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How to Write a Powerful MBA Essay—With Examples

The MBA essay is critical to your business school application. Read our guide to writing the perfect MBA essay, with successful admit examples.

Posted April 4, 2024

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What is the MBA Essay?

The MBA admissions essay.

Those words alone are enough to make most MBA candidates run screaming. Writing in general is hard enough. Writing about why you want an MBA? Your short-term goals and career aspirations? What matters to you most, and why? Forget it.

Of course, you still have to write these essays.

The MBA essay is perhaps  the most important part of the business school application. (It's also getting more and more important by the day, with some business schools moving away from traditional, quantitative measuring sticks, like the GMAT and the GRE.) Every other part of the application — your GPA, your test scores, your letters of recommendation — are quantified, cut and dried, or out of your control. The essay is your chance to show up as a fully realized MBA candidate, with hopes, dreams, and vulnerabilities. Admissions committees are not simply assessing your candidacy as a future leader — they're looking to admit human beings. That's where the MBA applicant essays come in.

That being the case, rather than being intimidated by it, treat the essay like the opportunity that it is — the chance for you to highlight your unique, iridescent self; the only moment in the MBA admissions process (prior to the interview) when you can speak directly to the admissions officers; the time when you'll show them who you really are. It's not easy to write something that will do that, of course, but with the tips and tricks in this guide, and some help from one of Leland's vetted, world-class admissions coaches, we know you can do it. Give the essay the time, attention, and respect it deserves, and you'll be on your way to an offer of admission at your dream school.

Without further ado, let's dive in!

Ultimate MBA Essay Guide

See the MBA essay prompts, top tips from experts, and real examples from admits with this comprehensive guide.

How Long Will My MBA Essay Take?

First thing's first: let's talk about timing.

The MBA application is a behemoth; between exams, resumes, gathering your official transcripts, letters of recommendation, and the applications themselves, there's a lot to juggle. That being the case, we suggest you give yourself ample time to draft, write, and revise your essays. The last thing you want is to be rushed to the finish line.

So, give yourself  at least three months to write your MBA essays. That should allow you ample time to draft, write, and edit. For more information on timing your entire b-school application, click here for  A Comprehensive MBA Application Timeline--With Chart .

Now, on to the critical question:

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What Makes a Great MBA Essay?

At the highest level, the answer is the one that is truest to you. The whole point of these essays is to shine through as an authentic, vibrant human being, so the best essays are the ones that cut through the clutter, and allow you do to that.

Which begs the question — how  do you cut through the clutter and shine through as a vibrant human being? Here are four critical tips to follow as you begin thinking about your essays.

1. Answer the Question

This one sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how many applicants launch into their story, get carried away, and forget to answer the question. Follow the prompt, and answer the question the admissions committee has asked you. Those prompts can actually be very useful when writing your essays — it's a great deal harder to write when you have no guidance or guardrails. With the MBA essays, you have a very specific question you need to answer. So answer it!

2. Be Specific

Another mistake some MBA applicants make is to stay at a high level in their essays, keeping their writing abstract and therefore inaccessible to the admissions committee. If at any point, an admissions officer could replace your name with the name of another applicant, then your essay isn't getting deep enough. It's not enough, for instance, to say that you suffered adversity in high school, or that you really, really want a Wharton MBA. You need to explain, in detail, the adversity you faced, and give concrete and unique reasons why you think Wharton is the right program for you. The best essays offer hyper-specific examples and anecdotes, with details and anecdotes that no other candidate could bring to the table. To get those anecdotes, we recommend using the STAR template, as explained below:

• Situation : What was the situation you were facing? Where were you? How old were you? If you were in a professional role during this anecdote, what was the role, and how long had you been in it? If you were volunteering, at what organization? How long had you been volunteering there? Why did you start? Offer all the relevant information that the admissions readers will need to understand your story.
• Task : What was the task at hand? What went wrong? In your professional role, what was the challenge you faced? In that volunteering experience, what were the hurdles you had to overcome? You can't have a good story without conflict or tension, so after you set up the anecdote, explain what that conflict or tension was (and remember, be specific!).
• Action : What was the action you took to resolve the problem? What did you have to do to fix that issue at work? How did you clear that hurdle in your volunteer experience? Again, be specific about how you came through on the other side of that conflict/tension — and while you're doing it, highlight your leadership capabilities as much as possible! Remember that top MBA programs are looking for future leaders who can assess a situation and decisively take action. (We'll say a bit more about this below, in the Personal Statement section.
• Result : What was the result of your action? If you were facing a growth problem at work, were you able to increase sales? If so, by what percentage? If you were advocating for diversity and inclusion at your local charity, what new programs did you implement to help with that effort, and what was the enrollment like in those new programs? Detail what happened in your anecdote with as much specificity as possible — and quantify, quantify, quantify!

3. Get Vulnerable

Most MBA admissions essay prompts are written with the goal of getting to know as much about you as possible in the shortest number of words. To do that, you're going to have to share real things from your life — to get personal, intimate, and vulnerable. Do not shy away from this. If you're starting to get emotional during the reflection, drafting, and writing process, good — that means you're on the right track. Keep going. Pro tip: If it’s making you cry, it will make them cry. Another good rule of thumb is to put something real and true on the table. Admissions officers have to read literally thousands of applications from thoroughly qualified individuals, some of whom might come from similar roles to yours, with letters of recommendation from equally impressive supervisors. In order to cut through that noise, you'll have to share something honest. If you're doing it right, this can feel risky. At some point, you’ll likely think to yourself: “Can I say that?” The answer is: “Yes.” Of course, there is a line, you don’t want to be crass or offensive but err on the side of being open and authentic. The very worst thing you can do is be overly cautious, and write something you think will please the admissions committee. These poor people have to read thousands of essays. If yours is just like everyone else’s, they’ll fall asleep. Don’t let that happen. Wake them up by putting yourself —your true, bright, vibrant, quirky self—on the page.

4. Don't Exaggerate

Finally, do not exaggerate, over-inflate, or lie. This goes without saying, but admissions committees are looking for honest candidates. The surest way to get rejected is to lie about something. (Business schools do a background check on you before you're properly admitted, so they will find out.) Don't be the person who over-inflates on their essays, then has their offer letter rescinded.

The Types of MBA Essays

All right — since we've covered high-level approaches to the MBA essays, it's time to dig into the various types.

There are three general categories of MBA essays you'll see across the board.

1. Personal Statement

These questions ask you to offer up something sincere about yourself. They'll often touch on such things as your values and your character. In these, you'll want to be as authentic as possible, while also highlighting attributes like leadership, intellectual vitality, and teamwork, that business schools are looking for. Here are a few examples of personal statement essays:

• As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program? (HBS)
• What matters most to you, and why? (Stanford GSB)

2. Why an MBA/Why This School

The next category of essays is the "Why an MBA" / "Why This School" set.

In these, schools first want to hear about how an MBA will fit into your career, both short and long term. Top MBA programs are looking for candidates who will: first of all, be gainfully employed upon graduating, second of all, have an illustrious career that will make their institution look good and encourage future generations of applicants to apply, and third, be consistent and generous donors. That being the case, they want to know about your career trajectory, and how an MBA will fit into it.

Pro tip: Here, you want to be ambitious and inspiring in laying out your future career, but not naïve. Walk the line between shooting for the stars and sounding dreamlike and uninformed.

In this set of questions, you'll also encounter questions geared at figuring out why you would want to attend a specific school. MBA programs want to know that you're serious about attending their school — yield, or the percentage of admitted candidates who accept their offers of admission, is an important metric for them — but they also want to envision how you'll contribute to their admitted class. What will you uniquely bring to the table, the things that you'll do that the other candidates wouldn’t be able to offer?

We've heard former deans of business schools say that, in choosing a class, they're curating a world-class dinner party, and that each person invited to the dinner party has to bring something different. What will you bring to the dinner party?

Pro tip: To demonstrate that you've done your research, and to help the admissions committee envision you in their program, indicate which classes you might take when earning your MBA and why, which professors you might hope to study with, and in which clubs you might participate.

Here are a few examples of "why MBA / why this school" essays:

• How is a Columbia MBA going to help you? (Columbia)
• What do you hope to gain professionally from the Wharton MBA? (Wharton)
• Why Stanford? Describe your aspirations and how your Stanford GSB experience will help you realize them. (Stanford GSB)

3. Behavioral/Other

Finally, most other essays will either be behavioral, asking you about experiences, traits, strengths, weaknesses, and achievements. There's a wide variety of topics here, but all the guidelines from above apply, with the final note to always prioritize authenticity (as mentioned in the Personal Statement section) and leadership ability (remember, business schools are choosing future leaders). Here are a few examples of behavioral/other essays:

• Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made. (Yale SOM)
• Tell us about your favorite book, movie, or song and why it resonates with you. (Columbia)
• Think about times you’ve created a positive impact, whether in professional, extracurricular, academic, or other settings. What was your impact? What made it significant to you or to others? (Stanford GSB)

Top MBA Program Essay Prompts (Updated 2022)

To help you get started, we've compiled the required prompts from a few top MBA programs below:

1. Harvard Business School (HBS)

As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program? (900 words)

For more information, visit A Guide to the HBS Essay .

2. Stanford Graduate School of Business

What matters to you most, and why? (650 words)

Why Stanford? (400 words)

Read What Matters Most When Writing the GSB Essays.

How do you plan to use the Wharton MBA program to help you achieve your future professional goals? You might consider your past experience, short and long-term goals, and resources available at Wharton. (500 words)

Taking into consideration your background – personal, professional, and/or academic – how do you plan to make specific, meaningful contributions to the Wharton community? (400 words)

For Wharton-specific advice, visit A Guide to the Wharton Essays .

4. Columbia Business School

Essay 1: Through your resume and recommendation, we have a clear sense of your professional path to date. What are your career goals over the next three to five years and what, in your imagination, would be your long-term dream job? (500 words)

Essay 2: The Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership (PPIL) is a new co-curricular program designed to ensure that every CBS student develops the skills to become an ethical and inclusive leader. Through PPIL, students attend programming focused on five essential diversity, equity, and inclusion skills: Creating an Inclusive Environment, Mitigating Bias, Communicating Across Identities, Addressing Systemic Inequity, and Managing Difficult Conversations. Tell us about a time you were challenged around one of these five skills. Describe the situation, the actions you took, and the outcome. (250 words)

Essay 3: We believe Columbia Business School is a special place. CBS proudly fosters a collaborative learning environment through curricular experiences like our clusters and learning teams , an extremely active co-curricular and student life environment, and career mentorship opportunities like our Executives-in-Residence program .Why do you feel Columbia Business School is a good fit for you academically, culturally, and professionally? Please be specific. (250 words)

5. Chicago Booth

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

An MBA is as much about personal growth as it is about professional development. In addition to sharing your experience and goals in terms of your career, we’d like to learn more about you outside of the office. Use this opportunity to tell us something about who you are… (250-word minimum)

Read more at A Guide to the Booth Essays .

6. Kellogg Northwestern

Kellogg’s purpose is to educate, equip and inspire brave leaders who create lasting value. Provide a recent example where you have demonstrated leadership and created value. What challenges did you face and what did you learn? (450 words)

Values are what guide you in your life and work. What values are important to you and how have they influenced you? (450 words)

Read How to Nail Your Kellogg MBA Application Essays

7. MIT Sloan

MIT Sloan seeks students whose personal characteristics demonstrate that they will make the most of the incredible opportunities at MIT, both academic and non-academic. We are on a quest to find those whose presence will enhance the experience of other students. We seek thoughtful leaders with exceptional intellectual abilities and the drive and determination to put their stamp on the world. We welcome people who are independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative — true doers. We want people who can redefine solutions to conventional problems, and strive to preempt unconventional dilemmas with cutting-edge ideas. We demand integrity, respect, and passion.

Taking the above into consideration, please submit a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA program. Your letter should conform to standard business correspondence, include one or more professional examples that illustrate why you meet the desired criteria above, and be addressed to the Admissions Committee (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation)

Applicants are required to upload a 1 minute (60 seconds) video as part of their application. In your video, you should introduce yourself to your future classmates, tell us about your past experiences, and touch on why MIT Sloan is the best place for you to pursue your degree.

How to Start Your MBA Essay

So you've read about the types of essays, and seen some of the prompts from top MBA programs. Now it's time to actually start diving into the essay.

The very first thing to do, before putting pen to paper, is to look inward.

Why do  you want an MBA? What role will this degree play in your professional growth? How do you imagine it will shape your life? What do you want out of your career? What is the most important thing in the world to you?

