of the biggest returns on investment Booth students rave about. With the instant impact a Booth MBA can have on your career, we encourage you to be clear about the MBA experiences, resources, and relationships that will help you meet your desired career goals.
How will the collaborative culture at Booth be a part of my experience? Boothies are well-known to help one another. Whether it's through referrals for new opportunities, collaboration on group projects, or providing the confidence to embrace new challenges, support is at the heart of our culture. Consider how you can give back to the community by leveraging your unique strengths and skills to contribute and help others, ultimately creating a cycle of support that extends well beyond graduation. Let us know how these values resonate with the MBA experience you seek.
How can I show my true self? Be honest. Share your experiences, thoughts, and emotions truthfully. Admissions directors appreciate authenticity and value your unique perspective. The optional essay provides a great platform to reflect on your personal experiences, challenges you've faced, and how they've influenced your growth.

Whenever you decide to apply, we wish you the best of luck! Looking for more application tips? Check out more application advice from Boothies and Admissions. We’re also hosting events ( Full-Time ; Part-Time ) throughout the summer, where you can get your questions answered in real time. We wish you the best of luck with your application!

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Quit A Six-Figure Job For An MBA? That’s What Students Have Done At These Ten B-Schools

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If you are in your mid-to-late twenties and already comfortably earning a six-figure income, should you quit and go back to school for an MBA?

Walking out the exit door to spend two years without a paycheck is not a theoretical question. The median pre-MBA pay at ten business schools have done just that. The typical Stanford MBA leaves a job paying $123,743. At Harvard, incoming MBA students leave behind jobs that pay them $120,591. And at Wharton, MBA students walk from a job that paid them $116,137 a year.

Not surprisingly, according to an analysis, the highest pre-MBA salaries are at those three business schools. But there are at least ten MBA programs that routinely attract students who make their exit from jobs that have paid them a six-figure salary. After all, that is already twice the annual income of $52,936 a person who is 25-to-34 years old in the U.S.

PRE-MBA PAY AT TEN SCHOOLS IS IN SIX FIGURES

The majority of MBA students at Chicago Booth, Northwestern Kellogg, Dartmouth Tuck, Columbia, UC-Berkeley Haas, MIT Sloan, and UT-Austin McCombs have hit that magic six-figure threshold (see table below). There are students at many more business schools who are knocking at the door with pay that rounds up to six figures at NYU Stern, Cornell Johnson, and Virginia Darden.

The numbers come from recently published pre-MBA salary stats obtained by Bloomberg from its surveys of MBA graduates. It’s a reflection of the quality of admits–you can generally but not always assume that young professionals making more money are already succeeding in the world of business. In fact, it may be a more reliable signal of quality than a GMAT or GRE score which can be inflated by tutoring, prep classes, and the overall time spent by a test taker to prepare for the exam. On the other hand, it is also a sign of the elitist nature of MBA admissions at highly selective schools that tend to admit students from prestige undergraduate colleges and employers.

In any case, the pre-MBA pay stats tend to correlate with rankings of what are often thought of as the best MBA programs in the U.S. So perhaps it is little surprise that Stanford, Harvard, and Wharton comfortably sit at the top, a place where candidates are willing to forego their high salaries to get an MBA degree.

PRE-MBA PAY AT YALE BELOW VANDERBILT? HERE’S WHY

There also are surprises in the data. Incoming MBAs who go to Vanderbilt’s Owen School, for example, actually earned more than those who go to Yale School of Management: $90,148 at Owen vs.$88,811 at Yale. The most likely reason? Yale typically admits and enrolls in its MBA class more non-profit types who have worked in government, for NGOs, and for other non-profit organizations.

In the table below, we also show you what students expect to make in their first year after graduation as well as the estimated ten-year gain in income that can be attributed to getting the degree. The gain is most likely an underestimate for several reasons, including the fact that Bloomberg’s calculation assumes annual increases of just 3.9% through the ten-year period.

