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6. Theme: Diversity and What Makes You Unique
Our Business School is a diverse environment. How will your
experiences contribute to this?
During your years of study in the X program, you will be part of
a diverse multicultural, multiethnic community within both the
Business School and the larger university. What rewards and
challenges do you anticipate in this environment, and how do you
expect this experience to prepare you for a culturally diverse
business world?
Translation:
What about you is difference tin terms of your background, your
experience, or your cultural or geographic heritage? Can we count on
your unique voice and perspective in our wide-ranging classroom
discussions? How will you support the diverse, cultural climate we
are fostering here?
This essay gets at two concerns for the admission committee: 1)
how will you enrich the student body at this school and 2) what is
your attitude toward others’ diverse backgrounds? Today’s business
leaders must be able to make decisions in situations that cut across
geographic and cultural boundaries. If your essay reveals that you
have dinosaur- era, only-white-makes-rule thinking, you’re going to
close the door on your candidacy.
So what if you are a white male? Or you have no immediate point
of distinction? Maybe a grandparent or relative is an immigrant to
this country and you can discuss the impact of his or her values on
your life. Perhaps you are the first individual in your family to
attend college or to attend graduate school. What does that mean to
you? Perhaps you are involved in a meaningful or unusual
extracurricular activity. How has this changed your perspective?
Perhaps you did a business deal with a foreign country – what did
you observe about that culture, and how did it affect your
decisions?
Whatever you write about need not be dramatic –maybe you take art
classes, coach a little league team, or race a motorcycle. Sound
goofy? It’s all in the farming. Racing a motorcycle might be about
the physical and mental stamina, the ability to take risk, the
commitment to learning something new.
This question can be relatively easy to answer if, of course, you
have diversity or some unique element in your background. If you
don’t have something obvious, then you’re going to have to dig about
a bit and find something you can amplify to suggest you bring a
unique voice to the school.
Next: Sample MBA Essays #7: Your Greatest
Personal Achievement/Accomplishment |
