Are you seeking an MBA program with a strong record of job placement in the technology industry? If so, the University of Washington Foster School of Business might be an excellent choice for you.
Almost 40% of Foster’s Class of 2023 joined the tech sector after graduation, while 29% entered consulting. In terms of function, graduates were largely spread across consulting, finance/accounting, marketing/sales, general management, operations/logistics, in addition to human resources and information technology (data taken from Foster’s 2024 employment report). Overall, career success is strong, with 92% of the class employed within six months of graduation, an average starting salary of more than $151K, and an average signing bonus in excess of $44K. For more information on the school’s career stats and what Foster has to offer, check out the program’s Career Management website.
With an alumni base of more than 60,000 graduates worldwide, and with a strong representation in the Seattle region, Foster’s MBA program could be the right fit for you. For more information on the school’s full-time, in-person MBA program, along with its other MBA formats, including online, hybrid, executive MBA, evening, and even a technology management–focused program, visit the Foster website.
Ready to get to work on your Foster application? Read on.
Foster application essay tips
Essay #1
Post-MBA Plans (750 words maximum)
Tell us your ideas about what lies ahead in your career. What are the gaps or deficiencies currently preventing you from pursuing these potential career paths? How do you plan to use your time in the Foster MBA program to fill these gaps and advance your career?
We believe that 750 words is a good amount of space in which to explain what you’ve gained so far in your career and what you need to learn to reach your career goals. As with any goals essay, make sure to show the connection between your future goals and the career you have established thus far. Talk about why your goals matter and why they are important to you.
At least half of this essay should discuss the gaps/deficiencies in your knowledge and skills and how Foster’s curriculum and activities will fill them. This is an opportunity to express how and why the Foster MBA is the key to mitigating those gaps, sharing why you couldn’t fill them without its program. Be specific. Talk about what excites you about the Foster program – perhaps the networking opportunities, career support, specific courses, and/or professors. The admissions committee wants to know how you will use the program to fill the gaps in your skill set to achieve your desired next step in your career – and why Foster is essential in doing so.
Essay #2
Personal Resilience (500 words maximum)
Resilience is one of the most important values of a successful Foster student. Tell us about what resilience means to you and share some of the ways that you have demonstrated resilience in overcoming personal or professional challenges. How do you anticipate showing resilience during your time as an MBA candidate?
Foster gives you 500 words with this essay to write about what resilience means to you and to provide examples of when you have been resilient in your personal or professional life. Before you get started, brainstorm about some of the hurdles you have overcome – did you have to work during college to help fund your studies? Were you called to care for a family member while working full-time? Did you experience a challenging situation at work where you had to overcome a problematic situation over time to achieve a common goal? To me, resilience means being calm in the storm, knowing that with time, patience, and hard work, your objectives will be achieved. Think about what resilience means to you and when you have stayed the course, knowing it would be worth the effort in the end.
Essay #3 (optional)
Include this essay if you have additional information you believe would be helpful to the admissions committee in considering your application. (500 words maximum)
Most people cannot be summarized in two essays. If that is the case for you, then you should consider submitting this additional, optional essay. Obviously, you can use this space to explain a gap and provide context for a GMAT/GPA weakness, but if you do, I recommend sharing some additional information to assuage any of the admissions committee’s concerns. For example, if your Verbal GMAT score is lower than you would like, you might consider sharing an example of your strong communication and presentation skills to counterbalance that weakness.
Beyond explaining an issue in your application, such as a poor grade in college, a gap in your work experience, or a lower-than-preferred test score, you could also use this essay to write about an experience that affected you as a student, personally, or professionally. For example, perhaps you grew up in a single parent household and worked from the time you were a teenager, including throughout college, and graduated with significant student loans that affected your ability to advance financially. Or maybe you were promoted ahead of your peers, finished college in three years instead of four, were a student-athlete, or a young parent. Don’t expect the admissions committee to simply flesh out anything about your profile without your telling them, whether that’s the explanation for a gap in your skill set or a key aspect of your life experience.