WHERE PRE-MBA PAY IS THE HIGHEST

Pre-MBA Pay	Starting Pay	Ten-Year Pay Gain
$123,743	$264,874	$1,039,638
$120,591	$239,199	$814,426
$116,137	$222,028	$678,019
$113,019	$220,974	$738,325
$110,184	$213,749	$675,181
$109,306	$221,314	$785,130
$107,884	$216,602	$762,182
$107,860	206,466	$673,778
$106,432	229,259	$904,444
$100,306	$184,933	$590,555
$99,792	$187,140	$577,042
$96,158	$199,148	$739,113
$96,158	$193,859	$685,626
$95,643	$194,845	$676,170
$93,464	$183,195	$608,555
$90,148	$180,721	$646,954
$88,811	$199,144	$822,359
$88,095	$170,439	$575,595
$87,445	$169,262	$590,789
$87,025	$180,721	$755,974
$86,768	$183,311	$682,896
$86,555	$181,302	$662,579
$86,486	$184,783	$712,946
$82,093	$169,765	$625,061
$81,979	$160,067	$514,648
$77,172	$144,941	$492,336
$76,242	$161,100	$589,763
$69,209	$165,230	$836,402

Source: The Bloomberg School ROI Calculator

DON’T MISS: RANKING MBAS BY RETURN-ON-INVESTMENT

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The 10 hardest business schools to get into.

Hardest business schools to get into: Stanford tops the list for its selective admissions policy © Stanford GSB Facebook

From tricky acceptance rates to competitive GMAT scores, we list the hardest business schools to get into according to the Princeton Review MBA ranking

Tue Aug 6 2024

There is a lot of work that goes into applying to a top MBA. You have to have a stellar GPA and record, a strong GMAT score, years of work experiences, and pertinent extracurricular activities. And, even when you have jumped all these hurdles you are still battling it out against the best candidates in the world.

Applying to the world’s best business schools is competitive. You’ll need to make sure that the combination of your GMAT score , GPA, and MBA resume make you stand out among the sheer quantity of candidates applying.

The Princeton Review lists the 10 US business schools with stringent application criteria, featuring some of the best known and most respected business schools around the country.

The list is based on school-reported data, a combination of GMAT and GRE scores, undergraduate GPAs of the first year class, and the percentage of candidates accepted and enrolled.

Here are the 10 hardest business schools to get into in 2024, according to the Princeton Review:

10 Hardest Business Schools To Get Into In 2024

Stanford, harvard & mit sloan top the list.

That Stanford leads the list for the toughest business schools to get into is no surprise.

In April 2024, US News reported that just 8.4% of applicants are accepted to the MBA program at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

According to the Princeton report, Harvard was a little more lenient with an acceptance rate of 11% and Columbia, the fourth hardest to get into, accepted 17% of applicants, double the Stanford rate.

Wharton, the world's best MBA according to the Financial Times , came in fifth for toughest to get into, Duke Fuqua was sixth, UC Berkeley in California came in seventh.

At the bottom end of the top 10 list are Chicago Booth, NYU Stern, and finally, with an acceptance rate of 33%, Northwestern Kellogg.

Unsurprisingly all the magnificent seven (M7) business schools feature in Princeton's list of toughest business schools to get into.

Applications to top-tier US business schools are, inevitably, highly competitive. Ivy League schools are renowned worldwide, and the prestige they bestow on their graduates is well-merited. An Ivy League MBA takes some earning.

So, does this mean you shouldn’t even bother applying to an elite business school? Not at all.

The 2024 application landscape

Candidates to these programs will be pleased to hear that in the past few years, since 2021, the business education application cycles have become less competitive, especially at top tier business schools.

According to the Graduate Management Admission Council’s ( GMAC ), 2023 Application Trends Survey the most selective programs received fewer applications while moderately selective and flexible programs reported growth.

Across all degree programs in 2023 there was a 5% drop in the absolute total of applications. This is the second year in a row in which total applications decreased after a small pandemic-related boost in 2020 that was maintained through 2021.

