Dartmouth Tuck MBA Essay Questions for Academic Year 2013-14

In this post I analyze the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth MBA Application Essay Questions for Academic Year 2013–14 (Class of 2015). Tuck is great school in a small town. This is both its strength in terms of forming a close knit community and weakness in terms of being a location that some find unattractive. Sometimes when I talk to clients and mention Tuck, I know immediately that I made a mistake. Other times, I working with someone whose second or third top choice is Tuck. To be honest, I have worked with only a few clients who ever considered Tuck their top choice.  The location seems to be the issue. That Tuck is not the applicant pool as a whole's first choice is reflected in its yield of 54% (BusinessWeek). It is important to keep this in mind as showing a strong interest in attending the program is something you should convey both in your application and interview.  Tuck allows for student initiated campus-only interviews, which I strongly recommend unless your budget and time makes doing so impossible. Please see here for my post on interviewing at Tuck.

THE IMPORTANCE OF VISITING, NETWORKING, OR AT LEAST ATTENDING A TUCK EVENT
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.  Click here for information about Tuck events.
Learning from students and alumni by networking with them is also incredibly valuable. Japanese applicants should also visit the Japanese site. See also my Q&As with former clients who are members of the Class of 2011 and Class of 2013.
One thing that is consistent is that current students, alumni, and  admissions officers emphasize that Tuck is about being part of a 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.

Essay Questions for 2013–14
Let's take a look at the essay questions. I took the questions from the Tuck blog. The general instructions have changed a bit from last year as it now the case applicants really should limit the word count to 500 words. Previously Tuck was quite flexible on this, but not now: 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. We encourage applicants to limit the length of their responses to 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, but I see no reason why anyone needs to. I don't know why Tuck can't be more explicit and not use such wimpy language ("We encourage.."). I will strongly encourage my own clients to keep it to 500 words. In addition to these questions, I have also included an analysis of the international experience question from the application form.

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, and what will you uniquely contribute to the community? (If you are applying for a joint or dual degree, please explain how the additional degree will contribute to those goals.)
Tuck has now combined the standard MBA/Goals question with a contribution question. They used to give separate essays for each question.


The first part of this question 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.

Regarding the second part of the question, on how you will contribute to Tuck, 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. You have space in Essay 2 to discuss leadership. Essay 1 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.

Given the limited word count available, I suggest doing the contribution part of the question in combination with why you want to attend Tuck. In the "Let me count the reasons I need Tuck for my goals and want to contribute to Tuck" brainstorming table I have attempted to account for everything Tuck related that you need to discuss in this essay.
Let me count the reasons I need Tuck for my goals and want to contribute to Tuck

Types of reasons that you should include in your essay	Specific things at Tuck (Classes, clubs, or aspects of the program)	How will you contribute? (You need not always mention your contribution)	Is this topic covered elsewhere in the application? (If so, why do you need to discuss it here?)
Reasons that relate to your short term goals: 1. 2.
Reasons that relate to your long-term goals: 1. 2.
Reasons that relate to your personal Personal interests (hobbies, values, experiences): 1. 2.

(You can just cut and paste this. It works)
The above table will help you outline your answer. I suggest following some variation of these 11 steps:
1. Identify specific reasons for needing an MBA that relate to your goals and personal interests
2. Identify specific things at Tuck that relate to these reasons.
3. When feasible explain how you will contribute to the reason you identified.
4. Ask yourself if the reason being discussed is covered elsewhere in your application. If so, why does need to be in this essay?
5. Go through the above steps until such time as you have a sufficient number of reasons to write about.
6. Write it up.
7. Edit it.
8. Don't look at it for a while (minutes, hours, days, weeks, all depending on your deadline situation) and read it again.
9. Edit it some more.
10. Upload it.
11. Get on with your life. Step 11 is optional, but highly recommended. :)

2.  Discuss your most meaningful leadership experience. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience?
This question remains unchanged from last year. 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. 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.


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.


For my general suggestions on writing leadership focused essays, please see my analysis of  Stanford Essay 3.  And yes, it is highly likely that you will using this same topic for Stanford 3, Wharton 3, and HBS 1(It is possible that it could be HBS 2).

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 also unchanged from last year. 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
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. 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.

4. (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.
As with other school's optional questions, 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.You can certainly write on something positive here if you think its omission will be negative for you, but before you do, ask yourself these questions:
1. If they did not ask it, do they really need to know it?
2. Will the topic I want to discuss significantly improve my overall essay set?
3. Is the topic one that would not be covered from looking at other parts of my application?
4. Is the essay likely to be read as being a specific answer for Wharton and not an obvious essay for another school?
If you can answer "Yes!" to all four questions, it might be a good topic to write about.

