Sample
MBA Admissions Essays - Accepted by Stern and NYU (Courtesy
of EssayEdge)
1. Think
about the decisions you have made in your life. Describe the
following:
PAST: What choices have you made that led you to your current
position?
PRESENT: Why is a Stern MBA necessary at this point in your
life?
FUTURE: What is your desired position upon graduation from
the Stern School?
I like
options, I like security, and I like power. With these wants,
I knew at a very early age that I would enter business and
thus I attended a college that specializes in the subject.
In my first position out of school, I was hired by Dunhill
Equities as a cold-caller. After several weeks of being
hung up on by angry prospects, I decided that this career
path would not lead me to success. I then moved within the
firm to a position as sales assistant. While this was by
no means my dream job, I learned a tremendous amount about
business, and I gained useful exposure to the world of finance.
Unfortunately, the company hit a period of instability,
and after ten months I transferred with my boss to Coleman
& Company. Thirteen months later, that company also
began to fail, and I began to search for another path to
advancement. With two strikes against me, I hit a home run
and was hired by Sanford Bernstein into a challenging job
with limitless opportunity for growth.
After
almost three years at Bernstein, I am once again seeking
career advancement. My education and work experience have
provided me with an excellent introduction to business,
and they have sparked my interest in finance. Taking into
consideration my foundation and my interests, graduate business
school is the next logical step. At this point in my life,
I consider a Stern MBA to be necessary since I need to gain
a broader understanding of finance and to sharpen my analytical
skills in order to be successful in corporate finance. Stern’s
MBA program will allow me to concentrate in finance, strengthen
my global business perspective, and provide me with the
opportunity to study with and learn from people with varied
backgrounds. The school’s location in the financial capital
of the world and in one of the most diverse cities in the
world also suits me perfectly.
Aside
from advancing my career, I would also like to develop personally.
In college I did not join many clubs or organizations, and
I did not participate in sports. Instead, I spent all my
time studying, working, or dealing with family issues. Having
been away from home and living in New York City for four
years, I feel the need to make a name for myself and to
develop a meaningful social life. I want to take advantage
of the many benefits that extracurricular activities offer,
and I want to be involved in the Stern community.
Upon
graduation from the Stern School, I will seek a position
as an associate within the corporate finance department
of a large, Wall Street, investment-banking firm. In three
to five years, once I have become adept in financial analyses,
drafting prospectuses, preparing business presentations
and other financial advisory work, I will move into a senior
associate position. Here I will develop my abilities to
anticipate client needs and to engineer solutions that address
these needs. In approximately 10 years, I will have the
experience necessary to take on upper-level management responsibilities.
3.
Describe
yourself to your MBA classmates. (You may use any method
to convey your message: words, illustrations, etc.)
I grew
up in a small fishing village in Maine, surrounded by family.
Expectations and aspirations are limited in such an environment.
I could have made a living exploiting the sea, but chose
to do similar work as a corporate executive. Although I
have no siblings, my hometown contains over fifty family
members, and our agenda of family activities is always packed.
Most of my family is employed in the commercial fishing
industry, which instilled in me at a very young age, the
concept of work. At age eleven, I started babysitting and
mowing lawns, and at the age of fifteen I applied for my
lobster license. The first summer with my license, I took
a job as a sternperson with a fellow female. We were the
only two females out there, which was definitely an experience.
When the lobstering season ended that year, I took a job
at a grocery store bagging groceries. I saved enough money
to build a boat and to buy fifty lobster traps; I was on
my way. The following summer I continued to work as a sternperson,
and I also fished my own traps. I continued lobstering throughout
the rest of high school and college, and it helped me finance
my college education.
In addition
to being ambitious and motivated enough to put my heart
into even mundane, low-level tasks, I am also extremely
organized. This is one characteristic that has always received
praise. I pay particular attention to detail, which I believe
has contributed to my success thus far. I take pride in
my work, and I look at it as a representation of myself.
In my position at Sanford Bernstein as a Consultant Liaison,
I market my firm to the financial consulting community.
Maintaining the integrity of the firm is vital and errors
are disastrous. When training new group members, I stress
this point most thoroughly.
I work
in a group that currently has six members. The group serves
as a central source of information for the firm, and its
success relies on an extraordinary amount of cooperation
from each of us. As a senior member, I am able to contribute
to the group in several ways including: training group members,
controlling the quality of the group’s output, managing
and accurately completing multiple requests with short turnaround
times, gathering and conveying information from senior investment
professionals, collecting and calculating data, maintaining
databases, overseeing projects aimed at making long-term
improvements to the group’s processes, and strengthening
my own foundation of knowledge to be used as a resource.
Recently, as the result of a manager leaving the firm, I
have also taken on some of the managerial responsibilities
for the group including prioritizing and delegating assignments.
Though
I am an excellent team player, in business school I would
like to sharpen my managerial skills. I have found that
I need to overcompensate for my “soft” appearance in order
to get my point across. I hope to improve my negotiating
skills and to gain more experience in getting group members
to carry their own weight. At the same time, I do not want
to become a tyrant. To be effective, it is important for
a manager to maintain the proper balance of power and compassion.
Only in this way, will I be able to lead a team of people
to realizing the goals of a firm.
4.
(Optional)
Please provide any additional information that you would
like to bring to the attention of the Admission Committee.
If you are unable to submit a recommendation from a current
employer, please give your reason here.
To satisfy
my desire for success, I must continue my education. Of
the six business schools to which I am applying, the Stern
School is my first choice. I am very excited about entering
an MBA program that will allow me to focus on my interest
in finance as well as provide me with the career possibilities
and exposure to resources, such as networks and learning
tools, which I do not currently have. At Stern, I know that
my investment of time, energy, and money will be well rewarded.
At this point in my life, I believe I have great potential
to gain much from a business degree since I have been exposed
to the business environment for the past eight and a half
years. I now posses a strong foundation to build upon, and
I am ready to assume the rigors and challenges of the Stern
School’s MBA program.
In addition
to its academic program, the Stern community is itself very
appealing. The three undergraduate schools that I applied
to were Babson, Bentley and Bryant. Babson College became
my first choice as soon as I visited its quaint campus and
fell in love with the friendly atmosphere and cultural diversity.
From someone coming from a small fishing village in Maine,
it was refreshing to be surrounded by family. Living in
New York City has broadened my exposure to include a fast-paced,
career-minded atmosphere. The combination of these characteristics
at the Stern School will provide me with an excellent learning
environment, and I hope to attend Stern for many of the
same reasons I selected Babson.
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