Yale School of Management MBA Essay

Yale SOM is offering three essay prompts to choose from for the 2024-2025 MBA application cycle. You have 200 words to share about your post-MBA interests and goals elsewhere in the application, but the essay is your prime opportunity to tee up how you arrived at those goals, and why they should absolutely 110% believe that, if anyone can, you are THE person who can manifest them. 

At the end of the day, the three essay options aren’t THAT different… you could imagine the same example working for all three, perhaps. So, which to choose? First of all, let’s cover what you want to touch on in your SOM essay… then we will go through the prompts one at a time and discuss HOW to determine which one will make your greatest achievements and capabilities shine. 

Like some other MBA programs, Yale School of Management has its own unique brand, and they want to admit students who are aligned to this brand. SOM prides itself on ‘educating leaders for business & society’. Historically, a higher percentage of their MBAs have pursued careers in nonprofit leadership post-MBA. These days, the alum pool is as full of MBB consultants and finance bros as the next top program, but they’re still looking for MBAs who can speak to the ‘& society’ piece of their brand. 

Yale SOM also distinguishes itself through its global focus: it is one of two US business schools that is part of the Global Network for Advanced Management (the other is Berkeley Haas). A global business experience is a graduation requirement, and can take forms from a week-long intensive at an international partner school to a semester abroad. If you have an essay topic that not only shows a socially-conscious worldview, but also an international experience or global lens, that’s a bonus. 

And of course, Yale doesn’t just want to want you, they want you to want them! Use this opportunity to SHOW that Yale School of Management (with its specific brand, resources, programs and specialties) is THEE school for you – and the ideal one to catapult you into stratospheric success.

Now let’s take a look at the application’s language and dig into the specific prompts…

Why We’re Asking

We want to know what matters to you. The questions below are designed to help us gain insight into your background, passions, motivations, responsibilities, ideals, identities, challenges, or aspirations, depending on where you take your response. 

Choose One Required Essay

Please respond to one (1) of the three essay prompts below. The word limit (though not necessarily the goal!) is 500 words.

1)  Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made.

Why is this commitment meaningful to you and what actions have you taken to support it?

This prompt is SOM’s tried-and-true, longstanding essay topic. They’re teeing you up to show them your values, why they matter to you, and how you’ve backed them up – not just in your thoughts, feelings and words – but with your actions. Remember, now – SOM is looking for the next crop of global leaders of business and society. This prompt is their way of asking you to SHOW – not tell – how you take consistent and impactful action in alignment with your values. How you walk your talk, even when it’s not all smooth sailing… and maybe even influence other people to walk with you. 

As you set out to determine if this prompt is the one for you, sit down (or use your standing desk if that’s your thing – you do you!) and write the biggest five or so commitments that you’ve made in your life. These can be personal or professional, but should pertain to your adult life, even if they began earlier. 

Now read over the list, and choose one or two that really make you ‘pop’. That’s to say, while your biggest commitment may be to your parents, spouse or child, unless you’re going to lay out some pretty unique circumstances, that commitment won’t set you apart from all the other applicants. Take those 1-2 commitments, and flesh out the following components:

1. Set up the commitment: what was going on leading up to this commitment? What precipitated the need for you to make this commitment? To what exactly (or to whom) were you committing?
2. Establish the stakes: What did you stand to lose by making this commitment? What did you need to sacrifice?
3. Show how your commitment was tested: once you’d signed on to this commitment, describe any circumstances that made it difficult to maintain. Maybe you ‘failed’ and then reestablished your resolve. Let the admissions committee know what it was like when the going got tough. If it’s been smooth sailing all along, that commitment might not be ideal fodder for this prompt. 
4. So what: How is this commitment relevant to your future goals? Why does it drive your desire for success and impact (via an MBA)? How has it shaped you as a person? This is your moment to show them that, while umpteen other prospects might have the same career goals on paper, YOU are the one who will actually commit and follow through and make things happen. They’re asking for a look under the hood to see the grit and drive that moves you, and this is your chance to show ‘em! 

The commitments that will make for the best essays will be unique, costly / risky (i.e., the stakes were high but it was totally worth it because of your values), challenging to maintain, and aligned in some way with your future goals. Don’t sacrifice meaning and impact for a commitment that’s super literally aligned to your career goals… but ideally you can connect the commitment with your DRIVE and TENACITY. 

2)  Describe the community that has been most meaningful to you.

What is the most valuable thing you have gained from being a part of this community and what is the most important thing you have contributed to this community?

