Chicago Booth 2011-2012 MBA Application Essays

This post is on the University of Chicago Booth's MBA application essays for 2011-2012 admission application.

As is usual, Chicago Booth has again changed its questions. I never get a break with this school! I have taken the Class of 2014 questions from the Booth website with additional commentary from the Booth Insider.  

In addition to the post below, I suggest reading the first part of my Kellogg analysis where I discuss why location matters as it is a comparison between Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. 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 for the fight school for you now. If you can do so, it is quite possible that you will part of the Class of 2014.

I had four clients admitted to the Chicago Booth Class of 2013.  You can find testimonials from three of them here. You can find additional testimonials from some of the clients admitted in prior years as well.

I would suggest reading the Q&As I conducted with former clients who are members of the Classes of 2012, 2011, and 2010 as these interviews will provide you with Booth student perspectives on the program.

Japanese applicants should most certainly visit the MBA J-Book.

THE QUESTIONS:

1. What are your short- and long-term goals, and how will a Chicago Booth MBA help you reach them?  (600 words)

1a. RE-APPLICANTS ONLY: Upon reflection, how has your thinking regarding your future, Chicago Booth, and/or getting an MBA changed since the time of your last application? (300 words)

2. At Chicago Booth, we believe each individual has his or her own leadership style. How has your family, culture, and/or environment influenced you as a leader? (750 words)

3. Considering what you've already included in the application, what else should we know about you?  In a maximum of four slides, tell us about yourself.

Start with Question 1: You need to effectively segment your content. Question 1 has a clear focus, so it is best to start there. In general, for any application, starting with the goals essay 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.
Next:This is really up to you, but I suggest really trying to figure out what specific topics you want to focus in on in Essays 2 and 3. Some applicants will find it easier to start with Essay 2 and others will find it easier to start with Essay 3.  By outlining what you intend to do in each of these essays, you are less likely to have unnecessary overlapping between them.
Next: Write the Optional Essay if you need to.
Finally: After you have written everything, make sure it works as part of your entire application strategy. Review your entire application and think about whether you have presented all aspects of yourself as clearly as possible. Specifically think about your application meets Chicago Booth's three central evaluation criteria: curriculum, community, and career.

BACK TO BASICS
1. What are your short- and long-term goals, and how will a Chicago Booth MBA help you reach them?  (600 words)
Booth Admissions: "In this essay, we hope to better understand your path and plan, vision for your career, and why an MBA – specifically a Booth MBA – is necessary to help you achieve your goals.  In responding to this question, you’ll need to spend some time thinking about your career, your passions, and what you really hope to get out of the entire MBA experience."

Chicago is returning to one of the simplest forms of this question. To answer this section effectively you need to know what your goals are and why they will fit with Booth's mission:
We are the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Since 1898, we have produced ideas and leaders that shape the world of business. Our rigorous, discipline-based approach to business education transforms our students into confident, effective, respected business leaders prepared to face the toughest challenges.
For more about fit, see here.  For more about writing goals that are both ambitious and visionary, see here.

If you are having difficulty formulating your goals, please see my analysis of Stanford GSB Essay 2 as it provide a framework for developing goals.

Why Booth?
In this part of the question you need to explain why you need an MBA from Booth to reach your goals. To really answer this question you need to know about Chicago . Given that Booth has great online sources available for this purpose, even if you don’t visit, you can learn about it. Start here. In particular take a good look at Chicago Booth Dean's Student Admissions Committee (DSAC) blog. To learn more about the GSB's research, see University of Chicago Booth's Working Papers and The University of Chicago's Capital Ideas. I also strongly suggest listening to the Booth podcast series. This a great series of podcasts that should help get you thinking about business at the kind of intellectual level required for success at Chicago.

Effective answers to this part of the question will establish deep and specific linkages between specific aspects of the Booth program and your goals in order to show fit.  To do this effectively requires actually writing something meaningful about your goals. If your objective is to make this essay effective, you don't want to write something that is purely generic, something anyone could write.  You need to show your specific fit.  This means analyzing your needs (See my chart above) and relating them directly to Booth.  It means showing Booth admissions that you know what you will do in an MBA program with only one required class (LEAD).

It is, of course, fine to mention that Booth has a flexible curriculum, but everyone knows that. The point is what you will do with it?  That is always the point.  I have had clients admitted into the Classes of 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 and I can say that the only thing that is consistent about them is that each had their own individual plans for how they would utilize their Chicago education.  You need to have your own Booth study plan that clearly links to why you need an MBA now.   

Booth is not just for finance!
Just go explore Booth and you will see that goes way beyond finance. For instance, it is a great school for those with entrepreneurial goals.

1a. RE-APPLICANTS ONLY: Upon reflection, how has your thinking regarding your future, Chicago Booth, and/or getting an MBA changed since the time of your last application? (300 words)
Booth Admissions: "For our re-applicants, this question gives you the opportunity to tell us what is different from the time of your last application.  What has occurred in your life or career that has either reinforced or changed your goals?  What lessons have you learned or how have you grown since you last applied to Chicago Booth?"

Reapplicants should read my post on reapplication. 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: 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.

THE SECRET ORIGINS OF YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE OR WHERE DID YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE COME FROM?

2. At Chicago Booth, we believe each individual has his or her own leadership style. How has your family, culture, and/or environment influenced you as a leader? (750 words)

According to Booth Admissions: "The goal of this essay is to better understand who you are, how your past has influenced you, and your underlying motivation and values surrounding leadership and business. A significant part of the Booth experience is helping each student define and strengthen their personal leadership style. Understanding yourself and your motivations is the first step in that process, and our hope is that this essay will help you start down that path. We are not looking for a prescribed answer – we hope that you will share your story."

