Kellogg MBA Essays for the Class of 2016

In the post, I analyze Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business 2014 Application Essay Questions for the MBA and MMM programs. I have taken the questions from Kellogg’s website.

By the way, I had five clients admitted to Kellogg’s MBA Class of 2015.  You find can my Kellogg results and client testimonials here.

Kellogg’s 2014 Essay Questions for the Class of 2016 are specifically designed to help admissions determine whether you demonstrate the appropriate “scholastic ability, personal character, motivation, leadership ability, interpersonal skills, career performance and management potential.” In addition to this post, I suggest reviewing my post on Chicago Booth versus Kellogg.

Kellogg Culture Matters
If you go to Kellogg, chances are extremely high that you will live in Evanston. Social life in Evanston is not limited to campus. The place simply is filled with people who are great communicators, friendly, outgoing, and able to thrive in a socially intense environment. If you are not that kind of person, don’t apply there. If you are, it will be heaven. At Kellogg, they call it the “Kellogg Culture”: Student culture at Kellogg is rich and multi-faceted, but a single principle ties it all together: teamwork. Our students collaborate in the classroom (and outside it) to meet professors' exacting standards. They organize conferences, chair student groups and invite distinguished leaders to speak on campus. They travel to nations around the world to complete coursework of their own design.At Kellogg, you'll form lasting social, intellectual and professional bonds with your classmates. It should come as no surprise that Kellogg’s essay questions reflect its focus on community.

Peer Application Review at Kellogg
One of the chief functions of an MBA admissions committee is to select people who will be good classmates. The director and the rest of the committee have done their job properly if they have selected students who can work well together, learn from each other, and if these students become alum who value the relationships they initially formed at business school. Students members of the committee bring a peer’s perspective to the process. They are also are likely to be the first to read your file: “Files are typically reviewed first by a student member of the admissions committee, then forwarded for additional review by staff members, including the Director of Admissions.”

1. What's the greatest obstacle you've overcome (personally or professionally)? 
How has overcoming this obstacle prepared you to achieve success now and in the future? (350 word limit)
An obstacle can certainly be a weakness, failure or setback, it is surely possible that an obstacle could simply be a real test of your leadership and a great way to convey an accomplishment.

Given the extreme word limitation, I would suggest a structure like the following:
1. Clearly state what your obstacle was.
2. Explain what actions you took. Think about what your actions reflect about your own skills and/or personality.
4. Explain what you learned and/or gained (a skill or a new opportunity, for example) from the experience.  It is critical that you learned or gained something, otherwise it will be difficult (probably impossible) to explain how this experience has helped you achieve success now and in the future.
5.  You need to explain how overcoming this obstacle relates to your present success.
6. You need to explain how overcoming this obstacle relates to your future success.
It is quite possible to combine steps 5 & 6 above if overcoming the obstacle relates to both your present and future success in the same way.

Here are some types of obstacles to get you brainstorming:
-Obstacles that relate to lack of ability or skill. For instance having difficulty completing a task or being successful because of your limited capability.  Overcoming such an obstacle involves a story about gaining or otherwise obtaining access to the necessary skill. 
-Obstacles that relate to relationships with other people or groups, such as conflicts within a team. Overcoming such obstacles typically involves effective utilization of interpersonal skills.
-Obstacles that relate to one's psychological condition, cultural understanding, or other deeper mental assumptions.  Overcoming such obstacles typically involves a change in mindset.
-Obstacles that relate to a challenging task. It is possible that you write about a challenging situation which you use to highlight your abilities rather than a situation where you were initially deficient in some way.

Just remember whatever the obstacle, it was one that really has been of great benefit to your present success and will be of benefit to your future success.

Finally, remember that the obstacle also has to be something that the reader will perceive as the biggest obstacle you have overcome in your life, not just any obstacle overcome.

2. What have been your most significant leadership experiences? What challenges did you face, and what impact did you have? This is your opportunity to explain how you Think Bravely.  (500 word limit)
Think Bravely: The movie!

Now that you have enjoyed that lovely bit of total fluff. Let's see what Dean Sally Blount has to say:

“Thinking Bravely = Willingness to Think Outside the Box”
This is the only question that has not changed from last year’s application, except that don’t specifically mention whether it applies to the professional or the personal. That change is not significant because this question in no way indicates whether the leadership happened in a professional, academic, or other setting.  The key point is to show how you demonstrated your leadership.

