Recently, the Stern School of Business (New York University) has published the essay topics for its next admissions season. This year, the first essay must be focused on one’s professional goals and plans. Here, the candidates will have to explain why they need the MBA degree as well as why Stern School of Business is their best choice
Such essays as described above require drawing up a detailed career plan and researching the target university (Stern). According to the Stern School Dean of Admissions, to enter business school, you must already know what you want to do with your professional life and have an understanding of how your business sphere works. Stern doesn’t need people who haven’t yet decided whether they really want to pursue their chosen career.
Secondly, your education investment is large and irreversible (for Stern School of Business, it’s as much as $133,000 in tuition fees). That’s why your decision to pursue a certain career at a certain school has to be informed and backed by your desire to study. Otherwise, you’ll just lose money on a degree you didn’t really need.
To make sure you are making the right choice, the Dean of Admissions insists you should go through the school’s website very thoroughly and search the Web for every little detail that might prove useful.
The second essay does not offer candidates a choice, as it did the previous year. Now, the only second essay topic available is as follows:
“Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use almost any method to convey your message (e.g., words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative”.
Last year, you could choose between the topic mentioned above and another one, which asked you to talk about two different possible ways your career may go in the future. The Dean of Admissions believes that the “Personal Expression” topic is much more expressive and creative.
There has been no statistics collected about how many applicants choose to send in written essays as opposed to making an ‘essay’ with videos, mini-sculptures, pictures, music, etc. A multimedia essay is not required, but it shows your creativity.
Of course, there are several limitations to how you can make this personalized ‘essay’: namely, you cannot send in food or old clothes. The Dean of Admissions told us an anecdote about a candidate who made sushi and sent it to the school, but, as time had passed before his message got through, the food didn’t look its best. Some future students have tried to impress the admissions committee with the size of their ‘essay’ items, so another limitation was added to the fine print.
Stern School of Business isn’t the only one using this kind of ‘essay’: other top business schools like Harvard University have adopted the prompt as well.
The Stern School Dean of Admissions told us about some mistakes many applicants are prone to. In his opinion, the most common faux pas may be getting too personal in your essays (especially the second one). If you cannot share certain information in a business environment (e.g. with your superiors at work), you should not include it in your essay.
Except for the two essays named above, you can submit an additional third one. It’s usually composed to include some information that would be out of place in the other two essays: retaking tests like TOEFL or GMAT, career gaps and reasons for them, etc. Also, this third essay may be used to explain why the candidate could not obtain a letter of recommendation from their boss.
Now, when you know everything about admissions essays and their possible pitfalls, you don’t have to be afraid of anything when you apply to business school! Choose a university that suits you best, and good luck with your future MBA career!
Back to top