UPDATE: This article was originally posted on August 24, 2022. It has been updated with new information and tips below.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have been shifting ever more into the public spotlight after movements like #blacklivesmatter and #MeToo rocked the Internet. Awareness, interest, and support for DEI movements across the globe are gaining long-awaited momentum and fueling a drive for proactive change across communities, industries, and institutions.
Elite MBA programs are increasingly prioritizing applicants who have actively supported DEI initiatives and are passionate about creating inclusive environments. Now more than ever, experience with DEI is a crucial element of a strong MBA application. Many schools even include a specific essay prompt asking about your involvement in diversity efforts.
Whether you belong to a marginalized group yourself or have spoken out for others who do, it is essential that you include these valuable stories in your MBA admissions essays. To help you answer questions focused on DEI effectively, we have compiled our top tips for handling these topics below!
Discussing DEI Tip #1: Include your experience with DEI
If you have experience as a member of a marginalized group or supporting those who belong to marginalized groups, there is no question: you will want to discuss those experiences when applying for your MBA.
Some elite business schools even have questions specifically targeting your experiences with diversity and inclusion. For example, take a look at MIT’s interview essay question that all candidates were required to respond to in the 2023-2024 admissions cycle (and in many years prior):
In 250 words or less, please describe how you, as a member of the MIT Sloan community, would work to create a campus that is welcoming, inclusive and increasingly diverse. Details for submitting your response will be included in the interview invitation.
With prompts like this, there is no doubt that business schools today want to hear about your experiences with inclusion. However, many schools do not have a dedicated question for talking about DEI. Does that mean they do not want to hear about these experiences?
Not at all. Even if your top-choice business school does not explicitly ask about DEI, you definitely want to highlight your experience in your application essays.
That is because – implicitly or explicitly – your business school is highly interested in that aspect of your profile.
Not only do including these stories reveal that you are dedicated to improving equity in your communities – just like they are! – but, more than that, stories featuring DEI can convey other important values, like empathy, a drive to take initiative, fine-tuned interpersonal skills, a global mindset, and a record of community engagement.
So, whether or not they ask, you definitely want to tell your future MBA program about your experiences with DEI.
Discussing DEI Tip #2: Show Allyship
If you belong to a marginalized group yourself, you are probably no stranger to experiencing bias and discrimination. You may have even had many experiences that revolved around battling stigma or fighting for recognition. Beyond that, maybe you have spoken out to join larger discussions in your community, interfaced with others who have more privileged backgrounds, or actively worked to build inclusive spaces. If so, your experiences with DEI should definitely not be left behind in your MBA application.
However, you do not have to belong to a marginalized group to be passionate about promoting DEI. On the contrary – many candidates choose to discuss their experiences with allyship.
As stated in the Harvard Business Review, allyship means supporting those who experience societal marginalization:
“We view allyship as a strategic mechanism used by individuals to become collaborators, accomplices, and coconspirators who fight injustice and promote equity in the workplace through supportive personal relationships and public acts of sponsorship and advocacy. Allies endeavor to drive systemic improvements to workplace policies, practices, and culture.”
The article outlines numerous ways you can demonstrate allyship. In addition to educating themselves on issues like racism, sexism, and economic privilege, as well as seeking and accepting feedback about one’s behavior, allyship can be shown in various ways. This includes becoming a trusted advisor for those facing bias, intervening against discrimination, proactively advocating for inclusion and equity, and creating safe spaces and communities that foster discussion and awareness. 
Whatever your experience with DEI – direct or indirect – if you are passionate about equity, you should definitely use your MBA essays to discuss your drive to make inclusion front and center. Whatever your experience with the subject, be sure to include the action steps you took to support yourself or others and what you learned about inclusion in the process.
Discussing DEI Tip #3: DEI Takes Lots of Forms
When we think of creating inclusive spaces, many jump immediately to supporting prominent groups, such as people of color, underrepresented ethnic backgrounds, members of the LGBTQI+ community, or women. Showing your support for these groups is excellent! However, diversity, equity, and inclusion go far beyond these communities.
For example, you may be passionate about educational equity. Many who cannot afford or do not have access to educational opportunities become marginalized as both students and adults. Showing how you have helped those who did not have the privilege of a quality education gain more equal opportunities is a surefire way of demonstrating your commitment to inclusivity.
Similarly, you have no doubt made experiences involving economic disparity. Unfortunately, the wealth gap has expanded worldwide in recent decades – a trend that has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic – leading to an increase in poverty and a growing class of people struggling daily to make ends meet. If you have helped increase economic equity, discussing those experiences can be a great topic for your MBA essay.