Essay #4 (optional diversity, equality & inclusion)
At the Foster School of Business, we embrace diversity as one of the foundations of both successful business strategy and a world-class educational experience. We share the University’s dedication to promoting the understanding and appreciation of human differences, and the constructive expression of ideas. We welcome you to share some of the ways you have practiced inclusion, promoted equity or supported the advancement of underrepresented groups. (500 words maximum)
Today, the opportunity to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is often presented across academic and professional environments. Whether in classroom discussions, campus activities, or career experiences via affinity groups at work, recruitment initiatives, or other efforts, we are called regularly to embrace the principles of diversity and inclusion. You might have led a student club or affinity group at work or have been passionate about allyship in community activities or volunteer work. However, if no obvious examples stand out in your mind of how you have promoted diversity or inclusion, then make a list for yourself of times when you did any of the following:
- Practiced inclusion by making your workplace, club, or group more hospitable to individuals that were underrepresented. When have you gone out of your way either systematically or in everyday practice to create a more inclusive and tolerant environment for classmates or colleagues?
- Promoted equity by taking steps to reduce disparities for people across groups, whether they’re underrepresented people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ population, women, international students or colleagues, socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, disabled individuals, the elderly, or others.
- Supported the advancement of underrepresented groups by participating in organizations or your workplace to support members of underrepresented groups, encourage their success, and increase their numbers.
I believe that upon reflection, even if you aren’t a member of a club or group with clear DEI affinity, you’ll realize times throughout your personal, professional, or academic life when you have championed the cause of the “other.”
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, do your research! Visit the Foster MBA admissions website, and review it in detail. Sign up for an information session, sit in on a class, connect with a student or member of the alumni network. First, doing so helps you understand whether Foster is the right program for you; you want to understand the culture and “fit.” Second, you want to learn as much as you can about the program, what it offers, and how it can help you achieve your goals so you can use that knowledge to put together the strongest application possible. Doing your due diligence in understanding what makes the program unique is your first and best step toward a successful application.
Read: The Diversity Essay: How to Write an Excellent Diversity Essay
Foster application deadlines
| Round 1 | October 1, 2024 (11:59pm PDT) |
| Round 2 | January 7, 2025** (11:59pm PDT) |
| Round 3 | March 12, 2025 (11:59pm PDT) |
Source: University of Washington Foster website
** Final deadline for international applicants
***Disclaimer: Information is subject to change. Please check with Washington Foster directly to verify its essay questions, instructions, and deadlines.***
Foster class profile
Here’s a look at the Foster MBA Class of 2025 (data taken from the Washington Foster website):
Class Size: 111
Average age: 29
Mid 80% range of ages: 26-33
Women: 47%
LGBTQ+: 9%
U.S. students of color*: 53%
U.S. underrepresented students of color*: 24%
First-Generation college: 19%
U.S. military*: 18%
*As a % of U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents
Average years of prior work experience: 6
Middle 80% range of years of prior work experience: 4-9
Median undergraduate GPA: 3.3
Median GMAT: 710
GMAT middle 80% range: 660-740
Median GRE Quant: 164
GRE Quant middle 80% range: 155-170
Median GRE Verbal: 158
GRE Verbal middle 80% range: 155-163
Holding advanced degrees: 21%
Undergraduate Majors
- Engineering: 34%
- Business: 22%
- Economics: 11%
- Mathematics and Computer Sciences: 10%
- Art and Humanities: 5%
- Biological and Agricultural Sciences: 5%
- Social and Behavioral Sciences: 5%
- Health and Medical Sciences: 4%
- Other Fields: 4%
Kara Keenan Sweeney has more than 15 years of experience in MBA admissions, having worked for some of the world’s top business school programs, including Columbia Business School, INSEAD, and The Lauder Institute’s joint degree MA/MBA program with The Wharton School and the MA/JD program with Penn Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Kara has guided, coached, and counseled thousands of MBA and EMBA applicants, reviewed innumerable applications, sat on admissions committees, and interviewed countless applicants, including while running Wharton’s Team Based Discussions both virtually and in person. Want Kara to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!
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