Tuck MBA Essays Analysis 2010-2011

Jul 21, 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.

Dartmouth-Tuck essay questions 2010-2011

Q1 Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA program for you? (500 words)

Why is an MBA important to you at this stage – how will it add value to your professional experience and assist you in following the career direction you have chosen for yourself? In the short run, how will the MBA lead you to fulfil your career goals – here you need to be specific on your immediate post MBA career plan. And in the long term, what direction do you seek for your career, for which the MBA will be useful? On the Tuck MBA itself, Tuck is the only Ivy League school to offer only a full time MBA program, with a small class size and an emphasis on general management and a strong team based approach to learning. How do these factors make it the best choice for you?

Q2 Discuss your most meaningful leadership experience. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience? (500 words)

The MBA program is based on the premise that everyone can learn leadership and particularly through real leadership experiences. Therefore, describe a time where you were either a formal/informal leader – what was your and your team’s deliverable. Mention briefly your role vis-a-vis the team’s e.g. you were leading a sales team in a new territory -how you extensively worked in the market with them, trained them on selling techniques etc. Why was the experience meaningful-e.g. team members gave you a resoundingly positive feedback making the experience very satisfying etc. In the course of leading, what did you right, which you found to be your leadership strengths, and what could you have done better, which were your weaknesses as a leader?

Q3 What is the greatest challenge or hurdle you have overcome, either personally or professionally, and how did you manage to do so? (500 words)

The Adcom will evaluate you for both the challenging incident you choose, and on your description of how you overcame the hurdle. Therefore select a situation which hasnt been written about in any other essay – explain how different factors combined to make the situation very challenging and why this was the greatest challenge ever e.g were you thrown into a new team/business without any training and expected to deliver a critical project etc. How did you respond to the challenge – outline the action steps you took and your mental response, such as drawing on past stressful situations to find your reserves of strength to handle this one.

Q4 Tuck seeks candidates of various backgrounds who can bring new perspectives to our community. How will your unique personal history, values, and/or life experiences contribute to the culture at Tuck? (500 words)

This essay gives you the opportunity to showcase your unique experiences and attributes, going beyond the professional and academic realms. So, without making this read like a mini-biography, pick up some important ‘life’ experiences -which have perhaps significantly affected your development and shaped your personality e.g having seen your dad, establish a business from scratch, you have a personal view on entrepreneurship and practical experience of having assisted him. Remember to connect the experiences/values you talk about to how they will help you contribute at Tuck – e.g. through participation in particular student clubs, classroom courses etc

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