tell me about yourself mba essay

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MBA Personal Statement Sample Essays & Tips

Your academic record, GMAT scores, and GPA are important factors in the MBA application process. But, more than that, business schools ultimately care about who you are and whether you would be a good fit for their program. This is where your application essays come in. The goal here is to complete the picture that your scores and stats began sketching. Take your time when writing these essays. They will form the image the admissions committee will see before they meet you at your interview. Write, edit, and edit again. Be sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors in your essay. You want your portrait to be clean and clear. Once you are satisfied with your essay, ask a trusted friend, mentor, or admissions pro to read it. A fresh pair of eyes can often see things that you can’t.

7 tips for creating the best MBA essays

Here are some important things to remember when writing your MBA essays.

• Show who you are in a background essay Use this opportunity to reveal your values and personality, the obstacles you’ve overcome, and the seminal experiences that have shaped you into the person you are today. No two people have the same history. Use stories and examples to make your background bright and stand out to demonstrate what makes you special. Discuss how your history has brought you to this point. What is there in your background that compels you to pursue an MBA at this time?
• Show your direction in the goals essay Use this opportunity to show that you have clear direction and purpose based on experience and planning. Business school is not another opportunity to “find yourself.” Even if you have had one career path and will use your MBA to launch another career, this essay must describe the reasons behind your career-change, your new goals, and how the program will help you achieve them.
• Use your optional essay to explain negatives in your stats If your GPA was lower than you would have liked early in your undergraduate education, use your essay to show how you learned from this experience. Everyone makes mistakes. How you deal with your mistakes shows a lot to the admissions committee – determination, discipline, success, resilience, and breadth of experience are qualities that will serve you well in your MBA studies and later in life. Be sure that you explain your negatives and don’t try to justify them. Show that you understand the mistake you made, learned from it and changed as a result of processing the experience. That response shows maturity. Justifying – instead of learning or changing – is a sign of immaturity. MBA programs want mature adults. Almost all of them have made mistakes.
• Say what you mean, and mean what you say Admissions committees read thousands of essays during each admissions round. A concise, well thought-out essay will have them reading yours to the end.  You need examples and stories to support your statements and make your essay interesting and readable. Each of these needs to be to the point. These professionals are trained to spot an essay that is full of fluff and without substance.Avoid rambling and the use of keywords that you think the reader wants to see. A non-substantive essay will lead the reader to conclude that you, too, are without substance.
• Find your passion This relates to tip #4 above. You want to grab the reader right away and create an essay that will keep their attention to the very end – and leave them wanting to meet you and get to know you even better. In other words, offer you a coveted interview! Find a theme, and weave it throughout your essay. If you can identify a passion that you had from an early age and follow it through the different stages of your life, you will have an interesting, readable essay. Connect your passion to your childhood and you professional and extracurricular experiences and accomplishments. Demonstrate how your passion will influence your future career and serve the community at the school you want to attend.
• Focus on your professional experience and achievements Not everyone has a passion that they have carried with them throughout their life. However, since you are planning on attending an MBA program, you must have had professional and personal achievements. Highlight your professional skills and successes, as well as personal accomplishments. Show how these experiences and achievements have brought you to this point, and how they have influenced your long-term plans and reasons for pursuing an MBA.
• Highlight your experience in your EMBA essay An applicant to an Executive MBA program is an executive or manager currently in the workforce, usually with at least eight years of business experience. As an EMBA student you will be expected to excel in your coursework while continuing to hold down your full-time job. You must demonstrate significant leadership, impact, potential, and the legitimate need for the degree to be accepted. Highlight your current responsibilities and recent achievements, as well as your skill sets. Discuss your goals and how an EMBA will help you reach them. Include how you will positively impact the community at the program you are applying to.

Read MBA Personal Statement Examples

Now that you have the tools to write your compelling essay, check out our sample MBA application essays to see what you will be able to accomplish.

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How to Write a Powerful MBA Essay—With Examples

The MBA essay is critical to your business school application. Read our guide to writing the perfect MBA essay, with successful admit examples.

Posted April 4, 2024

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Table of Contents

What is the mba essay.

The MBA admissions essay.

Those words alone are enough to make most MBA candidates run screaming. Writing in general is hard enough. Writing about why you want an MBA? Your short-term goals and career aspirations? What matters to you most, and why? Forget it.

Of course, you still have to write these essays.

The MBA essay is perhaps  the most important part of the business school application. (It's also getting more and more important by the day, with some business schools moving away from traditional, quantitative measuring sticks, like the GMAT and the GRE.) Every other part of the application — your GPA, your test scores, your letters of recommendation — are quantified, cut and dried, or out of your control. The essay is your chance to show up as a fully realized MBA candidate, with hopes, dreams, and vulnerabilities. Admissions committees are not simply assessing your candidacy as a future leader — they're looking to admit human beings. That's where the MBA applicant essays come in.

That being the case, rather than being intimidated by it, treat the essay like the opportunity that it is — the chance for you to highlight your unique, iridescent self; the only moment in the MBA admissions process (prior to the interview) when you can speak directly to the admissions officers; the time when you'll show them who you really are. It's not easy to write something that will do that, of course, but with the tips and tricks in this guide, and some help from one of Leland's vetted, world-class admissions coaches, we know you can do it. Give the essay the time, attention, and respect it deserves, and you'll be on your way to an offer of admission at your dream school.

Without further ado, let's dive in!

Ultimate MBA Essay Guide

See the MBA essay prompts, top tips from experts, and real examples from admits with this comprehensive guide.

How Long Will My MBA Essay Take?

First thing's first: let's talk about timing.

The MBA application is a behemoth; between exams, resumes, gathering your official transcripts, letters of recommendation, and the applications themselves, there's a lot to juggle. That being the case, we suggest you give yourself ample time to draft, write, and revise your essays. The last thing you want is to be rushed to the finish line.

So, give yourself  at least three months to write your MBA essays. That should allow you ample time to draft, write, and edit. For more information on timing your entire b-school application, click here for  A Comprehensive MBA Application Timeline--With Chart .

Now, on to the critical question:

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What Makes a Great MBA Essay?

At the highest level, the answer is the one that is truest to you. The whole point of these essays is to shine through as an authentic, vibrant human being, so the best essays are the ones that cut through the clutter, and allow you do to that.

Which begs the question — how  do you cut through the clutter and shine through as a vibrant human being? Here are four critical tips to follow as you begin thinking about your essays.

1. Answer the Question

This one sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how many applicants launch into their story, get carried away, and forget to answer the question. Follow the prompt, and answer the question the admissions committee has asked you. Those prompts can actually be very useful when writing your essays — it's a great deal harder to write when you have no guidance or guardrails. With the MBA essays, you have a very specific question you need to answer. So answer it!

2. Be Specific

Another mistake some MBA applicants make is to stay at a high level in their essays, keeping their writing abstract and therefore inaccessible to the admissions committee. If at any point, an admissions officer could replace your name with the name of another applicant, then your essay isn't getting deep enough. It's not enough, for instance, to say that you suffered adversity in high school, or that you really, really want a Wharton MBA. You need to explain, in detail, the adversity you faced, and give concrete and unique reasons why you think Wharton is the right program for you. The best essays offer hyper-specific examples and anecdotes, with details and anecdotes that no other candidate could bring to the table. To get those anecdotes, we recommend using the STAR template, as explained below:

• Situation : What was the situation you were facing? Where were you? How old were you? If you were in a professional role during this anecdote, what was the role, and how long had you been in it? If you were volunteering, at what organization? How long had you been volunteering there? Why did you start? Offer all the relevant information that the admissions readers will need to understand your story.
• Task : What was the task at hand? What went wrong? In your professional role, what was the challenge you faced? In that volunteering experience, what were the hurdles you had to overcome? You can't have a good story without conflict or tension, so after you set up the anecdote, explain what that conflict or tension was (and remember, be specific!).
• Action : What was the action you took to resolve the problem? What did you have to do to fix that issue at work? How did you clear that hurdle in your volunteer experience? Again, be specific about how you came through on the other side of that conflict/tension — and while you're doing it, highlight your leadership capabilities as much as possible! Remember that top MBA programs are looking for future leaders who can assess a situation and decisively take action. (We'll say a bit more about this below, in the Personal Statement section.
• Result : What was the result of your action? If you were facing a growth problem at work, were you able to increase sales? If so, by what percentage? If you were advocating for diversity and inclusion at your local charity, what new programs did you implement to help with that effort, and what was the enrollment like in those new programs? Detail what happened in your anecdote with as much specificity as possible — and quantify, quantify, quantify!

3. Get Vulnerable

Most MBA admissions essay prompts are written with the goal of getting to know as much about you as possible in the shortest number of words. To do that, you're going to have to share real things from your life — to get personal, intimate, and vulnerable. Do not shy away from this. If you're starting to get emotional during the reflection, drafting, and writing process, good — that means you're on the right track. Keep going. Pro tip: If it’s making you cry, it will make them cry. Another good rule of thumb is to put something real and true on the table. Admissions officers have to read literally thousands of applications from thoroughly qualified individuals, some of whom might come from similar roles to yours, with letters of recommendation from equally impressive supervisors. In order to cut through that noise, you'll have to share something honest. If you're doing it right, this can feel risky. At some point, you’ll likely think to yourself: “Can I say that?” The answer is: “Yes.” Of course, there is a line, you don’t want to be crass or offensive but err on the side of being open and authentic. The very worst thing you can do is be overly cautious, and write something you think will please the admissions committee. These poor people have to read thousands of essays. If yours is just like everyone else’s, they’ll fall asleep. Don’t let that happen. Wake them up by putting yourself —your true, bright, vibrant, quirky self—on the page.

4. Don't Exaggerate

Finally, do not exaggerate, over-inflate, or lie. This goes without saying, but admissions committees are looking for honest candidates. The surest way to get rejected is to lie about something. (Business schools do a background check on you before you're properly admitted, so they will find out.) Don't be the person who over-inflates on their essays, then has their offer letter rescinded.

The Types of MBA Essays

All right — since we've covered high-level approaches to the MBA essays, it's time to dig into the various types.

There are three general categories of MBA essays you'll see across the board.

1. Personal Statement

These questions ask you to offer up something sincere about yourself. They'll often touch on such things as your values and your character. In these, you'll want to be as authentic as possible, while also highlighting attributes like leadership, intellectual vitality, and teamwork, that business schools are looking for. Here are a few examples of personal statement essays:

• As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program? (HBS)
• What matters most to you, and why? (Stanford GSB)

2. Why an MBA/Why This School

The next category of essays is the "Why an MBA" / "Why This School" set.

In these, schools first want to hear about how an MBA will fit into your career, both short and long term. Top MBA programs are looking for candidates who will: first of all, be gainfully employed upon graduating, second of all, have an illustrious career that will make their institution look good and encourage future generations of applicants to apply, and third, be consistent and generous donors. That being the case, they want to know about your career trajectory, and how an MBA will fit into it.

Pro tip: Here, you want to be ambitious and inspiring in laying out your future career, but not naïve. Walk the line between shooting for the stars and sounding dreamlike and uninformed.

In this set of questions, you'll also encounter questions geared at figuring out why you would want to attend a specific school. MBA programs want to know that you're serious about attending their school — yield, or the percentage of admitted candidates who accept their offers of admission, is an important metric for them — but they also want to envision how you'll contribute to their admitted class. What will you uniquely bring to the table, the things that you'll do that the other candidates wouldn’t be able to offer?

We've heard former deans of business schools say that, in choosing a class, they're curating a world-class dinner party, and that each person invited to the dinner party has to bring something different. What will you bring to the dinner party?

Pro tip: To demonstrate that you've done your research, and to help the admissions committee envision you in their program, indicate which classes you might take when earning your MBA and why, which professors you might hope to study with, and in which clubs you might participate.

Here are a few examples of "why MBA / why this school" essays:

• How is a Columbia MBA going to help you? (Columbia)
• What do you hope to gain professionally from the Wharton MBA? (Wharton)
• Why Stanford? Describe your aspirations and how your Stanford GSB experience will help you realize them. (Stanford GSB)

3. Behavioral/Other

Finally, most other essays will either be behavioral, asking you about experiences, traits, strengths, weaknesses, and achievements. There's a wide variety of topics here, but all the guidelines from above apply, with the final note to always prioritize authenticity (as mentioned in the Personal Statement section) and leadership ability (remember, business schools are choosing future leaders). Here are a few examples of behavioral/other essays:

• Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made. (Yale SOM)
• Tell us about your favorite book, movie, or song and why it resonates with you. (Columbia)
• Think about times you’ve created a positive impact, whether in professional, extracurricular, academic, or other settings. What was your impact? What made it significant to you or to others? (Stanford GSB)

Top MBA Program Essay Prompts (Updated 2022)

To help you get started, we've compiled the required prompts from a few top MBA programs below:

1. Harvard Business School (HBS)

As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program? (900 words)

For more information, visit A Guide to the HBS Essay .

2. Stanford Graduate School of Business

What matters to you most, and why? (650 words)

Why Stanford? (400 words)

Read What Matters Most When Writing the GSB Essays.

How do you plan to use the Wharton MBA program to help you achieve your future professional goals? You might consider your past experience, short and long-term goals, and resources available at Wharton. (500 words)

Taking into consideration your background – personal, professional, and/or academic – how do you plan to make specific, meaningful contributions to the Wharton community? (400 words)

For Wharton-specific advice, visit A Guide to the Wharton Essays .

4. Columbia Business School

Essay 1: Through your resume and recommendation, we have a clear sense of your professional path to date. What are your career goals over the next three to five years and what, in your imagination, would be your long-term dream job? (500 words)

Essay 2: The Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership (PPIL) is a new co-curricular program designed to ensure that every CBS student develops the skills to become an ethical and inclusive leader. Through PPIL, students attend programming focused on five essential diversity, equity, and inclusion skills: Creating an Inclusive Environment, Mitigating Bias, Communicating Across Identities, Addressing Systemic Inequity, and Managing Difficult Conversations. Tell us about a time you were challenged around one of these five skills. Describe the situation, the actions you took, and the outcome. (250 words)

Essay 3: We believe Columbia Business School is a special place. CBS proudly fosters a collaborative learning environment through curricular experiences like our clusters and learning teams , an extremely active co-curricular and student life environment, and career mentorship opportunities like our Executives-in-Residence program .Why do you feel Columbia Business School is a good fit for you academically, culturally, and professionally? Please be specific. (250 words)

5. Chicago Booth

How will the Booth MBA help you achieve your immediate and long-term post-MBA career goals? (250-word minimum)

An MBA is as much about personal growth as it is about professional development. In addition to sharing your experience and goals in terms of your career, we’d like to learn more about you outside of the office. Use this opportunity to tell us something about who you are… (250-word minimum)

Read more at A Guide to the Booth Essays .

6. Kellogg Northwestern

Kellogg’s purpose is to educate, equip and inspire brave leaders who create lasting value. Provide a recent example where you have demonstrated leadership and created value. What challenges did you face and what did you learn? (450 words)

Values are what guide you in your life and work. What values are important to you and how have they influenced you? (450 words)

Read How to Nail Your Kellogg MBA Application Essays

7. MIT Sloan

MIT Sloan seeks students whose personal characteristics demonstrate that they will make the most of the incredible opportunities at MIT, both academic and non-academic. We are on a quest to find those whose presence will enhance the experience of other students. We seek thoughtful leaders with exceptional intellectual abilities and the drive and determination to put their stamp on the world. We welcome people who are independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative — true doers. We want people who can redefine solutions to conventional problems, and strive to preempt unconventional dilemmas with cutting-edge ideas. We demand integrity, respect, and passion.

Taking the above into consideration, please submit a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA program. Your letter should conform to standard business correspondence, include one or more professional examples that illustrate why you meet the desired criteria above, and be addressed to the Admissions Committee (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation)

Applicants are required to upload a 1 minute (60 seconds) video as part of their application. In your video, you should introduce yourself to your future classmates, tell us about your past experiences, and touch on why MIT Sloan is the best place for you to pursue your degree.

How to Start Your MBA Essay

So you've read about the types of essays, and seen some of the prompts from top MBA programs. Now it's time to actually start diving into the essay.

The very first thing to do, before putting pen to paper, is to look inward.

Why do  you want an MBA? What role will this degree play in your professional growth? How do you imagine it will shape your life? What do you want out of your career? What is the most important thing in the world to you?

Yes, these are life’s deep-end questions, but you’ll need to tackle them in these essays, so before you start writing, take the time to think through them. Go for a run, swim some laps, bake a cake—however you get into the flow — and start a dialogue with yourself. Put down your work, turn your phone off, and give your mind permission to go to the places it usually avoids. That’s a good place to start. That’s where the answers are.

Pro tip: The first sentence is the hardest one to write. When you're starting out if it can intimidating and anxiety-producing. The trick is to simply put  anything  down — and don't look back. Keep putting one sentence after the other. You can edit later: let whatever comes to you out onto the page. If you’re struggling with self-critique, dim your computer screen until you can’t even see the words you’re typing. Then keep going.

Additional Tips & Tricks

Once you've started your essay, it's a matter of persistence: keep writing, then keep drafting and editing until you have something you're really proud of.

To help you with that process, here are a few more tips and tricks:

• Take Breaks

When you hit the wall — you will hit the wall — stop. This is your brain telling you it needs to do something else. Walk your dog. Take a lap around your room. Eat some cheese. Your body needs sleep every night to function; your mind is the same way. That next leap of inspiration will come exactly at the moment when you’re least expecting it.

• Read it Out Loud

When you finally have a draft, print it and read it out loud to yourself. Your ear will catch things your eyes miss. Reading out loud is the best way to pick up on spelling errors, clunky transitions, and paragraphs that still need ironing out. It’s also a good way to envision how the admissions committee will experience your essay.

Don’t be precious with your essay. Send it to anyone willing to read it. Solicit as much feedback as you can. If you don’t like what people have to say, you don’t have to incorporate it, but you need an impartial third party to give notes on what they’re seeing, thinking, and feeling. (You’re too close to things to do it for yourself.) This is where a Leland coach comes very much in handy!

• Complete Everything Early

This is more of a timing consideration, but you do not want to trip at the finish line because your internet went down the night before the deadline, or your credit card was denied when paying your application fee (it's happened before). Don't let that be you!

Here is another article to get you started, written by an expert essays coach: 7 MBA Essay Tips to Make You Stand Out in 2022 .

Example MBA Essays

Finally, here are two essays to help inspire you. The first, a personal statement essay, was submitted by an admit to Berkeley Haas' Executive MBA program; the second, a career goals / why MBA essay, was submitted by an admit to Chicago Booth's deferred MBA program.

