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MBAGuide
Joined: 24 Jul 2019
Last visit: 21 Apr 2026
Posts: 2,358
Given Kudos: 28
Location: India
Concentration: Operations, Marketing
Schools: Insead Sept'18 (A$$) ISB '19 (A)
03 Jul 2024, 03:48
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The Kellogg School of Management released its application for the 2024–2025 cycle a few days back and updated the essay questions for applicants.
The major updates are
1. This year, Kellogg included a “Goals" essay, a departure from its old approach, where applicants were not explicitly asked to discuss their career goals or why they think Kellogg is the right choice.
2. Kellogg has also changed the 2nd essay from "How will you contribute given your leadership experiences" type essay to "How do you demonstrate Leadership as a result of your self knowledge type essay"
The original article was posted by the author at Kellogg MBA Essay Questions & Writing Tips 2024 - 2025 (mbaguideconsulting.com)
Kellogg MBA Essay 1
Intentionality is a key aspect of what makes our graduates successful Kellogg leaders. Help us understand your journey by articulating your motivations for pursuing an MBA, the specific goals you aim to achieve, and why you believe now is the right moment. Moreover, share why you feel Kellogg is best suited to serve as a catalyst for your career aspirations and what you will contribute to our community of lifelong learners during your time here. (450 words)
Guidelines
You applied for a Kellogg MBA at the pinnacle of your career, and the adcoms want to understand what motivates you to undertake the challenges and opportunity costs of earning an MBA. No matter how impressive your qualifications, without a clear reason for needing an MBA, your application risks falling short. This essay is a disguised Career Progression and Goals essay that Kellogg uses to assess your maturity and career savvy. It goes beyond just your goals, as almost every business school asks about your post-MBA goals and how their program will help you achieve them. Instead, this essay also asks a backward-looking experience question, exploring how your career or other experiences have shaped these goals.
Whichever structure you choose, your essay must logically connect your past, present, and future. Your career progress or professional experience narrative should make it clear to the admissions officers that an MBA and a career in your post-MBA field are the next inevitable steps. Your objectives should naturally evolve from your past experiences, and your “Why Kellogg” section must demonstrate that the school is the perfect place for someone with your goals and educational needs.
'The Whys'
Here are some key triggers that applicants may consider:
Kellogg leaders are primed to tackle challenges everywhere, from the boardroom to their neighborhoods. Describe a specific professional experience where you had to make a difficult decision. Reflecting on this experience, identify the values that guided your decision-making process and how it impacted your leadership style. (450 words)
Guidelines
This essay on "Growth and Learning" is about the same values as the essays on "Failure or Mistake" but from a different angle: proving that you have experienced challenges in your life and have the self-knowledge to analyze and grow from them. Rather than inviting excuses and evasions by asking you about a failure or weakness, this essay question takes a gentler, more positive approach to get to the core of your personality — your ability to take action when you realize things are not as they should be.
At Kellogg, leadership is integrated into the curriculum, and students are encouraged to take leadership-oriented courses. To convince the admissions office that you are willing to participate in class discussions, think of an instance where you had to step into the role of a leader and do what was best for the overall good of the project or organization. Most leadership or teamwork challenges stem from interpersonal issues, which are almost always present in B-school application stories. Two of your teammates were fighting, and the learning curve was steeper than expected. What did you do? In one dramatic situation, the client manager seemed to walk right out of the office. What did you do?
Highlight the differences and problems between interpersonal—functional blockages and technical hurdles. Make it a human interest story from the start. Talk about how you broke out of your shell or adopted a leadership style that you didn’t think you had. Share your reaction — how did you respond? This is where you show how you overcame each challenge or what leadership traits or values you demonstrated in overcoming the challenge.
Kellogg MBA Video Essay:
We’ve read your essays, we’ve read your resume — now we want you to bring all that to life in a video. Show us the person behind all those carefully crafted words.
