Business schools throughout the United States are transforming their MBA application essays for prospective students. Students will have fewer and shorter essays to write.
The schools hope this new model will encourage applicants to showcase their creativity as they strive to communicate their ideas as concisely as possible.
Deirdre C. Leopold, managing director of MBA admissions and financial aid at Harvard Business School, said in a May 30 post on her blog that her school will require one essay instead of two, adding that the previous fixed word count will now be a thing of the past.
Leopold advises students to use their judgment about what they write and how much they write, noting that the admissions process is not intended as an “essay-writing contest.”
Driving this new strategy is the goal of attracting a larger pool of applicants. Students who pass the essay phase of the application process will move on to the interview phase.
Some schools are moving away from the traditional essay altogether. The University of Iowa’s Tippie School of Management now allows its applicants to submit a SlideShare presentation in lieu of the previously required two essays. SlideShare is an online platform that allows users to upload PowerPoint presentations, PDF portfolios and Word documents to create a visually compelling presentation.
Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University have both adopted a Twitter-style application that must contain no more than 140 characters. This approach essentially forces applicants to explain how they would fit in with the program in an extremely condensed, to-the-point manner. Students can include relevant links to other resources within the 140-character application.
Bloomberg Businessweek reports that Columbia Business School and New York University’s Stern School of Business have shortened their MBA applications, as well. The Stern School shrunk its requirements from three essays to two, with one optional essay for the student who opts to explain additional information, such as grades or employment gaps. According to Bloomberg, Columbia reduced its MBA application essay word count by 20 percent. The new application allows just 100 characters for the answer to this particular essay question: “What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal?”
Applicants must now prove their communications skills by conveying their personality and drive to succeed into a smaller word count. The new essay rules will be tested on students who apply to the programs next year.
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