Now onto the second essay option. Remember that ‘& society’ piece? Yup, that’s what they’re asking about here… they’re trying to find out if you’ll be a good leader not only of business but also society. And remember, SOM’s graduating MBA classes are generally just less than 350 people, so the school itself is a community, and a highly diverse and global one at that. The ad coms want to build out that community with folks who will be both conscientious members and good leaders. So here’s your chance to show through action how you behave in community, as both a member and leader. How you leverage community for personal growth while also giving back. 

Fire up your treadmill desk and write down all of the communities you’ve been meaningfully involved in. Cap it at the five most important if you’ve got a bunch (look at you go!), focusing on communities you’ve been involved in after childhood (even if you initially got involved as a kid). 

If you’re thinking, ‘Dang, my biggest commitment from the first prompt was to a community!’ – no problem! In fact, that’s great! Include it here, too. Everyone has their ‘greatest hits’ stories, and if you find a story or two is making the cut for more than one prompt, that might be evidence that it’s worth writing about! Go through the exercise for each prompt that an example pertains to… you’ll want to pick the prompt that best showcases your accomplishments and values. 

Once you’ve got your list, pick your top one or two communities, and go through the following writing exercise for each: 

1. Describe the community: yes, share the keywords, but also describe some ways in which this particular group is different from other groups with the same keywords or headers. Defy any stereotypes we might have. 
2. Describe what you gained: Skills, learnings, relationships, values… list them all!
3. Describe what you gave back: read the prompt carefully! If this is a community in which you just received or passively participated, it’s probably not your strongest option. Describe any leadership roles that you took on in this community, any ways in which you pushed for change or innovation, etc. Show how you weren’t just INVOLVED in the community around you, but you also SHAPED and IMPROVED it. 

Cool! You’re almost there. One more exercise for the final essay option.

3)  Describe the most significant challenge you have faced.

How have you confronted this challenge and how has it shaped you as a person?

Grab your feather pen and inkwell, and make one more list of the five or so biggest challenges you’ve faced in your life. They’re once again digging to learn more about your character, from a slightly different angle. They’re less interested to see if you ‘won’ when you faced this great challenge, and more in how you met the challenge. Again, are YOU the one with the grit and tenacity to take those career goals – which many share – and actually make them happen? When things get tough, do you still act in alignment with your values? And are you able to alchemize challenges into personal growth? All leaders will face many challenges in their careers… they’re seeking the ones who can listen, adapt, stay true to their values, keep going when energy flags, and learn from one challenge to meet the next one better prepared. 

As you review the list and pick one or two to flesh out, look to the second sentence of the prompt for guidance: pick a challenge that you actively confronted and that has made you into the superhero you are today. (And just WAIT until you get that MBA rocket pack!) 

Of the list, your best choice(s) might not be the greatest tragedy you’ve experienced. If the process of confronting the challenge has primarily been in therapy, that’s amazing and keep up the good work! – and also that might not be your ideal essay topic. You want their main takeaway to be, ‘wow, this person has a titanium spirit and is a force to be reckoned with in the great big world out there!’ and not ‘wow, that’s such a terrible tragedy, I feel so sorry for them’. (It’s ok if they have both reactions, as long as the former wins out in the end.) Yale believes they can learn key information about someone’s character and potential from how they face adversity… information that wouldn’t show up as a line item on a resume. 

For your top 1-2 challenges, build out the following:

1. Describe the challenge: what was happening before/when the challenge presented itself? How was your life impacted, or how were those around you (or globally) impacted?
2. Describe what you did: SHOW us the ACTIONS you took to confront the challenge. Describe any risks you had to take, or sacrifices you needed to make. If you initially shied away from the challenge then mustered the courage, great – include that, too!
3. What it’s like now: show how this challenge – and the way you met it – have shaped you as a person. How has it impacted your drive to succeed? To help others in the world? Use at least one concrete example to back up any assertions you make about how you’ve changed. 

Now your brainstorming session is over, whew! Take a beat, maybe a walk, or sleep on it… then come back to these lists and review them. Note if any stories show up more than once. Pay attention to which ones really show off your achievements in life (either in career, or community-focused volunteerism, etc., but ideally somewhere you’ve had a demonstrable, meaningful impact and flexed your leadership capabilities). If you’re stuck between two options, and one tees up your career goals more neatly than the other, pick the one that paints a more cohesive picture of your past, present and future. We all contain multitudes… just remember that your essay is more a branding exercise than a personal memoir. Of course, always use true stories, but remember you want to leave them with a clear, salient idea of who YOU are as a leader, that sticks with them through the seas of applications.