Full Videos: MBA Essay Insight Event Series
Getting admitted into a leading MBA program requires more than getting high test scores and sending transcripts. To get accepted into the business school of your choice, you need to show the admissions committee who you really are. Therefore, schools typically include an essay portion in their MBA applications.
Essays give applicants the opportunity to tell admissions representatives why they want to attend business school and how this program would fit into their overall goals. Since this portion of the application process is where you have the chance to truly stand out, it’s crucial to know how to craft effective essays.
Clear Admit’s MBA Essay Insight Event Series was created to help applicants excel in the essay portion of their business school applications. During this series, representatives from leading business schools discuss what goes into successful MBA essays.
MBA Essay Insight Events
We cover the following topics throughout the series:
- When admissions committees read the essays in an application
- How much time they spend reading applications
- Essay prompts from each of the five programs
- The MBA student community at each of the five business schools
- Additional application tips
…and more advice to help applicants put their best foot forward during the MBA admissions process.
On July 14th, we welcomed five admissions representatives to offer advice about the essay portion of the MBA application process. Panelists included Eric Askins, Executive Director of Full-Time Admissions at Berkeley Haas School of Business; Jeb Butler, Director of Operations & MBA Admissions at The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School; Jennifer Barba, Senior Associate Director of Admissions at MIT Sloan School of Management; Laurel Grodman, Managing Director of Admissions at Yale School of Management; and Anna Chalfin, Associate Director of Enrollment Strategy – Full-Time MBA Admissions at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Watch this video to catch up on the first part of the MBA Essay Insight Event Series!
On July 21st, we welcomed five more admissions representatives to offer insight. Panelists included Allison Jamison, Assistant Dean of Admissions at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business; Diana Economy, Director of Full-Time MBA Admissions at Stephen M. Ross School of Business; Rodrigo Malta, Managing Director of MBA Marketing, Recruiting, & Admissions at Texas McCombs School of Business; Felicia Swoope, Assistant Director of Admissions Recruiting at The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth; and Lisa Killingsworth, Director of Operations, Admissions, & Financial Aid at Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management.
Watch this video to catch up on the second part of the MBA Essay Insight Event Series!
Last but certainly not least, we welcomed our final group of admissions representatives to offer insight on July 28t. Panelists included Gina Cecchetti, Associate Director of Masters Admissions at Tepper School of Business; Kate Kryder, Associate Director of Full-Time MBA Admissions and Student Recruitment at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School; John Lee, Associate Director of MBA Admissions at UCLA Anderson School of Management; Virginie Fougea, Global Director of Admissions & Financial Aid at INSEAD; and David Simpson, Recruitment & Admissions Director of MBA & Masters in Finance at London Business School.
Watch this video to catch up on the third and final part of the MBA Essay Insight Event Series!
MBA Applywire
Currently working in consulting with a major FMCG/alcobev client, mainly across analytics, supply, and business problem-solving work. Over time, I’ve realized I enjoy understanding why problems exist within organizations and how teams, systems, and decisions can work better together, which is what’s pushing me towards strategy consulting and an MBA.
A lot of my interest in business also comes from seeing how everyday products and operations work behind the scenes. Outside work, I co-founded and ran a digital literacy initiative (1yr 2mo) during COVID where we helped elderly individuals and women from underserved communities learn basic digital tools to stay connected and manage daily activities during lockdown.
I’m currently preparing for the GMAT and exploring schools such as LBS, Fuqua, Ross, Tuck, and a few reach schools depending on how the score progresses.
Veteran. Ivy League undergrad. Planning to pivot into consulting or LDP.
I was in the top 5 of my class in mba from India and was a beta gamma sigma. This would be my second mba. I was also in the top 5 of my class in engineering. In my general management product management role I have worked with engineering team of 131 members building solutions for the insurance company (max New York life insurance). I want to shift from product management to investment banking or private equity.
I grew up inside a pharmaceutical manufacturing business. My family produces amino acids supplied to formulation companies that manufacture injectable IV solutions. From a young age, I understood that healthcare does not begin in a hospital. It begins in a reactor, in batch yield reports, in solvent recovery metrics, and in regulatory audits. I was proud of the role we played in India’s pharmaceutical ecosystem.
That pride turned reflective when my mother was hospitalized and administered IV drips produced by one of our customers. The compounds sustaining her recovery passed through supply chains like ours, and I knew exactly how they were made. I understood the solvent-heavy synthesis, the waste streams, the emissions. In that moment, I felt both gratitude and responsibility. We were contributing to lifesaving medicine — but through processes that are environmentally intensive and structurally dependent on imported intermediates. The system works, but it is fragile.
India stands at a strategic inflection point. It is the fastest-growing major economy in the world, home to the third-largest startup ecosystem, and supplies nearly 20% of global generic medicines. Yet structurally, we remain dependent. Roughly 70–75% of bulk drug and API inputs are imported, largely from China. We dominate formulation by volume but capture limited value upstream in high-margin API innovation. At the same time, traditional pharmaceutical synthesis can generate up to 100 kilograms of waste per kilogram of API produced, making it one of the most resource-intensive manufacturing sectors. Despite the national ambition of “Make in India,” our Gross Expenditure on Research and Development remains below 0.7% of GDP — far behind global innovation leaders.
India cannot aspire to healthcare sovereignty while relying on imported chemistry and outdated processes.
My long-term goal is to transform our family’s amino acid manufacturing base into a vertically integrated, green pharmaceutical platform that serves as proof-of-concept for sustainable API production at industrial scale in India. The transition would involve replacing conventional solvent-heavy synthesis with biocatalysis, flow chemistry, and fermentation-based processes; expanding the portfolio from amino acids into high-margin APIs; and building the operational, regulatory, and export credibility needed to compete globally. Over time, I aim to scale this model into a national green API manufacturing platform that reduces import dependence and repositions India within the pharmaceutical value chain.
If executed successfully, this platform could reduce API production costs by 30–40%, lower generic drug prices by 10–20% in cost-sensitive categories, and materially cut the environmental footprint of an industry that today generates significant chemical waste. More importantly, it would move India from being the world’s low-cost pharmacy to becoming a high-value, innovation-led, and environmentally responsible pharmaceutical hub — securing healthcare sovereignty for 1.4 billion citizens while strengthening India’s standing in global medicine.
To build toward this ambition, I will first deepen my expertise in global pharmaceutical supply chains and capital allocation by working in strategy and operations roles within a global pharma or healthcare-focused investment platform. This experience will allow me to understand industrial transformation at scale, navigate regulatory environments, and structure capital-intensive manufacturing transitions. Equipped with this exposure, I will return to scale and green-transition our manufacturing base, laying the foundation for India’s next-generation pharmaceutical infrastructure.
MBA LiveWire
WL in round 1, got accepted in May
No $, accepted R2 back in March



