Kellogg MBA Application Essay for 2019-20
Essay 1: Kellogg’s purpose is to educate, equip and inspire brave leaders who create lasting value. Provide a recent example where you have demonstrated leadership and created value. What challenges did you face and what did you learn? (450 words)
Essay 2: Values are what guide you in your life and work. What values are important to you and how have they influenced you? (450 words)
The Video Essay
JD-MBA applicants: Please discuss your post-JD-MBA career goals and why the JD-MBA Program is the right program to help you reach those goals. (250 words)
Reapplicants: Since your previous application, what steps have you taken to strengthen your candidacy? (250 words)
Kellogg MBA Winning Sample Essay – 1
Essay 1: Kellogg’s purpose is to educate, equip & inspire brave leaders who create lasting value. Provide a recent example where you have demonstrated leadership and created value. What challenges did you face and what did you learn? (approximately 450 words)
If I were to pick a quote to personify myself it would be “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” by Quincy Adams.
I was raised in a traditional South Indian family that believed women are to be married young, bear children and live forever taking care of them. While this is an ideal way of life for some, it wasn’t for me.
In the year 2014, a year after our marriage, my husband vocalized his intent to take a break from his career and pursue medical residency and if I would be willing to support him. As a young independent individual, I was more than happy to support my husband, and we decided that we were in it together as a team. However, our parents were opposed to this idea as they are very traditional. They argued that my husband should find steady work, and I should be staying home taking care of the family. Nevertheless, during this period, I stepped up to handle a career at Ogilvy & Mather as a software developer where I partnered with a team to incubate a new initiative and in parallel, I also made sure the home and parents were taken care of. At the end of the 4 years, after a lot of ups and downs, my husband completed his exams and residency. He secured a medical director job at a top pharmaceutical company.
Once my husband completed his exams, I took another step that our parents did not agree with by taking the entrepreneurial route and to build a publishing platform. With the help of three other founders, We co-founded a content creation platform called “Medium Theory” which was a next-gen destination that focused on women. The platform published content on careers, technology, news, politics, mental health and entertainment for women. We bootstrapped the platform with six team members where I was a product manager that was responsible for defining the roadmap and initiatives we pursued. We successfully grew the platform to more than 500 unique monthly users and were working with recognized brands and freelance content creators which was a successful start to my dreams.
These are the two instances where I exemplify Quincy’s quote but for myself. In both these examples, I did not lead big teams but these are big situations that have pushed me to challenge my own status quo. Going against your family is never easy but I learned to use that criticism to power through and succeed. I refused to be bound by archaic roles and dared to dream more, do more and become more.
Essay 2: Values are what guide you in life and work. What values are important to you and how have they influenced you? (approximately 450 words)
For me, being able to deeply touch and impact another life in a positive way is the most profound satisfaction. One of my principles in life is to make a positive impact in this world in my lifetime.
I have been in a lot of circumstances where I was underestimated and was given a secondary consolation position just because I was a woman. Education has empowered me to think, take action, control the situation and eventually break the barriers of my surroundings. Having broken my own barriers and knowing that there are many other women and children in similar situations inspired me to help empower them.
I am an active member of “pledge 1%” and for the past three years, I have been volunteering and mentor for ‘girls who code’ where I teach high school students about programming in the NJ/NY area. I also dedicate my time to provide mentorship and career guidance for students entering their first jobs after graduation. I have mentored seven students to date that have grown into their respective careers and working with three other students that are graduating in 2020.
Another value that deeply resonates with me is being persistent for what I care about and what I want to achieve. Over the years, I have developed this innate quality to go towards a goal with whatever it takes to make it happen. The very first instance when I learned about this innate persistence of mine was during high school. I was not great at academics and outside of that the one thing that I really enjoyed was volleyball and I became so deeply passionate about it that I spent sixteen hours a day training and learning the skill. Still, I failed the first two selection trials for my school team but the passion for the sport did not let me down. I worked on figuring out my shortcomings with my coach and focused on building chemistry with other players to work together as a team and succeed. To improve, I increased playing with the team and not just by myself. I also took up throw-ball and badminton to understand and learn team strategy. I eventually ended up playing for my school at the state and national level during the next consecutive years.
Through all my highs and lows in playing as a team I learned how important being passionate is and if you want to achieve something, you have to figure out if you really care about it and if you are ready to give it your heart and soul.