Haas Admit:

A person’s identity is shaped by many different aspects, including family, culture, personal interests, and surrounding environments. Please share a facet of your identity or story that is essential to who you are. (300 words) My upbringing in India, filled with countless myths and legends, had a profound influence on me. The most formative tale was about a sage who prays for years to the goddess of knowledge, but in vain. In the end, the goddess didn’t appear for the sage because he was turning his prayer beads the wrong way! As a child, this story upset me: the sage worked so hard and had the right intentions. As an adult, though, I’ve come to realize that the goddess of knowledge was right: you can’t succeed unless you do things the right way. Seven years ago, two friends and I started a company, XXXX: a digital health platform that would allow patients to store medical records online and consult doctors remotely. We had early success—we brought on 2,000 patients at XXXX, a gynecology clinic in XXXX—but ultimately we didn’t have the resources to properly scale, and had to shut the company down. Among the many lessons I learned, the most valuable was that ideas and hard work are common; businesses succeed or fail based on execution—on doing things the right way. Two years ago, I relearned this lesson in the most painful way possible: when my marriage ended. My wife and I loved each other, but we weren’t there for each other when it mattered most. Our feelings weren’t enough—we had to back them up with the right actions. It’s disheartening when you have good intentions but still fall short. When this happens, though, you have to keep trying—because eventually you will do things the right way. I carry the story of the sage with me always, not as a harsh lesson, but as a motivating goal: one that keeps me striving towards doing things the right way.

Booth Admit:

How will the Booth MBA help you achieve your immediate and long-term post-MBA career goals? (250 word minimum)

I want to start a geothermal company that will help lead the energy transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy—by targeting existing oil wells as sites for geothermal plants. Oil fields are close to electric grids and have high nearby subsurface temperatures, making them ideal sites for geothermal plants. By building geothermal infrastructure nearby, my company will produce cleaner, cheaper energy, making it more profitable for operators to switch from oil to geothermal. As oil companies decommission their wells, I’ll negotiate for their land rights, so I can use their existing wells for new geothermal vents. I want my company to prove the case for economically viable, carbon neutral energy production. After getting an MBA I want to start a geothermal company which will help me lead the energy transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. I plan to target developed oil fields in Texas, where, in many places, producing wells are flowing enough hot fluid to generate clean energy. Using this geothermal heat, the carbon footprint of oil and gas extraction will decrease as fewer fossil fuels are utilized to power surrounding infrastructure. As the wells approach their economic life, I will negotiate the lease from various operators, saving them millions in plug and abandonment costs, and retrofit the wells for direct geothermal energy production via closed loop binary fluid systems, bringing emissions to zero. To accomplish this goal, I need to shore up my knowledge of energy economics and entrepreneurial finance, develop a strong sense of leadership, and build a network of like minded individuals that will help me lead the transition and I believe I can get those things at Chicago Booth. My immediate career goal is to develop my first co-production site in Shelby County, Texas at the Blanton well site, which produces abnormally heated fluid from the flanks of an active salt dome. Before investing in capital expenditures, developing a strong sense of energy economics and broader markets is necessary to verify financial feasibility. University of Chicago, through the Graduate-Student-At-Large: Business program, is already allowing me to accomplish this goal with my enrollment in “Microeconomics” with Professor Andrew McClellan. His instruction helped me understand the impact taxes and subsidies have on market equilibrium, an important aspect of renewable energy as green energy tax incentives continue to change on a yearly basis. As my company continues to grow, having a strong finance and accounting foundation is imperative to building and sustaining a healthy company. Electives such as “Accounting for Entrepreneurship: From Start-Up through IPO” will provide the skills I need to be successful by following the life-cycle of a business that originates as a start-up, and covers topics such as building an initial accounting infrastructure. I understand that execution of the business is as important as developing the idea and proof of concept, and Booth is the best place for me to develop financial fluency. Leading the energy transition will require a strong sense of leadership. Not only will I need to lead those I get to work with over my career, but to lead the energy transition, and reverse the impact fossil fuels have had thus far, I must have the emotional intelligence to inspire others to join me in my journey. The “Interpersonal Dynamics” course at Booth will allow me to develop my communication skills and better understand the emotions and perceptions of my colleagues. These skills, synthesized with leadership development acquired in “Leadership Practicum” will prepare me to act as a relational leader, who understands the needs of others. As a relational leader I hope to foster an environment which promotes happiness, and maximizes efficiency, not only to make our efforts in changing the world more successful, but to excite other people to join our cause.

To find the greatest chance of success in leading the energy transition, I will need a network of like-minded individuals who can provide a diversity of thought. Chicago Booth provides the opportunity to develop that network through different community experiences. The Energy Club’s “Energy Forward” conference, which designates time to topics in oil and gas and renewable energy will allow me to hear from industry leaders, build meaningful relationships with peers and contribute my sector experience to the public forum as I learn from those around me. Opportunities through the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Group such as “SeedCon” will help me connect with successful entrepreneurs and early-stage investors whose ideas and funding might change the course of my venture’s trajectory. Even in the GSALB program I have had the opportunity to connect with other students in various sectors, including the energy industry. I hope to continue to strengthen those connections and continue building new ones with matriculation into the full time program.

Here are several other articles that you may find helpful as you put together your MBA application:

• The Most Frequently Asked Questions on MBA Applications
• How to Answer the "Why an MBA?" Essay Question
• My Top Piece of Advice for MBA Applicants
• How I Nailed My MBA Interview and Gained Admission to Top 10 Business Schools
• 4 Expert Tips on Paying for Business School

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How To Answer The Toughest MBA Interview Question: Tell Me About Yourself (Super specific tips, tactics, and real examples included)

Table of Contents

The first thing that occurs to every MBA applicant who gets called for their business school interview is to figure h ow to answer the toughest MBA interview question which is Tell me about yourself .

Picture this –

You have your best smile on, secretly hoping you are able to mask your nervousness well.

Your interviewer smiles at you, leans forward, and then asks the question that strikes terror in the sturdiest of hearts.

“Tell me about yourself”

You start to stutter, fumble, and panic.

Suddenly, you don’t remember a thing about yourself.

Or, you don’t know where to start so you start talking. Just. Like. That.

Over the years, I’ve interviewed — both at MBAEssayNation and on the interview panel of ISB — hundreds of applicants. And most struggle to respond well to this question.

What I have done is analyzed the best and the worst of responses to this much-dreaded question.

So, by the end of this post, you will walk away with the exact formula to answer this question like a pro.

Let’s get started, shall we?

First things First

Why is this question important.

For 2 reasons,

• More than 99% interviews open with this question
• Most interviewers make up their mind within the first 3 minutes of the interview

Why do interviewers kickstart interviews with this question?

The interviewers want to assess 2 things when they ask this question –

How meaningful your academic and professional experiences have been?

• Will you add value to the business school?
• What attributes, experience, knowledge, attitude, and aspirations differentiate you from the other candidates?

How well are you able to communicate both clearly and succinctly?

• How good are your communication skills?
• How do you interact with others?
• How do you respond under pressure?
• How strong are your language skills?
• Do you have the gravitas to succeed not just at the business school but also be hire-able in management and leadership roles post your MBA?

Put yourself in your interviewer’s shoes who has to first sift and then pick out the best from the applicant pool.

How do you make it easy for them to decide? It’s by knowing

• What’s going to get your interviewer’s attention?
• What’s your interviewer going to be most impressed by?

As the saying goes, “First impression is often the last one”.

“Tell me about yourself” is your golden opportunity to set yourself apart from others and that’s why it’s super important to get this question right.

What makes this question a difficult one?

Most applicants, when responding to this question, do so by simply rehashing their resume –

 “I have done B.Tech in mechanical engineering from NIT, Trichy. In July 2015, I started as a design analyst, analysing design feasibility of Tata Motors air conditioners and engine components. In May 2017, I moved to the Sales and marketing function of Ashok Leyland. In November 2018, I got promoted to a Senior Marketing…”

“My name is Sumit Kumar. I was born in Lucknow and grew up there. I did my graduation at College of Engineering Pune in Instrumentation Engineering. I passed my course with distinction. Then I joined Texas Instruments in Bangalore where I was working on TI Interactive. I then moved back to Pune to join a startup called Foodie, which is in the restaurant aggregator and food delivery business. I am still working there. In my spare time, I like to listen to music, read science books and watch movies. I am also part of an NGO”

By this point, your interviewers start zoning out.

There’s nothing interesting that stands out.

It’s just one event followed by another.

Often, delivered in a monotone. Guaranteed to turn off your interviewers from the word go.

Now, you see what makes responding to this question such a huge challenge for most applicants.

So, why do smart, capable individuals end up giving such tepid, ineffective responses to begin with?

That’s because for many this is such an open-ended question that they are unsure how best to answer it.

Either they ramble on, sharing inane information or give such cryptic responses to the point of appearing curt!

How should you respond to this question?

Introducing MBAEssayNation’s 3Ps framework for interviews – heck, what’s a b-school interview guide without a framework 😊

The first P – Plan Your Response With These 6 Elements

Include these 6 elements to craft your powerful response –

• Provide high-level overview of your academic and professional journey
• Highlight why you’re passionate about your work
• Emphasize 1-2 key experiences and proven successes
• Outline promotions, awards and recognitions
• Elaborate on the reasons for transitioning from one role/job to another
• Cite your personal interests and why they’re important

Are all 6 elements created equal?

Do you have to absolutely include all 6 elements when building your response?

It depends.

If you are say, an experienced professional who graduated college 5-10 years back, your academic credentials are not as important as your professional experience. The more work experience you have, the more important it is to highlight your successes at work.

But if you are a recent graduate, then your academic journey should form an important part of your narrative.

My advice would be to use your judgement when you pick the “must-haves” for your answer.

And the way to do so is to identify the top 2 most impactful and preferably, most recent experiences and achievements.

It’s a good idea to include personal interests to show your multi-faceted personality, again another key consideration business schools use in their shortlisting process.

In case you are wondering whether these elements have to be in a certain sequence, don’t worry. Weave these elements in any order that helps you advance your narrative in a compelling way.

In just a moment, you’ll see how to apply these elements to your answer.

The second P – Prepare Your Response

Identify and keep the main points handy –

Preferably, take a bullet point approach rather than a scripted approach

The third P – Practice Your Response

Make sure your response is just 2-3 minutes long

Let’s dig into some responses to “Tell me about yourself?”

“I am Sumit Kumar, an Instrumentation Engineering graduate from College of Engineering Pune. I like to use my analytical abilities to develop world-class products in the restaurant aggregator and food delivery domain. When I am not working, I like to read about astrophysics  since I am intrigued by brilliant minds like Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I also like to give back to society and am an active member of an NGO through which we teach underprivileged kids on weekends”.

What do you think of this response?

Is it good or average?

Let’s start by analyzing its structure to understand how effective it is –

Starts with academic credentials

Mentions a skill and links it with his professional experience

Mentions personal interest and the reason for the interest

Mentions another personal interest, reason for the interest and an experience related to the interest

To analyse the response, let’s refer to the list of 6 elements from the plan stage of the 3Ps framework.

Firstly, there’s no mention of a significant achievement at work  which could’ve been an important differentiator – essentially, there’s nothing memorable about his professional experience.

His personal interests are good but could be strengthened if he were to mention skills and achievements gained by pursuing his interests.

For instance, he can talk about how reading has helped him become more open-minded and enabled him to look at problems from different angles or how reading has helped him improve his analytical skills and so on.

Similarly, for his work with the NGO, he could talk about how he has successfully taught x number of kids to improve their proficiency levels in a certain subject from say, basic to intermediate.

Another point to remember is that there’s no need to mention your name because you would’ve had the chance to introduce yourself by the time this question is asked. Even otherwise, the interviewers have your application file. They know your name before they call you for the interview. Stating your name again during the interview not only is redundant but also sounds forced and scripted.

Overall Verdict – Average Response

“I am an IT services professional working with one of India’s top 10 IT firms. I have worked with clients across USA and Europe to help them increase efficiencies in their CRM related business processes. I was part of the team delivering Wells Fargo’s mortgage evaluation system and my work not only helped me understand the business side of large banks but also made me realize that my true interests lie in the finance domain. Outside of work, I have a keen interest in current affairs, reading history and listening to classical music.”

Starts with professional credentials

High level overview of professional experience

Mentions a specific experience and takeaways in terms of knowledge and an interest area

Lists three personal interests

Again, keep the 6 elements’ list handy, and check whether the response has all the elements.

The response is to the point. And cryptic.

Why cryptic?

It cites one important client experience to highlight an epiphany the candidate had but it mentions no memorable achievement or even why the candidate felt his true calling was in finance. This renders the response as generic because nothing about his professional experience really stands out.

His personal interests are, again, just an enumeration of interests with no attempt at explaining why he’s interested in them or how these interests have served him in terms of skills or experience gained.

“I am a fresher who is in my final year engineering. Even though my major is Electronics and Telecommunications, I have always had a keen interest in how increasingly companies are using technology to solve business problems. I am an avid reader of The Financial Times and the Harvard Business Review. I am an active participant in college events and have been on the management committee of my college’s annual festival. I also love challenging myself through jigsaw puzzles and brain teasers.”

Mentions where his real interests lie

Attempts to connect interests with specific activities

Mentions two extra-curricular activities

Mentions additional extra-curricular activities

Though the candidate talks about his interest in seeing how companies are using tech to solve problems, he makes a broad statement which lacks personalization. He could’ve been specific in terms of looking at specific business problems or specific technologies, given that he’s in his final year of engineering. There’s a clear lack of depth.

An avid reader of publications such as ET and HBR is fine but how has reading these publications helped the candidate in terms of knowledge, skills, or experience?

The candidate attempts to showcase leadership experience by citing his extra-curricular activities at college. However, being an active participant at college events or being on the management committee doesn’t give any clarity about why this individual has taken up those activities, what skills he has gained and/or what results he has achieved through those activities.

“I am a commerce graduate with 3 years’ experience in the banking space. I work in the credit card department and am part of a team of 9 which handles all credit card clients of Citibank in Pondicherry. I have been awarded the most valuable employee of my bank branch last year due to my focus on customer service and process improvement. I am an avid music lover and I am also the lead guitarist in a local band.”

Provides summary of work experience

Mentions one significant achievement at work

Extra-curricular interests and activity

It’s a succinct response but with no attempt at explaining the reason behind his career choice.

The candidate cites one important achievement at work. However, he could have emphasized the importance of the award that he won at work by giving some relative aspect such as “the award is generally given to only 1% of employees” or “I was the only employee with less than 5 years of experience to have won the award”, and so on.

The personal interest looks promising but because he doesn’t highlight any key skills, experience, or takeaways from his interest, that part again, doesn’t rise above average.

While on the surface, this looks like a good response but skim the surface and there’s nothing memorable about the response. As a result, he comes across as someone who has gone with the flow in terms of his career choices even though he has potential as indicated by his professional achievement and personal interests.

I am a tech entrepreneur with a passion for both computers and rock climbing.

This is why I chose to pursue my undergrad in computer science. During undergrad, I led computer science conferences for my college as the Conference Club VP. This made me a much more confident communicator.

 Prior to graduation, I wanted to gain some hands-on experience in a big tech company so I can learn from the best. I worked at Google as a software engineer where I focused my time on improving the way the Google Maps classifies hiking and climbing routes. I learned how to work in a team efficiently, and how good working relationships add synergy to the output.

After graduating, I launched an augmented reality app providing climbers with optimal route when directing the camera at a mountain. I built a prototype, established a team, and won a pitch competition, winning us a spot at XYZ accelerator.

Now, I want to take my technical knowledge, entrepreneurial drive, and passion for sports and supplement it with a business knowledge, a sports analytics toolset, and a network. I think that an MBA here is the best path to do so.

Opens response with a high-level overview of his professional career trajectory and personal interests

Mentions academic credentials

Mentions first professional experience

Mentions second professional experience along with an achievement

Summarizes strengths and gaps in his profile

The candidate starts his response with a “Hook”.

With his opening sentence, the candidate has managed to create a memorable introduction, primarily because it’s intriguing. As an interviewer, I’d be curious to know why this person has decided to use two seemingly unrelated attributes to introduce himself.

He then goes on to elaborate, throughout his response, how the two attributes have been important in shaping his professional experience.

Not just that, he explains the “Why” behind every decision he has made, be it his academic or his career choices.

Another important aspect of his response has been to highlight what he has gained from his experiences in terms of skills, insights, and achievements.

He concludes his response by talking about how he’d like to plug the gaps in his profile while leveraging his strengths.

Overall Verdict – Good Response

I am a music producer turned programmer turned product leader.

I published my first EDM record when I was 19, it was played by the world’s top DJs and gave me a boost of confidence in my ability. The journey of becoming an EDM producer had stimulated my interested in tech, as I programmed my very own virtual instruments to create a distinct sound signature in my tracks.

I started developing and eventually worked as a developer for a startup targeting artists and labels. I designed and built an algorithm for detecting plays across platforms as means to track royalties. Since we had no product managers, I researched the industry myself and spoke with labels and artists to understand their needs. This had taught me about customer obsession and how I enjoy diving deep into the data to make informed decisions.

I progressed to become the company’s first-ever product manager and crafted the company’s product strategy. I gained full P&L responsibility on our label funnel and was able to increase our label revenues 20% year over year by focusing on the label’s needs to uncover smaller artist DJ plays in mid-sized venues.

Now it’s time for me to take the next step as a product manager at YouTube Music, and focus on customer facing experiences .

Opens response with a high-level overview of his professional career trajectory

Mentions second professional experience

Mentions third professional experience

States aspirations

The opening sentence’s structure makes the response memorable by summing up the three important roles played so far by the candidate.

He then follows it up by explaining how each role led to his next role.

He does so by elaborating on his first role, citing an achievement, and skills gained. He then talks about how interest in his second role was triggered due to his experience from his first role.

Similarly, he elaborates on his second role, the type of company he worked with, highlights his experience and how he overcame a certain challenge while discovering what he was passionate about.

He talks about how he took up his third role, his experience and outlines an achievement in that role.

Finally, he concludes by briefly talking about his aspirations.

Though he doesn’t explicitly mention his personal interests, it’s clear he’s passionate about music, evident from the way he has evolved his career around it.

And while he hasn’t talked about his academic credentials, he has consciously positioned his professional accomplishments as the focus of his response.

“I am a 7+ year veteran of database administration, managing million-dollar databases for enterprise clients across USA and Asia. I have been always been passionate about using technology to improve client experience and to optimize processes that will result in greater efficiencies and cost savings for my organization and my clients.

For instance, recently, I learned that my company was about to overhaul its database technology and was planning to rope in an external consulting firm for the project. I reached out to the Senior Director managing the project and told him that I had done a similar project for one of my largest clients, outlined how we could execute the project with our own staff, and successfully completed the project within 6 months. This resulted in a savings of $150K, an achievement for which I was lauded by the senior management.

I have parlayed my deep interest in technology by learning continuously about the latest database technologies. A keen advocate of paying it forward by sharing my knowledge, I started a blog on database administration. The blog, just 2 years old, has already helped build a 400+ strong community of database enthusiasts.