I suggest focusing on two to three key experiences where you go beyond a simply defined leadership role and add specific value.  You might question a plan, build something new, intervene in a situation where you didn't have to, take charge, or otherwise do what others didn't do. Show you have courage, an innovative spirit, a capacity for leading others beyond the previous limits of the organization, or otherwise going beyond the status quo.

“most significant” : Since the leadership experience you write about should be he the one that you consider most significant, you should 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 experiences you write about are significant  to you.

For my general suggestions on writing leadership focused essays, please see my analysis of  Stanford Essay 3. Depending on what you write about, you may have room to discuss 2-4 leadership experiences here. You may connect them together or you may not.  The important thing is that you provide Kellogg with a set of stories that convey your potential to be a leader both at Kellogg and in your future career.

2.
Part 1: What career/role are you looking to pursue and why?  (250 word limit)
Part 2: Why are Kellogg and the MBA essential to achieving these career goals?  (250 word limit)
(Please answer Part 2 in terms of your program choice: One-Year, Two-Year, MMM, JD-MBA).
THESE ARE FUTURE DIRECTED QUESTIONS!
Unlike some other “Why MBA” questions, Kellogg is not asking about the past. You will write about that in the other essays. Instead focus on your post-MBA career or role and the skills that you will obtain at Kellogg that will help you accomplish those career goals.

Part 1: What career/role are you looking to pursue and why?  (250 word limit)
Like many of  other top MBA program’s goals statements for 2014 entry, this question does not specifically require you to mention both short and long-term goals. I would certainly recommend that you explain what you want to do post-MBA in sufficient detail that the reader can imagine what your first post-MBA role might be.  You may want to discuss your longer term career goals in much greater or lesser specificity, but you should surely help your reader understand what kind of career you want to pursue.  Since Kellogg interviewers (as well as other schools like Booth) ask about short and long term goals, you should surely have a clear way of responding to such questions for an interview and your answer in this essay should be consistent with what you would communicate to the interviewer. Given that Kellogg interviews typically happen with and are evaluated at the same time as other components of the application, you want a high degree of consistency between what you say and what you write.
If you are having difficulties formulating your career goals, please refer to my post on Stanford Essay 2.

If you have written the goals/Why MBA essays for schools like Stanford, Columbia, or Wharton already, you will find that for the most part you are simply dividing the essays you already wrote up into two parts and simply making Part 2 Kellogg-specific.  For those applying to Booth, it will also be particularly easy to take your two short answer goals essays and combine them to make Part 1 (or at least the foundations for Part 1) for Kellogg.

Part 2: Why are Kellogg and the MBA essential to achieving these career goals?  
The admissions committee needs to see “Big Kellogg Love” here, so make them understand your particular form of it. They need to know why Kellogg is ESSENTIAL (ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY) to achieving the career goals you discussed in Part 1. Reflect enough on what they have to offer you so that your essay content related to Kellogg does not sound like a bad version of their website or brochure content. The better informed you are about the school and the more you think about how it will help you grow professionally and personally, the more likely you are to make Kellogg love you back. In addition to the MBA website, see Kellogg Insight. Japanese applicants to Kellogg, should most certainly make full use of http://www.kelloggalumni.jp/kellogg_life/.

In order to determine what aspects of Kellogg really relate to your career goals, you need not mention the names of numerous courses as long as it would be clear to your reader that your learning needs align well with Kellogg’s offerings. For example, it is really a waste of word count to mention the names many marketing courses if the main point you are simply trying to make is that you want to enhance your marketing skills. Every admissions member at Kellogg is well aware of the program's major offerings.  If you have a particular interest in a more specialized course or studying with a particular professor, it is 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 took Advanced Corporate Finance to develop 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 had been exposed to finance through my work at MegaBank, at Kellogg I obtained the comprehensive understanding of corporate finance that I will need 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 Kellogg.Mentioning a course name is not important if the learning need is already something obviously obtainable at Kellogg. 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 Kellogg.  

Finally, given the intensive community focused nature of this program, mentioning clubs or interactions with classmates as being essential would be a really good idea.

THE VIDEO ESSAY!

