MBA Program Announcements Roundup

We’ve rounded up and summarized this summer’s MBA program announcements below.

• Stanford’s GSB has partnered with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability to launch an “Ecopreneurship” program. This program is designed to support sustainability entrepreneurs by providing mentorship and coaching to help students to secure related internships and fellowships, gain comfort in scaling business ideas, and access venture funding. “The Stanford Ecopreneurship program will support a new generation of sustainability leaders and problem solvers in launching new solutions to the climate crisis,” Marc Tessler, Stanford’s President, wrote.  

  Find more information on Stanford’s “Ecopreneurship” program here. 

• Yale’s SOM announced a new two-year dual-degree program combining its full-time MBA with the STEM-eligible Master of Asset Management program. This program will start with the MBA core curriculum and continue, in the second year, with the asset management curriculum. The STEM designation will allow international students hoping to work in the U.S. post-graduation additional time to find a role. Applications to the joint MBA/MMS open this month. Admissions decisions for the two programs are made independently and prospective students must be accepted into both programs. Students can apply to both programs prior to starting, or MBA students can apply for the MMS program during their first year. 

  Find more information on Yale SOM’s new dual degree program here. 

• Beginning in the Fall of 2024, University of Chicago Booth will offer a 10-month Master in Management program designed for recent college graduates. The program begins with a two-week bootcamp to build foundational skills in accounting, business, statistics, and economics. Students will then turn to job search strategy, which will include networking and storytelling. “We are excited to debut Chicago Booth’s one-year Master in Management, the school’s first new degree program in 88 years,” said Madhav Rajan, Dean of Chicago Booth and the George Pratt Shultz Professor of Accounting. “We look forward to introducing foundational business skills to a new generation of Booth students, enhancing their impact in that first job and beyond.”

  Find more information on Booth’s new degree program here. 

• Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper and ESSEC Business School are teaming up to launch a dual-degree, international Master’s program starting in the Fall of 2024. Participants will earn a Master in Management from ESSEC (France) and a STEM designated Master in Business Analytics from Tepper. The two-year program will host students at both campuses, Pittsburgh and Cergy, a suburb of Paris, for one academic year each and students will participate in a summer internship. The STEM designation will allow international students hoping to work in the U.S. post-graduation additional time to find a role. "The partnership between the Tepper School of Business and ESSEC is a transformative step forward in shaping the future of business education," said Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou, Dean of Carnegie Mellon Tepper and the Richard P. Simmons Professor of Finance. "By joining forces, we will position our students for a truly global experience that prepares them to navigate the complexities of an interconnected world."

  Find more information on Tepper and ESSEC’s new program here.

Essay Tips: The Yale School of Management

Yale’s SOM has published deadlines for their MBA application. Let’s get started!

Round Application Deadline Decision Notification

Round 1 12 September 2023 05 December 2023

Round 2 04 January 2024 26 March 2024

Round 3 09 April 2024 16 May 2024

The Yale School of Management has a mission to “educate leaders for business and society,” leaders with varied interests, skills, and ways of thinking and approaching the world. Yale’s admissions committee believes that students learn and grow more from working within diverse groups. So, as you craft your application, think about your unique approach to leadership, demonstrate your ability to work with and learn from others who are different from you, and don’t be afraid to highlight your differences, quirks, and passions.

Written Essay: Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made.

We developed this question in collaboration with Amy Wrzesniewski, a professor of organizational behavior at Yale SOM. Your time in business school, and the choices you make thereafter, represent significant commitments. In asking this question, the Admissions Committee is seeking to learn about how you have approached a commitment of importance in your life.

You have just one essay to provide the admissions committee with insight into who you are, so use this opportunity to get deeply personal and share key moments from your life that demonstrate your ability to work towards a commitment. Share moments where you had to overcome doubt and struggle and dig deep to find grit as your motivation waned.

Perhaps you can’t immediately name your biggest commitment or you don’t know how to approach describing it. So, start with a brainstorm. Write down stories from your past. A lot of them. (And, bonus! This will serve as an excellent starting point for essay responses for other school applications and/or when preparing for various interview questions.) Think about the experiences you’ve had that prompted a significant evolution in your perspective. This may involve beautiful and/or catastrophic moments, feelings of pride or shame, times of success or struggle, unexpected discovery, and notable relationships. Did an aha moment bring to light a commitment that you wanted to make or did it solidify a commitment that you already made?

Think also about how you choose to spend your time (or other limited resources). Have you volunteered with environmental organizations since high school, and have recently taken on a significant leadership role, in addition to your full-time job? Did you take an intense investment banking job out of college and give up your social life or key relationships? Alternatively, did you quit a lucrative career to join a political campaign or spend more time with your family? Activities or people who you spend a great deal of time with requires making sacrifices in other areas of your life, and can be useful for pinpointing who or what you are most deeply committed to.

