NYU Stern

Essay: Personal Tagline

Prompt: In today’s global business environment, the only constant is change.

1. Using NYU Stern’s brand call to action, we want to know how you view change. Change: _____ it. Fill in the blank with a word of your choice.
2. Why does this word resonate with you?
3. How will you embrace your own personal tagline while at Stern?

(350 word maximum)

The examples that NYU Stern provides use up all the popular and rather generic words, so clearly Stern is looking for an answer with some imagination.

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Start by thinking about how you will embrace change at Stern. By "change," they do not mean "change of jobs" or "change of industries." You already answered that in the short answer! Instead, you should look at your larger goals, either how you want to change yourself to prepare for your career goals, or how you want to change a certain role or a certain industry through your MBA.

This requires you to answer:

• What do I define as change? / What type of change would I view as "success"?
• How do I work towards that change while I am at Stern? / What actions will I take?
• What resources do I use at Stern that will help me with that change?

Finally, having written about 350-words to answer those questions, you can then think about the action verb that best summarizes all of your actions as an MBA.

Here are the action verbs that you cannot use (since Stern already used them as examples):

No Dare.

No Dream.

No Drive.

No Empower.

No Manifest.

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In other words, nothing over-used. It's a lot easier to be original when you don't start by trying to think of the tagline, but instead end with it.

Essay: Pick 6

Prompt: Describe yourself to the Admissions Committee and to your future classmates using six images and corresponding captions. Your uploaded PDF should contain all of the following elements:

• A brief introduction or overview of your "Pick Six" (no more than 3 sentences).
• Six images that help illustrate who you are - photos, infographics, drawings, or any other images.
• A one-sentence caption for each of the six images that helps explain why they were selected and are significant to you.

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Choose six aspects of your personality, character, interests, family, background, job, and hobbies and interests to showcase, and find those pictures. It's important to consider how to bring your personality to life, and also:

• Show them something that might surprise them about you.
• Show them something "off-resume."
• Provide new context to what is on your resume.

Important: Formatting is important. You are sharing personal details, but keeping it professional.

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Optional Essay

Prompt: Please provide any additional information that you would like to bring to the attention of the Admissions Committee. (250 words maximum)

By address any questions, something that might need further explanation. This may include important aspects of yourself not otherwise apparent in your application, and/or the following:

• current or past gaps in employment
• further explanation of your undergraduate record, or self-reported academic transcript(s)
• plans to retake the GMAT, GRE, Executive Assessment, IELTS or TOEFL
• any other relevant information

Clients have also used to explain the following:

• why your current direct supervisor is not writing your recommendation
• interruptions in academic career
• difficult issues (e.g., Driving Under the Influence or other types of arrests)
• areas of weakness (e.g., less than five years work experience - why you are not waiting to apply)

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 a negative experience, and how this learning has influenced future actions.