Oxford’s Saïd Business School requires one essay for its 2022-2023 MBA application. In addition to this essay question, applicants must answer five questions about their career goals. There is one reapplicant essay as well.
When reviewing your essays, the admissions committee will be looking for evidence of the following: good communication skills, leadership potential, analytical skills, and fit with the Oxford MBA community, among other characteristics.
Therefore, you need to submit an impeccable essay to impress the Oxford Saïd admissions committee.
In this article, we analyze and share tips on how to approach the Oxford MBA essay questions.
Application deadlines
Applications for the Oxford MBA class of 2023-24 will open on 1 August 2022.
You need to submit your online application form with all application requirements by your chosen application deadline.
Application deadlines for the Oxford MBA class of 2023-24:
- Stage 1: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
- Stage 2: Wednesday, 12 October 2022
- Stage 3: Wednesday, 4 January 2023
- Stage 4: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Oxford Saïd MBA Essay – 2023 admissions
Tell us something that is not covered in your application which you would like the Admissions Committee to know about you. (Maximum 250 words)
Re-applicants will need to submit an additional essay as below:
What improvements have you made in your candidacy since you last applied to the Oxford MBA? (Maximum 250 words)
Essay Analysis
Tell us something that is not covered in your application which you would like the Admissions Committee to know about you. (Maximum 250 words)
This essay for the Oxford MBA program is open-ended. So, it lets you talk about almost any subject you think needs more explanation. You might want to talk about something from your own background. On the other hand, you might want to talk about a leadership role.
You can also use this essay to talk about your career goals in more detail. If you have international experience, you might want to talk about what you did there. Oxford wants applicants who are mature, can lead, and come from different backgrounds. So, this essay is a chance to show that you have these qualities.
Once you have chosen a topic for your Oxford MBA application essay, you will want to explain yourself clearly. With only 250 words, you should use clear language and specific examples. The admissions committee will understand you better if you give them examples. For example, you could talk about something you did as a volunteer. To do this, talk about who was there, what you did, and how it made you feel.
There are 3 ingredients to crafting an essay that would impress the Oxford Saïd admissions committee:
- Research
- Relevant anecdotes
- Authenticity
Research
If you don’t know much about the Oxford community, it will be hard to write a good essay about why you feel like you belong there. So do your homework as a first step. Which parts of Oxford’s culture do you like, and how do you think you’ll be able to use them during your time there? How can you help the people of Oxford in a way that no one else can?
Relevant high-impact anecdotes
Providing supporting evidence is essential for creating a strong and convincing essay. Therefore, choosing an anecdote that adds the most value to your profile is of paramount importance.
Thus, we recommend that you first evaluate the various components of your profile and unique brand that you’ve previously discussed in other stages of your Oxford application – especially since you will be required to answer a series of mini-goals essays within the online application form! Then, consider further means by which you might contribute to the Oxford community.
These are the mini-goals essays that you would also have to answer. So, make sure that you do not repeat any information that you’ll cover in these mini-essays.
- Describe below your immediate plan after graduating from the MBA
- How does your preferred sector in your preferred location recruit MBA talent and what do they look for in a candidate? Describe the research you have done so far.
- Reflecting on your answer above, how do you meet these requirements?
- What do you plan to do between now and starting your MBA to prepare and maximise your chances of success?
- Should you not be successful in securing your first choice of role, what is your alternative?
Keeping this in mind and after determining what will be included in the application, you can then assess what you wish you had room for or what may be missing.
This could be anything: a favorite hobby or community involvement, a difficult work project that was ultimately successful, an aspect of one’s upbringing that has had a lasting impact, an international or cross-cultural experience that prompted learning or growth, or one’s plans for community involvement in Oxford. In assessing your personal statement and essays, the admissions committee will seek evidence of, among other qualities, your communication abilities, leadership potential, analytical ability, and fit within the Oxford MBA community.
You should evaluate the balance of material between this response and the application, and seek to emphasize something fresh that will demonstrate to the admissions committee an additional facet of your personality and your potential to contribute to the Saïd community.
Given the limited word count, we believe the most successful replies to this question will completely develop a single topic (or offer two instances with a similar theme) as opposed to attempting to cover multiple unrelated topics.
