Why M.B.A.? Questions
Discuss the factors that influenced your career decisions to date. Please describe your
professional goals for the future. How will the M.B.A. experience influence your ability to
achieve your goals? (Wharton)
Discuss your career progression to date. Why do you want an M.B.A.? How do you
envision your career progressing after receiving the M.B.A.? (Tuck)
Specifically address your post-M.B.A. short- and long-term professional goals. How will
Darden assist you in attaining these goals?
Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and
your motivation for pursuing a graduate degree at Kellogg.
What are your post-M.B.A. career plans? (Harvard)
This is the most common type of essay question, asked on virtually every business school
application. This question asks you to present, clearly and coherently, your all too familiar
reasons for wanting an M.B.A. The questions usually consist of a few distinct parts. Most
will ask about your past (How has your career progressed to date? What has motivated you
thus far?), your future (How do you envision your career progressing? What are your goals
for the future?), or both. All of them expect you to relate the information to your present
desire to attain an M.B.A.
Since this is usually the first question asked, this essay will be the first one the officers see
when they get your file. Let it create your first impression. It is similar to the moment in an
interview when you shake the interviewer’s hand and smile. Similarly, your first essay
needs to be confident, direct, and to the point. The admissions committee uses this
question to ascertain your motivation, maturity, and focus. While undergraduate
application essays are understandably fuzzy about career choices and goals, graduate
essays should, in contrast, be crystal clear. If you have vague reasons for pursuing an
M.B.A., you need to reconsider your decision to apply. Giving a vague response to this
question is akin to having a weak handshake and not looking the interviewer in the eye.
You must accomplish a lot in this essay, so pay special attention to structure. You can
tackle the question by dividing your answer into three separate pieces. The first can be
about your past professional experience. The second can discuss your future career goals.
The third can be about the school’s particular program. At each step, demonstrate why and
how these experiences, goals, or attributes motivate you to get your M.B.A.
Limiting yourself to one career goal is best, if it is general. If you have a couple of
different jobs in mind, that is all right, too. However, your reasons for them should be
easily inferred or specifically stated. If you are truly unsure of what your goals are (and we
cannot talk you out of applying) always admit so honestly rather than make up something.
At the very least, though, give credible reasons for your indecision, and explain why you
believe that this school’s program will help you overcome your ambivalence.
Even if the question does not specifically ask for it, articulate why the particular program
makes sense for you given your unique professional and personal goals. To do this well,
you must spend the necessary time in introspection and also research the school. When you
understand the school’s program and positioning, use what you have uncovered only if you
can apply it to yourself. Do not write what you think they want to hear. Admissions
officers can spot this kind of insincerity from a mile away. They also seek a heterogeneous
mix of backgrounds and experiences. Therefore, trying to fashion yourself after your
conception of a typical applicant can hurt you even if you do it well. The truer you are to
your real motivations and desires, the better your essay will be.
SAMPLE ESSAY:
Discuss the factors that influenced your career decisions to date. Please describe your
professional goals for the future. How will the M.B.A. experience influence your ability to
achieve your goals? (Wharton)
“Stop foolin’ around, old boy. How would an M.B.A. help you? Better get on with your
career.” That’s what they say. Friends, colleagues, others.
I’ve heard it all before. “If I were you, I would not do it. Don’t waste your time, get ahead
with your studies as quickly as possible”, my professor for experimental physics told me.
That was back in ’88, and of course he was not talking about my M.B.A., but about my
intention to go to China: Take a special scholarship and go-for a year, to study Chinese,
and physics, in China. Get in line, professor. He was just one of many who did not approve
of my idea.
But for me, my plan clearly was: A chance, a challenge, and a choice. A chance to open my
intellectual door to the world Europeans consider the (psychologically) most distant one
from Western culture, and to broaden my view well beyond the usual. A challenge to learn
a language Westerners see as one of the most difficult in a compressed timeframe and to
adapt to a completely unfamiliar environment-while not letting this impact my overall
physics studies timeline. A choice to diverge from the mainstream path to exclusive
specialization in a single intellectual realm, not just on a spare time basis-but with serious
commitment.
Looking back after seven years, I could not feel more assured that at that time, I made the
right choice. My unusual combination of experiences sets me worlds apart from my
physics-only ex-fellow students. Working for (Big Consulting Company), (so far)
exclusively on international assignments in high tech industries, is the kind of job I had
envisioned at that time. I could not have come here without that choice I made back then.
Now I am-on a higher playing field, though-back to square one: Once again, about to make
an academic detour form the prescribed path. An unnecessary delay for my career
progression.
But stop! Is that at all true? Getting an M.B.A. makes perfect sense for a consultant-after
all, most consultants are M.B.A.s. Getting an M.B.A. makes even more sense in my
particular case: it is the perfect academic supplement to my physics background-the one I
need to become a leading edge high tech consultant. Detailed technology understanding
plus profound business and group skills, that is a rare combination which really gets the
career rocket roaring. This is certainly true for me, and I think that this is one of my most
important and convincing reasons for an M.B.A.
Having spent considerable time and energy studying Chinese and traveling in Asia (and the
rest of the world), an exclusively German career certainly is the opposite of what I am
interested in. No cozy, warm place in an easy, totally predictable environment. Guaranteed
career progression when the guy above me retires. Getting a dog at 35 and the BMW and
house that go with it. No thanks.
So what is it I am interested in? I want to be where the guerilla wars of business are fought
(the shoestring traveller resurfaces). Where global language and intercultural/personal
skills make the difference. Where intelligence translates into quantum leaps (courtesy of
the physicist). This is where I can make my best contribution. In short, I want to be where
the action and the challenges are.
For the late 20th and early 21st century, this means, in terms of topic, clearly one industry:
High Tech (just watch the stock market). I am well equipped for this with my physics
background. In terms of region, it clearly means Asia. Through language study and travel
exposure, I have come a long way in getting myself prepared. In terms of function, it
clearly means strategy consulting. If there is any place better for this than (Big Consulting
Company), please let me know.
Thus the reasons why I want to go back to university and do a dual degree in business and
East Asian studies are: Get myself a thorough business background to put all the pieces of
case experience I have accumulated during my (Big Consulting Company), life in their
right places and understand their context. Do the same with all my pieces of Asian studies
and travel experiences. Get ready for the real action I want to be a part and a driver of-and
satisfy academic ambitions lurking beneath the surface of the “hands-on” consultant.
The knowledge I will gain should help facilitate a career change. After extensive work in
European High Tech industry, I want to transfer to Asia. Completion of my desired
academic program should give me perfect preparation, some initial contacts, and, through
a summer internship in Asia, a clear idea of what to expect from working there (in contrast
to studying and traveling).
Of at least equal importance, the Lauder/Wharton dual degree program will also give me a
clear view on all the options that I have with my very special combination of skills. While
I currently cannot imagine going anywhere else but to one of the Asian offices of (Big
Consulting Company), after my graduation, I am also realistic enough to understand that
