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Be sure to read my Key Posts on the admissions process. Topics include essay analysis, resumes, recommendations, rankings, and more.

August 04, 2021

Wharton MBA Essay Questions for the Class of 2024

 In this post, I analyze the essay questions for the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for Fall 2022 admission.  For my most recent posts on Wharton interviews, please see here.

 

My clients have been admitted to Wharton every year since 2002. Since I started my own counseling service in 2007, I have had 84 clients admitted to Wharton (70 admitted to Wharton, 1 to Wharton Deferred and 13 admitted to Wharton Lauder), which is my biggest total for any school (HBS, Columbia, Booth, and INSEAD follow, in that order, in terms of highest totals). My clients' results and testimonials can be found here.

 

The thing I like most about Wharton is that they really do admit a very diverse class. The class size certainly helps,  but beyond that, Wharton is a school where applicants are evaluated holistically and one need not be perfect to gain admission.  Such factors as a less than stellar GPA, a less than super GMAT or GRE, being older (30+) or work experience in companies that are not necessarily prestigious are not inherent barriers to admission to Wharton's MBA program.  I have worked with clients who had such issues, but also had amazing strengths which helped them gain admission. This could also happen at HBS or only rarely at Stanford, but it happens more at Wharton.  The school's diversity is also shown through the range of courses offered and the many international programs.  Some people think of Wharton narrowly as a finance school, but to do so is to ignore the huge course catalog, numerous clubs, and diverse recruiting results.

 

ESSAYS FOR THE 2021-2022 APPLICATION CYCLE

"The Admissions Committee wants to get to know you on both a professional and personal level. We encourage you to be introspective, candid and succinct. Most importantly, we suggest you be yourself. For additional essay writing resources, see the essay tips article!

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)

Essay 2: 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)

Required Essay for all Reapplicants: Please use this space to share with the Admissions Committee how you have reflected and grown since your previous application and discuss any relevant updates to your candidacy (e.g., changes in your professional life, additional coursework, and extracurricular/volunteer engagements). (250 words)

Optional Essay: Please use this space to share any additional information about yourself that cannot be found elsewhere in your application and that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee. This space can also be used to address any extenuating circumstances (e.g., unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, areas of weakness, etc.) that you would like the Admissions Committee to consider.

Please note:

  • First-time MBA applicants and re-applicants are required to complete essays 1 and 2."

 

 
The Required Essays
While the wording for Essay 1 has changed from last year, it is actually the same question, just stated more clearly.  Essay 2 has not changed.  Wharton’s essay set is transactional in the most basic sense because Essay 1 is about what Wharton can give you and Essay 2 is about what you can give Wharton. This reflects the core pragmatism of the school’s culture and specifically the culture of the admissions office.
 
 
 
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)

 

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM WHARTON?

An excellent answer to this essay question would identify those specific aspects of Wharton that you will help you achieve your goals. It is a future focused question.  A general characterization of Wharton- data driven, but also a place with a commitment to experiential learning, East Coast focused but with a San Francisco campus that is now become integrated into the MBA program, highly international, highly flexible with strengths in a large number of areas, including healthcare, finance, real estate, and marketing- is  helpful to keep in mind when writing this essay. Wharton has a lot to offer and, while some have characterized it as a CFO school, a finance school, a Wall Street school, all too some extent true, this is not so helpful when you consider that, for example, Sundar Pichai, Google's guy in charge of Chrome, Android, and Google Apps, is a Wharton alumnus. Wharton is a huge program with so many strengths that the point is not to think about some big overall image of the school, but to focus on what you want to get out of it. Which specific resources you want to use and why. Keep in mind that Wharton is much bigger than HBS because of the undergraduate program. The range of courses, research, and opportunities is huge. The point is to provide a specific game plan on how you will use Wharton to achieve your goals.

 
An effective essay here will do the following:
 

1.   Explain what your goals are.

 

2.   Explain how Wharton will help you achieve your goals.   Focus on specific aspects of Wharton that will help you achieve your professional objectives.