5. (To be completed by all reapplicants) How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? Please reflect on how you have grown personally and professionally.
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."

International Experience Question from the online application:Briefly describe all experiences you have working, studying, living, or traveling outside your home country. Include the location, purpose, and length of stay. If relevant, reflect on how these experiences have shaped your world view. (Limit 250 words)

The usual problem many of my clients encounter is how to even minimally account for their international experience in 250 words. 

My advice is to focus on 1-3 key experiences which had a significant impact on you. You need to actually say something meaningful about these experiences in terms of the way they have effected your thinking, perspectives, choices you have made and/or beliefs. Given what you have said about yourself so far in the other essays, what other aspects of who are you and what you have done would you like to tell Tuck about?  This can be a nice way to get an additional key story or two into your application.

If you have limited experiences outside of your home country, you will need to make the most out of very little.

If you lack international experience, go get some! Just kidding, well sort of.  My suggestion to not try to answer this question, but identify international experience in the optional essay or Essay 1 as something you want to get at Tuck.

-Adam Markus

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. 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. 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.

Q&A with IMD's Associate Director of MBA Admissions & Marketing

It is with great pleasure that I am introducing this blog post. I personally enjoy talking with Lisa Piguet, Associate Director, MBA Admissions & Marketing at IMD, so I am sure you will find her answers to my questions below very illuminating. Lisa was kind enough to give me a tour of IMD in May of this year and follow it up now with these extensive answers to my questions.
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Adam Markus: Could you tell us a little bit about your background?  How did an American become Associate Director of MBA Admissions & Marketing at IMD?

Lisa Piguet: That is a good question. My previous positions were all in industry, mainly in the Silicon Valley.  When I moved to Switzerland I was contemplating what to do next when a friend of mine told me that IMD was looking for someone in Admissions. I wasn’t sure about going into academia but IMD is very famous so I decided to explore the idea. I had the perfect background for them since I had come from industry and had interviewed and managed several groups of people in the past.  The rest is history.☺ I have now interviewed several hundred MBA candidates at this point. I’m a very lucky person in that I’ve always had great jobs and worked with great people, however working at IMD is by far the best thing I could ask for.

Adam Markus: In addition to reviewing the IMD webpage and making use of the program information available there, attending an information session, and visiting, are there any ways you would suggest a potential applicant might learn about IMD?


Lisa Piguet:  My advice is to try and come see us in Lausanne. As you know Adam, Switzerland is absolutely beautiful but it’s more than that. Once someone sees the campus, visits with the current participants, attends a campus visit and of course eats the “famous” lunch, they have a completely different view of the place. The other thing I would tell them to do if they cannot visit us in person is to do a virtual campus visit which are held every month (usually the last week of each month) as well as talk to as many alumni as possible. This goes for any school. The only way to know if you “fit” in is by talking to likeminded people. If any of you have ever heard me speak you will know I push the “fit” issue a lot. IMD is a great place to do your MBA but it might not be for everyone.

Adam Markus: I know IMD gives applicants the opportunity to have an initial assessment.  This is very unique to your program. Why do you do it?  Do most applicants take advantage of it?

Lisa Piguet:  The Assess Your Chances has become very popular. Given our application process and the fact we have a small class we learned that people were afraid of applying to IMD.  Thus we created Assess Your Chances. We wanted to take that initial “fear” out of the application process. My advice to anyone out there is to watch my video on Youtube (Admissions tips and techniques) and if you do what I tell you there should be no reason you cannot at least get an interview with IMD. Yes, a lot of applicants take advantage of it. One thing to note is this is not a computer generating the responses. This is someone on my admissions team who reads each and every mini application. Again, time intensive but it is well worth it for both us and the prospective applicant.


Adam Markus:  I know the average student age at IMD is 31, that over 80% are between 27 and 34, and that 25 is the minimum age, but what is the maximum age of admits in the last few years?


Lisa Piguet: Normally the oldest person in the class is turning 36 whilst in the program.


Adam Markus:  Are you seeing in any changes in the background (mix of nationalities, professions, industries, education) of applicants and admits to IMD?  


Lisa Piguet:  Since I’ve been at IMD the class composition has stayed roughly the same year after year. What we have seen in the last few years is a lot more Asians applying. We are getting a very strong reputation in Asia and the fact that we are one of the few schools that focuses on Industry makes us very attractive.


Adam Markus: What, if any, impact is the ongoing economic crisis in Europe having on IMD?