"Welcome to the Video Essay portion of your application to the Kellogg School of Management. We have a vibrant community here at Kellogg and value the unique voices and perspectives that our students bring.

This video essay is an opportunity for the Admissions Team to meet you - wherever you are in the world. Please approach this as a conversation with us. The spirit of the questions is for us to get to know you. There are no right or wrong answers.

You will use the video frame on this page to record spontaneous answers to a randomly selected question. Below you will find complete instructions on how to record your answers.

The video essay is one component of our assessment, and we look forward to learning more about you from your entire application. Best of luck!"

WELCOME INDEED!  So much fun for them to give you 90 seconds to prepare your answer and 90 seconds to give your answer to an existential question (I think they got them out of this book or something like it).  Actually a number of these questions are the kind of good old hypotheticals that can come up in some interviews and in  previous Berkeley Haas and Wharton essay questions.   I registered as an applicant twice to generate a list of six of these gems. I assume they have many more, but sorry I am not registering a third time.  Each applicant is given three chances to answer a question, so if you don't like your first video, you have two more shots at it, but once you abandon one question, you will get a new question and can't go back to your prior video(s).  Therefore be very careful about doing this and be really certain about abandoning an answer for a new attempt. 

Here are the six I obtained:

WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY?

IF MONEY WERE NOT A CONCERN, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

IF YOU WERE GIVEN A CHANGE TO MEET ANYONE, CURRENT OR HISTORICAL,

WHO WOULD YOU MEET AND WHY?

WHAT POSSESSION OR MEMENTO DO YOU TREASURE MOST AND WHY?

IF YOU HAD AN EXTRA HOUR EVERY DAY, WHAT WOULD DO WITH IT?

The thing all these questions have in common are that they are about your values.  Therefore you need to be clear about what really matters to you, what really motivates you, and who and what yo care about before doing this essay.  I know that sounds easy, but if you make a few notes (or if you have written essays for Stanford), it is not all that hard. 

Four of the questions I generated are gift questions: 

IF YOU HAD AN EXTRA HOUR EVERY DAY, WHAT WOULD DO WITH IT?

WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY?

IF YOU WERE GIVEN A CHANGE TO MEET ANYONE, CURRENT OR HISTORICAL,

WHO WOULD YOU MEET AND WHY?

IF MONEY WERE NOT A CONCERN, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Gift questions always give you something, sometime measured in time, in other cases in terms of an opportunity. They are like a wish from a genie.  The best way to use such gifts is well, so don't give a trivial answer.  Think about how you might answer the four questions above as that will likely help you answer other gift questions as well. 

WHAT POSSESSION OR MEMENTO DO YOU TREASURE MOST AND WHY? is an interesting question because whatever your answer the key issue is what the possession or memento signifies to you because this reveals something about your values.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU? is as direct a values/motivation question as possible. You should be able to answer this question easily because it is something that should come out naturally in a regular admissions interview. 

Given that you are being judged on video, I do recommend wearing business casual or business formal, smiling, and presenting yourself in a generally professional way.  I would highly recommend recording the video somewhere quiet using the best computer-based video you have access to.  Make sure your hardware is in good working order. 

And have fun with this because you are total guinea pigs.  UCLA tried something like this before and eliminated it. So curious to see what Kellogg does with it in the future. 

Re-Applicants Only: Since your previous application, what steps have you taken to strengthen your candidacy? (400 word limit)
Reapplicants should read my previous 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 very 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 Kellogg, and why your goals discussed in Essay 1 now are better than the ones you presented last time.

Additional Information (Optional)

If needed, use this section to briefly describe any extenuating circumstances (e.g. unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, etc.) (No word limit)

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 Kellogg 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.

For my post on Kellogg interviews, see here.

-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.

Mock IMD Case Interview Preparation Course

While I frequently prepare clients for interviews, I don’t do case preparation interview training myself. This becomes an issue for IMD interviewees, so I am pleased to be able to refer my clients and blog readers to a Mock IMD Case Interview Preparation Course.  This service is provided by an MBA holder with extensive international business experience.  If you are interested in these courses, please email me at adammarkus@gmail.com and I will put you in touch with the instructor.

Of course, if you are looking for preparation for the one-to-one interview that is part of the IMD interview day, I do prepare clients for that.

