UPDATE: This article was originally posted on July 13, 2022. It has been updated with new information and tips below.
While there are many elements involved in crafting your application to your preferred elite MBA program, there is one thing that ties the entire thing together: your goals.
That is because your goals serve to justify why you need an MBA from a top b-school.
They help communicate to the admissions committee the kind of professional you plan to be as a future representative and alumnus of their program.
That is why every top MBA program will ask candidates to describe their goals. In fact, nearly every school has an entire essay dedicated to learning about your goals.
To answer those questions effectively, we have compiled our top tips for handling your goals essay below!
Discussing Goals Tip #1: Include Both Short- and Long-Term Goals
Goals are where you imagine yourself as a future professional. Your short-term goal is what you imagine becoming immediately after earning your MBA from your dream program. Your long-term goal is the eventual position you hope to achieve in your field (this could be anything from 5-10 years to where you see yourself at the end of your career).
Unless the question specifically asks otherwise (e.g. only asks for short-term goals), we recommend you always include both your short-term and long-term goals in your goals essay. Each of these elements should include your desired role, company/organization (or at least what kind), key actions and achievements, and ideal impact.
Take a look at this example from our client Paul, who was accepted into Harvard Business School:
“Post-MBA, as a management consultant at McKinsey, I will help agri-food businesses achieve digitalization to modernize economic models and value chains in pursuing sustainable profit engines. Long-term, I intend to create a food industry brand that promotes corporate responsibility and consumer behavioral change regarding food waste, CO2 emissions, and organic production.”
Your essay revolves around your short- and long-term goals, which means you need to think through these more than anything else. Make sure you take the time to plan your goals and how you can communicate them.
Discussing Goals Tip #2: Focus On Impact
Your goals statement, however, is incomplete without discussing one of the most important elements – your desire to make an impact.
The word impact is embedded in the idea of strong influence and change. Thus, in your discussion of your post-MBA goals, in addition to detailing your desired role, industry, and responsibilities, it’s important for you to also illustrate the changes you want to make as a result.
It is often helpful to establish what problem(s) you are motivated to solve or what global/industry changes you want to contribute to so that it’s clear how your goals address this issue or promote progress. Then, you can easily discuss how you will be creating change and what things will look like once you have intervened.
Discussing Goals Tip #3: Add Some Context
Whether the question asks for it or not, a bit about your past is important to include in your goals essay. It provides essential context to your future plans, proves that you have relevant experience and motivations related to your goals, and sets up the argument for why you’re applying for that specific MBA. Bonus points if it also sets up the type of impact you envision for your goals.
If the question does ask about your career progress to date, keep in mind the information the admissions counselors already have. The goal here is not to list every achievement you’ve made (they can see that on your resume), but to give brief, strong examples of an accomplished career, especially focusing on achievements that relate to your future goals.
For example, though you may have had a highly successful marketing internship but have since forged a career in M&A, you may want to leave your marketing achievements out of your goals essay to focus on more relevant information.
Picking and choosing relevant experiences also helps emphasize storytelling, an element our experienced team of editors highly recommends incorporating into all of your MBA admissions essays. By formatting your experiences into stories, you can connect more easily with your reader, help them remember your application better, and help keep your reader engaged.
If you want to make sure you are choosing your stories wisely, be sure to check out our blog post on this topic.
Not sure how much context you need to include? 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 Goals Tip #4: Connect to Your Target Program
Besides your goals and a bit of context, you don’t want to forget the other essential element to your goals essay – connecting to your future program by explaining why their school is the very best for your specific needs.
In this section of your essay, you want to show that your target program can give you everything you need to reach your stated goals. Specific classes, the school’s non-academic offerings, and school culture can all be referenced to support your argument that this program is the very best (or only) way to build the skills you need to reach your goals.
Here are some good examples of school-specific opportunities you could talk about in your MBA goals essay:
“I want to take advantage of the class Leadership in Small Businesses to gain an international perspective of how family-run business decisions are made since my previous experience has been entirely with major companies.”
“Through the Education Club, I will further engage in the community to enhance my knowledge of the educational landscape.”
