Ah, NYU: the envy of many aspiring business students. Of course, you can’t just get in with good marks and extracurriculars. You’ll also need the essays. In this article, we will show you how to write the NYU Stern MBA essays.
Of course, this is NYU’s Stern MBA program we’re talking about here. So, it’s obviously going to take a good set of essays to get in. That’s why we’ll try to make this guide as thorough and comprehensive as possible.
You can also find the full set of essay questions in the official website here.
As a side note, if you have questions about your essays or just need some help, don’t be afraid to contact us for a free consultation! We will get back to you within 24 hours.
How to Write the NYU Stern MBA Essays
Table of Contents
- NYU Stern MBA Essay Short Answer: Professional Aspirations
- NYU Stern MBA Essay 1: Change: _________ it
- NYU Stern MBA Essay 2: Personal Expression (a.k.a. “Pick Six”)
- NYU Stern MBA Essay 3: Additional Information (optional)
NYU Stern MBA Essay Short Answer: Professional Aspirations
We’ve provided the NYU Stern Short Answer essay question below.
(150 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)
- What are your short-term career goals?
Don’t let this essay question’s short word count fool you. This is not a basic question that can be glossed over. Well, that applies to all of the questions of the NYU Stern Essay section.
This question in particular helps admissions officers measure a few characteristics about you. They will use this to determine your qualification for their program. Here are some things you may want to ask yourself when answering this question.
- How clear is your plan for the next few years?
- Are your short-term career goals related to your future long-term ones?
- Do you have reasonable short-term goals with a detailed plan on how to achieve them?
- What do your goals say about you as a person? Do they reveal character traits or interests?
Here’s an example of an NYU Stern short answer question essay topic. Let’s say you developed a piece of software that helps small businesses. Your long-term goal may be to market this to people and generate a certain amount of annual revenue from it. Thus, your short-term goal may be to do enough on-page SEO work to establish your brand for the first six months prior to Google’s spider crawls.
This example would show the admissions officers at Stern that you already have the technical knowledge to pursue your goals. Thus, you’re not going into an MBA program blind. You’ll also show them that you are someone conscientious and determined enough to have already planned out your future. Someone who plans their goals in detail beforehand has the right mindset and temperament to fit in an MBA program.
NYU Stern MBA Essay 1: Change: _________ it
Okay. NYU Stern’s essay question 1 doesn’t give you many words to work with either. Thus, you’ll still have to stretch yourself thin. That’s okay though! It’s still workable.
Let’s take a look at it.
(350 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)
In today’s global business environment, the only constant is change. Using NYU Stern’s brand call to action, we want to know how you view change. Change: _____ it. Fill in the blank with a word of your choice. Why does this word resonate with you? How will you embrace your own personal tagline while at Stern? Examples:
- Change: Dare it.
- Change: Dream it.
- Change: Drive it.
- Change: Empower it.
- Change: Manifest it.
- Change: [Any word of your choice.]
Remember what we said about the short answer question? For each of the NYU Stern MBA essays, the admissions officers will test your character. Each one measures your fit for the school.
Change is, of course, an inexorable part of the MBA experience. However you manifest it in your life, you want to choose the word that best describes your relationship with change. You also want to choose the word that best encapsulates you as a person.
Then, you’ve got the other two questions:
- Why does this word resonate with you?
- How will you embrace your own personal tagline while at Stern?
When answering why that word resonates with you, you want an explanation that connects your relationship to change with a positive part of your being. Let’s say that you used to be rather reserved. You may have always succeeded by the following tradition, and never going against the rules. However, when you started your own non-profit initiative during school, you found you could not be so cookie-cutter with all your solutions. Thus, the word you choose may be “accept”, because it highlights your growth and improvement in accepting change over time.
The second question is also rather straightforward. You need to show how your philosophy of change will translate to what you do in school. It’s important to have this well fleshed out. If you provide generic surface-level answers here, it will be hard for admissions officers to take your dedication to an MBA program at NYU Stern seriously.
If you are specific with how you will incorporate your tagline on change while at Stern, then admissions officers can trust your dedication. Make sure to get specific, and connect it with the short-term project that you mentioned earlier to truly drive the point home.
