UW Foster School of Business Essay Tips, 2025–2026
The University of Washington (UW) Foster School of Business attracts candidates who are not just accomplished leaders in both their personal and professional lives but also individuals who seek a collaborative, innovative culture and possess an innate desire to solve the most challenging problems of our time. Outstanding application essays require deep introspection and a fluid storyline that effectively connects the dots between an applicant’s motivations, accomplishments, trajectory, and why UW Foster is the best launching pad to help them achieve their goals.
In this post, we offer tips on how to tackle each of the program’s application essays. Keep in mind that your personal narrative should flow throughout all components of your application. The admissions committee already has your resume, so the purpose of your essays is to add color and explain how everything in your profile ties together and makes you one of the best MBA candidates they’ve ever seen.
Essay #1
Post-MBA Plans (750 words maximum) – Tell us your ideas about what lies ahead in your career. What are the gaps or deficiencies currently preventing you from pursuing these potential career paths? How do you plan to use your time in the Foster MBA program to fill these gaps and advance your career?
This prompt provides a framework for your essay, so most candidates will structure their answers similarly. To stand out, you must be as specific as possible, demonstrate introspection, and clearly explain why you want to earn your MBA at Foster and why now.
Be specific. While changing your mind about your professional aspirations later is okay, it’s important to be clear in your essay about what your short- and long-term goals are, to connect the dots between where you have been and where you want to go immediately post MBA, to explain why you think Foster is the right program for you, and to describe where you ultimately hope to land professionally. Having visionary/stretch goals is okay, but they should sound achievable. Explain your motivations, including either an anecdote about what has inspired you or the story of a critical turning point that put you on your current trajectory. Provide examples where possible, using specific job titles or target companies.
Demonstrate introspection. MBA programs value candidates who are self-aware, have a growth mindset, and are in touch with not just their strengths and weaknesses but also their blind spots. Avoid generic answers such as needing “strategy” and “leadership” skills. What specific leadership skill do you need help developing? What do you mean by strategy? Connect your strengths to your long-term goals, and explain how the only thing hindering your progress is needing to fill the gaps you’ve identified.
Explain why Foster and why now. Demonstrate your in-depth knowledge of the Foster MBA experience by mentioning classes, clubs, programs, faculty members, and/or opportunities that only Foster can provide and explaining not only how you will benefit from those experiences but also how you will contribute to their success. Clarify why this is the right moment in your life to earn your MBA, leveraging your professional accomplishments to date and detailing why the timing is perfect for you personally.
Essay #2
Foster Mission Statement (500 words maximum) – TOGETHER – WE FOSTER LEADERS, WE FOSTER INSIGHTS, WE FOSTER PROGRESS – TO BETTER HUMANITY. This is the Foster School’s mission statement, and it serves as the north star for how we do business here. Please select one part of our mission statement and describe how it resonates with you in your personal or professional life.
This essay is your chance to convince the admissions committee that the Foster mission fully resonates with you because of your personal philosophy, past experiences, and future plans.
Brainstorm anecdotes from your personal and professional lives that speak to the part of the mission statement you’ve selected and consider how easily you can link them to bettering humanity and/or collaboration, how distinctively you remember them, how much they affected or influenced you, and whether or not they have been a source of inspiration. Although an anecdote about a team effort you led that created positive change might sound ideal, if you find more meaning in a story about being part of a larger movement or experience or about something important you learned, it could tie nicely into the “insights” or “progress” parts of the mission statement. Keep in mind that the prompt says “personal or professional” (emphasis ours), which means you must focus on just one or the other. Either one can demonstrate past and/or future potential positive impact.
Link the anecdote to your personal philosophy. As you share your story, explain how it has affected your life and inspired you to do more for humanity. Ideally, your story would link directly to a specific challenge for humanity that you are passionate about. Link the story to actions you have taken, or would like to take in the future, to make a difference.
Be forward looking. Foster is looking for candidates who will leverage their MBA to change the world for the better. How will what you are sharing influence how you will live your life? How do you intend to better humanity during your time in the MBA program and beyond, both on campus and in the outside world? What concrete steps, intentions, or actions can you cite? Share your vision for how you personally plan to live the Foster mission.
Essay #3
Optional essay (500 words maximum) – Include this essay if you have additional information you believe would be helpful to the admissions committee in considering your application.
This essay truly is optional, so don’t use it to expand on what you have already discussed in your required essays. Write this essay only if you need to explain any extenuating circumstances or clarify a potentially confusing element of your application.
For example, give the admissions committee insight into any less-than-favorable parts of your candidacy, such as low grades or test scores, a recommendation from someone other than your current employer, or a lack of upward mobility after multiple years on the job.
You can also shed light on parts of your application that would benefit from additional explanation, such as frequent job hopping, gap years, or a personal situation that hindered you in some way.
Application readers hate when candidates use this space to highlight more of their accomplishments, so make sure that you actually have a good reason for choosing to write this essay.
Essay #4
Optional Nurturing Our Community Essay* (500 words maximum) – At the Foster School of Business, we embrace inclusion and belonging as two of the foundations of both successful business strategy and a world-class educational experience. We share the University’s dedication to promoting the understanding and appreciation of human differences, and the constructive expression of ideas. We welcome you to share some of the ways you have practiced inclusion and promoted belonging.
*No separate scholarship application is required to be considered for Full-time MBA merit scholarships. However, we recommend that if you would like to be considered for the ROMBA Fellowship or Forté Fellowship, you may indicate your qualifications and interest in these scholarships through the Optional Nurturing Our Community essay question.
Given recent pushback against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, this type of essay is increasingly showing up in MBA applications as a way for schools to continue promoting a diverse and welcoming student body.
It is in your best interest to answer this question if you have clear, concrete examples of how you have participated in and nourished an inclusive, collaborative environment that promoted a variety of viewpoints from people different from yourself, in either your personal or professional life. Keep in mind that diversity goes beyond ethnicity, race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation, though you should feel free to share examples from within these categories as ell as beyond. Perhaps, for example, you have worked with neurodiverse or other individuals whose experience of the world and ways of expressing themselves are very different from your own.
Note that the essay prompt asks you to address two specific things: (1) promoting human differences and (2) the constructive expression of ideas. It’s not about just including others but going a step further and ensuring that everyone’s contribution is valued, all voices are heard, and each person’s opinion is respected and considered, because that leads to a better world and to better business decisions.
Showcase your positive impact and — just as importantly — how you benefited and grew from the two-way dialogue and inclusive efforts. Be mindful that you don’t know who will read your application, and be sensitive to how the people who experienced the situation alongside you would feel if they read your essay.
As is true with all essays, anecdotes are easiest to follow when they are presented using a simple framework. Because Foster’s mission statement already mentions benefitting humanity, be careful not to repeat yourself. Share examples and thoughts that build on what you have presented in your other essays without echoing what you have already shared.
The essay prompt says “some of the ways,” so offer either multiple anecdotes or a single anecdote with multiple components to demonstrate the myriad ways in which you have promoted inclusivity.
This is a great essay with which to showcase aspects of your personal life, because you might be able to draw more compelling, heartfelt examples from outside of your workplace.
If you don’t have any concrete examples to share, you should probably skip writing this essay. Including weak examples is more detrimental than offering no examples, because weak ones only highlight one’s lack of effort in the space. And lastly, as with all essays, be authentic, honest, true to yourself, and don’t try to “give them what they want to hear.” How genuine you are in your writing will absolutely come across to the reader.