MBA Application – Essays & letters of recommendation

Essays

All applicants must submit two essays online. Both essays should be in one paginated Word or PDF document (or in plain text, where Word or PDF formats are not possible). Please show your name on each page of your essays:

  1. First essay: What are your short-term and long-term career goals, and how will the MBA degree assist you in achieving them, given your current educational and professional background? (maximum 500 words)
  2. Second essay: Select one of the following topics (maximum 500 words).
    • Explain a difficult professional decision that you made and discuss, with the benefit of hindsight, whether you would decide differently in similar situations in the future.
    • Describe a problem that your organization faced and the solution that was proposed to address it. What was your role in the design and implementation of the solution and what was the final outcome? What did you learn from the process?
    • Write about an experience or an event where you or your team went beyond what was expected of you. Describe what you learned about yourself, your team members and your institution during the process of exceeding expectations.
  3. Optional Essay: Please address any other issues or factors that you believe would be helpful to the Admissions Committee in considering your application.

Letters of Recommendation

You need to submit two letters of recommendation from individuals who know your professional achievements well.

  1. Login to your University of Washington Graduate School Application.
  2. Enter the names of your two Recommenders, their employers, titles, phone numbers and email addresses in the “Designate Recommendations” section of the online application. An email is automatically sent to each Recommender along with a link to the recommendation form and a request to complete the Letter of Recommendation.
  3. Upon entering the recommenders’ contact information, an email will automatically be sent to the recommenders with a link to a recommendation form. Your online application will indicate “activated” when the form is sent out, and “received” when the completed form is returned to UWB from the recommender.