Michigan-Ross MBA Essays Analysis 2010-2011

Jul 09, 2010

Categories: MBA Essay Writing Tips 2010-2011

Job responsibilities

Please give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities; and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved. (250 words)

A) This question asks for numbers and data so be as specific as possible. Take an overall view of your job avoiding the details about individual projects. Write about broad skills or functional competencies that you have developed, e.g. planning and budgeting skills, and then justify this with relevant data/ numbers. To respond to the part on employees under your supervision, don’t just mention a certain number but also add in what capacity you supervised them, bringing out the extent of managerial responsibility you held.

Q6 Career description

Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)

A) Share your unique growth story. If you have been through several role changes and level changes, you can showcase your accomplishments and hence growth. Without repeating the job responsibilities, talk about how you have been vested with increasing levels of responsibility or how have you broadened your exposure to different areas/industries through your role changes. As far as your next position with your employer goes, you can sneak in a bit about your special accomplishments that propel you towards the next level of responsibility/seniority. You can also touch upon what opportunities you will forego in order to pursue an MBA at INSEAD.

Q7 Description of yourself

Give a candid description of yourself, stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors, which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary. (400 words)

A) This seems like the easiest question, because it talks about the person most familiar to yourself – you. However, resist the temptation to make it a set of adjectives for a matrimonial posting. Rather, dig into your experiences and find qualities which will help you stand out at INSEAD ? like show your academic promise or leadership potential. Do not be shy while talking about your weakness/es ? this shows your self-awareness and maturity. Be honest and select weaknesses which are mild and workable. Divide your write-up among 2-3 strengths and 1-2 weaknesses, giving example of each.

Q8 Most substantial accomplishments

Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words)

A) A good approach is to select two accomplishments from two different realms – one professional and another to do with a hobby/ an academic achievement. Why these achievements were substantial – because of the results you achieved or the exceptional effort you put in or the challenges you overcame to succeed? Paint a broad picture of the landscape against which you achieved the results, such as the extent of competition, the scarce resources that you had to work with or the punishing deadline you met. At INSEAD, show strengths like ability to contribute to the class, cultural acclimatization, maturity and leadership.

Q9 Personal objectives

Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words)

A) Can you analyze a situation where you failed and draw lessons from it?

It is important that you cite the objectives, your role, failure statement, analysis of what went wrong and your learning. Therefore, the failure itself is not as important as how you viewed it, how you introspected and improved for similar future assignments. Thus, devote good words to explain how you were affected by the failure and what did you learnt from the whole incident.

Q10 Career goals

Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career. (500 words)

A) Get to the goals straight and do not talk about career summary or progression.

Think hard about the career choice you wish to make post MBA. Again, it is not so important that you have the next twenty years of your career path neatly charted out but it is important that you understand your personal aspirations and the impact of an MBA, an INSEAD MBA on your future.

Get to learn more about academics, experiences and opportunities at INSEAD (read http://mba.insead.edu/academics/ and http://knowledge.insead.edu/home.cfm) and attend information sessions, meet current students or alums, research INSEAD?s online resources and visit the campus, if possible.

Q11 Culture shock

Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words)

A) The intention here is to find out if an applicant can acclimatize in an alien environment.

INSEAD is acclaimed for diversified cultural interactions and it is very important for a new student to feel comfortable. Talk about incident/s when you experienced a new culture, found something out of your perceived notions and were in for a shock! Now, talk about how you coped with the frustrations, adjusted to the surroundings and came out as a winner. This experience could make you learn something about yourself, help you look at things from a different perspective, give you a new professional direction or gradually appreciate the goodness in that new setting.

Q12 Foreigner

What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words)

A) Are you knowledgeable about your country and can you help others to enjoy their stay? Keep the tone of this answer even and balanced. You neither have to sing paeans in praise of your country or its culture, and nor should your answer read like a list of do’s and don?ts for a foreign immigrant. The question has to be answered more in abstract and general terms and you should not unnecessarily get into factual details about your country. Informative advice can be the main theme. For example you can write about common social and cultural etiquette followed in your country that can help an immigrant acculturate himself in dealing with your country’s people. You could also point out some interesting pursuits or activities or suggest groups which he could associate himself with in order to learn more about and establish a social network in your country.

Michigan Ross essay questions 2010-2011
1. Introduce yourself in 100 words or less. (100 words)

Absolutely desist from bio data facts like what you studied and what your current work role is! This is a place to get creative and highlight lesser known aspects of yourself – maybe you speak 4-5 different languages, or you started your first venture at high school! What do these reveal about you -that you are very adaptable, you have an entrepreneurial streak etc. This question is also ideal to talk about what values or personal goals are meaningful to you and why – e.g. coming from a family of researchers, innovation and creativity are important to you etc.

2. Describe your career goals. How will the Ross MBA help you to achieve your goals? (500 words)

Ross’ outstanding feature is the Multidisciplinary Action Program (MAP) which emphasizes action based learning ie. you learn by being part of a team that works with a real company on a real business issue. Therefore address how you will stand to gain from such a curriculum design e.g. you may have limited exposure to international businesses through your current work ex and so such a program will add much value to you. They also have highly specialized tracks such as Social Enterprise etc- so research these well and mention appropriate courses/electives you want to take and your reasons for the same. Include also how your work experience until now has influenced your career goals and what general direction you will pursue in your career post MBA.

3. Describe a time in your career when you were frustrated or disappointed. What did you learn from that experience? (500 words)

You need to come across as a ‘real person’ – one who gets disappointed when results are not as per expectations and yet has the maturity and resilience to handle such disappointment and bounce back. Describe the situation briefly – what went wrong and why you think you did not get desired results. Was it your responsibility alone or were there others involved too such as a team? In that case what did you feel? Finally, what did you learn about how to deal with such frustration at a personal level?

4. Option1:What are you most passionate about and why? (300 words)

As in essay 1, help the reader know you as a ‘person’ with varied likes and interests – so dont make it drab by restating your professional interests. Your passion could be a hobby such as a sport or even a cause or value you champion. However, try not to sound like Ms. Universe if you are talking about a social cause. Remember to answer ‘why’ you are passionate – this could be certain experiences which have made you feel very strongly about the issue/activity or simply the positive things you feel/experience which make you want to pursue this passion.

4. Option2:We expect that Ross MBAs will not only be effective leaders, but also effective teachers. How will you contribute to the learning experience of your peers at Ross? (300 words)

Have you had interesting experiences from which you can share your learnings and insights -these could be professional assignments or extra-curricular involvements. What did you learn and how can this learning benefit others -e.g. from leading a sports team what have you learnt about leadership which you can apply and share with your peers. An important pointer – don’t overdo the ‘teach about my culture’ bit in this answer or try to fit in too many learnings.

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