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As you are working on your MBA applications, you will inevitably come across an opportunity to write an optional essay. Virtually every application has one. But do you need to write an optional essay? What exactly is it for? And who should use it? Most business schools offer the optional essay as a space where … Read More  

In the late 2000s, Harvard Business School (HBS) made a change to its application essay questions that surprised many. Its previously mandatory “long- and short-term goals” essay prompt changed its focus more broadly to “career vision” and became one of four topic choices from which applicants could select two. Immediately, MBA candidates tried to read … Read More  

The application essay requirements for the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame are fairly straightforward—or at least the written one is. First, you must provide a brief statement of purpose that covers your immediate career goal and how the school can help you achieve it. Then, you are asked to write … Read More  

Applicants to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School must provide two written essays of no more than 500 words each. The school’s first essay question requests several common elements of a traditional personal statement—career goals, why our school—plus a less common Plan B option. For the second required essay, candidates … Read More  

The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management asks you to provide several short essays, one of which is a very standard explanation of your professional aspirations and motivation for pursuing an MBA. The three brief Membership Application essays are meant to reveal evidence of your active dedication to The Consortium’s goals of inclusion and progressive … Read More