The outcome of the upcoming US election may further impact application to US business schools. International applications to US business schools dwindled under the last previous Trump administration , however he recently promised to switch policy and allow graduates of US colleges access to green cards.

While Kamala Harris's intentions about foreign students haven't been made clear yet, during the Biden-Harris administration there have been significant changes to visa regulations , particularly the H1B visa, which is the most popular route to employment in the US for international students.

This includes a streamlined process, increased visa numbers , eligibility requirements and greater flexibility for F-1 visa holders, but also a weighty extension fee .

If the drop in international b-school applications trend continues into the upcoming cycle, it does mean a more positive application landscape for domestic US students looking to land a spot at one of these elite universities.

How to get into top US business schools

Applying to a top school is not a number’s game. There are other factors to consider which may work in your favor as explains David White, admissions consultant and founding partner of Menlo Coaching: "Data shows that the average GMAT scores for accepted students at Stanford, Harvard or MIT Sloan equate to 675+ on the GMAT exam, but test scores alone are not sufficient. MBA programs also judge other qualities, including your professional experience, extracurricular activities, previous academic record, and fit with their program.

"Top US business schools are not looking to produce students with high grades, but exceptional alumni. They’re looking for people with the potential to do great things -- and ones who will generously help their classmates and fellow alumni to succeed, too," says David.

A history of solid achievements will weigh in your favor, he adds: "You should have clear career goals and indicate to the admissions committee how you will be able to realize them with the help of their MBA. These career goals should be ambitious, but also possible. On the other hand, your extracurricular activities and your conduct at work, as captured in your recommendation letters, can reassure the program that you'll help others succeed." David explains that some applicants who are already in highly compensated jobs that they love may decide to apply to only a few schools, and simply skip the MBA if they don't get in. "For other applicants, who cannot achieve their goals without an MBA, the most reasonable strategy is to apply to a mix of reach, target and safety schools, including one or two programs where their grades and test scores exceed the school's averages for admitted students," he advises.

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Aug. 5, 2024

Rice mba programs land in the top 5 of princeton review’s best business school rankings.

MBA programs from Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business have been ranked in the top five of The Princeton Review’s Best Business Schools rankings for 2024. The university ranked No. 5 on the Best MBA for Finance list, rating in the top 10 for the seventh consecutive year. Rice’s online MBA landed at No. 4 on the list of Top 50 Online MBA Programs , marking the program’s third straight year in the top five.

Rice was the only university in Texas to be ranked in the top 10 in both of these categories.

“These rankings are indicative of the high-quality education offered through all of our MBA programs. Students studying finance at Rice Business are taught by faculty whose research and expertise enhances core classes and hard skills, so students are not just prepared to be successful in their careers, but they are also prepared to think critically about their roles and to lead in their industry,” said Peter Rodriguez, dean of Rice Business. “These rankings are also indicative of our broader approach: offering students flexibility in their pursuit of an MBA, while retaining the experience of studying with world-class faculty — no matter what program they choose.”

Rice also achieved high rankings in other specialty categories. It climbed into the top 10 for having the Greatest Resources for Women , ranking No. 8. In addition, the university ranked No. 10 for having the Greatest Resources for Minority Students .

The Princeton Review’s 2024 business school rankings are uniquely based on data the company gathers from its surveys of administrators at 409 business schools as well as surveys of 32,200 students enrolled in the schools’ MBA programs.

“The schools that made our list for 2024 all have impressive individual distinctions,” said Rob Franek, The Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief. “What they share are three characteristics that broadly informed our criteria for these rankings: outstanding academics, robust experiential learning components and excellent career services. Equally impressive to us — and probably to prospective applicants — is that every one of our best b-schools for 2024 garnered highly favorable ratings among its MBA students we surveyed.”

The complete ranking lists are posted at www.princetonreview.com/best-business-schools , along with The Princeton Review’s in-depth profiles of the schools and its ratings of the schools on topics from admissions selectivity to academic experience.

To learn more about Rice Business’ programming and offerings, click here .

