Prompt: Select ONE essay (from the list of three) that allows you to highlight your experiences, characteristics, and values that showcase the value proposition that you bring to the McDonough community.
Option 1 Prompt:
Our mission is rooted in Jesuit principles of equality and respect for everyone and an ethos of caring for the whole person.
Inclusivity and diversity are core to supporting a community of people with an intersectional understanding of themselves and the world around them.
Share how your educational, familial, cultural, economic, social, and/or other individual life experiences will contribute to the diversity of perspectives and ideas at Georgetown University.
(500 words maximum, about two pages, double-spaced; include the essay prompt and your first and last names at the top of the page.)
This is an essay about what you, as a unique individual, will give to the McDonough MBA community and/or Georgetown University greater community. As part of this essay, you will need to describe your personal background (education, family, culture, economic, social, and/or something else). This background should be something that you believe distinguishes you from other candidates.
A good approach to start is to research both McDonough and Georgetown, and envision yourself at the school. What do you picture yourself doing there? Where do you see yourself truly standing out as a person and a contributor?
Option 2 Prompt:
As the oldest Jesuit institution in the United States, cura personalis is a Latin phrase deeply ingrained within our community and translates to “care of the person.” It encompasses a profound sense of care and responsibility for one another, rooted in personalized attention to each individual’s needs, unique circumstances, gifts, and limitations, fostering the growth of each person.
Please reflect on a specific instance where you exemplified cura personalis by supporting a teammate or coworker.
Describe the particular actions you took to guide them, and explain the impact of these efforts. Additionally, discuss how you would leverage these experiences to contribute to the collaborative environment at Georgetown McDonough.
(500 words maximum, about two pages, double-spaced; include the essay prompt and your first and last names at the top of the page.)
This is an essay about how you supported another person's growth, and how that is an example of what you will contribute to collaboration in the MBA community. The person was a "teammate or coworker," which suggests that this story should have taken place in a professional setting or on a team in a volunteer group. (You might use a powerful example from a university team, but schools really tend to prefer more recent examples.)
This is a story of you caring for someone else.
Option 3 Prompt:
Georgetown McDonough is committed to achieving greater excellence to enrich the legacies of our students and alumni.
Please reflect on a professional experience from your resume where you achieved outstanding results.
Describe why this experience exemplified excellence, highlight the strengths or skills you utilized that contributed to this achievement, and share how these qualities will help you leave a legacy at Georgetown.
(500 words maximum, about two pages, double-spaced; include the essay prompt and your first and last names at the top of the page.)
The story must have the following elements:
This is Georgetown McDonough, and McDonough would define excellence to include such things as principled leadership, ethical decision-making, a global mindset, and a dedication to serving the common good through a collaborative and diverse community.
As an example, for McDonough, leadership includes the ability to
Get familiar with McDonough's Jesuit Values and consider how they relate to your story of excellence.
Prompt: Please provide any information you would like to add to your application that you have not otherwise included (300-350 words, approximately one page, double spaced).
Use to address:
Use this essay to turn a potential weakness into a strength. Tell the Admissions Committee what happened and why it happened. Be honest in your self-evaluation. Most importantly, tell them what you have learned from the negative experience, and how this learning has influenced future actions.
Occasionally, applicants have used this essay to provide some interesting fact that has not been provided elsewhere (resume, essay, or video), usually related to international experience.
Specific instructions:
Prompt: We believe a vibrant community is built on diverse and unique individuals, and we want you to bring your whole self to Georgetown McDonough.
We’ve learned about your professional and leadership qualities throughout the application, but now we want to know more about you beyond work. Whether it’s a new hobby, a fun adventure, or a simple pleasure, in one minute, share what has recently brought you joy outside of work.
"The video essay is your chance to bring your application to life." - Anne Kilby, Associate Dean, MBA Admissions
Although McDonough asks you to be "unscripted," you have to plan it out in advance, and that means creating a video script (which I will review). It should include a component of you speaking directly to the camera, as required by the essay prompt. Don't do the video at the last minute, because you may need to spend some time on reshoots.
Be real, but not unprofessional. That means putting time and attention into the details. The video can be edited. Take full advantage of the medium. You are bringing "your application to life" in showing how you are unique. When you talk about past experiences or current interests, consider a setting that fits with your words, or props (within reason). I also recommend using a little humor in your video introduction – don't take yourself too seriously.
Although I recommend that you develop a script in advance, memorize it so that you are not obviously reading: the prompt specifically asks for "conversational." Don't sound like a robot.
If you are shooting indoors, set up a background that is calm and uncluttered, and make sure that you have good lighting. Try to make the background represent yourself. Make sure that the camera is raised to be centered on your face – you do not want a video shot up your nose.
McDonough allows you to edit your video. You can demonstrate your excellent communications skills, and you can spice up your video with photos and videos. Here are two good examples of using photos to illustrate the information presented in just a minute.
When setting up your background, you might consider how your background represents your story, personality, or interests. In this example (from McCombs), the applicant has chosen his background display carefully.
In the next two videos, the applicants showcase their presentation skills, and they use their locations to add to add a little interest to the videos. Of course, if you choose to shoot from an outdoor location, be sure to use the best sound equipment that you can!
In this video from MIT, the applicant presents her photos and videos on her tablet, swipe, swipe, swiping away. ... There are a lot of photos, but she stays completely focused on talking directly to the viewer. She shows her confident personality and her presentation skills throughout the video, without a break. This is very, very difficult to do.
The difficulty with creating a video essay is not doing something that has been done too many times before. For example, people often put on and take off hats to show their many "hats" (roles). Similarly, people stand and talk, then put on a hat, or hold up a picture, put that down, pick up something else, put that down, and so forth. Sadly, this has been done too much. So, no hats.
In general, avoid using lots of props. When you use props, make sure that you are still focused on communicating to the audience, and not distracting the audience.
In this video, the presenter gets around the "prop up, prop down" problem by moving to each prop itself, all while showing herself in a natural home setting.
Most videos are not as good as these examples. Even if the video wasn't super-spectacular amazing, the applicant is often still accepted to McDonough, as long as you put some time and thought into it, and show your personality.