Yes, these are life’s deep-end questions, but you’ll need to tackle them in these essays, so before you start writing, take the time to think through them. Go for a run, swim some laps, bake a cake—however you get into the flow — and start a dialogue with yourself. Put down your work, turn your phone off, and give your mind permission to go to the places it usually avoids. That’s a good place to start. That’s where the answers are.

Pro tip: The first sentence is the hardest one to write. When you're starting out if it can intimidating and anxiety-producing. The trick is to simply put  anything  down — and don't look back. Keep putting one sentence after the other. You can edit later: let whatever comes to you out onto the page. If you’re struggling with self-critique, dim your computer screen until you can’t even see the words you’re typing. Then keep going.

Additional Tips & Tricks

Once you've started your essay, it's a matter of persistence: keep writing, then keep drafting and editing until you have something you're really proud of.

To help you with that process, here are a few more tips and tricks:

• Take Breaks

When you hit the wall — you will hit the wall — stop. This is your brain telling you it needs to do something else. Walk your dog. Take a lap around your room. Eat some cheese. Your body needs sleep every night to function; your mind is the same way. That next leap of inspiration will come exactly at the moment when you’re least expecting it.

• Read it Out Loud

When you finally have a draft, print it and read it out loud to yourself. Your ear will catch things your eyes miss. Reading out loud is the best way to pick up on spelling errors, clunky transitions, and paragraphs that still need ironing out. It’s also a good way to envision how the admissions committee will experience your essay.

Don’t be precious with your essay. Send it to anyone willing to read it. Solicit as much feedback as you can. If you don’t like what people have to say, you don’t have to incorporate it, but you need an impartial third party to give notes on what they’re seeing, thinking, and feeling. (You’re too close to things to do it for yourself.) This is where a Leland coach comes very much in handy!

• Complete Everything Early

This is more of a timing consideration, but you do not want to trip at the finish line because your internet went down the night before the deadline, or your credit card was denied when paying your application fee (it's happened before). Don't let that be you!

Here is another article to get you started, written by an expert essays coach: 7 MBA Essay Tips to Make You Stand Out in 2022 .

Example MBA Essays

Finally, here are two essays to help inspire you. The first, a personal statement essay, was submitted by an admit to Berkeley Haas' Executive MBA program; the second, a career goals / why MBA essay, was submitted by an admit to Chicago Booth's deferred MBA program.

Haas Admit:

A person’s identity is shaped by many different aspects, including family, culture, personal interests, and surrounding environments. Please share a facet of your identity or story that is essential to who you are. (300 words) My upbringing in India, filled with countless myths and legends, had a profound influence on me. The most formative tale was about a sage who prays for years to the goddess of knowledge, but in vain. In the end, the goddess didn’t appear for the sage because he was turning his prayer beads the wrong way! As a child, this story upset me: the sage worked so hard and had the right intentions. As an adult, though, I’ve come to realize that the goddess of knowledge was right: you can’t succeed unless you do things the right way. Seven years ago, two friends and I started a company, XXXX: a digital health platform that would allow patients to store medical records online and consult doctors remotely. We had early success—we brought on 2,000 patients at XXXX, a gynecology clinic in XXXX—but ultimately we didn’t have the resources to properly scale, and had to shut the company down. Among the many lessons I learned, the most valuable was that ideas and hard work are common; businesses succeed or fail based on execution—on doing things the right way. Two years ago, I relearned this lesson in the most painful way possible: when my marriage ended. My wife and I loved each other, but we weren’t there for each other when it mattered most. Our feelings weren’t enough—we had to back them up with the right actions. It’s disheartening when you have good intentions but still fall short. When this happens, though, you have to keep trying—because eventually you will do things the right way. I carry the story of the sage with me always, not as a harsh lesson, but as a motivating goal: one that keeps me striving towards doing things the right way.

Booth Admit:

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

I want to start a geothermal company that will help lead the energy transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy—by targeting existing oil wells as sites for geothermal plants. Oil fields are close to electric grids and have high nearby subsurface temperatures, making them ideal sites for geothermal plants. By building geothermal infrastructure nearby, my company will produce cleaner, cheaper energy, making it more profitable for operators to switch from oil to geothermal. As oil companies decommission their wells, I’ll negotiate for their land rights, so I can use their existing wells for new geothermal vents. I want my company to prove the case for economically viable, carbon neutral energy production. After getting an MBA I want to start a geothermal company which will help me lead the energy transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. I plan to target developed oil fields in Texas, where, in many places, producing wells are flowing enough hot fluid to generate clean energy. Using this geothermal heat, the carbon footprint of oil and gas extraction will decrease as fewer fossil fuels are utilized to power surrounding infrastructure. As the wells approach their economic life, I will negotiate the lease from various operators, saving them millions in plug and abandonment costs, and retrofit the wells for direct geothermal energy production via closed loop binary fluid systems, bringing emissions to zero. To accomplish this goal, I need to shore up my knowledge of energy economics and entrepreneurial finance, develop a strong sense of leadership, and build a network of like minded individuals that will help me lead the transition and I believe I can get those things at Chicago Booth. My immediate career goal is to develop my first co-production site in Shelby County, Texas at the Blanton well site, which produces abnormally heated fluid from the flanks of an active salt dome. Before investing in capital expenditures, developing a strong sense of energy economics and broader markets is necessary to verify financial feasibility. University of Chicago, through the Graduate-Student-At-Large: Business program, is already allowing me to accomplish this goal with my enrollment in “Microeconomics” with Professor Andrew McClellan. His instruction helped me understand the impact taxes and subsidies have on market equilibrium, an important aspect of renewable energy as green energy tax incentives continue to change on a yearly basis. As my company continues to grow, having a strong finance and accounting foundation is imperative to building and sustaining a healthy company. Electives such as “Accounting for Entrepreneurship: From Start-Up through IPO” will provide the skills I need to be successful by following the life-cycle of a business that originates as a start-up, and covers topics such as building an initial accounting infrastructure. I understand that execution of the business is as important as developing the idea and proof of concept, and Booth is the best place for me to develop financial fluency. Leading the energy transition will require a strong sense of leadership. Not only will I need to lead those I get to work with over my career, but to lead the energy transition, and reverse the impact fossil fuels have had thus far, I must have the emotional intelligence to inspire others to join me in my journey. The “Interpersonal Dynamics” course at Booth will allow me to develop my communication skills and better understand the emotions and perceptions of my colleagues. These skills, synthesized with leadership development acquired in “Leadership Practicum” will prepare me to act as a relational leader, who understands the needs of others. As a relational leader I hope to foster an environment which promotes happiness, and maximizes efficiency, not only to make our efforts in changing the world more successful, but to excite other people to join our cause.

To find the greatest chance of success in leading the energy transition, I will need a network of like-minded individuals who can provide a diversity of thought. Chicago Booth provides the opportunity to develop that network through different community experiences. The Energy Club’s “Energy Forward” conference, which designates time to topics in oil and gas and renewable energy will allow me to hear from industry leaders, build meaningful relationships with peers and contribute my sector experience to the public forum as I learn from those around me. Opportunities through the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Group such as “SeedCon” will help me connect with successful entrepreneurs and early-stage investors whose ideas and funding might change the course of my venture’s trajectory. Even in the GSALB program I have had the opportunity to connect with other students in various sectors, including the energy industry. I hope to continue to strengthen those connections and continue building new ones with matriculation into the full time program.

Here are several other articles that you may find helpful as you put together your MBA application:

• The Most Frequently Asked Questions on MBA Applications
• How to Answer the "Why an MBA?" Essay Question
• My Top Piece of Advice for MBA Applicants
• How I Nailed My MBA Interview and Gained Admission to Top 10 Business Schools
• 4 Expert Tips on Paying for Business School

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20 Great MBA Application Essay Samples (With Links)

Want to ace your MBA application? A stellar essay can be your golden ticket.

With elite business schools like Harvard and Stanford boasting acceptance rates as low as 10% and 6% respectively, every aspect of your application counts. While GPA and GMAT scores matter, your essay can be a game-changer. Recognizing its weight, we’ve gathered top-notch MBA essay samples, endorsed by admission committees from premier institutions. Dive in and let’s craft that standout application!

What is an MBA Application Essay?

An MBA application essay is a detailed write-up about your personal and professional goals and aspirations. It also explains how the MBA program will help you attain your objectives for the future. Your essay is your one shot to convince the admission committee to consider you for the initial interview.

What Admission Committee Look for in an MBA Essay?

• Academic ability
• Impressive work experience
• Career Course
• Authenticity of goals
• Competencies, leadership , dedication, challenges, and growth
• The right reason for pursuing an MBA
• Your compatibility with the culture in which the program is being offered

If you want to learn more, here is the complete guide on how admission committees process MBA applications.

20 Great MBA Applications Essays Samples

Now you have known that what makes a great MBA admission essay, the next step is to write one for yourself. Before writing, check out this list of expert-vetted MBA application essays that secured admissions to top-rated business schools in the world. Admission consultants have shared these samples and they can be helpful if you read and analyze them carefully. If you’re completely unsure about how to get started, there are also custom essay writing services that can help you structure your essay with the help of professional editors.

Sample 1: Leadership-focused MBA application essay

This sample is particularly focused on leadership traits. If your essay is about explaining your leadership quality experience, this sample is right up your alley. The best thing about the essay is that it is written in a simple, engaging, and humorous style. It defines a great experience in a very conversational style.

Sample 2: Self-focused MBA application essay 

If you are asked to write about your strengths, weaknesses, aims, and goals in your application essay, this sample will help you. The applicant who wrote this got accepted to the INSEAD business school. It doesn’t merely describe her strengths and weaknesses, but it presents a complete picture of herself as a person. It highlighted the events and incidents that shaped her personality.

Sample 3: Life-hardships-focused MBA application essay

If you want to explain your life’s hardships and the events that turned you into an ambitious person, this sample is for you. In this application essay, the candidate has defined three phases of his life and how he survived through each adversity. He beautifully explained why the MBA program is important to his future.

Sample 4: Continuous growth and learning-focused MBA application essay

This essay was submitted to Harvard Business School. The best thing about this piece is that the writer has explained her learning and professional development journey in a very sequential and engaging manner, which is truly admirable. A useful thing to remember about the MBA essays included in this list is that you can merge them into a single printable and perfectly formatted file with Sodapdf or another PDF editor. Having all of them stored in a single PDF is going to be quite helpful when it’s time to write your piece. But guess what? There are more examples to explore below, so let’s keep going…

Sample 5: Best MBA application essay for low scorers

Have a low GPA? What would you write about academics in an MBA essay to convince the admission committee? Do not overthink! MBA essay is not all about high achievements and sterling background. It is also an opportunity to atone for your past mistakes. This MBA essay was written by a student who obtained very low academic grades, yet got admitted to her desired business school. Her turning point? A powerful application essay.

Sample 6: A guitarist’s application essay for the MBA program

Suppose you are ambitious in a skill or profession that has nothing to do with the MBA program, yet you need the degree for certain reasons. How would you showcase that irrelevant skill in your MBA application essay? This sample essay will show how you how. A guitarist who got selected for the MBA program wrote this one. The applicant has intelligently defined his passion for guitar as a way of developing discipline, determination, leadership, and success. He explained how his passion affected his academics and how the guitar helped him cope with the challenges.

Sample 7: An engineer’s essay for MBA application

If you come from a technical or engineering background and have the ambition to pursue an MBA degree to boost your engineering career, this sample essay will help pave the way for you. This essay was submitted by a mechanical engineer to Harvard Business School. The writer explained how his engineering experience motivated him to pursue an MBA and how the program is important to his long-term goals.

Sample 8: Harvard Business School MBA essay

This essay was written by a candidate who got accepted to Harvard Business School. Check it out to know what the prestigious academic institution looks for in your essay.

Sample 9: Wharton Business School MBA essay

This essay has been honored as one of the best MBA essays ever received by the Wharton Business School in Pennsylvania. Check out the structure, organization, and flow, and adapt the same to your essay.

Sample 10: Columbia Business School MBA essay

The Columbia Business School’s admission committee shared this MBA essay. They explained why the applicant who wrote this was instantly accepted to the program and why they appreciated its content.

Sample 11: Stanford Graduate School of Business MBA essay

This essay was written by a candidate who got accepted to Stanford Business School for an MBA. If you are aiming to get your MBA at Stanford, this sample will give you a deep understanding of what convinces the esteemed school’s admission committee to accept applicants into their fold.