Use this essay to help show admissions your ability to be self-aware. In other words, this is partially a test of your self-awareness both as a person and a leader.  LEAD (Leadership Effectiveness and Development) is the only required course at Booth and one that involves becoming aware of one’s leadership style in an attempt to eventually improve it. You can conceive of this essay as a pre-LEAD exercise.

Leadership styles come from somewhere.  In this essay, you need to link something in your background to be specific kind of leadership style and then provide an example that demonstrates this leadership style.

Family:  FREUD IS IN THE HOUSE! Sorry, but the whole family influence thing always has a slightly Freudian quality to it.  How did mommy or daddy or your sibling relationships impact your style?  Were your parents a positive or negative example for you?  Most likely this will involve some kind of value that you learned during your childhood or by way of specific example.

Culture: The culture you were raised in can also be a source for your leadership style.  If you come from a highly collaborative or competitive or individualistic or conformist or hierarchical or etc. culture, how has it influenced you?  

Environment:  This is really a rather open-ended category as it would be  something very specific that you experienced in some situation that had a deep impact on your leadership style.

There are a number of ways to write this essay:
You might concentrate on a single family, cultural, or environmental influence on your leadership style that is reflected in a single leadership example:

Influences	Leadership Style	Example(s) of Your Leadership Style
INFLUENCE	STYLE	ONE EXAMPLE

You might concentrate on a single family, cultural, or environmental influence on your leadership style that is reflected in two or more leadership examples:

Influences	Leadership Style	Example(s) of Your  Leadership Style
INFLUENCE	STYLE	EXAMPLE 1 EXAMPLE 2 (EXAMPLE 3)

You might concentrate on multiple family, cultural, or environmental influences on your leadership style that are reflected in a single leadership example:

Influences	Leadership Style	Example(s) of Your Leadership Style
INFLUENCE 1 INFLUENCE 2 (INFLUENCE 3)	STYLE	EXAMPLE

You might concentrate on multiple family, cultural, or environmental influences that highlight different aspects of your leadership style as shown through multiple examples.

Influences	Leadership Style	Example(s) of Your  Leadership Style
INFLUENCE 1	ASPECT 1	EXAMPLE 1
INFLUENCE 2	ASPECT 2	EXAMPLE 2
(INFLUENCE 3)	(ASPECT 3)	(EXAMPLE 3)

I think each of the above structures can make for a good essay.  Whichever structure you focus on, keep in mind that this is an essay in self-analysis and therefore you should focus as much on providing a coherent and effective analysis as on telling good stories. Those who show introspection are more likely to be rewarded for their efforts than that simply focus on telling their best leadership story.  
If you are having difficulty identifying your own leadership style, I suggest looking at the following resources:

First, one great place to read about leadership, and business in general, is Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. The last time I checked there were 309 articles on leadership and management posted there.

Second, find out what kind of leader you are by taking this quiz based on Lewin's classic leadership style framework. I think leadership is more complicated than Lewin's framework, but this quiz is a great way to get you started thinking about yourself, a key part of answering any leadership essay question effectively.Third, if you have not done so, I suggest reading relevant essays in 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays: With Analysis by the Staff of the Harbus, The Harvard Business School Newspaper. Reading through the essays on leadership should help you to understand the great diversity of topics that are possible.

By the way, if you have noticed a lack of Booth-specific resources on leadership in the above, it is because there is actually very few such resources. Booth’s research has not been focused on leadership studies per se, something reflected in the fact that with the notable exception of the Center for Decision Research, none of Booth’s Research and Learning Centers focus on the study of leadership, nor does it’s three highly specialized journals.  Be that as it may, at least at the stage of admission, Booth cares about your self-awareness as a leader.

3. Considering what you've already included in the application, what else should we know about you?  In a maximum of four slides, tell us about yourself.
Booth Admissions: "During our last live chat in June, many of you were wondering if the presentation would be part of the application. Since we feel that it is such a valuable opportunity to learn about you, we have decided to include it again this year. We have framed the question to specifically address what you haven’t already told us in the rest of the application. We encourage you to look at your application holistically. Are there messages, topics, or activities that are important for us to know?  If so, then the presentation will be an opportunity for you to provide us with this type of information. Also, it is important to note that this is not a design contest!  We care most about the content, but the way in which you deliver that is up to you."
Also see Associate Dean Kurt Ahlm's "what is your application strategy?"  

Based on working with four clients admitted to the Class of 2011 (and in previous years), I am confident that the advice I offer below is effective.  Each of these client's presentations was distinct and provided admissions with interesting set of perspectives on the applicant.  Some of the slides looked really professional, while others were clearly not.  Some were funny, others less so.  Some were high concept, others very simple and direct.  All of these slides worked in their own way.   
Is this a test of PowerPoint Skills?
No. I think it is a test of your ability to prepare a very simple presentation about yourself. Remember that you are preparing slides for a presentation that will only be delivered on paper and unlike a presentation that you would deliver, you are not able to take advantage of what PowerPoint can do. In fact, for anyone who has actually is good at PowerPoint, they may find it necessary to compromise on their aesthetics and technical skills in order to most effectively answer the question. Especially those who believe in providing a minimal amount of content per slide will likely  find it necessary to increase the amount of content they include. As someone who previously made the transition from text heavy slides to minimalist ones when delivering sales and marketing presentations, I know that if I had to answer this question, I would have to compromise on what I consider to be my own best practices for making PowerPoint slides.

Tell them about you, but don't focus on what they can find elsewhere in the application.
In Question 1, you have already discussed your goals and why you want an MBA from Chicago, so don't discuss goals and why MBA here.  You will have discussed your leadership in Question 2, you will have seemingly discussed certain aspects of your leadership, so don’t repeat them here. In your resume and in the application form, you will have provided information regarding your past experience, so don’t just repeat that information here.

