In this post, I analyze Kellogg's MBA essay and video essays questions for admission to the MBA program for the Class of 2026. I have taken the written essay questions from Kellogg's website.
My clients have been admitted to the Kellogg School of Business every year since 2002. Since I started my own counseling service in 2007, I have had 73 clients admitted to Kellogg. My clients' results and testimonials can be found here. In addition to providing comprehensive application consulting on Kellogg, I regularly help additional candidates with Kellogg interview preparation.
Kellogg's Teamwork Culture and its Campus Community
If you go to Kellogg, chances are extremely high that you will live in Evanston. Kellogg 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.
Along With Chicago Booth, Kellogg is the US business school I have visited the most (I did an Executive Masters at INSEAD, so it is the business school I have attended). The reason is very simple, my family moved from Los Angeles to Chicago when I was 18, so I have had many opportunities to visit when go back to the US to see my family. Most recently I visited Kellogg in fall 2022, when one of my former clients took around and also showed me the MMM student room. In 2018, AIGAC, the professional admissions consultants organization I am a part of, held our conference at the campus. Former Dean Sally Blount left a great impact on the school in many ways but surely the most lasting will be getting the new campus built. Kellogg went from having an overcrowded building that reminded me of a large US high school to one of the best campuses of any MBA program. Kellogg's campus right on Lake Michigan is a real gem. Sure, it is freezing walking on campus during the winter but the rest of the year makes up for it.
Sometimes when I talk to applicants they don't quite understand that Evanston is really part of Chicago and not some distant cut-off college town. The thing that is nice about Evanston is that it is both a college town and part of a major American city. You can stay in a nice safe college town while simultaneously being able to enjoy one of America's most diverse cities. Unlike Booth students who mostly commute to Hyde Park from downtown Chicago (In both locations safety concerns are valid), Kellogg students typically reside in Evanston, which contributes to Kellogg's intense community focus. The community aspect is something one should fully take into account when applying to Kellogg.
THE ESSAYS
I think it is important to keep these overall instructions about the essays in mind. In particular, Kellogg's application essays are designed, along with the rest of the application and interview, to help admissions determine whether you demonstrate that you meet the following criteria:
- We value individuals who:
- Approach business problems with a mix of hard and soft skills
- Seek to adapt to the evolving business world with open curiosity and innovation
- Believe in strong, empathetic collaboration as a way to strengthen work, perspectives and outcomes
- Embrace the power of diversity in your teams and networks
Peer Application Review at Kellogg
One of the chief functions of an MBA admissions committee is to select people who will be good classmates and having 2nd year students on that committee is one way for a school to make sure that happens. 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 and will be looking to determine whether they want you in their community. When writing essays for Kellogg, keep these student readers in mind.
Question 1 (450 words)
Kellogg Leaders are primed to tackle today’s pressing concerns everywhere, from the boardroom to their neighborhoods. Tell us about a time in your life where you’ve needed a combination of skills to solve a problem or overcome a challenge. Which skills did you use? What did you accomplish?
Kellogg has replaced its previous leadership question with one that is much more open-ended one and could be used in a great variety of ways, not necessarily limited to professional experience.
I think an effective answer here is likely to involve a mix of hard and soft skills though not necessarily.
STRUCTURE FOR AN EFFECTIVE ANSWER:
1. State the challenge/problem: What was the challenge/problem you encountered? What was the situation? What was your responsibility/role?
2. Discuss one skill used and its impact on overcoming the challenge: Focus on a specific hard or soft skill that you used to overcome the challenge.
3. Discuss another skill used its impact on overcoming the challenge: Since you to highlight a combination of skills, you must focus on at least two skills. In a 450 word essay, I assume three would be max out in terms of skills used.
4. Discuss the result. Explain what you accomplished. Explain its significance.
The challenge/problem should be complex. A weak answer would focus on a routine problem/challenge and not one that required much effort to solve. The point is to discuss something every challenging because it is complex.
Regardless of the the story you tell, 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. Help your reader understand your thinking behind the way you solved the problem/overcame the challenge.
When selecting your topic, 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.
What did you accomplish?
