Thinking about pursuing an MBA at Kellogg? Well, get ready to put your thoughts into words! In this article, we’re diving into the essay prompts for Kellogg MBA admissions. Don’t worry, we’ll break things down and give you an analysis and a few tips to tackle these prompts like a pro.
The application process at Kellogg is distinctive in that it includes both written and video essays.
So, if you’re aiming to make a splash with your Kellogg MBA application, stay tuned for the juicy tips and insights coming your way. Let’s make those essays work for you!
Ready? Let’s dive in!
Kellogg MBA essays for the 2025 admissions
Written essays
All applicants are expected to submit the following two essays:
Essay Prompt 1 (450 words)
Intentionality is a key aspect of what makes our graduates successful Kellogg leaders. Help us understand your journey by articulating your motivations for pursuing an MBA, the specific goals you aim to achieve, and why you believe now is the right moment. Moreover, share why you feel Kellogg is best suited to serve as a catalyst for your career aspirations and what you will contribute to our community of lifelong learners during your time here.
Essay Prompt 2 (450 words)
Kellogg leaders are primed to tackle challenges everywhere, from the boardroom to their neighborhoods. Describe a specific professional experience where you had to make a difficult decision. Reflecting on this experience, identify the values that guided your decision-making process and how it impacted your leadership style.
Reapplicants will receive a prompt about their growth since their last application: How have you grown or changed personally and professionally since you previously applied and what steps have you taken to become the strongest candidate you can be? (250 words)
To learn more about what Kellogg is looking for and how to make your application stand out, get in touch with us at contactus@admitexpert.com
Kellogg MBA Application Deadlines
| FULL-TIME MBA | ROUND 1 | ROUND 2 | ROUND 3 |
| Application Deadline | September 11, 2024 | January 8, 2025 | April 2, 2025 |
| Decisions | December 11, 2024 | March 26, 2025 | May 7, 2025 |
Kellogg MBA Essay Analysis
Essay 1
Intentionality is a key aspect of what makes our graduates successful Kellogg leaders. Help us understand your journey by articulating your motivations for pursuing an MBA, the specific goals you aim to achieve, and why you believe now is the right moment. Moreover, share why you feel Kellogg is best suited to serve as a catalyst for your career aspirations and what you will contribute to our community of lifelong learners during your time here.
What Kellogg Admissions Committee Seeks
The Kellogg MBA admissions committee is looking for applicants who demonstrate a strong sense of intentionality. This means candidates should show clear, purposeful thinking and deliberate actions in their career and educational choices. The committee seeks individuals who have a well-defined path and who can articulate their motivations for pursuing an MBA, their specific goals, and why now is the right time for them to pursue this degree. Additionally, the committee wants to understand why Kellogg is the best fit for the applicant’s aspirations and what the applicant will contribute to the Kellogg community.
In essence, the admissions committee is interested in five key aspects:
- Motivations for pursuing an MBA: Understanding the underlying reasons driving the decision to pursue an MBA.
- Specific goals: Outlining clear, achievable goals that the applicant aims to accomplish with the help of an MBA.
- Timing: Explaining why this moment is the right time to embark on the MBA journey.
- Fit with Kellogg: Demonstrating how Kellogg’s unique resources, culture, and community will serve as a catalyst for achieving the applicant’s career aspirations.
- Contribution to the Kellogg community: Highlighting how the applicant will add value to the Kellogg community through their unique skills, experiences, and perspectives.
How to Write This Essay
1. Articulate Your Motivations for Pursuing an MBA
Begin with a brief story that captures the inspiration behind your goals. This could be a pivotal moment in your career, a personal passion, or a professional challenge that highlighted the need for further education. Make sure this story sets the stage for why an MBA is crucial for your future.
2. Outline Your Specific Goals
Clearly define your short-term and long-term career goals. Your short-term goals should be specific and achievable immediately after graduation, while your long-term goals should convey your broader vision and impact on your industry or community. Be concise but specific, ensuring that your goals are ambitious yet realistic.
