2021 MBA Essay Questions: NYU Stern

 

2020 NYU Stern Full-Time MBA Essay Questions – Class of 2023

As their current application requirements again reinforce: NYU cares about IQ + EQ. Think about what that means (EQ especially) and reflect for yourself on how it comes across in Stern students when you do your research!

Two required essays for 2020:

1. Essay 1 – Professional Aspirations (500 words):
   • What are your short and long-term career goals?
   • How will the MBA help you achieve them?

This essay is going to be very straightforward for you to tackle — not necessarily easy, but also not overly complicated. After all, why do you know you need to get an MBA if you don’t yet know what you want to do with it?

The issue for many applicants is that they decide they want an MBA because …. dunno. Just because. Because everybody else is getting one? To get more money? Because I hate my job right now? Because coronavirus? Obviously none of those are reasons for seeking out additional education.

The MBA needs to be shown as the means to an end. If all of this has you sitting here scratching your head, well, our Career Goals App Accelerator might help you out! If you go through the exercises in that tutorial, you’ll be setting up a tight framework for how to write your answer for Stern Essay 1, and also for many other schools. Then you’ll get feedback on that framework, in terms of how the adcom is likely to receive it, whether it makes sense, whether you’re being detailed enough, and how the pieces fit together in the context of your background (based on the resume you submit with the exercise). Sounds like that’s a path to success, don’tchya think?

When you write this answer, make it not just generic “the MBA” but write it specific to Stern. Why do you need a Stern MBA??? That’s where the magic happens when putting together a compelling argument for this school.

Oh hey look! In early January we posted a few paragraphs of an actual draft of this essay that a BSer submitted for review! Essay critique: NYU Stern short and long term goals essay
 

Essay 2 – Personal Expression aka Pick Six:

Describe yourself to the Admissions Committee and to your future classmates using six images and corresponding captions. Your uploaded PDF should contain all of the following elements:

• A brief introduction or overview of your “Pick Six” (no more than 3 sentences).
• Six images that help illustrate who you are.
• A one-sentence caption for each of the six images that helps explain why they were selected and are significant to you.

Note: Your visuals may include photos, infographics, drawings, or any other images that best describe you. Your document must be uploaded as a single PDF. The essay cannot be sent in physical form or be linked to a website.
 
These directions could not be more clear. The best part is that this is your chance to share who you are. Time to sort through your social media feeds and find some good representations of that!!

We recommend making this a 7-page PDF, create it in PowerPoint, write your caption in a large font, make it succinct, and use lots of white space so that the reader can skim through and see at a glance how you’re representing yourself. And have we mentioned The Strategy of Authenticity lately? Well, that applies to a visual essay too!

They’ve also got an optional essay of up to 250 words, which is quite short, but it’s only to be used if necessary to lay out specific circumstance from your profile or explain something from your past that could not otherwise be captured within the application.

[end NYU Stern 2020 questions]

 

2019 NYU Stern Full-Time MBA Essay Questions

NYU saw apps dip by 4% for the Class of 2020, but at the same time their average GMAT ticked up to 716 — which tells us there were fewer candidates but an overall stronger pool. Average GMAT has been bouncing around quite a bit at Stern the last few years, which is partly a reflection of the reality that the adcom does not admit based solely on static numbers, and also because of the ebbs and flows of popularity and resulting application volumes at this school.

The essays questions in 2019 have been preserved for the 2020-2021 application also.

1. Essay 1 – Professional Aspirations (500 words):
   • What are your short and long-term career goals?
   • How will the MBA help you achieve them?

Essay 2 – Personal Expression aka Pick Six:

Describe yourself to the Admissions Committee and to your future classmates using six images and corresponding captions. Your uploaded PDF should contain all of the following elements:

• A brief introduction or overview of your “Pick Six” (no more than 3 sentences).
• Six images that help illustrate who you are.
• A one-sentence caption for each of the six images that helps explain why they were selected and are significant to you.

 

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NYU also accepts the Executive Assessment exam for admission to its part-time MBA program. They were the first school we know of to broaden acceptance of the EA beyond the EMBA.
 

