2018-2019 MBA Essay & Application Changes by: Judith Silverman Hodara, Director, Fortuna Admissions on August 24, 2018 | 0 Comments | 2,823 Views August 24, 2018 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit The Wharton School The 2018-2019 MBA application season has ushered in a flurry of application changes among the top business schools. From MITās new organizational chart requirement to Dartmouth Tuckās admissions criteria screening for āniceness,ā seven of the top 10 business schools made noteworthy changes in this yearās admissions cycle. Hereās a highlights reel of this yearās changes and trends, including links to further analysis and tangible tips from the Fortuna Admissions team of former business school insiders: NOTABLE ESSAY CHANGES FOR WHARTON, BOOTH, COLUMBIA, HAAS AND CORNELL The most notable new essays among top schools are from Wharton, Chicago Booth, Columbia and Berkeley Haas, as well as Johnson Cornell. The trend among essay question changes has skewed toward behavioral, with programs prompting candidates to demonstrate substantial self-reflection. The upshot is that all this introspection will help clarify in your own mind why this next chapter of your life is so important. And your story will be that much more persuasive to the admissions committee when you do. As Whartonās former head of Admissions, Iāll admit I really love Whartonās new essay question, which requires both deep self-awareness and profound understanding of the community youāre hoping to join: āDescribe an impactful experience or accomplishment that is not reflected elsewhere in your application. How will you use what you learned through that experience to contribute to the Wharton community?ā This is an invitation to offer up something more personal, to share additional insights and information that donāt appear elsewhere in your application. Itās also an elegant compliment to the schoolās longstanding, āwhat you hope to gain professionally from Whartonā essay, allowing you to convey what you took away from your experience and how it shapes your current awareness as a potential community member. Chicago Booth axed its creative and quirky question asking applicants to choose among an assortment of photos and name a āBooth momentā that most resonated, and explain why. Boothās new first question cuts to the chase: āHow will the Booth MBA help you achieve your immediate and long-termĀ Ā post-MBA career goals?ā Itās a version of an old favorite, āWhy an MBA and why this schoolā ā and, again, significant self-reflection is key to delivering an essay thatās both sincere and persuasive. In its second question, Booth is mining for a glimpse of what inspires and drives you, āChicago Booth immerses you in a choice-rich environment. How have your interests, leadership experiences, and other passions influenced the choices in your life?ā Writes my Fortuna colleague and former Assistant Director of Admissions at Chicago Booth, Krista McNamara in her article on how to tackle Boothās new essays, āThis second question is a golden opportunity to reveal something beyond your day job, to investigate and articulate the currents that shape your experiences, decisions and identities and which stand to impact the future community you hope to join.ā The UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business Berkeley Haas has taken the question of identity to another level by introducing a unique and evocative series of optional essay prompts that, with exacting focus, seek to uncover the less visible forces that shape candidatesā lives, decisions, opportunities and character. āIn positioning its essay question in this way, Berkeley Haas signals its desire to hone in on the path that students walked to better understand who theyāre reading,ā writes my Fortuna colleague and former Associate Director of Admissions at Berkeley Haas, Sharon Joyce, in her article on Haasās new optional essay. āItās also a way for the admissions committee to recognize the challenges certain applicants face to get to where they are ā even when students themselves donāt see them as distinctive or noteworthy.ā Berkeley Haas also went from three required essays to two, maintaining its poetic āsix-word essayā prompt and distilling its question around post-MBA goals. Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University Cornell Johnsonās new āBack of Your Resumeā essay underscores that itās you, not your track record, that the AdCom wants to meet through your essay. Because you can submit your song, video, digital portfolio, etc. ā or enhance your prose with visuals ā itās also a playful invitation to be courageous. Cornell puts its new essay into context by stating: āThe front page of your resume has given us a sense of your professional experience and accomplishments as well as your academic summary and extracurricular involvement. If the back page reflects āthe rest of your story,ā please help us get to know you better by sharing the experiences that will give us insight into your character, values, and interests.