My Fall 2009 essay analysis can be found here.
This is the first of two posts on NYU Stern's MBA Essays for Fall 2008 Admission. The second one is here.
New York University Stern School of Business MBA essay questions' web page also includes great tips for the questions, so I have included them. Let's look at the whole thing first and than break it down.
The following essay questions give you the opportunity to more fully present yourself to the Admissions Committee and to provide insight into your experiences, goals and thought processes. Your essays should be written entirely by you. An offer of admission will be withdrawn if it is discovered that you did not write your essays. Please note the following:
Essays 1, 2 and 4 must be typed and submitted using the standard U.S. 8 1/2” x 11” format, double-spaced, in 12-point font.
Please adhere to the essay word limits provided for each question.
Word limits apply to the total question. For example, your response to Essay 1 should answer part (a), part (b) and part (c) with a maximum of 750 words.
Label the top of each essay with the following: Name, Date of Birth (month, day, year), Essay Number and Page Number (e.g.: Joe Applicant, January 1, 2001, Essay #1, Page 1)
Essay 1. Professional Aspirations:
(750 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)
Think about the decisions you have made in your life. Answer the following:
(a) What choices have you made that led you to your current position?
(b) Why pursue an MBA at this point in your life?
(c) What is your career goal upon graduation from NYU Stern? What is your long-term career goal?
Admissions Tips:
Listen to our podcast: Writing your Story.
Proofread your essays carefully.
Make sure you have fully answered the essay questions.
Be genuine in your essays - tell us about the real you.
Follow the essay instructions, including word limits and font size.
Essay 2. Fit with Stern:
(500 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)
The NYU Stern community is one of our strongest assets. Please answer the following questions about our community:
(a) What is your personal experience with the Stern community? What actions have you taken to learn more about us?
(b) How would you contribute to our community as a student?
(c) How will you benefit personally and professionally from the Stern community?
Essay 3. Personal Expression:
Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use almost any method to convey your message (e.g. words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative.
All submissions become part of NYU Stern’s permanent records and cannot be returned for any reason. Please do not submit anything that must be viewed or played electronically (e.g. CDs, DVDs, MP3s, online links), that is perishable (e.g. food) or that has been worn (e.g. used clothing). If you submit a written essay, it should be 500 words maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font.
If you are not submitting Essay 3 online, you must provide a brief description of your submission with your online application. To mail in Essay 3, please follow the mail and labeling instructions. Also, note that supplemental Essay 3 packages are subject to size restrictions. Essays that exceed the stated size restrictions will not be accepted for review by the Admissions Committee. Please see the table below for the required package guidelines:
Packaging Type
Dimensions: Metric
Dimensions: Non-metric
Box
36cm x 31cm x 8cm
14” x 12” x 3”
Cylindrical tube
8 cm x 91cm
3” x 36”
Triangular tube
97cm x 16cm x 16 cm x 16 cm
38” x 6” x 6” x 6”
Admissions Tips:
Listen to Isser Gallogly, Executive Director of MBA Admissions, discuss Essay 3 on Public Radio's "Marketplace". (Before listening, note that we now have new Essay 3 size restrictions.)
To see if Stern is a fit for you, come visit us in New York City or visit us overseas.
Essay 4. Additional Information: (optional)
Please provide any additional information that you would like to bring to the attention of the Admissions Committee. This may include current or past gaps in employment, your undergraduate record, plans to retake the GMAT and/or TOEFL or any other relevant information.
If you are unable to submit a recommendation from a current supervisor, you must explain your reason in this essay.
If you are a re-applicant from last year, please explain how your candidacy has improved since your last application.
If you are applying to a dual degree program, please explain your decision to pursue a dual degree.
Every year, I have seen some potential applicants to Stern look at the above questions and simply decide it is better to apply elsewhere. Actually, I have found myself advocating application to Stern as part of a school selection strategy as a result. While Stern's questions are unique, especially Essay 3, they maybe significantly less daunting than what you initially think.
Stern admissions does a very good job of explaining their application. As is written above, listen to their podcasts. If you can attend a presentation at Stern or at least attend an admissions event, that is most helpful because getting into Stern is all about fit.
Consider that in the three required questions above, the one constant feature is Stern. If you look at other top schools essay sets you will not find another one where a 100% of the questions require you to discuss the school. While Essay 1 only refers to Stern in the context of what you will do after it, clearly the assumption here is not that you just need any MBA, but one from Stern. Essay 2 actually consists of three questions about your relationship to Stern. Finally Essay 3 is about how you would introduce yourself to your classmates at Stern.
