Harvard Business School

1. Please reflect on how your choices have influenced your career path and aspirations. (300 words)
2. What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (250 words)
3. Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (250 words)
Round 1: September 3, 2025
Round 2: January 5, 2026

MIT Sloan School of Management

MIT Sloan seeks students whose personal characteristics demonstrate that they will make the most of the incredible opportunities at MIT, both academic and non-academic. We are on a quest to find those whose presence will enhance the experience of other students. We seek thoughtful leaders with exceptional intellectual abilities and the drive and determination to put their stamp on the world. We welcome people who are independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative — true doers. We want people who can redefine solutions to conventional problems, and strive to preempt unconventional dilemmas with cutting-edge ideas. We demand integrity and respect passion.
Taking the above into consideration, please submit a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA program. Your letter should conform to a standard business correspondence, include one or more professional examples that illustrate why you meet the desired criteria above, and be addressed to the Admissions Committee (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation).
1. Introduce yourself to your future classmates. Here’s your chance to put a face with a name, let your personality shine through, be conversational, be yourself. We can’t wait to meet you!
  Videos should adhere to the following guidelines:
  - No more than 1 minute (60 seconds) in length
  - Single take (no editing)
  - Speaking directly to the camera
  - Do not include background music or subtitles
  Note: While we ask you to introduce yourself to your future classmates in this video, the video will not be shared beyond the admissions committee and is for use in the application process only
2. All MBA applicants will be prompted to respond to a randomly generated, open-ended question. The question is designed to help us get to know you better; to see how you express yourself and to assess fit with the MIT Sloan culture. It does not require prior preparation.
  Video Question 2 is part of your required application materials and will appear as a page within the application, once the other parts of your application are completed. Applicants are given 10 seconds to prepare for a 60-second response.
  The following are examples of questions that may be asked in the Video Question 2:
  - What achievement are you most proud of and why?
  - Tell us about a time a classmate or colleague wasn’t contributing to a group project. What did you do?
How has the world you come from shaped who you are today? For example, your family, culture, and community all help to shape aspects of your life experiences and perspective. Please use this opportunity to share more about your background. (250 words)
Round 1: September 29, 2025
Round 2: January 13, 2026
Round 3: April 6, 2026

Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern

1. Intentionality is a key aspect of what makes our graduates successful Kellogg leaders. Help us understand your journey by articulating your motivations for pursuing an MBA, the specific goals you aim to achieve, and why you believe now is the right moment. Moreover, share why you feel Kellogg is best suited to serve as a catalyst for your career aspirations and what you will contribute to our community of lifelong learners during your time here. (450 words)
2. Kellogg leaders are primed to tackle challenges everywhere, from the boardroom to their neighborhoods. Describe a specific professional experience where you had to make a difficult decision. Reflecting on this experience, identify the values that guided your decision-making process and how it impacted your leadership style. (450 words)
We’ve read your essays, we’ve read your resume — now we want you to bring all that to life in a video. Show us the person behind all those carefully crafted words.
The video will be comprised of three questions, each designed to help you showcase your personality and share some of the experiences that brought you here today.
Some things to keep in mind as you prepare to complete this section:
- Video essays are due 96 hours after the application deadline.
- A video essay link will appear on your Application Status Page after you submit your application and payment.
- You will need an internet-connected computer with a webcam and microphone.
- The video should take about 20-25 minutes to complete, which includes time for setup.
Here are some additional tips:
- There are practice questions that you may complete as many times as you like to get comfortable with the format and technology. The practice questions and experience will simulate the actual video essay experience to help you prepare.
- We encourage you to practice so you are comfortable with the format once it is time to complete the official questions. You will not have an opportunity to re-do the answer to the official video essay questions.
- You will have a brief moment to think about the question and up to one minute to give your response.
Round 1: September 10, 2025
Round 2: January 7, 2026
Round 3: April 1, 2026

Stanford Graduate School of Business

1. What matters most to you, and why?
  For this essay, we would like you to reflect deeply and write from the heart. Once you’ve identified what matters most to you, help us understand why. You might consider, for example, what makes this so important to you? What people, insights, or experiences have shaped your perspectives? (650 words)
2. Why Stanford for you?
  Describe your aspirations and how your Stanford GSB experience will help you realize them. If you are applying to both the MBA and MSx programs, use this essay to address your interest in both programs. (350 words)
Round 1: September 9, 2025
Round 2: January 7, 2026
Round 3: April 7, 2026

University of Chicago Booth School of Business

1. How will a Booth MBA help you achieve your immediate and long-term post-MBA career goals? (Minimum 250 words, no maximum.)
2. Chicago Booth appreciates the individual experiences and perspectives that all of our students bring to our community. This respect for different viewpoints creates an open-minded environment that supports curiosity, inspires us to think more broadly, and take risks. At Booth, community is about collaborative thinking and learning from one another to better ourselves, our ideas, and the world around us.
  The photos below (see here) represent some of the values described above that we uphold at Chicago Booth. Select one and share how it resonates with one of your own values. (250-word minimum)
Round 1: September 16, 2025
Round 2: January 6, 2026
Round 3/Chicago Booth Scholars: April 2, 2026

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

1. What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (50 words)
2. What are your career goals for the first three to five years after completing your MBA, and how will those build towards your long-term professional goals? (150 words)
3. Taking into consideration your background – personal, professional, and/or academic – how do you plan to make specific, meaningful contributions to the Wharton community? (350 words)
Round 1: September 3, 2025
Round 2: January 6, 2026
Round 3: April 1, 2026
Advance Access Round: April 22, 2026

Columbia Business School

1. What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (50 characters maximum)
2. How do you plan to spend the summer after the first year of the MBA? If in an internship, please include target industry(ies) and/or function(s). If you plan to work on your own venture, please indicate a focus of business. (50 characters maximum)
3. Through your resume and recommendation, we have a clear sense of your professional path to date. What are your career goals over the next three to five years and what is your long-term dream job? (500 words)
4. Please share a specific example of how you made a team more collaborative, more inclusive or fostered a greater sense of community within an organization. (250 words)
5. We believe Columbia Business School is a special place with a collaborative learning environment in which students feel a sense of belonging, agency, and partnership--academically, culturally, and professionally.
  How would you co-create your optimal MBA experience at CBS? Please be specific. (250 words)
1. What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (50 characters maximum)
2. Why do you prefer the January-entry term? (50 characters maximum)
3. Through your resume and recommendation, we have a clear sense of your professional path to date. What are your career goals over the next three to five years and what is your long-term dream job? (500 words)
4. Please share a specific example of how you made a team more collaborative, more inclusive or fostered a greater sense of community within an organization. (250 words)
5. We believe Columbia Business School is a special place with a collaborative learning environment in which students feel a sense of belonging, agency, and partnership--academically, culturally, and professionally.
  How would you co-create your optimal MBA experience at CBS? Please be specific. (250 words)
August Entry
Round 1: September 3, 2025
Round 2: January 6, 2025
Round 3: March 26, 2026
January Entry
Round 1: June 17, 2025
Round 2: August 13, 2025

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M7 Essay Questions and Deadlines 2025-2026