Yale Mba Essay Examples

[Niklas Terki]

Inaddition to diversity, Yale is extremely dedicated to leadership development and has numerous resources on campus to ensure that diverse students not only grow at Yale but that they also have all the tools and support they need to reach their personal and professional goals on a global scale.

2) Describe the community that has been most meaningful to you. What is the most valuable thing you have gained from being a part of this community and what is the most important thing you have contributed to this community? (500-word limit)

To answer this question, you first want to think about your scope. Though you can certainly talk about a single story or achievement or your commitment to a single cause, the question is broad enough for you to explore a theme in your life.

For example, one of our clients wrote about his commitment to a certain type of leadership, then used his essay to provide examples showing this type of leadership in action, before ending with a small statement on where he hopes to take this commitment in the future. As such, feel free to choose an idea or value as your theme for your essay and choose related examples that give the Yale SOM admissions committee a greater picture of who you are and what you bring to the table.

So, when brainstorming your stories, first, make sure you choose a story that has a clear result that means something to you. This can be overcoming a personal hardship, delivering a difficult project at work, or even confronting a challenge in your extracurricular activities.

Our MBA Resource Center has dozens of Yale SOM MBA essays that worked to get our clients admitted to help you plan out a winning Yale SOM essay. Our library also includes guides for all top global MBA programs, detailed essay brainstorms, interview tips and mocks, CV templates, and recommendation letter guides. Click to join!

After selecting your short-term and long-term career interests from a drop-down menu in the application (see screenshot below), you are asked to provide a short essay to further clarify and contextualize your goals.

For all goals essays, you should first begin with context, as goals without context often lack clarity or impact. You may want to include one mini-story or several small anecdotes to provide this context.

Then, after you set the stage, clearly present your goals to the admissions committee. The section on your goals should include clear short-term and long-term goals, meaning you should list the job title and industry for each. Furthermore, stating the motivation you have for wanting these goals and the impact you envision generating while pursuing them is an excellent way to take your essay from good to great.

TOP TIP: We have written extensively on how to ensure you master 250-word essays. Though short, this is one of the most important essays you will write for Yale SOM, so make sure every word counts!

Do not include another essay you wrote for another school and truly consider if you need to submit this essay at all, as it will not apply to all applicants. If you do feel that sharing additional information about your family background or economic situation would be helpful context for the admissions committee to have!

One of the most common mistakes we see in MBA essays is that candidates fail to tell compelling stories. This is important because if your stories are not compelling, they will not be persuasive. At the same time, they must be backed by strong examples that establish a track record of success and prove to the admissions committees why you belong at their school.

This is why our iterative developmental feedback process here at Ellin Lolis Consulting helps you mold your message through the application of our storytelling expertise until it reflects exactly what makes your profile stand out and show fit with your target program.

One of the requirements of the Political Science major is the senior essay. The senior essay is an opportunity to go more deeply into a topic or puzzle than you ordinarily would on a final assignment for a course. At first, this may seem like a daunting task. This document is designed to allay some of that anxiety as well as familiarize you with things you need to know about the essay requirement.

Most Political Science majors write their senior essays in conjunction with a one-semester seminar. A small number of students write it in the independent, one-term senior essay course (PLSC 480), the year-long senior essay courses (PLSC 490 and 491), or the intensive senior essay courses (PLSC 490 and 493). More information can be found on these various options below

Another valuable resource is reference librarians, both in the Social Science library and elsewhere in the Yale library system. Many useful sources are now available on-line; the reference librarians will often be more up-to-date about how to access these resources than your adviser.

There are several settings you can enroll in for the writing of your essay, as described in the next sections. Common to all of them, however, is the need for a close working relationship with an adviser, be it the instructor of the senior seminar in which you write your essay or an adviser for your independent research. Of absolute importance is for you to make and appear at regular appointments, and to submit drafts of your ongoing work on time. This means that, at the outset, you need to make an agreement with your adviser about a schedule for meetings and preliminary drafts. You will find some suggestions about a schedule below. Do not wait for your adviser to bring up this matter or suggest a schedule. Having a set of deadlines can have an important effect on your time management and the ultimate quality of your essay.

When thinking about the faculty adviser, keep in mind that the Department requires that this person be an instructor in Political Science. Such an instructor may, for example, be in the Sociology department, but teach a course that is cross-listed with Political Science. The objective behind this rule is to have students approach their topic as a Political Scientist would. Please feel free to turn to Yale instructors who have no connection to the Political Science Department for informal advice, but your formal adviser must be an instructor in the Department. If you have any questions about whether an instructor is qualified to advise you, please consult with the DUS.

You should plan to meet with your adviser regularly over the course of the semester and we recommend that you meet at least once every three weeks. In many ways, the most crucial meetings will be the early ones, when she or he helps you to develop a topic and identify sources. Furthermore, many seniors incorporate primary materials into their essay, and/or analyze publically-available information in new and inventive ways. Your adviser can help you to develop an understanding of what the relevant primary materials might be for your chosen topic, and how to go about finding, assembling, and analyzing them. While your adviser can make suggestions on your research design and suggest relevant sources, it is your responsibility to conduct the research on your topic and gather the relevant literature. In addition, your adviser can provide written and oral commentary on your drafts and give you constructive criticism on your arguments and evidence. However, keep in mind that your adviser is not responsible for providing you with an answer to your research question; it is up to you to decide upon the argument you would like to make. Please know that the best senior essays at Yale make exceptionally creative arguments or depend on extensive and sometimes original data collection or field research.

If you are like most Yale students, your senior essay will be the longest paper you have written to date. It would be a big mistake to attempt to write it at the last minute. Remember that a bad process often results in a weak paper. The key to writing a strong senior essay is to start early, work steadily, and seek feedback well ahead of the final deadline. Start writing as soon as possible, even well before you really feel ready to do so. Often you will find that you are more ready than you suspect. Writing can also help you identify gaps in your research or argument. Also, it will be much easier for your adviser to give you useful feedback on an actual piece of writing than on an idea expressed verbally in a meeting.

Be sure to take advantage of the pre-registration process and apply for a slot in the seminars that interest you. Keep in mind that senior majors are accepted into seminars at higher rates than other students, especially when applying through pre-registration. Pre-registration is a great opportunity to make a case for yourself. In the form that the DUS provides to you, explain your background, previous coursework, and any relevant experiences you have had. You should also indicate that you would like to write your senior essay in his or her course. In other words, applying to a seminar is the first step in recruiting your adviser.

Occasionally, students take a seminar with the intention of writing a senior essay and then, during the semester, change their minds. If you find yourself in this situation and would like to opt out, you should contact your instructor, the DUS, and the DUS Assistant.

Some majors have a long-standing interest in a topic or a problem related to politics or public policy about which they want to write, but no seminar is offered that is related to their topic. Such students will frequently have worked with a faculty member in the past in a related course or project, and may have already taken the relevant seminars before their senior year. For these students, writing a senior essay in the context of the independent, one-term senior essay course (480a in the fall, 480b in the spring) is a good option. In order to pursue this option, they must recruit an adviser who is willing to work with them to develop a reading list and fulfill all of the other tasks involved in writing the essay. It is very important, if you want to fulfill your essay requirement this way, to approach a professor in the Department with your ideas and obtain her or his agreement to work with you before the term starts. For a fall essay, it would be best to do this in the spring of your junior year; for a spring essay, make arrangements during the fall of your senior year.

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