Sample 12: University of California Business School MBA essay

This sample was taken from a pool of successful MBA application essays submitted to the University of California business school. Read it carefully and analyze its structure, words, and substance before you compose your own fantastic MBA essay.

Sample 13: University of OXFORD business school MBA essay

If Oxford Business School is your target destiny for earning your MBA, then check out this outstanding application essay. The person who wrote it managed to grab the admission committee member’s attention.

Sample 14: London Business School MBA essay

This essay was written by a candidate who got accepted to the London Business School. The school’s admission consultant shared this sample as a reference to other MBA aspirants. This piece will specifically help you understand the tone, writing style, formatting, and overall flow of the MBA application essay that meets the school’s standards.

Sample 15: A goal-oriented MBA application essay

Sometimes the MBA admission portal may demand an essay specifically focused on your future goals. In such a case, you must be very sure about yourself and must convey your goals and future directions based on your experiences and planning. Check out this sample to get an idea of how a successful candidate writes about personal goals.

Sample 16: Executive MBA essay

This successful MBA application essay was submitted to the MIT Sloan Executive MBA Program. EMBA essay requires you to show strong potential, impact, leadership, and the ultimate need for the program. Read this essay if EMBA is on your horizon.

Sample 17: MBA video essay

Many business schools are turning to video-based essays for MBA applications. A video-based essay is a better option to express yourself directly to the admission committee. A successful candidate for the Kellogg School of Management submitted this sample. Listen to the video and appreciate how beautifully the applicant has explained his journey from beginning to end. Want to learn more about video MBA essays? Here is a complete guide.

Sample 18: Short-answer-based MBA application essay

Some business schools require candidates to respond to short questions to get insights into their personalities and suitability for the MBA program. More or less, most of the questions revolve around the same theme. The key to success is to grasp the intention of the admission committee behind the questions and to stick to your identity . These successful answers submitted to the Tepper School of Business will help you in formulating your answers.

Sample 19: MIT Sloan School of Management

This essay was submitted by a successful candidate for the MIT Sloan School of Management MBA program. See how this applicant smartly answered the essay questions.

Sample 20:  Michigan Ross School of Business MBA program

The Michigan Ross Business School asks a diverse range of questions from candidates to analyze their competencies from multiple perspectives. If Michigan Ross is where you intend to get your MBA, this essay submitted by a candidate who got admitted to the school’s MBA program will help keep you on track.

What Should be Included in the MBA Application Essay?

• Your background: What shaped you into what you are now? Including ethnicity, obstacles, and struggles.
• Self-reflection: Your values, characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses.
• Your goals : How do you envision your future?
• Aspirations: Why MBA is important to you and how this program will help you in shaping your future?
• Justification: If you have low academic grades, explain the reasons you did not do well and what you learned from it.
• Experience and achievements: What have you achieved so far?

These are the significant components of an MBA essay. Just adjust the sequence, play with words, and come up with a persuasive yet realistic picture of yourself.

What Makes a Great MBA Application Essay?

• Be school-specific. Explain why you are passionate about the MBA program of the school to which you’re applying.
• Avoid edition. Write simply and engagingly. Let the reader read a meaningful story about you.
• Make it 100% typo-free. Grammatical errors and typos will ruin your essay. Apply standard essay format and structure guidelines , scan your piece several times for errors, get it reviewed by an expert, and present a very professional piece to the admission committee.
• Be original. Do not copy-paste from any source. Strictly follow plagiarism guidelines.
• Write an overwhelming introduction to urge the reader to keep reading and conclude your essay with a strong declaration.
• Be authentic. Write what you are, not what the committee wants to read.
• Be concise, as many schools impose a limit on the essay word count .

Do you want more tips? Here is a complete guide to writing a compelling MBA application essay.

The application essay is a core part of the admission process in the increasingly competitive MBA program. If you do not want to miss the chance of getting selected, you need to know what will make your essay stand out . The expert-vetted list of MBA application essay samples we cited here worked for the top business schools. Learn them by heart, and who knows, it may work for you too. Put your other activities aside, read and analyze the list carefully, and start writing your MBA essay to land in your dream business school.

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Your Complete Guide to Writing Winning MBA Essays

With thousands of highly-qualified applicants from around the world vying for a limited number of spots, your main objective during the application process is to stand out . Succeed in this endeavor, and you’ll find yourself joining the ranks of the world’s elite business schools .

Fail, and you’ll find yourself on a waitlist or worse, not admitted anywhere at all. Though there are many types of essays in which you will need to justify your fit with a prestigious MBA, each needs to focus on showing off your greatest hits and prove to the admissions committee that you’re someone worth admitting.

Nonetheless, writing a standout essay requires much more than sitting down to your computer and writing a stream of consciousness account of your career highlights. Instead, it requires careful selection and crafting to ensure your stories really sell you .

Table of Contents

1.1. The Role Essays Play in the Admissions Process 1.2. Make Sure You Stand Out

2. Structuring Your Essay

2.1. Reflect On Your Best Examples What makes a good example? 2.2. Choose Your Theme Wisely 2.3. Hook your reader from the very first word 2.4. Utilize Strong Storytelling How to choose the best stories? Theme and story go hand in hand Story: roadblocks and solutions 2.5. The STAR method is your secret storytelling weapon 2.6. Conflict is Key 2.7. The Protagonist is YOU 2.8. Be Passionate

3.1. Navigating Short Essays 3.2. 500 Word Essays – the Magic Number 3.3. Maintaining Focus in Long Essays How is a typical essay structured? What makes a good MBA essay structure? Sandwiches.

4. Common Types of MBA Essays and How to Approach Each Type

4.1. Goals Essays 4.2. Achievement Essays 4.3. Reapplicant Essays What does a “good” optional essay include? 4.4. Optional Essays What does a “good” optional essay include? 4.5. Video Essays How does the video essay work?

5.1. Strategic vs. Traditional Edits Technical editing: The basic ingredients of an MBA essay Strategic editing: the secret ingredient to an outstanding MBA essay 5.2. Cutting Words Strategy #1: Revisit your stories Strategy #2: Reduce “of” constructions Strategy #3: Reduce “I think/wish/believe…” phrases Strategy #4: Reduce passive voice 5.3. A Word on Feedback

1. Why Essays Matter

With admissions rates at elite MBAs like Stanford Graduate School of Business hovering around 6%, standing out from the crowd is one of the most important challenges you will face during your business school application journey.

Though there are many elements that make up a successful MBA application , one of the most important is your admissions essay.

Writing admissions essays that cut through the noise and help the admissions committee connect with you and your ideas means getting in to your target business schools.

1.1. The Role Essays Play in the Admissions Process

As anyone who has attended an MBA info session can tell you, the admissions process for elite business school is a holistic process that takes into account numerous factors about your profile.

In addition to your GMAT score , the admissions committee also takes into consideration your university grades, career progression, and letters of recommendation.

However, one of the most important elements of your application is your admissions essays, as these breathe life into your profile’s data points.

Though a great admissions essay cannot overcome a poor GMAT score and sub-par job performance, it is one of the greatest differentials among you and other highly-qualified candidates .

That’s because admissions essays offer context. Your CV may show where you’ve worked and for how long, but your essays show what inspired you to take this position, the valuable lessons you’ve learned, and how you intend to keep using these lessons to generate meaningful impact.

As such, essays are one of the most important parts of the application process and can be a major factor in determining if you’re invited to interview or dinged.

1.2. Make Sure You Stand Out

In today’s fast-paced world, a sort of “attention economy” has developed in which an ever-increasing stream of inputs is battling for our ever-decreasing attention spans .

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a tool that would reliably cut through all the distraction?

Luckily, such a tool already exists. In fact, storytelling has been the key to hacking the brain’s circuitry since long before the first word was ever written down ( even Harvard Business School agrees! )

In fact, the importance of storytelling has only become even more entrenched as research on the topic emerges, meaning stories remain one of the most efficient means we have to transmit information to others.

The power of storytelling even extends into a realm often thought to be “too serious” for stories: the business world.

Yet, with thought leaders reinforcing that stories are not only important but an essential tool for modern leaders (and the best TED talks being overwhelmingly story-driven), it’s clear that the ability to tell compelling stories is an advantage.

Harnessing this tool when writing your admissions essays goes a long way to giving you the edge you need to stand out — and when it comes to elite MBA admissions, it’s all about standing out!

One of the most essential elements to a compelling MBA admissions essay is your structure. Your structure is like your map: it helps your readers get flawlessly from A to B.

In terms of your essay, this means that structure helps your reader transition between what you said before, what you’re saying now, and what you will say next.

Without a solid, clear, and defining structure, your essay can be good, but won’t be excellent. Your stories may be fascinating – but only if your reader understands why they are reading about them in the first place. In other words, structure implicitly emphasizes relevance.

The tips below give you more insight into how to structure and write amazing application essays.

2.1. Reflect On Your Best Examples

Over your career, you’ve likely had a lot of wins — both big and small.

Though you’re hopefully nodding your head in agreement, when was the last time you really reflected on which of your achievements are your strongest?

Most of our clients are extremely ambitious, forward-looking people, however, writing your MBA essays requires keeping one eye on the future and the other on the past .

That’s why, before you start writing the first word of your first MBA essay, you should take the time to compile a list of your top stories.

What makes a good example?

In general, clients make the mistake of thinking that the only examples they can include in essays are those in which they helped establish one of Africa’s first private equity firms , created the world’s first mind-controlled jet pack , or developed a cure for cancer .

Though these are certainly all incredible achievements, your best example doesn’t necessarily have to be so big .

For example, while brainstorming his essay topics , a recent client was struggling with the fact that his corporate finance job felt to him like a lot of financial reports and Excel spreadsheets.

However, when we dug into the details, he told us that he’d led the process to help his company negotiate better terms with a foreign government to ensure they were able to continue offering affordable protein in that country.

Not only did this example show his ability to negotiate and communicate across cultures, he was also able to show how he generated meaningful results for his company and positively impacted people in an entire country.

That’s a pretty great example!

Go back and think of all the moments of your career you are proudest of.

Then, based on each essay question and each school’s values (If you’re having trouble understanding your dream school’s values, our team of admissions experts can help !), allocate your best examples. You’ll need a good theme, focus, and excellent story to turn these examples into winning MBA essays, but we’ll get more into that below! Here, just make sure the examples you choose truly answer the question .

2.2. Choose Your Theme Wisely

The first key, or element, of a compelling essay is a strong theme .

Your theme is the main message of your essay. Basic examples may be “teamwork is paramount” or “empowering others is what I value most”. Your choice of theme will depend on the essay question.

A theme is important for your MBA essay because it is what ties everything you say together. Instead of random stories that have no common thread, your theme is what allows you to use multiple stories to reinforce what you really want to say about yourself.

So how do you go about choosing the right theme?

Your theme expresses a value (ex: “community”, “ giving back ”, “innovation”) that you feel has defined you in some way. You can choose practically any value that you can relate back to your personal experiences. However, it is essential that you choose a value you truly believe in – faking it to sound good will be immediately obvious to any admissions board.

A good theme also relates back to the school and its values. The school’s values will give you an idea of who the school is looking for, and you should always take these into account when choosing your theme. Each school will have different, individual values.

The school’s values may be implicit or explicit – you may need to take a long look at their website, visit their campus, ponder their motto, or study their application materials to figure out what they are. (If you find yourself struggling to determine these, this is something that Ellin Lolis Consulting is glad to help you with.)

For example, when applying to the Stanford Graduate School of Business , their values include the following:

Global awareness, community-oriented, integrity, collaborative team leadership, passion, intellectual vitality, etc.

The theme of your Stanford essay should not , therefore, simply be “integrity” or “global awareness”. Instead, give the value a personal touch that says something about you: for example, you could go with “honesty above everything” or “the importance of an international team”. If you’ve chosen your theme well, it may even overlap with multiple values of your target school.

Keep in mind that your choice of theme must answer the essay question. While this might be easy in open-ended essays, some answers may require much deeper thought to determine your underlying values.

MBA ESSAY THEME: ROADBLOCKS AND SOLUTIONS

The most common problem pertaining to theme often comes down to this: too many or too few. Even if you’ve chosen the most awesome theme, encountering either one of these problems could make or break your MBA admissions essay.

How can you have too many themes? It may be hard to narrow down what you value most, or which of your target school’s values is the most important to you. If you can’t decide, you may end up trying to build in more than one.

You may begin your essay by exuberantly exclaiming the importance of teamwork while emphasizing how much your community means to you in your conclusion. This discrepancy will not only confuse your reader, it will lead to a weak message and a weak essay.

