The following is an example of a successful Executive MBA essay for the MIT Sloan Executive MBA Program. Applicants to Executive MBA programs need to demonstrate significant leadership, impact, potential, and the legitimate need for the degree to be accepted, and this essay shows all of those qualities.
Statement of purpose (one page)
Prompt: The MIT Executive MBA Students and Community are: Open, Collaborative and Inventive. Please tell us why you are pursuing the MIT Executive MBA, and what you will contribute to your classmates and the community at MIT. Include examples of success working with organizations, groups, and individuals. For those reapplying, please highlight developments since your last submission.
The essay:
As a founder, board director, and executive officer of a growth-stage technology company, I bring a unique set of experiences and a need for an innovative, transformative education that I can apply to my business immediately.
As an executive with both immediate challenges and wide organizational influence, I am particularly drawn to the action learning philosophy of the Sloan program. I am eager to transform my own mind and create immediate positive impact across my organization. I am inspired by the experiences of current students who implement their new learnings when they return to the office on Mondays. I am eager to do exactly that. My business is significantly more complex today than it was in the beginning when we provided a simple set of tools to small teams. Today, we are a multinational organization that provides tools and training to large enterprises seeking to implement Lean transformations of sophisticated processes in IT operations and multiple other industries. Throughout this journey, I have constantly challenged myself and my organization to learn, grow, and change. I seek to participate in this program as another step in my personal commitment to learning and adapting to the needs of the future. Now is the moment of maximum impact, whereby my organization and customers will be most receptive to, and benefit the most from, lessons and experiments that I intend to bring back and implement.
As a shareholder that has negotiated a significant amount of angel and institutional investment, I am keenly aware that my investors seek a positive return on their investment. I seek to prepare not only for the immediate needs of growth and complexity, but also for the mid-to-long term opportunities that may accompany that growth, such as a change of control, a liquidity event, or an opportunity to integrate my teams into a larger vision.
As a community leader, I seek to bring what I learn from the program back home and share it widely. I aim to broaden my understanding of business practices and theory beyond my focused experience in tech so that I may maximize the value of what I pass along to the aspiring entrepreneurs, technologists, and leaders in my community who, with ever increasing frequency, honor me by seeking my guidance and assistance.
Similarly, I have a strong desire to share my experiences and the details of my company and my journey with my classmates. I understand how valuable it is to be completely transparent with a group of peers who are eager to learn and share. I am excited to share my successes and my failures with them, open my business to their scrutiny, and make my organization available any time it aids in the learning experience.
Jennifer Weld, former Assistant Director of Admissions at Cornell’s EMBA program and Accepted admissions consultant, provides insights into what this Accepted client did correctly when writing his Executive MBA essay.
A couple of strong points to this essay:
1. No nonsense approach
The writer immediately gets to the point of explaining why an EMBA is a necessary next step for their career. In the very first sentence there is an acknowledgement of all the writer has accomplished, but the clear recognition that further education is necessary to attain their goals.
2. Complete lack of verbosity
It is obvious the writer has had a very successful career thus far, but that is not what comes across. Instead you understand that the writer recognizes the constant need for learning and adapting to the ever-changing business environment.
3. Give and take
The writer discusses taking the learning from MIT and applying it to oneself, but also bringing key learnings back to the writer’s community. The writer also acknowledges that having classmates critiquing his business will be extremely beneficial to him, but also by opening up his operations to his classmates, they can learn a lot as well. This shows a generous spirit, which is the type of characteristic an admissions committee would be looking for in terms of representing the school after graduation.
For expert guidance with your executive MBA applications, check out Accepted’s EMBA admissions consulting services. You will be assigned an individual consultant, who will provide you with advising, editing, interview coaching, and resume assistance for your EMBA applications.
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Related Resources:
• Ace the EMBA: Expert Advice for Rising Executives, a free guide
• EMBA: The Ultimate Guide for Applicants
• How to Get Accepted to a Top EMBA Program: The Experts Speak