Kellogg Business School Essays
1) Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing a graduate degree at Kellogg. (600 word limit)
2) Describe your key leadership experiences and evaluate what leadership areas you hope to develop through your MBA experience. (600 word limit)
3) Assume you are evaluating your application from the perspective of a student member of the Kellogg Admissions Committee. Why would your peers select you to become a member of the Kellogg community? (600 word limit)
Choose one of the following three essays…(400 word limit)
4) Applicants must answer one of the below essays. (Re-applicants must answer question 4D). (400 word limit)
4A) - Describe a time when you had to make an unpopular decision.
4B) - People may be surprised to learn that I….
4C) - I wish the Admissions Committee had asked me…..
4D) – Required essay for re-applicants only: Since your previous application, what are the steps you’ve taken to strengthen your candidacy? (400 word limit)
Tips
- This is akin to connecting your past, present and future and also showing how and MBA from Kellogg will help in your goals and aspirations. While answering the first part of the essay, you need to show what you have done in your work life, how have you moved across roles and organizations. You should also talk about any noticeable moves in your work life. Please note that this essay asks you to ‘assess’ your progress. Hence you may bring a slight angle of critique or highlight any interesting incidents.
For answer to part 2, treat this like a career goals question. Describe your short term as well as long term goals. Also state why you have chosen these goals (Eg – you may relate to Consulting as a person: because you seek variety, new challenges, like to travel, interact with people etc). Try to be specific in defining the goals (which industry and/or domain do you wish to work in).
The most important part that Kellogg will look for is “How will Kellogg help you achieve what you want”. Do your homework on specific activities, clubs, communities, curriculum and other opportunities that Kellogg MBA would provide you and subsequently show a linkage between these points and your goals.
- Here you need to narrate a few (2-3) leadership experiences. While choosing the experiences, remember that impact/ magnitude is not the only parameter. Experiences which indicate your leadership style are also very important. You should select 1-2 experiences from work life and remaining from personal or community life. A good leadership experience is also one which gives you learning and enhances you capabilities as a leader.
For the second part, you should demonstrate your homework and understanding of Kellogg. Be clear on what qualities you need to develop further (they need not necessarily be absent in you). Highlight specific resources, activities etc at Kellogg will help you develop them (Eg – diverse international community at Kellogg/ some exchange programs will help you enhance your ability to work across varied cultures).
- This essay is all about what makes you stand out in the crowd. What this essay seeks to assess is the amount and type of contribution you will make to the community at Kellogg.
You should think about your unique skills/ qualities both in depth and breadth. This means that you should choose a good mix of qualities across personal, professional and social domains (Eg- your ability to build a team, ability to take initiative, unique domain of work experience, entrepreneurship etc). It is advised that you talk to peers, friends and seniors and ask them what genuinely sets you apart. It will also be good to substantiate whatever you write with suitable examples.
Remember that Kellogg puts a lot of weight on leadership and team work capabilities. It is very important to show the impact, of the qualities that you have mentioned, on the Kellogg community (you may mention some specific impact points from admissions committee perspective). You must do some research on Kellogg – its community, culture, academics, student profiles, faculty etc. This essay must bring out the difference that you can make in lives of peers at Kellogg. To get a better idea about this, you may try to get in touch with a few students at Kellogg.
4A)
Decision making ability is a strong leadership trait that this essay focuses upon. This is important, given the fact that Kellogg focuses a lot on demonstrated leadership skills. Choose an incident which can bring out your ability, to balance perspectives and take a rational decision in touch situation, in full color. Since this essay limits you to 400 words, you should be very crisp in presenting the situation, your actions and the impact. You can make this interesting by stating what you did differently to arrive at your decision. The approach that you followed, character strength and motivation behind the decision will be key points here.
4B)
This essay could again be taken as a good opportunity to highlight something which is so far not covered. You may think of an activity, interest area, trait which directly/ indirectly brings out leadership, team work, your concern for community etc.
For example, you may say that you like watching plays on a regular basis. These plays may be on a particular theme.
Please make sure that you also highlight your motivation behind whatever activity you describe.
4C)
This is something similar to 4B) and presents a good platform to talk about something interesting about you. Bring out a genuine strength/ trait that you have which is not covered in essays so far. You may also represent your personality through certain keywords.. (EG – I am a person with strong sense of observation which is manifested through my poetry, interaction with people etc).
Here you should try to show a different color/ facet of your life. Talk about what you love, what you are passionate about – this could range from movies to cooking or anything else under the roof. What matters is how have you gone out of your way to follow your heart.
4D) REAPPLICANT ESSAY
Re-applicants need to be very clear (either on basis of feedback from the school or self evaluation or benchmarking with profiles at Kellogg) on areas lacking in their previous application. Any interaction with Kellogg in this regard would show your seriousness towards Kellogg. You need to talk about specific steps that you have taken to address those areas. You should also mention other areas where you have improved/performed well. This could be in work-life (appraisals, appreciations, awards, some unique assignments etc) or in community domain (initiative to run some events/ campaigns, voluntary work, appreciations for such work etc)
What matters most is your fighting spirit, your motivation and drive to add value to yourself and to people around you.