On the other hand, your theme must be explicitly clear. You cannot assume that your reader will simply understand your theme after reading your essay. You must state this for them multiple times.

Either option will cause your theme to feel unclear to your reader. Make sure you have a single theme (even if it might represent multiple values!) that you clearly stick with throughout the entire essay.

2.3. Hook your reader from the very first word

Quickly grabbing your audience’s attention is one of the most important, yet most challenging tasks when telling any story.

Let’s take a look at Nike’s “Breaking 2” commercial, named one of the 10 best ads of 2017 .

The ad starts out with the phrase, “Breaking the two hour marathon barrier is impossible.”

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjd1z8yawVw

Immediately, as we see the runner standing at the starting line, preparing to train in the early light before dawn, we immediately want to know if this solitary figure has what it takes to “do the impossible.”

This curiosity drives us forward and makes it so that we literally can’t take our eyes of the screen.

A good hook in your essay functions in much the same way: it sparks the reader’s interest and compels them to keep reading.

Let’s take two versions of the same essay for example.

Here, the author has gone right into the story, neglecting to write a hook:

I have always been fascinated by cosmology and astronomy, not only because they relate to the study of the universe, but because they are an exercise in thinking beyond limitations. I first encountered these concepts at a young age. After presenting a perfect report card to my parents at age seven, I was rewarded with a book on spacetime. Diving into the realm of the cosmos inspired me to think about reality in imaginative ways free from the constraints often imposed by society and connecting me to the great thinkers of the past who made groundbreaking discoveries that changed the world.

Did this leave you wanting more? Perhaps not.

However, in the final version of the story, the author hits us with:

What do Copernicus and Phil Knight have in common? I learned about Copernicus after receiving a book on astronomy from my parents that awakened my childhood passion for the cosmos. I first learned about Knight from his book, Shoe Dog, but became more familiar with him much later in life while working with Nike, a client in my portfolio. What both have in common, however, is that they were agents of change. They refused to accept the status quo and revolutionized society with simple yet groundbreaking ideas that changed humanity forever.

This version is much more compelling. Copernicus and Phil Knight seemingly have nothing in common, so figuring this small puzzle out moves the reader forward and ultimately ensures they become immersed in the story.

Though MBA essay word limits are notoriously small , using an interesting hook that is related to your example is a good investment, as it will ensure the admissions committee member perusing your essay keeps reading and, ultimately, calls you for an interview.

2.4. Utilize Strong Storytelling

Stories are the examples you use to underline your theme.

They should be based on your personal experiences and are the most tangible element of your MBA admissions essay. The choices here are endless, and may come from the workplace, school, or your personal life.

If you are having trouble coming up with ideas, this article in The Economist offers some good starting points . The most important thing is that your stories illustrate how they have contributed to the value that you’ve presented in your theme.

How to choose the best stories? Theme and story go hand in hand

The stories you choose need to relate to your theme. Your theme will relate to your stories. The two of these – and choosing them – go hand in hand.

You may first brainstorm inspiring stories from your past and then choose which theme aligns with them. Or you may want to start by contemplating your theme and then deciding where it has been exemplified in your past. Either method will work, as long as you use honest examples and really believe in your theme.

How many stories you tell in your MBA essay depends on your theme and the topic of the essay (and possibly your word count!). In some cases, you may need multiple stories while in others a single story will suffice.

Story: roadblocks and solutions

The main problem you see with stories in MBA essays is that they do not match the theme. If this is the case, you need to rethink your story – or your theme.

In contrast to your theme, you cannot have too much information here at this stage in your essay. Remember here that although the details about what happened, how you felt about it, or why an event was significant may be clear to you, it will not always be clear to your reader . Including sufficient information about context, your motivations, and what you learned is essential to make sure your message is clear.

This is where a second set of eyes is absolutely necessary. Our editors here at Ellin Lolis Consulting are good at spotting the details that may be implicit in your essay, but have not been stated clearly enough for all your readers.

Another common problem is not highlighting your role in the story. Even if the experience was a team effort – and even if teamwork is your theme – it is necessary to highlight the individual part you played. After all, the admissions board is focusing on you .

2.5. The STAR method is your secret storytelling weapon

STAR stands for Situation – Task – Action – Result.

The framework will help you write a clear, compelling answer that provides background, tells exactly what you did and ends with a big reveal.

Here’s how it works :

• Situation – Begin with setting the stage and presenting the complication or conflict of the story. For example: “My brand was losing market share to a new competitor” 

• Task – Identify your objective in light of the complication and summarize the task or project performed: “I decided to revise our strategy” 

• Action – Describe the action steps you took toward your goal: “I surveyed customers to learn what traits they valued and implemented product changes accordingly” 

• Results – Summarize the outcome and how you and/or your team made a difference: “We gained 20 additional market share.”

The STAR method makes it very easy for your reader not only to understand what took place, but to also see your role in all of it — important given the fact that it’s you and not your team or company that’s applying for an MBA.

Not convinced you should follow this method? Check out the two stories below. Which does a better job of clearly showing the applicant’s strengths and achievement?

My greatest achievement in life so far has come from my study effort. It was one of the best days of my life when I got the news I was chosen for a scholarship from the Brazilian government to start a project in University of Texas. From this episode I learned that the long run counts a lot because this scholarship didn’t depend on taking a test and having a great day on it. It was awarded to students who had an English proficiency diploma at a specific point in time and a great college record. In Texas, I was forced to become a more independent man and I had the chance to connect with so many people with so many different backgrounds that I can say my desire to explore the world started there.

Or this one?

The achievement I’m most proud of happened recently. At my company, it had been three years since we had raised investments for a new fund, so finding a new opportunity was critical. In mid-December, that great opportunity arose, however, we’d be battling against an unbelievably short deadline to get the project approved.

Normally, at this time of year, we’re still fully staffed, but given the stagnant market, only one manager and myself remained. In addition, the fund’s investment policy relied on a strategy that we’d never used. Finally, I’d never worked on the public offering of a fund before.

Nonetheless, I knew that if the partner and I worked diligently to support each other, we could land this deal. Our first move was to organize a meeting to align all parties involved. Then, we divided tasks, and I took over coordinating stakeholders, assigning tasks and managing deliverables. In the end, we successfully delivered everything on time.

This experience made me more comfortable in a leadership position, as managing diverse stakeholders under pressure helped me better analyze what each brought to the table and execute accordingly. Recently, I’ve even been able to help other teams coordinate new offers. Finally, the project was a great opportunity to learn new management skills from my superior. This reinforced for me how important it will be to learn additional management frameworks at INSEAD and prepare myself to be a leader in the Private Equity market.

Though the first essay includes a tremendous achievement, the lack of structure and details makes it difficult for us to understand exactly what happened.

The second essay clearly states the facts, and doesn’t forget that the S of STAR is one of the most important parts of any winning achievement essay .

In any good story, we need some sort of challenge for our protagonist to solve.

2.6. Conflict is Key

In life, we work hard to avoid conflict as much as possible, yet when it comes to stories, conflict is not only important, it is essential to captivating attention.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geG8E_ocYDY

Would Breaking Bad have been as interesting if Walter White was already an established drug lord when the show started? Probably not. Watching him take the news of his cancer diagnosis and find an unusual way to drum up the money for treatment is just what makes the show so addictive.

Conflict and how our “hero” (in this case, you!) solves the challenge is at the core of any good story, so make sure you use the STAR method to clearly set up the conflict you needed to navigate and then show how you took steps to turn this roadblock into one of your standout moments.

Let’s take this essay for example. In an early version, the story was conflict-free.

Upon joining MBB after graduation, another experience inspired personal growth. While in abroad, I participated in recruiting processes for top consulting firms, and saw firsthand that MBB lagged behind in recruiting students pursuing dual degrees abroad. After joining, I created a dedicated process to recruit these top performers. Four months later, we had the first online connection event, which attracted more than 40 interested students. The program has since become an essential recruiting tool. I am proud to lead this internal team in contributing to MBB’s long-term success as we attract the talent we need to deliver high-impact results to clients.

Though this shows initiative on the applicant’s part, it is far less compelling than this version of events:

After graduating, I joined MBB, as it allowed me to channel my intellectual curiosity, explore various sectors and be an agent of change. While abroad, I participated in recruiting processes for other top consulting firms, and saw firsthand that MBB lagged behind in recruiting dual-degree students. After joining, I spoke with several partners about creating a program to solve this issue. The partners were hesitant, however, concerned they could not adequately evaluate candidates remotely. After demonstrating the implications of overlooking these high-potential candidates, I received permission to create a dedicated dual-degree recruiting process. Four months later, I had mobilized 10 colleagues, leading them in organizing BCG’s first online connection event. The program has since become an essential recruiting tool, bringing in more than 10% of our hires since inception.

Here, not only does she show initiative, she also shows she has an ability to clearly communicate and add value to her firm, even when the odds are stacked against her.

So, when writing your MBA application essays, make sure to give your stories some much-needed drama!

2.7. The Protagonist is YOU

In general, modesty is a good thing.

However, when writing your MBA application essays, too much modesty can be fatal , as the admissions committee has a short amount of time to decide if you make the cut or not.

As such, one of the mistakes you want to be sure to avoid while writing is forgetting that the protagonist of your essays is you!

Specifically for extremely collaborative schools (like Kellogg or INSEAD), we see clients writing entire essays that talk a lot about what the team did, but never once use the pronoun “I.”

Though you may think that never saying “I” is a good way to show you’re a team player, it actually makes it very difficult for the reader to understand your role in the events that happened .

This kind of ambiguity turns even the greatest leadership example into something lackluster, as there is no evidence to support the fact that you had anything to do with the results.

Not clarifying your role when answering a failure question is perhaps even worse. Failure questions are inherently designed to test your level of self-awareness and maturity, so not making your role in the failure clear gives the impression that you’re unable to accept responsibility for your actions.

For example, let’s take a look at part of a former client, Marck’s, first attempt at answering the INSEAD Essay “ Describe a situation where you failed. How did these experiments impact your relationship with others? Comment on what you learned. ”

“When I was in my senior year in university, I was selected to be part of a four-student team that represented our school at the USC Marshall International Case Competition in Los Angeles. The competition format gave a real business problem and 24 hours to formulate a solution. After my team received the problem and processed the information, I envisioned a solution that went beyond the objective question, offering not only the hypothetical solution, but also an implementation plan. All groups were from top universities and would probably present strong solutions, so this way I thought our solution would maybe stand out. My colleagues wouldn’t agree on this approach because they thought 24-hours was already a short time to develop a solution so adding the extra work of developing an implementation plan would seem impractical. We started our case but it was very frustrating for me to help with the work that I felt was not meant to win the competition.

Finally we delivered our presentation, which got an regular scoring, not enough to advance to the finals. I was very disappointed by this premature disqualification, especially because our group have prepared well for this competition, for nearly 2 months.”

Though it’s clear to see that things didn’t go according to plan, it’s not clear how Marck played a clear role in contributing to this failure. In this case, he had to change his example, but by focusing in and making himself the protagonist of the essay, he was able to come up with this, stronger essay that ultimately helped him land a spot at INSEAD:

“After ten rigorous interviews, I had finally obtained my first ever job: an internship in Credit Suisse’s asset management department. Throughout the interviews, I was confident and highly communicative, and after two months of work, I was eager for my first professional evaluation. However, while my manager was impressed with my confidence and communication during interviews, he admonished me for having “lost” both traits as an intern and threatened to fire me should I not change. Rather than explaining myself, I held back, deferring to the authority of my superiors.

As I reflected on this feedback, I realized my behavior might have been influenced by my Asian background. Raised to be respectful and humble in the face of authority, I failed to consider that this does not fit in a finance environment, where one needs to be assertive and unafraid of disagreement to make the best deals. I thought critically about how my approach must be adapted to different situations, and that traits that are highly valued in one culture may not be in others. With this in mind, I adopted a more assertive communication style, receiving excellent feedback in future evaluations. Most importantly, I learned that effective team members must be perceptive enough to understand cultural differences and flexible enough to adapt accordingly. “

2.8. Be Passionate

With so many elements to keep in mind, it can be easy to focus on the strategy of your story and forget the most important ingredient in your essay – passion!

This is hugely important to the whole essay and you should take some time to really think about what you want to convey to the admissions officers. Keep in mind that they already have all the facts about you – they know your grades, your work history, and probably most of your measurable achievements.

The goal is to make them love you.

Write about what you’re passionate about, whatever it is, because it will give the admissions team insight into who you really are. It’s something that your grades and work history can’t communicate, but your passion can.

Here’s another tip: don’t try to fabricate something that you’re passionate about because it sounds good .

