onTrack: Craft Winning MBA Personal Statements

At virtually all top business schools, MBA applicants are asked to respond to an MBA essay prompt that is similar to the following: “Why do you need an MBA? What are your short- and long-term goals? Why do you want to study at our program?” These essays are known as “MBA personal statements,” and the MBA personal statement is an absolutely critical component of the MBA application process. MBA admissions committees rely on MBA personal statements to gauge the seriousness and sincerity of each applicant. Applicants leverage the MBA personal statement to identify thoughtful and ambitious goals and therefore to signal their path and potential to the MBA admissions committees. Applicants also use the MBA personal statement to showcase a comprehensive plan for their MBA studies. The MBA admissions committees read the “Why our school?” portion of the personal statement in particular to understand whether the applicant has done sufficient “homework” on their program—whether the applicant has truly taken the time to learn about the school and identify their fit. If an applicant cannot establish thoughtful goals and “fit” with their target program in their MBA personal statement, then the applicant is highly unlikely to gain that coveted letter of acceptance.

MBA personal statement prompts vary in their wording, but most require MBA applicants to establish three core elements: context, goals, and fit.

MBA applicants need to establish context for where they are in their careers and then connect their existing capabilities to their (still reasonable but) “stretch” goals for the future. MBA applicants need to show a probable path from their current professional position to their post-MBA ambitions and then link the two by revealing that the MBA degree is what will facilitate that leap. Ideally, MBA applicants will research each MBA program’s resources and develop a thoughtful and comprehensive argument for why their academic and professional needs can be exceedingly well served by each program. By thoughtfully tailoring their responses, applicants will signal “fit” to the MBA admissions committee and will therefore have included all three necessary components of an MBA personal statement.

Most MBA admissions committees limit MBA personal statements to five hundred words, though some are shorter. An MBA personal statement’s word limit is rarely longer than five hundred words, but it does happen. As an applicant, you should adhere to the word limit the school sets and not exceed it by more than a few words, maybe 5%, at most. Similarly, you should strive to write to the limit and not go under the word count by more than 5%. Regardless of the essay’s word count, you need to ensure that you answer the question in full, and in the vast majority of circumstances, you should include three key elements: context, goals, and fit.

MBA personal statement prompts and word limits are rarely identical from one school to another, so copying and pasting simply will not work. Moreover, even though your context and goals will not change much from program to program, the portion of your personal statement that discusses “why our school” must absolutely be thoughtfully established, referencing the unique resources of each business school. So, even though you might be able to reuse your context and goals from one MBA personal statement to the next, your “why our school” discussion must be new for each of your target programs to ensure that you are creating a sincere message for that program. If you are copying and pasting the “why our school” portion of your personal statement, you are definitely writing at far too surface of a level, and the MBA admissions committee will take note of this. They will determine that you are being careless or lazy—certainly not the message you want to convey.

Admissions committees are looking for conviction and purpose in your MBA personal statement. When you provide thoughtful context, present ambitious (but realistic) goals, and reveal fit with the program, MBA admissions committees get a strong sense of your overall purpose, and they will ultimately perceive you as a mature, capable, and directed MBA applicant. When the MBA admissions committee finishes reading your personal statement, they should have a very clear understanding of why you need an MBA to accelerate your career after graduating and of how your MBA will ultimately set you on a path toward outstanding career, personal, and societal accomplishments.

Identifying and discussing thoughtful career goals in your MBA personal statement is absolutely critical. Moreover, virtually all MBA programs will ask you to discuss your short- and long-term career goals, and these goals must have a cause-and-effect relationship. Your long-term goals must flow from your short-term goals. If you do not share thoughtful goals that you are capable of achieving, then the MBA admissions committee will assume that you are applying to business school without direction and purpose. That is indeed the very opposite of the message that you want to send the admissions committee.

For more on discussing career goals in your MBA personal statement, check out onTrack by mbaMission’s many post-MBA career goals modules and the personal statement module.

In your MBA personal statement, you need to establish fit. You can reveal fit by sharing the coursework, experiential opportunities, professional club activities, and yes, the nonacademic experiences you will seek to partake in while in business school. When you write your MBA personal statement, your goal is to establish your plan for your time on campus. While the social or nonacademic element cannot be the main topic of your MBA personal statement, you can nonetheless write about your connection to the softer aspects of the campus environment, the city in which the business school is located, and/or the hobbies or personal adventures that a location might offer, as just a few examples.

Every MBA personal statement should be reviewed by a thoughtful third party who has excellent written communication skills. The stakes are simply too high for you to submit such a key application element without receiving any feedback on it first. If you are uncertain about whether you have truly mastered your personal statement—whether you have provided sufficient professional context, thoughtfully communicated your short- and long-term goals, and communicated your fit with your target MBA program—you might want to seek the opinion of an mbaMission consultant who has critically reviewed countless personal statements and can help ensure that yours contains all the necessary elements and conveys a profound sense of conviction.

You should strive to create a reasoned argument for why you fit with your target MBA program, rather than just a list of reasons you would like to attend. So, you need to research the curriculum, pedagogy, course offerings, experiential opportunities, professional clubs, social outlets, professional opportunities upon graduation, and other key elements and identify two to four themes that reflect how the program meets your needs. Maybe you have specific academic gaps in finance and operations, for example. You could then write about your target MBA program’s various resources in these areas and reveal how you will take advantage of those opportunities. Then, you might explain the softer, nonacademic aspects of your fit, such as the social clubs you would take advantage of and the opportunities the host city or campus provides. You might even mention the people with whom you have engaged while researching the business school, but be careful not to name-drop. Instead, share what you have learned from the students, admissions officers, and alumni you have engaged with. As the admissions officer reads your file, they should have a clear sense that you are coming to campus with a plan and that you truly know that you belong in the program.

MBA personal statements are not typically the place to discuss a challenge or setback. Although doing so is not forbidden, and in some cases, you might need to explain how you overcame an obstacle or needed to pivot in your career to establish your professional context, writing about a challenge or setback in your MBA personal statement would be more the exception than the norm.

You should definitely create a reasoned argument for why you want to attend your target program, and that can—and most often should—include mentioning professors and myriad other academic and practical resources at the school that will enable you to express how the program will meet your needs or bridge your academic and professional gaps. You cannot just provide a list of professors or resources, however; you need to show that you understand your growth areas and recognize that your target program has a range of resources that meet your needs and will enable you to develop and thrive as a professional.

MBA applicants make two major mistakes when they write personal statements. First, they write about their goals in vague terms and therefore do not establish that they are directed in their careers. Some of these applicants write generally about their “wants” and do not truly consider their capabilities. Such an applicant might write that they want to be an entrepreneur, despite having no entrepreneurial background, or that they want to go into hedge funds, despite having limited financial experience. The admissions committee would read the applicant’s essay and most likely reject them, because the applicant would not be conveying awareness or seriousness. You need to share your thoughtful and credible goals—not your wishes, but plausible dreams.

Second, some applicants do not do sufficient research on their target MBA programs and write about the schools in a very general way, making claims that could apply to any program. When you are done writing your MBA personal statement, read it critically, and ask yourself, “Could what I have written be applied to another program?” If the answer is yes, you have a problem. Sometimes, applicants will offer a list of classes or clubs they claim to be interested in but do not provide any depth to their reasoning. Essentially, they submit a list of resources that the school offers, rather than creating a persuasive statement about why they need the resources. You, of course, need to do the latter. You cannot make this mistake. The admissions committee will reject an applicant who does not reveal that critical personal and professional fit with the MBA program.