The Princeton Review’s Top 50 Online MBA Rankings Released for 2024

MBA Students in Classroom, Top 50 Online MBA Princeton Review, 2024 Text

Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology is ranked 43rd nationally in The Princeton Review’s Top 50 Online MBA Programs as part of its Best Business Schools 2024 rankings. This ranks #3 among New York State programs and is only one of two Executive MBA programs included in the ranking. The Princeton Review’s yearly rankings are based on student surveys, career outcomes, admissions selectivity, and academic rigor, among other categories.

Saunders’ online executive MBA program is a rigorous program meant to push professionals to reach their full potential. The curriculum includes high-level courses on topics such as effective team leadership, economics, marketing strategy, and international business.

The online Executive MBA is accredited by AACSB and is intended for seasoned professionals who want to put their creativity and innovation to the test to propel themselves into higher leadership roles.

Saunders’ undergraduate and graduate programs are internationally ranked and recognized . Visit our events page to view graduate information session opportunities and other events

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50 MBA Essays That Got Applicants Admitted To Harvard & Stanford
This collection of 50 successful HBS and GSB essays, with smart commentary, can be downloaded for $60. They are two of the most selective schools, routinely rejecting nine or more out of every ten applicants. Last year alone, 16,628 candidates applied to both schools; just 1,520 gained an acceptance, a mere 9.1% admit rate.
MBA Essay Examples for top ranked Business Schools
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20 Must-Read MBA Essay Tips
Here's a roundup of our best MBA essay tips to keep in mind as you begin to write. How to Write an Unforgettable B-School Essay 1. Communicate that you are a proactive, can-do sort of person. Business schools want leaders, not applicants content with following the herd. 2. Put yourself on ego-alert.
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Begin work on the essays early to give yourself time to reflect, write, and edit. Feel free to ask friends or family members for feedback, especially about whether the tone and voice sound like you. Your family and friends know you better than anyone. If they think the essays do not capture who you are, what you believe, and what you aspire to ...
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A good essay can help you gain admission to a top master of business administration (MBA) program. But writing one can be a challenge. Most business schools require an essay for admission to an MBA program alongside other requirements like undergraduate transcripts, letters of recommendation, and, sometimes, admissions test scores. An essay allows you to emphasize your experience and helps you ...
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List of 10 Top Business Schools with MBA Essay Topics and Examples. The following list outlines what you can expect in terms of essay requirements this year for admission to 10 top business schools in the United States and Canada. This list includes the name of the school and associated university/location as well as MBA essay topics ...
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Your MBA application essays are going to be crucial if you are competing for a spot at one of the world's top business schools. These resources will show you how to excel in the rigorous MBA essay writing challenges ahead of you, provide you with the guidance to create MBA essays that will impress admissions officers, and share MBA essay examples that illustrate our advice in action.
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Word Count: 805. This sample essay is from The Harbus MBA Essay Guide and is reprinted with permission from Harbus. We highly recommend the book! If you would like advice on responding to this year's HBS essay question, (which is different from the 2014-15 prompt) please read our Harvard Business School essay tips.
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First, MBA admissions committees want to see how you write. Communication skills—including concision, clarity, style, and fluency in English—will be essential to your success in business school. One way of discerning your level of writing ability is to require an original writing sample. In an MBA essay, you have to get your point across ...
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ARINGO MBA Admissions Consulting is a boutique MBA admissions consulting firm helping candidates get into top MBA and business school programs. MBA Essay Samples by Topic These essay topics are commonly part of the applications of top MBA programs. Click on a topic to see samples of real essays submitted by ARINGO clients who were accepted to ...
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Exams. Connect with Schools. Exam Prep. How to Apply. Business School & Careers. Help Center. Explore Programs. Brought to you by GMAC, the global mission-driven organization of leading graduate business schools. ©2002-2024, Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).
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Once a user selects one of the 77 schools, these six figures (pre-MBA pay, MBA expenses, loans, post-MBA pay, signing bonus and program length) reflect survey-based medians for the chosen program.