Kellogg MBA Winning Sample Essay – 2
Kellogg’s purpose is to educate, equip and inspire brave leaders who create lasting value. Provide a recent example where you have demonstrated leadership and created value. What challenges did you face and what did you learn? (450 words)
John Lennon’s famous quote states: “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” This phrase reflects one of the most important characteristics of being a good leader: surrounding yourself with people who share the same goals.
I first saw an opportunity to put Lennon’s words into practice when I joined MBB after graduating from UNI. While studying abroad in France, I participated in recruiting processes for Brazilian consulting firms and saw firsthand that MBB lagged behind our key competitors in recruiting Brazilian students pursuing dual degrees. At MBB, I spoke with several partners and principals to explain the value of creating a dual-degree recruiting team. However, the partners pushed back, feeling candidates’ fit could not be accurately assessed remotely. I talked to the IT department and tried to mitigate risks related to all technology concerns, ensuring we had a solid toolkit to do online interviews and webinars without any damage to the interactions with candidates. Eventually, they granted me permission to run a pilot program.
I then gathered ten colleagues to help me with the project. We built the process, created the communication strategy, defined our priority schools, convinced a partner to host a webinar, and finally launched the pilot. The webinar was a success—more than 40 Brazilian students around the globe attended.
Today, the program has become an essential recruiting tool and accounts for more than 10% of the new hires. To ensure retention of the talent we recruit—a challenge in consulting—I created a mentoring program for dual-degree recruits which has led to an unusual ~90% retention rate after three years. To continue connecting with this pool of candidates, we are planning to hold our first event at MBB Paris in November to familiarize Brazilian students with the MBB environment and the impact a career in consulting allows them to generate.
I am proud to have brought together the people who make this recruiting program a success. I am also proud that it has fostered a spirit of community and coaching in the office, providing a readily accessible communication channel for new hires and allowing more experienced associates to develop coaching skills.
Through this experience, I have learned the value of taking the lead on ideas that I believe are important. I have also learned that John Lennon’s words are not only about the importance of creating a great team to help you convert your dreams into reality, but also about understanding the dreams of all people related to the goals. Through this experience, I have seen how dreaming together multiplies the effect of leadership by empowering others to become leaders themselves. I hope I will be able to dream together with Kellogg’s community, using my time there not only to reach my own goals, but also to support my colleagues in reaching theirs.
Kellogg’s purpose is to educate, equip and inspire brave leaders who create lasting value. Provide a recent example where you have demonstrated leadership and created value. What challenges did you face and what did you learn? (450 words)
The word venture can be used as a noun—referring to a “risky or daring undertaking,” or as a verb—to “do something or go somewhere that may be unpleasant.” In my experience, true leaders are venturers, individuals who empower people to overcome their most unpleasant challenges and make daring moves towards progress.
When joining the venture capital field, I knew I would play a key role in helping fledgling entrepreneurs overcome challenges, but I could not have imagined how complex it could be. I faced one of the greatest tests of my leadership after becoming the sponsor of a promising company: STARTUP, an education platform. Although the company was performing well, the company’s founder, Miguel, had difficulty closing operational gaps that were eroding the company’s growth. After examining these factors, I saw an opportunity: hire a COO to address the operational inconsistencies. When presenting my solution to Miguel, however, I was met with stark opposition; in his view, the operational issues were mere fiction.
Despite initial resistance, I knew I had a responsibility and got to work creating a new plan. I understood that the problem had to be dealt with in a more personal way. As I saw it, Miguel’s resistance to hire new senior executives was directly associated with his fear of losing control of his company. The key, I reasoned, was to connect with him as a person and not as an executive. I showed him that, though his fears were normal, bringing in help would actually allow him to grow the company to an extent he could never have achieved alone. To reinforce the benefits, I scheduled meetings with other portfolio company founders who had undergone the same experience so he saw the benefits from a group of his peers, not his investors.
In the end, I convinced Miguel to hire a COO. The company’s performance improved, and, most importantly, the founder grew into a more confident and prepared leader. More recently, he confided that he is considering hiring a CEO so that he can devote focus to his expertise—the product. This opportunity taught me that a leader must be able to extract the best from each person, focusing on their strengths and bringing outside help whenever necessary. By identifying Miguel’s priorities and fears and understanding how to best address them, I learned how to create the necessary changes.
Good leaders do not act alone, but rather delegate important tasks and promote collaboration. In a country suffering from a lack of effective management, I want to lead people effectively, and look forward to continuing to develop my leadership abilities by learning from the “ventures” of others at Kellogg.