Lisa Piguet: I get this question often when travelling on the road. It seems that people think of Europe as one giant entity that is completely linked together. There are parts of Europe that are really struggling for sure but there are other parts that are still doing really well, like Switzerland. Last year 70% of the graduates stayed in Europe. This mainly consisted of Switzerland, Germany and The Netherlands.


Adam Markus: Your MBA application essay questions have not changed for quite a long time now and I was curious why that was. Don’t you want to join the US trend of smaller total word count per applicant?


Lisa Piguet:  IMD has always been a bit “different” in everything we do, which includes essay questions. Due to our entire process we feel that changing the questions drastically would not be in line with how we operate. We also do not want to become a “copy cat” program or a mass production so we’ve chosen to keep our standards a bit different. However, with that being said, you might see a slight change for next year (2013) so keep checking the website.


Adam Markus: Do you have any advice you would like to share on the IMD’s essays?


Lisa Piguet: One piece of advice I would give is to be yourself.  After all my years of experience I can easily spot someone who is trying to be someone they’re not. Adcom teams can usually see right through it. The second piece of advice I would give is to answer the questions!! I know that sounds funny but you’d be surprised at some of the answers we get. A good tip: after filling out a question-have someone read your answer and then guess what the question was. That way you’ll know if you’re on the right track. The last piece of advice I would give is to choose an ethical admissions consultant. We know most people are using consultants now days. However, there are a lot of them out there who do not know what they’re doing and they’re giving really bad advice. Choose one with a good reputation and following.


Adam Markus: Relatively speaking how important is undergraduate academic performance in your application process? Can a high GMAT compensate for a weak undergraduate performance (Examples of what I mean:  US GPA under 3.0,  a 2.ii or 3rd in the UK system,  An Indian CGPA of under 60%).


Lisa Piguet: At IMD we look at the entire application not just one piece of it. So if someone had a bad GPA and has a good GMAT score then that will usually offset the earlier problems, provided the rest of the application checks out.  We are also slightly older than most full time MBA programs so we know the undergrad years were a while ago.  So in other words, if someone has done really well in their career despite a low GPA and has a good GMAT then they should be fine.


Adam Markus:  What has been the lowest acceptable GMAT at IMD in recent years?


Lisa Piguet: This is tough to answer because we take it on a case by case basis. If I have to give a number I would say lower 600s but the rest of the file was exceptionally strong. We are not a school who only focuses only on GMAT. Once again, we look at the entire picture.


Adam Markus: While the vast majority of your admits have significant international experience, what do you look for to compensate in applicants that have minimal or no international experience?


Lisa Piguet: This is an excellent question. I say that because we know that there are certain nationalities out there that have never“lived” outside of their home country. Therefore we want you to show that you are dealing with the outside world via your business life. (i.e. making deals with other countries, working for a big multinational, travelling a bit for business trips etc…) I address this topic in my video.


Adam Markus: What kind of applicants are best served by your program?  What kind of applicants would be better off looking at two-year MBA programs?


Lisa Piguet: I think anyone with at least three years of full time experience can do the IMD MBA. When you get to be 25 and over I believe that there is no need any more for a two-year program. A lot of people want two-year programs for the internships so they can change or explore careers. However, if you look at how our program is structured with all of the “hands on” projects you do there is no need for an internship. The projects completely take the place of this and give you much more (ask the current class). In our program you actually get to work on very high level, real strategic issues not just working on a spreadsheet.  Last year 90% of the class changed industry, geography or function (no internship).  On a side note-IMD puts the full amount of teaching hours in a two-year MBA into eleven months. You are getting the “same” MBA except you’re out of work one year vs. two. Not a bad deal☺.
I will say that anyone under 25 should look at two-year programs. Mainly because they don’t have much to offer in terms of contributions and two-year programs are more forgiving when it comes to this.


Adam Markus: I know entrepreneurship is a core component of the curriculum, but do you have many entrepreneurs or those with post-MBA entrepreneurial goals in your program?


Lisa Piguet: This has again become a hot topic. When I first started at IMD I was also a career coach. At the time entrepreneurship was big. Then it went away and now it’s back!! We usually have 2-3 entrepreneurs in the program itself and then about the same who start their own ventures afterwards. My feeling is that we’ll continue to see more people who are interested in this as time goes on.


Adam Markus: When I visited IMD, you introduced me to a great group of students.  One of them explained to me that she planned to change her function, industry, and geography in her future career. How common is such a total change in career paths for IMD students?


