How to Decide What to Write About in Your MBA Essays

“I have no idea what I should write.” 

I hear some version of this from many MBA applicants, and it usually turns out that the problem isn’t a lack of material. The problem is they’re feeling overwhelmed and getting stuck on selecting a storyline. Often their minds are filled with many possible options but they don’t know which to choose or how to develop them. 

If that sounds like you, my first piece of advice is probably not what you’re expecting: 

Don’t start writing yet.  

Go back to the prompt instead. Take a moment to study the prompt and see what it is actually asking you to do. Then before you start writing anything, answer the question in the simplest terms you can imagine—as you might have when you were just eleven years old.

If the prompt asks about your short-term career goals, finish the sentence: my short-term career goal is to… If it asks about a time you helped someone, start with one time I went out of my way to help someone was when… No opening line, no polished phrasing, nothing you would show anyone. Just the answer. 

It sounds almost too simple, and that’s the point. The simple answers will help you get unstuck, clarify your thoughts, and set in motion a thought process that’s more productive and strategic. 

Once the thinking starts to take shape, the writing gets much easier. 

Honestly, most applicants already know some of the stories they should write about. What they have trouble with is deciding which ones to use, and that is a very different problem from having nothing to say. This piece is about how I work through it with clients, and it's part of the MBA essay strategy that comes before any serious writing.

How should I approach an MBA essay prompt?

Schools choose their questions deliberately because they want to learn something specific about you through your answers. Understanding what MBA admissions committees are actually looking for in your essays can help you see why those questions matter. Each prompt is your first clue about what that is. 

So dissect it. And be especially careful with the long ones, because a single prompt often contains three or four separate questions—and occasionally seems determined to squeeze an entire admissions interview into one paragraph. 

One example from an M7 school asked applicants for their motivations for pursuing an MBA, the specific goals they aim to achieve, why now is the right moment, why this school in particular, and what they'd contribute to the community. That's five things in one paragraph. 

Break it into pieces and complete each “simple answer” on its own before you worry about how any of it will flow. 

Make sure you identify and answer every question, because the schools expect you to answer all of them. Literally. Michigan Ross has gone as far as writing "please answer both parts of this question" directly into a prompt. This may sound obvious, but it’s easy to overlook if you get anchored on the story you want to tell. 

This is a common problem, and it happens to people who are genuinely interesting. 

I once worked with a client who was passionate about a particular hobby. Let’s say it was birdwatching (to protect anonymity). She pursued this passion for years, traveling extensively and meeting remarkable people and learning many lessons along the way. She could have written a thousand words about it without breaking a sweat. 

We had to pause and refocus.

The question in front of her asked how she would contribute to the MBA community. A wonderful account of birdwatching that doesn’t explain its connection to the people who'll be sitting beside her won’t answer that question—no matter how rare the bird.

She wasn't doing anything wrong; she was deep inside her own story, which is exactly where you dwell when a subject matters that much to you. She simply hadn't linked it back to the question she needed to answer. 

How do I choose the best story for my MBA essay? 

Choose the MBA essay story that answers the prompt while revealing something important you want the admissions committee to understand about you.

With the prompt in mind, brainstorm compelling experiences that you might want to share. Then ask yourself: 

What do I want the admissions committee to know about me?

Maybe you are especially proud of a startup you created, a difficult problem you solved, or a time you took an unexpected risk. Look across the essay prompts and consider whether one of those experiences fits naturally. 

Don’t force a story into a prompt where it doesn’t belong, but don’t assume you have to start from scratch with every essay either.

If several stories could work, think about how you would prioritize them. Which one reveals something important about you? Which one responds most directly to the prompt? And which one connects most meaningfully with what that particular school values?

For example, one of Berkeley Haas’s Defining Leadership Principles include “Question the Status Quo.” Do you have a story that shows how you challenged an assumption or pushed for a better way of doing something?

For the Harvard Business School essay about curiosity, you might have several experiences that demonstrate how curious you are. Which one does more than simply prove that you ask questions? Which one best shows the kind of person you are—and even connects with HBS’s mission to educate leaders who make a difference in the world?

The goal is not simply to find a story that fits. It is to choose the story that helps the admissions committee understand something meaningful about you.

How can my MBA essay shape the admissions committee’s perception of me?

You have to answer the questions, of course. But if you approach the essays as simply an exercise in answering prompts, you are missing an opportunity to add evidence that changes the reader’s interpretation.

Remember: you know who you are, but the person reading your application has never met you. That seems obvious, but it is one of the easiest things to forget.

You have the benefit of knowing the full twenty-or-thirty-something-year history of you. The admissions reader has a transcript, a résumé, some test scores, recommendations, and whatever else you submit. From those pieces, they are trying to figure out the person.

The essays give you an unusual amount of influence over how those signals are interpreted.

Suppose your transcript shows weak grades in quantitative courses. A reader may naturally wonder whether you can handle the academic rigor of an MBA program. You cannot make those grades disappear—if only essays had that feature—but you may be able to give them additional evidence: perhaps a story about building a financial model, using data to solve a difficult business problem, or doing highly quantitative work outside the classroom.

Or perhaps your resume shows that you have spent your entire career at one company without an obvious series of promotions. On paper, that might raise questions about ambition or progression. But your essays might reveal another dimension entirely: a venture you built on the side, an entrepreneurial project you started in school, or responsibilities you took on that a job title alone does not capture.