-Adam

Mock IMD Case Interview Preparation Course

Course Description: The course will be 90 minutes in length, delivered over Skype or Hangout and will require some preparation.  The case will be provided to you beforehand and you will be expected to 1) identify the issue, 2) think of the available options as a solution to the problem, 3) structure a logical flow for your presentation, and 4) formulate your opinion and a compelling rationale to support your recommendation.  I will help you along the way, and also show you some techniques and tricks to make your comments stand out.  I will present opposing views, as well, and coach you how you should react, in a professional and intelligent fashion.  Finally, I will ask you to present your case, which I will provide a critique at the end. IMD, or any business school for that matter, is interested in how you arrive at your conclusion, collaborate with others in the process, and finally, how well you present your recommendation.

The Result: This course will enable you to show that you are 1) analytical, 2) can work effectively on a team, and 3) present yourself and your ideas confidently, utilizing compelling data and effective presentation techniques.  The goal will be to ensure that not only  you gain admission, but will also give you a toolbox of skills that will last throughout your career.

Cost: $250.00

Instructor Background: A US national and MBA holder from UNC will be delivering the training.  This instructor has held senior management positions at Dell, Google and Oracle.  He is a certified toastmaster, fluent in Japanese and specializes in helping MBA candidates gain their "edge" and avoid common pitfalls.

-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.

MIT Sloan MBA Essays for Fall 2014 Admission

In this post I will discuss the Class of 2016 MBA application admissions essays for MIT Sloan. I have taken the essay topics from the online application for 2013 admission.  You can read testimonials from some of my clients admitted to MIT Sloan for the Classes of 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 here.   Before analyzing MIT Sloan School of Management MBA Essays for Fall 2014, I think it is important to take a look at MIT Sloan’s motto:
MIT’s motto, “Mens et Manus” (Mind and Hand) fosters an attitude of excellence that transforms a career path into a lifetime of exploration, innovation, and leadership. "Learning by doing" is fundamental to the MIT Sloan experience, as it allows you to fill the gap between what you know and how to apply that knowledge to make a powerful impact in your chosen field or career. In hands-on Action Learning Labs, student teams develop solutions to partner organizations' most pressing business challenges, and then go on-site to implement those solutions. This in-depth interaction — coupled with the application of knowledge and skills gained from the multitude of unique course offerings at MIT— exemplifies the School's motto.

MIT is well know for transforming theory into practice and this is certainly true of its business school. In my experience those who can effectively demonstrate how and why they share this “core idea” are most likely to be accepted.  I also suggest looking at an interview I conducted with members of the Class of 2011 and Class of 2013.  For those interested in the LGO Program, I suggest taking a look at this blog by a member of the Class of 2012. For those who can read Japanese, I suggest looking at http://ningsquared.hotcom-cafe.com/wordpress/, http://web.mit.edu/sloanjapan/101/index.html and Kaz’s MIT MBA留学日記 blog. My English language interview with Kaz is here.  If you are able to, I suggest visiting campus or attending a Sloan-on-the-Road event. Click here for the full list of admissions events.

Sloan’s application process is, in fact, very much focused on determining whether you share and can contribute, based on your own unique background, to their “core idea.” This does not mean that there is only one way to write great essays for MIT Sloan. Nor does it mean that they are only looking for one type of student. That said, I think you can say that there are some right ways and wrong ways to approach their questions. All questions are taken from the website.

ADAM'S NOTE OF AUGUST 25, 2013: MIT CHANGED THE INSTRUCTIONS AFTER THIS BLOG POST WAS WRITTEN. PLEASE IGNORE THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS:

"Essays We are interested in learning more about how you work, think, and act. For each essay, please provide a brief overview of the situation followed by a detailed description of your response. Please limit the experiences you discuss to those which have occurred in the past three years. In each of the essays, please describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did."

 THE NEW INSTRUCTIONS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

"We are interested in learning more about how you work, think, and act. For each essay, please provide a brief overview of the situation followed by a detailed description of your response. For essay 2 only, please limit the experiences you discuss to those which have occurred in the past three years. 

In each of the essays, please describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did."

THEREFORE ONLY ESSAY 2 NEEDS TO BE LIMITED TO AN EXPERIENCE THAT TOOK PLACE  3 YEARS OR LESS IN THE PAST. 