Lisa Piguet: At IMD this is a big theme. We are known as one of the few schools in the world that can teach you how to do this. I attribute this to our top rated career services team. They are very good at teaching the MBAs how to use their transferable skills. We also give them each a career coach who can help them achieve their goals. Last year 90% changed at least one thing, some changed two and some changed all three. It depends on how much you are willing to work and what compromises you are willing to make.


Adam Markus: Your interview process is simply the world’s most rigorous for an MBA program.  Reading my clients’ reports of their interviews is exhausting!  Why do you do it so differently from everyone else?


Lisa Piguet: Another very good question Adam…. IMD is a bit different than most MBA programs out there. It is not a “giant” production of people and due to the focus on leadership and personal development (you get 20 sessions with a licensed psychoanalyst if you choose) we truly feel that global leaders cannot be mass produced. Therefore it is necessary to select the best group of 90 vs. the best 90 (there is a very big difference). In order to do this you have to have a tough interview process to maintain the standards and to make sure you’re getting the right people for the program.


Adam Markus:  What advice can you give to those who will be interviewing with IMD?


Lisa Piguet: My advice is to try and relax and be yourself. I know this is hard to do but it will only help you. We are not trying to scare you or be intimidating. We want to see the “real” you and how you work with others.  We cannot do this if you are really nervous. My other piece of advice is to talk to alumni who’ve gone through it or the current class. They’ll give you good tips.


Adam Markus:  If someone can’t get into IMD, what other programs would you recommend that they consider? The obvious answer seems to be INSEAD, but it seems to me that aside from approximate length, geographical proximity (In the case of INSEAD’s campus in France) and internationality, the programs don’t have much in common. INSEAD is a huge program with huge flexibility in its structure and has a reputation as a party school.  Your program is small with a relatively very fixed structure, provides a level of educational intensity that few programs come close to, and focuses on leadership at a level of depth that even HBS would be hard pressed to match.  You only take 90 a year, so any advice you can provide for those who have to consider alternatives would be great.


Lisa Piguet: Wow….a really hard question. You are very right in what you say about INSEAD. We are always compared to them but we are very different. I think Harvard would be the only one that comes close with one exception - you’ll have 900 people in your graduating class.


Adam Markus: What advice do you have for those who want reapply to IMD? How often do you take reapplicants?


Lisa Piguet:  If someone is rejected they can reapply in most cases. My advice is to set up a meeting with me and I will walk you through your application and tell you where you did well and where you can improve. We know you went through a lot to apply to IMD and therefore we feel that is the least we can do for you. Part of IMD’s personalized approach.


Adam Markus: IMD has five application rounds (February 1, April 1, June 1, August 1, September 1), but how viable are the later two rounds?  Also are there any particular demographic groups that you would highly recommend apply in earlier rounds?

Lisa Piguet: We literally space out the amount of people per deadline. We don’t have any quotas at IMD so if the quality is high the first two rounds then we’ll take a lot of people. If the quality isn’t so high then we’ll wait. We save room in each deadline for every demographic group. Because we won’t ever take more than 10% of one nationality we don’t feel the need to tell people to always apply early.


Adam Markus: Is waitlisting at IMD common?  Can applicants do anything to enhance their candidacy if they are waitlisted after an interview?


Lisa Piguet: Being waitlisted at IMD is quite common. Like I said previously-we are searching for the best “group” of 90 not the “best” 90 so waitlisting is sometimes necessary to achieve that outcome. The MBAs also appreciate this very much once they’re in the program. They then see how important it is to have such a hand crafted class and process.


Adam Markus: Anything else you would like to tell us?


Lisa Piguet:  Two things-It is not that hard like most people think to get into IMD provided you follow the suggestions I make about the process. The second thing would be to come and meet us. It doesn’t matter if it’s an event in your city, coming to the IMD campus, or an online chat that I do but try and meet one of us somehow. Once you do, I guarantee you will see and feel the difference between us and other schools.

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I want to thank Lisa Piguet for taking the time to answer my extensive questions.

-Adam Markus

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. 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. 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.

Wharton Interviews for the Class of 2015

For my most recent post on Wharton interviews, please see Preparing for Wharton Interviews for the Class of 2015.


I should consolidate this post, this other post, and the actual group interview questions, but will do so after Round 1.

Wharton has radically altered their MBA admissions interviews for fall 2013 entry.  This post was last updated on August 12, 2012 and will be updated as new information becomes available. Fortunately Wharton has already provided a fairly clear idea about what they will be doing. My post on essays for admission to the Wharton MBA Class of 2015 can be found here. Specific details about Wharton's new interviews were first discussed in detail on Ankur Kumar's Directors blog post of August 6th.  You can find my comments interspersed in UPPERCASE below:

"I also know you are eager to learn as much as you can about what to expect. Below are some key details regarding the team-based discussion. We will continue to share further details on logistics over the coming weeks. GREAT. I HOPE THEY PROVIDE SAMPLES! 