Regardless of your topic, your solution to the problem/challenge must have impact. I would divide added impact into two categories, but some stories involve both types of accomplishments:
- A measurable accomplishment: Many stories will involve adding measurable value. This is the easiest thing to convey in must cases. Increased revenue, sales, marketing inquiries, improve performance outcomes, and event attendance are some common examples. Reducing something negative is also a way to add value, such as decreased employee hours required to do a task, decreased waste, decreased staff turnover, decreased customer complaints, and reduced measurable risk. The advantage of measurable value is that it is usually very easy and word count efficient to communicate.
- An unmeasurable accomplishment: Many stories involve adding unmeasurable value. The fairy tale ending, "and they all lived happily ever after" is one of the world's most common story types that involves any extremely non-quantitative and highly subjective accomplishment. One common type of subjective accomplishment involves making people happy or cooperative. Another accomplishment is to add a political or moral or ethical value into how an organization makes decisions, hires new employees, communicates, or allocates resources. While there is surely a measurable aspect to allocating resources, the reason for doing maybe based on subjective values. If you add value to an organization by getting it to allocate resources to inclusive hiring, part of what being added is a change in company values, not just a budgeting decision.
Given the need to show an accomplishment, there is one kind of story that does not work well: A story without a clear outcome. You might be in the midst of a great project but if it has no clear outcome, showing how you added value will be very challenging. Hence why the example should be recent, some stories are simply too recent.
Question 2 (450 words)
At Kellogg, our values are based on research that concludes organizations comprised of leaders with varied backgrounds and perspectives outperform homogeneous ones. How do you believe your personal and professional experiences to date will help to enrich the Kellogg community?
This is a new question for Kellogg, but a very old question in the MBA application essay world. I have been an MBA admissions consultant since 2001 and the contribution question is one that I could explain to a client in my sleep. I have done it on this blog many times before. Here is one of my old (2008) favorites, which includes a table that I have also used below. What is nice is that this is the same as Wharton Essay 2, so if you are applying to both schools, this should be easy.
One of the chief functions of an MBA admissions committee is to select people who will add value to the community. The director and the rest of the committee have done their job properly if they have selected students who can work well together, learn from each other, and if these students become alum who value the relationships they initially formed at business school. Your contribution(s) need to clearly connected to the community. Maybe it will be through the way you work with others, the knowledge you share, or the activities you organize but make sure the reader can fully understand how this be a contribution at Kellogg. You should know enough about the Kellogg community to show specific ways you might contribute.
Within the context of the Kellogg application, Essay 2 is really one of the important places to show why you will add value to Kellogg based on your personal and professional experiences. One way, I like to think about contribution questions is to use a table like the following:
| CONTRIBUTIONS | Is it a personal, professional or academic experience? | What skill, value, or unique experience is being showcased? | So what will you contribute to the Wharton community? | Is this special? Why? |
| Story 1: | ||||
| Story 2: | ||||
| Story 3: | ||||
| adammarkus@gmail.com. Free to use, contact me if you republish it. |
I use the above table for all types of contribution questions, modifying the categories to fit the question. What this kind of table does is force you to think about exactly how something from your background is meaningful enough to add value at Kellogg
ADVICE:
- Tell your best story or stories that highlight how you will add value at Kellogg. Help the reader understand what is special about you, about the story you tell, and the contribution you make.
- Learn a lot about Kellogg so that you can write about really meaningful contributions. Talk to alumni and current students, attend online chats, and dig through the website and otherwise. Google and network your way into Kellogg expertise in order to be able to have really deep contributions.
- With respect to the kind of contributions you make, don't fall into the "Obvious Knowledge Trap." What do I mean? Here is an example: "As my work on the Tesla/McDonalds Merger and Acquisition shows, I have deep knowledge of finance and accounting which I will use to help my classmates without a finance background." This topic is bad for a number of reasons. First, that you have such knowledge will be obvious from your resume, application form and/or transcripts, so it is better to focus on something that the reader will not already know about you. Second just sharing knowledge is not enough, better to focus on how you would do that. For example, instead of writing about your knowledge of a topic, write about how you helped others learn something and how you will use that to make a contribution at Kellogg. Then specify the Kellogg specific context (Classes, clubs, activities, Learning Teams) where you will make that contribution.
SPECIFIC ESSAY 2 REQUIREMENTS: Since the question calls for contributions, my suggestion is to include at least two contributions. The question does not indicate how many aspects of your background you need to focus on. So you can focus on one story from your background or multiple stories. In 400 words, I think 4 topics would be a maximum from your background to focus on but that 2-3 topics makes more sense.