I am also an avid reader and enjoy reading on a host of topics from technology, productivity to science.

Through my reading and blogging activities, I have also learned how to become more effective at communicating and have immensely enjoyed networking around the globe.

On the academic front, I received my BSc in IT from Pune University and I was clear that I’d pursue my masters when the time is right.

At this juncture, I am keen to strengthen my technical knowledge with a formal and holistic understanding of business and leadership. And I think that an MBA is the best path to do so. ”

The opening sentence starts with a summary of his professional experience, given the applicant has a good number of years of work experience.

He then talks about why he enjoys his work and then gives a concrete example of a recent achievement to demonstrate his passion at work.

Next, he talks about how even through his personal interests, he is committed to continuous learning and cites an achievement to illustrate his point.

He talks about another personal interest before summarizing the skills gained from his personal interests.

Briefly broaches his academic qualifications before connecting it with his future aspirations.

Ticks all the boxes!

Highlights Experience | Skills | Achievements | Recognition | Interests | Aspirations

Importantly, mentions the “Why” behind each experience, rendering his response as convincing and compelling.

Exercise 01

Now that you have seen examples of both good and average responses, let’s recap what we have learned by analyzing another example –

“I received my BBA in Accounting from the University of Illinois and then went to work for EY after graduation. I passed the CPA exam on my first try and have progressed well in my career. I was recently promoted from Staff Auditor to Senior Auditor and was selected to train new hires in our region on recent GAAP accounting changes.”

Take a few minutes to jot down its structure and to analyze it.

So, what’s your verdict?

If it matches with mine, then that’s an “Average Response”.

Let’s try another exercise and see how we can make it better.

Exercise 02

Try adding the 6 elements to the version above. Take 5 mins to just outline a structure. Then check out the version below –

Improved Version

“I have always enjoyed working with numbers and that’s why I decided to pursue BBA in Accounting from the University of Illinois.

Right out of college, I was hired by EY for its accounting division.  Since I started out 2 years ago, I have progressed well in my career.

I was among the top 5% in my cohort to be chosen for an early promotion and have recently been promoted from Staff Auditor to Senior Auditor.

Because the client accounts I work with are from industry X, I have developed a good understanding of X. However, I realize working for diverse industries would provide me better opportunities to understand different businesses. And a CPA would provide me the credibility to pivot to work with clients from different industries. Last year, I prepared and passed the CPA exam on my first try.

The management, recognizing my passion for accounting, chose me to train 50 new hires on recent accounting changes. This proved to be an enriching experience as I learned how to communicate with clarity and developed greater creativity in explaining various concepts. The best testament to my efforts was when I received a high rating of 4.6 out of 5 for my training.

Outside of work, I enjoy reading about history and psychology. Through my interests, I have recognized that while the objectivity of absolute numbers can render everything as either black or white, it’s the subjectivity of human actions that emphasizes why grey areas are important to understand a context better.

While I have focused on building my technical skills, I am keen to take up leadership roles at work. To do so, I recognize I would have to supplement my accounting experience with leadership and people management skills. An MBA at this point would be the perfect opportunity for me to do so.”

Does the new version match with what you have come up with?

Don’t worry if it isn’t an exact match because it doesn’t have to be.

The structure would vary from person to person, depending on what each perceives as important and decides to accordingly prioritize.

Therefore, what you need to focus on when creating your response is to ensure that the 6 elements from the Plan stage are part of your response.

Now once you have your response ready, let’s look at the next P, the Prepare stage.

Prepare Stage

Identify the main points you’d like to cover in your response – use the 6-elements structure to keep the points handy.

While there are many candidates who like to write full scripts of their responses and memorize them before their interviews, we recommend taking a bulleted approach.

It’s a safer option.

Unless, you are blessed with a photogenic memory and can remember your entire written responses, word by word, it’s best to know the key points comprising your response.

Practice Stage

3 tips to remember while practicing

• Time yourself to ensure your responses don’t go beyond 2-3 minutes

All the examples that we have seen so far can be stated in less than 3 minutes. Go on, give it a try!

• Use pauses strategically

Most applicants respond in a monotone sounding robotic and rehearsed. So, keep your tone conversational when sharing your response. The key to sounding convincing is to be your natural self, the way you talk with your friends and colleagues.

• Breath normally.

This will help you manage breathlessness.

I’ll be releasing a guide shortly with detailed tips on practicing, voice modulation and tone. Sign up here if you are interested.

Why Intent Matters

Intentionally designing your professional and personal interests.

To reiterate, the best answers are those that show how your professional and personal interests complement or supplement each other.

But as we’ve seen, most responses on professional experience might be along these lines –

“I began my career in retail management, but a few years ago, I was drawn to the healthcare space. I then joined a hospital as an administrator..”

Whereas most responses on personal interests will be some variant of the below response

“ Outside of the office, I’m an avid reader and I love to hike. On weekends, you might find me at the local bookstore or exploring hiking trails in the area.”

If it were a regular conversation, the above two examples will pass of as good instances.

But during a business school interview, where you have to make yourself memorable through your experience and accomplishments, every single piece of information you share should be backed by an intention – an intention to highlight some distinguishing aspect, attribute, or an achievement of yours.

In the above example on professional transitions, if the candidate were to explain their intention behind segueing from one industry to another, it demonstrates how a clear “Why” guides the important choices they have made in their career.

Likewise, for the personal interests, the applicant can demonstrate a clear intent behind why her personal interests matter by highlighting how her interests complement her professional journey. For instance, she can talk about how her two activities allow her to take a step back, reflect, and learn from diverse topics, which in turn has helped her become a better problem solver at work.

In crafting your response to “Tell me about yourself”, find ways to show

• The “Why” behind every decision and choice you have made – be it professional or personal
• Highlight the skills gained from your interests in your professional and personal space

“Walk me through your resume” vs “Tell Me about yourself”

2 Sides Of The Same Coin?

Yes and No.

Both questions can be answered in similar ways. Except for one minor difference.

With “Tell me about yourself”, it’s appropriate to include some personal details such as where you grew up, interesting information about your childhood or schooling.

But with “Walk me through your resume”, the focus is on the information you’d have included in your resume, information that typically starts with your academics.

Dos and Don’ts

• Provide supporting examples to highlight skills, attributes, and achievements
• Quantify details and outcomes
• Emphasize your unique personality
• Mention highly personal information such as age, marital status, political affiliations and so on
• Enumerate a long list of vague experiences, achievements, and strengths
• Summarize your resume word for word

To Conclude

Fundamentally, “Tell me about yourself” really boils down to “What do you want the interviewer to remember about you?”

When you answer this opening question well, it gives you the power

• to make a good first impression, and
• to direct the rest of the interview to your benefit

Finally, a quick recap –

• Follow the 3Ps framework to create your answer
• Write your answer using the 6 elements from the Plan stage
• Analyze the structure of your response and refine it till you are comfortable
• Prepare by internalizing the main points of your response
• Practice well, keep your response under 3 minutes
• Remember to breathe!

Found this interview guide useful?

I’ve created a comprehensive eBook, “ Basics to Champion : 29 Tips to Build A Compelling Business School Application ” .

It’s a stunning looking book, packed with valuable insights delivered through lots of easy-to-digest infographics!

Over 3000 people have downloaded it so far, and the feedback has been amazing. Download your copy of “Basics to Champion : 29 Tips to Build A Compelling Business School Application” here

If you want to know about the most powerful body language tips for your MBA interview, check out our article on

10 Powerful Body Language Tips to Ace Your Business School Interview

About the Author: Deepthi Rajan

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How to Answer the ‘Tell Me About Yourself’ Question in an MBA Interview

In an MBA interview, one question that is almost guaranteed to come up is “Tell me about yourself.” While seemingly simple, this question can actually be quite tricky to navigate, as it sets the tone for the rest of the interview and gives you the opportunity to make a lasting impression on the admissions committee. In this article, we will discuss the various aspects of answering this question, providing you with a comprehensive guide on how to craft a compelling and effective response.

You might also like  How To Write Mba On Resume.

Understanding the Purpose of the ‘Tell Me About Yourself’ Question

Before diving into the specifics of how to answer this question, it is important to understand its underlying purpose. Essentially, the admissions committee is using this question as a way to evaluate your communication skills, self-awareness, and ability to articulate your experiences and goals. They want to get to know you on a deeper level and assess your fit for their program. By crafting a well-thought-out response, you can demonstrate your enthusiasm, motivation, and potential for success.

Furthermore, the ‘Tell Me About Yourself’ question allows the admissions committee to gauge your ability to prioritize and highlight relevant information. It is an opportunity for you to showcase your most significant achievements, experiences, and skills that are directly related to the program you are applying to. This question also gives you the chance to demonstrate your ability to present yourself in a concise and compelling manner.

Additionally, the ‘Tell Me About Yourself’ question serves as an icebreaker and a way for the admissions committee to establish a connection with you. It provides a starting point for further conversation and allows them to assess your personality, passion, and potential as a future student. By sharing your unique story and demonstrating your genuine interest in the program, you can make a memorable impression and stand out among other applicants.

Crafting a Compelling Opening Statement

When answering the “Tell me about yourself” question, it is crucial to start off strong with a compelling opening statement. This will capture the attention of the admissions committee and set the tone for the rest of your response. Your opening statement should be concise, engaging, and memorable. Consider incorporating an anecdote, a thought-provoking quote, or a brief summary of your background and experiences to grab the listener’s attention from the get-go.

Additionally, it is important to tailor your opening statement to the specific context or purpose of the conversation. For example, if you are interviewing for a job, you may want to highlight your relevant skills and experiences that make you a strong candidate for the position. On the other hand, if you are introducing yourself in a networking event, you may want to focus on your professional goals and aspirations. By customizing your opening statement, you can demonstrate your understanding of the situation and make a memorable impression on your audience.

Highlighting Your Key Achievements and Experiences

Once you have established a strong opening statement, it is time to delve into the details of your key achievements and experiences. This is your opportunity to showcase your unique skills, experiences, and accomplishments that set you apart from other candidates. Be sure to highlight any leadership roles, major projects, or significant accomplishments that demonstrate your ability to make a meaningful impact in the business world.

One effective way to highlight your key achievements and experiences is by using specific examples and quantifiable results. For example, instead of simply stating that you were a team leader, provide specific details about the project you led, the size of the team, and the successful outcome achieved. This not only demonstrates your leadership skills but also provides concrete evidence of your ability to deliver results.

In addition to showcasing your accomplishments, it is important to explain the impact they had on the organization or team. This helps potential employers understand the value you can bring to their company. For instance, if you implemented a new process that resulted in cost savings or increased efficiency, explain the financial or operational benefits that were achieved as a result. This demonstrates your ability to drive positive change and contribute to the overall success of the organization.

Tailoring Your Response to the MBA Program

While it is important to provide a comprehensive overview of your background, it is equally essential to tailor your response to the specific MBA program you are applying to. Research the program thoroughly and identify key attributes, values, or strengths that they emphasize. Then, demonstrate how your background and experiences align with these qualities. This will show the admissions committee that you have done your homework and are genuinely interested in their program.

Demonstrating Your Fit with the School’s Values and Culture

In addition to tailoring your response to the program, it is crucial to demonstrate your fit with the school’s values and culture. MBA programs often seek candidates who will contribute to their community, engage in collaborative learning environments, and uphold the school’s mission. Showcase your passion for the school, its values, and any specific initiatives or clubs that align with your interests. This will help the admissions committee envision you as a valuable addition to their student body.

Emphasizing Your Leadership Skills and Teamwork Abilities

MBA programs place significant value on leadership skills and teamwork abilities. Therefore, it is important to highlight examples of when you have demonstrated these traits throughout your academic, professional, or personal experiences. Discuss any leadership roles you have held, describe your approach to teamwork, and provide specific examples of how you have influenced and motivated others towards a common goal. This will showcase your ability to thrive in a collaborative and dynamic business environment.

Articulating Your Long-term Career Goals

Another important aspect of answering the “Tell me about yourself” question is articulating your long-term career goals. Admissions committees want to see that you have a clear vision for your future and that an MBA aligns with your aspirations. Be specific about the industry or function you hope to work in, and how the MBA will help you achieve those goals. Discuss any research you have done on career outcomes for MBA graduates and mention any network connections or alumni success stories that have influenced your decision.

Incorporating Relevant Personal and Professional Background Information

In addition to discussing your achievements and career goals, it is important to include relevant personal and professional background information in your response. This allows the admissions committee to gain a deeper understanding of who you are as a person and what drives you. Discuss any hobbies, passions, or extracurricular activities that have shaped your character or provided unique perspectives. Additionally, share any relevant professional experiences or internships that have contributed to your growth and development.

Using Concrete Examples to Illustrate your Strengths and Abilities

To make your response more impactful and memorable, it is crucial to use concrete examples to illustrate your strengths and abilities. Instead of making general statements, provide specific instances where you demonstrated leadership, problem-solving skills, or innovation. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to structure your examples, providing the context, your role, the actions you took, and the outcomes achieved. This will make your response more tangible and persuasive.

Structuring Your Response for Maximum Impact

In order to make your response coherent and impactful, it is essential to structure it in a logical and organized manner. Consider dividing your response into different sections, such as education background, work experience, extracurricular involvement, and future aspirations. This will help you maintain clarity and ensure that you cover all the necessary aspects without rambling or becoming too fragmented in your response.

Avoiding Common Mistakes in Answering the Question

While answering the “Tell me about yourself” question, it is important to avoid common mistakes that can undermine your credibility. These include being too vague or overly generic, focusing too much on irrelevant details, speaking for too long without being concise, and not connecting your response to the MBA program or career goals. Being aware of these pitfalls and actively avoiding them will ensure that your response is polished, coherent, and impactful.

Practicing and Rehearsing Your Response

As with any interview question, practice and rehearsal are key to delivering a confident and well-structured response. Take the time to practice answering the “Tell me about yourself” question with a trusted friend, family member, or mentor. Pay attention to your body language, tone of voice, and delivery style. Aim to strike a balance between being prepared and sounding spontaneous. With enough practice, your response will become natural and authentic.

Leveraging Networking Opportunities to Gather Insights for Your Answer

Prior to your MBA interview, make an effort to network with current students, alumni, or admissions officers from the program. These individuals have firsthand knowledge of the interview process and can provide valuable insights into what the admissions committee is looking for in the “Tell me about yourself” question. They can share their own experiences and offer tips on how to navigate this question effectively. Leverage these networking opportunities to gather as much information and advice as possible.

Seeking Feedback and Refining Your Response

After practicing and rehearsing your response, seek feedback from others who can provide constructive criticism. This could be a mentor, career counselor, or industry professional who can assess your response objectively and offer suggestions for improvement. Take their feedback into consideration and make the necessary refinements to your response. Remember, the goal is to continually enhance your answer to make it as compelling and persuasive as possible.

Demonstrating Confidence and Authenticity in your Delivery

When it comes to delivering your response, it is essential to exude confidence and authenticity. Be genuine and true to yourself, allowing your passion and enthusiasm to shine through. Maintain a strong and positive body language, make eye contact, and speak with clarity and conviction. The admissions committee is not only evaluating the content of your response but also your ability to present yourself confidently and authentically.

Addressing Potential Red Flags or Gaps in Your Background

If you have any potential red flags or gaps in your background, such as academic interruptions, career transitions, or low grades, it is important to address these in your response. However, do so in a manner that is honest, concise, and positive. Focus on what you have learned from these experiences and how you have grown as a result. The key is to demonstrate resilience, determination, and a willingness to overcome challenges.

Adapting your Approach for Different Types of MBA Interviews (e.g., behavioral, case-based)

Keep in mind that the “Tell me about yourself” question may be asked in different interview formats, such as behavioral or case-based interviews. Adapt your approach accordingly, tailoring your response to the specific requirements of each format. For behavioral interviews, focus on providing examples that demonstrate your skills and abilities in action. For case-based interviews, relate your response to the case scenario and showcase your analytical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Exploring Alternative Ways to Begin your Answer (e.g., anecdote, quote)

While a strong opening statement is key, consider exploring alternative ways to begin your answer. This could involve incorporating an anecdote that highlights a defining moment in your life, sharing a quote that has had a profound impact on your personal or professional development, or using a thought-provoking question to engage the listener. These alternative approaches can add depth and creativity to your response, making it more memorable and engaging.

Navigating Follow-up Questions with Ease

Finally, be prepared for follow-up questions after you have answered the initial “Tell me about yourself” question. These questions may delve deeper into specific aspects of your response or ask for clarification on certain points. Stay calm, composed, and be transparent in your answers. Use each follow-up question as an opportunity to provide additional relevant information and reinforce your candidacy. Remember, the goal is to maintain a positive and informative dialogue with the admissions committee.In conclusion, mastering the art of answering the “Tell me about yourself” question in an MBA interview can significantly enhance your chances of success. By understanding the purpose of the question, crafting a compelling opening statement, highlighting your key achievements and experiences, and tailoring your response to the MBA program, you can make a lasting impression on the admissions committee. Moreover, by incorporating relevant personal and professional background information, using concrete examples to illustrate your strengths and abilities, and structuring your response for maximum impact, you can effectively showcase your fit with the school’s values and culture. Remember to avoid common mistakes, practice and rehearse your response, and demonstrate confidence and authenticity in your delivery. By following these guidelines and adapting your approach to different types of interviews, you can navigate the “Tell me about yourself” question with ease and leave a lasting positive impression on the admissions committee.

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MBA Interview Questions and Answers

MBA Interview Questions and Answers: Learning to highlight your strengths

MBA interviews are an essential component of the MBA admissions process . Consequently, making a good impression on your interviewer is paramount to gaining admission to the best MBA programs in the country. Considering the unpredictable nature of an interview setting, the key to giving a successful MBA interview is preparation. Prepping your MBA interview questions and answers ahead of time will help you feel confident going into your interviews.

In this guide to the MBA interview, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the MBA interview process, including:

• MBA application requirements
• What to expect from an MBA interview experience
• 15 common MBA interview questions and answers (including how to approach “why MBA” and “tell me about yourself” MBA interview questions)
• Questions to ask MBA interviewers
• Tips for MBA interview prep, and more!

Before we jump into MBA interview questions and answers and key tips for your MBA interview prep, let’s see how the interview fits into the overall application process.

MBA Application Requirements

In order to get an MBA interview, applicants will first need to successfully apply to the MBA programs they’re interested in. That means you’ll need to meet a program’s other MBA requirements before you can begin the interview process.

Requirements will vary depending on the school you apply to and the type of MBA program you apply to. In general, when applying to MBA programs, you’ll likely encounter the following MBA application requirements:

• Application essay
• College transcripts
• GMAT/GRE scores
• Letter(s) of recommendation
• Application fees

When considering an MBA program, be sure to explore their specific application requirements. For example, the Harvard MBA application checklist includes the English Language Test (typically for international applicants) and Acceptance of Policies. These are similar to the Chicago Booth MBA application, which also includes an English Language Test.