There are enough application essays out there that talk about wanting to help people because the world has a lot of problems. You won’t stand out just because you write about a noble cause.

Bruce DelMonico, Assistant Dean for Admissions at Yale School of Management, says he is wary of personal statements that tell dramatic stories and stretch the truth. He does not look for students who have had exotic experiences, but for evidence of resilience, introspection, and initiative.

Use this space to get personal. Tell an anecdote about your life and be creative with your presentation. You can write about something you’re passionate about without describing your life story.

The key is simply to care about what you’re writing about , whether that’s coffee or running or your grandmother. Let your qualities shine through that topic – it will be much more memorable than talking about how you want to help people.

And remember, because your essay is one in thousands being read by a team of people who have seen it all before, being memorable is absolutely essential.

So, what are you passionate about? Be honest, be yourself, and don’t be afraid to let your personality shine!

3. How to Maximize Word Counts

Your MBA admissions essay will, in most cases, be limited to a specific number of words. If it is, it is extremely important that you do not exceed the limit. For some schools, you simply won’t be able to upload longer essays. For other, though there is no official penalty, failing to follow instructions may get your essay thrown out.

Remember, you are not telling the admissions board your life story, but rather concentrating on specific events.

As such, choosing the right approach and right number of examples to use based on the number of words the question gives you is essential .

For example, if you were writing a timely tweet to share your opinion, you’d take a very different approach then if crafting a cover letter that demonstrated why you’d be the perfect candidate for your dream job.

In short, the size of the essay greatly dictates the content and approach you’ll utilize, so we’ve put together a number of tips to help you write winning essays of all sizes.

3.1. Navigating Short Essays

Though candidates often stress about long essays, short essays can often be more challenging. As they are becoming increasingly common (Berkeley Haas and Michigan Ross , for example, hasn’t included an essay longer than 300 words in years), it’s important to make sure every word you include packs a punch!

In 250 words or less , you are challenged with the task of communicating to the admissions team how you stand out from the crowd and why you should be admitted into their program. Since you are competing with thousands of other applicants who have the exact same goal, this might seem like an overwhelming task.

Have no fear!

Here at Ellin Lolis Consulting , we are extremely skilled at helping potential MBA students reach their goals. Among other things, our knowledge of what makes a winning short essay has led to a 99% success rate of our clients being accepted into at least one of their target schools. These tips will help you similarly reach your goal!

Stay focused

In an essay of 250 words, this might be the most important advice to keep in mind.

The reason one anecdote or story is because that’s all you have room for. This essay is not meant to repeat the achievements the admissions people already know, nor is it a good place to squeeze in a summary of your life – or even a summary of one year! Choose one moment, one situation, one idea , and follow it all the way through.

A quick note before we get deeper into how to write with focus: make sure this one point answers the question being asked.

Some universities ask very open ended questions that give you all kinds of freedom when writing, but many use more specific prompts. Before you start writing, all throughout the process, and after you think you’re finished, make sure that you are clearly answering the question.

How to Stay Focused Tip #1

Staying focused means using one story to support your point.

Resist the temptation to rabbit trail because it gives you a chance to talk about something else you’re proud of. Your essay should follow one idea beginning to end so that you can flesh it out a bit and show some of that deep thinking we were talking about. Listing things like a resume will not do that for you.

How to Stay Focused Tip #2

Cut the fluff and write concisely.

There are several ways you can do this. The first is writing in the active voice, where the subject of the sentence performs the action, as opposed to the passive voice, where the subject receives the action. The Writing Centre at the University of Wisconsin-Madison gives these examples:

Active: The dog bit the man.

Passive: The man was bitten by the dog.

Active should be used whenever possible because it makes the sentence more clear and uses less words – the goal of any shortessay.

The second major way you can cut out fluff is by avoiding big, general statements that don’t contribute much to the paragraph. If you are wondering whether a sentence is “fluffy” or not, try reading the paragraph without that sentence and see if the section loses much meaning. If your point is still clear (or more clear) without that sentence, cut it.

3.2. 500 Word Essays – the Magic Number

One of the most common word limits in MBA application essays is 500 words .

Whether a goals essay, a leadership essay, or a personal essay, this word count gives you just enough room to include meaningful, well-detailed examples without inviting you to wax poetic about your entire life story.

So, considering how popular they are, what is the first step to writing a compelling MBA essay in 500 words?

Forget about your word count.

Go ahead – let’s even take it to extremes. Take your ideas about word count, crumple them up, and throw them in the recycling bin. Or hide them in with the dirty laundry, or wherever else you know you won’t look until you’re on the final draft of your essay. Did that? Good.

Although most essays will have a word limit, that is not where you should begin – and it is definitely not what you should focus on while trying to develop your MBA admissions essay. In fact, trimming word count is the very last thing you should do before you finalize your draft.

So, you might ask, if I shouldn’t focus on word count, what should I be thinking about?

There are three answers to this question: theme, story, and structure . But what are these exactly?

Your theme is like your topic. It is the main thing you want your readers to know and remember about you while reading your essay. Everything – and I mean absolutely everything – in your MBA essay should pertain and relate back to your theme.

Story is how you express your theme. An MBA essay can have one or multiple stories. Your stories are personal (as in, they really did happen to you!) anecdotes about your past that contribute to the person you are today. These must (underline must) relate back to your theme.

Structure is how you combine the two in a way that makes it easy for your reader to get from one idea to the next. A strong structure will reinforce the meaning of your essay.

All three of these elements are interrelated, and all are necessary for creating a truly compelling MBA admissions essay.

In 500 words, you should have ample space to fully explore your theme by telling an interesting, well-structured story.

500 word essays, however, are usually not long enough for multiple fully-explored examples (unless we’re dealing with a goals essay, more on this below), so make sure you have a clear mission for the essay before getting started.

3.3. Maintaining Focus in Long Essays

Though the predominant trend is for MBA admissions committees to reduce the number of words required for their application, a few programs still ask candidates (or, in the case of HBS , allow candidates) to write much longer essays, often 1000 words or longer.

How is a typical essay structured?

Although this will vary according to the topic of the essay, the basic outline is often similar, as pointed out by Karen Schweitzer . The outline of your MBA essay will usually have the following format:

• Introduction: present your theme and it’s larger contextual significance
• Story 1 and the lesson(s) you learned from it
• Story 2 and the lesson(s) you learned from it ( if the essay prompt allows for more than one story)
• (Maybe more stories and lessons…)
• How your stories/theme relate to your target school ( such as classes you intend to take, groups you want to participate in, or the unique things that school offers that will help you expand on these values )
• Conclusion: tie all of this back into your theme

Keep in mind that this is only a basic outline for an MBA admissions essay , and there are other formats that may work just as well. You may find a different format works better for your message. In that case – go for it!

No matter which format you choose, however, make sure your reader can clearly and easily understand and navigate the structure of your essay. With thousands of other essays to read, sending a confusing essay to “stand out” is likely to get your essay tossed aside.

What makes a good MBA essay structure? Sandwiches.

How do you ensure that your MBA essay is well-structured? Here, it is best to rely on the classic sandwich method .

The sandwich method ensures that each of your stories (the lettuce, meat, cheese, and other particularly yummy parts of your structural sandwich) is surrounded by an explicit emphasis on your theme (the bread that holds your structural sandwich together).

You are going to need a few structural sandwiches for a good essay. Not only should the essay itself be one big sandwich, but each paragraph – each story – needs to be one as well. In other words:

Sandwich #1: The essay as a whole

In your essay-structural-sandwich, your theme needs to surround your stories. The introduction of your essay should clearly present your theme and your conclusion needs to pick it back up.

Sandwiches #2-?: Each and every story

Each story needs an introduction sentence and a concluding sentence. Both of these sentences need to relate your story back to your theme.

The sandwich method is a way to ensure your reader stays on the same page as you. They make it explicitly clear why what you are saying is relevant to the larger picture and how you got there in the first place.

Hungry? Have an example sandwich

In spring 2017, we helped Axel from Argentina compose and refine his Stanford essays. In this essay, he chose to focus on the theme “being an agent of change”. Take a look at one of the stories he told to highlight this theme:

“Later, while volunteering in São Paulo’s favelas, I wanted to convey the power of change to children by showing them what I learned from the book on the cosmos. By connecting my hobby of space with my desire for change, I shared my knowledge of cosmology and mathematics and gained valuable lessons from people with backgrounds in education. In learning from each other’s strengths, we were able to complement the children’s formal education and inspired them to look at past science geniuses who defied conventions so that the students might also be inspired to challenge their social standing. This experience showed me that working to create change is as important as its positive effects .”

As you can see in bold, the relevance of this story to Axel’s theme is clear in both the introduction and conclusion of the paragraph.

Keeping your structure and theme in mind throughout your entire essay not only makes your essay more compelling, it’s also the lifeblood that ensures your reader stays interested enough in what you have to say to get through all 1000 words of your essay.

Here we’ll go more into depth into the most common types and how to best tell your story in each format below.

4.1. Goals Essays

It’s not always phrased the same way, but each school is asking for the same thing: your goals essay .

Your response must be a personal statement that describes much more than just your short and long term goals (though they are, of course, the key to the whole essay).

Crafting a compelling goals essay that lands you an interview means giving context to your goals and showing that you’ve thought through them enough to be specific and realistic. This means that your own vision of your future career path must be crystal clear, since no elite business school will admit candidates who do not state clear, well argued goals .

If you’re still not quite sure what you want to do post-MBA, you may want to consider career coaching before you start writing.

Assuming you have some rock solid goals in place, here are several tips that will help you turn your career plan into a winning essay!

An interview-worthy formula

Try to think of the MBA goals essay as a story, and the important components of the story are your past, present, and future, and how they all connect. Specifically, how they connect should look like this:

Past Experience + Present MBA = Future Professional Goals

Your story should flow well between these components, building upon each of them and creating a unified narrative. However, that narrative shouldn’t follow a ‘past, present, future’ sequence at all, since it’s difficult to explain why a particular program is perfect for you if you haven’t stated your goals yet.

Instead, go with a ‘past, future, present’ format . Organizing your essay in this way will provide clarity and a pleasing flow to the information.

Now let’s look at what each section should include:

Past experience

Whether the question asks for it or not, a little bit about your work history is important to include in this essay. It gives context to your goals , proof that you have relevant experience related to your goals, and sets up the argument for why you’re applying for that specific MBA – a crucial aspect to the goals essay.

If the question does ask about your career progress to date, keep in mind the information the admissions counselors already have. The goal here is not to list every achievement you’ve made (they probably see that on your resume ), but to give brief, strong examples of an accomplished career, especially focusing on achievements that relate to your future goals.

For example, though you may have had a highly successful marketing internship, but have since forged a career in M&A, you may want to leave your marketing achievements out of your goals essay to focus on more relevant information.

Nonetheless, not everyone has a perfectly linear path where each step logically leads to the next. Your work history might look disjointed on paper, but the key is to emphasize growth and highlight your capabilities. All of this needs to add up to the next section: your future goals.

Future goals

Your essay revolves around your short and long term goals, which means you need to think through these two things more than anything else.

It is important that you explain the relationship between all the lessons you learned along your career journey and your future – how has your past prepared and inspired you for your future? Later, we’ll talk about some crucial things that need to come into play when describing your goals.

Present – the MBA

This is your chance to really sell yourself to the admissions committee – why is their school the very best for your specific needs?

You have shown the experience and knowledge you have, the goals that resulted, and now you need to prove that this program can give you everything you need to reach those goals.

This is no time to be vague. Specific classes, the school’s non-academic offerings, and school culture can all be referenced to support your argument that this program is the very best (or only) way to build the skills you need to reach your goals.

Standing out as a prime candidate to admissions counselors means writing a goals essay with clarity and purpose, showing that you are informed and visionary enough to see your goals through. If you follow the above format and tips, you will likely be on a path to achieving your next goal: landing an interview with your top choice MBA program .

4.2. Achievement Essays

Though a few programs do include questions about failures (most notably INSEAD and Columbia), most programs ask you about your best and brightest moments.

When writing your achievement essay, remember that you’re telling the story of the war through the eyes of a soldier — meaning your showing who you are as a professional with one, clear representative example.

This means sticking to one story.

You should also make sure you focus on demonstrating a specific set of strengths.

Though many achievements are open-ended enough for you to demonstrate 10 different skills MBAs highly value , including all 10 means you won’t have enough evidence to prove you truly possess these capabilities.

In any good essay, we need a reason to believe you have the skills and strengths you claim to possess. The only way to give your reader this evidence is to show rather than tell .