ESSAY STRUCTURE:
- Discuss one personal or professional story. Explain at least one specific and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make at Kellogg based on what you do or learn from this story.
- Discuss another personal or professional story. Explain at least one specific and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make at Kellogg based on what you do or learn from this story.
- Discuss another personal or professional story. Explain at least one specific and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make at Kellogg based on what you do or learn from this story.
To tell a story about your background sufficiently and also explain what it shows you will add value at Kellogg is very hard to do really effectively in less than 100 words, so 4 topics would be a maximum from my perspective. That said, I encourage my clients to focus on 2 or 3 topics, with at least one topic being professional and one personal.
"Reapplicants: Since your previous application, what steps have you taken to strengthen your candidacy? (250 words)"
Reapplicants should read my posts 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 now are better/different than the ones you presented last time.
"All applicants have the opportunity to provide explanations or clarification in Additional Information. Use this section if you think the person reviewing your application might have a few questions about one or more of your responses. This could include:
- Unexplained gaps in work experience
- Academic, GMAT or GRE performance
- Extenuating circumstances that we should be aware of when reviewing your application"
These video essays have a few different purposes:
- It is a great way to get an overall first impression of an applicant. It is a way for everyone on the admissions committee to know who the actual person is and not rely only an interviewer's report.
- It is an easy way to gauge someone's communication skills. This is especially important with respect to non-native English speakers because TOEFL and IELTS test scores don't always reveal actual English ability.
- Explain why Kellogg beyond what is covered in the Essays and application form, specially Question 2 is asking what degree you want at Kellogg and why. This question is not really asked elsewhere in the application.
- Assess how the applicant handles a question that they will not have in advance (Question 3). Can they effectively do that in one minute? This is a way to gauge how quickly someone thinks and can communicate. It is a kind of way to gauge how someone might perform in a spontaneous class situation.
What all successful videos do:
- Help the viewer understand why they would like the applicant as a person.
- Highlight something positive about the applicant.
- Show the applicant's passion for Kellogg .
- Show the applicant's ability to communicate effectively.
How to prepare for the videos
- Write scripts. They will mostly likely be too long. Once you add in breathing, facial expressions, in acting you might do, and speaking a speed to heard effectively, your script should be 90-120 words long most likely.
- Have your scripts reviewed by whoever you are sharing it with.
- Video essay 1: Please introduce yourself to the admissions committee.– Consider this your opportunity to share what you would want your future Kellogg classmates and our admissions committee to know about you. What makes you, you?
This is useful way of getting rid of social idiots who cannot construct even a one-minute appealing statement about themselves. It is your elevator pitch about you! While your answer should be consistent with what you have in the rest of your application, this is a chance to showcase your personality. What are 2-3 key things someone should know about you that they can't find out from just looking at your resume and reading your application?
- Video essay 2: What path are you interested in pursuing, how will you get there, and why is this program right for you?– This is an intentionally broad question so you can answer honestly and meaningfully. We want to know why you’re pursuing an MBA and why you’re choosing a particular Kellogg Full-Time Program.
Kellogg has multiple MBA programs, so specify which one you intend to attend and why. Link your answer to the goals mentioned in the application form. Try to mention 2-3 reasons why the program is right for you. Don't get overwhelmed with mentioning too many Kellogg specific details but keep the focus on explaining your needs and how Kellogg will meet them.
- Video essay 3: This question will be based on a challenge you've faced and what you've learned from it.
- A time you convinced someone or some group.
- A time you led others.
- A time you demonstrated courage.
- A time you made a difficult decision.
- A time you were innovative.
- A time you formulated and executed a strategy or tactics.
- A time you turned around a situation, overcame an obstacle.
- A time reformed something.
- A time you changed something.
- A time you effectively negotiated with someone.
- A time you managed up, down, or across an organization.
- A time you were wrong.
- A time you failed or had a setback and overcame it.
- A time you changed your opinion.
- A time your values were challenged by others.
Kellogg does not have a goals essay, but you need to know about your goals to apply:
The following are from the application form.
Assuming you are applying to school's with goals essays you can easily create answers to fit this. If Kellogg is your first school, I do suggest looking at the way I analyze goals in detail that you can find in posts on Columbia Business School and Stanford.
Best of luck with your application to Kellogg!
