Tips For The 2025-2026 Yale SOM Application Essays

The Yale School of Management MBA application for the 25-26 season offers applicants a choice between three core essay prompts: the biggest commitment made, the most meaningful community, or the most significant life challenge. The key is to select the prompt that best reveals your internal motivations and where you've pushed yourself the most, as these moments often showcase growth and development. The 500-word essay should ideally follow a STAR framework (Situation, Task, Action, Results) and weave in the reflection on the prompt's meaning or personal learning, rather than dedicating a separate section.

Yale also provides an optional essay, which should only be used to address significant "red flags" such as lower than average GMAT/GPA scores or unusual career changes. It's crucial to use this space judiciously and avoid repurposing essays from other applications. Finally, the application includes a video essay component where applicants respond to prompts with short preparation and response times, designed to assess quick thinking and authenticity. Practicing for this component can help build comfort with the format.

• Core Essay Options: Applicants can choose from three prompts: biggest commitment, most meaningful community, or most significant challenge.
• Essay Strategy: Select the prompt that best highlights your internal drive and personal growth, aiming to showcase development.
• Essay Structure: Utilize the 500-word limit effectively, incorporating a STAR framework (Situation, Task, Action, Results) and integrating reflections on meaning or self-discovery.
• Optional Essay: Reserve the optional essay for addressing significant concerns like low test scores or employment gaps; do not reuse essays from other applications.
• Video Essay: Prepare for a video essay component that requires thinking on your feet and being yourself, with short preparation and response times.

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Yale MBA Application Essay Options [00:00]

• The Yale School of Management MBA application for the 25-26 season offers a choice of three core essay prompts.
• The prompts are: explain the biggest commitment you've ever made, explain the most meaningful community in your life, or explain the most significant challenge in your life.
• There is no "correct" prompt to answer; applicants should choose the one that best showcases who they are and their internal motivations.
• The goal is to select a prompt where you have pushed yourself the most, as these moments often lead to the most growth and are revealing about an individual.
• The essay should demonstrate your capability for growth and development, with "crucible moments" being particularly telling.

Lean into those moments as you think about which prompt to respond to.

The Yale MBA application provides flexibility with three essay prompts, urging applicants to choose the one that best reveals their personal drive and growth potential, emphasizing that challenging moments are often the most insightful.

Core Essay Structure and Content [02:02]

• Applicants have 500 words for their core essay, which will go by quickly.
• A STAR framework (Situation, Task, Action, Results) is recommended for structuring the essay.
• Each prompt includes an additional question, such as "why is it meaningful to you?" or "what did you learn about yourself?".
• These additional questions should be addressed throughout the essay, not necessarily in a separate paragraph, and can be woven into the narrative.
• The STAR format helps ensure all parts of the prompt are covered.

The STAR format will enable you to make sure that you're covering off on all parts of that prompt.

The core essay, limited to 500 words, should be structured using the STAR method to effectively convey the situation, task, actions, and results, while seamlessly integrating personal reflections on the prompt's meaning and lessons learned.

Optional Essay and Video Essay [02:40]

• An optional essay is available, but it should only be used if there is a "red flag" in the application, such as a lower than average GMAT/GPA or an unexplained job change.
• If there are no significant issues, it is better to leave the optional essay blank rather than to fill it with a repurposed essay from another school, which could be detrimental.
• The application also includes a video essay component, which occurs before or after submitting the main application.
• Applicants will be given a short time (e.g., 20 seconds) to prepare for video prompts and then a limited time (e.g., 1 to 1.5 minutes) to respond on camera.
• The video essay is designed to assess an applicant's ability to think on their feet and be authentic, and while practice can help, comfort with virtual communication is expected.

Do not steal an essay that you really like from another school and plop it in. That will just annoy them and count against you.

The optional essay should be reserved for addressing specific concerns, and the video essay component assesses an applicant's ability to think critically and present themselves authentically within a time-constrained format.