Some Questions to get you brainstorming:
1. What do you want Chicago 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 four things about you that would not be obvious from rest of the application, what would they be? Why should Booth care?
4. If there was one story about yourself that you think would really help admissions understand you and want to admit you, what is it?
5. Do you have a personal interest (painting and poetry for example) that would work effectively in a PowerPoint?
6. If you have a sense of humor and/or creativity, how can you express it here? I suggest doing so if you can.

As you can see, these questions would lead to very different kinds of responses. There is no one way to answer this question, but I believe there are right ways for every applicant to do so.

Some common questions I have been asked about the presentation

1) In your opinion, should one use a minimalistic approach involving images to convey one's ideas?
I think this will really depend on you. The important thing is to effectively convey something important about who you are to the admissions committee. If that can be done effectively with more images that is great, if it can be done effectively with minimal or no images that is also great. The important thing is that your reader understands the significance of any images you use. Luckily, you have the notes for that purpose. Just as in "real" PowerPoints, images or any graphic element can be used effectively or badly. Always ask yourself, "Why am I using this image? Does it really help them understand me?" If it does, keep it. If it is mere decoration, think about eliminating it or replacing it with something that will have a positive impact on Chicago's ability to understand who you are.

2) Would a little bit of humor do good e.g. a cartoon?
Keeping in mind what I just wrote above, I think humor can be used effectively. You must practice extremely good judgment when using humor for any application. Don't make a joke simply to make one. Use humor if it is effective in conveying something that will compel admissions  to want to interview you. That said, I have had a number of clients who successfully used humor in their applications for Chicago Booth.

3) Is Booth looking for an analytical assessment of one's personality in these slides?
I think they are looking for a meaningful assessment of your personality. I will not say "analytical" because that is just one possibility. If by "analytical" you mean a detailed explanation for your character making use of standard forms of argument, it is fine to do it that way, but not the only way. I use the word "meaningful" because it does not necessarily require logic or analysis to do so. For example, an image with some kind of description may provide Chicago Booth with great insight into who you are. Since Chicago is specifically being "non-traditional," you certainly can be also so long as you answer the question.

4) What kind of presentations seem to work best?
There is no single style of presentation that works best.  Even very simple “show and tell” style presentations can work if they help admissions understand you and why you should be admitted. That said, I think presentations that make choices about what to present and that are unified by a concept or theme tend to work best.  

Finally, think big and be creative. To answer this one effectively will take time, but if you want to get into Chicago Booth, put in the time.

-Adam Markus
アダム　マーカス
I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form, which is publicly available on google docs here, and then send your completed form to adammarkus@gmail.com.  You can also send me your resume if it is convenient for you.  Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. See here for why. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

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Dartmouth Tuck MBA Essay Questions for Academic Year 2012-13

In this post I analyze the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth MBA Application Essay Questions for Academic Year 2012–13 (Class of 2014).  

I had two clients admitted to Tuck for the Class of 2013. You can find a testimonial by one of them here. To read a testimonial by one my two clients accepted for Tuck for Fall 2010, see here. To read a testimonial by my client accepted for Tuck for Fall 2009, see here. To read a testimonial by my client accepted for Tuck for Fall 2008, see here.

Anyone really interested in going to Tuck should attend one of their receptions if possible. Visiting is even better, but attending the reception is a good first step. Click here for information about Tuck events. Japanese applicants should also visit the Japanese site.

YOU CAN LEARN QUITE A BIT FROM ATTENDING A TUCK EVENT

While did not attend a Tuck presentation in 2010, I attended the 2009 Tokyo Reception. It appeared that about 50-60 applicants were in attendance as well as a number alumni and current students. The evening began with a PowerPoint presentation by Kristine Laca and was followed a reception with food and drinks (I did not stay. I usually try to avoid that aspect of the events because I think it is time for the applicants to talk with alumni and admissions and I don't want to waste anyone's time). At the Tuck Reception I attended, both the alumni and the admissions officer emphasized Tuck is about being part of a community. They intentionally hosted an event that would give everyone in the room a chance to mingle and to easily have a chance to talk with the admissions officers and alums. If someone was not comfortable in that cocktail party environment, they have no business applying to Tuck. Each person counts and each person will need to participate. This communicated at least to me, the same message of "friendly community" that had been made by the admissions officer: students, their families, faculty, and staff at Tuck are all part of one community.

Especially in regards to the community aspect, I suggest reading the Q&A I conducted with  a member of the Class of 2011.   In particular:

Adam: What is the Tuck community like? 
Tuck 2011: The Tuck community is like family. Literally for those who live on campus since they spend most of time together. Everybody is friendly and you don't need to worry about making friends here. From an academic point of view, collaboration between students is highly emphasized in Tuck and you will experience and learn to work together with others.

Anyone applying to Tuck, should most certainly watch the video series "Applying to Tuck: The Inside Scoop" with Dawna Clarke, the Director of Admissions. I will make reference to Ms. Clarke's advice below.

THE IMPORTANCE OF VISITING AND NETWORKING

If you are really interested in attending Tuck, I strongly suggest making a real effort to visit or at least to attend a reception. This will be a great way to meet with admissions officers in a very friendly environment. It is also an amazing way to network with the alum at the event and afterwords. At the Tokyo reception, we were actually provided with a list of alumni who would be happy to communicate with potential applicants. In "Tips on Applying," Ms. Clarke emphasizes the importance of getting in touch with Tuck alumni. She, in fact, specifically says that mentioning that you met with alumni is something you should do both in your essays and interviews. She also mentioned that she considers notes from alumni as being in an applicant's favor.