3. Explain Why Now Is the Right Time
Discuss the timing of your MBA pursuit. This could involve your current career stage, the evolving trends in your industry, or personal circumstances that make now the ideal moment for an MBA. Emphasize how the current timing aligns with your career trajectory and aspirations.
4. Demonstrate Kellogg’s Fit for Your Goals
Research Kellogg thoroughly to identify specific programs, resources, and opportunities that align with your goals. Rather than listing numerous resources, focus on a few key aspects that are most relevant to your career aspirations. Explain how Kellogg’s curriculum, culture, and community will uniquely support your journey. For example, if you’re interested in entrepreneurship, you might highlight the Zell Fellows Program or Kellogg’s robust network of successful entrepreneurs.
5. Highlight Your Contribution to Kellogg
Think about how you can add value to the Kellogg community. This could involve your professional expertise, leadership skills, cultural insights, or extracurricular interests. Mention specific clubs, activities, or initiatives at Kellogg where you can contribute meaningfully. For instance, if you have experience in organizing events, you might discuss how you could help plan a major conference or lead a student club.
Intentionality: The Key to a Compelling Essay
Given the 450-word limit, it’s crucial to be intentional in your writing. Allocate roughly 90 words to each of the five key points. You might use fewer words for the timing aspect, allowing more space to discuss why Kellogg is the perfect fit for your goals. Your narrative should be coherent and focused, seamlessly connecting your motivations, goals, timing, Kellogg’s fit, and your contributions.
Conclusion
Wrap up your essay by reiterating your enthusiasm for Kellogg and summarizing how the MBA program will help you achieve your goals. Highlight the mutual benefits – how Kellogg will aid in your professional growth and how you will enrich the Kellogg community. A well-structured, intentional essay will resonate with the admissions committee and demonstrate that you are a thoughtful, purposeful candidate ready to make a meaningful impact.
By carefully considering each aspect of the prompt and thoughtfully structuring your response, you can craft a compelling essay that showcases your intentionality, ambition, and fit for the Kellogg MBA program.
Essay 2
Kellogg leaders are primed to tackle challenges everywhere, from the boardroom to their neighborhoods. Describe a specific professional experience where you had to make a difficult decision. Reflecting on this experience, identify the values that guided your decision-making process and how it impacted your leadership style. (450 words)
What the Admissions Committee Seeks
Kellogg School of Management’s admissions committee looks for candidates who exemplify a unique combination of leadership, empathy, and creativity. They are in search of individuals who elevate the performance and morale of those around them without seeking the spotlight. This particular essay prompt provides an opportunity to showcase these qualities through a specific professional experience where you had to make a difficult decision.
Kellogg leaders are known for their high-impact, high-empathy perspective, leveraging creativity and innovation to create opportunities and solve problems. Collaboration with a sense of empathy and intentionality, coupled with a strong sense of purpose, is highly valued. The pay-it-forward mentality of Kellogg’s alumni network underscores the school’s emphasis on community and collective success.
How to Write This Essay
Understanding the Prompt
This essay prompt asks you to describe a specific professional experience where you had to make a difficult decision. It’s essential to focus on one concrete example rather than blending multiple experiences. While the prompt mentions both professional and community contexts, it is advisable to discuss a work-related example unless you have substantial leadership experience in a community-based organization.
When selecting your example, consider the following:
- Did you take a risk to advocate for a position that could improve your organization’s future?
- Did you collaborate with others to achieve a common goal?
- How did your decision impact the broader organization or community?
Structuring Your Response
A well-structured response can follow the CAR (Challenge/Action/Result) or STAR (Situation/Task/Action/Result) model:
- Situation/Challenge: Begin by describing the context of your story. Outline the specific challenge or situation you faced, the stakeholders involved, and the complexities of the decision at hand.
- Task: Clarify what you needed to accomplish. Define your objectives and the stakes involved in making the decision.
