Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines [2025-2026], Class Profile
Intellectual curiosity, an ability to work well with others, and a willingness to use one’s education for the benefit of the community are essential elements of the Duke Fuqua MBA, which is why you’ll need to express your passion for these qualities in your application essays. Impress the Fuqua adcom by positioning yourself as an innovative leader and team player, as someone who can see the big picture, work collaboratively, and shape global business.
Ready to get to work on your Duke Fuqua application? Read on.
Duke Fuqua application essay tips
Required short-answer essay question
Instructions: Answer the following question in 100 words.
What are your post-MBA career goals? Share with us your first-choice career plan and your alternate plan.
What’s your professional direction? And if you cannot progress toward your career goal in the most direct way, what is another way you could reach your desired destination? Because you are dealing with a 100-word maximum for this short essay, you will have to think long before you start drafting and then write succinctly to get your point across.
First required essay: 25 random things about yourself
The ‘Team Fuqua’ spirit and community is one of the things that sets the MBA experience apart, and it is a concept that extends beyond the student body to include faculty, staff, and administration. Please share with us “25 Random Things” about you. The Admissions Committee wants to get to know YOU – beyond the professional and academic achievements listed in your resume and transcript. Share with us important life experiences, your hobbies, achievements, fun facts, or anything that helps us understand what makes you who you are.
Your list will be limited to 2 pages (750 words maximum). Please present your response in list form, numbered 1 to 25. Some points may be brief, while others may be longer.
Have some fun with this list. It certainly allows for a more creative approach than most essay prompts permit. Note that the question asks you to go “beyond the professional and academic achievements listed in your resume and transcript.” So, you can list your Pez collection or perhaps your brief membership in a rock band, the fact that you took violin from ages 6 to 18, your role in a gospel choir, your volunteer work in a hospital, your needlepoint hobby, your favorite recipe or photo. Gosh, the possibilities are endless. Just make sure your listed items reflect the authentic you. Think of this list as a way of introducing yourself to potential friends.
I usually recommend that applicants go beyond their own memory and ask family and friends for suggestions, because we tend to see many things about ourselves as commonplace and uninteresting. These individuals can remind you of something unique about you, an event you might have already forgotten, or a fun fact about your personality.
Watch: Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business on How to answer the 25 Random Things Question.
Second required essay: The Fuqua community and you)
Fuqua prides itself on cultivating a culture of engagement. Our students enjoy a wide range of student-led organizations that provide opportunities for leadership development and personal fulfillment, as well as an outlet for contributing to society. Our student-led government, clubs, centers, and events are an integral part of the student culture and to the development of leaders. Based on your understanding of the Fuqua culture, what are 3 ways you expect to contribute at Fuqua?
Your response will be limited to 1 page (500 words maximum).
Do your homework about the Fuqua MBA program (and yourself) before responding to this question. What activities and groups at the school appeal to you? How do you see yourself participating? Making a difference? Imagine how you would take part, collaborate, and sometimes lead. Although you can refer to similar activities in the past, keep the focus of this essay on what you would do in the future at Fuqua; choose three activities/groups that most appeal to you and explain why.
One approach to responding to this question is to write a letter to a close friend or colleague and tell them how you would contribute to this very participatory culture. That letter could easily morph into this essay.
Optional essay: Tell us more
If you feel there are circumstances of which the admissions committee should be aware, please explain them here (e.g. unexplained gaps in work, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance). Note that you should NOT upload additional essays nor additional recommendations in this area. The Optional Information section is intended to provide the admissions committee with insight into your circumstances only.
Your response will be limited to 1 page (500 words maximum).
Why isn’t your current supervisor writing your recommendation? Why is there a six-month gap on your resume? Why did your grades dip during the first semester of your senior year? What are your responsibilities in the position you now hold with your family business after leaving a prestigious investment bank, and why did you make that change? If these kinds of questions aren’t addressed elsewhere in your application, answering them (but hopefully not all of them) could be the focus of your optional essay.
Although Fuqua provides a more generous word limit for this submission than other schools tend to do with their optional essay, make sure your essay is concise and focuses solely on the issues that need to be addressed or clarified.
Additionally, Duke Fuqua offers an Optional Background Information section designed to gain more insight into who you are and your background. I especially recommend paying close attention to the “lived experiences” short essay, in which you are asked to share, in 200 words or fewer, any experience not mentioned elsewhere that might provide the adcom with additional understanding of your life. Was there a health, religious, or business challenge or a special activity that influenced you and has not been addressed elsewhere in your application? If so, take a moment to explain that in this section, and describe how that experience will positively influence your contributions to the MBA program.
Duke Fuqua application deadlines
| Round | Application Deadline | Final Decision Release |
| Early Action | September 4, 2025 | October 16, 2025 |
| 1 | September 30, 2025 | December 11, 2025 |
| 2 | January 8, 2026 | March 13, 2026 |
| 3 | February 24, 2026 | April 10, 2026 |
| 4 | April 1, 2026 | May 8, 2026 |
Source: Duke Fuqua website
***Disclaimer: Information is subject to change. Please check with Duke Fuqua directly to verify its essay questions, instructions, and deadlines.***
Duke Fuqua class profile
Here is a look at the Duke Fuqua MBA Class of 2026 (data taken from the Duke Fuqua website):
Class size: 427
Women: 51%
U.S. underrepresented students of color: 40%
International citizens: 41%
Average age: 29
U.S. students of color: 56%
First generation: 18%
U.S. military: 11%
Partnered: 37%
Countries represented: 51
Average years of work experience: 6.0
Middle 80% range of years of work experience: 3.00-9.38
Middle 80% GMAT range: 660-760
Middle 80% range of GRE Verbal/Quant combined: 305-330
Middle 80% range of average undergraduate GPA: 3.17-3.89
Undergraduate institutions represented: 261
Students with advanced degrees: 16%
Undergraduate majors:
- Engineering/Natural sciences: 38%
- Business and accounting: 29%
- Liberal arts: 19%
- Economics: 11%
- Other: 3%
Industries:
- Financial services: 19%
- Consulting: 18%
- Technology: 14%
- Health: 11%
- Other: 10%
- Government: 7%
- Nonprofit/Education: 7%
- Manufacturing: 6%
- Consumer goods: 5%
- Retail: 3%
Former associate director of admissions at the Yale School of Management, director of MBA admissions at MSU Broad, and consultant at Cardiff Business School in the United Kingdom, Esmeralda Cardenal has guided Accepted clients to acceptance in various graduate programs since 2014, including MBA and master’s in finance, business analytics, data science, sustainability, and public policy. Want Esmeralda to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!
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