This distinctive style of question that MIT asks is based on an interview method that I will discuss below. Before reading the rest of this post, I strongly suggest reviewing MIT Sloan’s guidelines for behavioral interviews because reading it first will maximize the value of my comments below. The behavioral essay questions that MIT (and now Stanford) ask have their origins in behavioral interviewing. "Bill Byham, CEO and founder of Development Dimensions International, originated the behavioral interviewing method in 1970."

The STAR technique was developed by Byham as THE WAY to answer behavioral questions:
Byham calls an example of past behavior a STAR, because a complete example consists of a situation or task, the specific action you took and the result of your action. The result you describe doesn’t have to be positive; it could be that you learned a valuable lesson from doing something the wrong way. In his book “Landing the Job You Want: How to Have the Best Job Interview of Your Life” (Three Rivers Press, 1997), Byham tells candidates how to identify the skills for a job; explore their own “behavioral dimensions” (the behaviors they use every day to get things done); and recognize and present a STAR with positive impact in an interview.

The STAR technique is really the core method you need to use for answering behavioral questions in MIT essays. It is simply this:
• Situation: define the situation or "set the stage."
• Task: identify the task/project performed.
• Action: describe the action you took.
• Result: summarize the outcome

Just keep in mind that you need to be introspective as well, so write what you thought as well as what you did. Don't just present "the facts" but actively interpret your actions. There is really nothing overly complicated about this as long as you understand that you need to tell a DETAILED story. Pure abstractions disconnected from a concrete set of action steps are highly likely to result in a weak answer. Similarly, grand actions not told in any depth are also likely to be weak. Identify specific actions that contributed to the result so as to establish a clear link between cause and effect.

As when answering any kind of question, another important consideration is to think very critically about what your story selection, understanding of the task, actions taken, and results say about you. Keep in mind that the whole point of asking behavioral questions is to determine how someone acts and thinks as a basis for selecting or rejecting that person. It is obviously critical to be aware of your own message.

MIT Sloan specifically requires that these experiences come from the last three years. This time constraint is important to remember.

Also keep in mind:

1. You need to show the capacity for analyzing and acting in different ways, so, while both essays should utilize STAR, don't tell them in the same way. Make sure you are presenting different sides to who you are by telling your stories differently.

2. If at all possible discuss different situations in these essays, not two different stories from the same situation because you are trying present as wide a spectrum of events and qualities about yourself as you can.

3. You should ask yourself "What does this essay reveal about me?" If you can't answer that clearly, you need to clarify your message. When asking this question, think about both what you intend the reader to think and what you might also be revealing. Control for the possibility of sending out unintended signals. One of the best ways of handling this issue is to have a very careful and intelligent reader review these essays. If you are working with an admissions consultant, they should be able to do this. Getting multiple perspectives on what you wrote will help you better understand your likely impact on an admissions’ reader.



Essay 1: The mission of the MIT Sloan School of Management is to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world and generate ideas that advance management practice. Discuss how you will contribute toward advancing the mission based on examples of past work and activities. (500 words or fewer, limited to one page)
This is a new question for MIT and replaces the cover letter that they used previously.  They are looking for specific examples, so I would recommend writing about 2-4 specific examples that really show how you align with MIT Sloan’s mission.
Thinking about this essay from a behavioral perspective, we can break this into a number of possible topics that relate to MIT Sloan’s mission, which I will break into three categories:

1. Describe a time when you were innovative.  Think of situations were you were creative, original, or otherwise made a positive impact by doing something new. Maybe you were innovative in your approach to solving a problem, but this could be about many possible topics.  For example, describing a time when you improved something, invented something, established a new best practice, or formulated a new idea.

2. Describe a time when you showed  leadership. Think of situations when you actively lead as a thought leader, team leader, supervisor, decider, and/or  convincer.  Leadership takes many forms.  Leadership is no easy thing. Nor is it obvious. The worst possible thing is to conceive of leadership as simple formal responsibility or a title because this conveys nothing about the person in that position. While some applicants will have held formal leadership positions, many will not. Formal leadership positions are great to write about if they involve the applicant actually having significant impact, making a difficult decision, being a visionary, showing creativity, or otherwise going beyond their formal responsibility, but the same is true for those showing leadership without having a formal title.  If you are having difficulty really understanding leadership,
 find out what kind of leader you are by taking this quiz based on Lewin’s classic 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.