If you try to cram too much in, you simply won’t have the word count to fully justify all your strengths, resulting in a shallow, ineffective essay that will fall short of selling you to elite

Example MBA essay questions on achievements

So now that you’ve thought about your best achievements and know how to present them, what types of MBA essay questions can you actually expect to answer this way?

Though there are many schools that ask about your greatest hits, one of the schools that solicits an achievements essay most directly is INSEAD .

INSEAD’s Motivation Essay 2 asks you to “ Describe the achievement of which you are most proud and explain why. In addition, describe a situation where you failed. How did these experiences impact your relationships with others? Comment on what you learned. (approximately 400 words) ”

Considering that you’re tasked with presenting the achievement of which you are the proudest , you must be absolutely certain that you are choosing an example that shows the admissions committee your most relevant positive attributes.

Choosing a relatively recent example (unless you really have a show-stopper from earlier in your career) is also generally preferable.

Furthermore, since you’ll need to discuss one failure, one achievement and what you learned from both in just 400 words, it’s extremely important to stay focused on one achievement and use the STAR method to quickly yet efficiently guide the reader through your essay.

For more info on how to write INSEAD essays in a manner that secures your place in their highly-coveted 1-year MBA, check out our INSEAD essay analysis !

Unlike INSEAD’s direct question, these schools’ essays can be thought of achievements essays in disguise!

Though Harvard changes its essay prompt each year, the core directive year after year is to show the admissions committee who you are and what you can contribute to the HBS community by discussing your previous achievements.

Let’s take their 2017-2018 essay question , for example.

(SOURCE: Harvard Business School)

Though you may be tempted just to reiterate your CV, this essay works best when you choose a clear theme and present various related achievements in your life to prove your thesis.

For example, a recent client who came from an underprivileged background and beat the odds to land a top consulting job before moving to government centered his essay around dreaming big and turning these dreams into a reality.

He then told stories of how he was the first of his family to attend an elite university, how he partnered with the Chilean government to overhaul their healthcare programs, and finally, how he reshaped his state governor’s entire internal transportation strategy to free up resources and redirect them towards initiatives that benefited the needy.

In the end, he had presented a compelling case that captured the admissions committee’s attention.

Other examples of this type of open-ended achievements essay include Stanford’s notorious “ What matters most to you and why? ”

TOP TIP : For the HBS and Stanford essays mentioned above, you will need to break the “1-story” rule and will instead choose several complementary stories to highlight multiple accomplishments. All stories should be told using the STAR method and should reinforce your personal brand.

4.3. Reapplicant Essays

Perhaps you applied to business school last year but weren’t quite able to turn land a spot at your dream school.

That doesn’t mean you should give up on your business school dream! We have worked with numerous reapplicants who have secured spots at Harvard, Columbia, and other elite MBA programs only the second time around .

As a reapplicant, however, you need to be conscious of the fact that you have a unique challenge that first-time applicants do not. First and most importantly, you must reflect on why you were not admitted the first time around.

Though there are many factors that go into play, some of the most common reasons a candidate is dinged are: a low GMAT, a lack of clearly-defined goals, and a failure to demonstrate fit with his or her target school.

As such, throughout your application, you must focus on showing the admissions committee how you have grown and evolved as a person and professional since your last application.

One of the most appropriate places to do so is in your reapplicant essay.

Let’s take a look at Columbia Business School’s prompt for reapplicants (especially critical given the fact that this is the only essay CBS allows reapplicants to submit).

The question states:

The question is perfect in its clarity. Columbia wants you to get to the point, showing them how you have grown and what your short term and long term goals are.

Though not all business schools ask the question in exactly the same way, your task is the same: show them the “new and improved you.”

Keep reading for our top tips on how to write this essay (including past successful essay) in the next section.

What does a “good” optional essay include?

When writing your reapplicant essay, you should keep the world “delta” in mind.

Defined as the “ an increment of a variable ,” in your application, delta should be defined to mean the difference between old you and new you.

Though there are many ways to demonstrate “delta,” some of the most effective in a reapplicant essay include:

• A higher GMAT score
• Clarified or refined goals
• Additional leadership or managerial responsibilities at work
• Additional international experience
• New or additional community service experiences
• Any other changes or improvements that will enhance your ability to contribute to the diversity of an elite MBA classroom

Let’s take our client Pedro for example.

The year before putting the Ellin Lolis Advantage to work for him, he had submitted an application to Columbia Business School that, among its greatest flaws, did not state coherent goals. Though Pedro had built a strong finance career, he focused his post-MBA goals in his first application on launching an art gallery.

For the admissions committee, it was a bit too much of a jump, and Pedro was dinged without interview.

After coming to us and critically reviewing his application , we developed a new line of attack that leveraged his company’s desire to sponsor his MBA and then give him a leading role in expanding the company’s regional presence.

Furthermore, we focused on showing how he had sought to grow as a leader both at work and in the community to really reinforce the value he could bring to Columbia.

Here’s how he did that:

“Not being admitted to the Columbia MBA was a big failure for me, though I can now see it was important, as it helped me realize what passion to follow, where I needed to improve, and what I needed to do to accomplish these things. Thus, I took steps to come closer to reaching my goals.

After going through a process of self-reflection and talking to many people, including the president of BANK, I realized that the bank has many opportunities for development, and not just in Brazil. BANK’s expansion throughout Latin America will require home-grown talent that is able to implement our DNA in a way that is compatible with local cultures and business practices. I want to play an important role in this process in two different ways. By acting as a connector, I will establish relationships with local players and open new markets to Brazilian companies. By building the adequate organizational structure, I will help prepare and manage our future leaders in this task.

Having decided on my goals, I started working on my own development. Professionally, I improved my negotiation skills when helping clients avoid default in the current economic environment. Although I still don’t directly manage people, I formally took art in the bank’s institutional recruiting and coaching of interns. Additionally, I engaged in two external consulting projects to restructure the bank’s commercial department. These projects gave me greater insight into the areas of general management and organizational planning.

Although I decided not to pursue the arts as a career, it remains a strong passion of mine. Therefore, I have continued to run and improve my volunteer organization “Integrarte,” which takes underprivileged children to museums to increase their interaction with art. Recently, I have taken steps to add an arts education component to the initiative and have been developing a methodology to scale the project with NGOs using a feasible, low-cost model. I believe that combining business skills with an inner passion for arts can help me continue to share this passion with others.

Now that I am sure where I am going, the Columbia MBA is even more essential to enable me to thrive. I am looking forward to hearing Carlos Brito talk about the challenges of transforming a local company into a global giant. Also, attending classes such as “The Future of Financial Services” and “Napoleon’s Glance” will help me better understand the financial industry and improve my decision making skills for the future. Outside of the classroom, I am excited to participate in the Arts and Culture Club and am interested in organizing a trip to Inhotim in Brazil to explore the combination of arts and social empowerment.

Lastly, I also expanded my network of contacts, getting in touch with CBS alumni and current students, such as Gabriel Adde, a close friend of mine. This enabled me to get to know the school even better and has only reinforced that Columbia is the best possible fit for my post-MBA goals, as it is the only school that provides the combination of learning specific concepts of finance from top-level faculty and contact with people from all of the globe in a city where the cultural and professional possibilities are truly limitless.”

In your own reapplicant essay, you should similarly discuss how you have overcome any weak spots in your application and provide evidence that reinforces your strong interest in your target MBA program.

With those elements in place, you should be well on your way to reaching your long-awaited goal of attending an elite business school.

4.4. Optional Essays

In the past, the optional essay section was extremely open-ended, with questions like LBS ’s 2015-2016 question “Is there any other information you believe the Admissions Committee should know about you and your application to London Business School? (this question is optional) (300 words). ”

This type of question was perfect for applicants to highlight another skill, activity, or experience that they wanted to share with the admissions committee but didn’t quite manage to squeeze in anywhere else.

How times have changed!

Not only have essay questions become shorter in general , the optional essay has become almost standardized across business schools.

Take Kellogg ’s optional essay from 2017, for example. The question asks “ 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.)”.

A nearly identical question is used for the optional essay prompt for most of the other top MBA programs.

The change in wording makes it clear that business schools do not want extra essays. They only want to hear about extenuating circumstances .

Considering the fact anything you write will add additional work for your reader and how important it is to follow instructions, truly reflect on whether or not your case needs explaining in an optional essay.

Good reasons to write optional essays include:

• A low GMAT score or poor academic performance
• Explaining your choice of recommenders
• Explaining any gaps or confusing jumps in your work experience
• Any relevant personal circumstances that have greatly influenced your application
• How you have grown as a candidate since reapplying only if the school you are applying to does not have a dedicated reapplicant essay .

Though it’s tempting to fill every box with information about why you are a great fit for your dream school, resist this temptation and make sure, first and foremost, that you follow instructions .

In a word: brevity .

In some cases, the admissions officer reviewing your file has already read more than 1,000 words before getting to your optional essay.

This means that they don’t need to read a novel about why your boss is not writing one of your letters of recommendation.

In most cases, a simple explanation is more than enough to get the point across.

If you need to explain a shortcoming in your application — such as a low GMAT score — you also want to make sure to provide evidence that you are still well-suited to add value to your target school’s MBA program.

For example, despite building a challenging, high-performance career in the financial markets, this applicant’s Quant score on the GMAT exam was lower than ideal.

To show his score was not an accurate reflection of his abilities, he included this optional essay: “First, I would like to address my low GMAT quantitative score. Math has never been a problem for me. As such, I chose to pursue a career in the financial markets, a very quantitative industry. I have been improving my math skills, mainly in statistics and probability, for more than 10 years at university and in my career. I have also done professional courses in derivatives and risk management, and have passed though the first two stages of the CFA certification process. As a result, despite my low score, I strongly believe that I have the quantitative skills necessary to thrive in the Michigan MBA program.”

Though this is slightly on the long side for an optional essay, the candidate had ample evidence to present to offset his less-than-stellar performance. In the end, the essay was enough to earn him an admissions offer.

Finally, be careful where you draw attention.

If your Quant score on GMAT was 50 rather than an elusive, perfect 51, there is no need to explain this. More likely than not, the admissions committee member reading this optional essay will respond with an eye roll.

As such, think carefully about where your application and/or profile may be slightly below average for the school to which you are applying and address only these issues.

4.5. Video Essays

Though many applicants see video essays as a major headache, they have become increasingly popular, with more and more schools adopting the practice each year.

Considering the stress the video essays cause applicants, why do business schools seem to love the practice?

Niki da Silva, former Director of Admissions at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School (the school that started the whole video essay trend) said that the video essay allows the admissions team to screen for different skills and competencies in the admissions process.

That’s because the video format gives the admissions committee the chance to truly “meet” candidates — as well as identify red flags in applicants.

According to INSEAD’s admissions committee, “ The video should be seen as a unique opportunity for you to share your passions, your motivations and who you truly are. The MBA Admissions Committee is interested in obtaining an authentic view of you as a person, to see how you think on your feet and how you convey your ideas. ”

With that in mind, it’s extremely important to make sure you fully understand this component of the application.

How does the video essay work?

Though the specifics vary slightly from school to school, the general elements of the video essay are relatively similar.

In all cases, you will sign into an online platform (most often you will receive the link to access the platform via email after submitting your application).

After signing in, you will receive a set of questions (usually ranging from 2-4) on a variety of topics ranging from why you want to attend a particular school, to ice breaker questions, to standard interview-type questions.

For all schools, the timing mechanism will be slightly different, but you can expect to have between 20-60 seconds to prepare your answer and between 45-90 seconds to deliver your answers.

In all cases, you can not redo questions .

If you’d like to get a head start in preparing for your video essays, we’ve compiled a list of our top tips (including practice questions!) to ensure you perform at your very best.

5. Editing your Essays

How do you make sure your essays are as professional as they can be, that they reflect your personality, and that they are truly unique?

That’s where editing comes in.

But what is editing good for, anyway?

Why do you need to get your MBA admissions essays edited? You may be an excellent writer, or at least a creative and capable candidate. Do you really need to have your essay edited?

Yes. You do.

Anyone can write a good essay. But to write a great one, you need a bit of expertise and focused direction . That’s what editing can provide.

Editing an essay means taking an in-depth look at all of its aspects. This may range from simple grammar (especially if English isn’t your first language) to content itself and beyond towards storytelling techniques and organization. If you are curious, this article from the University of Leicester gives a detailed overview of the significance of editing.

You may be excellent at perfecting some of these aspects – and feel you may not need an editor – but crafting all of them together to create a truly persuasive essay takes expertise that the average applicant should take advantage of.

