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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
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