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[end NYU Stern 2019 questions]

Stern went back to four rounds again in 2018. In 2017, they had ditched their November round but in 2018 they reinstated it, which we think is very applicant-friendly. There were also four deadlines for their Fashion & Luxury and their Tech MBAs which you can review on the NYU MBA admissions site .

 

2018 NYU Stern Full-Time MBA Essay Questions – Class of 2021

Two required essays for 2018 :

1. Essay 1 – Professional Aspirations (500 words):
   • What are your short and long-term career goals?
   • How will the MBA help you achieve them?

   This is an awesome, straightforward question. Why do you even want an MBA? That’s what they need to know. (Our Career Goals App Accelerator is perfectly suited to helping you identify the framework for this!) Beyond “why MBA?” this also needs to be a “Why Stern?” essay. This is a school that wants you to pitch them! Why are you picking NYU, among all the choices available for you to pursue your graduate business education? Seed those into this puppy!

   We cover it all in the Stern guide which we’re betting would be quite valuable in your app development process!
    

 

2. Essay 2 – Personal Expression aka Pick Six:

   Describe yourself to the Admissions Committee and to your future classmates using six images and corresponding captions. Your uploaded PDF should contain all of the following elements:

   • A brief introduction or overview of your “Pick Six” (no more than 3 sentences).
   • Six images that help illustrate who you are.
   • A one-sentence caption for each of the six images that helps explain why they were selected and are significant to you.

   Note: Your visuals may include photos, infographics, drawings, or any other images that best describe you. Your document must be uploaded as a single PDF. The essay cannot be sent in physical form or be linked to a website.
    
   These directions could not be more clear. The best part is that this is your chance to share who you are. Time to sort through your social media feeds and find some good representations of that!!

   We recommend making this a 7-page PDF, create it in PowerPoint, write your caption in a large font, make it succinct, and use lots of white space so that the reader can skim through and see at a glance how you’re representing yourself. And have we mentioned The Strategy of Authenticity lately? Well, that applies to a visual essay too!

They’ve also got an optional essay of up to 250 words, which is quite short, but it’s only to be used if necessary to lay out specific circumstance from your profile or explain something from your past that could not otherwise be captured within the application.

Make the most of your chance and pick up our updated 2018 NYU Stern application guide for insights and strategies!

[end NYU Stern 2018 questions]

Fashion / Luxury and Tech MBAs at Stern

If you’re in a hurry to get your MBA done, and you’re looking to take full advantage of the known strengths in specific sectors that Stern offers, one of these could be the perfect match for you.

The Tech MBA and the Fashion & Luxury MBA are both one year long, matriculating in May, so you can minimize your time out of the workforce in these fast-changing industries. They both have the same two deadlines, one in September and one in November (see below for all deadlines).

We’ve been coaching BSers to jump on the Stern advantage for these sectors for years, and now there’s an even more attractive opportunity to do so. We expect admissions to be somewhat more flexible for these two programs at least during this first year of inception, as the school builds momentum and app volumes. There are no other comparable programs to the Fashion MBA; Cornell has the Tech MBA which is the only other of its kind after this NYU one.

Make the most of your chance and pick up our NYU Stern application guide for insights and strategies!

 

2017 NYU Stern Full-Time MBA Essay Questions – Class of 2020

NYU saw apps rise by 4% for the Class of 2019, with a GMAT score up to 714. Average GMAT has been bouncing around quite a bit at Stern for the last few years, which is partly a reflection of the reality that the adcom does not admit based solely on static numbers, and also because of the ebbs and flows of popularity and resulting application volumes at this school. Despite these variations, we think Stern is an excellent institution and they were Runner Up in our 2017 Radcom of the Year Awards and are frequently on our radar for innovating.

They’ve gone and switched things up fairly radically here too! Stern was a school like Stanford: They had the same questions in their MBA app for eons. Now, though, Stern is showing what they’re made of: They’re using the practices of innovation within their admissions process and they’re inviting applicants to do something different!

Three required essays for 2017:

1. Essay 1 – Professional Aspirations (500 words):
   • What are your short and long-term career goals?
   • How will the MBA help you achieve them?