3. Describe a time when you were principled.  While this might simply mean  discussing a time when you were ethical in terms of a decision or action you took, it could also relate to a situation when you convinced others (a boss, a colleague, a team, an organization, etc.) based on position you held.  Being principled might mean ethical, but also relates to ones professional ideas or even perceptions of the world. To be principled means to stand up for what you believe in.

I think it would be perfectly reasonable to tell one big story that focused on multiple aspects of why you align with MIT Sloan’s mission as long as it contains multiple examples.  However I think most applicants will find that telling two or three discrete stories is a relatively easy to answer this question.  The point is to give MIT an understanding of you as a person sufficient for them to understand why you fit at MIT Sloan.

What they are not looking for from this essay:

1. Old stuff. Clearly the three year limit means you need to discuss situations that have occurred in the last three years. They are not looking for your life story (The cover letter that they eliminated had an element of the that), but for insight into why you belong at MIT. They want to know what kind of person you are now.  Your future behavior can be best measured by what you have done recently, not what you did back in your youth.THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN DELETED BECAUSE IT WAS BASED ON THE INSTRUCTIONS THAT SUBSEQUENTLY CHANGED AFTER THIS POST WAS UPLOADED.  

2. Career goals and what kinds of classes you want to take. They are not asking for these details here.  Actually, except for some interviews, MIT never asks about career goals. Admissions is very clear about stating that they assume your goals will change and that you are going to MIT to figure out what you really want to do. That has always been their message when applicants asked in the past why there was no career goals essay. You need to align yourself with MIT, so you might find it necessary or useful to mention something specific there in this essay, but only do so if such content really helps to tell your story.

3.  Don’t write about everything you have done  in the last three years (DELETED BASED ON CHANGE TO INSTRUCTIONS).   They have your resume, so please don’t turn this into an essay version of your resume.  You need to tell them in a meaningful and clear way why you belong. In 500 words that probably means focusing on just 1-3 stories.

Essay 2: Describe a time when you pushed yourself beyond your comfort zone. (500 words or fewer, limited to one page)
Unlike the previous essay, you should focus on a single story here. The above question has been one that MIT has used in interviews.  If you compare it to Stanford Essay 3 (Option C: Tell us about a time in the last three years when you went beyond what was defined or established), you will see some overlap with that question. My analysis of the Stanford question is here.  Going beyond ones comfort zone means a willingness to risk, to overcome one’s prior limits, to show courage, to go against the easy way and take a hard road, to risk failure, and/or to challenge one’s self.  MIT is looking for people who have the necessary mental and emotional perspective to want to go beyond their present selves  MIT Sloan is a change oriented prog ram and is looking for students who will become change agents.  A willingness to step out of one’s comfort zone is necessary prerequisite to be such a person.  Whether the situation is professional, academic, or personal, show your ability to take on something that was hard for you.

Optional Question The Admissions Committee invites you to share anything else you would like us to know about you, in any format.
This is just a great question.  It is not one of the two essays above and does not necessarily follow the three year requirement.  Given the completely open ended nature of this question, I think the important thing to really consider first is what you think they need to know about you.  Again don’t write a career goals essay or an essay totally focused on why you want to go to MIT Sloan.  Instead tell them more about you in whatever format you want.

This is the second year that MIT has asked this question though they have made it even more open-ended than previously because there are no restrictions on format.  One thing that is a bit interesting here is that they say they will take any format, but don’t actually indicate how to provide them with files in any format. All they have is a 7000 character box and no file uploader for the optional essay.  I think this means if you do any sort of  audio or visual or multimedia thing, you would need to take care of your own hosting externally and just provide a brief description and a link.  I could not find any instructions regarding the optional essay that clarified this issue.  7000 characters is well over 1000 words, but I would not necessarily recommend giving MIT an essay nearly that long since the two required essays were 500 words each.

While it is surely possible to discuss problematic issues here as would be typical for the optional essay of another school, I would only do that if absolutely necessary and in conjunction with something more positive.

Here is advice for brainstorming your way through this. It is based on my analysis of New York University’s Personal Expression Question, which is actually potentially quite similar.  The big difference is the NYU essay is focused on introducing yourself to your potential classmates, while the MIT question is much more open-ended?