Applying to MBA programs can be expensive, so cost is an important factor when considering MBA requirements. The Harvard MBA application and the Booth MBA application fees are both $250. However, many MBA programs also have fee waivers for those with demonstrated need.

In your initial application, your essays serve as a first look into your character and experiences as well as your potential fit for a particular program. Some MBA requirements only include one essay, like the Harvard MBA application. Others, such as the Booth MBA application, can have as many as 3-4 essays. 

While the initial application is comprehensive, these MBA requirements are only round one of your MBA application timeline. The vast majority of top MBA programs will also require an interview when considering applicants for admission. So, you can think of the MBA interview process as round two.

The MBA Interview

The MBA interview is perhaps the most crucial part of the MBA requirements. Let’s discuss why doing MBA interview prep and nailing your interview is so important.

Generally speaking, receiving an MBA interview is both an indication of interest from the program’s admissions team and a requirement for admission. For most programs, interviews are by invitation only, so not all applicants are offered an interview. This applies to the Wharton MBA interview, Northwestern Kellogg interview, and Cornell MBA interview process. Additionally, receiving an interview does not guarantee an applicant will be admitted.

There’s good reason for MBA programs to rely so heavily on MBA interview questions and answers during the admissions process. It’s challenging to learn about a candidate’s interpersonal and communication skills on paper. So, the MBA interview experience is designed to help admissions learn more about who you are in the context of a conversation.

For an applicant, your MBA interview questions and answers give you a chance to tell your story. You can provide context for your resume, highlight your strengths, and learn more about the program to which you are applying. Ultimately, the goal of an MBA interview is the same as your overall application goal: to show admissions why their program is the right choice for you and why you’ll be an asset to their program.

Before beginning your MBA interview prep, there are a few different types of MBA interviews you should be aware of. 

Open vs. By Invitation

Open interviews mean students can sign up to complete an interview; however, this is not often the case for MBA programs. Much more common are interviews by invitation only, meaning students must be contacted by admissions first. Again, both the Cornell MBA interview and Kellogg interview are examples of invitation-only MBA interviews.

However, by-invitation programs have their nuances. For instance, candidates invited to complete a Cornell MBA interview must schedule and complete their interview by a predetermined deadline . On the other hand, given the high demand for interviews, some applicants to Northwestern may receive a Kellogg interview waiver . In this case, applicants will not need to complete an interview, although they may still be contacted by the admissions team with follow-up questions.

Blind vs. Non-blind

Blind vs non-blind refers to the context your interviewer has coming into your MBA interview. In a blind interview, the interviewer has not reviewed your complete application. On the contrary, interviewers will typically only have access to your resume. In a non-blind interview, your interviewer will have had an opportunity to review your application before sitting down with you.

For example, Kellogg interviews are conducted blind and based on resumes alone. On the other hand, if you are invited to complete an interview with Harvard Business School, your interviewer will review your application before meeting you.

Individual vs Group

Most MBA programs will conduct individual interviews with strong MBA applicants. The Kellogg interview and Cornell MBA interview are both examples of individual interviews. This is a one-on-one setting where you sit down with a member of the admissions team.

However, if you look at the Wharton MBA interview process, you’ll notice they are conducted a little differently. The Wharton MBA interview is conducted in two parts: a group interview and an individual interview. The first part of a Wharton MBA interview is a team-based discussion . This means you will be interviewing alongside 4-5 other candidates and evaluated on your ability to work as a member of a team.

Recognizing the type of interview you are walking into will help you better prepare for your MBA interview questions and answers. Now, let’s discuss more thoroughly what to expect in an interview. 

What should I expect in an MBA Interview?

In general, the interview process will be as follows. First, you’ll be invited for an interview. Then, you’ll be matched with an interviewer from the MBA program. Once you’ve been assigned your interviewer, you’ll need to schedule your interview with them. Ideally, you should schedule your interview within a week of receiving your invitation, if not sooner.

Finally, you’ll do the interview, which can last anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. For example, the Harvard MBA interview is approximately 30 minutes, while the Wharton MBA interview is a 35-minute group interview followed by a 10-minute one-on-one.

Interviews are usually conducted by an MBA admissions officer, faculty member, or alum. In some cases, you may be interviewing with a current student. For instance, you might complete your Cornell MBA interview with a trained second-year MBA student who is part of Cornell’s Johnson Admissions Group. So, do not be surprised by the age, position, or status of your interviewer.  You should try to impress them regardless. 

The interview itself is typically conversational, with the interviewer prompting questions and guiding the discussion. While your MBA interview questions and answers will depend on your specific interviewer, there are some common questions you can plan for during your MBA interview prep.  Most candidates can expect to hear some variation of “tell me about yourself” MBA interview questions and situational questions. Usually, your interviewer will also give you an opportunity at the end to ask them questions about the program.

When considering MBA interview questions and answers, interviewers are typically looking for four things:

• Preparation

Every one of your MBA interview questions and answers is an opportunity to showcase these positive qualities about yourself and stand out as a candidate for admission.

Be aware that some MBA programs have an additional step in their MBA application timeline. For example, applicants who complete their Harvard MBA application and interview will then need to submit a post-interview reflection within 24 hours of their interview. So, be sure to check the specific MBA interview requirements for each program you are applying to.

Now, let’s dive into specific MBA interview questions and answers you may focus on in your MBA interview prep.

What do they ask in an MBA Interview?

The MBA interview questions and answers you encounter will depend on the programs you apply to and your interviewer. In any case, applicants should be prepared to answer a variety of questions, including those related to the program, your resume, and your character. There are also often situational questions for MBA interviews.

Any MBA interview experience will likely consist of a combination of these MBA interview questions and answers. Therefore, you should consider planning for all kinds of questions during your MBA interview prep. Even if you aren’t asked the MBA interview questions and answers you planned for in your interview, preparing will pay off. Your strongest experiences and qualities will be at the front of your mind when you shake your interviewer’s hand.

15 Most Common MBA Interview Questions

Now, let’s go over 15 common MBA interview questions and answers to incorporate into your MBA interview prep:

Common MBA Interview Questions

• Tell me something about yourself.
• Why are you pursuing an MBA?
• What are your short-term and long-term goals?
• Why are you interested in this school/program?
• What other schools are you applying to?
• What concerns do you have about getting an MBA?
• Walk me through your resume.
• What motivates you/what is your passion regarding your current job or industry?
• What has been your most challenging or rewarding academic experience so far?
• How would your colleagues and/or supervisor describe you in three words?
• What is your biggest strength? Biggest weakness?
• Describe a failure in which you were involved.
• Talk about a time when you had to make a difficult decision
• Discuss a time you demonstrated leadership.
• Explain a conflict you experienced in your work.

Please keep in mind this is not an exhaustive list of MBA interview questions, and you may encounter variations of these MBA questions. During your MBA interview prep, you should still do your own research on the interview practices for specific MBA programs. Regardless, some MBA interview questions are so common you are almost certain to encounter them during the interview process.

Next, we’ll discuss the top three most common MBA interview questions and answers. First, we’ll go over how to approach “tell me about yourself” MBA interview questions. Then, we’ll discuss the “why MBA” interview question. Finally, we’ll review how to approach MBA interview questions regarding your short- and long-term goals.

“Tell Me About Yourself” in an MBA Interview 

“Tell me about yourself” MBA interview questions are the most common types of questions you’ll encounter in an MBA interview. They can also be the most difficult to answer because “tell me about yourself” MBA interview questions are so open-ended. It’s important to keep your answers both original and concise. This is often one of the first questions asked in an interview, and you want to make a strong first impression.

In general, keep your response to a “tell me about yourself” MBA interview question to about two minutes or less. During your MBA interview prep, consider creating a throughline—a theme that threads through everything you say.  How have your academic experiences led you to your work experiences and to where you are now? You might also consider focusing on a specific strength or character trait. How has that trait evolved and supported you throughout your journey?

Here are three tips for approaching “tell me about yourself” MBA interview questions:

• Think about what sets you apart from other candidates, either in your skills/abilities or academic/work experience. How can you differentiate yourself?
• Consider what you will bring to the program to which you are applying and how you can demonstrate those strengths. You may talk about a specific experience that illustrates your capabilities.
• Don’t just summarize your resume — most interviewers will have access to it.  Instead, you could dig deeper into something that makes you an ideal candidate for the program.                                 

“Why MBA” Interview Question

Another one of the most common MBA interview questions and answers is the “why MBA” question. Admissions want students who will be dedicated to and will genuinely benefit from completing their MBA. This is an opportunity to discuss why you want an MBA and what interests you about a particular MBA program.

Speak clearly about what has motivated you to pursue an MBA at this time in your life. Why is an MBA crucial to achieving your future career goals? You might discuss barriers you see in your career, why an MBA might help you overcome them, and what you hope to learn while completing your MBA.

Here are three tips for approaching “why MBA” and “why this program” MBA interview questions:

• Consider where you are now and where you want to be in the future. Can you explain why an MBA is necessary to get there? 
• Refine your answer to a few cohesive reasons related to both your professional and personal goals.
• Tailor your response to the school you are interviewing for, providing program-specific details.

Short-term and Long-term Goals – MBA Interview Question

An important step of your MBA interview prep is defining both your short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals are what you hope to accomplish within about a year following the completion of your MBA program. Your long-term goals should look further into the future, anywhere from 5-10 years after receiving your MBA. You may also think about the peak of your career.

All three of these MBA interview questions and answers are somewhat interconnected. Try to logically connect your experiences with your goals and with getting an MBA from the specific program. What ties them all together?

Here are three tips for approaching MBA interview questions regarding your short/long-term goals:

Three Tips for Approaching MBA Interview Questions

1. don’t shy away from ambitious goals; however, be sure they are also attainable..

It may help to write out a rough road map to ensure your goals are sound.

2. Find the connection between your goals.

How will achieving your short-term goals set you up to achieve your long-term goals?

3. Make the importance of these goals clear.

Why will accomplishing these goals be significant for you?

Now, let’s flip the script and discuss questions to ask MBA interviewers.

Questions to ask in MBA Interview

Oftentimes, usually at the end of the interview, interviewers will turn over the questions to the applicant: “Do you have any questions for me?” Given you are the one being interviewed, you may wonder why you need to prepare questions to ask MBA interviewers. Asking questions is a great way to help your interview feel more like a dialogue. They also demonstrate your interest and that you’ve thought seriously about the MBA program at hand.

As this is often one of the final parts of the interview process, you should end on a high note. Don’t simply answer “no” and end the interview!  You can show your interviewer that you are interested in learning as much about their program as you can. Additionally, questions show that you’re willing to take advice and learn from others.

In summary, you’ll want to prepare some questions for your interviewer during your MBA interview prep. You might want to ask about a specific aspect of their program that relates to your career goals/interests. Below are some questions to consider posing during your interview.

Questions to ask MBA Interviewer

• From your perspective, what sets your MBA program apart from others?
• If accepted, how can I best prepare for your program?
• How does your program work to develop relationships with recruiting partners/industries?
• What is the number one tip you’d give me to make the most of the MBA experience?
• How would you describe this program’s culture?

Remember, while it’s great to go in with a few questions about the program, this is not an opportunity to ask about the application process. Don’t ask about the status of your application or your odds of admission. Some interviewers may not even know the answers. But more importantly, asking such questions shows a lack of awareness of the etiquette of the interview process. Keep your MBA interview questions and answers focused on the program itself and why you are a good fit.

How to prepare for an MBA Interview?

As we’ve said time and time again, preparation is key to giving a strong interview. If it helps, you can think of these questions as essay prompts. That is to say, you can brainstorm potential answers the same way you might brainstorm topics for a written essay. MBA applicants should reflect on their academic and professional.  Their roles and responsibilities,  challenges, successes and failures, and skills are all fair game for MBA interview questions and answers.

One thing to keep in mind is flexibility. While every applicant will benefit from interview prep, there is a difference between rehearsing and memorizing. Having pre-written or memorized responses will make your interview feel stiff and unnatural. Worse, they won’t help you if you’re asked a question you didn’t prepare for. Instead, focus on going in with a few key points in mind and letting your words flow naturally in the moment.

What kind of experiences should you brainstorm for your interviews? One recommended method for MBA interview prep is the STAR method. Though you may find it challenging to apply to a “tell me about yourself” MBA interview question, this technique will be applicable to the majority of your MBA interview questions and answers.

STAR Method

1. s ituation.

Set the scene, providing clear context for the experience you are going to describe.

Be clear about your objective, whether this was given to you by a manager or a self-imposed goal.

Explain the specific steps you took to address the problem at hand and work towards solutions.

Share the outcome of your actions, focusing on the direct relationship between what you did and what you accomplished.

This strategy is a great way to help focus your MBA interview prep and applies to many different MBA interview questions. In particular, any question that begins with “tell me about a time when…” can be effectively answered using this formula. 

In recent years, the majority of MBA interviews have been conducted virtually rather than in person. While your MBA interview prep will be the same regardless of your interview method, there are a few more things that could go wrong in an online setting. Don’t wait until one minute before your interview to sit down in front of your computer. Give yourself plenty of time to find a quiet space, check your internet connection, and make sure your video camera and microphone are working.

Our Five Best Tips for Highlighting Your Strengths in an MBA Interview

We’ve discussed many aspects of the MBA interview experience, including common MBA interview questions and answers. From the “tell me about yourself” MBA interview question to situational questions for MBA interviews, there’s a lot that may be thrown at you during your interview. 

Here are five tips to keep in mind during your MBA interview prep to help you ace any interview, no matter what MBA interview questions come your way:

Five Tips for MBA Interview Prep

1. be specific and use concrete examples..

During your MBA interview prep, you should brainstorm specific experiences to discuss during your interview. Decide on the key details necessary to communicate the experience, and don’t go beyond those. Have concise examples ready to demonstrate the qualities you want to impress upon your interviewer.

2. Speak to a variety of experiences.

Avoid repetition in your MBA interview questions and answers. If you can, try to use details and examples from both your academic and work history.  Highlight different aspects of your character and strengths through diverse situations.

3. Focus on authenticity.

While you want to present the best version of yourself, remember to still be yourself . Focus on the qualities that make you shine, and don’t exaggerate—let alone falsify—your accomplishments.

4. Always find the positive.

Even though some MBA interview questions and answers may focus on challenges or weaknesses, you can find a silver lining. Showcasing moments of learning, growth, and perseverance can go hand-in-hand with these topics; however, don’t neglect to answer the interviewer’s original question.

5. Practice with a mock interview.

Brainstorming your MBA interview questions and answers on paper is helpful. However, you shouldn’t reference any notes during your interview. Your MBA interview prep should include mock interviews, where you can practice your responses out loud with a friend or mentor.

MBA Interview – Final Thoughts

The key to having strong MBA interview questions and answers is preparation. Even if you don’t feel like interviewing is your strong suit, going in with a clear understanding of what to expect will help you deliver a strong interview. Here are some things to keep in mind during your MBA interview prep: 

Know your interview format.

Understand who you will be talking to, what context they’ll have regarding your application, and whether you’ll be speaking to them virtually or in person. 

Prepare answers to common MBA interview questions.

In any MBA interview, you’ll likely encounter “why MBA,” goals and aspirations, and “tell me about yourself” MBA interview questions, so decide how you want to “pitch” yourself to admissions.

Have questions of your own.

Having questions to ask your interviewer helps demonstrate your interest in a particular program and will make your interview more engaging. 

Be sure to pay close attention to your MBA application timeline, and give yourself plenty of time to complete your MBA interview prep. That way, you can set yourself up for a positive MBA interview experience. For personalized guidance on how to approach MBA interview questions and answers, reach out to CollegeAdvisor.com for support throughout the entire MBA application process.

This article was written by Stefanie Tedards. Looking for more admissions support? Click here to schedule a free meeting with one of our Admissions Specialists. During your meeting, our team will discuss your profile and help you find targeted ways to increase your admissions odds at top schools. We’ll also answer any questions and discuss how CollegeAdvisor.com can support you in the college application process.

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20 Must-Read MBA Essay Tips

Business school admissions committees care about more than (just) your  GMAT scores and GPA —they want to know who you are and why you belong in their program . Your MBA essays are your best chance to sell the person behind the résumé. They should tie all the pieces of your business school application together and create a comprehensive picture of who you are, what you've done, and what you bring to the table.  Here's a roundup of our best MBA essay tips to keep in mind as you begin to write.

How to Write an Unforgettable B-School Essay

1. communicate that you are a proactive, can-do sort of person..

Business schools want leaders, not applicants content with following the herd.

2. Put yourself on ego-alert.

Stress what makes you unique, not what makes you number one.

3. Communicate specific reasons why you're great fit for each school.

Simply stating "I am the ideal candidate for your program" won't convince the admission committee to push you into the admit pile.

Read More: Find Your Business School

4. Bring passion to your writing.

Admissions officers want to know what excites you. And if you'll bring a similar enthusiasm to the classroom.

5. Break the mold.

Challenge perceptions with unexpected essays that say, "There's more to me than you think."

6. If you've taken an unorthodox path to business school, play it up.

Admissions officers appreciate risk-takers.

7. Talk about your gender, ethnicity, minority status or foreign background....

But only if it has affected your outlook or experiences.

8. Fill your essays with plenty of real-life examples.

Specific anecdotes and vivid details make a much greater impact than general claims and broad summaries.

9. Demonstrate a sense of humor or vulnerability.

You're a real person, and it's okay to show it!

BONUS: Don't Make These MBA Essay Mistakes

1. write about your high school glory days. .

Admissions committees don't care if you were editor of the yearbook or captain of the varsity team. They expect their candidates to have moved onto more current, professional achievements.

2. Submit essays that don't answer the questions.

An off-topic essay, or one that merely restates your résumé, will frustrate and bore the admissions committee. More importantly, it won't lead to any new insight about you.

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3. Fill essays with industry jargon.

Construct your essays with only enough detail about your job to frame your story and make your point.

4. Reveal half-baked reasons for wanting the MBA.

Admissions officers favor applicants who have well-defined goals. However unsure you are about your future, it's critical that you demonstrate that you have a plan.

5. Exceed the recommended word limits.

This suggests you don't know how to follow directions, operate within constraints or organize your thoughts.

6. Submit an application full of typos and grammatical errors.

A sloppy application suggests a sloppy attitude.

7. Send one school an essay intended for another—or forget to change the school name when using the same essay for several applications.

Admissions committees are (understandably) insulted when they see another school's name or forms.

8. Make excuses.

If your undergraduate experience was one long party, be honest. Discuss how you've matured, both personally and professionally.

9. Be impersonal in the personal statement.

Many applicants avoid the personal like the plague. Instead of talking about how putting themselves through school lowered their GPA, they talk about the rising cost of tuition in America. Admissions officers want to know about YOU.

Read More: How to Ace Your MBA Interview

10. Make too many generalizations.

An essay full of generalizations is a giveaway that you don't have anything to say.

