Welcome back to MBA Myth Busters: the series in which we review and disprove the popular myths surrounding graduate business education.
Myth: Candidates should tailor their essays to fit what admissions committees want to hear.
This is a myth of two parts: the first being that a “what they want to hear” exists when it comes to admissions committees (adcoms), and the second being that applicants should pander to it in their essays.
Busting this myth comes down to what adcoms are actually looking for. A huge part of this is diversity: business schools want classes that contain myriad perspectives, experiences, backgrounds and attitudes. They are looking for something unique in each candidate to add into the mix, and a what-they-want-to-hear essay stunts that mission.
Dartmouth Tuck, for example, asks candidates in their second essay to “Tell us who you are.” Their Admissions Director, Patricia Harrison, explains that this question is a chance for the school to truly understand their applicants; and, therefore, a chance for applicants to “tell us about the real you.”
The fact that essays should demonstrate the “real you” is one proclaimed by adcoms across top business schools. In our Q&A series with admissions directors, we ask: “What are you looking for as you read an essay?” Time and time again, this question is answered with a call for authenticity.
“We are looking for applicants who can authentically tell us why they are pursuing the Foster MBA,” says Brent Nagamine of Washington Foster; for detail on “how you authentically see yourself achieving your goals.” Kara Tripi of Michigan Broad echoes the same, eschewing the “common pitfall” of “generic essays” that would likely result from writing only what admissions committees want to hear. Instead, she says, candidates should “make sure your essay stands out and truly reflects you.” And, finally, Lindsay Loyd of NYU Stern sums it up by saying “the key word… is YOU.”
The need for authenticity in these essays affects not just their content, but how they are produced. In an age of AI, the temptation to outsource writing is strong: Nagamine reminds candidates that they might be doing “themselves a disservice by relying too heavily on [AI],” limiting their opportunity to “share genuine motivations, stories, and goals.”
An Example Essay Question
Let’s look in more detail at Tuck’s Essay Question 2 for the 2025-2026 cycle. The question is as follows:
Tell us who you are. How have your values and experiences shaped your identity and character? How will your unique background contribute to Tuck and/or enhance the experience of your classmates? (2,000 characters)
With this question, Tuck aims to tease out applicants’ uniqueness. Via specific examples from their career and studies, candidates should demonstrate the ways in which they will contribute to the MBA program and campus life—and the ways in which no one else can.
The question looks to get to the heart of what makes you not just a great candidate but an individual; to understand what shapes and informs your goals and your self.
This question perfectly exemplifies how mistaken you would be to write an essay based around what the admissions committees want to hear. Or, rather, Admissions Director Patricia Harrison’s explanation of it does: because this essay, she says, has “no one right answer, or even a right category of answers. We’re expecting responses that are as diverse and wide-ranging as our students.”
You can read Clear Admit’s full analysis of this question in our Essay Question Analysis.
