Admissions Tip: Approaching the ‘Career Goals’ Essay » Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

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Essay Topic Analysis
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The Career Goals Essay*
Berkeley / Haas*
Chicago GSB*
CMU / Tepper*
Columbia*
Cornell / Johnson*
Dartmouth / Tuck*
Duke / Fuqua*
Harvard*
IESE*
INSEAD*
London Business School*
MIT / Sloan*
Michigan / Ross*
Northwestern / Kellogg*
NYU / Stern*
Oxford / Said*
Penn / Wharton*
Stanford GSB*
UCLA / Anderson*
UNC / Kenan-Flagler*
USC / Marshall*
UT Austin / McCombs*
UVA / Darden*
Yale SOM*
* denotes '08-'09 commentary

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MBA Programs: North America
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Berkeley / Haas
Carnegie Mellon / Tepper
Chicago
Columbia
Concordia
Cornell / Johnson
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Emory / Goizueta
Harvard
HEC Montreal
Indiana / Kelley
Michigan
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New York / Stern
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Notre Dame / Mendoza
Pennsylvania / Wharton
Queens
Stanford
Texas / McCombs
Thunderbird
Toronto
UCLA / Anderson
Virginia / Darden
Western Ontario / Ivey
Yale

MBA Programs: Rest of the World
As there is some variety in the length of international MBA programs, we have denoted the length of the program next to its name (1 = one year; 2 = 2 years). If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
AGSM (Australia) 2
Cambridge / Judge (UK) 1
CIEBS (China) 2
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (China) 1
Cranfield School of Mgmt (UK) 1
ESADE (Spain) 1 or 2
HEC (France) 2
IESE (Spain) 2
IMD (Switzerland) 1
INCAE (Costa Rica) 2
INSEAD (France) 1
IPADE (Mexico)
ISB (India) 1
London Business School (UK) 2
Manchester Bus. School (UK) 2
Melbourne (Australia) 2
Oxford / Said (UK) 1
Rotterdam (Netherlands) 1
Tsinghua IMBA (China) 2
University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) 1

Additional Resources
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AACSB International
Association of MBAs
Beyond Grey Pinstripes
EFMD
gradschools.com (worldwide)
Infozee
mba.com (GMAT Scores)
MBAInfo
mbaleague.blogspot.com
MBAzone
MBA Jungle
TOEFL
Top MBA

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Blog Archive

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Admissions Tip: Approaching the ‘Career Goals’ Essay

While only a handful of schools have released their essay questions for the coming year, it’s still possible for those applicants who are done with the GMAT and ready to proceed with the next step to get a jump on another element of their applications. Most MBA programs pose an essay question along the following lines:

What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will Business School X help you achieve these goals?

This ‘career goals’ essay question can serve as an excellent starting point for those of you who are getting a head start on your Fall 2005 application essays. We’ve included some related excerpts from the Clear Admit Essay Guide below:

Career Goals Essay

Whether 1,000 or 500 words long, the school will be looking for clearly and fully defined long- and short-term career goals; your reasons for pursuing an MBA, and why at this point in time; and your specific interest in School X and your plans to contribute to the School X community, if admitted. This essay can also include a brief but coherent career history that shows progress toward your career goals. A great essay manages to thoroughly and efficiently address each of these elements, with a nice balance between the ‘career progression’ section, the ‘career goals/why MBA’ section and the ‘why School X’ section.

Admissions officers understand that successful students are focused in their ambitions, so they look for applicants with:

-Narrowly defined career goals and
-A coherent career path that shows progress toward those goals.

Beyond presenting coherent and very specific in your career goals essay, it is also important to keep the following concept in mind: any fair trade necessitates mutual benefit. In other words, in addition to showing that School X is the best MBA program for your needs, you should demonstrate to School X that you will enrich its community. Discuss insights and knowledge that you will contribute in class, and skills and interests for getting involved in activities (clubs, organizations, etc.) outside of class.

Contact Clear Admit to learn more about our ‘early bird’ admissions package for the coming season.

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