Tuesday Tips – The Emory MBA Program
The Emory MBA program in Atlanta offers a variety of programs, including a one-year MBA, which is more common outside the United States. The requirements of the one year program vary slightly from the typical two year applicant profile. One year students are expected to arrive at Goizueta with a prior business background and undergraduate degree in business or economics. The one year students will have already completed the basic core elements of an MBA program by taking classes in Statistics, Economics and Calculus prior to attending the program. In addition, the one year students will have focused career goals without the need for an internship. The one year program is smaller than the two year.
The two year program is composed of students from all backgrounds who will complete a core program and an internship. In addition, two year students benefit from more elective opportunities and the ability to study abroad.
When approaching the Emory MBA essays, it is important to be focused on your overall application strategy and clearly understand your own unique strengths and weaknesses. You will want to demonstrate your professional skills and personal qualities, along with clearly demonstrating that you are familiar with the Emory MBA program and that it is an appropriate fit for you.
1. List one of your most significant professional or organizational accomplishments.
Describe your precise role in this event and how it has helped to shape your management skills. Please limit your response to two, double-spaced, typed pages.
This is similar to the HBS accomplishment essay, and you should choose topics in a similar way. Think about the important accomplishments in your life, and pick one that you can describe precisely. Because the Emory MBA program is asking for an accomplishment that has shaped your management skills you will likely want to think about professional accomplishments first. If you work as an individual contributor without the opportunity to manage at work, you may have robust leadership experiences in your extracurricular activities that would be appropriate for this question.
In describing your accomplishment be specific about what the accomplishment was, and if possible, have solid results. Describe what you did to accomplish the achievement with specific examples whenever possible. You have the room to thoroughly describe the events and your role in the accomplishments.
The second part of this question is to reflect upon how this accomplishment has shaped your management skills. Think about the lessons you learned and the way you were able to grow as a result of the experience. To be thoroughly convincing, a recent example of a time that you used these learnings would be effective.
2. Please complete/address two of the following statements.
Full-time candidates (Two-Year and One-Year Programs) must complete/address choice F as one of the two options. Please limit each response to one, double-spaced, typed page.
a. I have always wanted to….
b. My most memorable cross-cultural experience….
c. My family background is unique because….
d. The person who has had the greatest influence on my leadership style is… because…
e. The greatest lesson I have ever learned….
f. Of Goizueta’s core values (courage, integrity, accountability, rigor, diversity, team, community), which value resonates most with you and why?
This question offers a wide range of options to illuminate almost any area of your application strategy. Think about what you would like to communicate to the admissions committee about yourself and your values, and then choose the appropriate question.
If you are seeking to differentiate yourself, choosing option c or b may be ideal to communicate why you are unique despite any typical statistics or background you may have. If you need to bulk up in communicating your leadership style, option d will be appropriate. Communicating about your personal qualities would be effective in option a and option f.
Emory Goizueta asks all full-time applicants to answer option f. When approaching the question it would be useful to think about what specific example or examples you can use to illustrate why you choose that particular core value. You will certainly want to back up your choice effectively as well as make sure you can use the opportunity to communicate another aspect of your candidacy to the admissions committee.
3. What do you expect to accomplish in the Emory MBA program?
How will your participation in the MBA program fit in with your experiences and responsibilities as well as your short and long-term career goals? Please limit your response to two, double-spaced, typed pages.
The classic career goals essay comes at the end of this set of essays and starts with the question of “why Goizueta?” To effectively answer this question you will want to demonstrate your specific knowledge of the program from all angles – academic, social and community. In researching the program you will want to take advantage of the formal programs available, from school visits to admissions information sessions, as well as informal networking with current and former students.
To answer the rest of this question, you will want to demonstrate how you will contribute to the program based on your experiences, and how the program will help you reach your short and long-term career goals. As in other career goals essays, this essay is most effective if you are able to clearly show the links between your past experience, the Emory MBA program, your short-term goals, then your long-tem goals.
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