Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business MBA Essays + Analysis 2024 - 2025

Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business has released its MBA application questions for 2024 - 2025.

Here are CMU Tepper's MBA application essays for the 2024 - 2025 application cycle. 

Tepper MBA Video Essay: Goals

Now, let’s hear directly from you! We know that your career goals are an important part of your decision to attend business school, and we are excited to hear them. Please describe your post-MBA career goals. You have up to 2 minutes to respond to this question.

• Please be as specific as possible. If you have not yet identified specific companies, that is okay. Just tell us what interests you for your next role or company. What about the industry, company, or functional role is appealing to you?

• If you have any criteria you are using to evaluate career opportunities, please share those as well. We may have great opportunities to add to your list.

• How does this post-MBA career goal relate to your long-term career plan?

All schools ask for your career goals, where you discuss your target roles and reasoning for pursuing an MBA. Tepper is unusual in that they ask for it in a video not an essay format, but the content should be similar to a written career goals essay.

In your 2-minute video essay, you’ll probably be able to say around 250 words. We suggest writing a script around this length that you can use as the baseline for your script in the video. You can repurpose your career goals essays from other schools to create this script.

1. Start by sharing a story from your past that demonstrates your motivation and mission in life. This could be from any point in your life, such as your upbringing, undergraduate studies, or previous job roles. This will give the admissions committee a broader perspective on what you're working towards. 

2. Next, connect this story to your career plans in the short and long term. Pick a short-term goal that’s ambitious yet realistic, given your prior experience and the skills you’d gain during an MBA. If you’re planning to transition to a different industry, role or location post-MBA, explain that in specific terms. 

Make sure your short term goal is closely linked to your long-term vision and the impact you want to create. Choose a long-term goal that shows a logical progression from your immediate post-MBA plans. Something that’s ambitious but achievable in 10 years' time. 

3. Lastly, share how a business school education will enable you to reach your preferred goals. What classes, clubs, professors, treks, events will you use to make the transition. 

Once you have written your script, it’s time to record a video. Do a couple of practice shots before you record the final version and you’ll be good to go. 

To ace the recording of your video essay, check out our article 8 easy ways to ace your video interview.  

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Tepper MBA Essay 1

The Tepper School community is committed to helping students reach their full potential. Explain your philosophy on helping others achieve their full potential. How have you implemented this philosophy in your professional life, and what impact has it had on those around you? How will this philosophy influence your approach to leadership at the Tepper School and beyond? (500 words)

Let’s break it down.

First, the prompt asks you to describe your 'philosophy' on helping others reach their full potential. Given that previous CMU Tepper prompts have also focused on demonstrating how you are collaborative and supportive of others, we understand that the school highly values empathetic leadership.

Second, by showing how you have implemented this philosophy in your career and its impact on others, you can demonstrate tenacity, introspection, and self-awareness, which are also key leadership traits.

Third, by asking how this philosophy will influence your leadership approach at Tepper and in your future career, the school wants to assess your fit with its culture and community both as a student and an alum.

Therefore, we recommend that you answer this prompt by telling a story of tenacity, followed by analysis, and connect this to Tepper.

One effective way to structure your answer is by using the SCAR technique:

• Philosophy: Briefly describe how you developed your empathetic leadership philosophy.

• Situation: Describe a situation that required you to apply this philosophy at your workplace. What was the context, and who was involved?

• Challenge: Define the challenge or task you needed to overcome.

• Action: Explain the actions you took to address the situation and help others.

• Result: Provide specific outcomes of your efforts. You are explicitly being asked to show impact, so the more quantified this is, the better.

• Analysis: Reflect on what you learned about yourself in this situation and how it has shaped your leadership approach.

• Tepper: The school is actively looking to build a strong sense of community among its students. Explain how this experience will help you to engage with the Tepper community

Tepper MBA Optional Essay

Is there anything else that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee as we evaluate your application? If you believe your credentials and essays represent you fairly, you should not feel obligated to answer this question. This essay is intended to provide a place for you to add information that you think is important but is not covered elsewhere in the application. This could include clarification of your employment or academic record, choice of recommenders or helpful context for the admissions committee in reviewing your application. (No word limit)

Tepper expects candidates to be thoughtful and strategic in their essays. So, you should only write this optional essay if there are serious issues in your profile that need to be addressed, or if you are a reapplicant.

Tepper does not have a specific word limit for this essay, but since the admissions committee is doing you a favor by reading it, it's important to be concise and aim for a maximum of 250 words. That’s around the limit that other schools apply.

In this essay, directly address the key issue(s) without any excuses or fluff. Explain the situation clearly and show how you have compensated for any shortcomings in a positive way.

For example:

• If you have a low GPA due to a family crisis like a divorce, discuss how you have managed it and any steps you took to improve your academic performance.

• If there is a gap in your employment history, describe any extracurricular activities or side hustles you pursued during that time to provide context and demonstrate your continued growth.

• If you have a criminal history or have been subject to disciplinary action in your academic/professional life.

• If you are a reapplicant to Tepper, use this essay to explain how you reacted to the rejection, followed by the actionable steps you took to improve your candidacy this year, such as improving your GMAT/GRE score, taking on new job responsibilities, or increasing your community involvement.

  
  

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