NYU Stern MBA Essay 2: Personal Expression (a.k.a. “Pick Six”)
The NYU Stern essay prompt 2 can be quite confusing. This is one of its more unconventional essay prompts, so it’s understandable to look at this with suspicion.
You may be thinking this: “Just six images with a few statements? That sounds too easy to be true!”
Well, you wouldn’t be wrong. Let’s take a look at it below.
Describe yourself to the Admissions Committee and to your future classmates using six images and corresponding captions. Your uploaded PDF should contain all of the following elements:
- A brief introduction or overview of your “Pick Six” (no more than 3 sentences).
- Six images that help illustrate who you are.
- A one-sentence caption for each of the six images that helps explain why they were selected and are significant to you.
Note: Your visuals may include photos, infographics, drawings, or any other images that best describe you. Your document must be uploaded as a single PDF. The essay cannot be sent in physical form or be linked to a website.
NYU Stern’s essay prompt 2 is a more creative way for the admissions officers to assess you. The use of images and captions help them understand more about you as a person.
In other words, you should try to encapsulate the positive characteristics about yourself in images for NYU’s essay prompt 2.
Okay, so here’s how things can get a bit difficult: how do you know your photo is better than what other people have?
Sure, this is a time for you to express yourself. However, the NYU Stern MBA admissions process is a competition for the best spot at the end of the day. The admissions officers will use your images to determine whether you are a better fit for their school than the rest.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when answering the second prompt.
- Did the photos or images I provide acurately describe the content of my caption?
- Do I have a few photos that aren’t lazy stock photos from online? (Example: in person photos or photos you’ve had to dig up from the past.)
- Do some photos show me as a real person, and not just an academic? (Examples: hobbies and interests outside of work)
- Do some photos demonstrate my moral comapss or philosophy? (Examples: Photos of you working in a non-profit or attending a protest?)
- Do some photos highlight the good characteristics you have? (Examples: the grit you muster when you first started a business, or your empathy for those who have less than you.)
- Are my photos generic?
- Do all my photos combine together to create a congruent personality, and not just a random assortment of things? (Example: photos of your trip to India, your non-profit work, you family, and your neat home office show that you’re a conscientious yet empathetic person. Photos of video games, tennis, coffee, and family don’t exactly come together to show one whole personality.)
Take careful consideration for the 7th point. You don’t want to just throw out all your interests without considering how they come together to show who you are as a whole. The NYU Stern MBA essays are a conglomerate of different tests, all measuring your fit for the school. However, this question in particular will truly measure your creative skills in standing out amongst the rest.
We actually recommend having at least one admissions expert take a look at your set of photos. Schedule a free phone call with us! Our admissions experts will get back to you within 24 hours with a comprehensive review!
NYU Stern MBA Essay 3: Additional Information (optional)
NYU Stern’s MBA essay prompt 3 is “optional”, but it really isn’t. If you want to get accepted into one of the best MBA programs available, you can’t settle for less. So, let’s take a look at the essay prompt below.
(250 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)
Please provide any additional information that you would like to bring to the attention of the Admissions Committee. This may include current or past gaps in employment, further explanation of your undergraduate record or self-reported academic transcript(s), plans to retake the GMAT, GRE, Executive Assessment, IELTS or TOEFL, or any other relevant information.
This is a very useful part of the application. More often than not, applicants to NYU’s Stern MBA program will have at least one or two disadvantages in their application. This can be everything from a lower GPA, lower test scores in the GRE, etc.
Not everyone has a good explanation for their deficiencies. Some people scored low on the GRE test because they were just too lazy to study. Others may have earned a low GPA because they didn’t have the right study skills. There are even some who just needed to take a gap year from school because of the stress!
Regardless of the deficiency in your application, your job is to have a good justification for it without giving the admissions officers a bad impression. If you say you struggled with the GRE test and failed a few courses in your undergraduate program because you couldn’t handle the world of academia, then an MBA program may not be for you. Remember: describe any additional info in your application in a manner that justifies deficiency, and don’t put yourself in a bad light.
If you are struggling with the NYU Stern MBA essays and don’t know how to stand out amongst the rest, you should consider speaking with us. Schedule a free consultation with our admissions experts, and we will get back to you in 24 hours. Our admissions essay advising will help direct you to the best path possible.