Essay Questions for 2012–13

Let's take a look at the essay questions. I took the questions from the pdf.

Please respond fully but concisely to the following essay questions. Compose each of your answers offline in separate document files and upload them individually in the appropriate spaces below. Although there is no restriction on the length of your response, most applicants use, on average, 500 words for each essay. There are no right or wrong answers.

Please double-space your responses.

I don't suggest writing much more than 500 unless you really need to. That said, admissions will not be counting the words, so anything in the range of 450-600 is safe. Of course, if you need to write more, there is no absolute restriction, but I would tell a client to keep it to 750 maximum.

1. Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA program for you? (If you are applying for a joint or dual degree, please explain how the additional degree will contribute to those goals.)

This is a very standard version of the Why MBA essay question and remains unchanged from last year. See my Stanford GSB analysis as it applies here. Keep in mind the real importance of the second part of the question. Tuck's program is small with a target class 240.  According to BusinessWeek, for the Fall 2010 entering class, Tuck admitted 20% of the applicants who applied, so making the case that you really belong is critical. The yield was 54% (admitted who attend). These numbers are worth bearing in mind. On the one hand, Tuck is relatively difficult to enter, but on the other, it is often not the first choice of those it admits. You can be certain that  those reading your application know this. Under such conditions, clearly showing why Tuck is ideal for you is critical.

2.  Discuss your most meaningful leadership experience. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience?

This question has been greatly simplified from last year's leadership question. This year's question is actually much easier to answer.
Keep in mind that according to Dawna Clarke in "Tuck's holistic admissions process" video, leadership ability and/or demonstrated potential is one of three key common characteristics of Tuck students (see my analysis of Question 4 for the other two). You should most certainly provide a full answer to this question, one demonstrating that you really understand your strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Weak versions of this essay will focus too much on simply telling a leadership story and not enough on self-analysis of leadership ability. 

most meaningful
Since the leadership experience you write about should be he the one that you consider most meaningful, you clearly explain that.  Applicants frequently assume the significance of a story without interpreting it sufficiently.  Make sure you have clearly explained why the particular leadership experience you write about is meaningful to you.  This is not just a function of explaining your strengths and weaknesses as a leader, but of actually explaining why this particular experience is so significant.

I have developed the following grid to help you outline leadership stories. The categories this grid employs may go beyond any particular schools essay requirements. Filling it out completely will help you write about your leadership in a way that will help convince admissions of your leadership potential. CLICK TO ENLARGE.

How to use the grid:
1. Decide on a specific story.
2. Identify the most significant things you did in the situation, these are you action steps.
3. For each action step identify:

• What skills or qualities you demonstrated to complete this step.
• The strengths you demonstrated to complete this step.
• The kind of leadership you demonstrated.
• What you still need to learn about leadership.

4. Think about the results and identify how they relate to your action steps. So, at minimum, you should be able to state the impact on others and/or yourself.

5. After completing the chart you will see that some aspects of your action steps may be repeated. If there is a total duplication and nothing new is shown, either you need to redefine the action step or you may decide not to focus on it very much.

6. Once you think you have two to four fully worked-out action steps for  a story, start writing your essay.

7. Next start re-writing. Eliminate duplicate points made between action steps. Make choices about what parts of each action to step to highlight. Given that there are usually word limits, you will have to make some decisions about what to include. Simply providing a description of your actions, is not enough. Consider what it signifies about you. Consider what your actions reveals about your leadership potential. 
Thinking and writing about leadership is an important part of preparing for interviews because you can be certain that you will have to talk about leadership. So, you might find that the parts of the outline you jettison now will become valuable when you will want to have alternative stories for your Tuck interview.

What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience?

This is a test of your ability to honestly assess your own limitations, not just as a leader, but more generally.The structure of the first year program including mandatory study groups of 5-6 students in the Fall and Winter terms, the Cohen Leadership Development Program, and the intensely community-focused nature of the environment certainly requires that all students be open to receiving and issuing positive, but critical feedback. It is important that you demonstrate the self-critical capacity expected at Tuck.

3. Describe a circumstance in your life in which you faced adversity, failure, or setback. What actions did you take as a result and what did you learn from this experience?

This question is new for this year, but is actually a total restatement of a question that Wharton previously asked about failures and setbacks. HBS asks for three setbacks, so if you are writing on HBS, it should be particularly easy to answer Tuck's question.

It is critical that you learned something meaningful.  Therefore the key constraint of this question is that whatever the adversity, failure, or setback is, you have learned something important from it. While not stated, you may very well find that one way of showing what you learned is to discuss how you applied your lesson to a new situation.  

What is the difference between adversity, failure and a setback? I think the easiest thing to do is look at standard definitions of all three words (taken from Dictionary.com):

ADVERSITY: 1. adverse fortune or fate; a condition marked by misfortune, calamity, or distress: A friend will show his or her true colors in times of adversity. 2. an adverse or unfortunate event or circumstance: You will meet many adversities in life.

FAILURE: 1. an act or instance of failing  or proving unsuccessful; lack of success: His effort ended in failure. The campaign was a failure. 2. nonperformance of something due, required, or expected: a failure to do what one has promised; a failure to appear. 3. a subnormal quantity or quality; an insufficiency: the failure of crops. 4. deterioration or decay, especially of vigor, strength, etc.: The failure of her health made retirement necessary. 5. a condition of being bankrupt by reason of insolvency.
SETBACK: a check to progress; a reverse or defeat



If you think these words bleed into one another, that is true to some extent, but the nice thing about this question is that it covers a huge variety of situations. Adverse situations are certainly not necessarily failures or setbacks, but simply really bad situations. A setback, unlike a failure, is not necessarily something that ultimately does not work.