The video will be comprised of three questions, each designed to help you showcase your personality and share some of the experiences that brought you here today.
Guidelines
Read the detailed guidelines here -> " How to Ace the Video Essays"
Optional Essays
We know that life is full of extenuating circumstances. Whether you want to explain gaps in work experience, your choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance or something else, you can use this section to briefly tell us anything we need to know about your application. (280 words)
Guidelines
Many applicants choose not to add anything in the optional essays. We at MBAGuide have a slightly unique take on this. The optional essays do not just have to be harbingers of bad information (such as gaps in employment, poor grades, or other potential standouts). If applicants truly feel that they did not have enough opportunity in the main essays to highlight a unique experience or story, and that this experience could be critical to the adcom’s decision, they should definitely use the optional essay for this purpose. We have created an in-depth analysis of the right approach to optional essays, which you can find here.
How Winners Use Optional Essays for Damage Control and Beyond
Best wishes
Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD MBA alumna, former INSEAD MBA admissions interviewer)
Founder, MBAGuideConsulting
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aanchal-sahni-83b00819/ |WEBSITE: https://mbaguideconsulting.com/| Message(WA): +91 9971200927| email- [email protected]
The major updates are
1. This year, Kellogg included a “Goals" essay, a departure from its old approach, where applicants were not explicitly asked to discuss their career goals or why they think Kellogg is the right choice.
2. Kellogg has also changed the 2nd essay from "How will you contribute given your leadership experiences" type essay to "How do you demonstrate Leadership as a result of your self knowledge type essay"
The original article was posted by the author at Kellogg MBA Essay Questions & Writing Tips 2024 - 2025 (mbaguideconsulting.com)
Kellogg MBA Essay 1
Intentionality is a key aspect of what makes our graduates successful Kellogg leaders. Help us understand your journey by articulating your motivations for pursuing an MBA, the specific goals you aim to achieve, and why you believe now is the right moment. Moreover, share why you feel Kellogg is best suited to serve as a catalyst for your career aspirations and what you will contribute to our community of lifelong learners during your time here. (450 words)
Guidelines
You applied for a Kellogg MBA at the pinnacle of your career, and the adcoms want to understand what motivates you to undertake the challenges and opportunity costs of earning an MBA. No matter how impressive your qualifications, without a clear reason for needing an MBA, your application risks falling short. This essay is a disguised Career Progression and Goals essay that Kellogg uses to assess your maturity and career savvy. It goes beyond just your goals, as almost every business school asks about your post-MBA goals and how their program will help you achieve them. Instead, this essay also asks a backward-looking experience question, exploring how your career or other experiences have shaped these goals.
Whichever structure you choose, your essay must logically connect your past, present, and future. Your career progress or professional experience narrative should make it clear to the admissions officers that an MBA and a career in your post-MBA field are the next inevitable steps. Your objectives should naturally evolve from your past experiences, and your “Why Kellogg” section must demonstrate that the school is the perfect place for someone with your goals and educational needs.
'The Whys'
Here are some key triggers that applicants may consider:
- Career Plateau– You have identified that your learning curve has flattened and there are no new challenges on the horizon in the next two years. If you stay on your current career path any longer, you run the risk of being pigeonholed, making it difficult to break out.
- Epiphany of Goals - You have just realized the purpose of your career, and now that you know it, there's no reason to procrastinate.
- Post-MBA Goals Have a Time Component - Your plans are linked to trends that are beginning to solidify by the time you do your MBA. You cannot afford to wait to acquire the skills you need to capitalize on these trends.
- Maturity - You finally have the professional and personal knowledge, balance, and perspective to make the wise decision to invest in your long-term future. This is a tactful way of expressing that your age is in line with the average age of job applicants.
- Natural Career Break - You are nearing the end of a clearly defined career phase, such as a two- or three-year analyst program at a consulting firm, a two-year management training program at a company, or a stint abroad in another country.
