Essay 1
What are your long-term career goals?

This is a straightforward but very important essay. Admissions team is looking for clarity of your thought process here. Although the essay asks for long-term goals, it is a good idea to start with briefly describing your career evolution so far and then talking about your short-term goals leading to your long-term goals. Relate your goals to your interests, skills, and experience. Strike the right balance between being ambitious and being realistic.

 

Essay 2
What gaps in your knowledge or skills do you hope that this program will help you to work on?

This question is a continuation to the long-term career goals question. It is important to demonstrate that you have done a thorough research to find out the unique attributes of the program and how they align with and help you achieve your future professional aspirations.

 

Essay 3
What is unique about your background and experience that you would bring to your classmates at MBS?

This is your opportunity to show-off. Think hard to identify the ‘OST – One sexy thing’ that makes you unique – you’ll find it if you think hard enough. Talk about extracurricular / community involvement accomplishments, unique background, and any other standout experiences. While you may think of multiple examples, it is important to apply an overall theme to this response and also explain how exactly your accomplishments will turn out to be beneficial for the student body at MBS. Ability to work well within multi-cultural/ diverse teams is an asset in Australia.

 

Essay 4
Describe a workplace situation where you had a responsibility for managing people. Reflect on what you learned.

Leadership and teamwork are quintessential qualities that MBS is looking for in response to this question. Try to remember a scenario in which you took charge of a team/ situation, yet remained a part of the team and had an impact. Try to quantify the impact or the effect in terms of monetary benefit or other key indicators.

One effective way to structure your response is the START framework. S- Situation, T- Tasks at hand, A- Actions taken, R- Results of your actions, and T-Takeaway. Remember, what matters most in the response is how deep MBS can look into your perspectives, your beliefs, and your values via this story.

Note that it’s not mandatory to pick up professional stories. Extracurricular / community stories, if handled well, can be very powerful since there are no formal obligations in such situations.