EXAMPLES OF POSSIBLE TOPICS
Adversity: Taking care of dying relative, being in a battle field, being poor, having a physical disability, being in a disaster, having a boss who hates you, being the victim of bullying, being the victim of prejudice (because of your gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, etc)
Failure: Drawing the wrong conclusions about a situation, taking the wrong course of action, an inability to see significant problems with a project, bad personal behavior that generates a negative result, lack of empathy that leads to the ending of a professional or personal relationship

Setback: an obstacle to progress on a project, organizational resistance to your plans, changes in a situation that makes what seemed to be a manageable project a potential disaster, a loss of efficiency that must be overcome if success is to be obtained


The basic components of an answer:
1. Clearly state what the adversity, failure or setback was.  Your reader should understand easily which one you have selected.
2. Clearly state your role when you explain the situation. It should be clear how much responsibility you have for the situation.
3. Explain what actions you took. Think about what your actions reflect about your own skills and personality. Provide a sufficient number of distinct action steps to highlight the diverse ways you handled the situation.
4. Explain what you learned. If what you learned is something you applied to a subsequent situation, please explain that.


Everyone should have many examples of adversity, setbacks, and failures, but the key thing is to have one that you learned from. 
 

4. Tuck seeks candidates of various backgrounds who can bring new perspectives to our community. How will your unique personal history, values, and/or life experiences contribute to the culture at Tuck? 
This question has not changed. Keep in mind that in addition to leadership, the two other common characteristics of Tuck students that Ms. Clarke mentions are teamwork skills and communication/interpersonal skills. So if you have not effectively covered those two categories in another essay, you should address them in one way or another here. This essay is not just a way for admissions to understand some important aspects of who you are, it is also a place for them to see whether you know enough about Tuck to provide effective examples of the way you would contribute. 

One way I like to think about contribution questions is to use a matrix such as the following:

CLICK ON THE ABOVE TO ENLARGE.

I use the above matrix for all types of contribution questions, modifying the categories to fit the question. When it comes to contribution questions, I think it is important to tell specific stories that highlight specific ways you will add value to your future classmates.

The number of contributions that can be covered in about 500 words will obviously vary greatly. Consider that some contributions might be fully analyzed and justified in a matter of 20-50 words, while others will require 150-200. I suggest finding something between two and about four contributions to discuss. Just make sure each contribution is meaningful and described effectively enough. Keep in mind that you want admissions to be excited by you, so if you make this a mere summary of why you are good fit, you will be boring them.

Finally, given the small size of the Tuck as well as its relatively remote location, the importance of each member to this community is perhaps greater than at a bigger school located in a more urban area. Therefore, it is particularly important that you are very specific about how you will contribute.

5. (Optional) Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere that may be helpful in reviewing your application (e.g., unusual choice of evaluators, weaknesses in academic performance, unexplained job gaps or changes, etc.). Complete this question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application.
This is primarily a place for explaining something potentially negative. Under no circumstances include an essay written for another school.  It is fine to write about something positive here, but just make sure that it is something they really need to know.  It really is certainly fine to write nothing here.

Finally, if you need to prepare for a Tuck interview, please see here. 

-Adam Markus
アダム　マーカス
I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form, which is publicly available on google docs here, and then send your completed form to adammarkus@gmail.com.  You can also send me your resume if it is convenient for you.  Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. See here for why. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング 大学院 合格対策 エッセイ MBA留学

Ambition & Vision are Good: Thoughts on MBA Career Goals

I wanted to discuss the importance of ambition and vision in articulating career MBA application essay and interview goals because it is really a core issue that my clients find themselves confronting. The last section of this post consists of a three step process for developing your future career vision so that you can put forward truly compelling goals in your essays and interviews. 

THE SOLE FUNCTION OF MBA APPLICATION CAREER GOALS IS TO GET YOU ADMITTED

Please keep in mind that I am a graduate admissions consultant, not a life coach or career counselor.  My advice regarding goals is strictly limited to what I think will get an applicant admitted, not what they actually do.  I think applicants frequently confuse an effective articulation of future career goals with what they actually intend to do. Sometimes it is the case that what one wants to do is completely consistent with what one needs to articulate in an application, but sometimes this is simply not the case.  Being strategic about MBA application goals means articulating a set of goals that will get you admitted.  Once you are there, do what you like because no one from the admissions office is going to question what classes you take, what internship you do, or what career path you follow.

GOALS MUST BE BELIEVABLE AND SHOW FIT

I make the assumption that B-school admissions are looking for goals that are both (1) believable based on the applicants past experience and what kind of added value can be reasonably assumed to be obtained from the program and (2) fit with the mission of the program. Here, I will be discussing fit specifically in terms of the necessity to show ambition and vision when applying to top MBA programs.

While I do mention some specific schools below, please keep in mind that I think this applies to all highly ranked programs whether they ask directly about goals or not (MIT Sloan does not ask directly, but they are certainly looking for ambitious students).  

TAKING SELF-INTEREST TO THE EXTREME: UNMITIGATED GREED

Since I believe in the value of negative as well as positive benchmarks, I will start by taking a look at greed, which is not something you want to articulate.

In the film Wall Street, Gordon Gecko's (Played by Michael Douglas) speech distills a certain kind of business vision:

The Key lines: The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.

I am not sure how many of readers would have seen this 1987 film, because most of you would have babies or young children.  The recent sequel probably increased the number of who saw this film.   Gecko's views are antithetical to what business schools want to hear in MBA applications because his notion of greed is not ethical, sustainable, or as the film shows legal. One could argue that conceptually the problem with Gecko's conception of greed is that it is treated as the sole underlying basis for economic incentives.  If you think people are simply motivated by one thing, greed, you have a rather limited view of human motivation.

