Blog: Archive for the “Essays” Category

The Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) requires only two essays of its candidates, though its long-standing first essay question—about “what matters most” to applicants—is one we have seen many people struggle with over the years. The largely open-ended nature of the prompt often stymies candidates, who understandably want to avoid making any wrong moves … Read More  

The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business has long highlighted the strength of its community, the way students collaborate both inside and outside the classroom to learn and grow, and the value of bringing people from diverse backgrounds and with differing mind-sets together, and the school’s application essay prompts focus on all these ideas. … Read More  

The two application essay prompts for the New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business demand that candidates tap into their personality and character and convey a bit of their creative side. But first, the school poses a straightforward and rather traditional question about applicants’ short-term professional aspirations, limiting the response to a succinct 150 … Read More  

Applicants to the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University must submit two written essays. For the first, candidates are asked to provide a somewhat short, but dense, explanation of their path to and motivation for pursuing an MBA from Kellogg and their vision for their professional future. The second essay deals with an experience … Read More  

As a pair, the prompts for the two required application essays for the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania essentially ask candidates to describe a kind of give-and-take with respect to their engagement with the MBA program. For Essay 1, you must discuss what Wharton can do for you, and for Essay 2, the … Read More