• The team-based discussion, like our behavioral-style interview, will be by invitation only.  Participation is required to complete the admissions process. NO ONLINE ONE-TO-ONE SUBSTITUTES ARE TO BE OFFERED. THIS WILL BE LOGISTICALLY CHALLENGING FOR SOME APPLICANTS.  IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO SEE HOW LOGISTICALLY CHALLENGING ARRANGING ALL THESE INTERVIEWS IS FOR WHARTON.
• Each team-based discussion will be comprised of 5-6 applicants. Teams will be organically created; there is no ‘crafting’ done on our end. YOU WILL BE ON A RANDOM TEAM OF 5-6 STRANGERS. YOU MIGHT ALL HAVE SIMILAR BACKGROUNDS OR NOT.  PERHAPS YOU WILL BE WITH PEOPLE YOU KNOW IF YOU INTERVIEW IN YOUR HOME CITY AND NOT ON CAMPUS.  CLEARLY THEY DON'T SEEM TO BE CONTROLLING FOR FRIENDS BEING ON THE SAME TEAM. THIS COULD HAPPEN SO EASILY, IT IS NOT EVEN FUNNY. 
• The discussion will have a prompt and a purpose; you will work towards a tangible outcome with your group. YOU WILL HAVE SOME KIND OF SPECIFIC ISSUE TO DISCUSS WITH THE EXPECTATION THAT THE GROUP WORKS TOGETHER.  DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE (CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT IF YOU ARE AN ASSHOLE) WHO TRIES TO DOMINATE THE GROUP BECAUSE YOU WILL GET DINGED. ALSO DON'T BE SHY BECAUSE IF YOU ARE, YOU WILL GET DINGED. EVEN IF YOU ARE A NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER WHO IS FORCED TO INTERVIEW ON CAMPUS AND NOT IN YOUR HOME COUNTRY, YOU HAD BETTER GET USED TO THE IDEA OF SPEAKING UP IN A GROUP. PEOPLE WITH STRONG SOCIAL SKILLS WILL BE AT A HUGE ADVANTAGE HERE.
• In addition to the team-based discussion, candidates will still have an opportunity for a short individual conversation with an admissions team member. GREAT. NO TIME MENTIONED, BUT I BET, BASED ON WHAT THEY WERE DOING PREVIOUSLY, THAT THIS IS LIKE 10-20 MINUTES.  IT COULD BE VERY STANDARD INTERVIEW QUESTIONS OR MAYBE BEHAVIORAL QUESTIONS PLUS STANDARD INTERVIEW QUESTIONS. YOU MUST PREPARE FOR THIS PART TOO! ACTUALLY THIS MIGHT BE THE ONLY PART THAT THOSE APPLYING IN R1 CAN PREPARE FOR. 
• The majority of team-based discussions will be held on-campus and conducted by our Admissions Fellows, a select group of second-year students. When you come to campus we encourage you to attend classes, have lunch with students, tour campus and attend an information session about the program. More information about the visit program is available on our website. YOU WILL MOST LIKELY BE EVALUATED BY SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS IF YOU INTERVIEW ON-CAMPUS. IF YOU INTERVIEW OFF-CAMPUS, ADMISSIONS OFFICERS WILL BE IN CHARGE FOR SURE.
• During each evaluation round we will continue to meet students in select cities around the world.  There will be limited slots, so please plan accordingly.  We will do our best to accommodate candidates where possible. THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THAT EVEN IF WHARTON COMES TO YOUR CITY, THE SLOTS WILL GET ALL FILLED UP AND YOU WILL STILL HAVE TO TRAVEL TO CAMPUS.  FOR OVERSEAS APPLICANTS, GET READY TO TAKE OFF DAYS FROM WORK AND PAY FOR AN EXPENSIVE AIR TICKET. 
• On- and off-campus team-based discussions will be conducted and considered equally. There is no ‘advantage’ to doing either, though we encourage you to come to campus." THIS IS REALLY A MESSAGE DESIGNED TO SCREW WITH APPLICANTS' HEADS.  IF THERE IS NO ADVANTAGE TO COME TO CAMPUS, WHY STATE HERE THAT WHARTON ENCOURAGES IT? IN GENERAL, WHARTON ENCOURAGES VISITING, BUT IN THIS CONTENT IT IS JUST MAKES FOR A MIXED MESSAGE. THE GREAT THING ABOUT SUCH MIXED MESSAGES IS THAT I WILL ASKED AGAIN AND AGAIN ABOUT WHETHER IT IS BETTER TO INTERVIEW ON CAMPUS.  I WILL SAY SOMETHING LIKE, "IT IS BEST TO VISIT WHARTON IF YOU APPLY THERE. IF YOU GET INVITED AND HAVE NOT BEEN THERE, YOU REALLY SHOULD CONSIDER GOING THERE. ON THE OTHER HAND, IF IT IS JUST TO BURDENSOME TO GO AND YOU HAVE THE OPTION OF INTERVIEWING CLOSE TO HOME, YOU CAN CERTAINLY DO THAT. 