Unchecked greed, the kind Gecko personifies is the sort of thing that embarrasses MBA programs when their alumni practice it.  Wharton's Raj Rajaratnam, recently convicted along with both other Wharton and some HBS alumni of massive insider trading is the current best example for why unmitigated greed is problematic. Especially since the Enron Scandal (Jeffery Skilling, HBS Class of 1979), business schools started to increase or at least publicly emphasized the significant amount of ethics training in the MBA curriculum. After Enron, I remember how MBA programs started asking more ethics related application essay and interview questions for a few years.  The Financial Crisis again raised the whole idea that unchecked greed was a problem. I don't think it is mere coincidence that many top schools  have increasingly emphasized the important role that sustainable enterprise,  green businesses, social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, and non-profit management play in their programs.

AMBITION IS GOOD

I don't bring greed up to engage in a debate, but as a way to introduce its more polite and politically correct cousin: Ambition.  Ambition is a more morally neutral term.  Ambition can lead to good or bad outcomes, it can be motivated by a desire to improve one's own position or to have a bigger impact on others.  Ambition  is ultimately about motivation to do something. Greed is ultimately about the desire to acquire something for one's own use and is therefore generally considered to be, in its most raw forms, morally repugnant because it often involves hurting others to achieve ones aims. Ambition can certainly lead to equally awful outcomes, but it can also lead to great human achievements.

AMBITION PLUS VISION IS BETTER

A relatively cursory review of the MBA program mission statements below makes it clear enough why being ambitious is a clear necessity to show fit at top MBA programs.  However, ambition is not really enough because the kind of leader that MBA programs want to turn out is someone who actually must think about something greater than their own personal career. In particular, they must show a real concern for others, whether it be their nation, community, company, or otherwise.  They need to show they posses vision in the sense of seeing something greater than themselves.

Chicago Booth: "We are the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Since 1898, we have produced ideas and leaders that shape the world of business. Our rigorous, discipline-based approach to business education transforms our students into confident, effective, respected business leaders prepared to face the toughest challenges."

HBS: "We educate leaders who make a difference in the world"

Stanford GSB: "Change lives, Change organizations, Change the world."

Wharton: "Advancing Business. Advancing Society."

Kellogg: "Our purpose is to educate, equip and inspire leaders who build strong organizations and wisely leverage the power of markets for the betterment of all."

UC Berkeley Haas: "The Berkeley MBA Program develops innovative leaders who know how to put new ideas to work, and to do so responsibly." 

INSEAD: "Through teaching, we develop responsible, thoughtful leaders and entrepreneurs who create value for their organisations and their communities."

IMD: "The IMD MBA program develops leaders who can move their businesses forward."

I TAKE THE ABOVE  MISSION STATEMENTS VERY SERIOUSLY. They constitute clear statements of each of these school's self-image of what kind of students it intends to admit.  You have a greater potential to fit the school if you fit the mission statement.   While one could be cynical about such statements, I am not.  In my experience, successful organizations are filled with people who have accepted the mission of the place they work.  Since top MBA programs like the ones above are certainly successful organizations, it is quite reasonable to assume that those who work in them have accepted the organizational mission.   If that employee is an admissions officer, I assume they consciously think about their organizational mission when selecting candidates.  

While each of the above statements has its own variations, I think a sort of generalized mission statement for top MBA programs might be something like "We train thoughtful leaders who will responsibly build and positively change organizations."  While I think you should benchmark your own goals against the specific mission statement of the school you are applying to, my above formulation would be a good generalized benchmark. I think it is clear enough that only someone who has sufficient ambition and vision would have the possibility of meeting this benchmark.

In fact the statements set a pretty high bar for what will be necessary for admission.  I doubt the following goals in and of themselves would cut it:

Generic Management Consultant Goals: "My short-term goal is to work as a management consultant. Longer-term, I see myself becoming partner."

Generic Entrepreneur Goals: "I want to utilize my MBA experience to create a new company from the ground up.  Eventually I hope to take my company public.

Generic Investment Banker Goals: "After developing expertise in one or more sectors, I hope to eventually become a managing director."

You may be thinking that my formulations are too simple, but honestly variations of the above are really common enough.  My clients don't ever express their goals like this in a submitted application when they work with me, but I certainly see such statements in failed applications when working with reapplicants and when reviewing my clients' initial drafts.

At a basic personal career level, such goals are sufficiently ambitious enough, but they lack vision:

My hypothetical management consultant simply wants to make partner.

My  hypothetical entrepreneur simply wants to succeed at building some sort of company.

My hypothetical banker just wants to rise in the investment bank's hierarchy.

For these goals to be visionary, each of the above hypothetical applicants would need to have some greater mission. If the consultant wanted to eventually focus on a specific sector that excited her or if the entrepreneur was interested in working on specific kind of business or if the investment banker was concerned with the impact of her work on something beyond her own career development than that greater mission would be in place. 

Being visionary, having a greater mission, does not mean sacrificing one's core professional objectives or pretending to be someone else, it means showing that you are actually concerned about something other than yourself and that you desire to actually have a meaningful and positive impact in whatever career path you follow. 

HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR OWN PERSONAL CAREER VISION FOR PURPOSES OF AN MBA APPLICATION

The following is a self evaluation exercise. It is based on the sort of questions that I use when brainstorming with clients.

Step 1:  Think about what has motivated your career decisions so far. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. What has motivated me? Why

2. Where have added the most value? Why

3. What have been the most positive impacts of my work to date? Why?

Outcomes from this step: To provide an interpretation of your career and motivation so far.  Hopefully in the process of doing so, you might find the seeds of your future vision as well.

