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The Importance of Researching Your MBA Goals and Being Authentic

Too many times, as an admissions officer, I read applications from candidates who shared career goals that didn’t quite make sense. Whether there was no connection between their target position and what they had been doing or no explanation of how they would successfully pivot to their desired role, I was left wondering how much …

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How to Get Into Yale SOM 2025 [Episode 598]

Show Summary In this episode, Bruce DelMonico, Assistant Dean of Admissions at Yale School of Management, shares an overview of the Yale School of Management. The program offers a distinctive two-year, full-time MBA program emphasizing an interdisciplinary, integrated curriculum to prepare students for leadership in business and society. Bruce discusses how aspiring applicants can prepare …

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How to Project Confidence, Professionalism, and Positivity in Your Essays

So you’ve sat down and brainstormed, and you’re now ready to hit the ground running with your essays. Great! You might be wondering how to best convey your reasons for pursuing graduate school to the admissions committees. What kind of tone or approach should you use? A good rule of thumb is to project three …

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Optional and Open-Ended Essay Questions: What’s the Best Strategy?

Many business schools use open-ended essay prompts, which are usually variations of “I wish the admissions committee had asked me…” or “What is a question that you wish we had asked?” The most common among these open-ended questions is the optional essay, where you have free rein to discuss anything you feel is important, something …

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Should I Use AI for My MBA (Grad/College) Applications? 

Should I Use AI for My MBA (Grad/College) Applications?

My answer to this question used to be a hard “No.” But now, it’s “Yes! Kind of.”   We’ve gone through an admissions cycle during which applicants used AI tools such as ChatGPT, CoPilot, Gemini, and others with both positive and negative outcomes. Some colleges, graduate schools, and MBA programs might even have essay prompts soon …

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How Personal Is Too Personal In Your Application Essays?

The personal statement is your chance to stand out and make an impression on the admissions committees. How can you make your essay original? How much should you tell? And at what point are you crossing the line into TMI? When I applied to college, I wrote a personal statement describing some challenging family circumstances …

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The Diversity Essay: How to Write an Excellent Diversity Essay

What is a diversity essay in a school application? And why does it matter when applying to leading programs and universities? Most importantly, how should you go about writing such an essay? Diversity is of supreme value in higher education, and schools want to know how every student will contribute to the diversity on their …

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Admissions Tip: Be Yourself!

Psst! How would you like to know the one thing that admissions committee members really want from applicants? Here it is: they wish – sometimes they even dream – that applicants would stop writing what they imagine the adcom wants to hear. Instead, they want candidates to just be themselves, presented articulately, of course. We …

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Starting Your Application Essay: Three Tips

If you haven’t yet read the other blog posts in this series, go ahead and check them out: Once you have reflected on the questions that helped you identify and develop your essay theme, you should have a clear path to writing an effective essay. Here are three essential steps to help you achieve that …

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Four Ways to Show How You’ll Contribute in the Future

Four-Ways-to-Show-How-Youll-Contribute-in-the-Future

Schools are looking for  and will actively contribute not only to their student/alumni communities but also to the greater community and society.  Many applications include an essay question with some variation of “What would you contribute to your future campus community?” or “How will you contribute to our program?” If you are invited to interview, you’ll …

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Three Must-Have Elements of a Good Statement of Purpose

What are the essential components of a strong statement of purpose essay?  Very simply, you’ll need to include your MAP: your Motivation, Aspiration, and Perspiration. At Accepted, MAP has a double meaning for individuals writing statements of purpose and goals essays. It illustrates the road one should follow when writing one of these essays. Here’s …

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