UPDATE: This article was originally posted on July 10, 2018. It has been updated with new information and tips below.
It’s not always phrased the same way, but each school is asking for the same thing: your goals essay.
Your response must be a personal statement that describes much more than just your short- and long-term goals (though they are, of course, the key to the whole essay). Crafting a compelling goals essay that lands you an interview means giving context to your goals and showing that you’ve thought through them enough to be specific and realistic.
In other words, a good goals essay will include both your short- and long-term goals as well as the context and motivation for having those goals, past experience you have in the field to support your plans (and ideally, some storytelling!), as well as the impact you envision making in those positions.
As you can see – goals alone are not enough. You will need to support them with other elements to convince the admissions committee to accept you into their program. To help you understand how to craft a convincing goals essay, we’ve compiled some of our best tips below.
What are goals?
While it may seem obvious, let’s start at the beginning: what are goals in terms of your MBA essay?
Goals are what you imagine becoming 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).
This means that your own 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?
Let me repeat that just to be sure: your essay must state clear, detailed short- and long-term goals.
Can I keep my goals vague?
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 after 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. They particularly want to see, as of now, what you plan to do with your MBA so they know you will use it wisely.
Chicago Booth, for example, explicitly states the need for clear goals when outlining who they are looking for when analyzing applications:
Arguing that you hope that an MBA will point you in the right direction long-term is also not the solution. Remember, the one thing that all programs ask is about your goals. Revealing that you have no idea will get your essay – and your candidacy – set aside.
So, no, you cannot keep your goals vague in a winning MBA admissions essay.
What do clear, detailed goals look like?
The key to a good goals statement is clarity and detail. Failing to provide this can leave the reader feeling like they do not fully understand your goals – and that you don’t, either.
Avoid vague goals like, “I want to work for a Fortune 500 company,” because who doesn’t? According to a Bentley University admissions team member, it’s much more effective to do your market research and choose a specific organization you’d like to work for because they are particularly innovative, socially responsible, etc. Be sure to show why you are aiming for the role and organization in your statement, not just what.
Furthermore, your chosen goals demonstrate your “career risk” to the admissions committee. In other words, they show the admissions officers how likely you are to succeed in the future and how well their program can set you up for success.
If your goals are vague, they will not be able to determine your career risk and your application will likely be rejected.
For example, in her first draft, one of our clients initially wrote:
“My goal is to increase sustainability in major Brazilian companies.”
However, there are some key elements missing in her statement. Who does she plan on working for and in what field? What kinds of sustainability? What kinds of companies does she aim to do this for? All of these things leave the reader wondering if the candidate actually knows what she wants to do in the future.
In a good goals statement, however, all of these questions will be clear. Take a look at how the candidate’s long-term goal developed by the end of the editing process with our team:
“In the long-term, I hope to become a principal at BCG who focuses on emphasizing sustainable solutions by promoting renewable energy in consumer goods companies across Brazil. In this position, I can not only help companies become more sustainable but reinforce this mindset among BCG teams in order to increase widespread environmental awareness in business.”
Not only is her long-term goal clear but she also details a plan to manifest this goal. Specifically, she names the position and company she hopes to work for as well as how she plans to focus on sustainability in that position.
In other words, by adding detail, you also add clarity to your MBA goals.
If nothing else, you must be specific enough to name both the position you hope to hold in the future as well as the company (or an example of the type of company) you plan on working for. If your goals do not feature these elements, I can tell you right now: they are not specific enough.
Looking for example goals essays to help you start writing? Our MBA Resource Center has dozens of successful sample essays, in addition to all types of essays from countless schools, brainstorm guides, resume templates, interview mocks and answer models, and much more. Find out more about your one-stop shop for MBA application success here.
If you’re still not quite sure what you want to do post-MBA, you may want to consider career coaching before endeavoring to write a convincing goals essay.
Assuming you have some rock-solid goals in place, let’s get started!
An interview-winning 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 (including how the program complements your previous experience and fills in gaps before you are prepared to achieve your goals). Organizing your essay in this way will provide clarity and a pleasing flow to the information.
Now let’s look at what each section should include.
Past Experience
Whether the question asks for it or not, a little bit about your work history is important to include in this essay. It gives context to your goals, proof 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 – a crucial aspect of your MBA goals essay. 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 editors highly recommend 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 in your tale.
A good story doesn’t talk about your evolution at a major company over five years. Instead, a good story focuses on a specific problem you had while at that company, what you did to solve that particular problem, and what you learned from the experience.
If you want to make sure you are choosing your stories wisely, be sure to check out our blog post on this topic.
