2022 NYU Stern Full-Time MBA Essay Questions – Class of 2025
NYU full-time MBA Round 3 is 4 months, 3 weeks ago (January 15) which gives you plenty of time to do a great job on this application!
A short question and two required essays for 2022 :
- Short Answer – Professional Aspiration (150 words): What are your short-term career goals?
This is short and sweet, though much friendlier than what Columbia asks. This also maps perfectly with their Essay 1 and also their branding, which is acknowledging that dang, things are changing around us really quickly, so let’s be real about the fact that nobody knows what we’re going to be doing next month, much less in ten years!!
Here is a classic question that you should be prepared to answer for any school. Stern is inviting you to be direct and clear on why you’re interested in the MBA, by stating your intentions for a post-MBA career goal very directly. Our Career Goals App Accelerator can help you craft this answer very concisely!
- Essay 1 – In today’s global business environment, the only constant is change. Using NYU Stern’s brand call to action, we want to know how you view change. Change: _____ it. Fill in the blank with a word of your choice. Why does this word resonate with you? How will you embrace your own personal tagline while at Stern? Examples:
Change: Dare it.
Change: Dream it.
Change: Drive it.
Change: Empower it.
Change: Manifest it.
Change: [Any word of your choice.]
Ahhhh, the “blank-it!” essay! How perfect! Stern shows its willingness to innovate yet again this year, and this is perfectly timed for the era we all are living in. This one should be fun! (And how tempting is it to use a swear word in this prompt!!)
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.
We cover it all in the Stern guide which has been refreshed for 2022.
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.
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 one at NYU.
Make the most of your chance and pick up our NYU Stern application guide for insights and strategies!
NYU Stern EQ Endorsements
(called Letters of Recommendation at other schools!)
Stern uses semi-standardized requirements for recommendations, but to mix things up, they call their recommendation an “EQ Endorsement” which is a way to emphasize the value of EQ in their candidates.
In the two EQ Endorsements, Stern is asking the same questions that many other schools are asking and they have a unique Stern-specific one focusing on emotional intelligence. The questions are reasonably straightforward but you still may want to pick up our Recommender’s Instruction Sets for your recommenders to use, based on this difference.
Here’s the unique additional question that recommenders must answer for Stern (full requirements available at the Stern site here )
- IQ+EQ is a core value of NYU Stern, and we seek exceptional individuals who possess both intellectual and interpersonal strengths. Emotional intelligence (EQ) skills such as self-awareness, empathy, communication and self-management are at the core of our community of leaders. Please provide one specific and compelling example to demonstrate the applicant’s emotional intelligence.
If you’re stuck on who to choose, you can plan out your options and ask for input from EssaySnark with our Letters of Recommendation App Accelerator.
NYU Stern Deadlines 2022-2023
Round 1: September 15, 2022A Round 1 app always offers the adcom a vote of confidence that you have your act together and really want to go there, so try for this round if you can! No major disadvantage if you can’t, but it can be a good one to aim for. This is right in the middle of the craziness as Round 1 gets underway.Round 2: October 15, 2022This is also a really great round to aim for. If you haven’t gotten any interview invites for your Rd 1 apps to this point, plan for an app to NYU — or if you need more time to get your test score up before you apply, then target their Round 2 as a true advantage. It’ll let you do a better job on your app!- Round 3: January 15, 2022 This round is totally fine at Stern; don’t get confused just because it’s their third round, or because it’s later in January. Any apps submitted to any top school by their January deadlines are viable (doesn’t matter what the round is literally called).
We don’t list last-round deadlines on the blahg because of the lower odds of acceptance. Even though Stern has been more viable in landing an admit than some other schools lately, this is proving to be a very competitive season. Hitting NYU F/T in one of their first three rounds offers your best chances. If you are coming in late in the season and want to try, submit as soon as you can – don’t wait for the deadline!
The NYU Stern SnarkStrategies Guide includes a discussion of these options.
EssaySnark Commentary
- essay critique! NYU Stern short and long term goals essay (January 2021)
- NYU Stern and Columbia Business School (September 2018)
- MIT and NYU are not safety schools (January 2017)
- NYU’s GMAT score and the Class of 2018 (August 2016)
- A BSer’s comparison of Columbia and NYU (June 2016)
- Stern has rolling admissions (October 2012)
- Columbia and NYU: What’s the difference? (October 2012)
- What you need to know about NYU Stern now, before applying (November 2012)
- NYU Stern: Is it easier to get into the P/T program? (July 2010)
EssaySnark has reviewed a fair number of NYU essays on the blahg over the years. Here’s a couple from past seasons. Even if the questions are different today, the gist of your pitch will need to be similar:
- essay critique: NYU essay 1 “Professional Aspirations” (2011)
- essay critique: Stern “Personal Expression” essay (2010)
- essay critique: Stern essay 3 (2009)