   This is an awesome, straightforward question. Why do you even want an MBA? That’s what they need to know. (Our Career Goals App Accelerator is perfectly suited to helping you identify the framework for this!)
    

2. Essay 2 – Program Selection (1 or optionally 2 essays, 250 words each):
   • Primary Program: Please indicate the primary MBA program for which you would like to be considered, as indicated in the Primary Program Selection section of the application. Explain why the program you have selected is the best program for you. (250 words)
   • Optional: Please indicate any alternative program(s) for which you would also like to be considered, as indicated in the Alternative Program Selection section of the application and why you would also like to be considered for this/these program(s). (250 words)

    
   This is your chance to pitch them on “Why Stern” and also why are you selecting this program — or these programs. It’s going to be tough to lay out proper justification for multiple alternates, and it’s going to be a hard sell to convince the adcom that you’re a fit to more than 1 alternate anyway. You’ll need to navigate this carefully, BSer! We’ll cover it all in the Stern guide.
    

3. Essay 3 Personal Expression aka Pick Six:

   Describe yourself to the Admissions Committee and to your future classmates using six images and corresponding captions. Your uploaded PDF should contain all of the following elements:

   • A brief introduction or overview of your “Pick Six” (no more than 3 sentences).
   • Six images that help illustrate who you are.
   • A one-sentence caption for each of the six images that helps explain why they were selected and are significant to you.

   Note: Your visuals may include photos, infographics, drawings, or any other images that best describe you. Your document must be uploaded as a single PDF. The essay cannot be sent in physical form or be linked to a website.
    
   EssaySnark has been saying for ages that a non-written Personal Expression submission to Stern is best, and now they’re officially telling you the same! And, they’ve given a beautifully structured set of instructions (which BTW is basically the same guidelines we’ve long been advocating to BSers who are trying to build a good non-written essay for this school or for Booth or MIT). These directions could not be more clear. The best part is that this is your chance to share who you are. Time to sort through your social media feeds and find some good representations of that!!

   We recommend making this a 7-page PDF, create it in PowerPoint, write your caption in a large font, make it succinct, and use lots of white space so that the reader can skim through and see at a glance how you’re representing yourself. And have we mentioned The Strategy of Authenticity lately? Well, that applies to a visual essay too!

Why all these changes? Well, one reason is that NYU has fallen out of favor among MBA candidates. This is reflected in the data. The average GMAT score for the Stern Class of 2018 went down — it’s a much more reasonable 710 again. (It had been up to 721 for the Class of 2016.) We discussed these changes here. This is good for you but not so great for a school that’s trying to maintain its prestige factor in the marketplace.

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Stern is not sitting on its laurels!!! (How many other lame cliches can we throw out at you here?)

 

And even more innovation at NYU: You can apply to ANY of the flavors of MBA at NYU Stern SIMULTANEOUSLY. They took the practice that Stanford recently implemented where you can do a joint app to both the GSB MBA and their MSx program, and went even bigger with it. For NYU, you should pick the program that you’re most interested in and apply by that program’s deadline. In your app, you’ll be able to select any of the other programs that they offer as alternate interests. This makes total sense! It’s more like how the Wharton Lauder application or the MIT LGO application works: If the Stern adcom decide that you’re not the best fit to your first choice program, they’ll still consider your application for your alternates.

What you need to do is be very strategic on a) which program(s) you’re going to target (we do not suggest naming them all!!!!), and b) how you’re going to position yourself as a possible fit to more than one, if that’s the route you choose with your app.

[end NYU Stern 2017 questions]

As we expected, NYU is sticking with the tried-and-true with their application this year: One very generous career goals essay (meaning, it’s long enough for you to capture some useful detail for the adcom) plus their classic Personal Expression essay. The only difference in this year’s requirement is simply some clarification on how to communicate what you’re submitting if your second essay is not a standard written “essay.”

Two essays:

1. Essay 1 – Professional Aspirations (750 words):
   • Why pursue an MBA (or dual degree) at this point in your life?
   • What actions have you taken to determine that Stern is the best fit for your MBA experience?
   • What do you see yourself doing professionally upon graduation?