That is what I think of as shaping the signal. 

Your application already sends signals about you, and some of them may create impressions you would rather not leave unexplained. No matter how worried you are about not being good enough, you are not powerless in that process. The essays allow you to add context, introduce new evidence, and help the reader see a fuller picture.

So yes, answer the question. But remember that your larger job is to help the admissions committee understand who you are. Every essay is an opportunity to shape that understanding.

What if I don’t know what to write about in my MBA essay? 

If nothing comes to mind, don't force an answer. Give yourself time to think, talk to people who know you well, and look for stories you've stopped noticing because they seem ordinary to you.

Don’t panic—and definitely don’t assume that means you have nothing interesting to write about.

Sometimes you just need to marinate on the question for a while.

Go for a walk. Fold the laundry. Drive somewhere without listening to a podcast in the background. Let your brain have an unscheduled meeting with itself.

The story you need may not show up on command, but it has a funny way of appearing when you stop staring at a blinking cursor and demanding that your life become meaningful immediately.

You can also poke around in your own life for clues. Look at your résumé, your hobbies, old photos, even your social media. What do you keep talking about? What do you spend time on when nobody is grading you or asking you to impress them? Something that feels completely ordinary to you may actually say quite a lot about who you are.

And talk to people.

Not with a giant question like, “What makes me interesting?” That is a lot to ask of somebody over coffee, or even a glass of Merlot.

Ask smaller ones. If you are thinking about career goals, ask your family what they remember you being obsessed with when you were younger. Ask a friend what you always seem to be talking about. Ask a former colleague when they thought you were at your best. Ask your therapist or life coach what motivates you. 

You are not asking them to choose your essay topic. You are asking them to notice things you may no longer notice yourself.

This is a big part of what happens when I work with clients. We might start a conversation thinking we have the story. Then ten minutes later, they casually mention something else.

“Wait. Go back. What was that?”

And suddenly we are somewhere much more interesting.

That happens all the time. Someone tells me the polished version of why they changed jobs, and a few questions later they mention a conversation with a manager that they have never forgotten. Or they describe an accomplishment, but the more interesting part turns out to be what happened the night before. Or they mention a side project almost as an afterthought because it never seemed important enough to put on a résumé.

Those are often the moments I want to explore.

When clients begin working with me, I have them complete a questionnaire designed to surface possible stories. I regularly read an answer and think, We HAVE to talk about this. But the questionnaire is only the starting point. The real discoveries tend to happen in the conversation that follows.

You keep asking questions. You pull on one thread, then another. You peel back a layer and find something underneath that the person never thought to mention because, to them, it was simply part of their life.

That is why I would not rush this stage.

The first story that comes to mind may be the right one. But give yourself enough time and space for the second, third, or fifth story to show up too. Sometimes the best essay idea has been sitting there all along, waiting for you to realize that it counts.

What kinds of MBA essay stories do applicants often overlook? 

Do you know what could sink your application? An amazing story that you decided not to write about. Take the time to reflect so more of your stories will surface. You don’t want to overlook or discount a story that helps illuminate something about you that admissions would love to understand. 

Here’s an example with some details changed to protect anonymity: 

Some years ago I worked with a client who intended to write about his job. It was solid, professional material.

It was also the least interesting thing about the year he'd had. A local disaster had destroyed his family's home and he'd flown across the country to help his mother put things back together.

When I raised it as a possible story thread, he said he didn't really do anything.

He had, of course. 

He had decided where he needed to be and who needed him more, and he had gotten through something genuinely hard. This says a lot about who he is and how he likely would act if a classmate needed support.  

In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker goes looking for a great Jedi Master and walks right past Yoda—not because Yoda is hiding, but because Luke has already decided what greatness is supposed to look like. MBA applicants can do much the same thing when they search their lives for essay stories. 

Why do we overlook things?

We didn’t think they were important.  We thought they weren’t “serious” enough for a business school essay. We worried we were too vulnerable or looked bad. It was something connected with a bad memory we’d rather forget. Maybe we don’t see the angle that makes it amazing. 

Or we simply forget because nobody has ever asked us to conduct an archaeological dig through our own lives before.

Eager to impress, applicants often think first about stories related to their achievements. That makes sense. Social media posts featuring wildly successful alums do not exactly beg for modesty in MBA applications.  

But the things you simply lived through often reveal far more about your judgment, your priorities, and what you do when someone needs you.

Take your time and gather all the evidence that supports what you would like the admissions committee to understand about you.

What should I do before I start writing my MBA essay? 

The hardest part of an MBA essay often happens before you write the first sentence.

Take the time to understand what the school is really asking, think about what you want them to understand about you, and give yourself room to uncover the stories that best connect those two things. 

Some will come immediately. Others may surface only after a walk, a conversation, or one more question you didn’t think to ask.

Then write.

Your goal isn’t simply to produce a polished answer to a prompt. It’s to help someone who has never met you see a fuller, more accurate picture of who you are—and how you would contribute to the class. 

In highly competitive programs, every “yes” from admissions also comes with having to deliver a “no” to several other applicants. Your essays help explain why YOU should be the “YES”.

Want some feedback on your MBA essay strategy? Request a free consultation with Barbara Coward: