The Application Process

Discuss your long and short term career goals, how these goals developed, and what you hope to gain from graduate study at Krannert. Limit your responses to no more than 500 words.

When you read an essay the first thing you should be asking yourself is "what's the objective behind the school asking me this question". An answer to this will help you structure and frame the essay effectively. Business schools use the goals essay to do a reality check on your maturity and career savvy. They want to see whether you really have a career plan that extends beyond your first couple of years. Remember one more thing, the goals essay is almost always the ?rst essay question in each school's essay set, and ?rst impressions do matter. Anything less than a convincing, interesting initial essay will put you in a hole that your subsequent essays, no matter how brilliantly executed, may never dig you out of. Therefore always start strong and sound passionate about your career and MBA

Now let's see how many questions this essay is trying to ask. Always answer each of them; missing any one question wouldn't do justice the whole essay.
1) What do you want to do immediately after an MBA?
2) What do you vision 10 years down the line?
3) How did you come up with these goals?
4) How will Krannert help you achieve your goals?

In the 1st part, you need to think what you plan to do just after an MBA. Here they are not expecting a name of a company but the role/ function/ industry you want to be a part of and why. While answering that, make sure that 1) it's realistic 2) Krannert recruitment supports that. These 2 points are very important because they see how serious you are about this school and career. E.g If you have a 3.0/4.0 GPA in your undergrad and have low GMAT score and you want to work for say BCG( doesn't come on campus) then you have certainly set up a goal which is not a realistic one for Krannert to support . I would never say it's impossible but I would say chances are slim so in that case Krannert might not take you forward even though you have an exceptional background. End of the day remember, they have to place every student in the school so make sure you fit into the school's legacy, culture etc. For this you have to do your own research on what kind of companies come on campus , what kind of roles do they offer, what kind of Job responsibilities do those roles ask for. Talking to an alum or a current student will not only help you get an answer for this but also help you put some of those thoughts into your essay. Try not to be vague and generic like I want to be a consultant post MBA. This line doesn't tell anything about your vision and infact nothing about your research.

The 2nd part again can't be generic and at the same time it should not be very specific. It should show that you know what do you want to do yet you are flexible as an MBA. Again you should avoid writing that I want to be a CEO after 10 years. This is a very common mistake students make and it just shows the lack of research. Becoming a CEO is a great ambition but you have to let the business school know how you plan to reach there, which industry would that be, what do you plan to do in that position for the company. There should indeed be a good connect between your short term and long term goals. The learning from short term should help you achieve and foster your long term goals. Lot of people have community service stuff in their long term goal as well and that according to me is a good personal career addition which might just differentiate you as you are showing that diversity apart from the usual professional career plans.

The 3rd part has somewhat a resemblance with "Why MBA" question. You have to write about how did you come up with these goals? What made you think that this is what you want to do in life and an MBA will help you achieve it? Why do you think you can't achieve what you want without an MBA.No matter how staggering your quali?cations, if you don't provide a clear reason for needing an MBA, your application stands a great chance of losing out to those that do. "I need an MBA to advance my career and deepen my skills" is not a good way of writing a reason for an MBA. You have to be specific which skills are these and why they are important in your career plans and how Krannert will help you deepen these skills. Say for example , Taking negotiation class and the ELI live projects will help me improve my negotiation skills with the vendors which is a key aspect of the career I'm looking for post MBA.

Here you also have to step back and mention at what part of your career you felt that you lack in something and you have to get back to a school - business school to learn those skills. If you want to be a career switcher, mention why and what made you choose that career. Most importantly, why those goals; your past career experience can surely be one of the reasons for your short/long term goals.

For example, you are an application developer in the IT space and you hardly understand the business aspect of it hence an MBA will enrich you with the business knowledge and at the same time show case how IT is a business enabler and with that vision I choose to do an MBA and then work as an xyz which will leverage my past experience and use my MBA knowledge.

Last but not the least, you have to write how Krannert is going to help you getting to where you want to be. A good answer would showcase the candidate's research and interest towards the school. If you have spoken to an alum, been to events, participated in the class at Krannert, do mention about it and make sure you write how these events helped you influence your decision and blends with your career goals. You can surely talk about the curriculum, the Experiential Learning Initiative projects(ELI), the operation/finance/strategy focused electives maybe the professors if you had a chance to be in their class or interact with them at some platform.
End of the day they should feel that your goals are realistic and can be nurtured at Krannert. You have something to offer as a student and they have a lot to offer as a school to make you realize your dreams. It's just a fit question and to make yourself fitting for the school, you need to know about it well.

Structure of the essay:
1) Strong 1 line starting on MBA or career/ some saying which is relevant to your career
2) Why MBA or what led to the development of the goals you would be talking about next
3) Short term goals and how Krannert will help you
4) Long term goals and how krannert will help you
5) Strong 1-2 lines ending on your belief on Krannert helping you realizing your goals.

To know more about Purdue University class profile, essays and analysis visit https://bit.ly/15orBeo

Hope that helps.

Cheers!
Vendetta