From an admissions office perspective, I think Stern's "100% fit essays" approach makes quite a bit of sense if you consider that Stern's yield (percentage of accepted students who attend) is 50% among the 22% of total applicants that it accepted in 2006 (all numbers from Businessweek). Compare this to Columbia's yield of 79% on the 17% of students that it accepts, Wharton's yield of 69% on the 21% of students that it accepts, and Harvard Business School's yield of 91% on the 15% of students that it accepts and I think you will begin to see one reason why Stern cares about fit. I am comparing NYU against these other top urban East Coast schools because many applying to those other schools are likely to apply to NYU and because these are the schools that NYU wants to compare itself to. NYU's yield is not bad, in fact it is better than schools than the schools that rank (it is ranked 14th) immediately above it in Businessweek, UCLA (12th) and Cornell (13th), but its yield is significantly lower than schools it is most likely to be compared to, especially Columbia Business School (ranked 10th).
Attending Stern's Admission Event in Tokyo only further convinced me of this. The impression I gathered from both the admissions presentation and the short video that was shown was that Stern places a high value on involvement within its community. At least that was impression that I got.
Given the very clear nature of NYU's instructions, I don't think my own analysis of Essays 1 and 2 is that interesting!
Essay 1. Professional Aspirations:
(750 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)
Think about the decisions you have made in your life. Answer the following:
(a) What choices have you made that led you to your current position?
(b) Why pursue an MBA at this point in your life?
(c) What is your career goal upon graduation from NYU Stern? What is your long-term career goal?
What I really like about this essay is that Stern is doing all the organizational work for you. Lets examine each part.
(a) What choices have you made that led you to your current position?
Basically you need to provide an explanation for your career to the present with an emphasis on your current position. Given the space limitations, I don't suggest using more than 1/3 of your word count for this part of the essay. Focus on providing an explanation that would not be clear from simply reviewing your resume. Your motivations should be made clear. If your resume is what you done, this should be about why? and more specifically why are you doing your current job?
(b) Why pursue an MBA at this point in your life?
Please see my analysis of Chicago GSB Question 1, which is very much focused on "Why now?" Clearly you need to show why given your present position and future goals, now is the right time to get an MBA.
(c) What is your career goal upon graduation from NYU Stern? What is your long-term career goal?
Use at least 1/3 of your essay to explain both your post-MBA career goal and your long-term career goals. For more about goals formulation, see here and here.
Essay 2. Fit with Stern:
(500 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)
The NYU Stern community is one of our strongest assets. Please answer the following questions about our community: (a) What is your personal experience with the Stern community? What actions have you taken to learn more about us? (b) How would you contribute to our community as a student? (c) How will you benefit personally and professionally from the Stern community?
This essay consists of providing detailed answers to three questions that should show your passion to be part of Stern. Let's examine each part:
(a) What is your personal experience with the Stern community? What actions have you taken to learn more about us?
Here you need to clearly indicate how you have become informed. Visiting is obviously best, attending their admissions event is also good, and so is making an effort to communicate with students and alums. Obviously reading their website is important, but is rather minimal. Make sure you listened to their podcasts. Making a connection to alum is always a good idea. Be specific about the steps you have taken. Feel free to use names of admissions officers, alums and students that you met.
(b) How would you contribute to our community as a student?
Please see my analysis of contribution questions. Think specifically about how specific parts of your background will add value to other students and the Stern community as a whole.
(c) How will you benefit personally and professionally from the Stern community?
Think as specifically as possible about what you gain from being a part of the Stern COMMUNITY. I capitalize community to emphasize that you should focus at least part of your answer on things outside of classes. You should show the likely ways you think Stern will contribute to your personal and professional development.
Question 3: See here.
Essay 4. Additional Information: (optional)
Please provide any additional information that you would like to bring to the attention of the Admissions Committee. This may include current or past gaps in employment, your undergraduate record, plans to retake the GMAT and/or TOEFL or any other relevant information.
If you are unable to submit a recommendation from a current supervisor, you must explain your reason in this essay.
If you are a re-applicant from last year, please explain how your candidacy has improved since your last application.
If you are applying to a dual degree program, please explain your decision to pursue a dual degree.
Like the optional question for Chicago GSB and Wharton, this is primarily a place for explaining something potentially negative. If you are a re-applicant, this is where your reapplication essay goes and clearly this should be a very positive and wonderful essay that states clearly how you are much stronger candidate. Under no circumstances include an essay clearly written for another school. Yes, I know that NYU did not ask you write a whole essay about an important leadership experience you had, but since they did not ask for it, we can assume that is not the way they will gauge your potential.
Question? Comments? Email me at adammarkus@gmail.com
-Adam Markus
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