11. Write in a vacuum.

Make sure that each of your essays reinforce and build on the others to present a consistent and compelling representation of who you are, what you've done, and what you bring to the table.

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Guide to MBA Essays and Interviews in Europe and Asia • Guide to MBA Essays and Interviews in the US

MBA Interview Preparation Part 1 – ‘Tell Me About Yourself’

POSTED ON 02/09/2017 BY The Red Pen

1st in a 5-part series on MBA interviews

‘Tell me about yourself.’ It’s a simple question, right? Yet, more often than not, several applicants trip over this interview staple. And, because it’s usually the first question asked, it sets the tone for the whole interview. In the event of fumbling the answer, it can potentially derail all your planning and preparation.

The goal of any interview is to present the best possible version of yourself in a way that is appealing and engaging, not just impressive. It’s important to try and connect with your interviewer. Instead of blinding them with a series of dazzling facts, aim to let them get a real snapshot of you. Whoever the interviewer might be, the onus is on you to present yourself efficiently, articulating cornerstones of your personality, significant events in your life and other vital pieces in a concise manner.

Here are some of the classic pitfalls of this seemingly easy interview icebreaker and how you can avoid them during your MBA interview :

• Avoid responding to the question with a chronological list detailing everything you’ve ever done academically and professionally. Beginning your response with, “Well, I was born in Delhi and I went to XX school, then I did this, then this, then this, I studied this and graduated top of my class from this prestigious college and then I did this internship…” isn’t a particularly compelling or illustrative way to present yourself. Think about it; what aspect of your unique personality does the listener really take away from this response?
• Instead of providing your interviewer with a timeline of your life, consider a few key events that are really important to you. Is your identity as a Delhi native vital to your sense of self? If so, talking about growing up there should be coupled with an explanation of how that has affected your character. Maybe growing up in a city has gotten you addicted to the fast-paced hustle, or growing up in a quiet village has given you a sense of zen. Maybe you’ve always had the drive to create social change, or decided to take over your family business because you had an idea to improve it, no matter how strong the resistance. You don’t need to start from birth to describe yourself–start with what you feel is the best way for someone to get to know you.
• Part of what throws people off about this question is that they haven’t prepared an answer. So, practice with a few points you can lean on. Think about the central message you have conveyed about yourself in your essays. Are you a problem-solver? A community builder? Have you taken the lead on a lot of projects? Do you prefer to support others and create a strong team? Now, think about your life outside of work. How have you displayed those qualities? Have a few examples on hand, so you can comfortably talk about how you are a great communicator, highlighting how you negotiated with several companies to get the best sponsorship for your college festival. Or, discuss how due to your parents taking you on family vacations, travel has become a significant part of your life, leading you to push for more projects abroad with your company.
• If you are really stumped, poll a few close friends to find out how they would describe you. Ask them what stands out about you and what they feel someone must really know about you.

Remember, while the goal of this question is to break the ice, it’s also to get the ball rolling. Being able to connect with the interviewer right at the outset can improve the overall experience, not just for the interviewer, but for you as well.

While you’re preparing for your interview, read about how to approach a team-based interview here , find out the difference between admissions committee and alumni interviews here and figure out the best way to thank your interviewer here . For some general interview tips , read this blog.

If you require any more guidance, get in touch with us. Good luck preparing!

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Related Posts

How to Ace the Wharton Team-Based Discussion? Read More »

MBA Interview Preparation Part 5 – 6 General Interview Tips Read More »

MBA Interview Preparation Part 4 – How to Thank Your Interviewer Read More »

MBA Interview Preparation Part 3 – Admissions Committee and Alumni Interviews Read More »

MBA Interview Preparation Part 2 – Preparing for a Team-Based Interview Read More »

Tell me about yourself: How to best answer this common interview question

The very first interview question is often the most predictable. And yet, you’ll see most interviewees panicking. Their mind goes blank.

Or the other common approach is to start rambling, and sharing details that have no real relevance.

As an admissions consultant and career counsellor, I’ve helped thousands of candidates narrate their life stories in the most impactful manner. But when they started out, they were as confused as anyone else. What helped them was having a structured plan and some practice.

If you’re among those who find the question confusing, this article will help you provide the best answer to the common interview question ‘Tell me about yourself’.

We’ll start off by understanding why interviewers ask this question, what you should not say. We’ll use a simple template to create a good sample answer and look at some examples.  

Tell me about yourself | How to answer

Best answer for students, freshers & experienced folks.

  Why do interviewers always start off with Tell me about yourself , when they already have your resume?

Is it a trick question?

No, it’s not.

This is essentially a simple, warm up question to make you comfortable. The idea is to ask something that will not put the candidate under pressure. But ironically, that’s exactly what the question ends up doing, since the candidate is already stressed out.

So how should you introduce yourself? What are they expecting from your answer?

For starters, let’s look at what they’re not expecting.

They don’t expect you to impress them. Or even give them some secret information that you were hiding from them all along. They will not take a select or reject decision based on your answer.

But they do expect to see a clear and confident response that provides a short but memorable summary of your journey. They are also evaluating your communication skills, if it’s an important aspect for the position you’re applying for.

And here’s a dirty little secret that most interviewers will not tell you. Interviewing can be an additional burden for most interviewers, especially if they are not from HR. Also, if they’ve been interviewing a lot of candidates, they are probably not as familiar with your profile details as you’d expect them to be.

If you give them a good answer, it sets the tone for the rest of the interview. It gives them the signal that they’re talking to the right person and this interview is worth their time and effort.

So make sure you make a good first impression.  

Common mistakes to avoid

The best way to make a good impression is to prepare beforehand. And also to know what mistakes to avoid.

1. Don’t be a robot

You don’t want to come across as someone who mechanically rattles off rehearsed answers with zero emotions.

Make sure you have the general structure for the answer ready in your head. Practice it multiple times till you reach a stage where you don’t have to struggle with what you should be saying, and you can focus on how you say it. But always remember to keep it natural and spontaneous.  

2. Avoid personal stories

Try to avoid personal stories that are not relevant to the position you’re applying for.

Which means you don’t need to tell them that you were lost in the forest as a kid and were raised by wild animals. Unless you’re applying for a position with a wild-life conservation department.  

3. Do not ramble

Most interviews are about 30 to 45 minutes long. Since this is just the first question, aim to answer it in about a minute.

If you overshoot by a few more seconds, that’s still ok. That gives the interviewer enough time to ask other important questions and go deeper into the details that really matter.  

4. Avoid information overload

Just because it’s an open-ended question doesn’t mean you can squeeze in everything you’ve done in life.

In a subtle way, include just enough information to generate curiosity. That way you can also influence the subsequent questions to some extent.   There is no universal best answer to the question, since your background, experience and career plans would differ from others.

But there definitely is a good structure that you can use to come up with the best answer for you.  

How to structure your answer using a good template

At MBA Crystal Ball, we have come up with a term to make it easier to remember the structure. We call it the INSPIRE framework . Here’s what it looks like.

INSPIRE = Ice-breaker | Name | Status | Past | Impact | Relate | Extrapolate

Let’s break it down and construct a sample answer, step-by-step.

Ice-breaker

Since you’re answering a warm-up question, it makes sense to have an ice-breaker before you get into the details. Something as simple as – “Sure, I’d be happy to” would be just fine.

Or if you haven’t exchanged pleasantries before getting to this stage, you could start off with a greeting such as “ Good morning ” or afternoon or evening, depending on the time of the interview. Followed by something like “ After all the emails and the phone calls, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person. ”

This may or may not be needed. If your name is unusual or difficult to pronounce, it helps the interviewer to be aware of the right way of saying it.

Avoid saying “ Myself Raj ” Or “ Raj this side ”. That’s wrong English. Start off with “ My name is …” or “ I am …”

Explain your current status. Provide a short overview of your most recent role.

A quick summary of how you got here would also help, especially if your career graph has been unusual.

Rather than stopping at what you do, it also helps to show the impact you’ve had.

This is a good place to connect all the dots that you’ve laid out in the answer.

Extrapolate

As the parting shot for this answer, explain what’s in it for the company.   That’s it. You have your answer ready.

Let’s take it from the top to get a feel of how the complete answer would sound. We share a couple of examples to illustrate what we’re talking about.  

Sample answer for experienced folks

  Not too shabby, right?

But what if you are a student or a fresher who has just graduated?

The INSPIRE framework remains the same, but what you include in your answer will change.

Here’s an example of a good answer to the interview question “Tell me about yourself” if you are a fresher or a student.  

Sample answer for student / fresher

How did that sound? Pretty good, right?

While working on the structure, you might have realised an important point. How impressive your answer sounds would depend not just on the presentation, but also on the content.

The presentation might take a few hours, but for the content you need to consciously put in thousands of hours. So, the earlier you start, the better.

Over the years, MBA Crystal Ball has helped thousands of candidates build their profiles and crack tough interviews.

Many of them now work in the best companies in technology, consulting, finance and other high paying industries.

If you need professional career counselling or admissions consulting help, send across an email: info [at] mbacrystalball [dot] com

P.S. This is a transcript of our video on the same topic. Considering how important this topic is, a quick revision wouldn’t hurt. Watch it here: How to answer Tell me about yourself | Experienced and freshers [Video]

Also read: – Situational interviews: What to expect – How to prepare for case interviews – Interview dress code for males & females

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How To Answer Common MBA Interview Questions With Confidence

If you have gotten to the interview stage of the MBA admissions process, first of all: congratulations! It’s a big step. But you will likely be feeling a lot of stress about how to handle the interview. While preparing for an MBA interview is a complex combination of multiple factors, the most direct advice you are probably looking for is “how do I answer the interview questions?”

On this page, we cover some common MBA interview questions and offer up our tips on how to answer them:

• Tell me about yourself.
• Why do you want an MBA?
• Why is our business school right for you?
• Tell me about a time when…

After reviewing these general guidelines, don’t forget to check out our program-specific MBA interview guides , with quick facts and question-by-question interview reports from clients.

“Tell Me About Yourself.”

This is a question you will get in nearly every MBA interview. It is as vague-sounding as it is ubiquitous. It is intended to set you at ease, feel at home, and give you a softball question to start out with. Unfortunately, if you are stressed out about the interview, it can have the opposite effect. How do you answer this question asked in almost every MBA interview?

Most people’s instincts are to give broad strokes about their life: “I was born in X; I graduated high school and then went to Y for college; then I got a job at Z.” The problem with that kind of answer is that the poor admissions committee officer will be conducting dozens or even hundreds of admissions interviews in a given season.

So if many applicants begin with some version of that—they will start to blend together. Furthermore, all of that information is readily available on your resume. They will almost certainly have just reviewed your paperwork and know all of these things, especially when some version of those things will be true for every single MBA applicant.

Instead, try to answer with something that is interesting and memorable about you.  The trick is making sure that it is still related to your desire to get an MBA . Here are some possible prompts:

• A Hobby . Talk about some extracurriculars or interests you have outside of work . It likely will make an impression and is unlikely to be the same boring claptrap that nearly every applicant will serve up.
• Deeper Motivations for your Career . Is there something about why you chose the sector or career path that you did beyond a desire to make money? That might be an interesting talking point. 
• An Important Personal Detail . Is there something unique or important about your identity, or a cause that interests you? This might be a way to talk about yourself that cannot be intuited from your resume.

There is no right answer to this question. But any of the above ideas will be more engaging, memorable, and impressive than a redundant, chronological walkthrough of the basic facts of your life. 

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“Why Do You Want to Pursue an MBA?”

The next question that you are likely to be asked during an MBA interview is some variation of “why get an MBA?” This can be a tricky question to answer, and you definitely need to provide an answer in the “Goldilocks zone”: not too ambitious, not too modest .

If you say something that is wildly ambitious—for example, that you believe the MBA will put you next in line to be CEO of Google—you will read as unserious and perhaps a little bit unqualified. Conversely, if you set your short-term and long-term career goals too modestly—for example, that you think the MBA will help you get a 5% raise—the AdCom will not be sufficiently excited by the prospect of your attending the program. 

The best way forward here is to show that you have a realistic idea of how the MBA might advance your career while also making it sound a little bit inspiring and value driven. You will likely be referring back to your Career Goals essay when this question is asked.

“Why Is Our Business School the Right Fit For You?”

This is another classic among MBA interview questions. The schools that interview you know that you are likely applying to multiple programs, but they still want to feel special. This is not just ego-stroking (though a little of that is fine).

What a school’s AdCom wants to know in this question are two things:

• You did your research. First, they want to make sure that you have taken the time to research the school and that you understand what it is that you are applying to beyond just “a good MBA.”
• You’ll contribute. Second, they want to make sure that you, as an applicant, are a good investment for them.

If you have done your research and are thinking about why the specific business school is a good fit, you will be able to contribute to its programs and clubs in a way that strengthens their brand, their alumni network, and, ultimately, their position in MBA rankings .

The way to approach this question is to think about it as though you are showing off the depth of your research. In order to answer it in a sufficient way, you will need to display a mastery of the school’s basic details: your major/concentration, classes you are eager to take, clubs and programs you are interested in joining. It also doesn’t hurt to throw in a little bit of color or a personal touch: an interaction you had with a current student or an alum.

It is very important to remember that, as you show off this knowledge, you don’t end up sounding like their catalog. Your knowledge of their program needs to sound like it comes from an interest in it. Refrain from bringing up elements of the MBA that you are aware of but have no bearing on you as an applicant.

Behavioral Questions in the MBA Interview

The last category of questions we are going to give tips on for the admissions interview is a broad set of variations that begin with a phrase like “tell me about a time when…” These questions might end up being about leadership , or teamwork , or (commonly and insidiously) a time that you failed .

You can prepare for the MBA interview here by readying details about the situation and your response to it. Obviously, depending on the question, you will want to emphasize different things.

Showing Leadership and Achieving Success

If the question is, for example, about leadership, you will want to show how your actions resulted in success, and how you dealt with your team to implement your ideas. Specificity is important here because if you lay out your accomplishments in broad, unspecific strokes, you will sound like you don’t have much personal investment in what happened.

For example, if you say “I had five workers on my team and assigned each one of them some work so that we could do the work faster than if I did it all myself,” you will end up sounding like you believe that your workers are all interchangeable and that you never took the time to get to know them.

Talk about the people. Mention names if possible and, while you shouldn’t give too much unnecessary detail, the AdCom should come away feeling that this example was an important moment in your career and that it impacted you.

Demonstrating Teamwork and Working with Others

Another common behavioral question is about teamwork. This could take a couple of different forms: “Tell me about a time you faced a difficulty or a conflict on a team”; “Tell me about a time when you dealt with a team member who wasn’t pulling their weight”. These questions are all about showing the AdCom how you will behave when in contact with other students during the MBA program.

This means that the wrong answer is one where you call out a teammate in a dismissive way: “Steve? Oh yeah, he did everything wrong, a real bad guy. That’s why I kicked him off the team.” In business school, you can’t kick someone off your team, and the AdCom will not be impressed by this kind of behavior. The better answer is one where you discuss being conciliatory, or practicing a kind of cooperative exchange. Let the interviewer know that you are both able to identify problem actors and help the team be more successful by bringing them into the fold. 

Talking About Overcoming Failure , Even if it is Difficult

If you are asked about a time you failed at something, don’t dance around it or try to pick something unimportant. Tell them about a time you failed at something meaningful. The interviewer wants to know that you have self-knowledge and humility. It’s never a good look to answer a question about an important failure by implying that you have never failed. 

In the video below, our communications coach for admissions interview preparation, Eduardo Placer , shares three tips on how to tell a story gracefully while making a connection with your interviewer—a great approach for discussing failure!

Courageous Storytelling for the MBA Interview

In any given interview, for business school or otherwise, there will be other questions, of course—far too many to cover all of in a single post—but these cover the basics. If you’re looking for professional help with interview preparation , we’d love to speak to you. 

If you’re looking for more advice on preparing for MBA interviews, see our article, MBA Interview Prep: Top Tips and Mistakes to Avoid .

For comprehensive support on your MBA interviews , contact us to get started.

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This, rather informal, essay question has gained popularity in MBA Applications since 2015 or so. Watch this short video effectively to have an organized approach for writing this important essay and avoid the most common mistakes that most applicants commit in writing this essay.

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Wharton looks for exceptional career trajectory, quantitative chops, and demonstrated leadership, teamwork, and interpersonal skills. In recent years, they have worked to deemphasize the GMAT so it’s not quite as rigid as it once was as in order to diversify class. With less emphasis on stats, the Wharton essays are essential to showcasing character and experiences.

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HBS Admissions Board at Harvard Business School HBS MBA

HBS Admissions Board at Harvard Business School Kellogg MBA

Director HBS Admissions at Harvard Business School MBA, the Wharton School

HBS Admissions Board at Harvard Business School

Director HBS Admissions at Harvard Business School HBS MBA

Admissions Officer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB) MBA, Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB)

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Assistant Director MBA Admissions at Columbia Business School (CBS) M.S.Ed, Higher Education, U of Pennsylvania

Associate Director MBA Admissions at Columbia Business School (CBS)

Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure.  Ashley  holds an MBA from HBS. During her HBS years,  Ashley  was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...

Kerry is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). During her 5+ year tenure at HBS, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a wide range of backgrounds across the globe. She also led marketing and outreach efforts focused on increasing diversity and inclusion, ran the Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP), and launched the 2+2 Program during her time in Admissions. Kerry holds a B.A. from Bates College and  ...

A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally.  Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM.  For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...

Geri is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS).  In her 7 year tenure in HBS Admissions, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a diverse set of academic, geographic, and employment backgrounds.  Geri also traveled globally representing the school at outreach events in order to raise awareness for women and international students.  In additio ...

Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years.  Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...

Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years.  In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee. In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School.  Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...

Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...

Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...

Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications.  She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics. Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...

Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford.   Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...

Anthony served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise. During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year.   Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...

Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies. In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...

Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team.  During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students.  She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...

Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS).  During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...

Erin has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU's Stern School of Business. At Columbia Business School, Erin was an Assistant Director of Admissions where she evaluated applications for both the full time and executive MBA programs, sat on the admissions and merit scholarship committees and advised applicants on which program might be the best fit for them based on their work experience and pro ...

Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director.  Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants.

As a Wharton MBA, I plan to seek opportunities that exploit my strengths contributing to team environments. First, I thrive in settings where I can leverage my broad knowledge base and strong analytical foundation to help solve problems across a number of functions. Similarly, my empathetic style of leadership has been effective in engaging a range of perspectives and voices towards a common goal. Both aspects position me uniquely to take on roles where I can bridge Wharton with the surrounding community.