New in the US, but not new for MBA programs: Wharton's new approach to admissions interviews, consisting of a team-based discussion of 5-6 applicants plus a short individual conversation with an an admissions team member, represents a significant change to the way any American MBA program has conducted interviews. The world's best small MBA program, IMD,  has been conducted group interviews for a long time, but they have a class of 90 and five application rounds. Wharton has an annual class of over 800. That will be quite a few group interviews. In a more limited way, London Business School has previously conducted group interviews of Japanese  MBA applicants in Tokyo (This seems to have been specific to Japan because my clients who interviewed elsewhere never experienced this, including Japanese clients based outside of Japan). 

Basic team discussion strategies: Since I don't have a school and don't teach classes with multiple applicants at one time, I have only rarely prepped someone specifically for a group discussion. However, based on working with clients who have been doing group interviews and by reading interview reports for  IMD and LBS(Japan only),  I do have some suggestions. Here are some basic group interview strategies to keep in mind:

1. Be someone who makes clear and effective points in the conversation, but does not dominate the conversation.

2. Don't be rude to others. Rude jerks are the easiest people to get rid of when evaluating participants in a team based discussion.

3. Listen closely enough to others in order to say something that builds on or reacts against what other people are saying. Refer to what others are saying in order to build consensus.

4. Try to provide constructive communication that moves the discussion forward to a positive conclusion. Make an effort to include others in the conversation.

5. Don't be afraid to make a less than perfect point. If you do that too much, you will never get enough speaking time and perceived as shy and ineffective in team situations. That will get you dinged. 

6. Synthesize and summarize the team's conversation in order to move the conversation forward.

7.  Use hedging language and other forms of consensus building language. Try to avoid being dismissive of the views of others. 

8. If you are having difficulty understanding someone because of their accent or because of your poor English listening skills, still engage in non-verbal demonstrations that you understand what they are saying.  Non-verbal communication will surely be observed, so if you look confused or frustrated that could be used against you.

9. Smile and show eye contact with other people.

10.  Make sure that you don't slouch in your seat, but are sitting tall and look like a positive and engaged person. 

Do you want to be a guinea pig? If you are looking for a good reason not apply in the first round at Wharton, one of the best is not serving a guinea pig for this first ever attempt at conducting group interviews worldwide for an MBA program of this size.  Another is not having a clear idea of what the specific interview content might be. Another is knowing that the evaluators scoring these team discussions will have had very limited experience doing so. Maybe first time interviewees will be at advantage in terms of being given the benefit of the doubt, but I am not betting on that. 

Beware of old information on Wharton interviews: Until details emerge of the specific content for the team and individual interviews, it would not be a good idea to highly depend on the accuracy of past interview reports or past Wharton interview advice (like my old blog posts on Wharton interviews). 

Individual interview content: While it is inevitable that past Wharton interview questions are likely to be used in the individual interviews, the specific mix of questions that an applicant will encounter is an unknown at the moment (August 12, 2012).  You should surely be ready to answer questions about anything on your resume plus such common questions as:
Why do you want an MBA?
Why do want to go to Wharton?
What are your professional objectives?
What can you contribute to Wharton?
More to come as I know more.  In the meantime, I would encourage you to see my general posts on preparing for MBA interviews (here and here and here) because at least for the individual interview portion, my posts are still relevant. 

-Adam Markus

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. 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. 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.

Wharton MBA Essay Questions for Class of 2015

In this post, I analyze the essay questions for Wharton for Fall 2013 admission. You can find testimonials from my clients admitted to Wharton in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 here.  Wharton has again changed both its essays and has a new approach to interviews.  For my most recent post on Wharton interviews, please see Preparing for Wharton Interviews for the Class of 2015.

