IESE MBA Essay Topic Analysis 2025-2026

The following essay topic analysis examines the IESE MBA admissions essays for the 2025-2026 admissions season. You can also review essay topic analyses for other leading MBA programs as well as general Essay Tips to further aid you in developing your admissions essays. 

IESE MBA Essay Topic Analysis 2025-2026

Let’s take a closer look at each question.

Essay Question 1

To understand where you’re headed and how the MBA fits into your bigger picture, we’d like to hear what you hope to do after graduation, where you see yourself in a few years, and what your long-term ambitions look like. Keep it personal, realistic but ambitious, and show us how IESE fits into that journey.

What are your immediate career goal after graduation and your mid-term career goal 5-10 years after graduation? How will the IESE MBA program help you achieve them?” (word limit 450 max)
This essay is a standard career goals essay. Applicants will need to clearly and concisely state what their future plans are for both immediately after business school and in the medium term (five or so years out of school). This entails identifying a desired function and industry, along with a few target firms. If you have room, you can highlight the impact you hope to have along the way; however, it would behoove you to prioritize explaining how your immediate plans are a natural step to your mid-term career plans. Then, be sure to illustrate how your goals relate to your work thus far and the skills you would gain from an MBA. Finally, connect to your interest in IESE’s MBA program, identifying some key courses and clubs and other features, to support why you want to earn your degree at IESE specifically.

Essay Question 2

At IESE, we are committed to developing responsible leaders who make a positive impact on business and society. Our community is guided by values such as integrity, spirit of service, global mindset, and personal growth.

Please respond to the following essay prompt to help us understand your motivations and your fit with IESE:

Why is IESE the right MBA program for you?

What aspects of IESE’s program, values, and community resonate most with your personal and professional goals? Please provide specific examples that illustrate why you believe IESE is the best fit for you. (Word limit 300 max)

Your response should be personal, honest, and well-researched. We encourage you to reflect on how you see yourself engaging with the IESE community and how the experience will support your long-term aspirations.
This is the place to dig into more detail about why IESE is the right fit for you. To enrich your response, connect with current students, alumni or admissions to learn more about the program. You can also review the school’s website to learn about their curricular and student life offerings. Once you identify the offerings, your job will be to forge connections to how these will help you develop personally and professionally. Consider the skills you need and what IESE offerings provide said skills. Keep in mind that the adcom will also want to know what’s in it for the community if they admit you–do not just assert what you plan to gain from the MBA program, but also what you can contribute. What initiatives would you lead? What clubs would you join to organize events?

Optional Essay

What would you like to highlight about yourself or your journey which may have not been captured in your application? (word limit 300 max)
This question provides candidates a chance to briefly explore an important aspect of their candidacy not mentioned in their data forms, résumé, or other essay responses. It makes sense to complete this essay in order to round out your application or explain any issues such as a low GPA or test score, work experience or choice of recommenders. For applicants from oversubscribed groups in the applicant pool, this essay could offer a great opportunity to truly stand out from the crowd by sharing an unusual hobby or an interesting anecdote. Potential topics could be a time you demonstrated leadership, ethical behavior, entrepreneurial spirit, or persuasion skills, as these are all topics that are often of interest to admissions committees. In the case of explaining a worrisome issue about your candidacy, be brief and to the point. Avoid making excuses and simply explain the situation. For example, perhaps you’ve taken coursework to mitigate a weak academic record, or you chose a recommender who was not your direct supervisor, but could still attest to your leadership skills. Whatever topic you select, it would be ideal to link this quality or fact to some element of your intended experience in the MBA program and/or future career.

Video Essay

As part of the IESE MBA admissions evaluation process, all applicants are required to complete a short video assessment. This component gives us a chance to meet you in a more dynamic and personal format and to better understand your personality, communication skills, and overall fit for the IESE community. 

The process is simple and designed to be completed in a short amount of time. You will be asked three questions, one at a time. For each question, you will have:

• 1 minute to prepare and 1 minute and 30 seconds to respond
• This is not a test of perfection or polish—it is an opportunity for us to see the authentic you beyond the written application.

Once you have submitted your online application form and paid the application fee, you will receive a personalized link to complete the video assessment via our platform partner. Please keep the following in mind:

• The video link will be valid for 48 hours from the moment it is issued.
• Your application will only be considered complete once the video assessment has been successfully submitted.

We recommend that you:

• Choose a quiet, well-lit environment
• Ensure your internet connection is stable
• Test your camera and microphone before starting
• Relax and be yourself—we’re excited to get to know you

If you have any issues or accessibility concerns regarding this step, please contact the admissions team at [email protected]
Before pressing the “record” button, it would be worth reviewing our advice on video essays to understand the broader goals of a video prompt. As this is a visual presentation that will be recorded live, ensure you are dressed in appropriate professional attire. In terms of a background, clean and steady may work best—you do not want to make the adcom dizzy by taking them on an unsteady walking tour with your laptop. While many applicants will be tempted to introduce props into their video, such as signs, souvenirs, or any prized possessions, we would like to urge caution in this domain. A focused response to the question (while looking your audience in the eye) may be far more effective than a distracting string of props, signs, charts—each requiring valuable time to make transitions—not to mention careful attention to readability/visibility on screen.

Clear Admit Resources

Thanks for reading our analysis of this year’s IESE MBA essay topics. As you work on your IESE MBA essays and application, we encourage you to consider all of Clear Admit’s IESE Business School offerings:

• IESE Profile on the Clear Admit website: up-to-date advice and admissions information
• Clear Admit LiveWire: admissions updates submitted in real time by applicants to IESE
• Clear Admit DecisionWire: school selections in real-time by admits to IESE