Dance education is an initiative I’m highly motivated to support, as dance has been an amazing therapeutic outlet for me. The countless hours I’ve spent bhangra dance moves have been both highly meditative and endlessly entertaining. Dance is also perhaps the most powerful unifier of people I’ve ever experienced. All personal differences seem to wash away when people can join around their common love of dance. While at Wharton, I plan to combine my appreciation for performance and excitement to engage with the community by working with Wharton Dance Studio, which brings Wharton students together in a broad variety of styles and and cultures, for events such as the Wharton Dance Studio & India Club’s joint Bollywood Fusion Diwali Dance Workshop. Whether teaching, organizing live events for the community, or even taking the stage as a dancer myself, I am excited about the range of ways I can spread the joy of movement through the Wharton Dance Club.

Another area of personal interest where I intend to contribute meaningfully to the Wharton community is golf. I played golf extensively growing up, but talents lie less on the fairway and more in the front-office. For years, I have maintained an avid interest in the advanced analytics of golf as a scouting / decision-making tool, even going so far as to create my own statistical models. As a widget industry professional, I’ve become well-versed in the emerging technology companies advancing the applications of data analytics to the golf handicap industry. Working with the Wharton Golf Club, I am eager to help lead the Wharton team competing at the MBA Masters tourney at Duke University and the annual Spring Scramble, and I would love to organize teams of Wharton golfers to work with inner-city Philadelphia high school and collegiate kids, helping to promote the adoption of advanced golf statistical handicapping to elevate athletic performance at the amateur level.

My short-term post-MBA goal is to join the Strategy and Operations team at a widget tech firm such as well-known-companies-that-recruit-at-Wharton A and B, to gain experience in creating growth opportunities in digital widgets. Long-term, I hope to become the COO of a widget-tech firm and drive the expansion of widget inclusion, particularly in REGION X where I grew up.

Widget inclusion is in a state of disarray, both in the United States and around the world. While going to college in COUNTRY X, I learned about the struggles migrant workers faced in accessing the widget services they needed. Foreign domestic helpers and construction workers told me how difficult it was to do xxx, yyy or zzz in countries where they lacked institutional ties. I became interested in Widget-tech after seeing widget-tech companies’ potential for expanding inclusion and widget literacy issues.

The Wharton MBA will prepare me to become a leader in the widget-tech industry. In my consulting experience at CONSULTING GIANT X, I have worked primarily with traditional widget manufacturing corporations, and developed expertise in improving risk management operations. I want to use the Wharton MBA to build on my experience while learning about managing operations more holistically across an organization, and developing relationships and expertise in the widget-tech industry.

Wharton’s Strategic Management major and elective offerings will help me succeed in a strategic and operational role. STUDENT 1 (Wharton’2X), recommended the course “Managing the Established Enterprise,” which provides frameworks on generating value and competitive advantages. “Technology Strategy,” taught by Professor Rahul Kapoor, will help me apply this knowledge to the widget industry specifically. Learning more about Professor Kapoor’s research on managing emerging technologies will also help me understand the market applications of new widget technologies.

Beyond the classroom, I will gain hands-on experience through participating in an Independent Study Project with the Widget Center for Innovation. STUDENT 2 (Wharton’2X) told me about her project identifying opportunities for technological innovation for Widgets Inc. Projects like these will provide me with new real-world insight into how technology is transforming conventional widgeting models.

I also plan to use Wharton’s Widget-tech Club to build ties in the widget industry. I will benefit from the community-building event and content development support the club facilitates. I am particularly interested in Career Treks related to digital widgets and manufacturing, and the annual widget-tech Conference. Listening to speakers such as Famous Executive, Strategy and Operations Lead at Widgets-R-Us, who spoke at the 2022 Conference, I will learn from industry leaders who are in roles I someday hope to inhabit. Current club member STUDENT 3 also told me about the club’s focus on member education and how it helped him communicate effectively when networking with widget-tech firms. The weekly lunch-and-learns and alumni fireside chats offered by the club will also deepen my content expertise and credibility in the widget industry.

Speaking with students and alumni showed me the supportive nature of Wharton’s community and I look forward to leveraging Wharton’s global network throughout my career in the widget industry.

When I was in my freshman year of high school, I signed up for the girl’s [sport] team. However, as the tryouts neared, I got cold feet; I had only played [sport] for one year prior to ninth grade. The high school coach was also my gym teacher, and she knew I was supposed to go out for the team. I could not imagine telling her that I had gone back on my word, so I dragged myself to the first practice.

That turned out to be one of the best decisions I have made. My coach gave us individualized cards before every game with that day’s goals—evidence of how deeply she cared for her players. I was a starting player by my sophomore year, and she would make me yell out directions to organize my teammates. This included telling the seniors who to cover, which was intimidating. Her confidence in me translated into confidence in myself, and I went on to play for her in the state championship game my junior year. We were not the most-skilled team in the state, but preparation, dedication and hard work helped us achieve a better record than we would have otherwise.

I continued to play in college, where my experience was completely different. At [College], we barely had enough players to field a team my senior year, so we had to recruit from the women’s [sport] and [sport] teams and other athletic friends. Learning to compete with an eclectic group of women with drastically different skill levels was a challenge. But remembering how to motivate individuals and focus on strengths helped me to succeed as captain.

My experience playing [sport] has shaped my career thus far by helping me to find ways to win in the competitive world of sales and trading and equity research. I know it will affect my contributions to the Wharton community as well. By trying out for the team my freshman year, I learned that I need to put myself out there—even if it’s uncomfortable—to gain new experiences and grow individually. I will be very active in on-campus groups, like Women in Business and Wharton’s Fintech club. Given all of the opportunities to get involved in business school, I understand the dedication it takes to get things like the Women’s Summit across the finish line. [Sport] also taught me how to empower individuals and work with a diverse group of people. By recognizing each person’s strengths, I will not only bring my Learning Team together, but also contribute to a greater sense of togetherness across the teams I am a part of at Wharton.

Finally, I would also like to contribute to the greater Wharton community by helping to coach [sport] locally in Philadelphia. I believe extending my network beyond Wharton’s walls will strengthen my leadership development, and I hope to inspire confidence in other young girls who are just beginning to think about their careers.

I am an avid runner, and am empowered by the physical feats my body is capable of. I share this outlet by volunteering with [Nonprofit], a [Description of Nonprofit]. Most recently, I [Description of achievement]. Reaching this milestone together required teamwork, leadership and commitment to action, all of which I will bring to the Wharton community.

As a team of mentors, we were charged with leading participants through a 10-week training program prior to our big event. Each week, we integrated our different professional backgrounds to appeal to the members’ diverse personalities. May, an outdoor adventure leader, was accustomed to exerting control in chaotic environments and expertly channeled energy into physical activity. June, a special event planner who is used to calming her clients in high-stress environments, easily dug into people’s underlying emotions to understand their excitement or concerns for race day. On my Wharton Learning Team, I will leverage this same collaborative approach to tackling challenges — actively contributing my own perspective and encouraging my teammates to do the same, all while pushing the group to integrate our ideas into the strongest possible response.

As we prepped the girls for the event, I gained a deeper appreciation for how passion develops leadership. I am passionate about our work, but I feel even more strongly about using it to empower the younger community. This heightened sense of purpose motivated me to work through challenges and help our members reach their goals. As a member of Wharton’s PE/VC Club and Wharton Women in Business, I will use my passion for improving businesses through investment and promoting women’s leadership to enhance the clubs’ respective communities and execute events. I am particularly eager to serve as Co-President of Wharton Women in Business and work with my team of Co-Presidents to host the Wharton Women’s Summit.

Finally, inspired by a member of my [Nonprofit] team, I will promote a commitment to action while at Wharton. AAA had struggled to gain her parents’ support during the season, but nonetheless continued to compete with a quiet determination. The day before our big event, she confided in me that she had been apprehensive about being able to do it, knowing that her parents would not be among the supporters. However, she also revealed her excitement to compete and to share in the success of her friends. Their collective hard work superseded her fears. Wharton’s campus celebrates the same type of commitment to action on behalf of others that AAA so maturely displayed that day. I will channel this practice by serving on the Deans’ MBA Advisory Council, deepening my understanding of the diverse initiatives of my peers, and then promoting their interests across the broader community. I aim to augment Wharton’s culture of sharing in each other’s successes, just as AAA did for our team.

In my Research role at [Company], I cover industrial companies that have been around for decades. I’ve noticed that in these organizations, the most exciting work is being done in the newer, software-led divisions. That’s why after graduation, I would like to expand my knowledge of new technologies in a digital transformation consulting role at a firm like Bain or BCG. Ultimately, I would like to be COO at a financial services or fintech company like PNC, Paypal, or Betterment.

To reach these goals, I hope to gain a better understanding of operations to complement my finance background. Classes in Wharton’s Operations, Information and Decisions department, such as “Information and Business Transformation” and “Enabling Technologies,” would provide a strong foundation and help me be in on the conversation about how businesses of the future will be run. Joining the Fintech club will increase my exposure to smaller growth companies and developing technologies, while allowing me to network with likeminded students.

Wharton can also help me develop the skills necessary to succeed in an upper-management position. I would take “Managing the Emerging Enterprise” to learn how to not only retain and attract talent, but also improve organizational processes. Further, I know I would benefit from taking classes with Adam Grant and Stew Friedman in particular. “Negotiations” would help me build a critical skill, and “Executive Leadership” would give me the tools to become a better leader inside and outside of work. I am also eager to learn how to encourage employees to bring their “whole self” to work.

I plan to network with [Alum] co-founder and CEO of [Company], and ask him about his experience running a fintech company and the impact his platform has had on smaller business.

[Alum], [Company] founder, is another alum I would like to connect with. I want to know how he grew his company and how customer demands have changed over the last few years as data analysis has become more mainstream. I am also interested in learning about investor’s openness to using this information to make investment decisions.

Finally, I intend to join Wharton Women in Business to network with classmates and industry leaders. I also hope to assist in organizing the Wharton Women’s Summit and bring inspiring female trailblazers to Philadelphia to share their experiences and accomplishments. I believe broadening my perspective through leadership expeditions and my classmates’ experiences will make me a more effective leader. Wharton’s diverse alumni network, leadership programs and faculty will help fill the gaps in my background and put me in the best possible position for a job in a digital consulting and ultimately for a COO role at a fintech or financial services company.

I love traveling to interview potential investment targets’ management teams; I have talked with executives at organic food producers, auto manufacturers, concrete block fabricators, and 30 other unique businesses. However, I have yet to encounter more than one woman serving in a senior-level position. I need a Wharton MBA to change this statistic.

In the short term, I will use my MBA to transition to a private equity investment role at a multinational investment firm like Carlyle, Blackstone or KKR. By capitalizing on Wharton’s advanced elective finance classes, I hope to sharpen my analytical proficiency and deepen my investment strategy knowledge.

I will complement the core’s rigor with electives such as The Finance of Acquisitions and Buyouts, which will expose me to real-world investment scenarios and improve my understanding of nuanced transaction-related details. Further, Wharton’s Learning Team model will enhance my perspective as I work with my team to incorporate our diverse backgrounds into problem solving. As [Alum] has proved, Wharton is unmatched in developing well-rounded investors and teammates.

Ultimately, I hope to leverage the leadership skills I develop at Wharton to land an executive position in the private equity division of a global investment firm. I intend to use my platform to campaign for the promotion of women to leadership positions across the industry. Through courses such as William Lauder’s Decision-Making in the Leadership Chair, I will have direct exposure to C-suite professionals and learn how to both position myself for a similar role and overcome challenges once in the position.

At the Diverse Perspectives on the Wharton MBA event in NYC, [Alum] recommended Stew Friedman’s Total Leadership to learn how to think about personal and professional fulfillment. I developed a greater appreciation for the role fulfillment can play in women’s career decisions while serving on a women’s initiative task force at [Company]. This course will be instrumental in achieving my future goal of campaigning for more female industry leaders.

I also intend to put classroom lessons into practice by serving as a Venture Fellow. I am intrigued by [Alum]’s role as a Fellow for the Andes Leadership Venture, which she detailed during conversation at an Admissions event in NYC. Just as she applied learnings from this experience to her role at the [Organization], I will do the same as an executive within a global investment firm.

Wharton’s clubs will further contribute to my development. Wharton Women in Business will serve as an excellent platform to refine my knowledge of women’s professional challenges across industries, and the Wharton Private Equity & Venture Capital Club will expose me to the diverse investment backgrounds of my peers. I also intend to serve as a Co-Chair for the PE/VC Conference, and I will use the opportunity to expand my network within the investment industry.

Wharton will help me develop the nuanced thinking and bold leadership necessary to incite change for women across the financial services industry.

My long-term goal is to combine my experience in finance and my passion for technology by starting and leading a technology company in China as a CFO. I developed an appreciation for technology companies during my time with Firm Q. I always believed they help to boost innovative ideas and make great products affordable to people from all walks of life. When I later moved to Bank, I got to know these companies more in-depth through working in the leading technology research team. I came to understand that business and innovation often go hand in hand. I want to lead a technology start-up of real social impact and propel innovation with the power of finance.

To achieve this goal, I intend to first earn an MBA and then work in Investment Banking M&A covering the technology sector in a major bank such as Goldman or Morgan Stanley after graduation. Working in the primary market would allow me to look at the technology industry from a different angle and help me be more prepared for my ultimate goal of building one of these companies.

Wharton gives me access to the tools I will need to succeed. Distinguished alumni such as Person 1 and Person 2 have spoken at length about their Wharton experiences. At Wharton, I will not only gain the knowledge needed for a leadership role in a tech start-up, but also attain deeper understanding of finance and how it functions inside and outside start-ups. Courses such as Venture Capital and Finance of Innovation, International Corporate Finance, Entrepreneurship through Acquisitions, and Enabling Technologies will provide me with insights into how finance connects with technology start-up companies in a global setting.

The role I envision for myself is that of a CFO. However, startups don’t often have the luxury of a full executive suite so I will need to sharpen my leadership and knowledge application capabilities. Speaking with ’17 student Tracy and attending info sessions, I got excited about Wharton’s broad array of courses and extra-curricular activities that emphasize leadership. Courses such as Managing the Emerging Enterprise and the Executive Coaching and Feedback Program will be central to developing my leadership skills. Besides, the Mack Institute for Innovation Management is an excellent platform for me to apply knowledge learned in management courses and develop practical approaches. In addition, I am extremely interested in the Global Immersion Program, which could offer me valuable insights through practical experience of direct interaction with local business leaders, managers, and government officials.

Outside the classroom, I will take leadership roles in the Technology club and Entrepreneurship club, where I will connect with students of similar belief and passion. Moreover, the strong Wharton alumni network in China also sets a solid foundation for my long-term career development.

Wharton is the school that not only helps me achieve my short-term goal, but also prepares me for my long-term goal by providing knowledge across subjects, leadership and immersive application training, extra-curricular activities, and community.

When I was twelve, I traveled alone to California to visit my mom’s former colleagues. While enjoying my first cup of Starbucks, I introduced Chinese traditions such as green tea and Beijing opera into these foreigners’ lives. As a Chinese girl who inherited traditional cultural values yet has also obtained a global viewpoint from living in Hong Kong and many visits to the U.S., I will contribute to Wharton by blending the western and eastern cultures and enhancing communication between both sides.

In the classroom I will contribute my deep accounting and finance knowledge and insights into the technology industry such as Apple’s supply chain competitive landscape. My international background and global perspective will allow me to provide the class with fresh angles to approach problems. In learning groups I will contribute to discussion and teamwork by playing various roles including teammate, motivator, and leader. My previous experience working with international teammates at Firm A and Bank Z strengthened my teamwork and communication skills.

In student clubs, I will contribute through taking a leadership role in the Technology Club and leveraging my contacts with technology companies and experts. For example, I could invite the CEO of StartUp Q, a leading Chinese artificial intelligence player, to talk about AI development trend. I will also join the Asia club as an officer and help with organizing the annual Asian Business Conference. I successfully organized the ABC Conference under the competition started by Wharton and the World Bank. I also attended the Harvard JKL Conference as a delegate. These experiences make me prepared to lead and contribute to the club. As an experienced student club leader, I will use my skills to identify merits in each teammate, utilize their strengths, and motivate the team.

Lastly, I want to contribute through community service. Specifically, I will apply to the Wharton Nonprofit Board Leadership Program. My commitment to community service started during college when I founded a social enterprise aimed at helping underprivileged families in Hong Kong bringing their handcrafted products to market. I worked at a Non Profit, 123 Health, on the project planning team at Uni. I am ready to contribute, and also excited to learn more Board skills at Wharton.

My perspective has been shaped by experiences spanning three different countries, and I am committed to sharing my unique experiences with the diverse Wharton community.

My long-term plan is to launch a company focused on providing solutions that allow teachers to tailor academic content to students based on their individualized needs. I have been involved in the education sector for many years, as a tutor throughout high school and college, and currently as a board member for Los Angeles Teach for America. I have long been interested in educational technology given its potential to dramatically alter the engagement level and overall learning process for students and enhance the education system. To achieve this goal I first need an MBA and an initial strategic planning role in an early stage education technology company, such as ABC Learning or Real Knowledge, where I will gain more experience in the industry, develop better cross-functional skills, and learn how to build a young business. Wharton is the first step on my journey.

While my undergraduate education and professional experiences have provided significant practice in the fields of finance and accounting, I will expand that exposure at Wharton across the full spectrum of other business functions such as strategy, sales and marketing, and operations. Courses such as Professor Siggelkow’s Strategy and Competitive Advantage will teach me to build competitive advantage for an enterprise through strategic decision-making, a key topic to meet my near-term career objectives. Entrepreneurial-focused learning like the Formation and Implementation of Entrepreneurial Ventures class will help as well, as I’ll learn to build and implement an effective start-up business model. Outside of the classroom, Wharton’s Entrepreneurship Club will offer exposure to different ideas and business plans developed by classmates, provide the opportunity to connect with alumni and learn from their entrepreneurial experiences, and serve as a network for potential funding sources down the road. Across both classroom and extracurricular activities I am excited to learn from the varied and diverse experiences of my peers in the Wharton community and benefit from their unique perspectives.

Personally, a Wharton MBA will further enhance my softer management and leadership skills. I am excited to take Foundations of Teamwork and Leadership which will allow hands-on development and application of these skills from the very beginning in Pre-Term. I also plan to serve as a Board Fellow in the Nonprofit Board Leadership Program, which will combine an interactive leadership learning opportunity with the ability to give back to local non-profit organizations – a continuation of the non-profit board work I have enjoyed over the last several years. Taking on a leadership role in the Entrepreneurship Club will give me additional experience leading a group of my peers and increase my engagement in the entrepreneurial community at Wharton. Lastly, I look forward to developing strong relationships with classmates during the program and with other Wharton alumni more broadly. The unique talents of classmates and global reach of Wharton’s deep alumni network will provide an invaluable source of ideas, resources and guidance throughout my career and entrepreneurial endeavors. Ultimately, Wharton serves as the ideal platform for me to continue my professional and personal development to achieve my career goals.

To me, academic engagement encompasses the whole Wharton learning community. I see myself contributing through the classroom, clubs and volunteer organizations.