Step 2:  What are you passionate about? Ask yourself the following questions:

1. What do I really love doing and how does that relate to my career?

2. Am I deeply involved with any political, social, religious, cultural activities or organizations that connect to my career goals?  If the answer is yes, you might have the basis for a career vision.

3.  If money was not consideration and you still needed to actually work but could do anything, what would it be? Why? How does that relate to what you could actually do in the future?

Outcomes from this step: To honestly assess what you really care about in order to develop future goals that you will be passionate about.

Step 3: What do you want to do after your MBA? Ask yourself the following questions:

1. How do your goals relate to what has motivated you in the past?

2. How do your goals relate to what you are really passionate about?

3. Give your long term goals, what kind of potential impact could you have on your organization, society, country, and/or the planet?

4. How will you leave this world a better place than you found it?

5. Given your goals, why you and not somebody else? What differentiates what you intend to do with what anyone else pursuing your intended future career could do?

Outcomes from this step: To clearly identify a vision that links directly with your career goals. If you are unable to articulate a vision at this point, you need help.

Caution: If your goals don't seem believable, the above exercise will not work well.

CONCLUSION

You don't need to be a superman or superwoman to articulate a career vision that is both ambitious and visionary.  Your objective is to articulate a set of goals that the admissions committee can see as fitting within their program.  Make them believe that you are worthy of gaining admission.

-Adam Markus
アダム　マーカス
I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form, which is publicly available on google docs here, and then send your completed form to adammarkus@gmail.com.  You can also send me your resume if it is convenient for you.  Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. See here for why. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

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Wharton MBA Essay Questions for Class of 2014

In this post, I analyze the essay questions for Wharton for Fall 2012 admission. You can find testimonials from my clients admitted to Wharton in 2009, 2010, and 2011 here. My preparation guide to Wharton interviews is here.

NOT SUCH A GOOD SET OF ESSAYS TO START WITH

If you ask generic questions, you get generic answers.   A few years ago, Wharton’s essays had always been one of the easiest for my clients to handle.  In fact, my advice, both in this blog and to my clients, had been to start with Wharton, Kellogg, or Tuck, but not anymore in regards to Wharton.  Unless you are only applying to Chicago and Wharton, I would never start with Wharton because (1) You will have more word count for your goals for almost any other top MBA program and (2) it is advantageous to have a portfolio of content prior to selecting which of the two out of the three optional questions to write. 

In the preface to the Class of 2014 Essay Questions, the following is stated:

The Admissions Committee is interested in getting 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.

This statement is really important because it provides some guidance as to what Wharton wants:

1.  Provide both personal and professional content.

2.  Be personal and analytical, not merely descriptive.

3.  Make sure you are stating things as briefly and effectively as possible.  Don't waste your words.  Use them carefully. Keep your essays within the word count.  That is what "succinct" means! 

THE ELEVATOR PITCH

Required Question: What are your professional objectives? (300 words) 

You might think that 300 words is not enough to convey your professional objectives, but if you think that you don’t have to explain why you need an MBA in detail, it is not actually bad length.

If Columbia Essay 1 is an “Extended elevator pitch,” Wharton’s Required Question is an elevator pitch.  I suggest you read my analysis of CBS 1 now.  After you are finished, read the rest of this post.

WHAT CAN YOU SAY IN 300 WORDS?

1.     What do you imagine your professional future will look like?  You need to give Wharton admissions a very clear image of your future.  You may or may not include a chronological framework (Short, medium, and long term), but if you don’t, you better make sure that you are still presenting something that effectively combines both ambition and realism.  A purely abstract dream or visionary statement could easily come across as unrealistic or ungrounded if not handled carefully.  However you write this, have a strong first sentence that immediately answers the question.  For most applicants this probably means either stating your ultimate professional objective or a statement related to your professional vision.

2.     What motivates your professional objectives?  That is to say, why are these your objectives? While the question does not say “What are your professional objectives and why are they your objectives,” if you are going to be “introspective, candid” and “yourself,” as per Wharton’s overall instructions, you had better also explain “why.” Clearly a drawn-out explanation based on a detailed examination of your past experience cannot be conveyed here, so provide a clear analytical answer as why your goals are what they are.

3. Should you mention Wharton or why you need an MBA? Yes, if it helps to explain your professional objectives, but I would certainly keep such “Why MBA?” and “Why Wharton MBA?”  statements to mere logical argument and not focus on the details. Unless it is intuitively obvious why you need an MBA, it may very well make sense to briefly explain why in this essay.  For example, if you are already well on your way along a certain professional path and wish to stay on that path, it does make sense to explain why an MBA is necessary at this point in your career.  If you are changing careers, you might want to briefly mention that you view an MBA as necessary to make this change effectively. Of course a simple analytical explanation is all that I am talking about, not a full elaboration of all the possible benefits of an MBA in general or a Wharton MBA in particular. If you can work something Wharton specific into this essay, great, but don't be surprised if it is rather limited.

Respond to 2 of the following 3 questions:
Wharton is giving you the opportunity to write on two out of three options here. I think all three of these questions are equally difficult, so other than saying something obvious like the importance of using your best stories, I don't have any general advice on which of the two applicants in general should select. That said, if you have entrepreneurial goals, I would suggest selecting Option 3 (For some brief comments on entrepreneurship at Wharton, see here).  Otherwise, it is totally case by case.  One of the best reasons for waiting on writing Wharton is that it is really nice to work on these essays after you have a portfolio content to select form.

DECISIONS, DECISIONS...

