Tuesday Tips – Duke MBA Essay Tips
The Duke MBA questions vary a bit from last year’s approach, and require applicants to answer all of the short and long answer questions. The word limit is tight for the short answers, which will require candidates to lay out a refined application strategy and be disciplined and focused in answering the questions.
To learn more about Team Fuqua, look at the Duke MBA website, student bloggers‘ sites, and always try to visit campus or attend admission information sessions to get a feel for the culture and the school.
Short Answer Essays – Answer all short answer essay questions.
What do you hope to gain from The Duke MBA? How does it fit into your short- and long- term goals? If you are interested in a joint degree or the Health Sector Management program, please address in this response.
This essay is focused on your career goals and how your Duke MBA will help you achieve them. While similar to other schools’ career goals essay, this question begins with an inquiry about the Duke MBA program, suggesting that a successful essay will clearly highlight the benefit of a Duke MBA to your goals. The response needs to be limited to one page, requiring a focused articulation of your short- and long-term career goals. Be specific about your goals, and draw a logical thread from your past work experience to your Duke MBA to your plans for the future. Clearly articulating your goals and why they are important to you, whether to yourself or someone helping you, before you begin this essay will help you remain focused as you tackle the essay.
Learning as much as possible about the Duke MBA program and its specific benefit to your individual aspirations will be very important for this essay. Since you have less space to address the need for an MBA, focusing on Duke specifically with a few strategic items you have researched will allow you to address your career goals with enough depth to fit into the allotted word limit.
How will you contribute to the overall experience of your peers at The Duke MBA?
An opportunity to differentiate yourself from the applicant pool is presented in this question. At the same time, you want to demonstrate clearly how you fit with the Duke MBA program. Because this question is a broad inquiry, you can highlight specific community activity, interests, your unique culture or hobbies that will benefit your peers at the Duke MBA. At the same time you can use the opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the culture and how you will benefit your fellow students. Providing specific examples of your personality and unique attributes will have the greatest impact.
Detailed research into the opportunities at Duke and the personality of the MBA program will be important for this question. Fit is incredibly important to Duke, and this question helps select the type of applicant who fits into the program and distinguish the candidates who may not.
Discuss a person, event or experience that has significantly shaped your life and explain why. Note: The goal of this essay is to get a sense of who you are, rather than what you have achieved professionally.
The clear invitation to be personal in this essay allows you to go in almost any direction with your response. This is a great opportunity to highlight a particular inflection point in your life and discuss why you are on the particular path you are. In some ways it is a brief version of the Stanford essay on the topic of what matters most to you, and similar to the Stanford essay it will be best to link the response to your overall application strategy.
Long Essay – Answer the long essay question below.
Today, companies must navigate through complex and interdependent issues. They must deal with health and security matters, environmental impact questions, and diversity and cultural concerns. Leaders need adaptability, imagination, and emotional intelligence as well as business acumen.
Upon graduation, a Duke MBA will be a leader of consequence – able to deal simultaneously with complex matters and engage skillfully with colleagues, clients, and community. What impact do you hope to have as a leader of consequence?
This question requires you demonstrate you are aware of the some of the complexities and nuances of business in the 21st century: health/security, the environment, and diversity/culture. You must also address some of the personal attributes listed: adaptability, imagination and emotional intelligence, along with the business acumen you likely already have demonstrated in other essays. One or two examples of a time when you have dealt with some of the issues highlighted in the context of work or community involvement will be helpful. When discussing the example, focus on your ability to innovate, build relationships and work effectively with others.
Linking the response to this question with the previous personal essay will help you demonstrate that your future goals and interests have more depth than just personal ambition – you are seeking to have an impact on the people and world around you.
Optional Essay (not required)
If you feel there are extenuating circumstances of which the admissions committee should be aware, please explain them here (e.g. unexplained gaps in work, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, significant weakness in your application).
Optional essays are typically meant to address areas of weakness in your application. If your circumstances involve any of those listed in this question, you should take the opportunity to provide an explanation. Focus on describing the situation succinctly with little editorial comment, and explain why the situation is no longer an issue for you. If you are dealing with academic performance, highlight any bright spots in your transcript and demonstrate how your performance has improved through work examples, or in providing evidence through subsequent classes.
Reapplicant Essay
All reapplicants are also required to complete the Reapplicant Essay below. Please limit your response to two pages.
Write an essay describing how you are a stronger candidate for admission compared to the previous year’s application.
Reapplicants must be able to make the case that this year was a significant step forward. If you have obvious improvements like a higher GMAT or a promotion, that will be excellent material for this essay. Even if you don’t have anything quantifiable to discuss, taking the time to engage with the community, taking on new projects at work or otherwise developing yourself will be beneficial examples of your new, stronger application.
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