In the classroom, I will help my learning group going through the fixed core because of my academic background and my professional experience in finance and consulting. My college coursework includes honors econometrics along with undergraduate and graduate level courses in regression analysis. This background will allow me to help my group as we go through Regression Analysis for Managers. Additionally, my professional experience will be valuable in Marketing Management which covers customer segmentation and pricing strategy, among other topics. As a consultant, I worked on several growth strategy projects based on customer segmentations. At ABC Private Equity, I helped develop pricing strategies for various businesses including a dental lab, a chain of ambulatory surgery centers and a software company. My professional experience will help me contribute to classroom discussion in elective courses outside the fixed core. For example, I plan to take Negotiation and Dispute Resolution. At ABC Private Equity, I negotiated reimbursement rate increases with health insurance companies and a multi?company deal for document printing services with a print vendor.

I also plan to contribute through leadership roles in student clubs such as the Healthcare Club. I believe that I could leverage some of my contacts in the healthcare industry to help organize a speaker series for this group. I could reach out to Mike Jones , a former president of XYZ Healthcare, to speak about the implications of healthcare reform legislation. I am working closely with Mike to develop a reimbursement management strategy for our clinical lab business.

I would also seek an officer position with the Technology Club. My experience creating web applications including a procurement management app and a pricing calculator for a dental business will make me a valuable addition to that club; I can help students from non?technical backgrounds become conversant in programming concepts.

Finally, I would like to contribute through volunteer activities. I will apply to the Wharton Nonprofit Board Leadership Program, and hope for a board position at a nonprofit focused on child/teen education. I firmly believe in the value of education and this has led me to help educate others. This started in college, where I worked as a calculus teaching assistant and continues today. I currently volunteer, through DEF Scholars, as a mentor helping underprivileged high school seniors apply to college. I also volunteer with XYZ Tutoring, a nonprofit providing free ACT prep to Chicago Public School students. At XYZ, I lead a team of three programmers building a web portal for students to take practice tests.

Wharton brings together students from diverse backgrounds to create a pool of complementary knowledge, talent and connections that all can draw from to accomplish their goals. Everyone must be willing to give into the pool. I value this dynamic and am committed to contributing.

Professionally, I want to further develop skills needed to achieve my career goals. My short term goal is to join a corporate strategy team at a large healthcare company. Subsequently, I would transition into a management role at one of that company’s business units. I would then pursue a CEO position at a mid?size healthcare IT business such as Vitera Solutions. I grew up close to someone with a chronic illness. This situation created turmoil in my family and eventually led to my parents divorce. The condition eluded effective treatment until one doctor found a combination of six drugs that brought the symptoms under control. This experience motivated me to pursue a career in healthcare and particularly healthcare IT, where data mining can be used to identify novel treatment combinations. To reach my career goals, I need to refine my leadership and analytical skills.

Ive demonstrated leadership potential through projects inside and outside of work but need to further develop as a leader to be highly effective in corporate strategy, as a manager, and as a CEO. I would accomplish this at Wharton through coursework and extracurricular activities. Specifically, I would take courses focused on leadership including Executive Leadership and Advanced Persuasion. Outside the classroom, I would take advantage of the Executive Feedback and Coaching Program. I would also participate in the Tall Ship Sailing leadership venture, first as a participant and then, hopefully, as a venture fellow.

At Wharton, I would improve analytically by learning to better apply academic theory to business problems. I studied economics and mathematics at the University of Chicago. Whereas Wharton’s philosophy is Knowledge for Action, the University of Chicago’s could best be described as Knowledge for Theory. This training gap has prevented me from fully utilizing economics/statistics to solve business problems. I would address this at Wharton through collaboration with other students and faculty on research projects. For example, I would apply for a Mack Institute Research Fellowship to explore novel ways to use patient data to improve healthcare outcomes.

Personally, I want to make close friends who share my interest in business. I met most of my close friends in college. Very few went into business. I could build similarly close relationships with other students at Wharton through my core learning group and student clubs. I have been impressed with the professional aptitude and personal qualities of the Wharton alums that I have met in my career and would be excited to build friendships with others like them. As an example, I worked on a project with John Smith (WG 99), an executive at CDE Medical. John is not only one of the smartest guys I have ever met, he is also one of the nicest.

Wharton is the only program that can help me attain my professional and personal goals: developing skills inside and outside the classroom to be an executive of impact, and forming networks and lasting friendships with like?minded individuals.

SBC’s star-studded consultant team is unparalleled. Our clients benefit from current intelligence that we receive from the former MBA Admissions Officers from Wharton, Columbia CBS and every elite business program in the US and Europe.  These MBA Admissions Officers have chosen to work exclusively with SBC.

Just two of the many superstars on the SBC team: Meet Anthony , who served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise.

Meet Erin , who has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Tap into this inside knowledge for your MBA applications by requesting a consultation .

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Is now the best time for your mba.

Time is the wisest counselor of all. – Pericles Once you decide to go to business school, timing becomes a crucial consideration. How do you know whether now is the best time for your MBA? ... →

The ‘Introduce Yourself’ MBA Essay

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With round one MBA deadlines just around the corner, thousands of applicants again face crunch time with one of the favorite admissions essay topics, “Introduce Yourself.” Some of the top schools, like Harvard Business School, ask the question quite explicitly while some, such as Northwestern’s Kellogg School, ask the applicant to think about business school as a catalyst for professional and personal growth, reflecting on past growth and future potential for development. MIT Sloan has introduced a video question, which gives you one minute to introduce yourself, and one shot at the recording. This echoes approaches used previously by Kellogg and McCombs and is joined by NYU Stern asking for six images with captions to describe yourself to your future classmates.

As the former head of admissions at Wharton, I always wanted my team to really get to know the applicant, well beyond his or her GPA and test scores. Such a question achieves this, though not surprisingly, the seeming benign topic is usually the hardest to address. Many candidates shy away from tackling this in favor of more pragmatic questions such as “Why do you want to go to school x, and what do you want to achieve with your MBA?” They are more straightforward and don’t necessarily require the same level of introspection.

In our coaching work at Fortuna Admissions, we often begin with these questions to lay the groundwork for the next level of reflection. But as we move forward with clients we help them to see just how rewarding and enjoyable it is to step back and really think deeply about who they are, and how their values and decisions have shaped their experience.

IT’S DIFFERENT THAN INTRODUCING YOURSELF AT A PARTY

Introducing yourself to someone new at a party or professional meeting certainly requires a different approach from introducing yourself to an MBA admissions committee that has already read your resume, and has supporting documentation of letters of recommendation and your online application.  Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School puts it on very friendly terms, for example, asking you to imagine being in an airport with an admissions officer and using this opportunity to make a memorable impression.

Think of these questions as the opportunity to provide color and context to the application, bringing to life the lines on your resume or adding depth to comments made from your recommenders. You can take these essays as a valuable opportunity to make a deeper connection with an admissions committee member who most likely will be reading anywhere from 25-30 such files each day during the busy application season.

Before you start writing, we firmly believe in the importance of self-reflection and understanding your own motivation for applying to business school. What strengths are you bringing with you? What are the weaknesses that you want to develop? What are the things that get you out of bed in the morning, or the things that you would do for free because you care about them so much? We recommend white boarding all of the topics and messages that you think may fit into this category so that you can see them all in one place. That way, you can then begin to see which ideas belong with which examples, and the themes that are the most important to your story will begin to emerge.

USE EXAMPLES TO BRING YOUR STORY TO LIFE

After you have been able to shake out the important thematic threads, you will want to use examples to really bring your story to life; you want to imagine that the reader is in your back pocket, so that you are sharing with them how it felt at a decisive moment in your development, or the impact of a certain individual… and give them a sense of the color and importance of these events and people. Your goal throughout this work is to pique the file reader’s interest so that they are intrigued and want to learn more about you – i.e. invite you to interview!

Be aware that a key question in the file reader’s mind as they read your application is “ what will you bring to the school community? ” You should be planning to address what the school gets if they admit you; by highlighting your abilities and your engagement, the goal is to demonstrate that you will give to the school as much as you get. Will it be in your classroom discussions? Your sense of humor? How you rally your teammates? How you can engage across cultures? What is it, essentially- that makes you “you” and how does that make the school a better place?

It is easy to fall into the trap of repeating the facts and figures that appear on your resume. You should seek to avoid this repetition and instead really focus on additional information that is not readily obvious to the reader. Your professional experiences are certainly important, but they are not the whole story. Caroline Diarte Edwards, my colleague and former Director of INSEAD’s MBA Admissions and Financial Aid says of the school’s long-standing ‘candid description’ essay: ”I advise candidates to focus more on their personal backstory rather than professional accomplishments; this is in the question title (it asks for “personal characteristics”) but candidates sometimes miss this and use the essay to retell their professional story. But what the school wants here is to understand who they are beyond the resume, what makes them tick, and what made them become the person they are today.”

BE THOUGHTFUL ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU PLAN TO SHARE 

As previously mentioned, admissions officers are reading somewhere between 25-30 applications a day, and are seeking authenticity in their file reading. Repeating themes that you think that the school will want to read means that you are not being authentic to your true self and your own story. This is the reason that schools even have essay questions to begin with; if they wanted to admit based on GMAT, GPA and resume alone, they could certainly do that but the classes would suffer from lack of individualism and true character.

While it is also tempting to hold nothing back, you will want to be thoughtful about how much you are sharing within the context of the essay. Sometimes too many themes mean that you are covering each point at only a superficial level without any depth and reflection. Instead you need to hone in on a few topics that you feel that you can comfortably cover in the word count allotted (or in the case of HBS, no more than two pages) and go into greater depth. You will want to stand out in the admissions officer’s mind as someone who presented with depth and passion, rather than an applicant who spread him or herself too thin and tried to exhaustively (and exhaustingly!) cover their history.

So, “introducing yourself” may seem like a tall order, however it presents a strong foundation to ask yourself the important questions about the next steps in your professional growth. The prompt allows room for reflection about how you became the person you are now, and where you see yourself growing with your next exciting challenges.

Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below.

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Kristen Walsh

By Kristen Walsh

Writing a graduate school or MBA essay for your application can be a big stumbling block for candidates. But if you’re willing to invest some time, identify your goals, reflect on your experiences and follow a few simple directions (the same philosophy that will help you get ahead at work), you’ll be set to write an essay that will help get your foot in the door of your top schools.

“Essays are a major part of the application, and it's the little details that can make the difference between accepting and not accepting someone,” says Gordon Berridge, associate director of graduate admission at Bentley University. “Are they putting in the effort and the energy?” 

Most schools will want to know why you’ve chosen to apply to their program and what you’re hoping to accomplish with your degree. No matter the question, the essay is a “get to know you” for admission officers. It serves as a written first impression. Who are you, and what do they need to know about you? (Learn more about the graduate application process at Bentley).

Sounds easy, right? But many master’s degree and MBA essays don’t always hit the correct note, according to Berridge. There’s a right way to tell your story.

Berridge, who has read thousands of essays during his career in admissions, shares his advice on tackling writer’s block and creating a standout essay:

1. Give Yourself Time

Start thinking about your essay long before you actually have to write it. Most schools require a few different essays, so research the topics/questions ahead of time and start brainstorming.

Keep two running lists:

• One about you: Your passions and accomplishments (leader, team player, values).
• One about the specific school(s) you’re applying to: What are they best known for? What is the culture? What excites you about the school or program?

2. Answer the Question

You may not like the essay question, but you need to answer what’s asked.

“I've had some applicants say, ‘Thank you for this question, but I really feel like this topic is more important instead,’” shares Berridge. “The problem with that is, it’s not what we’re looking for.”  

3. Get Personal

Not knowing what to write is perfectly normal. Berridge says that many prospective students ask him what to write — it’s the most common question he gets.

Keep it simple. Admissions officers want to know who you are .

Use real-life examples of career, educational and personal accomplishments. Don’t worry about the size of the accomplishment; share something that will provide a glimpse into your character and values. How did you tackle a tough situation and what made you successful? Put it in your own words, using specific stories and examples. Follow the common suggestion: Show, don’t tell.

For some inspiration, check out the personal story of Neil Chelo ’93, MSF ’00, who helped bring down Bernie Madoff.

“The best essay is one where I can really get a sense of who you are,” says Berridge. “Talk about why you’re excited to come here — and get me excited too.”  

4. Share Your Achievements

In some cultures it’s considered poor etiquette to boast about yourself. But in these essays, you have to. You can’t be humble.

Don’t overdo it so that you sound like you’re bragging. Talk about the amazing things you’ve done and learned, and tell the university why they should accept you.

5. Know What You Want to Achieve

Where do you want to be in a month? In five years? This could include a combination of career goals and personal objectives. Do you plan on being a working mother running a business from home? Do you aspire to do international work? Are you going for a senior executive position?

“The best essay is one where I can really get a sense of who you are,” says Berridge. “Talk about why you’re excited to come here — and get me excited too.”

This is a great time for self-reflection. Then share it in your MBA essay.

6. Make it a Two-Way Street

How will this school help you achieve your goals, and what will you contribute to the program? Think of it as a job application where you need to demonstrate how your skills will help a company achieve their goals.

Find out how Bentley helped Lindsay Starner MBA '13 attain her goals and become vice president and director of analytics for Hill-Holliday.

7. Add the Extras

Many universities, like Bentley, let you submit an additional optional essay around the idea of “tell us anything else you think we should know.” But, according to Berridge, only about 80 percent of applicants complete that essay. This is another opportunity to tell the admissions department something important about you. Why should they accept you? What do they really need to know? What will help you stand apart from the crowd?

Some of those stories are so memorable that they stick with the committee years later. For example, Berridge remembers a student who wrote about how her grandfather worked hard every day as a bricklayer to provide for his family. When she was selling Girl Scout cookies, he went with her every single step of the way — even after he had worked all night. He guided her and made sure that she had a good work ethic. She talked about how that ethic has always influenced her decisions. 

8. Follow the Required Word Count

If the word count is 500, don’t submit a 2,000-word MBA essay. Question if you really need that much room. It throws a negative light on your written communication skills and ability to follow directions.

On the flip side, if you can answer the question in four sentences, you may need to put a little bit more thought into it. If it’s too short, the admissions committee may not take you seriously.

9. Find Another Set of Eyes

Have somebody (preferably a few people) review your essay and provide honest feedback. Do they feel you answered the question? Do your personality and talents shine through?

10. Check Spelling and Grammar

“The biggest mistake I see people make is the little details,” says Berridge.

Things like making sure the spelling of the admissions officer’s name is correct. (If you’re not sure, he suggests addressing the essay to “Dear Admissions Committee or Dear Sir/Madam.”) Do a spell check and have someone proofread your essay.

11. Get the Name of the School Right

This may seem like a no-brainer, but if you’re applying to multiple schools, be sure to change the name of the college on each essay. If you can’t even take the time to do that, what does it say about your attention to detail? Berridge sees this happen occasionally and it’s a big red flag for the admissions office.

12. Use Simple Formatting

The font should be professional, as opposed to artsy: Times New Roman, Courier New, Helvetica, Arial. (Your portfolio is a platform that allows for more creative formatting, if necessary.)

Yes, the essay is a very important part of your application, but it’s not the only part. Your transcript, interview, recommendation, etc. all impact the committee’s decision. If you’re not a great writer or your English isn’t perfect, you can still get into a graduate or MBA program. 

While Berridge understands that talking about yourself can be unnerving, he says that writing a solid MBA essay circles back to investing time and effort.

“It's a lot of work, but so is grad school,” he says. “And if you're not willing to put that work into your application, what does that tell me about the type of work you're going to put in if you’re accepted? 

“Just tell me what makes you special, what makes you passionate about our program. When I can feel who you are, your essay will stand out.”

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Interview Questions

Comprehensive Interview Guide: 60+ Professions Explored in Detail

8 Examples of How to Answer “Tell Me About Yourself”

By Biron Clark

Published: November 16, 2023

In this article, I’m going to walk you through steps and examples of how to answer the “Tell me about yourself” interview question to impress employers and get more job offers . We’ll also cover the  costly mistakes you NEED to avoid if you want to pass this question. 

Here’s exactly what you’re going to get:

• The most-recommended method of how to answer “tell me about yourself”
• 8 examples of good answers to “tell me about yourself” for various industries
• A shorter, newer method for experienced candidates
• How to practice your answer to make sure you’re 100% ready for the interview

Let’s get started…

Why Do Interviewers Ask “Tell Me About Yourself”

“Can you tell me about yourself ?” is a common interview question that’s generally delivered as an icebreaker or pathfinder question, right at the start of an interview. It can catch you off your guard because it may seem vague, broad, and somewhat tricky. Honestly though, understanding a bit more about why interviewers ask this question (which is often framed as a command) will give you a clear insight into how to answer.

Interviewers ask this question to ease you out of those introductory jitters (that you both feel) and into the nitty-gritty of why you’re there. It’s their way of establishing a direction for the interview because it shows them how you summarize your experience and show its relevance to the job you’re applying for, which in turn tells them what to ask next. Trust me though, your answer needs to be relevant, the interviewer is likely not asking whether you’re a dog or a cat person but rather what background, skills, qualifications and experiences brought you to this interview today. 

Watch: How to Answer “Tell Me About Yourself?”

Different ways of asking the same question.

I mentioned how this question can sometimes be framed as a command, i.e: “tell me about yourself,” and so on. There are numerous ways this question might be framed, but all express the same intention on the part of the interviewer, so they should all be answered the same way. Common variants include:

• “Take me through your resume.”
• “Tell me about your background”
• “Describe yourself.”
•   “Can you tell me more about why you’re here?”
• “What brings you here today?”

When it comes to describing yourself, you may wonder where to start, how personal to be, and how far to get into it. “Describe yourself” certainly feels a little more personal than the rest. For insight into how to answer that variant, Read This Article .

How to Answer “Tell Me About Yourself” in an Interview:

1. choose the right starting point for your story (important).

Your goal when answering, “tell me about yourself,” is to give a brief, concise walkthrough of your career story that will show off relevant pieces of experience. You want to start at a point in the past (like how you began working in this field), and end up in your current situation. So the first thing to decide is where you’ll begin the story… If you’re a recent graduate: Start with the fact that you just graduated, and explain why you chose this career path or field of area of study.  

For example, you might start your answer like this:

“I graduated with my degree in Economics two months ago. I chose that field of study because I’ve always been interested in finance and money, and a couple of family members told me it leads to great career options, too.”

If you have 1-8 years of experience, start with the moment you graduated and walk them through your employment experience since then.

Here’s an example of how you’d start your interview answer in this situation:

“I graduated with my degree in Industrial Engineering six years ago and immediately went to work for a small design firm in Chicago. Since then, I’ve…”

And if you have 8-20+ years of experience, you can start with a mid-point in your career. This will keep your answer from getting too long.