Think of your favorite book or that magazine article you read yesterday. The authors are both excellent writers, no doubt. Nevertheless, neither one would even think of putting their words to print before it has landed on the desk of an experienced editor. In fact, that author probably did this multiple times before anyone else even read the title.

The point is, all great writers need great editors. Your MBA admissions essay should be no exception.

What does a good editor do?

So, does a good editor just correct mistakes? Shouldn’t anyone fluent in English be able to do that with a quick read?

Of course not.

First of all, an editor does much more than just proofread your essay. Second of all, editing is not a ‘quick read’ kind of process. (If you want more information about the difference between editing and proofreading, the Writing Center of the University of North Carolina provides this comprehensive overview .)

Many types of editing are essential for a successful MBA admissions essay, so let’s take a closer look at them.

5.1. Strategic vs. Traditional Edits

Here at Ellin Lolis Consulting , we concentrate on two types of editing to make your essay the best it can be. We call these technical edits and strategic edits . But what are they, exactly?

Technical editing: The basic ingredients of an MBA essay

Technical editing is probably what comes to mind when you imagine someone else reading your MBA essay. It includes adapting elements like grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, word choice, and word count . However, executing these changes correctly – and comprehensively – is not always as straightforward as it may seem.

These type of corrections guarantee that your essay adheres to the standard use of the English language. On the one hand, technical editing ensures that your readers can understand what you are saying (and sometimes not even being 100% grammatically correct guarantees that!).

As pointed out in this clarifying article by Shana Lebowitz , grammar or punctuation mistakes can often lead to misunderstandings, or simply ambiguous statements – something you obviously want to avoid in your essay.

On the other hand, these adjustments are often what gives your essay that professional touch.

Although the admissions board is not judging you on your language skills, poor use of language could still contribute negatively to their perception of you. You wouldn’t want to give the admissions board the idea that you don’t pay attention to detail just because you use inconsistent capitalization. Not only are such oversights unnecessary, they are easy to avoid in the first place.

Think of technical editing as the basic ingredients to any MBA essay. They are an essential base for a successful recipe. If nothing else, you need to make sure your essay uses language correctly in order to spice it up later.

Strategic editing: the secret ingredient to an outstanding MBA essay

Strategic editing goes far beyond making sure your use of language is simply correct. Instead, it ensures that your use of language is effective . An effective use of language will be what makes your MBA essay stand out to the admissions board.

Strategic editing includes relevance, story shaping, clarity, and targeting the school . In other words, strategic editing focuses primarily on fine-tuning content.

That is not to say it is your editor’s job to come up with a relevant story for your essay. Instead, it is their job to tell you if the story you’ve chosen is appropriate in the first place and how much detail that story should go into.

Strategic editing is like the secret ingredient to your MBA essay recipe. These edits are the spices that will make your readers – the admissions board – remember your essay for being profound and unique.

5.2. Cutting Words

You may find yourself with an essay that is way too long. How can you go about shortening it?

Although this may seem like a challenge, it is one you can overcome. Our editors are very practiced at this, and are glad to help you if you get stuck.

For example, in a recent essay for UCLA Anderson School of Management, one of our clients found herself with an essay of nearly 900 words; the limit for the essay was 500. Using the following strategies, we were able to get her word count down to 486.

Strategy #1: Revisit your stories

The easiest way to reduce word count is to take another pass at each of your stories. Are there any parts that are repetitive? Is there anything that is not essential to the story? Tangents? Searching for these is a good way to drastically reduce your word count.

Strategy #2: Reduce “of” constructions

There are two ways to express possession in English. Take a look at the difference between these two sentences:

“I won the admiration of my supervisor” (7 words) vs. “ I won my supervisor’s admiration” (5 words)

Simply by trading out the “of” phrase here and replacing it with the possessive noun phrase, you can make your sentences shorter.

Strategy #3: Reduce “I think/wish/believe…” phrases

Everything in your essay is authored by you, a fact that is obvious to your admissions board. Beginning sentences with “I think…” phrases are, therefore, unnecessary. Removing phrases like this not only reduces word count, it will also make your statements stronger. Take a look at the following example:

“I believe that Stanford Graduate School of Business will be the key to furthering my professional career.” (17 words)

Now take a look at the sentence with the “I think…” phrase removed:

“Stanford Graduate School of Business will be the key to furthering my professional career.” (14 words)

Strategy #4: Reduce passive voice

You are the center of your essay, so the action should always be focused on you. This means you should avoid being the object of the sentence and passive voice.

Take a look at this example:

“The project was completed by my team in November 2017.” (10 words)

Here, the project is the subject of the sentence and in focus, not your team. Instead, you could bring the focus back to you by phrasing it like this:

“My team completed the project in November 2017.” (8 words)

This is only one example of passive voice and how you can reduce it in your MBA admissions essay, but there are other passive constructions that you can watch for. If you want to learn more about how to avoid passive voice, the University of Toronto offers some insightful writing advice on the topic.

These tips will help reduce your word count while unlocking your MBA essay’s true potential. Not only will their application limit your essay to the most essential information, it will make sure your reader gets an authentic look at the person behind the words.

5.3. A Word on Feedback

Self-reflection of any type is challenging.

It can be a complex task to identify your profile’s strengths and then develop a surgically precise essay to demonstrate how these strengths demonstrate you’d be a great fit for your dream school.

For that reason, feedback on your essays can be a fantastic tool to ensure that your writing is well-structured and compelling.

However, it’s important to carefully consider who you approach for feedback.

Though friends and family members are surely some of your greatest supporters during your MBA process, they may not be the best editors for your application essays.

This is because they are unlikely to know what the school’s are really looking for in terms of values, achievements, and career plans. They can be helpful with more personal essays, like Stanford, and can be a good gauge of how authentic your essay is.

For more specific feedback on how your essay captures what a particular school offers, you may want to share your essay with alumni or current students from that program . They can often cue you in to new offerings that might not be widely publicized and can help you capture the essence of their alma maters .

A word of caution, however. Every person will have a slightly different view on what you should add or change , so make sure to limit the number of people you approach for feedback to ensure your essay doesn’t become a wandering road with no destination.

Finally, although editing may seem straightforward, it involves much more than just touching up grammar and straightening out stray sentences. Technical editing, although important, is not enough to really get your essay into shape .

Instead, it is the combination of technical editing with the more complex strategic editing that will make your MBA admissions essay truly stand out. Taking advantage of both of these is essential for creating an essay that your admissions board will remember.

Of course, there is nothing better than working with a professional. Here at Ellin Lolis Consulting , we have the experience to strategically edit your essay to make it as intriguing, unique, and professional as possible. Contact us today to help you get the ball rolling on your MBA admissions essay.

6. Make Sure your Story Shines

It’s no secret that elite MBAs receive applications from many more applicants than they can admit.

But did you know that Harvard estimates that 80% of it’s 10,000+ applicants are fully qualified to attend?

Considering these stats, it’s not just important that your achievements essays help you stand out from a large crowd of qualified professionals, it is essential that they do so .

Yet crafting the perfect essay is easier said than done.

That’s why many candidates turn to us to help put our 99% acceptance rate and personalized approach to work for them .

Not only can we help you develop a strong personal brand and identify the achievements that will best reinforce your brand, our expert team of editors can also ensure you’re able to turn ideas into essays that cut through the noise and help the admissions committee connect with you and your ideas.

As our client (and Berkeley Haas grad) Kelsey Pecherer said, “I was so impressed with Ellin Lolis Consulting’s eye for detail, and her ability to help me refine my points without losing my voice in the essays. They understand the specific characteristics that each top MBA program is looking for. ”

Want to put the Ellin Lolis Advantage to work for your admissions essays?

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20 Must-Read MBA Essay Tips

Business school admissions committees care about more than (just) your  GMAT scores and GPA —they want to know who you are and why you belong in their program . Your MBA essays are your best chance to sell the person behind the résumé. They should tie all the pieces of your business school application together and create a comprehensive picture of who you are, what you've done, and what you bring to the table.  Here's a roundup of our best MBA essay tips to keep in mind as you begin to write.

How to Write an Unforgettable B-School Essay

1. communicate that you are a proactive, can-do sort of person..

Business schools want leaders, not applicants content with following the herd.

2. Put yourself on ego-alert.

Stress what makes you unique, not what makes you number one.

3. Communicate specific reasons why you're great fit for each school.

Simply stating "I am the ideal candidate for your program" won't convince the admission committee to push you into the admit pile.

Read More: Find Your Business School

4. Bring passion to your writing.

Admissions officers want to know what excites you. And if you'll bring a similar enthusiasm to the classroom.

5. Break the mold.

Challenge perceptions with unexpected essays that say, "There's more to me than you think."

6. If you've taken an unorthodox path to business school, play it up.

Admissions officers appreciate risk-takers.

7. Talk about your gender, ethnicity, minority status or foreign background....

But only if it has affected your outlook or experiences.

8. Fill your essays with plenty of real-life examples.

Specific anecdotes and vivid details make a much greater impact than general claims and broad summaries.

9. Demonstrate a sense of humor or vulnerability.

You're a real person, and it's okay to show it!

BONUS: Don't Make These MBA Essay Mistakes

1. write about your high school glory days. .

Admissions committees don't care if you were editor of the yearbook or captain of the varsity team. They expect their candidates to have moved onto more current, professional achievements.

2. Submit essays that don't answer the questions.

An off-topic essay, or one that merely restates your résumé, will frustrate and bore the admissions committee. More importantly, it won't lead to any new insight about you.

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3. Fill essays with industry jargon.

Construct your essays with only enough detail about your job to frame your story and make your point.

4. Reveal half-baked reasons for wanting the MBA.

Admissions officers favor applicants who have well-defined goals. However unsure you are about your future, it's critical that you demonstrate that you have a plan.

5. Exceed the recommended word limits.

This suggests you don't know how to follow directions, operate within constraints or organize your thoughts.

6. Submit an application full of typos and grammatical errors.

A sloppy application suggests a sloppy attitude.

7. Send one school an essay intended for another—or forget to change the school name when using the same essay for several applications.

Admissions committees are (understandably) insulted when they see another school's name or forms.

8. Make excuses.

If your undergraduate experience was one long party, be honest. Discuss how you've matured, both personally and professionally.

9. Be impersonal in the personal statement.

Many applicants avoid the personal like the plague. Instead of talking about how putting themselves through school lowered their GPA, they talk about the rising cost of tuition in America. Admissions officers want to know about YOU.

Read More: How to Ace Your MBA Interview

10. Make too many generalizations.

An essay full of generalizations is a giveaway that you don't have anything to say.

11. Write in a vacuum.

Make sure that each of your essays reinforce and build on the others to present a consistent and compelling representation of who you are, what you've done, and what you bring to the table.

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7 tips for writing a winning mba application essay.

Nervous about your MBA admissions essay? You’re not alone! Many applicants wonder how to put their best foot forward in a business school entrance essay.

In this article, I’ll tell you what admissions committees look for in application essays and offer MBA essay tips on how to make yours stand out. We’ll also take a look at the different kinds of business school essays and a few examples of MBA essay prompts.

Why Do Business Schools Ask for Essays? What Do They Look For?

Business schools ask for essays for several reasons, all of which help admissions committees determine whether you have the skills and traits to succeed in an MBA program.

First, MBA admissions committees want to see how you write. Communication skills—including concision, clarity, style, and fluency in English—will be essential to your success in business school. One way of discerning your level of writing ability is to require an original writing sample. In an MBA essay, you have to get your point across straightforwardly, elegantly, and concisely; being able to do this is a key element of succeeding in business school and the world of business in general.

Also, MBA admissions committees want to get a sense of who you are on a more personal level. MBA application essays tell admissions officials about you not only through what you say, but in how you say it. Are you self-aware, for example, and can you reflect on past challenges or mistakes in a thoughtful way? Do you demonstrate insight into who you are and your goals? How you answer questions about yourself, your career, and your journey can help MBA admissions officials discern your level of critical thinking and personal insight.

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You can have countless accomplishments, but to succeed in business school, you’ll also need to fit in with the campus climate, work well with your peers, and contribute to campus diversity in a meaningful way. The MBA essay is a place for you to talk about the background or experiences you have that are unique to you and that you believe could differentiate you from your colleagues and/or provide a fresh perspective to campus.

Finally, essays are a way for you to showcase the qualities that most MBA programs say they are looking for in applicants, such as leadership skills, community involvement, problem-solving skills, communication skills, clear goals, and a strong sense of ethics. Some of these traits might not be readily apparent from a resume alone, and an MBA essay can be a place for you to elaborate on how you’ve cultivated them in yourself.