 

If you are having difficulty determining what your goals are and/or why you need an MBA in general, please see my analysis of Essays 1 and 2  in my Columbia Business School and/or Stanford Essay B analysis. In those posts I provide a detailed method for thinking about goals and need for an MBA. Except for length, there is little difference between Stanford Essay B and Wharton Essay 1 as both questions ask what one wants from the school. CBS gives 750 words (Essay 1 is 500 words and Essay 2 is 250 words) for what you need to cover in Wharton in 500 words.

 

Make the assumption that an MBA from Wharton will be a transformative experience for you.  If you don't make this assumption, you will likely find it particularly hard to explain what you want from the experience and will also probably come across as rather dull.  Your job is to engage the admissions reader so that they understand what you want from Wharton for your future.

 

What are your aspirations? What about your past experience?  You need to give Wharton admissions a very clear image of your professional objectives for attending the MBA program.  You might include a clear post-MBA career goal and a longer term vision/goal. You might express it in terms of your present situation ("past experience") and how you hope to be transformed by your Wharton experience.  A purely abstract dream or visionary statement could easily come across as unrealistic or ungrounded if not handled carefully, so be careful to connect your aspirations to  your past actions and/or clearly defined goals. Career changers (those planning on  changing industry and/or function after MBA) should explain why they want to change their careers and how Wharton will enable that. Career enhancers should explain how an MBA will enhance their careers to continue along the pathway that thy are already on.

 

You should be explaining why you need a Wharton MBA in  particular. You should  learn about the curriculumclusters / cohorts/ learning teamsLearning @ Whartoncommunity involvementclubs, and WGA in order to determine what aspects of Wharton really relate to your professional objectives. You need not mention the names of particular courses as long as it would be clear to your reader that your aspirations align well with Wharton's offerings. For example, it is really a waste of word count to mention the names of particular finance courses if the main point you are simply trying to make is that you want to enhance your finance skills. Every admissions officer at Wharton is well aware of the programs major offerings.  If you have a particular interest in a more specialized course or studying with a particular professor, it might be worth mentioning it as long as it is an explanation of why you want to study the subject and not based on circular reasoning.

 

An example of circular (tautological) reasoning:  "I want to take Advanced Corporate Finance because I am interested in developing advanced corporate finance skills." This kind of bad circular reasoning is so common in early drafts I see from my clients and in the failed essays of reapplicants that I am asked to review. Usually it takes place within a paragraph consisting of many such sentences. These sentences actually convey nothing about the applicant. The admissions reader wants to learn about you, not about their own program. If you don't explain what you need and why, you are not actually answering the question, you are just writing something dull, surface level, and without positive impact.

 

An example of an actual explanation:  "While I have been exposed to finance through my work at MegaBank, I presently lack the kind of comprehensive understanding of corporate finance that I want to master at Wharton to succeed as a future leader of cross-border M&A." By focusing on very specific learning needs and explaining those needs in relationship to one's goals and/or past experience, admissions will be learning about you and really be able to understand what you need from Wharton. Mentioning a course name is not important if the learning need is already something obviously obtainable at Wharton. A more complete explanation would include additional details about the kind of issues that the applicant is interested in learning about and/or specific ways the applicant intended to apply what he or she would learn at Wharton.

 

Finally, remember that if you have something that you really want to discuss about what you contribute to Wharton or wish to mention particular classes, clubs, and events at Wharton that you could not fit into the essay, you can always discuss that in the optional essay.

 

 

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)

 

WHAT CAN YOU GIVE TO THE WHARTON COMMUNITY?

 

I have been an MBA admissions consultant since 2001 and the contribution question is one that I could explain to a client in my sleep.  I have done it on this blog many times before. Here is one of my old (2008) favorites, which includes a table that I have also used below.

One of the chief functions of an MBA admissions committee is to select people who will add value to the community.  The director and the rest of the committee have done their job properly if they have selected students who can work well together, learn from each other, and if these students become alum who value the relationships they initially formed at business school. Your contribution(s) need to clearly connected to the community. Maybe it will be through the way you work with others, the knowledge you share, or the activities you organize but make sure the reader can fully understand how this be a contribution at Wharton.  You should know enough about the Wharton community to show specific ways you might contribute.