For example, if you’re a manager, you could start with how you first became a manager. If you’ve been working for 25 years but have only been a sales professional for 12 years, you could begin with how you got started in sales.

Here is an example of how to begin your answer to “tell me about yourself” as a very experienced candidate:

“I first started managing people twelve years ago, when I was promoted from Customer Service Associate to Customer Service Supervisor. Since then, I’ve…”

2. Highlight Impressive Experience and Accomplishments

As you tell your career story, explain key accomplishments you’ve achieved, work you’ve done, skills you’ve learned, and key career moves you’ve made.

• Were you promoted? That’s always a great sign and worth mentioning.
• Did you accomplish something significant like solving a big problem for your last employer?  That’s great to mention, too.
• Did you build new skills or overcome challenges? Get specific! Tell details.

But random impressive facts aren’t enough. You should be thinking about how this ties in with the company you’re talking to.

• You should always research the company before going into the interview . Study their job description in particular so you know what skills THEY care most about.
• What does this particular job involve? Is there a lot of leadership? Talk about your experiences leading (no matter how small!), how it went, and what you learned.
• Does the job involve a high level of technical skill? Talk about how you learned and advanced in that area through each step of your career!
• You need to “tailor” your answer for, “tell me about yourself,” for their job description and their needs. Try to talk about experiences and qualifications that are relevant to this job you’ve applied for.

3. Conclude by Explaining Your Current Situation

Finally, the best way to finish your story is to bring them up to speed on your current situation. Why you wanted to apply for their job , what you’re looking to do next, etc.

For example you might end your answer by saying:

“…and that’s why I wanted to interview with your firm. This position seems like a great opportunity to advance those skills I just talked about, and continue building my career and challenging myself”.

4. Keep Your Answer Work-Related

When employers ask, “tell me about yourself,” in an interview, they usually want to hear about you as a professional. So the safest approach is to keep your answer work-related and share your career story, rather than personal details. You can show more personality as the interview goes on, but it’s risky to share too much personal info when answering, “tell me about yourself.” It could lead to your answer getting too long, or it could cause you to leave out important professional information that the interviewer was looking to know!

5. Be Concise When Answering (2 Minutes or Less!)

When they say “tell me about yourself,” it’s going to be tempting to give a long-winded answer. It’s such an open-ended question. And we covered a lot above, but there’s something just as important as any of that. You need to be concise.  Your communication and ability to stay on track with your answer are two things they are watching closely. The interviewer wants to see that you can tell your story from Point A (the beginning) to Point B (the end) without getting sidetracked, distracted, or scattered. Because it tells them how you’ll communicate as an employee… when there’s a problem, when there’s a disagreement, or when you simply need to share your knowledge or opinion. If you take this answer beyond 2 minutes you are shooting yourself in the foot. In fact, below 90 seconds is ideal. Practice at home with a timer! That’s why I recommend choosing a starting point based on your experience (Step 1 above)… because if you have 25 years of experience and you start at the moment you graduated from college, your answer will be too long.

“Tell Me About Yourself” Example Answers:

Now that we’ve covered the key steps to answering, “tell me about yourself,” let’s look at some full answer examples to this interview question .

Example Answer for Experienced Candidates:

“I graduated with a Business degree in 2010, and was offered an account management position at a telecommunications company I had interned with. I loved working with customers and managing and growing my accounts, but the industry we were in just wasn’t very appealing to me. After that, I stayed a full year and learned a ton about how to build and manage accounts successfully and  I ended up becoming a top performer in my group before leaving. I left at the 1-year-mark to pursue a very similar position within an industry I’m much more excited about- healthcare. I’ve been at this healthcare startup space for 2 years with this company and I feel ready to take my career to the next level so that’s why I’m currently looking for a new opportunity.”

That first example showed you how to answer “tell me about yourself” for experienced job seekers (at least a few years of experience). Now let’s look at an example for entry-level job seekers and job seekers with no experience .

Example Answer With No Experience:

“I graduated with a degree in Engineering two months ago. I chose that field of study because I’ve always been interested in math and physics , and a couple of family members told me it leads to great career options. One of my key accomplishments during my academic career was speaking at a conference on the topic of energy-efficient window design, based on research I had done for one of my senior-level classes. This led to an internship that I just wrapped up, so I’m actively looking for a full-time position now.”

Stand Out by “Tailoring” Your Answer to the Company

The end of your interview answer is a big opportunity to customize your answer for the company and job you’re interviewing for. When you talk about what you’re looking to do next in your career, try to mention whatever you see this company providing for your career (leadership, technical challenges, exposure to new areas, etc.) That shows them why you’re excited about their job, which will help you get hired! (I explain more about why this is true here ). Before we move on to more tips and a HUGE mistake to avoid, here’s one more example interview answer for this question.

Shorter Method for How to Answer “Tell Me About Yourself” (For Experienced Candidates Only)

The method I gave you above is the standard way most recruiters recommend answering “tell me about yourself.”  It’s how I coached job seekers to answer this question for years. There’s another way you can answer, though… and it has some benefits. I’ll explain…Many experts have pointed out that if the interviewer wanted your career story, they could have looked at your resume or your LinkedIn , or asked a question like, “can you walk me through your background?” So there’s another approach for answering, “tell me about yourself,” that skips the career story and just cuts right to the chase: Why you’re awesome and why they should hire you !

Let’s look at 2 word-for-word templates that accomplish this.

After this, you’ll have two proven methods for answering, “tell me about yourself” in interviews, and in the next section, I’ll reveal how to decide which method is best for YOU.

Example answer if you’re job searching while employed:

“Well, I’m currently working at XYZ Company and I specialize in doing ___. The reason I applied for this job is I saw ___ on the job description and I think I would be able to help you ___ and ___. One of my key accomplishments in my current role was helping my employer do ___, and I’m confident I can help your team get similar results here.”

Example answer template if unemployed:

“In my most recent position at XYZ Company, I specialized in doing ___. The reason I applied for this job is I saw ___ on the job description and I think I would be able to help you ___ and ___. One of my key accomplishments in my last role for XYZ Company was helping them  ___, and I’m confident I can help your team get similar results here.”

Which Method Should You Use for Your Answer?

If you have work experience, both options we’ve covered are very good, and it really depends on what you feel most comfortable with. Choose the one you like best. They’re both excellent ways to answer the question, so don’t stress over it! However, if you are entry-level and have no work experience… or internships at the very least…  then I would go back to the top of this article and use the first, 5-step method for answering, “tell me about yourself.”

This second method we just covered is really best if you want to give a unique, concise answer and you have some relevant work experience to share in the interview!

“Tell Me About Yourself” Example Answers For Different Industries:

Healthcare:.

“After being licensed six years ago, I immediately entered a busy E.R. setting where I progressed to the point of triaging as many as 50 patients a shift. I’m skilled in patient record-keeping, stabilizing incoming patients, diagnosing injuries, administering meds, doing stitches, starting I.V.s, setting bones and offering emotional support to family members behind the scenes. I’ve adapted to the pressure but feel that, in the long term, I’d be better suited to a slower-paced environment with more focus on establishing lasting patient relationships. I’m ready to take on this post in your busy day clinic and believe that my advanced patient triage skills, along with my empathic nature, would be a great benefit to your team.”

This works because:   This answer outlines your qualifications and extensive background in incoming patient care, triage, diagnosing and record-keeping. Your honesty about long term goals is appreciated. The answer shows how your skills have progressed since you were licensed, and it inspires confidence in your ability to handle a hands-on post at a busy clinic.

Service Industry:

“Having spent eight years in the food and beverage industry, I progressed from head waiter to front of house manager four years ago. I’ve held so many posts in the industry, from runner to waiter to head waiter to manager, but my dedication to quality service has never changed. I believe in knowing my product and process inside and out, uplifting my team members and demonstrating focused positivity throughout. It’s easy to fall into the temper trap when things get busy, but I prefer to knuckle down, smile and get it done. I want my customers to come back for more!”

This works because: This answer makes an impact because of how your personality shines through. The service industry is incredibly stressful, but it’s refreshing to know that you have a proactive, positive attitude to stressful situations, backed up with strong product knowledge and professionalism.

“I’m an accredited software engineer and systems integrator with more than ten years of active development experience. I’m proficient in Ruby, Python, Java, C++ and a wide range of associated languages and frameworks. I’m a team player, and I love bouncing ideas off my colleagues and engaging with diverse perspectives. I like to stay abreast of the latest tech and I’m wildly competitive when it comes to troubleshooting. I’ve also got an eye for detail and clean design and I’m dedicated to delivering a seamless, streamlined experience to the end-user.”

This works because: From this answer, it’s clear that you’re accredited and boast a diversified programming portfolio with plenty of experience in the field. It’s noted that you’re a team player, as teamwork is essential when developing and managing systems for a busy tech enterprise. And your attitude to problem solving, as being competitive will help you find fast and effective solutions.

“I’ve been a retail cosmetic artist and sales assistant for six years and I’m passionate about making clients feel utterly gorgeous! I have a strong knowledge of retail processes, including stock-take, merchandising and sales targeting. If I have to describe my stand-out quality it’s that I love to build up the team, make my colleagues smile and get them motivated to break targets for our department. Above all though, the customer comes first and I’m dedicated to building brand and store loyalty in the customer.”

  This works because: From this answer, it’s obvious you know retail like the back of your hand and that you take pride in breaking targets and boosting the team morale. Your positivity shines through, and you highlight your passion for making clients feel special.

Practice Your Answer Before the Interview

As a final tip – make sure you go practice everything you plan on saying when the interviewer asks, “what can you tell me about yourself?” Nothing comes out perfect the first time, and you don’t want to appear nervous and stumble when they ask.  So I’d recommend grabbing a piece of paper and writing down the key points you want to talk about in your answer. I like to write them in bullet format. Then, use your smartphone’s voice recorder app to record a few practice answers and see how you sound. Don’t look at your notes as you give your answer. The idea is to try to remember what you want to talk about without reading off the paper. Then glance at the paper AFTER to make sure you covered everything. Keep practicing until you can give a smooth answer without forgetting anything important.

Note: If you’re having a phone interview , you can use notes/bullet points to help guide you through your answer. Nobody can see you on the phone, so take advantage!

About the Author

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, tell us about yourself essay examples.

I'm applying to some scholarships, and some of them have a 'tell us about yourself' essay prompt. I'm a little unsure of where to start and how to structure this essay. Can anyone share some examples or tips on how I can write an engaging, effective essay without sounding cliché or braggy?

Sure, I can provide some guidance on structuring a "tell us about yourself" essay and provide tips on making it engaging and effective without sounding cliché or braggy.

1. Start with an attention-grabbing hook: Open your essay with a brief anecdote, piece of dialogue, or thought-provoking statement that reveals something interesting about you.

Example: "As I stood on the roof of my family's house in [hometown], peering through my homemade telescope, I was struck by the vastness of the night sky."

2. Focus on a specific aspect of yourself: Rather than trying to cover every aspect of your life, pick a theme or personal characteristic that plays a major role in your interests, experiences, and goals.

Example: "My curiosity about the universe and the natural world led me to volunteer at a local science center, where I conducted hands-on experiments with visitors of all ages."

3. Provide a brief background: Give some context to the topic you're discussing, such as your upbringing, community, or family background, if it's relevant to the theme.

Example: "Growing up in a small, rural town, I didn't have the same access to resources and educational opportunities as kids in larger cities, but my determination to learn about the world around me never waned."

4. Showcase your growth and accomplishments: Talk about specific experiences, achievements, or events that shaped your development, values, or interests. Be humble but honest about your achievements, and focus on how they've impacted your growth rather than dwelling on the awards themselves.

Example: "Despite the challenges, I pursued my passion for astronomy and managed to secure a coveted summer internship at a renowned observatory, where I worked alongside professionals and contributed to a research project."

5. Connect your past experiences to your future goals: Explain how the things you've learned and accomplished thus far have motivated and prepared you for your future academic and career aspirations.

Example: "My experiences have confirmed my passion for science and astronomy, leading me to pursue a degree in astrophysics and dedicate myself to researching the mysteries of our universe."

6. Close with a memorable statement: Finish your essay by leaving a lasting impression on the reader, perhaps by tying back to your opening hook or sharing an inspiring thought.

Example: "As I continue to explore the cosmos, both academically and personally, I'll never forget those nights spent stargazing in my hometown and the curiosity that propelled me forward."

Remember, a well-rounded and engaging "tell us about yourself" essay will focus on a specific aspect or theme, be genuine and personal, and effectively showcase your growth and future aspirations. Good luck with your scholarship applications!

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

How To Start A College Essay About Yourself

The Silicon Review 17 April, 2024

Writing a college essay about yourself can be an intimidating task. It's your one chance to make an impression on the admissions officers and convince them that you're the right fit for their school. But where do you even begin? Don't worry, we've got you covered. Beginning a college essay about yourself involves capturing your unique voice and experiences in a compelling introduction that hooks the reader's attention, and having someone at Academized to write my essay ensures expert guidance and support to kickstart your narrative with confidence and clarity. In this post, we'll guide you through the process of starting a college essay about yourself, from brainstorming ideas to creating an introduction.

Brainstorming Topics

The first step in starting a college essay about yourself is to brainstorm potential topics. This is where you'll want to think about what makes you unique and what experiences have shaped who you are today. Here are some prompts to get you started:

• A significant challenge you've faced and how you overcame it
• A personal accomplishment you're proud of
• A life-changing event or experience
• Your cultural background and how it has influenced you
• A person who has had a significant impact on your life
• A passion or interest that drives you

As you brainstorm, think about the stories and experiences that best showcase your personality, values, and goals. Remember, the essay is an opportunity to give the admissions officers a glimpse into who you are beyond just your grades and test scores.

Choosing a Compelling Topic

Once you've brainstormed a list of potential topics, it's time to narrow it down to the one that you think will make for the most compelling essay. Here are some things to consider when choosing your topic:

• Significance: Choose a topic that has had a significant impact on your life or has helped shape who you are today.
• Uniqueness: While it's okay to write about a common experience, try to find a unique angle or perspective that sets your essay apart.
• Personal growth: Look for a topic that showcases how you've grown or learned from the experience.
• Passion: Choose a topic that you're passionate about, as this will make your essay more engaging and authentic.

Writing a Strong Introduction

Writing a college essay about yourself requires an engaging opening that showcases your personality and sets the tone for your narrative, and referencing insightful resources like https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/best-essay-writing-services-top-5-paper-websites-mary-walton can provide valuable inspiration and guidance to help you create a memorable introduction with confidence.

With your topic selected, it's time to start writing your essay. The introduction is arguably the most important part, as it sets the tone for the rest of the piece and hooks the reader's attention. Here are some tips for writing a strong introduction:

The Personal Anecdote

One effective way to start your essay is with a personal anecdote or story that relates to your chosen topic. This can be a powerful way to draw the reader in and set the scene for the rest of your essay. For example, if you're writing about a significant challenge you've faced, you could start with a vivid description of the moment when you first realized the challenge ahead of you.

The Thought-provoking Question

Another option is to start with a thought-provoking question that relates to your topic. This can pique the reader's curiosity and get them thinking about the issue or experience you'll be exploring in your essay. For example, if you're writing about a passion or interest that drives you, you could start with a question like, "What is it that makes us passionate about certain things in life?"

The Surprising Statement

You could also grab the reader's attention with a surprising statement or statistic that relates to your topic. This can be a great way to challenge the reader's assumptions and set up the rest of your essay as an exploration of that surprising idea. For example, if you're writing about your cultural background, you could start with a statement like, "While many people assume that culture is something that's passed down from generation to generation, my experience has shown me that it's something that's constantly evolving."

Finding Your Voice

No matter which approach you choose for your introduction, it's important to find your voice and write in a way that feels authentic and true to who you are. Don't try to sound like someone you're not, or use language that feels unnatural or forced. The admissions officers want to get to know the real you, so let your personality shine through in your writing.

Developing the Body

With a strong introduction in place, it's time to move on to the body of your essay. This is where you'll expand on the topic you've chosen and provide the details and examples that support your main idea or argument. Here are some tips for developing a strong body:

Use Vivid Details

To make your essay more engaging and memorable, be sure to use vivid details and descriptions. This could include sensory details (sights, sounds, smells, etc.), dialogue, or specific examples that help illustrate your points.

Show, Don't Tell

Rather than simply telling the reader what happened or what you learned, show them through your writing. Use concrete examples and anecdotes to bring your experiences to life and demonstrate the lessons or insights you've gained.

Structure and Flow

Pay attention to the structure and flow of your essay. Use transitions to smoothly move from one idea to the next, and consider using subheadings or other organizational techniques to help guide the reader through your essay.

Personal Growth and Reflection

Throughout the body of your essay, be sure to emphasize how the experience or topic you're writing about has impacted you personally. Share your thoughts, feelings, and insights, and reflect on how the experience has shaped who you are today or influenced your goals and aspirations for the future.

As you wrap up your essay, it's important to bring your ideas together in a strong conclusion. This is your chance to leave a lasting impression on the reader and reinforce the main themes or lessons you've explored throughout your essay.

Summarize Key Points

In your conclusion, you'll want to briefly summarize the key points or experiences you've discussed in the body of your essay. This helps to reinforce the main ideas and ensures that the reader walks away with a clear understanding of your central message or argument.

Final Thoughts and Insights

Use the conclusion as an opportunity to share any final thoughts or insights you've gained from the experience or topic you've written about. This could include lessons learned, personal growth, or how the experience has influenced your goals or perspectives.

Call to Action

Finally, consider including a call to action or a statement that encourages the reader to think more deeply about the topic or theme you've explored. This could be a question for them to ponder or a challenge to approach a similar situation or experience with a new perspective.

Revising and Editing

Once you've drafted your college essay, it's important to take the time to revise and edit your work. This will help ensure that your essay is polished, well-organized, and free of errors.

Read it Out Loud

One helpful technique is to read your essay out loud. This can help you catch awkward phrasing, run-on sentences, or other issues that you might have missed when reading silently.

Get Feedback

It can also be valuable to have someone else read your essay and provide feedback. This could be a friend, family member, teacher, or even a writing tutor. They may be able to offer fresh perspective and insights that can help you improve your essay.

Check for Clarity and Focus

As you revise, make sure that your essay has a clear focus and that each paragraph and idea contributes to your overall message or argument. Remove any unnecessary or tangential information that doesn't directly support your main point.

Polish Your Writing

Finally, take the time to polish your writing and ensure that your essay is free of grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. These small details can make a big difference in how your essay is perceived by the admissions officers.

Writing a college essay about yourself can be a challenging but rewarding experience. By following the tips and strategies outlined in this post, you'll be well on your way to creating a compelling and authentic essay that showcases who you are and what you have to offer. Remember to take your time, focus on finding your unique voice, and don't be afraid to share your personal experiences and insights. With dedication and effort, you can create an essay that will make a lasting impression on the admissions officers and help you stand out in the competitive college application process.

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