Haas:
Fall 2009 Essay Questions
Listed below are the supplemental questions, short answer questions, required essays, and optional essays for the fall 2009 application.
Supplemental Questions:
1. If you have not provided a letter of recommendation from your current supervisor, please explain; otherwise, enter N/A.
2. List in order of importance all community & professional organizations and extracurricular activities in which you have been involved during or after university studies. Indicate the nature of the activity or organization, dates of involvement, offices held, & average number of hours spent per month.
3. List full-time and part-time jobs held during undergraduate or graduate studies, indicating the employer, job title, employment dates, location, and the number of hours worked per week for each position held prior to the completion of your degree.
4. Please explain all gaps in your employment since earning your university degree.
5. Please identify the course(s) you have taken or intend to take to demonstrate quantitative proficiency. Provide the course name, date, grade if any, and institution at which the course was or will be taken. If you wish, you may discuss other ways in which you have demonstrated strong quantitative abilities.
6. If you have ever been subject to academic discipline, placed on probation, suspended or required to withdraw from any college or university, please explain. If not, please enter N/A. (An affirmative response to this question does not automatically disqualify you from admission.)
Short Answer:
1. If you could change one thing you've done in your life, what would it be, and how would you do it differently? (250 word maximum)
2. Tell us about your most significant accomplishment. (250 word maximum)
3. At Haas, we value innovation and creativity. Describe an innovative solution you have created to address a specific challenge. (250 word maximum)
4. What steps have you taken to learn about the Berkeley MBA program, and what factors have influenced your decision to apply? (250 word maximum)
Required Essays:
1. Give us an example of a situation in which you displayed leadership. (500 word maximum)
2. What are your short-term and long-term career goals? How do your professional experiences relate to these goals? Why do you want an MBA from Berkeley at this point in your career? (1000 word maximum)
Optional Essays:
1. (Optional) Please feel free to provide a statement concerning any information you would like to add to your application that you haven’t addressed elsewhere. (500 word maximum)
2. (Optional) If you wish to be considered for the Haas Achievement Award (for individuals who have achieved success in spite of significant economic, educational, health-related and/or other obstacles), please use this space to address the obstacles you have overcome. (750 word maximum)
====
Stanford
* Essay A: What matters most to you, and why?
* Essay B: What are your career aspirations? How will your education at Stanford help you achieve them?
* Essay C: Short Essays—Options 1-4
Answer two of the questions below. Tell us not only what you did but also how you did it. What was the outcome? How did people respond? Only describe experiences that have occurred during the last three years.
Option 1: Tell us about a time when you built or developed a team.
Option 2: Tell us about a time when you felt most effective as a leader.
Option 3: Tell us about a time when you tried to reach a goal or complete a task that was challenging, difficult, or frustrating.
Option 4: Tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, established, or expected.
Essay Length
Your answers for all of the essay questions cannot exceed 1,800 words. Each of you has your own story to tell, so please allocate the 1,800 words among all of the essays in the way that is most effective for you. We provide some guidelines below as a starting point, but you should feel comfortable to write as much or as little as you like on any essay question, as long as you do not exceed 1,800 words total.
* Essay A 750 words
* Essay B 450 words
* Essay C 300 words each
Formating
* Use a 12-point font, double spaced
* Indicate which essay question you are answering at the beginning of each essay
* Number all pages
* Upload all four essays as one document
* Preview the uploaded document to ensure that the formatting is true to the original
* Save a copy of your essays
Editing Your Essays
Begin work on these essays early, and feel free to ask your friends and family members to provide constructive feedback. When you ask for feedback, ask if the essay’s tone sounds like your voice. It should. Your family and friends know you better than anyone else. If they do not believe that your essays capture who you are, how you live, what you believe, and what you aspire to do, then surely the Committee on Admissions will be unable to recognize what is most distinctive about you.
However, there is a big difference between "feedback" and "coaching." There are few hard and fast rules, but you cross a line when a piece of the application ceases to be exclusively yours in either thought or word (excluding the letter of reference, which should be exclusively the recommender’s in thought and word).
