Northwestern (Kellogg) Essay Analysis 2011-2012
Essay #1
a) MBA Program applicants - Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing an MBA. (600 word limit)
b) MMM Program applicants – Briefly assess your career progress to date. How do the unique characteristics of the MMM Program meet your educational needs and career goals? (600 word limit).
The key word in this question is one that many applicants miss: “assess”. Please don’t make the mistake of thinking this is a standard career goals essay. Kellogg would like for you to provide a self-evaluation of your experience in light of your future career plans. Instead of simply recounting your past career moves and accomplishments, explain how each of these led you to your present position of needing a MBA to reach your short-term and long-term career goals.
The question does not specifically ask “why Kellogg”, so applicants do not have to answer this here. There is plenty of opportunity to do this in the other essays. However, many applicants are able to weave in motivation for Kellogg within the word limit and without being redundant in other essays. On the other hand, specificity to the MMM program for MMM applicants is critical. The uniqueness of the MMM has to fit with the uniqueness of your career goals.
Essay #2
Describe your key leadership experiences and evaluate what leadership areas you hope to develop through your MBA experiences (600 word limit).
600 words will give you enough room to share two to three past leadership experiences, and allow you to show balanced leadership between professional and extracurricular. It is important to know that extracurricular activities are very important to Kellogg, as everything is student led there. Your past successes in leadership in these areas are a good indication of how you will contribute at Kellogg. Similarly, you need to include specific activities that will help you develop leadership. Be humble and specific. Do some homework to determine which Kellogg activities and roles will help strengthen the leadership traits you highlighted from your past.
Essay #3
Assume you are evaluating your application from the perspective of a student member of the Kellogg Admissions Committee. Why would you and your peers select you for admission, and what impact would you make as a member of the Kellogg community? (600 word limit)
This essay can be written in either the 1st or 3rd person, and past clients have had equal success with each. This essay is a great question for Kellogg, as it reflects the collegial culture of the school. Applicants should brainstorm their essays with this culture in mind. Use this essay to stress your characteristics that peers would appreciate: teamwork, ability to pull one’s own weight, student involvement, etc. Additionally, peers want people who are interesting and will share unique perspectives in the classroom. So if you have distinctive experiences, such as being a Petroleum engineer during the recent environmental spills, then bring this up.
Essay #4
Complete one of the following three questions or statements. (400 word limit)
Re-applicants have the option to answer a question from this grouping, but this is not required.
a) Describe a time you had to inspire a reluctant individual or group.
The new word “inspire” in this year’s essay question opens up the possibilities for this topic, as applicants can now provide more indirect “leading by example” experiences or chose the traditional direct motivation. However, the key to this essay hasn’t changed. You need to briefly describe what you did, but you need to concentrate the essay on how you did it. A good essay will show a sharp contrast between the actions of the individual or group before your influence and afterwards. The truly memorable ones will make the reader feel like they were taken through a mini-battle.
b) People may be surprised to learn that I…..
This essay provides candidates a good opportunity to demonstrate qualities not expressed elsewhere in the application. This can help show your personality through your traits or hobbies, which is very important for Kellogg. However, this essay should only be selected if your surprising quality is interesting and somewhat distinguishing. Otherwise it will have the opposite effect of balancing your application. The key question to ask is: “will this (activity) surprise the reader”? If it will, and it demonstrates a good trait or hobby, then you will have a very good essay topic.
c) The riskiest personal or professional decision I ever made was…..
It is important to choose a topic that the admissions committee will truly find “risky”. Applicants often provide anecdotes that are interesting but really do not show a downside consequence of the decision. The essay should focus on the process you used to evaluate both the risk and opportunities, and also describe what you learned from the results. Keep in mind, that the results can be either a success or a failure. The learning you receive from this decision can be in the form of either a greater self-awareness or as a specific “lesson learned”.
