A statement of your goals will begin a conversation that will last throughout the admissions process and guide your steps during the MBA program and experience. To the best of your understanding today, please share your short and long term goals by completing the following sentences and answering the enclosed short answer question (350 words maximum)

Applicants should just try and fill in the blanks during the first section. Mention exactly where you see yourself working in the future. The target job role, the company and the industry. 

Applicants are expected to elaborate a little bit on how their past experiences has influenced their future professional goals. This makes it easier for applicants to share with the committee a little bit of history and how things like industry exposure and networking events, past projects and clients have influenced their decision making process during the past few years leading to their decision to apply to Cornell university. 

Essay Question1: At Cornell, our students and alumni share a desire to positively impact the organizations and communities they serve. How do you intend to make an impact during the next several years of your education and/or career? (350 words maximum)

The admission committee is expecting applicants to get in touch with the school community while applying. Applicants are expected to talk about how they have gotten in touch with alumni, faculty, staff or any current student. The applicant must talk about how the interaction have impacted their thinking and how they plan on positively impacting the school community. They must offer some added value to the school’s community. 

Based on their interactions with the Cornell Johnson community, applicants must clearly talk about an element or many that they resonate the most with, and show how they resonate using examples of experiences during their past life. This is an opportunity for the applicants to speak about one or two events in which they can clearly point out to some skill sets they think are valuable to the admission committee at Cornell. 

The majority of the answer to this question should focus on the applicant’s future plans and goals as a Cornell student and alumnus. It would be clever to discuss their life outside of the classrooms and point some volunteering experiences they still engage with or maybe some athletic activities. Applicants should do their research on what it is that the Cornell campus really needs and how can they contribute positivity to fulfilling that need. 

Essay Question 2: This essay is an opportunity to present yourself as an individual. We encourage you to think about your proudest accomplishments, interests and passions, and personal highlights that will help us to get to know you as a person and potential community member. We value creativity and authenticity and encourage you to approach this essay with your unique style. Alternative submission formats may include a slide presentation, links to pre-existing media (personal website, digital portfolio, YouTube, etc.), as well as visually enhanced written submissions. Maximum file size is 5 MB. If you choose to submit a written essay, please limit your submission to 350 words or fewer. Multimedia submissions should be under 3 minutes.

The front page of your résumé has given us a sense of your professional experience and accomplishments as well as your academic summary and extracurricular involvement. If the back page reflects “the rest of your story,” please help us get to know you better by sharing ONE example of a life experience, achievement, or passion that will give us a sense of who you are as a potential community member.

In this part of the application, applicants should feel free to show off their creativity and reveal more about themselves on a very personal level. Applicants have the chance to showcase a broad range of interests and things that are considered interesting to them that are not mentioned in their professional experience part of the resume. The point of this question is for the admission committee to get to know the applicant on an individual level by knowing more about their passions and interests outside of work and studies. Applicants can reflect on how they spend their time outside of the workplace, how they contribute and engage with other people within the community they live in? Maybe a little bit of information about their hobbies and sports? This will help the admission committee in their effort to get to know what kind of values the applicant possess and how are they similar to the overall ideology on campus. 

Optional Question (Required for Re-applicants): You may use this essay to call attention to items needing clarification and to add additional details to any aspects of your application that do not accurately reflect your potential for success at Johnson (350 words maximum). 

If you are reapplying for admission, please use this essay to indicate how you have strengthened your application and candidacy since the last time you applied for admission. Please also review our Application Guide for additional information about reapplying (350 words maximum).

Given how broad and sometimes even specific the above questions were, it is unlikely that applicants have missed an opportunity to show to the admission committee how they can positively impact the Cornell community as an MBA Student. So, for those applying for the first time, this essay question should probably address potential liabilities and pitfalls in their resume. Maybe the applicant does not have a high GPA, maybe their GRE or GMAT grade was not as high as they could have had it if they had more time to prepare for it… This is their chance to explain yourself! 

Those who are applying again to the MBA program at Cornell, should use this question to talk about how they have spent the past year. Focusing mostly on what it is they did to improve their profile, qualitative record, and professional skills. There must be an added value and an added quality to your profile and it should be talked about in this part of the application.