    

2. Essay 2 Personal Expression (500 words if written, other constraints apply if non-written form):

   Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use almost any method to convey your message (e.g. words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative.

Even though they’ve asked for specific elements to be included in a structured manner, Essay 1 should not be broken out into three separate essays. Way back in 2013 they had the three questions marked “a)”, “b)” and “c)” which implied that they wanted the answers separated. They don’t. They’re just using separate bullets for the subquestions to make sure that you realize that each should be answered in your essay. You should do that by writing it as an essay – to do otherwise makes it look like a report or something. The Stern SnarkStrategies Guide explains this and other important advice for constructing your pitch to NYU – which we’ve updated for 2016 even though the questions have not changed! We got you covered.

You should also study the guidelines offered by the Stern adcom themselves on their website .

Want to picture yourself at NYU? What better way than the NYU Coloring Book!

[end NYU Stern 2016 questions]

2015 Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis

In Fall 2014 we named NYU
as our #1 favorite business school and you can see why they remain a top choice even 5 years later!

 

Yay to Stern! They have gone back to their roots. They’ve simplified their requirements by focusing in on the two questions that make them Stern: A very well-crafted career goals question, and their classic “Personal Expression” essay, which is now required. For the past two years it was optional, and applicants could choose a “what if?” type question about an alternate career path – which we never felt was that great. (If you’re curious, we post past-season questions below.) Kudos to Stern for taking it back to basics.

Two essays:

1. Essay 1 – Professional Aspirations (750 words):
   • Why pursue an MBA (or dual degree) at this point in your life?
   • What actions have you taken to determine that Stern is the best fit for your MBA experience?
   • What do you see yourself doing professionally upon graduation?

    

2. Essay 2 Personal Expression (500 words if written, other constraints apply if non-written form):
   Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use almost any method to convey your message (e.g. words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative.

The only change that we can detect from this (besides that they are now requiring these two essays and only these two, without an alternate that you could do instead) is it appears that they’ll accept YouTube submissions and other online video for Essay 2. Used to be, you had to mail in a DVD if you had a video to submit. So in that sense, they’ve joined the 21st Century!

In terms of actually constructing your answers, please note that Essay 1 should not be broken out into three separate essays. Way back in 2013 they had the three questions marked “a)”, “b)” and “c)” which implied that they wanted the answers separated. They don’t. They’re just using separate bullets for the subquestions to make sure that you realize that each should be answered in your essay. You should do that by writing it as an essay – to do otherwise makes it look like a report or something. The Stern SnarkStrategies Guide explains this and other important advice for constructing your pitch to NYU.

[end NYU Stern 2015 questions]

2014 Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis

These are AGAIN identical to what they asked last year.

(Please click the 2013 Questions link to see the archived essays – they were literally exactly the same in 2013 and in 2014.)

 

For the best advantage in preparing your strategy for this school – including an in-depth discussion of the times when Essay 2 Option A is best and when it might not be, and how Option B (Personal Expression) can be perceived by the adcom – check out the NYU Stern MBA Strategy Guide, exclusively from EssaySnark!
[end Stern 2014 questions]

For reference: 2013 Stern Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis

These are identical to what they asked in 2012 — except that you don’t
have to answer them all now.

Two essays:

1. Essay 1 – Professional Aspirations (750 words):
   • Why pursue an MBA (or dual degree) at this point in your life?
   • What actions have you taken to determine that Stern is the best fit for your MBA experience?
   • What do you see yourself doing professionally upon graduation?
2. Essay 2 – Choose One:Option A: Your Two Paths (500 words)
   • Describe two different and distinct paths you could see your career taking long term. How do you see your two paths unfolding?
   • How do your paths tie to the mission of NYU Stern?
   • What factors will most determine which path you will take?

   Option B: Personal Expression (500 words if written, other constraints apply if non-written form)

   Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use almost any method to convey your message (e.g. words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative.

One point to make: Essay 1 should not be broken out into three separate essays. In 2013 they had the three questions marked “a)”, “b)” and “c)” which implied that they wanted the answers separated. They don’t. Write Essay 1 as one essay. The Stern SnarkStrategies Guide digs into how to do it.
[end Stern 2013 questions]