Option 1: Reflect on a time when you turned down an opportunity. What was the thought process behind your decision? Would you make the same decision today? (600 words)

WARNING: DON'T QUOTE FROM ROBERT FROST'S THE ROAD NOT TAKEN. 
HERE IS THE POEM SO YOU CAN GET THIS POETIC CLICHE OUT OF THE WAY NOW:

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;         5 Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,         10 And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.         15 I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.         20

This must be the single most quoted poem in MBA essays. Don't use it.  Don't use any poems, unless you write it.  I have nothing against poetry. I like Robert Frost and even the sentiment expressed in this poem. You might be wondering why I am starting this, especially because the question is focused on an opportunity that you did take. The reason is very simple, if you did not take one opportunity, you had to have taken another. To connect to Frost, you either choose one road or you choose another.


This is really a great question because it can be used in so many ways.
Opportunities take many forms, so to help you focus your thinking about this one:


1. Think about a situation were you really did have a viable opportunity and choose not to take it.  I stress the word "viable." If the opportunity you turned down was not really viable, it will make for an effective topic.
2. Think about why choose not to take this opportunity. You must be able to explain your reasoning very clearly. I would say that a least a third of the essay should focus on explaining your reasoning at the time.
3.  Think about whether you made the right decision.  The interesting thing about this question is that you may or may not have made the right decision. If you think you made the right decision, explain why.  If you think your decision was both right and wrong, be careful because you may find it difficult to provide an effective response in the space provided.


This topic lends itself well to employment, academic, and personal opportunities (I can't suggest covering romantic opportunities that you turned down).  Your answer may very well have an ethical dimension to it.  Also, depending on the situation, it might very well focus on your leadership abilities.


I think Wharton is asking this question so that they can really asses the way you think.  Help them understand that you posses the capability for both explaining your past thought process as well your present perspective.

ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?

Option 2: Discuss a time when you faced a challenging interpersonal experience. How did you navigate the situation and what did you learn from it?  (600 words)

I think it is time for a musical interlude.

Just as the title of this classic Jimi Hendrix song, Wharton is asking "Are you experienced?"  If you have never experienced navigating a challenging relationship, you are not actually a human being. Which is it to say, that anyone can answer this question.  To be human is struggle in our relationships with other people.  The topics for this one are too numerous to mention, but here are a few likely themes: trust, empathy, courage, ethics, emotional maturity, stress management, teaching others, learning from others, negotiating, ending a relationship, establishing a relationship, repairing a relationship, working in a team, leading a team, interacting with a subordinate, interacting with a supervisor, and disagreeing with someone.  As with Essay Option 1, I can't recommend writing about a romantic relationships here. 


This question is  a behavioral question.  For a full discuss of such questions as well as some other examples of such questions, please see my analysis of Stanford Essay 3.


This really essay is a great way of focusing on how you interact with other people.  It is perfect designed to highlight soft skills.  Keep the focus of the essay on the relationship itself.  How did you work through whatever personal or professional challenges you faced when dealing with a particular individual or group?  Effective answers will provide a sufficient explanation about who you were interacting with and explain exactly why you found this situation so challenging.


While not applicable to all stories, the leadership grid that discuss in my Stanford 3 analysis is highly to be applicable to this essay.  While you must explain the challenge you encountered, it is equally important that you explain how you worked through the experience.


Finally, you need to explain what you learned  from the experience,  so make sure you are providing a strong interpretation and not just a description. It is critical that you learned something meaningful. Therefore the key constraint of this question is that whatever the interpersonal situation  was, you have learned something important from it. While not stated, you may very well find that one way of showing what you learned is to discuss how you applied your lesson to a new situation.

INNOVATE OR DON'T WRITE ON THIS ONE!
Option 3: "Innovation is central to our culture at Wharton. It is a mentality that must encompass every aspect of the School - whether faculty research, teaching or alumni outreach." - Thomas S. Robertson, Dean, The Wharton School
Keeping this component of our culture in mind, discuss a time when you have been innovative in your personal or professional life.

Being innovative can take many forms. Unlike earlier versions of this kind of question such as CBS for Fall 2008 and Haas for Fall 2010, Wharton's approach to the innovation question is very open ended.  Remember that Wharton is not just asking for examples focused on entrepreneurship or even something work related.  The key consideration is that you conceptualized and implemented some kind of change.  This could take many forms. Here are some examples:
1. A time when you reformed a process or procedure at work that had a positive impact.
2. A time when you invented something new and implemented it. It could be a new product, service, research area, or even a patent.
3. A time when you created a new organization.
4. A time when you changed yourself in some significant way.
5. A time when you helped someone else change themselves.
6. A time when you lead a team to create meaningful organizational change.

The structure of this essay will really vary based on the kind of story you tell, but you should explain what the innovation was and why it was innovative.
When selecting which story to use, ask yourself the following questions:
1.  What kind of innovation am I demonstrating?
2.  How does this innovation relate to my potential to succeed at my post-MBA goals?
3.  What selling points about me are clear from this story?

I think it is interesting that Wharton is focusing on innovation because based on client perceptions that I have collected over a decade, I don't suspect the school is necessarily associated  by applicants with that word.  I am not commenting on the reality of innovation at Wharton, but merely perception.  Is this a sign of a brand trying to reinvent itself?  We can leave that discussion to another day.

Finally, you might have noticed that there is no specific place to discuss why Wharton in this essay set. My assumption is that if they really cared about that, they would ask.  That said, if you find it possible to explain why Wharton in the context of the more  interpretative aspects of your two 600 word essays, feel free.  It is a commonly used strategy to include such content, so only do it if it really works well.  A highly formulaic approach to this issue would be to mention Wharton at the end of each of these essays even if the point mentioned was rather small. Anyway, if they really wanted to know, they would ask just like Chicago, Columbia, and Stanford do.

-Adam Markus
アダム　マーカス
I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form, which is publicly available on google docs here, and then send your completed form to adammarkus@gmail.com.  You can also send me your resume if it is convenient for you.  Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. See here for why. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

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