The ‘Introduce Yourself’ MBA Essay

With round one MBA deadlines just around the corner, thousands of applicants again face crunch time with a common but perplexingly broad application requirement: the introduce yourself essay.

Some schools use the introduce yourself essay simply and directly. MIT Sloan asks you to respond to introduce yourself in video format — with one minute to respond and one shot at the recording. Likewise, the first of four questions in the UT Austin McCombs School of Business video assessment is a fun get-to-know-you question. Other schools ask this simply and directly, in written form.

Harvard Business School used to ask this question quite explicitly, but now asks applicants to describe themselves in terms of career choices, leadership and growth — a more complex task spread across three essays but still covering similar territory. INSEAD asks you to “give a candid description of yourself (who are you as a person).” Berkeley Haas asks, “What makes you feel alive and why?” in its first essay question; that is a very deep and personal way of asking you to introduce yourself. 

 Even when schools do not use an introduce yourself essay, they are essentially looking for that information. Whatever the exact question, essays are designed to elicit a deeper sense of who you are. As the former head of admissions at Wharton, I always wanted my team to really get to know the applicant well beyond his or her GPA and test scores.

An introduce yourself essay achieves this, although because it is so boundless, this seemingly simple topic can be the hardest to address. Many candidates shy away from tackling this in favor of more pragmatic questions such as “Why do you want to go to school X, and what do you want to achieve with your MBA?” Such questions are more straightforward and don’t necessarily require the same level of introspection.

In our coaching work at Fortuna Admissions, we often begin with these questions to lay the groundwork for the next level of reflection. But as we move forward with clients, we help them to see just how rewarding and enjoyable it is to step back and really think deeply about who they are and how their values and decisions have shaped their experience. Here we have rounded up some tips and things to remember when writing an introduce yourself essay.

IT’S DIFFERENT THAN INTRODUCING YOURSELF AT A PARTY

Introducing yourself to an MBA admissions committee requires a different approach from someone new at a party or professional meeting. Remember that the application reviewers have already read your online application and resume. They know the basics, and they have supporting documentation of letters of recommendation in hand. The introduce yourself essay question is an opportunity to get more personal and share what makes you unique. 

Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School puts it on very friendly terms, for example, asking you to imagine being in an airport with an admissions officer and using this opportunity to make a memorable impression.

Think of these questions as an opportunity to add color and context to the application, bringing to life the lines on your resume or adding depth to comments from your recommenders. The introduce yourself essay is a valuable opportunity to make a deeper connection with an admissions committee member. Remember that they will most likely be reading 25 to 30 such files daily during the busy application season; your goal is to stand out (in a good way.)

REFLECT AND BRAINSTORM

Before you start writing, take time to reflect. We firmly believe in the importance of self-reflection to truly understand your own motivation for applying to business school. What strengths are you bringing with you? What are the weaknesses that you want to develop? What are the things that get you out of bed in the morning or the things that you would do for free because you care about them so much? 

Try brainstorming or whiteboarding all of the topics and messages that you think may fit into this category so that you can see them all in one place. This helps you begin to see which ideas belong with which examples and the themes that are the most important to your story will begin to emerge.

USE EXAMPLES TO BRING YOUR STORY TO LIFE

After you tease out important thematic threads, then identify examples that really bring your story to life. Imagine that you’re sharing with the reader the impact that a certain individual had on your life or how it felt at a decisive moment in your development. 

Give them a sense of the color and importance of these events and people. Your goal throughout this work is to pique the file reader’s interest so that they are intrigued and want to learn more about you — i.e., invite you to interview!

Be aware that as they read your application, the admissions team is asking, “What will this person bring to the school community?” Your self-introduction should address what the school gets if they admit you. 

The goal is to highlight your abilities and your engagement to demonstrate that you will give to the school as much as you get. Will it be in your classroom discussions? Your sense of humor? How do you rally your teammates? Your skill at engaging across cultures? What is it, essentially, that makes you “you?” How does that make the school a better place? 

AVOID REPETITION

It is easy to fall into the trap of repeating the facts and figures that appear on your resume. Avoid this; instead, really focus on additional information that is not readily obvious to the reader. 

Your professional experiences are certainly important, but they are not the whole story. When tackling questions like INSEAD’s long-standing “candid description” essay, my Fortuna colleague Caroline Diarte Edwards, former Director of INSEAD’s MBA Admissions and Financial Aid, advises candidates to focus more on their personal backstory rather than professional accomplishments. 

“The question asks for “personal characteristics,” but candidates sometimes miss this and use the essay to retell their professional story. But what the school wants here is to understand who they are beyond the resume, what makes them tick, and what made them become the person they are today.”

AVOID OVERSHARING 

As mentioned, admissions officers are reading somewhere between 25 and 30 applications a day. They are seeking authenticity in your essays. Repeating themes you think that the school will want to read means that you are not being authentic to your true self and your own story. 

This is exactly why schools have essay questions. If they wished, they could admit students based on GMAT, GPA and resume alone, but the classes would suffer from a lack of individualism and true character. 

To convey the real you, it may be tempting to hold nothing back. Trying to squeeze in everything about yourself can be a mistake. Sometimes too many themes mean that you are covering each point at only a superficial level, without any depth and reflection. Your essay will become a blur to the reader. 

Instead, be judicious. Home in on a few topics can comfortably cover in the word count or time limit. Think in terms of Stanford’s essay and write or talk about what matters most so you can go into greater depth on those points. You want to stand out in the admissions officer’s mind as someone who presented with depth and passion rather than one who spread yourself too thin and tried to exhaustively (and exhaustingly!) cover your history.

Be mindful of oversharing in another sense as well. You also may be tempted to share something intimate or eyebrow-raising to make an impression. It’s great to be bold and stand out from the crowd. However, you do not want to be memorable for the wrong reasons. Admissions committees are also looking for evidence of good judgment throughout your application. Fortuna coaches explore the question of how much information is too much here. If you’re unsure how a story or some detail will hit with application readers, ask a trusted friend or colleague (or your Fortuna coach) to check for anything potentially cringe-inducing. 

Introducing yourself may seem like a tall order; however, it presents an opportunity for you to ask yourself important questions about the next steps in your professional growth. The prompt allows room for reflection about how you became the person you are now and where you see yourself growing with your next exciting challenges.

Fortuna’s team of MBA admissions insiders can help you handle the tricky introduce yourself essay or any element of your application. Book a free 30-minute consultation to learn how we can help you achieve admissions success. 

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Judith Silverman Hodara is cofounder and director at Fortuna Admissions, a leading MBA admissions consulting firm and the former acting admissions director of The Wharton School. For more free advice from Fortuna Admissions in partnership with Poets&Quants, check out these videos and articles. For a candid assessment of your chances of admission success at a top MBA program, sign up for a free consultation.