To be honest, I have found a creative essay to be as effective as an “arts and crafts project,” which you could surely do with MIT’ essays.  If you think you can answer the question most effectively by writing an essay, just do that.. A creative essay means one that does not appear to be an answer to another school’s question, but is uniquely made for MIT.

In past years, I have had clients who have done slide presentations for NYU, but given that Chicago Booth uses one, if you are applying to Chicago and Stern and state that on your MIT application, don’t do a PowerPoint for MIT because the MIT admissions people will assume you are trying to cut corners.  In general, anytime a school has a non-standard question, you should really keep in mind that they are looking for answers that demonstrate an applicant’s willingness to put time into it.


Regarding time, try to give yourself significant time before the deadline if you are going to make anything from scratch. In my experience, most successful versions for answering this kind question take more time and drafts. Of course, some applicants can do it right quickly (or might have to do it quickly), but since you are trying to make a positive impact on MIT admissions by helping them understand more about you, you certainly want to put together something effective.

One very common initial error with this question is to focus on being creative at the exclusion of thinking about the purpose: to  provide more information about you that MIT should know because you think it will increase your chance of admission. . It may be creative, but make sure that MIT admissions knows you better after they read/view/listen to your presentation. It is your job to provide a sufficiently clear message regardless of the way you present yourself.


Some Questions to get you brainstorming:
1. What do you want MIT Admissions to know about you that would positively impact your chances for admission?

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

3. Beyond what you have discussed in the previous two essays, what would you tell someone about yourself to create a strong first impression?

4. Since you are not limited to the last three years only, what should MIT know about the rest of your life that would give them great insight into you?

5. If there was one story about yourself that you think would really help admissions understand you and
want to admit you, what is it?

6. Do you have a personal interest (painting, video, photography,  and poetry for example) that would work effectively?

7.  Is there some aspect of MIT Sloan that itself really relates to you and is different from what you might have mentioned in Essay 1?

Given the open-ended nature of the question, I am sure my questions above don’t cover all possibilities, but I hope they are a good start to getting you thinking.

My analysis of MIT interviews can be found here.

-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.

UCLA Anderson MBA Essay(s) for Fall 2014 Admission

In what follows, I will analyze the UCLA Anderson School of Management’s MBA Essay(s) for Fall 2014 Admission. If you want to enter the Class of 2016, you will encounter only one required essay and it is most basic of all questions.

 ACTUALLY IF YOU ARE AT ALL INTERESTED IN UCLA, APPLY!


Assuming you are working on other schools, this one should not take particularly long. A few years ago, UCLA had a video/audio presentation as part of the application, but they have now dropped it. So much for innovative approaches to the MBA admissions process! Instead we have the most basic of all graduate school essay questions.  I guess the folks at Anderson must desperate to increase applications, have just become so lazy that they have no particular criteria that they want to emphasize through their essays other the desire to attend UCLA Anderson’s MBA program.

You can find testimonials from my some of clients admitted to UCLA Anderson here.

I have taken the questions and instructions from UCLA’s website:

FIRST-TIME APPLICANTS - ONE REQUIRED ESSAY: What are your short-term and long-term career goals, and how will an MBA from UCLA Anderson specifically help you achieve these goals? (750 words maximum)
Rather than repeat much of what I have previously written about other versions of this question, I would suggest that you look at my analysis of Berkeley Haas Essay 4 and Stanford Essay 2.  Chances are pretty good that if you are applying to UCLA, you might considering the two top dogs in my home state of California.  By the way, after Stanford GSB’s new campus, Anderson’s campus is surely the second best in the state.

If you are writing a goals essay for any other MBA program, chances are, all you have to is add a bit more about why you really fit at Anderson (give them a few personal anecdotes/examples) and you do your research on the school and why it is right for your goals, this essay should write itself.

UCLA Anderson specifically: UCLA puts great emphasis on applicants demonstrating that they have become informed about The Anderson School, so I strongly suggest that you visit if you can, but at least attend one of their admissions events. Getting in contact with UCLA alumni would also be helpful. At a minimum, learn as much as you can from their web page. You really need to convince adcom that you know what you need from UCLA for your future goals. If you have the word count do so, you may also want to address what you can contribute. The Anderson School is also very focused on entrepreneurship. If you are at all interested in entrepreneurship, pay special attention to  the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies web page. Japanese applicants should most certainly take a look at The Japan America Business Association (JABA) page. In addition, please see LA State of Mind ～UCLA MBA留学記 2009-2011～. You can find my Q&As with UCLA students on my Key Posts page.