However, because Oxford does not provide an optional essay question, applicants with a weakness in their candidacy may need to use this response to provide an explanation or highlight a mitigating circumstance.
This should be accomplished as succinctly as possible, ideally in 50-100 words, and then the candidate should be inventive in giving positive facts under a single umbrella.
Authenticity
Finally, make sure that your story is truly yours and is not exaggerated in any form. Moreover, the overall tone of your essay can also make it sound more authentic. So, write as though you are having a conversation with a family member or a friend. This can make the essay feel more personal and real, which could help you convince the Oxford admissions committee of the authenticity of your story.
Re-applicant essay
What improvements have you made in your candidacy since you last applied to the Oxford MBA? (Maximum 250 words)
Given that you only have a few words for this response, people who are reapplying will want to be clear about the steps they’ve taken to improve their applications since they last applied to Oxford.
Candidates should try to be as thorough as possible when they talk about how they’ve worked to become stronger applicants this season.
They should talk about how they’ve improved their quantitative records, their professional qualifications, how they’ve worked to learn more about the Oxford MBA program, and anything else they’ve done.
Mini Goals essays
Oxford has also “hidden” many small essays about your goals inside the application form. Even though there isn’t a set number of words, you should make sure to be complete but brief. We think that anything between 100 and 250 words should be fine.
Here are the topics:
Topic 1
Describe below your immediate plan after graduating from the MBA.
When talking about your goals, it’s important to be clear, so make sure you include a job title and industry when you talk about what you want to do after you graduate.
After you’ve made your goal clear, you should spend a little time talking about your motivation behind your goal. Here, you can give a bit of background information about yourself that is related to the job you want, but be careful not to repeat information from the “How do you meet these requirements?” question below.
The perfect way to end this essay is with a high-impact sentence that gives the reader a clear picture of who you are.
Topic 2
How does your preferred sector in your preferred location recruit MBA talent and what do they look for in a candidate? Describe the research you have done so far.
So, we suggest that you start by talking to as many people as you can who work in the field you want to go into after your MBA. Since Oxford wants to know how recruitment works where you want to work, make sure to narrow your focus to just your target geography.
You might want to talk to the HR departments of companies you’d like to work for, talk to headhunters who specialize in this area, or even talk to friends or coworkers who have successfully hired for your post-MBA role in the past.
Then, in your essay, describe how hiring works in your industry and where you want to work, as well as what they look for in a good candidate. For the second part, be sure to list things like specific skills needed (like being able to use advanced analytics tools or speaking Spanish fluently), personal traits, and degrees/certifications.
Then, list all of the steps you took to find this information, including the names of the people and businesses you talked to and the information they gave you.
To wrap up, you might want to end with a sentence about why you’re sure you’ll be successful in your own recruitment process now that you know what you’ve learned. You’ll go into more depth later, so keep this part short.
Topic 3
Reflecting on your answer above, how do you meet these requirements?
This essay requires knowing a little bit about your work history. This gives your goals some context and shows that you have the experience that is relevant to your goals.
Keep in mind what the admissions counselors already know about you when you talk about your career so far. Here, the goal isn’t to list all of your accomplishments (they can see that on your resume), but to give short, strong examples of a successful career, focusing on accomplishments that relate to your future goals.
Topic 4
What do you plan to do between now and starting your MBA to prepare and maximise your chances of success?
To answer this question, you must show clearly what you are doing or what you plan to do before you get your MBA to get ready to reach the goals you listed above.
If you want to switch industries, you should also describe in detail the steps you’re taking to improve your skills before joining Saïd and mention the networking you’ve done.
Showing that you’ve already started building the network you’ll need to be successful in your target industry and area will go a long way toward proving that you’ll reach your post-MBA goals.
Topic 5
Should you not be successful in securing your first choice of role, what is your alternative?
It’s always a good idea to have a backup plan, especially since the economy is hard in many parts of the world right now. Make sure that your Plan B has something to do with your “official” goal so that it doesn’t hurt your goal statements.
For example, if your goal is to work in Management Consulting but your Plan B is to work for an NGO, the admissions committee will wonder how committed you were to your original goals.
But the best job would be one that lets you make the same kind of difference in a different way.
For example, if you want to work in a Web3.0 tech startup to learn best practices of blockchain technology, you could work in a more established technology firm and then switch to an earlier stage venture later.
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