Essay: Career Goals and Plan B
Prompt: Write an essay that answers the following three questions (500 words maximum):
- What are your immediate career goals and how will you benefit from earning an MBA at Kenan-Flagler Business School?
- As the business world continues to evolve, circumstances can change and guide you in a different direction. Should your goals that you provided above not transpire, what other opportunities would you explore?
Break down the essay question:
- What is your immediate career goal, the one that you will pursue while you are in the MBA program? Tell them what job role that you seek. Tell them why this is your career goal (your motivation), and what experience and skills you will bring from your current professional experience.
- What are possible alternate career paths that you can take? Tell them how you plan to move using an alternate career path to your first-choice career.
To answer the main question, why UNC Kenan-Flagler, answer the following:
- What skills and/or knowledge that you lack today that you need to pursue your goals?
- What skills and/or knowledge that you want to build upon that will help you achieve very ambitious goals? (You might achieve your goals on your own, but not as well or as easily.)
- What are Kenan-Flagler's specific offerings that will help you gain what you lack or wish to build upon? (Choose only a couple of offerings that you will really engagin and benefit from.)
- How will Kenan-Flagler's offerings and culture prepare you to meet those goals?
Essay: Growth as an Inclusive Leader
Prompt: We all belong to different communities representing various aspects of who we are, including groups we belong to, where we come from, how we think, what we believe, and how we see and experience the world. The process of discovery is strengthened when people with diverse perspectives and life experiences come together to share and learn from one another, negotiate differences, and engage in diplomacy.
How do you envision furthering your growth as an inclusive leader as an MBA student and as a business leader? (500 words maximum)
Please answer the following questions:
- What is a past experience in which you grew as a person by a) coming together with others to share and learn from another; b) negotiate to find common ground despite differences; and/or engage in diplomacy to arrive at common goals despite differences? What did you learn from that experience about fostering inclusivity in a team, group, or community?
- What does being an inclusive leader mean? In defiining this, refer to your past experience(s).
- At UNC Kenan-Flagler, how will you use the MBA program's opportunities to develop yourself as an inclusive leader? For example, you might think about how you might leverage your past experience to lead inclusion in which MBA clubs, experiences (such as consulting projects or travel experiences), or other opportunities.
- In your future career, as a business leader, how do you envision yourself as an inclusive leader?
Provide a clear, concrete explanation of what you think being an inclusive leadership is, and what you base your ideas on (your experience), and tie that to how you envision yourself being an inclusive leader in specific ways in the MBA program and beyond.
Optional Essay
Prompt: We encourage you to tell us more about who you are so we can get to know you as a person and potential member of the Carolina community. Use this essay to convey information that you may not have otherwise been able to in the application. (200 words maximum)
You have the opportunity to either address a weakness in your application and turn it into a strength, or tell the Admissions Committee about something that is a positive for your application that they will not see on your resume or essays.
If you have a weakness in your application, then you can talk about the circumstances, what you have learned, and how you will take that learning into your MBA experience. Use to address:
- gaps in work experience
- low GPA or inconsistent or questionable academic performance
- interruptions in academic career
- difficult issues (i.e., Driving Under the Influence or other types of arrests)
- areas of weakness (i.e., less than five years work experience)
You can also use to address briefly your choice of recommenders, in particular in your current direct supervisor is not writing your recommendation - which is no big deal!
Kenan-Flagler also allows you to use the highlight a positive aspect of yourself, for example:
- Personal accomplishment(s) not appearing on the resume
- Professional accomplishment(s) that need more context for the Admissions Committee to truly understand
- An interest or passion that you follow in your free time
- "A fun fact about yourself" - surprise the Admissions Committee with the unexpected or unusual