The Cambridge Judge MBA program is a one-year program with a small class of around 200 students from 40+ countries. The Judge MBA is a very experiential program, with three required team projects engaging students with external companies or organizations.
Judge is seeking applicants with proven academic abilities, ambition, the ability to thrive under pressure, international experience, and strong interpersonal skills. So use your essays to demonstrate that you have these qualities, but keep in mind that Judge is one of the few programs that is extremely strict about its word limits: not one additional word can be entered into the essay spaces beyond their word limits.
Here are Judge’s questions, with my tips in blue below.
Cambridge Judge MBA application essays
Cambridge Judge MBA essay #1
Please provide a personal statement. It should not exceed 500 words and must address the following questions:
- What are your short and long term career objectives and what skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you achieve them?
- What actions will you take before and during the MBA to contribute to your career outcome?
- If you are unsure of your post-MBA career path, how will the MBA equip you for the future?
This is a straightforward goals essay. Strong essays will demonstrate clear goals, insight into what skills you need to gain to succeed in those roles, and an understanding of the Judge curriculum and other campus activities that will help you acquire those skills.
I personally love the phrasing of this question because for some applicants this is the first notification that they need to take an active role in their post-MBA job search. The admissions office cannot accept students who expect the school’s name and career services office to open every door for them, so applicants need to demonstrate in this essay that they are comfortable with that reality.
Cambridge Judge MBA essay #2
What did you learn from your most spectacular failure? (up to 200 words)
To fail spectacularly, you must take ambitious risks. This is a very concise space to demonstrate that you acknowledge and learn from your mistakes. I’ve seen first drafts where applicants wrote about failures that were completely out of their control or essentially blamed other people for the failure. These approaches do not make good failure essay topics since they do not demonstrate your maturity or your openness to learning. Choose an example in which you could have done better, you figured out how you could have succeeded and then show that you’ve internalized that lesson.
Cambridge Judge MBA essay #3
Describe a situation where you had to work jointly with others to achieve a common goal. What did you learn from the experience? (up to 200 words)
This is your opportunity to demonstrate your interpersonal skills, and possibly your international team leadership and ability to thrive under pressure. For this essay, show the challenges of both the project and the personalities and how you leveraged the latter to address the former.
Cambridge Judge MBA essay #4 (optional)
Please provide information on any aspect of your candidacy that requires further explanation, or information that you would like the Admissions Committee to know. (300 word limit)
I personally always recommend taking advantage of optional essay space when offered it. This would be a great opportunity to share more about your international experiences, your interpersonal skills, or your activities outside of work.
One additional area to expand beyond the tight word limits of Judge’s essay questions is within the job description boxes in the application form: Judge allows 550 words to describe your responsibilities, most significant challenge and accomplishment in your current company, so you can share details that provide richer perspective on these topic, including how you applied your business and interpersonal skills to succeed, in those parts of the application..
For expert guidance with your Cambridge Judge MBA application, check out Accepted’s MBA Application Packages, which include comprehensive guidance from an experienced admissions consultant. We’ve helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to top MBA programs and look forward to helping you too!
Cambridge Judge 2019-20 remaining application deadlines
| Round 3 | January 13, 2020* |
| Round 4 | March 9, 2020* |
| Round 5 | May 4, 2020* |
* Applications must be received before 23:59 GMT.
***Disclaimer: Information is subject to change. Please check with individual programs to verify the essay questions, instructions and deadlines.***
By Jennifer Bloom, admissions consultant at Accepted for 20 years and Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW). She is an expert at guiding you to produce application materials that truly differentiate you from the rest of the driven applicant pool. If you would like help with your application, Jennifer can suggest a number of options that work with any budget. Want Jennifer to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!
Related Resources:
• Why MBA, a free guide to show you how to determine your MBA goals and weave them into compelling essays
• How Do You Deal with Criticism? MBA Admissions Committees Want to Know
• 4 Ways to Display Teamwork in Application Essays