Wharton is a relatively essay set to start with. Given all the changes that have taken place this year with top school's essay sets, Wharton looks like a relatively good school to start with.  This year, most of my clients are starting with Columbia, Wharton, or Stanford.  The required question for Wharton on your professional objectives/Why Wharton is a very standard question and so is Essay topic 3.  Essay topics 1 and 2 are rather Wharton specific, but not completely without potential recyclability. In the preface to the Class of 2015 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. Personal content can be expressed in academic, personal, extracurricular, and even professional contexts. Personal means giving insight into who you are as person and not just what you know or what you can do.  Professional means providing Wharton with a clear understanding about your capabilities in a professional context, about your ability to overcome challenges and/or accomplish something.
2.  Be analytical, not merely descriptive. It is very important that you engage in a sufficient amount of interpretation of your actions and not merely a description of what you do. Your objective is help guide your reader's interpretation of what you write, so that they perceive you in the way that you intend.
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!  I advise all my clients to stay within the word count these days.  A few years ago, 10% over was no big deal, but given the general focus on shorter essay sets, I see no point to giving Wharton more than they want. 

Required Question: How will Wharton MBA help you achieve your professional objectives? (400 words)
If you are having difficulty determining what your goals are and/or why you need an MBA in general, please see my analysis of Stanford Essay 2. In that post I provide a detailed method for thinking about goals and need for an MBA. Here is how I suggest you think about Wharton's specific essay question:

What do you imagine your professional future will look like?  You need to give Wharton admissions a very clear image of your future.  I suggest including a clear post-MBA career goal and a longer term vision/goal.  A purely abstract dream or visionary statement could easily come across as unrealistic or ungrounded if not handled carefully, so be relatively specific about the short-term. 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. 

Keep discussion of your past experience to a minimum unless it directly explains why you need an MBA or what your goals are.  The question does not call for a summary of your professional experience, so you need not provide one. You should surely refer to your past experience in order to explain what you want to do in the future, just keep in mind that this is not the place to describe your past experience, but only to analyze it. Let your resume and application provide those details because you don't have the word count  for them here. 

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 to what motivates your professional objectives.

While you should be explaining why you need an MBA in general, you need to make sure that your reasons for wanting an MBA align well with Wharton. You should also learn about the curriculum, clusters / cohorts/ learning teams, Learning @ Wharton, community involvement, clubs, 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 learning needs 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.

While your core reasons for wanting to attend Wharton should be made clear in this essay, if you write on the first of the three topics below, you will have a further extended opportunity to explain why Wharton is right for you. It is also possible to elaborate on why Wharton with the other two options below, but it is certainly less direct. I don't necessarily think writing on the first topic is inherently better. If you are very clear about your professional objectives and connect them well to Wharton, the required essay is all you need. 


Write on 2 out of 3 essay questions, 500 words each.
Wharton is again giving applicants options as to which specific questions to answer. I don't think it can be said that one of the questions below is generally preferable to another.  This will just vary by applicant. However, Essay Option 3 is the only relatively generic topic amongst the three questions and one that you will likely use for other schools. It is also perfect for professional stories.  Given Essay Option 3 advantages, my guess is that most applicants will write on it as well as either Option 1 or Option 2. 

ESSAY OPTION 1: Select a Wharton MBA course, co-curricular opportunity or extra-curricular engagement that you are interested in. Tell us why you chose this activity and how it connects to your interests. (500 words)

This question is Wharton specific. That is to say, there really is no way you could have easily written this one for another school. It provides an excellent opportunity for actually demonstrating both why you want to attend Wharton and also what you can contribute.

Steps for Answering this Question:

1. Identify a Wharton course, co-curricular opportunity or extra-curricular engagement ("WCCE"). If this WCCE does not relate directly to goals, it had better relate to revealing something else important about you. For instance, your favorite team sport that is played at Wharton, your religion that is part of a Wharton student club,  your sexual orientation,or a hobby.  

2. It is critical that you discuss your own experience and/or values in detail. The last thing you want to do is just tell Wharton about its own WCCE. Assume they know what it is. What they don't know is why you are interested in this particular WCCE that you are discussing. As  mentioned in my discussion of the why Wharton/professional objectives essay above, you need provide full explanations. In fact, the balance of this essay be a discussion of why you are interested in a particular WCCE in terms of its relationship to your interests, not on the WCCE itself. 
3. Brainstorming your answer: In the following chart, I have suggested how to brainstorm and organize this essay.  First identify a WCCE, next identify 2-4 aspects of this WCCE that appeal to you, next explain why you this particular WCCE, next explain exactly how each aspect of the WCCE connects to your interests, and finally be very clear that you can identify what Wharton is learning about you. 

