Cambridge Judge MBA Application Essay Tips, 2022-2023
For a university as rich in tradition as Cambridge, it is fitting that Cambridge Judge asks some classic MBA application questions about your career goals. However, Cambridge also seeks to understand your ability to collaborate with others and to demonstrate self-awareness in giving advice to a younger version of yourself.
Here are the main essay questions on the Cambridge MBA application:
Please provide details of your post-MBA career plans. The statement should not exceed 500 words and must address the following:
What are your short and long term career objectives? How will the Cambridge MBA equip you to achieve these?
Looking at your short-term career goal, describe the research you have done to understand how this industry/role/location recruits MBA talent and what they are looking for in a candidate?
How do you meet the requirements of your short-term career goal? What preparation are you doing now?
This is a classic MBA goals question, although there are a few nuances that require you to dig into the Cambridge Judge program to answer them fully. There are several parts to this question, and you should make sure to touch on all of them in your answer. In providing your short- and long-term career objectives, it could be helpful to give some brief context around what is driving your career goals. For example, many people could say they are interested in a consulting career. However, explaining the reasons why this path is appealing to you is where you can begin to differentiate yourself. An engineer who has become interested in business strategy will have a different story to tell than an investment manager who has become interested in consulting because he was involved in several mergers over his career and wants to learn the best practices for financial services firms.
The second part of this question requires you to understand how a Cambridge MBA can help you achieve your goals. Avoid simply listing all the resources on the program’s website, and do some thoughtful research into how one of the school’s concentrations can help you advance toward your goals. Also, consider some of the many experiential learning opportunities that Judge offers. It is far better to give some detail as to how a particular resource will help you develop needed skills than to list several resources without providing any discussion of how the resources would help you achieve your career goals.
Cambridge Judge also goes one level deeper in inviting you to look at its career reports to understand how likely you are to attain your intended career option through the Judge network. Reach out to members of the appropriate industry clubs to learn more about the recruiting process, and demonstrate your self-awareness by showing the Judge admissions committee that you have the background to be successful in your target post-MBA career and that even now, you are taking steps to prepare yourself for this transition.
Describe a difficult decision that you had to make. What did you learn from this and how have you changed as a result? (up to 200 words)
This question is a classic behavioral question, and using the CAR (Challenge/Action/Result) format will help you structure a compelling answer. Be honest here, and pick a truly difficult decision. Perhaps it was choosing between two compelling career choices or selecting the best candidate from a pool of well-qualified applicants. Be sure to give sufficient context to illustrate why this was a difficult decision, and clearly lay out the challenge you faced. Then, detail the actions you took in making your decision. What criteria did you use to do so? Share any additional challenges you faced along the way. Finally, reveal the result of your decision and what you learned from the experience. Self-awareness is a trait that MBA programs value highly. Let the admissions team understand how this experience has prepared you to make even better decisions going forward.
Describe a time where you worked with a team on a project. What did you learn from the experience and how might you approach it differently today? (up to 200 words)
Cambridge Judge considers collaboration and teamwork important qualities. This question gives you the opportunity to demonstrate how you have been effective in motivating and influencing teams, even if you were not the official leader of your group. The CAR model also works well here in describing the project (C) and then sharing the (A) actions you took within the group, as well as the (R) results of the project. The reflection on lessons learned is just as important as the example, so be sure to save ample room to reflect on how you might approach this team project differently today.
If you could give one piece of advice to your 18-year-old self, what would it be? (up to 200 words)
This last question allows you to show self-awareness by discussing what you learned during your twenties and how that knowledge would have benefited your 18-year-old self. Don’t be afraid to be a little vulnerable in this answer and to let the admissions committee gain a view into your younger mind-set. Beyond revealing that you are indeed coachable and learn from your mistakes, it also gives you the opportunity to share with the admissions team more about who you are and what you value.
In essence, Cambridge Judge is asking you to take stock of where you have been and to explain where you want to go—and how Cambridge Judge can help you in this transition. Your time at Cambridge Judge will be enhanced by spending time contemplating and responding to these thoughtful questions. Our Stratus introspection process provides the foundation to be able to answer these questions in a thoughtful and compelling way. Please reach out to us if you have any further questions about Cambridge Judge’s essays or the MBA essay process in general.