The MBA Admissions Committee changes its sets of questions almost every year, not least to prevent the plagiarism of past essays, but behind the various “shells” there are usually the same questions that candidates have always asked. Here are five common types of MBA admissions essays and some tips on how to deal with them:
MBA Essay Type 1: Past and future careers; why MBA?
Example: What is your opinion on MBA studies? MBA studies are a catalyst for personal and professional growth. How have you grown in the past? How do you intend to grow in the company where you currently work?
Keywords: Past, present, future, career, goal, progress, plan, aspirations, choice, ambition, decision, position, goal, intent, goal, purpose, life, short, long term.
You have to carefully shape the answer to the question “why an MBA” according to whether the question asks more about your past: “What led you to get an MBA?”, Or your future: “What will you do when you finish your studies? ? How will an MBA help you? ” Note that the question potentially has five parts that cover three time periods:
- What experiences have led you to this point and to this ambition?
- Present – why an MBA right now, at this point in your career?
- The future – what do you want to do with your title in the short and long term?)
- Why an MBA at all? (Why not another kind of master’s degree or doctorate?)
- Why an MBA at this school?
The “why MBA” question asks how your past relates to your future. You have to show how the MBA is the bridge between your yesterday and tomorrow. You can present the past, present and future in any order, but you need to paint a picture of the future that naturally relies on what you have done before, plus an MBA from the school you are applying to.
MBA Essay Type 2: Weaknesses and Failure
Example: As part of your work, focus on your strengths and weaknesses: What have you learned from your most spectacular failure?
Keywords: Weakness, lesson, failure, failure, error, limitation, criticism, lack, fate, feedback, go wrong, error, weakness.
To succeed with this question, be aware that this type of MBA essay is not set up to determine if you have weaknesses or fails. Everyone has weaknesses and everyone has failed sometimes. He doubts how you reacted, what view of yourself you gained, and how you grew as a result. Above all, it is tested whether you have enough self-observation talent to be able to find and admit your trouble, and whether you have enough insight to be able to talk about it in a mature way.
The MBA admissions committee wants to know if you are trying to understand your own mistakes and can talk about them openly or work on them, or if you will try to hide them and / or blame them or other people – signs of immaturity and future bad managers . The Commission (and your future bosses, partners and employees) will usually forgive you for the mistakes you make if you are big enough to take responsibility for them and if you learn from them quickly.
MBA Essay Type 3: Leadership
Example: Tell us about your most significant management experience and the role you played in it. How will this experience contribute to the learning environment at EIFM?
Keywords: Lead, motivate, initiative, influence, lead, direct, direction, responsibility, decision, inspire, encourage, power, influence, direct, organize, mentor, motivate.
Leadership (and teamwork) will be the guiding theme of each of your applications. The MBA Admissions Committee asks you in this area not only to find out if you have “the right prerequisites” for leadership, but also to find out how you understand and how you approach leadership and how you work with people. Part of having the right assumptions is knowing what it is. Mere experience with a leadership position does not necessarily mean that you were good at it. You have to show them that you understand what is good.
You must also demonstrate a clear knowledge of your personal leadership style – how you influence, motivate, sanction, inspire others to succeed, and so on – and the preferences that underpin your approach. You should show respect for management difficulties in all management analyzes. If you think leadership is easy, you never really did.
MBA Essay Type 4: Uniqueness and Diversity
Example: What unique values can you bring through your education and professional experience to enrich your MBA teaching at the EIFM?
Keywords: Contribute, diversity, experience, knowledge, scope, skills, enrich, talent, expertise, influence, expertise, background, distinctive, qualities, diversity, strengthen, develop, unique.
Here, the admissions committee wants to know what sets you apart in your background, skills, experience, or education and will be uniquely valuable to your cohort and program in general. While other essays aim to find out if you fit into an MBA, this tests whether you can stand out from the crowd.
Let’s put it this way: in various other essays and sections of the application, candidates state the reasons why the MBA admissions committee should not reject them – they cover all the basics and meet the necessary criteria. However, this way you will not give the commission a convincing, positive reason to accept you. In this type of MBA essays they look for a reason to say “yes”.
MBA 5 Essay Type: Ethics and Values
Example: Ethics and morality, ethics and morality, ethics and morality: Describe the situation with the greatest ethical complexity that you have faced in your professional or academic life and how your contribution has helped to resolve it.
Keywords: Ethics, values, principles, norms, ideals, code of conduct, beliefs, philosophy, personal guidelines, integrity, dilemma, decision, challenge.
Values are in. After the credit crunch, Panama papers and the continuing litany of serious breaches of public trust by business executives, business ethics is at the center of attention. Business schools have been harshly criticized for making them morally dubious, self-enriching managers. MBA admissions teams are under pressure to select better types of people.
The trickery of an ethics MBA essay is that everyone knows what good values are and everyone claims to be their embodiment. And yet the world is full of intriguing villains. So to write a nice essay in which you shake your head and swear at business and personal immorality, fraud in tenders, fraud with receivables, forgery of documents, bribes, etc., and at the same time assure the reader of your absolute loyalty to fair play, good management and honesty, is Please understand for your acceptance prospects absolutely worthless. Speeches are cheap.
However, you will impress if you can demonstrate a certain sense of your own, unique set of values and show strong evidence of your commitment to values in the face of temptation and self-interest.