Similarly, ableism remains a common issue throughout society – and many people are unaware of ableist privilege as they turn a blind eye to infrastructure that they can take for granted. Using your MBA admissions essay to talk about how you have helped make communities and spaces better for people with disabilities can also be a great way to focus on DEI. Moreover, talking about activism for those suffering from mental health disorders can also reveal your support for those who society often leaves behind.
Furthermore, promoting diversity spans country lines and cultural borders. Sadly, xenophobia is all too common in every country on the planet as some fear losing touch with longstanding traditions and nationalism continues to be on the rise. In our globalized environment, speaking out for or acting to support foreigners is an essential part of creating inclusive spaces.
Of course, these examples are by no means comprehensive. All the more reason to remember that marginalization affects all kinds of people in every community.
Discussing DEI Tip #4: Limited DEI experience? Don’t Let That Stop You.
Even if you have very limited experience with DEI or are just beginning to become aware of the social injustices that plague our planet, that need not limit you. You can still discuss your drive to make a change to help increase diversity around you.
For example, you can include your drive to lead DEI efforts as a future professional!
As you may know, all business schools look for candidates with clearly-defined goals. As such, your goals essay is a central pillar of your application for many top MBA programs. Of course, a key part of your goals essay is not only your goals themselves but your vision for impact.
Your vision for impact should go beyond your immediate goals, reflecting on what you aim to change or achieve in each role as a future leader. This often involves improving a specific area of your field, but it can also mean committing to making workplaces better for employees and customers.
Explicitly including diversity and inclusion in your future vision can highlight your dedication to these values. For instance, you might focus on ensuring hiring practices support marginalized groups, forming work groups to prioritize diversity efforts, or adjusting your company’s branding or product lines to be more inclusive.
Remember though – the key to a strong goals statement includes showing your motivation for your goals as well as your area of impact, so you must ensure this is clear throughout your essays even if you have limited DEI experience.
Discussing DEI Tip #5: Promote DEI on Campus
But hold on – you don’t have to wait until graduation to start advocating for inclusion! Instead, you can also show the adcom that you know that you don’t plan on staying idle when it comes to DEI by discussing how you plan to engage in social justice initiatives while earning your MBA.
Another key value for all business schools is community, so you want to be sure to show what you plan to contribute to the program that is giving you the tools you need to succeed. While there are lots of ways to do so, supporting DEI initiatives on campus is a great way to get involved.
Not sure where to start? Take a look at these examples!
- Inform yourself about your program’s DEI offerings and mission statement and help spread the message to other students
- Provide academic support to marginalized groups at your bschool or local public schools
- Join one of your institution’s DEI initiatives, such as Emory’s Black MBA Association or LBS’ Out in Business
- Start a new, unique DEI initiative or club
- Create a program within the local community to promote or support DEI
- Network with local businesses about the value of DEI
- Support your peers’ DEI challenges and concerns, for example, through NYU’s Wellness Exchange
- Establish programs for monitoring, measuring, and integrating DEI measures on campus
However you decide to use your strengths to promote DEI during your MBA and strengthen your business school community, discussing your intentions to equal the playing field for your fellow classmates and campus affiliates is a must-have for your MBA application.
Not sure how to discuss initiating DEI in your future MBA program? Or how to do so within the often limited word count?
If you are looking for help, don’t hesitate to check out our MBA Resource Center! There, you can find dozens of past successful essays and detailed brainstorming worksheets to help you plan out a winning essay.
Our library also includes guides for all top global MBA programs, interview tips and mocks, CV templates, and recommendation letter guides. Click to join!
Discussing DEI Tip #6: Always Be Authentic
Although it goes without saying, I am going to say it anyway. If there is one thing you should NEVER do, it is embellish or fabricate a passion for diversity or inclusion.
Simply put, only discuss your commitment to DEI if it’s genuine. MBA admissions committees, experienced in evaluating a diverse pool of applicants, can easily detect insincerity.
More importantly, inauthentically claiming to drive change is deeply disrespectful to the millions of marginalized people, allies, and advocates who are struggling to create a better future for us all.
So, if you are not truly committed to inclusion, leave it out of your MBA application essays entirely.
Discussing DEI Tip #7: Show Long-Term Commitment
To really underline your commitment to promoting inclusive spaces, there is no better way to convince the adcom that you mean it than showing a pattern of commitment.
By showing how you have advocated for DEI in the past and connecting those experiences with how you plan to do so in the future, on-campus or beyond, you reveal to the admissions committee that DEI is not just an interest but a fundamental value.
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