Appropriate feedback occurs when you show someone your completed application, perhaps one or two times, and are apprised of errors or omissions. In contrast, inappropriate coaching occurs when either your essays or your entire self-presentation is colored by someone else. You best serve your own interests when your personal thoughts, individual voice, and unique style remain intact at the end of your editing process.
It is a violation of the spirit of the Fundamental Standard and Honor Code to have someone else write any part of your Stanford MBA Program application. Such an act will result in denial or your application or withdrawal of your offer of admission.
Additional Information
If there is any other information that is critical for us to know and is not captured elsewhere, include it in this section of your application. Do not include additional essays.
Examples of pertinent additional information include:
* Extenuating circumstances affecting academic or work performance.
* Explanation of why you do not have a Letter of Reference from your current direct supervisor.
* Explanation of criminal conviction, academic suspension or expulsion, and/or failing grades.
* Any other information that you did not have sufficient space to complete in another section of the application (begin the information in the appropriate section).
* Additional work experience that cannot fit into the space provided.
Activities
You have an opportunity to describe your extracurricular activities in your online application. This is an excellent way for us to understand your experiences and insights and to come to know you personally.
No club, community, or professional activity is more important than another.
With activities, a sustained depth of commitment in one or two activities may demonstrate your passion more than minimal participation in five or six organizations.
Please note that there are separate sections in the online application for you to report activities during and after university/college. Examples of activities in which you are/have been involved may include charitable, civic, community, and professional.
Employment History
In this section of the online application, you have an opportunity to describe your full-time and part-time employment history, including your core responsibilities, your most significant challenges, and your greatest accomplishments.
We look for a diversity of employment activities in our student body, so no one industry or function is more important than another. As you approach your MBA application, keep in mind that we are more interested in the impact you have had in your work place than the name or stature of your organization. Have you made the most of your professional opportunities? Are you cultivating your leadership and team skills and making a difference? We look at your response in conjunction with your recommendations to create a broad picture of the impact you have had in your work environment(s).
If you have had more than one job, we also ask why you left your previous employer(s). Your response to this question will help us understand your career development and what has motivated your decision making. After completing the Employment History section, please upload a current copy of your resume.
=====
HBS
What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)
What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)
Please respond to two of the following (400-word limit each):
What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?
Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization.
What area of the world are you most curious about and why?
What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?
Joint degree applicants:
How do you expect the joint degree experience to benefit you on both a professional and a personal level? (400-word limit)
Recommender Questions for the Class of 2011
Recommendations must be completed online. The form includes essay questions along with other types of questions.
Please comment on the context of your interaction with the applicant. How long have you known the applicant and in what connection? If applicable, briefly describe the applicant's role in your organization. (250-word limit)
Please describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant's response. (250-word limit)
Please make additional statements about the applicant's performance, potential, or personal qualities you believe would be helpful to the MBA Admissions Board. (250-word limit)
====
Kellogg
All applicants are required to answer questions 1, 2 and 3in addition to 2 of the essays in question 4.
For questions 1-3, please limit responses to 2 pages.
1: Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing a graduate degree at Kellogg.
2: Describe how your background, values, academics, activities and/or leadership skills will enhance the experience of other Kellogg students.
3: Describe your key leadership experiences and evaluate what leadership areas you hope to develop through your MBA experience.
Choose two of the following three essays…
4. Applicants must answer 2 of the below essays. (Re-applicants must answer question 4D and 1 other essay). Please keep responses to two paragraphs.
4A - Describe a time when you had to motivate a reluctant individual or group.
4B - I wish the Admissions Committee had asked me…..
4C - What do others admire about you?
4D - For re-applicants only:
Since your previous application, what are the steps you’ve taken to strengthen your candidacy?
May 19, 2008
====
Nov 19
Nov 19
Nov 19
Nov 20
Nov 20
Nov 21
Nov 21
Nov 24
27 Jun 2008, 21:10