“Additionally, CBS’ Global Immersion class will allow me to learn in-depth international business practices, especially by meeting with business executives and government officials.”
As you can see, these statements not only make it clear what you want to do at the school but also why you want to do it. By showing how each of these opportunities will help you grow, you can argue the school’s essential role in helping you reach your post-MBA goals more effectively.
There are many ways to achieve this: arguments relating to specific professors, values that the school holds in particular regard, or even connections to alumni are often good bets here. Columbia Business School, for example, feels it is important that candidates feel a connection to their prime location in New York City.
Whatever arguments you choose, make sure they are specific to your target school. This means that you must do your research about the program ahead of time!
Discussing Goals Tip #5: Don’t Be Vague
Your vision of your future career path must be crystal clear since no elite business school will admit candidates who do not state clear, well-argued goals. After all, why should the admissions committee grant you a precious spot in their program if you cannot show them exactly how you plan to use it?
You may be tempted to keep your goals vague to allow for the many possibilities available to you in the future. After all, how can you be sure that you will still want your current desired position in 15 years? Sometimes, we even see candidates who would prefer to argue that they just don’t know what their goals are and instead hope that business school will help them figure that out.
Neither of these strategies will land you a spot in a top-tier MBA program.
The admissions committee knows that things change – and that your goals may change, too. But they want to see that you have thought clearly about how to translate your passions and dedications into a plan, and for this, specificity is key. Revealing that you have no idea will get your essay – and your candidacy – set aside.
You should also avoid vague goals like, “I want to work for a Fortune 500 company,” because who doesn’t? Vague goals communicate that you may not know what you are planning to do with your MBA degree.
Discussing Goals Tip #6: Use This Formula!
Try to think of the MBA goals essay as a story. The important components of the story are your past, present, and future and how they all connect. Specifically, how they connect should look like this:
Past Experience + Present MBA = Future Professional Goals
Your story should flow well between these components, building upon each of them and creating a unified narrative. However, that narrative shouldn’t follow a ‘past, present, future’ sequence at all, since it’s difficult to explain why a particular program is perfect for you if you haven’t stated your goals yet.
Instead, go with a ‘past, future, present’ format.
This means talking about the skills, strengths, and lessons learned you’ve accumulated, showing how all of this has led you to decide on your short- and long-term goals, and then putting it all into the context of the MBA you’re applying to. Organizing your essay in this way will provide clarity and flow.
We suggest using “The Rule of Thirds” when writing a goals essay. Though this does not apply to all essays and all profiles, a good rule of thumb is to devote ⅓ of your essay to the past, ⅓ of your essay to the future, and ⅓ of your essay to the present.
Discussing Goals Tip #7: Be Authentic
It is paramount that you don’t cave in to the pressure of making your essay ‘meaningful’ and choose goals just because you think they are what the admissions committee wants to hear.
Gradschool.com states that “success on this MBA application essay has nothing to do with manufacturing a statement of purpose that is engineered to hit the admissions committees’ hot buttons.” Keep in mind that the adcom has read thousands of essays and can easily tell the difference between “a career vision that has integrity and one that is simply engineered for effect.”
When writing about your goals, your passion needs to shine through. This means writing about something more impactful than climbing the corporate ladder or making tons of money, but it also means being honest and sincere about your vision for your future.
Make Sure Your Goals Essay Stands Out
As the central pillar of your MBA application, there is no way around your goals essay. In fact, it deserves dedicated time and attention to craft a persuasive argument.
Crafting effective goals with the right amount of detail and context can be particularly tricky. That’s why Ellin Lolis Consulting is here to help!
From helping you construct your personal brand to understanding the type of impact you intend to make, we have extensive experience helping candidates land an interview with their top MBA programs.
That’s why many candidates turn to us to help put our 98.9% acceptance rate and personalized approach to work for them.
As our client (and Berkeley Haas grad) Kelsey said, “I was so impressed with Ellin’s eye for detail and her ability to help me refine my points without losing my voice in the essays. She understands the specific characteristics that each top MBA program is looking for.”
So click here and put our expertise to work for your application!
Real MBA Essays That Got People In
School-specific sample essays that got our clients accepted
