Stern’s essay questions this year are almost identical to last year’s, however there are a few important notes to make. Let’s take a closer look at this essay set:
Essay 1 – Professional Aspirations (750 word maximum):
Think about the decisions you have made in your life. Answer the following:
This is your standard career goals/why MBA essay, with a few interesting quirks. First, note that the initial section requests that applicants reflect on and explain the choices they’ve made to date, placing a bit of extra emphasis on the presentation of one’s career as a coherent and directed whole. While it’s always important to explain the reasons you’ve moved from one company to the next, you’ll also want to think about the more subtle decisions you’ve made to further your professional development. Have you actively sought out more responsibility? Requested an assignment with an eye to gaining a certain skill?
This essay is a great place for you to highlight your initiative and foresight in the process of relating your career progression to the adcom. Within the same theme of deliberate decision-making, the second thing to keep in mind is the prominence of the ‘why now’ issue. A thorough and well reasoned answer to this question will be a must for a solid response. Beyond your career path to date and the ‘why now’ issue, Stern will be looking for a detailed explanation of your short and long-term career plans and interest in the MBA as a means to realize these goals.
Though this is a lot of information to pack into a 750 word essay, it actually affords appreciably more room than last year’s limit of 500 words for the same essay question. Introducing the central elements of one’s candidacy in such a brief essay is definitely achievable, provided that applicants take their time to compose well-crafted and concise responses.
Essay 2 – Fit with Stern (500 words maximum):
The NYU Stern community is one of our strongest assets. Please answer the following questions about community:
Sensitive to the fact that applicants targeting Stern may also be applying to other programs that are strong in finance – especially regional peer Columbia – NYU is essentially asking applicants exactly how much homework they’ve done on the school. Obviously, the more information you can provide about trips to campus, visits to classes and conversations with students and alums, the more sincere your interest in the program will seem. The second portion of this question is similar to Kellogg’s second essay in that the adcom wants to see that applicants have really thought through the ways they could make an impact on the community.
Essay 3 – Personal Expression (500 words maximum, if written):
Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use almost any method to convey your message (e.g. words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative.
This essay gives applicants a chance to showcase their creative side by allowing them a broad range of (non-perishable) possible media in which to express themselves. Candidates with an artistic inclination, or those who harbor a passion that could be better conveyed through a method other than prose, might seriously consider submitting a poem, photograph or visual representation of their message.
Of course, it’s crucial to carefully consider just what needs to be communicated in this introduction to your future classmates. You’ll want to think reflectively about your values and personality – as well as strategically about what makes you unique with respect to other applicants. Naturally, you’ll also want to communicate your enthusiasm about meeting and working with your classmates, and perhaps include a comment about how you would engage them that does not cover the same ground as your first two essays. With these concerns in mind, it might not come as a surprise that, over the years, we’ve found that the written word tends to be the most effective format for a high percentage of applicants. There is still a great deal of room in which to be creative; for instance, your essay might be the opening to a chapter in an autobiography, or a snapshot of a typical day.
One final note on this essay is that Chicago has adopted a similarly creative ‘essay’ this year involving the use of PowerPoint; while this may help get the creative juices flowing, applicants would be ill advised to fully recycle material between the two essays (e.g. submitting a PowerPoint presentation to Stern), as this would likely be quite conspicuous.