Within the context of the Wharton application, Essay 2 is really one of the important places to show why you will add value to Wharton.  One way, I like to think about contribution questions is to use a table like the following:

CONTRIBUTIONSIs it a personal, professional or academic experience?What skill, value, or unique experience is being showcased?So what will you contribute  to the Wharton community?Is this special? Why?
Story 1:    
Story 2:    
Story 3:    
adammarkus@gmail.com. Free to use, contact me if you republish it.    

I use the above table for all types of contribution questions, modifying the categories to fit the question.  What this kind of table does is force you to think about exactly how something from your background is meaningful enough to add value at Wharton.

ADVICE:

  1. Tell your best story or stories that highlight how you will add value at Wharton.  Help the reader understand what is special about you, about the story you tell, and the contribution you make.
  2. Learn a lot about Wharton so that you can write about really meaningful contributions.  Talk to alumni and current students, attend online chats, and dig through the website and otherwise.  Google and network your way into Wharton expertise in order to be able to have really deep contributions.
  3. With respect to the kind of contributions you make, don't fall into the "Obvious Knowledge Trap."  What do I mean? Here is an example: "As my work on the Tesla/McDonalds Merger and Acquisition shows, I have deep knowledge of  finance and accounting which I will use to help my classmates without a finance background." This topic is bad for a number of reasons. First, that you have such knowledge will be obvious from your resume, application form and/or transcripts, so it is better to focus on something that the reader will not already know about you. Second just sharing knowledge is not enough, better to focus on how you would do that. For example, instead of writing about your knowledge of a topic, write about how you helped others learn something and how you will use that to make a contribution at Wharton. Then specify the Wharton specific context (Classes, clubs, activities, Learning Teams) where you will make that contribution.

 

SPECIFIC ESSAY 2 REQUIREMENTS: Since the question calls for contributions, my suggestion is to include at least two contributions.  The question does not indicate how many aspects of your background you need to focus on. So you can focus on one story from your background or multiple stories. In 400 words, I think 4 topics would be a maximum from your background to focus on but that 2-3 topics makes more sense.

 

ESSAY STRUCTURE:

It will depend on whether you cover 1 or more topics.   Here are two sample structures that I think are most common:

One Background Topic Essay Structure:

  1. Discuss one personal, academic, or professional story.
  2. Explain one specific and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make at Wharton based on what you do or learn from this story.
  3. Explain another specific and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make at Wharton based on what you do or learn from this story.

Two or Three Background Topic Essay Structure:

  1. Discuss one personal, academic or professional story. Explain at least one specific and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make at Wharton based on what you do or learn from this story.
  2. Discuss another personal, academic or professional story. Explain at least one specific and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make at Wharton based on what you do or learn from this story.
  3. Discuss another personal, academic or professional story. Explain at least one specific and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make at Wharton based on what you do or learn from this story.

Both of the above structures can work well for this kind of essay. It just depends on whether you want to cover one story in depth  and then show two or more contributions from it or show greater diversity of your experience and focus on 2-3 stories.  To tell a story about your background sufficiently and also explain what it shows you will add value at Wharton is very hard to do really effectively in less than 100 words, so 4 topics would be a maximum from my perspective. That said, I will encourage my clients to focus on 1-3 topics.

 

 

Additional Question (required for all Reapplicants):

Please share with the Admissions Committee how you have reflected and grown since your previous application and discuss any relevant updates to your candidacy (e.g., changes in your professional life, additional coursework, extracurricular/volunteer engagements, etc.). (250 words) 

First for reapplicants, an effective answer here will do the following:

1. Showcase what has changed since your last application that now makes you a better candidate.
2. Refine your goals. I think it is reasonable that they may have altered since your last application, but if the change is extreme, you had better explain why.
3. Make a better case for why Wharton is right for you.

For more about reapplication, please see "A guide to my resources for reapplicants."