Essay Option 1: How to brainstorm your answer

Wharton MBA course, co-curricular opportunity or extra-curricular engagement (Pick one such course, opportunity or engagement and then below break it down into 2-4 aspects)	Why did choose it? You can provide a total answer to this or answer it through explaining different aspects of the activity.	How does it connect to your interests? Your interests can be academic, professional, and/or personal.	What will Wharton Admissions learn about you? Through discussing your interests, Wharton should be learning about your values, strengths, goals, and/or what you can contribute to the Wharton community.
Specific aspect of activity :
Specific aspect of activity:
Specific aspect of activity:
Specific aspect of activity:

(You can copy and paste this table in a Microsoft or Google document file. It works!)

ESSAY OPTION 2. Imagine your work obligations for the afternoon were cancelled and you found yourself "work free" for three hours, what would you do? (500 words)
This is what I would call a "Gift Question." Gift questions are always about making best use of the resource that is being given. Best use should directly connect to your personal or professional motivations, core values, life experiences, interests, and/or strengths.   Some gift questions are really generous and rise to the level of fantasy-"If you could travel to any time and place, where would you go and why?"- but Wharton's gift is decidedly realistic and actually pretty cheap. I would not treat this question as a test of your imagination per se, but rather a test of your realism at making best use of very limited free time.  
Three hours in the afternoon: This question is both time specific and time limited.  Unless you usually work on the weekends, you have three hours off on a workday afternoon.   This clearly limits the kind of activity you can engage in. This makes the question extremely realistic, but also means that it excludes activities that involve other people who would be working and excludes activities that would take more than three hours (No, you don't have time to take an out of town vacation, but you can sure go get a workout at the gym near your office!).  
Work Free: Don't write about work.  Somebody will, but clearly the point is not that you will do more work, but that you will do something other than work.
Doing what you always do anyway: If you use this essay to discuss what you already have time for, you are not actually use the gift for anything special.  My suggestion is that even if you discuss an activity you regularly, make specific and special use of this time.
Doing what you wish you had time for: Given the highly realistic nature of the gift, most answers are likely to fall into this category.
The reasons are just as important as the actions: Keep in mind that just discussing what you would is not enough because it is the meaning of what you would do that Wharton admissions really needs to understand.  The significance of how you would spend the time in terms of what it says about you is at as important as what specific activity you engage in.



ESSAY OPTION 3. "Knowledge for Action draws upon the great qualities that have always been evident at Wharton: rigorous research, dynamic thinking, and thoughtful leadership." - Thomas S. Robertson, Dean, The Wharton School
Tell us about a time when you put knowledge into action. (500 words)
Don't get turned off by the quote that begins this question. Actually just ignore the quote since you don't need to refer to it in your essay. This is the most generic of the three essay topics and easily reusable for HBS 1 and Stanford 3 amongst others. The question is in fact asked in standard behavioral question style. See my analysis of Stanford Essay 3 for a discussion of behavioral questions in general. The methods I outline in that post fully apply here. 
Regarding this specific question, I think the first thing to consider is just how absolutely open-ended the topic is. Almost anything one does involves the use of knowledge. However, clearly the admissions committee has something more specific in mind:  A situation where you effectively used your knowledge to implement something. To what extent you you do the actual implementation yourself is less important than your ability to go from taking your knowledge to making into reality. If you do actually handle all the implementation then to the extent possible, explain what you did.You should be writing about a situation with a clear positive outcome where you added value. While the story need not be on a professional topic, it should be on a topic where the outcome is clear and that best showcases your ability to effectively implement based on an idea, a specific insight, or overall expertise.


ADDITIONAL QUESTION FOR REAPPLICANTS: All reapplicants to Wharton are required to complete the Optional Essay. Please use this space to explain how you have reflected on the previous decision on your application and to discuss any updates to your candidacy (e.g., changes in your professional life, additional coursework, extracurricular/volunteer engagements). You may also use this section to address any extenuating circumstances. (250 words)
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." 


OPTIONAL SECTION FOR ALL APPLICANTS: If you feel there are extenuating circumstances of which the Committee should be aware, please explain them here (e.g., unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, or questionable academic performance, significant weaknesses in your application). (250 words)

As with other school's optional questions, 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.You can certainly write on something positive here if you think its omission will be negative for you, but before you do, ask yourself these questions:

1. If they did not ask it, do they really need to know it?

2. Will the topic I want to discuss significantly improve my overall essay set?

3. Is the topic one that would not be covered from looking at other parts of my application?

4. Is the essay likely to be read as being a specific answer for Wharton and not an obvious essay for another school?

If you can answer "Yes!" to all four questions, it might be a good topic to write about. 

-Adam Markus

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. 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. 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.