OPTIONAL ESSAY:
The following essay is optional. No preference is given in the evaluation process to applicants who submit an optional essay. Please note that we only accept written essays.
Are there any extenuating circumstances in your profile about which the Admissions Committee should be aware? (250 words)
This is a nice open-ended version of the standard “anything negative” optional essay. If everything is good, you don’t need to write this one. If it is not, I suggest doing so. As with other school’s optional questions, do not put an obvious essay for another school here, but 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 UCLA 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.


RE-APPLICANTS - ONE REQUIRED ESSAY:
Reapplicants who applied for the class entering in fall 2012 or 2013 are required to complete the following essay:

• Please describe your career progress since you last applied and ways in which you have enhanced your candidacy. Include updates on short-term and long-term career goals, as well as your continued interest in UCLA Anderson. (700 words maximum)

If you are a reapplicant to UCLA,  I hope that you have taken the time to learn more about it and can really explain why you fit there.  In my analysis of Essays 1 and 2 above, please review the Anderson-specific comments I made.  The whole point of reapplication is to give Anderson another chance to love you. Reapplicants should see my reapplication guide. 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 very 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 Haas, and why your goals now are better than the ones you presented last time. They want to see career growth or at least pers onal growth. Help them want to give you a chance.

-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.

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 2016). 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 recommen d 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 a Tokyo reception I attended, 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 (As of this posting the online application is not up yet). The instructions are to “Please respond fully but concisely to the following essay questions. There are no right or wrong answers. We encourage applicants to limit the length of their responses to 500 words for each essay. Please double-space your responses.” 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 or so. Since they want 500, I think it best to give them something that is “500-wordish” meaning around 500-550 words.

In addition to the main essays questions, I have also included an analysis of the international experience question from the application form, which I assume will be included this year, but I will alter this post if it is removed or changed when the the online  application is updated later this summer.

1. Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA fit for you and your goals and why are you the best fit for Tuck?
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 Essay 2 analysis as it applies here.
Regarding the fit to Tuck part of the question, 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 really fit into their school and why Tuck is best for you.
Given the limited word count available, I suggest doing the why you fit part of the question in combination with why Tuck is the best MBA fit for you. In the Why Tuck is Best MBA for Me and Why I am the Best Fit For Tuck Table brainstorming table I have attempted to account for everything Tuck related that you need to discuss in this essay.
Why Tuck is Best MBA for Me and Why I am the Best Fit For Tuck Table

Why Tuck is Best MBA for Me and Why I am the Best Fit For Tuck Table

Types of reasons that you should include in your essay	Specific things at Tuck (Classes, clubs, or aspects of the program) that make it best for you	How will you fit at Tuck?	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 interests, hobbies, values, experiences): 1. 2.

(You can cut and paste this table.)
The above table will help you outline your answer. I suggest following some variation of these 11 steps:
1. Identify specific reasons for needing a MBA that relate to your goals and your personal interests, hobbies, values, and experiences. Think about these generically before going to Tuck specific versions in the next step.
2. Identify specific things at Tuck that relate to these reasons to justify why Tuck is the best MBA for you.
3. Identify specific ways you really fit at Tuck that relate to your goals and your personal interests, hobbies, values, and experiences.
4. Ask yourself if the reason being discussed is covered elsewhere in your application. If so, why does it 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. Tell us about your most meaningful collaborative leadership experience and what role you played. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience?
This question  has been changed from last year as it now specifically refers to a collaborative leadership experience and not just a leadership experience. 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, not focus on collaboration,  and/or 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.

collaborative leadership experience: Tuck is a highly collaborative environment and it makes perfect sense that they are particularly interested in gauging an applicants collaborative leadership ability.  This essay is actually very much one about fit in that regard. You should be particularly focused on a leadership situation involving communication, teamwork, interaction with others.  The point is to find a situation that highlights your capability and self-awareness in respect to communication, teamwork, and/or interaction with others.

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.


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 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.”

PLEASE NOT I CANNOT CONFIRM THE FOLLOWING UNTIL THE APPLICATION IS UPLOADED. 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.