While you’ll want the majority of your essay to reflect your adult life, the origins of your biggest commitment may have occurred at a younger age, so keep your brainstorming broad. After writing these pivotal moments down, see what themes emerge. Remember that while your commitment may be broad in scope, you’ll want your supporting stories to be detailed and specific.

Video Essay Questions

You will receive access to the video questions after you submit your application and pay your application fee. The video questions are not a substitute for the interview. Instead, they provide a unique way for us to assess your communication skills and your ability to think on your feet, and enable us to create a more dynamic, multi-dimensional profile of each candidate.

Yale asks applicants to respond to several short video essay questions, in order to exhibit their personality, communication skills, and ability to think under pressure. The questions are provided after the application is submitted.

Prior to participating in the video essay, review your submitted application and prepare to speak on how your goals and interests align with Yale’s MBA program. You should also review standard interview questions, and think through anecdotes from your academic and professional experiences that can be used to respond to different question types. Pay particular attention to examples that will show your abilities in the areas of critical and creative thinking, problem solving, leadership, teamwork, and collaboration with people different from you. Your brainstorm document from your essay work will be a useful resource for this. Keep in mind that in each and every interview response that you give, you’ll want to share a story from your past that backs up the claim you make.

Yale also provides practice questions that will help you get comfortable with the format and technology. Take advantage of this. And take note of the time restrictions. Practice your responses aloud and confirm that your answers are between 60 to 90 seconds in length.

The Writing Process

Begin with a brainstorm. Do not underestimate the importance of this step. Document your experiences, positive and negative, that prompted an evolution in your perspective—you know, those “ah-ha!” moments without which you would be a different student, professional, and/or person today. Then, record those experiences that will show the reader your abilities in innovation (critical/creative thinking and problem solving), leadership, and teamwork, as well as those experiences that reinforced your interest in business school. Capture as many details as possible, paying particular attention to what you thought, felt, said, and did in each situation. Your focus should be on adult experiences (from the start of college and later), though stories from your youth could comprise up to 20 percent of this brainstorm.

During your brainstorm, don’t limit yourself by worrying about a cohesive narrative, the quality of your writing, and/or the number/length of your stories. Simply focus on collecting those situations that helped to guide your path to this point and impacted your decision to apply to the Yale SOM MBA program.

Craft an outline. Select the key stories you will use to anchor your narratives. Remember that you’ll use your essays to go deep into experiences that demonstrate the traits you want to emphasize. 

Write. Keep in mind that you must be showing, not telling the reader who you are. In contrast to your resume, which provides a general overview of your experiences, your essay responses should go deep into a story that allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about some of your character traits and abilities. Highlight how you’ve struggled, triumphed, learned, and how these experiences have developed you into the person you are now.  

Review. Revise. Repeat. Read your essay aloud noting where you stumble. Make revisions as necessary. Once it reads smoothly, set it down and walk away for at least 24 hours. Then re-read it. Is it you? Is it personal and authentic? You want the reader to see the real person behind the applicant number. While we caution against “oversharing,” being appropriately vulnerable will create connection. 

Related:
Essay Tips: Harvard Business School

Essay Tips: The Stanford Graduate School of Business

Essay Tips: Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley

Essay Tips: The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Essay Tips: Columbia Business School

Essay Tips: The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Essay Tips: NYU Stern School of Business

Essay Tips: The University of Michigan Ross School of Business

Trends in Business School: Happiness, Purpose, and Self-Awareness

MIT Sloan recently announced that it will offer their MBA students a course on happiness. It’s good timing. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2022 report found that only 21 percent of employees feel engaged at work and, while just a third of employees reported to be thriving, a full 19 percent said they were “miserable.” MIT’s course, titled Pursuing Happiness and a Meaningful Life, will explore research findings on happiness and purpose, and provide students with self-assessment surveys, introspective weekly exercises, and guest speakers. Robert Pozen, MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer, says it will teach students to, “enhance their own happiness by changing their behaviors.”

MIT is the latest among prestigious MBA programs to offer courses focused on soft skills and emotional-awareness. Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal published a profile of Harvard’s in-demand course offering titled Leadership and Happiness. The course, pitched and designed by Arthur Brooks, an HBS Professor, social scientist, and writer behind The Atlantic’s “How to Build a Life” series, contends that happiness is a byproduct of decision-making, not of chance. That good leaders must know how to cultivate happiness for themselves and their teams. His ideas resonate. Although the class has doubled in size from its original 72 students over the past two years, it still has a waiting list.  

At Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, students can take Organizational Behavior 374: Interpersonal Dynamics, better known as “touchy feely.” The course focuses on self-awareness as a key to effective and productive communications and relationships. Yale’s School of Management offers students a course titled Mastering Influence and Persuasion, which provides them with the means to more authentically persuade and motivate others. University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School allows students to apply for a six-week program, “P3: Purpose Passion and Principles,” in which participants take a structured approach to considering and defining what success and happiness looks like for them. 