MBA Entrance Essay Sample Prompts

Most MBA entrance essays ask you about one of several things. Many of them are variations on similar questions: the open-ended question, the leadership question, the personal growth question, questions on short- and long-term academic and career goals, and the diversity question. For each one, I’ll give an example of a real MBA essay prompt from 2016 or 2017.

#1: Open-Ended

The open-ended MBA application essay question is just that: open. It allows you to tell your own story, giving you quite a bit of freedom but also little to no guidance. For that reason, many applicants find it to be the most challenging MBA essay prompt.

Harvard Business School has only one essay for its MBA application, and it’s the quintessential open-ended MBA essay question. This is the prompt for 2017-2018 applicants.

As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program?

Note that, as in other open-ended MBA admission essay prompts, this question asks you to decide what you’ll write about. Successful Harvard applicants and HBS admissions counselors have advised applicants to use the prompt as a chance to demonstrate their past use of an especially desired trait, such as problem-solving skills. For example, many successful applicants use the prompt to describe a scenario in which they faced and overcame a challenge, especially as a leader or alongside a team.

Notably, Harvard also doesn’t list a word limit, so you can decide the appropriate length for your essay. However, most admissions counselors will advise you to keep it concise and straightforward.

#2: Leadership

Another common MBA essay prompt asks you to demonstrate your experience and skills as a leader. Leadership qualities are listed by nearly all MBA admissions counselors as fundamental to a career in business and, thus, to a successful business school application.

Let’s look at a sample leadership MBA essay prompt from Kellogg.

Leadership and teamwork are integral parts of the Kellogg experience. Describe a recent and meaningful time you were a leader. What challenges did you face, and what did you learn? (450 words)

In a response to this kind of prompt, you should be as specific as possible. Name the company you were working for or specifically describe the project you were heading. Who was on your team? What were your objectives? Did you meet them? How could you have done so more effectively?

While you shouldn’t be overly self-deprecating, don’t be afraid to address the challenges you met and how you overcame them (or would overcome them now, with more experience and knowledge). Remember that one important aspect of leadership is accountability, so if there were problems, don’t solely blame your team for them. Instead, reflect on how you successfully worked with your team to solve the problems, and/or on how you could have done so more effectively or efficiently.

#3: Personal Growth

The personal growth MBA admission essay prompt will ask you how you’ve changed in the past and how you want to grow in the future. Here’s one example from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.

Pursuing an MBA is a catalyst for personal and professional growth. How have you grown in the past? How do you intend to grow at Kellogg? (450 words)

Don’t be afraid to get a bit personal with these kinds of prompts . They’re meant to gauge something about your personality and who you are, rather than only what you’ve done.

Many successful MBA admission essays that respond to these kinds of questions follow a past/present/future format. Ask yourself what traits you’ve gathered over the years that have benefited you personally and professionally, how you’ve improved, and what you’ve learned. What experiences have shaped you? Be as specific as possible.

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Then, take stock of yourself now: your career, your education, and where you see yourself in the future. What do you need in order to get there?

Finally, most essay MBA prompts in this vein (like Kellogg’s) will ask you how they can help you move towards that personal or professional goal. Be as specific as you can, focusing on the particular strengths of the prospective MBA program and how they match up with what you want to improve about yourself as a person, colleague, and leader.

#4: Your Plan

Some MBA application essay prompts will ask you about your career goals and how attendance at a particular business school will help you to achieve them. Let’s look at one from the USC Marshall School of Business.

Essay #1 (Required) – What is your specific, immediate short-term career goal upon completion of your MBA? Please include an intended position, function, and industry in your response. (word limit: 100)

As you can see, questions like these often request brief responses. So get straight to the point, and give details. Name a specific job you’d like to hold, what you’d like to do there, and even particular companies if you can.

Questions like this one will require some research. Research alumni from your prospective business school who’ve ended up in positions comparable to ones you’d like to hold in the future, particular companies and positions that match up with your personal and professional goals, and specific coursework or industry experiences offered by your prospective business school that would help you get there.

#5: Diversity, Culture, and Community

Finally, some MBA essay prompts will ask you how your unique background and experiences would contribute to the overall diversity and collegial atmosphere of a school’s campus climate and community. Here’s one example from USC.

Essay #2 (Required) – At Marshall, we take pride in the fact that our students work collaboratively, both inside and outside the classroom, to create a culture, a community, and an environment that truly defines what we call the Trojan Family. Please describe the contributions you expect to make to your classmates during your time at USC. How will they benefit from your presence in the program? (word limit: 500)

You can respond to questions like this, depending on the wording of the original prompt, by discussing your cultural background, identity, and/or personal experiences that have given you particular insight into a given community or that have lent you a unique perspective that could be valuable to your colleagues as you collaborate.

You can also discuss past community service projects or issues you’re passionate about and how you plan to carry those experiences and passions into your work at your prospective MBA program.

7 MBA Essay Tips

Writing MBA essays takes a particular skill set. Let’s go over the top seven MBA essay tips for making your application essay shine.

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#1: Write Early and Often

Even though MBA entrance essays are brief, they take a lot of polishing. Writing MBA essays takes time.

Don’t expect to write yours at the last minute or knock out a quality essay in a day. Most students need several drafts to make sure they’re getting their points across as elegantly and clearly as possible.

Start your essay well before the application deadline, when you don’t yet feel any pressure. For several weeks, don’t try to write at all. Instead, before crafting your essay for MBA admission, take notes on your past, present, and future. What have you learned? What unique experiences have you had? What have been the most meaningful projects you’ve undertaken? Ask friends, family, and mentors to tell you what they value most about you or what they see as your greatest personal and professional assets.

Only once you’ve gathered this material should you begin your first draft of your MBA application essay. Start with an outline for each one that includes the story you want to tell and the main points you want to get across.

Once you have a clear outline, you can start drafting. Taking the writing process seriously from start to finish will give you a much better product in the end than trying to write something hastily right before the deadline.

#2: Show, Don’t Tell

MBA admissions committees want to be able to tell that you have the qualities that are necessary to succeed in business school, such as leadership skills and integrity.

Your MBA admissions essay can be a great place to showcase those qualities. However, remember to show, not tell. Saying “I have strong leadership skills” doesn’t tell an admissions committee much. Through an anecdote about, say, meeting a difficult deadline or overcoming an obstacle, a reader should be able to tell that you have the qualities of a strong leader without your having to say so explicitly.

#3: Research Your Goals

When describing your future goals, be as specific as possible. Business schools know that your goals may change in the future, but stating specific goals now will show that you’ve done your research and have an idea of what you want and how an MBA program can help you get there.

Before writing your essay for MBA admission, research the ins and outs of the industry you want to enter, the position you’d like to have, companies you might like to work for, and coursework and internships or fieldwork that could aid you on your way to those goals.

#4: Keep It Concise

Never, ever go over a stated word count limit when you’re writing your essay for MBA admission. It might be tempting, but business schools want to see that you can get your point across concisely and straightforwardly.This rule goes for MBA essay prompts that don’t have specific word counts, too: sometimes, less is more.

One of the biggest mistakes applicants make in writing an essay for MBA admission is to use too much flowery language to come across as more professional. If you do this, it can be distracting and cause the admissions committee to miss the main points you’re making.

Bottom line, trim anything extraneous from your essay —that is, anything that doesn’t actively support the main point(s) you’re trying to get across.

#5: Show Self-Awareness

It might feel tempting to use the MBA admission essay as a space to list all of your accomplishments (and since your resume is already part of your application, this is unnecessary), but MBA admissions committees would rather see that you have insight into both your strengths and weaknesses. No one is perfect, and in your essay for MBA admission, you shouldn’t try to come across as if you’ve never made a mistake or faced a challenge that you’ve had to learn from.

Also, in business school and the business world at large, bouncing back from failures, being flexible, and problem solving are all essential skills. All of them require a thick skin and awareness of what you could do better.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t showcase your achievements, but if you’re asked about personal growth or an obstacle you’ve overcome, be clear about what you could have done more effectively in the past (at a job or in your education, for example) and the steps you’ve taken or will take to sidestep that mistake in the future.

#6: Share Your Personal Journey

Many applicants would prefer to focus only on their professional backgrounds and goals in their MBA essays, but you shouldn’t be afraid to get personal in your essay. You don’t need to tell your whole life story, but especially in response to questions that ask about your growth over time, you should showcase your personality and give the admissions committee an idea of your personal background and experiences.

#7: Ask for Edits

It might seem obvious, but many applicants don’t do it: proofread your work! When writing MBA essays, revision is key. Turning in an MBA essay with typos and other errors will come off as thoughtless and unprofessional.

You should also get a second (and, perhaps, a third and fourth) pair of eyes on your essay to make sure it’s coming across as you want it to. Going through several rounds of drafts is a necessary part of the writing process to ensure that you’re putting your best foot forward in your MBA entrance essay.

What’s Next?

Worried about how your GMAT score matches up to other applicants’? Find out more in our list of average GMAT scores by school.

Concerned about your chances of getting into an MBA program? Our guide to business school acceptance rates will help.

Ready to apply to business school? Check out our top eight tips for applying to MBA programs here.

Was this helpful? Sign up for FREE GMAT and MBA guides!

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Author: Laura Dorwart

Laura Dorwart is a Ph.D. student at UC San Diego. She has taught and tutored hundreds of students in standardized testing, literature, and writing. View all posts by Laura Dorwart

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Most graduate business programs require applicants to submit at least one MBA essay as part of the application process. Admissions committees use essays, along with other application components , to determine whether or not you are a good fit for their business school. A well-written MBA essay can increase your chances of acceptance and help you stand out among other applicants.

Choosing an MBA Essay Topic

In most cases, you will be assigned a topic or instructed to answer a specific question. However, there are some schools that allow you to choose a topic or select from a shortlist of provided topics.

If you are given the opportunity to choose your own MBA essay topic, you should make strategic choices that allow you to highlight your best qualities. This may include an essay that demonstrates your leadership ability, an essay that showcases your ability to overcome obstacles or an essay that clearly defines your career goals.

Chances are, you will be asked to submit multiple essays, usually two or three. You may also have the opportunity to submit an "optional essay ." Optional essays are usually guideline and topic free, which means you can write about anything you want. Find out when to use the optional essay .

Whatever topic you choose, be sure to come up with stories that support the topic or answer a specific question. Your MBA essay should be focused and feature you as the central player.

Common MBA Essay Topics

Remember, most business schools will provide you with a topic to write on. Although topics can vary from school to school, there are a few common topics/questions that can be found on many business school applications. They include:

• Why attend this business school?
• What are your career goals?
• What are your short-term and long-term goals?
• What will you do with your degree?
• How will a degree help you achieve your goals?
• Why do you want an MBA?
• What matters to you most and why?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• What is your biggest accomplishment?
• What is your biggest regret?
• How have you failed in the past?
• How do you respond to adversity?
• What challenges have you overcome?
• Who do you admire most and why?
• Who are you?
• How will you contribute to this program?
• Why do you have leadership potential?
• How do you explain weaknesses in your academic record?

Answer the Question

One of the biggest mistakes that MBA applicants make is not answering the question they are asked. If you are asked about your professional goals, then professional goals should be the focus of the essay. If you are asked about your failures, you should discuss mistakes you have made and lessons you have learned, not accomplishments or success.

Stick to the topic and avoid beating around the bush. Your essay should be direct and pointed from start to finish. It should also focus on you. Remember, an MBA essay is meant to introduce you to the admissions committee. You should be the main character of the story. It is okay to describe admiring someone else, learning from someone else, or helping someone else, but these mentions should support the story of you, not cover it up.

Basic Essay Tips

As with any essay assignment, you'll want to carefully follow any instructions you are given. Again, answer the question assigned to you, keep it focused and concise. It is also important to pay attention to word counts. If you are asked for a 500-word essay, you should aim for 500 words, rather than 400 or 600. Make every word count.

Your essay should also be readable and grammatically correct. The entire paper should be free of errors. Do not use special paper or a crazy font. Keep it simple and professional. Above all, give yourself enough time to write your MBA essays. You don’t want to have to slop through them and turn in something that's less than your best work simply because you had to meet a deadline.

More Essay Writing Tips

Remember that the #1 rule when writing an MBA essay is to answer the question/stay on topic. When you have finished your essay, ask at least two people to proofread it and guess the topic or question you were trying to answer. If they do not guess correctly, you should revisit the essay and adjust the focus until your proofreaders can easily tell what the essay is supposed to be about.

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