Blog: Archive for the “Essays” Category

INSEAD candidates must respond to four short career-focused queries (a fifth one is optional) and provide two motivation essays (with an optional third).  Applicants are also tasked with completing a video component for which they answer four questions as four separate video recordings. Given the total number of prompts, tasks, and questions involved, some candidates … Read More  

Emory University’s Goizueta Business School demands three short-answer questions, two relatively brief written essays, and a one-minute “small talk” video essay from its applicants. Two of the three short-answer questions address common MBA essay topics: one’s short-term career objectives and how the school can help the applicant achieve them. The third, however, asks candidates to … Read More  

In addition to completing a short video, applicants to Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management must submit two brief (200-word) statements as part of their application. The first prompt is professionally focused, requesting that candidates expound on their intentions for their career after graduation and explain what capabilities they already possess that will position … Read More  

The Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford takes a rather minimalist approach to application essays, asking its candidates to compose only one short, traditional written submission. The essay’s prompt gives applicants the leeway to share whatever additional information they believe the school needs to fully evaluate them, so they do not have to … Read More  

IESE, like all business schools, is in search of capable, ambitious candidates who know why they need an MBA and what they want to do once they have one. The school does not demand too much from its applicants with respect to written essays, requiring just one 300-word submission, but candidates must also record a … Read More