Nonetheless, not everyone has a perfectly linear path where each step logically leads to the next. Your work history might look disjointed on paper, but the key is to emphasize growth and highlight your capabilities. All of this needs to add up to the next section: your future goals.
Future Goals
Your essay revolves around your short- and long-term goals, which means you need to think through these two things more than anything else.
At the same time, everything in your essay should be connected. It is important that you explain the relationship between all the lessons you learned along your career journey and your future – how has your past prepared and inspired you for your future?
As mentioned above, you should almost always include both short- and long-term goals in this part of your essay. Each of these elements should include your desired role, company/organization (or at least what kind), key actions and achievements, and ideal impact.
We highly suggest you take a look at other successful essay responses before you begin writing.
Our MBA Resource Center has dozens of past successful essays for these prompts – and many more! – and detailed brainstorming worksheets to help you plan out an essay that gets you into your top-choice MBA.
Our library also includes guides for all top global MBA programs, interview tips and mocks, CV templates, and recommendation letter guides. Click to join!
Present MBA
This is your chance to really sell yourself to the admissions committee – why is their school the very best for your specific needs?
You have proven you have experience and knowledge, and the goals that resulted from your skills gained and lessons learned. Now you need to show that this program can give you everything you need to reach those 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.
While some schools, like MIT, like their candidates to rely on general, school-specific arguments, most others want to know what specific opportunities you will take advantage of on their campus.
Here are some good examples of specific opportunities:
“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 more effectively the school’s essential role in helping you reach your post-MBA goals.
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 the school and, like all other parts of your essay, detailed.
In general, 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.
Answer the question
The above formula is a great way to make sure you include the crucial information in every goals essay, no matter the school. Of course, it’s also important to read each specific school’s question carefully and make sure you’re answering it relevantly.
Though many candidates want to reuse content from other schools to save time, our experience guiding 98.9% of our clients to receive at least one admissions offer proves this can be a costly mistake.
For example, Wharton has long asked a question asking candidates for an essay to discuss their career objectives.
INSEAD, on the other hand, asks applicants to get straight to the point, sensible advice considering how much space the school’s nearly 10 essays gives candidates to introduce themselves:
For that reason, carefully consider how the school is asking you to position your goals and make sure your essay answers this question.
Other elements that don’t directly answer the question should at least support your main point. Don’t gloss over questions that deviate slightly from the norm – if the application asks why you’re applying now or what you will contribute to the school, incorporate those aspects into the story, but keep things unified.
Be sincere
It is paramount that you don’t cave to the pressure of making your essay ‘meaningful’ and choose goals that you think 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 this group 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. Here too, storytelling can be a great way to emphasize both authenticity and passion in your MBA admissions essay.
Show cause and effect
A logical progression of thought needs to be present throughout your entire essay so that the admissions officer can see how your past experiences have shaped your future goals and why you now need an MBA at that school to achieve them.
Cause and effect comes into play even more when talking about your short- and long-term goals. Make sure that what you hope to achieve in the few years post-MBA can realistically lead to what you are aiming for long term. If the two seem slightly disjointed at first glance, you might just have a little more work ahead of you to show the relationship between them. If you can’t find a connection between the two, you may want to take a step back and reflect more in-depth about your post-MBA plans.
One helpful way of successfully illustrating this cause-and-effect connection is by talking to an MBA consultant about your career path. The key is simply communicating your past and future well – something that we here at Ellin Lolis Consulting can also help you with.
Make sure your goals essay stands out from the crowd
Standing out as a prime candidate to admissions counselors means writing a goals essay with clarity and purpose, showing that you are informed and visionary enough to see your goals through. If you follow the above format and tips, you will likely be on a path to achieving your next goal: landing an interview with your top choice MBA program.
However, crafting a goals essay that convinces the world’s toughest admissions committees that you deserve a place in their program can often be a daunting task.
That’s why many candidates turn to us to help put our 98.9% acceptance rate and personalized approach to work for them.
Not only can we help you develop a strong personal brand and identify the achievements that will best reinforce your brand but our expert team of editors can also ensure you’re able to turn ideas into essays that cut through the noise and help the admissions committee connect with you and your ideas.
As our client (and Columbia admit) Elisa H. said, “Ellin Lolis MBA Consulting helped me clarify my goals for the future and communicate those ideas effectively in my various essays. I’m confident that their editing suggestions helped me present myself as the best candidate I could be, which led to acceptances at every school to which I applied.
I would highly recommend Ellin Lolis as they were fantastic at helping me flesh out ideas I had in my head in a way that would make the most impact with an admissions committee.”
Want to put the Ellin Lolis Advantage to work for your admissions essays? Find out more about our team of expert MBA essay editors here.
Real MBA Essays That Got People In
School-specific sample essays that got our clients accepted