ā Quips my Fortuna colleague and former Assistant Dean of Admissions at the Cornell Johnson, Randall Sawer, āWhatever you do, donāt be tempted to say that your greatest moment was when you raised millions in a day at Goldman or you were employee of the year⦠Without a doubt, an essay question like this invites a level of vulnerability.ā Columbia University – Ethan Baron photo Speaking of vulnerability, few topics are more personal than that of failure. But in refreshing its essay questions for the second straight year, Columbia asks, āPlease provide an example of a team failure of which you have been a part. If given a second chance, what would you do differently?ā With its new failure prompt, the admissions committee invites you to consider the circumstances and pivot points that shaped you into an ever-wiser human being. āItās somewhat counterintuitive that the best candidates often have the most awful and memorable failure stories,ā observes my Fortuna Co-Founder Caroline Diarte Edwards in her article on Columbiaās new essay questions. In her tenure as INSEADās former Director of MBA Admissions, Caroline reviewed countless attempts to answer the question of failure (INSEAD asks applicants to ādescribe a situation where you failedā and how the experience, along with the achievement youāre most proud of, impacted your relationship on others). Caroline emphasizes, āWhatās most compelling to the admissions committee on the topic of failure is what youāve learned from your experience, whether youāve had to face your fears, and whether youāve demonstrated the grit and persistence to bounce back and forge ahead with new awareness.ā APPLICATION UPDATES FOR MIT SLOAN AND TUCK MIT Sloan MIT Sloanās MBA application requirements already buck the M7 standard by soliciting a cover letter and video statement in lieu of traditional written essays. This year, Sloan is also the first top tier business school to ask applicants for an organizational chart that outlines the āinternal structure of your department and company.ā Along with offering a sample for reference, MIT allows you to create your own if necessary. āWith the introduction of the org chart requirement, MIT Sloan is really trying to get at the questions of what you do, how you interact with other parts of the company or entity, who you report to and how close you are to the top,ā says Fortunaās Heidi Hillis, former Alumni Interviewer for Stanford GSB. āItās also about understanding your career path and the pace of your progression ā how youāve evolved over time, the significance of your promotions, your level of influence, and whether your movement has been upwards or horizontal.ā In her shrewd analysis of MIT Sloanās org chart requirement, Heidi predicts that other b-schools will follow suit in the future. Tuck School Of Business In addition to refreshing its essay questions, Dartmouth Tuck introduced new evaluation criteria that reflects the attributes of āsuccessful Tuck students,ā including āsmart, nice, accomplished and aware.ā In doing so, Tuck shines a spotlight on its distinctive values and what itās seeking from applicants hoping to join its community. Said head of Tuck admissions Luke Anthony PeƱa to CBS News, “We are looking to see that candidates have a habit of niceness⦠It’s about how they feel about contributing to the success of others. How do they interact with people in difficult and challenging circumstances.ā NO CHANGE TO ENDURING ESSAYS FROM GSB, HBS AND KELLOGG Elsewhere among the applications of the top MBA programs this year, there is no change among essay questions for Harvard, Stanford GSB and Kellogg. HBS persists with the open-ended, āwhat would you like us to knowā question, and for the fourteenth year in a row, Stanford GSB asks, āwhat matters to you most and why?ā Kellogg continues to plumb for how youāve grown in the past, along with lessons learned from āa time you have demonstrated leadership and created lasting valueā (for the second year in a row). The endurance of these essay prompts signal how well theyāre serving each respective admissions committee in terms of sussing our which candidates are a fit. āThese kinds of questions allow you to expand into terrain that shows your influences and inspirations, so give yourself some time to play with ideas,ā says my Fortuna Co-Founder and colleague, Matt Symonds. āWhen you allow yourself to have fun writing it, you increase the chances of your audienceās enjoyment in reading it.ā Judith Silverman Hodara is a Director at MBA admissions coaching firm Fortuna Admissions and former Wharton head of Admissions. Fortuna is composed of former admissions directors and business school insiders from 12 of the top 15 business schools. MORE FROM JUDITH:Ā The āIntroduce Yourselfā MBA Essay,Ā Top Tips for MBA Recommendations: How Much Does Prestige Matter?Ā No Regrets Decision-Making: Choosing Between MBA Programs Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.