- Academic Abundance: The academic environment is characterized by a wealth of resources, including insightful books, articles, and case studies authored by esteemed professors.
- Engaging Beyond the Classroom: Involvement in extracurricular activities demonstrates community involvement and engagement. This can include participating in student clubs, sporting events, social groups, and taking advantage of opportunities such as internships and business plan competitions.
- Cultural Alignment: The values and ethos of the school, demonstrating that you are a cultural fit.
- Experiencing Personal Connections: A visit to campus or face-to-face interaction can further cement your connection with the institution. This may mean contacting faculty members whose research aligns with your personal interests and mentioning these interactions in your application essay.
- Targeted Goals: For instance, if pursuing healthcare-related social entrepreneurship specifically for women, highlight Kellogg's healthcare management resources, women-centric initiatives, or social entrepreneurship offerings.
Kellogg leaders are primed to tackle challenges everywhere, from the boardroom to their neighborhoods. Describe a specific professional experience where you had to make a difficult decision. Reflecting on this experience, identify the values that guided your decision-making process and how it impacted your leadership style. (450 words)
Guidelines
This essay on "Growth and Learning" is about the same values as the essays on "Failure or Mistake" but from a different angle: proving that you have experienced challenges in your life and have the self-knowledge to analyze and grow from them. Rather than inviting excuses and evasions by asking you about a failure or weakness, this essay question takes a gentler, more positive approach to get to the core of your personality — your ability to take action when you realize things are not as they should be.
At Kellogg, leadership is integrated into the curriculum, and students are encouraged to take leadership-oriented courses. To convince the admissions office that you are willing to participate in class discussions, think of an instance where you had to step into the role of a leader and do what was best for the overall good of the project or organization. Most leadership or teamwork challenges stem from interpersonal issues, which are almost always present in B-school application stories. Two of your teammates were fighting, and the learning curve was steeper than expected. What did you do? In one dramatic situation, the client manager seemed to walk right out of the office. What did you do?
Highlight the differences and problems between interpersonal—functional blockages and technical hurdles. Make it a human interest story from the start. Talk about how you broke out of your shell or adopted a leadership style that you didn’t think you had. Share your reaction — how did you respond? This is where you show how you overcame each challenge or what leadership traits or values you demonstrated in overcoming the challenge.
Kellogg MBA Video Essay:
We’ve read your essays, we’ve read your resume — now we want you to bring all that to life in a video. Show us the person behind all those carefully crafted words.
The video will be comprised of three questions, each designed to help you showcase your personality and share some of the experiences that brought you here today.
Guidelines
Read the detailed guidelines here -> " How to Ace the Video Essays"
Optional Essays
We know that life is full of extenuating circumstances. Whether you want to explain gaps in work experience, your choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance or something else, you can use this section to briefly tell us anything we need to know about your application. (280 words)
Guidelines
Many applicants choose not to add anything in the optional essays. We at MBAGuide have a slightly unique take on this. The optional essays do not just have to be harbingers of bad information (such as gaps in employment, poor grades, or other potential standouts). If applicants truly feel that they did not have enough opportunity in the main essays to highlight a unique experience or story, and that this experience could be critical to the adcom’s decision, they should definitely use the optional essay for this purpose. We have created an in-depth analysis of the right approach to optional essays, which you can find here.
How Winners Use Optional Essays for Damage Control and Beyond
Best wishes
Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD MBA alumna, former INSEAD MBA admissions interviewer)
Founder, MBAGuideConsulting
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aanchal-sahni-83b00819/ |WEBSITE: https://mbaguideconsulting.com/| Message(WA): +91 9971200927| email- [email protected]
MBAGuide
Joined: 24 Jul 2019
Last visit: 21 Apr 2026
Posts: 2,358
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 28
Location: India
Concentration: Operations, Marketing
Schools: Insead Sept'18 (A$$) ISB '19 (A)
27 Jan 2025, 22:41
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