The wide-spread existence of these courses within the most prestigious MBA programs is a clear indication that the business world’s valuation of soft skills and emotional intelligence is increasing. There is real value in learning to find purpose and joy, and helping others to find it too.

Your MBA Application. Acing the Video Essay

The video essay is an excellent opportunity for the admissions committee to put a face and personality with your application. And it is important to prepare so you can make a compelling first impression. We have some tips to help you ace the video essays for Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, the Yale School of Management, and MIT Sloan. 

• Minimize background distractions. Select a place with a strong internet connection and a plain, uncluttered background. Allow the admissions committee to focus on what you’re saying by minimizing any distractions in the background—this includes pets, roommates, or loud noises. 

• Set the lights. You’ll want to place a light in front of you so that your face is clearly visible on the screen (backlighting will result in shadows). Take a test run with a friend or family member to confirm that they are able to see you clearly.

• Dress professionally. Put your best foot forward by dressing professionally, similar to how you would dress for an in-person interview. 

• Prepare, but don’t script yourself. You’ll want the admissions committee see the real you. Think strategically about the points you want to highlight in each video, but don’t memorize a script. 

• Note your pace. When nerves hit, people tend to speak more quickly. Practice delivering interview responses out loud and time them. You will have up to one minute for each response at Kellogg, and between 60-90 seconds for Yale.

Kellogg School of Management

Kellogg asks applicants to respond to several short video essay questions, in order to exhibit their personality and what they can bring to the MBA community. The question responses are optional, and the three question topics are available in advance. Video responses are due within 96 hours of submitting your application. 

Video essay 1: Please introduce yourself to the admissions committee. Consider this your opportunity to share what you would want your future Kellogg classmates and our admissions committee to know about you. What makes you, you?

Video essay 2: What path are you interested in pursuing, how will you get there, and why is this program right for you? This is an intentionally broad question so you can answer honestly and meaningfully. We want to know why you’re pursuing an MBA and why you’re choosing a particular Kellogg Full-Time Program.

Video essay 3: This question will be based on a challenge you've faced and what you've learned from it.

Kellogg states that the video essay questions are “designed to bring to life the person we have learned about on paper.” Student culture is a key focus in Kellogg’s admissions efforts, and they want to get to know applicants as fully as possible to ensure they construct a close-knit and collaborative class. This is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your values, interests, creative thinking ability, and goals, rather than worrying too much about the “correct” or expected response.  

Your Strategy: Prior to participating in the video essay, review your application (your goals, especially, must be consistent with what you’ve already submitted) and think through the video essay topics. How will Kellogg help you achieve your goals? Think about specific professors, classes, and experiential learning opportunities. How will you highlight your personality and background to the admissions committee? What characteristics and qualities will you bring to the class? What unique experiences can you offer? How can you expand upon your application materials? Bullet out key points that you’d like to make for each question topic, and practice your responses, keeping a close eye on your time. Kellogg provides practice questions that will help you to get comfortable with the format and technology, and we recommend taking advantage of this. 

From the Admissions Office: Full-Time MBA Application Series: the Video Essays

Yale School of Management

Yale asks applicants to respond to several short video essay questions, in order to exhibit their personality, grasp of the English language, and ability to think under pressure. The questions are provided after the application is submitted, and each applicant receives a set of randomized interview questions. 

Yale is looking to gauge your communication skills and your ability to think on your feet. 

Your Strategy: Prior to participating in the video essay, review your submitted application and prepare yourself to speak on how your personal goals and interests align with Yale’s MBA program. You should also review standard interview questions, and think through anecdotes from your academic and professional experiences that can be used to respond to different question types. Yale provides practice questions that will help you get comfortable with the format and technology, and we recommend taking advantage of this. Take note of the time restrictions. 

From the Admissions Office: Video Questions: Designed to set you up for success

MIT Sloan

Sloan requests applicants provide a 60-second video statement introducing themselves to their future classmates. They want to further understand your presence, passions, and interests. It is important to note that the video will only be used during the admissions process and will not actually be shown to your future classmates.

Your Strategy: Familiarize yourself with the Sloan values and culture (see bullets listed below), and take the time to clearly link your own values, passions, and goals with those of the greater Sloan community. 

• Leadership and an ability to inspire others 

• A collaborative spirit and focus on community

• Intellectual curiosity and analytical strength 

• Creativity to generate new solutions to existing challenges 

• Growth in both professional and personal endeavors 

• Drive, determination, and authenticity

You will also want to showcase your personality and the qualities that make you unique. The Admissions Committee should gain a clear understanding of why you want to attend the school and what you will bring to your class. 

Create an outline of ideas and practice delivering the content aloud. Consider also how you can best incorporate personality into your submission. This video type is the exception to our advice on using a plain, uncluttered background. If you have a location or background that will help you tell your story, go for it. Finally, take advantage of the fact that you can record the video as many times as you want.

From the Admissions Office: The 60-second video