Rounding out what’s been an essay-focused week here in our corner of the blogosphere, we wanted to offer some commentary on the recently released set of Kellogg essay questions.
Whereas some programs (like Kellogg’s regional rival Chicago) have unveiled drastic changes to their essays this season, there hasn’t been too much change to this set at all, as the school has decided to stick with its usual format of three required questions followed with the applicant’s choice of three of six shorter response options. The questions themselves are also much the same as last years, with just one new inquiry among the six shorter prompts and a slight change to another.
Essay 1: Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing a graduate degree at the Kellogg School (1-2 double-spaced pages).
This is another fairly standard career goals/why MBA essay. As usual, it’s important to remember that specificity of goals is key, and keep in mind that the school prides itself on its collegial culture when addressing the ‘why Kellogg’ issue. One more thing to note is that the request that applicants “assess” their progress to date is unique to Kellogg’s version of this question. This would suggest that it might be appropriate to incorporate a few reflective or even evaluative comments into your discussion of your professional path in order to tailor your perspective to Kellogg’s question.
Essay 2: Each of our applicants is unique. Describe how your background, values, academics, activities and/or leadership skills will enhance the experience of other Kellogg students (1-2 double-spaced pages).
You’re being given the opportunity to do two very important things in this essay. The first is to share a good deal of interesting information about your interests and experiences in order to distinguish yourself from other applicants and help the adcom get to know you. Second, this essay is the perfect forum for you to demonstrate your research on and fit with the program by explaining the ways your involvements and experiences to date translate to a number of specific contributions to the Kellogg community. Whether it’s a class to which your insight would prove especially relevant or a function you could organize as a member of a certain club, the more detail you can provide about the impact you would make, the more reason you’ll give the adcom to admit you.
Essay 3: You have been selected as a member of the Kellogg Admissions Committee. Please provide a brief evaluative assessment of your file (1-2 double-spaced pages).
This is one of the trickier questions out there in the MBA admissions world, as the request that applicants take a third-party perspective on their own applications virtually prohibits them from introducing any new information in this essay. The key is to use this response to draw the inferences that you would hope the reader to make based on your file, perhaps explicitly commenting on themes that run through your experience or drawing connections between your goals and some aspect of your background. This is also a great place for you to address weaknesses in your file – for instance, commenting that while your GPA is below the school’s average, it seems clear that you had one rough semester and that your performance in later years is more indicative of your abilities. [There are number of additional strategies that work for this essay, and we encourage Kellogg applicants to contact us directly for further information about our counseling services in this regard.]
Essay 4: Complete three of the following six questions or statements (2-3 double-spaced paragraphs each).
A. What have been your most significant leadership experiences to date?
This is a simplified version of a familiar question. While in previous years Kellogg also asked about the most important lesson learned as a result of the applicant’s most significant leadership roles, it’s possible that the adcom decided that this was too much ground to cover in two or three paragraphs. Applicants should keep in mind that this question is fairly open in terms of topics, and that hey can draw upon professional and/or extracurricular examples (having been asked about plural “experiences”). Further, they have some leeway to interpret “significant” here, and could focus on an instance of professional or personal growth, or emphasize an important impact on a group or organization. This flexibility should provide the opportunity to select two or three stories that will help applicants to enhance and balance the picture of their candidacies that the previous three essays create.
B. Describe an ethical dilemma that you faced and how it was resolved.
Given that previous actions are often a reliable predictor of future behavior, this is a topic that many schools are curious about. For a detailed discussion of a sound way to approach an essay of this sort, see our commentary on Wharton’s question on the same subject.
C. Outside of work I…
This question offers a prime opportunity to introduce some information about your interests and activities. While it might be tempting to provide a long list of one’s pursuits, it might be more beneficial to focus on just one extracurricular or personal passion in addition to an overview of interests, commenting on the reason that one enjoys this activity (and perhaps how one’s involvement would continue while at business school).
D. Describe a professional situation where you were able to successfully persuade others to see things your way.
This is the only question that is entirely new for this year, and offers a great chance to highlight one’s interpersonal skills and communication abilities. As with any single-instance essay, you’ll need to provide the reader with a clear sense of the situation, persuading the adcom that “your way” was the best way even before describing the steps you took to bring others around to your way of thinking. Remember that in addition to your words and actions, the thought process behind them will also be of interest. Finally, it would be a nice touch to end the essay with a comment on the positive outcome of your plan.
E. I wish the Admissions Committee had asked me…
When introducing balance to one’s file and hitting all the highlights of one’s candidacy are important concerns, an open-ended question like this can be very refreshing – but it’s important to select a topic that could not in fact have been discussed in response to any of the questions the adcom did ask; Kellogg’s eight other prompts cover a good deal of ground. An added element of complexity is that it’s important to avoid that applicants avoid posing themselves a question that echoes that of another school. For instance, claiming that you wish the admissions committee had asked you to discuss your undergraduate academic experience might raise some eyebrows and create suspicions about recycled content originally composed in response to a Harvard question.
F. Since your previous application, what are the steps you have taken to strengthen your candidacy?
Required of reapplicants, this question aims to gauge the candidate’s commitment to Kellogg and provides a great chance to outline exactly how one’s application has changed for the better since last applying. In addition to those steps that will be “on the record,” such as requesting a feedback session or retaking the GMAT, it’s even more important to cover details such as informal promotions and increases in responsibility, along with actions like engaging the student and alumni community to better understand the program.
