NUS 2014 Calling all applicants!

Essay 1
We would like you to tell us about your post-MBA immediate career goals and how your professional experiences have prepared you to achieve these goals. You may do so by a 300 words written essay or a two-minute video. If you wish to submit a video, you can upload it on YouTube, change the privacy settings to “Unlisted” and email us the URL. Alternatively, you can send in your video to us in a thumbdrive or CD.

1. This is slightly different from the usual goals essay as you are asked mainly to discuss the short term goals here. Just expound on your short term goals by showing a direct & strong co-relation to your past work experiences. Although the long term goal is not explicitly being asked here, you can put in a sentence to show that there is some clarity in your thought process with regards to future career path; but obviously you shouldn't spend too much words on the long term goals. Doing the video is another great option, but remember to make it very impressive since this is optional; so just talking about the question in front of a camera is not going to cut it, you need to showcase a few skills in actual environment and relate them to your goals in a clear manner.

Essay 2
The mission of NUS Business School is to advance knowledge and develop leaders so as to serve business and society. Discuss how you will contribute toward advancing the mission based on examples of past work and activities.

2. This is similar to a fit essay. You are being asked how can you contribute to the school's mission based on examples. You can mention both professional and personal examples, but first go to the school's website and take a look around to understand the school better. Go through the NUS MBA blogs and try to get an idea in to a normal day there and how the school shapes the people. Although it may seem a simple question, you really need to do some extensive research in order to give a great answer.

Essay 3
Tell us something interesting or unique about yourself which you think would be helpful for the Admission Committee to better evaluate your candidacy.

3. This is very interesting topic indeed. It can be seen as a chance to portray strengths not clear in other parts of the app or it can be seen as a chance to explain any potential weak areas in your application. The key here is that however you choose to answer this essay, you need to keep in mind to make it unique and interesting and actually helpful from the AdComs perspective. Before actually writing the essay list out all the things you feel are different or great about you, not everything needs to be unique though; its the combination of multiple things in a single person such as you that make you unique. So not everything has to be unique in itself, but together the picture it portrays should be different and helpful not just to AdComs but also to you to get in.

Essay 4
(Only applicable to re-applicants) Please provide an update on any new aspects of your professional, international, academic or personal profile that would not have been included in your previous application. Please also explain your motivation for re-applying to NUS.

4. Again, this is pretty straightforward. It would be helpful to do some analysis in the shortcomings of your last year application, if possible get some feedback on last year's rejection from the AdComs as well.