What the question basically means is this: what are the things that, professionally, you can’t do now that you will be able to do once you have attended the Wharton MBA program? What knowledge and specific skills – both soft and hard – will it equip you with? How will a Wharton MBA – the brand, the credential, the education, and the experience – help you accomplish your career aspirations?
Please note that Wharton is not asking about your professional background or your key accomplishments. You might add color to this essay by highlighting certain aspects of your professional background where it is relevant to your goals. You can talk about the key moments of your professional life that crystallized your career goals. Anything unique about your background is always worth highlighting.
To do justice with this question, you must possess a detailed familiarity with Wharton’s rich curriculum and community life. Which of its elements will help you achieve your dreams? For instance, past records show that the largest percentage of Wharton MBA’s go for investment banking, followed by management consulting. If your goals relate to any of these, the school obviously has something special to offer. What, according to you, are these special offerings? You can talk about Wharton’s immense focus on Quant based curriculum and its world famous faculty members of Finance.
Even if your desired industry is different, your choice of Wharton must have been dictated by the advantages it will provide you. What advantages are you looking for? Are you a risk-taking entrepreneur? Do you harbor ambitions of spearheading a non-profit? How will the elective courses, the networking opportunities, the consulting projects, etc., assist you in realizing your goals? For instance, if you aspire to launch a biotech company in China, show Wharton how the Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship will offer you the ideal ecosystem to grow your nascent business idea and the Global Modular Courses will offer you the perspective to know your target market. Moreover, narrate how the Global Immersion Program will help you understand the geopolitical drivers and cross-cultural issues in China. Finally, elaborate how you are going to leverage the Penn Wharton China Center in Beijing to get cutting-edge ideas and build alliances with various Chinese institutions.
With more than 100 clubs on its campus, Wharton offers an incredible opportunity for students to network with peers and alumni. If you dream of launching your wind power firm post MBA, then show how the Energy club will help you to network with future business partners and Wharton Energy Conference will help you to rub shoulders with senior leaders in the Energy industry. Moreover, narrate how you are impressed by the knowledge sharing at the Wharton Entrepreneurship Summit and are eager to meet some prominent VCs in the next summit.
If you dream of joining hands with a top-notch consulting firm, then narrate how the Wharton-INSEAD alliance will be a dream come true for you. Being one of the best schools in the world, INSEAD is the mecca for consulting. You can showcase how studying in INSEAD will help you to network with top consulting companies in Europe.
As you can see, the possibilities are truly infinite. All you need to do is a thorough research on Wharton. Talk to students, alumni, or the admissions team. You can talk to us as well as we have helped hundreds of Wharton applicants to finally sit in the Wharton classroom!
The Director of Admissions, Wharton School of Business, Blair Mannix, said in her podcast, “Our main goal is to get to know you the best that we can, and the change to our second prompt was largely motivated by that desire. We hope to give applicants room to reflect on their unique backgrounds and think about what their value-add will be to the Wharton community. Applicants should remember that the Admissions Committee is looking for candidates who will contribute to all aspects of Wharton life.”
As a Wharton MBA student, you are supposed to significantly contribute to the case study discussions in classroom, group projects and student-driven professional and social clubs. Wharton puts a lot of emphasis on collaborative leadership and teamwork. Hence, you may select 2~3 pivotal experiences that will help you to describe various facets of your leadership experience. Select stories in which you pushed things to new heights, did something to ruffle the status quo, changed the game, shifted things, or did something unexpected to create a substantial impact on your organization or any other non-profit. Thereafter, explain to the admission committee how such eye-opening experiences will help you to contribute to the Wharton community.
For instance, have you spearheaded any strategic project that significantly improved your company’s bottom line? If yes, then you can share your experience with your cohorts in various case studies on corporate strategy and contribute immensely to the Wharton Leadership Venture. Have you led an initiative to launch new products in emerging markets? You might bring your experiences of launching a new product to your marketing case studies and marketing group projects. You might also take a leadership position in the Wharton Marketing club. Moreover, have you led your company’s social initiatives? Maybe you can lend innovative ideas to the Global Impact Consultants club and provide consulting services to non-profits in India or South America. Alternatively, you can join the Social Impact club and educate your peers about the criticality of corporate social responsibilities. Finally, if you have championed a Six Sigma initiative and reduced defects across the product lines in a hi-tech or IT conglomerate, then you might share those experiences in the technology case studies and invite senior IT leaders from your organization to share their insights in the Wharton Technology club.
You should also explore the various social, athletics, and cultural clubs and write in detail about how you will contribute or even spearhead one or two of such clubs in order to enrich your overall MBA experience. 360 degree participation from your end will certainly improve the Wharton community.
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