 

Please use this space to share any additional information about yourself that cannot be found elsewhere in your application and that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee. This space can also be used to address any extenuating circumstances (e.g., unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, areas of weakness, etc.) that you would like the Admissions Committee to consider. (500 words)

Second, for addressing any extenuating circumstances: As with the school's other optional question, do not put an obvious essay for another school here. If you read the above, it should be clear enough that this is the place to explain anything negative or potentially negative in your background. If you have no explanation for something negative, don't bother writing about it. For example if your GPA is 2.9 and you have no good explanation for why it is 2.9, don't bother writing something that looks like a lame excuse. This is more likely to hurt than help you. In the same vein, don't waste the committee's time telling them that your GMAT is a much better indicator than your GPA (the opposite is also true). They have heard it before and they will look at both scores and can draw their own conclusions without you stating the obvious. That said, if you have a good explanation for a bad GPA, you should most certainly write about it. In addition to GMAT/GRE, TOEFL, and GPA problems, other possible topics include issues related to recommendations, serious gaps in your resume, concerns related to a near total lack of extracurricular activities, and  major issues in your personal/professional life that you really think the admissions office needs to know about.

 

Best of luck with your Wharton application for the Class of 2024!

-Adam Markus

Chicago Booth 2021-2022 MBA Application Essays

 This post is on the University of Chicago Booth's MBA application essays for 2021-2022 admission to the Class of 2024. The University of Chicago is a very intellectually serious place.  Booth reflects that culture. Not everyone who goes there is an intellectual, but most are quite smart.  Your objective is to show you understand yourself, understand what you want to do in the future, and understand why Booth is right school for you.  You can find testimonials from my 59 clients admitted to Booth here.

 

Overview: Booth is, like the University of Chicago as whole, a school that values intelligence and independence. Many consider the University of Chicago to be the single most academically rigorous school in the US (even compared to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and MIT).  Beyond its reputation in finance and economics, it is strong in analytics (including quantitative marketing, which it has long been dominant in) and entrepreneurship. Regarding entrepreneurship, the school is extremely well resourced. Most students live in downtown Chicago in the same buildings and commute to Hyde Park. Beyond taking classes on campus in Hyde Park, they can also take the same exact classes downtown with evening MBA program students, which is unique amongst the M7.

 
 
START WITH YOUR GOALS
To get into Booth it is critical that you know what your future goals are, can state them simply in the application form and elaborate as necessary in Essay 1. Given that it is impossible to effectively explain why you want to go to Booth without knowing what your goals are, starting with this part is critical. In general, for any application, starting with the goals always makes sense because what you say in it will impact what you say elsewhere. After all, you want to show how other aspects of who you are will support your goals.
 
 
For detailed discussion and analysis of goals, please see my posts Columbia Business School and/or Stanford.

The Booth app form contains short questions related to goals:

What is your immediate post-MBA career goal? (250 characters)

What is your long-term post-MBA career goal? (250 characters)

-In the two short answer questions state your goals as clearly possible. You can fully leverage the essay to explain your motivations in depth and elaborate further on such details as potential employers for your immediate goal.

Immediate (Short-term)

  • Be clear on your industry and job function.
  • Provide specific examples of potential employers.

Long-term:

Be ambitious!

Think about your wider impact beyond a short-term post-MBA role.

 
For more about writing goals that are both ambitious and visionary, see here.
 
The Essays
 
Keep the guidelines for Booth's two required essays in mind:

Response Guidelines:

  • Length:There is no maximum length, only a 250 word minimum. We trust that you will use your best judgment in determining how long your submission should be, but we recommend that you think strategically about how to best allocate the space.

Adam's Comment:  My admitted clients typically write from 500-800 words for each essay.

  • Acceptable Formats: Submissions must be entered into the text box provided in the application

Adam's Comment:  With text boxes, use simple formatting. For example, you can't put anything in italics or bold.

 

 

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

If you have already written Essay 1 for Wharton (links to my essay analysis), the goals essay and CBS fit essay for Columbia and/or Essay B for Stanford, answering Booth's question should be easy because you will be making the same and/or similar kind of argument.  For those whose first school is Booth or who have written a "Why MBA/What your goals?" essay before,  read my blog posts cited above.

 

Why Booth?

  • You need to explain to Booth what your professional objectives and learning needs are.  As I discuss in my CBS, Stanford, and Wharton posts, you need to explain what your learning needs are. Refer to the links above for further discussion of this issue.

 

  • Given that Essay 2 cannot focus on professional experience and there is no specific word limit, discussing past professional experience that relates directly to your goals and/or learning needs can work here. Such past professional experience can be used to make a better argument but just keep in mind that it means providing a short analytical summary of an experience, not telling detailed stories. Caution: I know this advice will not always result in the 30-60 words  I have in mind but rather be misinterpreted to result in longer stories of 100 or more words that are likely to be ineffective in the context of this question.

 

 

 

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-word minimum)

 

This is an open-ended essay with only two requirements:

  1. Don't write about work.
  2. Tell them something about who you are as a person.

 

General Advice
Tell them about you, but don't focus on what they can find elsewhere in the application. I think they are looking for a meaningful assessment of your personality and/or values.

 

Some Questions to get you brainstorming:

1. What do you want Booth to know about you that would positively impact your chances for admission?

2. What major positive aspects of your life have not been effectively INTERPRETED to the admissions committee in other parts of the application?

3. If you were going to tell admissions 3-5 things about you that would not be obvious from rest of the application, what would they be? Why should Booth care?

4.  What story or stories about yourself would really help admissions understand you and want to admit you?

5. Are there aspects of your values or personality that relate to the goals you discussed in Essay 1? If so, make the connection.

6.  What makes you unique as a person?

7. How have you demonstrated leadership or teamwork outside of your professional work?

8.  Are you driven intellectual curiosity and how has that effected your life decisions? University of Chicago is a place where intellectual ability is highly valued.

9. How will your past non-professional experiences or personal qualities make you an effective contributor at Booth?  You don't have to write about contributions in this essay, but some of my admitted clients do make the connection.

 

For those who have written essays for HBS or Stanford, it is likely to be relatively easy to make this essay depending on the amount of non-professional content in those applications.  For more ways of thinking about yourself, please see both my HBS and Stanford essay analysis.

 

 


Re-applicant Essay: Upon reflection, how has your perspective regarding your future, Chicago Booth, and/or getting an MBA changed since the time of your last application? (300 words maximum)

Unlike some schools, the reapplicant essay and optional essay are different.  (Note: You will not see the Reapplicant Essay online on the essay page unless you have already clicked that you are a reapplicant on the "Chicago Booth and You" page).  Booth wants all reapplicants to write this essay regardless of the number of years ago that someone applied.  Use this space to specifically explain what has improved about you since you last applied. You can certainly mention improved test scores, but I would not use every much of your word count for that. Typical topics include the development of a new skill, promotions that demonstrate your potential for future success, involvement in an extracurricular activity, learning significantly more about Booth, and why your goals discussed in Essay 1 now are better than the ones you presented last time.

An effective answer here will do the following:
1. Showcase what has changed since your last application that now makes you a better candidate.
2. Refine your goals. I think it is reasonable that they may have altered since your last application, but if the change is extreme, you had better explain why.
3. Make a better case for why Booth is right for you.
For more about reapplication, please see "A guide to my resources for reapplicants."

 

 

Optional Question:

  • Is there any unclear information in your application that needs further explanation?(300 word maximum)
Like with other US MBA programs, THIS IS NOT A PLACE FOR WRITING A NEW ESSAY ON SOME POSITIVE TOPIC!  It is a place to explain any issues of concern, something that could not fit in the app form that you specifically want to mention, or address anything else that might require explanation. Some applicants write nothing here.  Don't use this as place to tell extended professional experience stories because clearly they don't want them. If they did, they would not exclude them from Essay 2.
 
 
 
 Finally, do consider the application as a whole:  Consider  whether your application meets Chicago Booth's three central evaluation criteria: curriculum, community, and career.
 
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