- Action: Provide a detailed account of the actions you took to address the challenge. Highlight how you navigated obstacles, collaborated with others, and applied your problem-solving skills. Emphasize the values that guided your decision-making process.
- Result: Describe the outcome of your actions. Focus on the positive impact you had on your organization or community. Share any measurable results or qualitative improvements that resulted from your decision.
- Reflection: Conclude with a reflection on how this experience influenced your leadership style. Discuss the insights you gained about your values and how this has shaped your approach to leadership. Consider how these lessons will enable you to contribute to the Kellogg community.
Example Analysis
When reflecting on a suitable example, think about significant professional challenges you have faced. For instance, you might describe a situation where you had to advocate for a new strategic direction that involved considerable risk. Explain how you rallied your team, gathered diverse perspectives, and made a decision that ultimately led to successful implementation and organizational growth.
Throughout your essay, focus on demonstrating key attributes that Kellogg values:
- High-Impact Leadership: Show how your decision led to substantial positive changes.
- Empathy and Collaboration: Highlight your ability to understand others’ perspectives and work collaboratively.
- Innovation and Creativity: Illustrate how you used innovative thinking to overcome obstacles.
- Purpose and Intentionality: Reflect on your commitment to meaningful goals and the intentional steps you took to achieve them.
By structuring your response effectively and selecting a compelling example, you can convey your potential as a Kellogg leader who is prepared to tackle challenges in any setting, be it the boardroom or the neighborhood. This approach will help you create a narrative that not only showcases your professional accomplishments but also aligns with the values and vision of the Kellogg community.
Video Essay
The Kellogg admissions team advises the following in regards to the video essay: We’ve read your essays, we’ve read your resume — now we want you to bring all that to life in a video. Show us the person behind all those carefully crafted words. The video will be comprised of three questions, each designed to help you showcase your personality and share some of the experiences that brought you here today.
Take a look at this article on video essays to get more tips on Kellogg’s Video essays.
Video Essays for MBA Admissions: What They Are, Why They Matter, and How to Create One
There are 3 video essays:
Video essay 1: Please introduce yourself to the admissions committee.
– Consider this your opportunity to share what you would want your future Kellogg classmates and our admissions committee to know about you. What makes you, you?
Video essay 2: What path are you interested in pursuing, how will you get there, and why is this program right for you?
– This is an intentionally broad question so you can answer honestly and meaningfully. We want to know why you’re pursuing an MBA and why you’re choosing a particular Kellogg Full-Time Program.
Video essay 3: This question will be based on a challenge you’ve faced and what you’ve learned from it.
Other Essays
Additional Information
We know that life is full of extenuating circumstances. Whether you want to explain gaps in work experience, your choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance or something else, you can use this section to briefly tell us anything we need to know about your application.
Address any employment gaps or academic concerns honestly, providing a clear and concise explanation of the challenges you faced and how you have overcome them. This will demonstrate your determination and resilience as a candidate.
Focus on highlighting your strengths and unique qualities that set you apart. Discuss your engagement in extracurricular activities, such as local philanthropic drives, sports, or hobbies, and explain how these experiences have shaped you as a person and contributed to your work ethic.
Ensure that your narrative centers around your suitability as a candidate and adds value to the discussion of your candidacy for the program. Avoid irrelevant information and stay focused on showcasing your potential to thrive in the MBA program.
Reapplicants
Since your previous application, what steps have you taken to strengthen your candidacy? (250 words)
In this answer, show how you have improved your candidacy in a way that can be seen and touched. A higher GMAT score could be one sign of improvement that can be seen. Also, give us your grades from any new math classes you’ve taken.
You could also talk about a promotion at work or some new volunteer work. You might also need to take on more responsibility at work or in extracurricular activities. Or, talk about how your goals for your career have changed. Lastly, you could talk about how you’ve changed your own goals.
Let us help you get into Kellogg
We will help you write essays that portray your unique strengths and experiences in the most favorable light so that your application shines above the rest. We have helped hundreds of students get into top US business schools. Let us help you too.
