NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide (2025 Entering Class)

$59

Average: 4.8 (207 votes)

Learn how to Answer the NYU Stern MBA Essay Questions for the 2025 Entering Class

Short Answer: Professional Aspirations: What are your short-term career goals? (150 Words)

Essay 1: Change: _________ it (350 word maximum)

In today’s global business environment, the only constant is change. Using NYU Stern’s brand call to action, we want to know how you view change. Change: _____ it. Fill in the blank with a word of your choice. Why does this word resonate with you? How will you embrace your own personal tagline while at Stern?

Examples:

Change: Dare it.

Change: Dream it.

Change: Drive it.

Change: Empower it.

Change: Manifest it.

Change: [Any word of your choice.]

Essay 2: Personal Expression (a.k.a. "Pick Six")

Describe yourself to the Admissions Committee and to your future classmates using six images and corresponding captions.

A brief introduction or overview of your "Pick Six" (no more than 3 sentences).
Six images that help illustrate who you are.
A one-sentence caption for each of the six images that helps explain why they were selected and are significant to you.

F1GMAT's NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide includes:

1) A detailed Analysis of NYU Stern MBA Curriculum with context on how Specialization and Electives, Experiential Learning, DBI (Doing Business In), Stern Consulting Corps (SCC), Stern Signature Projects, Board Fellows Program, Social Impact Internship Fund (SIIF), Global Courses and Leadership Development would add value.

2) Guidelines to answer the short-answer career goals essay by mapping specializations to your post-MBA goals

3) Ten Sample Essays for the Change Essay themes: Dare it, Dream it and Drive it

Example#1 : Finance Candidate (Dare It)

Sample NYU Stern Change Essay: Dare It (Finance Candidate – Immigrant Family) (350 Words)

Example#2 : Investment Banker (Returning to Office) (Dare It)

Sample NYU Stern Change Essay: Dare It (Communication Gap Around Mandate to Return to Office – Investment Banker) (347 Words)

Example#3 : Consultant

Sample NYU Stern Change Essay: Dream It (Consultant – Understanding long-term Goal and Personal Fears) (334 Words)

Example#4 : Fashion Brand Manager with Non-Profit in Education

Sample NYU Stern Change Essay: Dream It (EdTech Non-Profit Serving Cincinnati) (349 Words)

Example#5: Entrepreneurial Thinking - Accountant

Sample NYU Stern Change Essay: Drive It (Entrepreneurial Thinking – Fortune 500 Company)(340 Words)

Example#6: Sports Injury to Media Startup

Sample NYU Stern Change Essay: Drive It (Sports Injury to Media Startup)(348 Words)

Example#7: Healthy Eating in Low-Income Homes

Sample NYU Stern Change Essay: Empower It (Healthy Eating for SNAP beneficiaries)(347 Words)

Example#8: Non-Profit Consulting (Performance Metrics and FinTech)

Sample NYU Stern Change Essay: Empower It (FinTech and Behavioral Metrics in Non-Profit)(346 Words)

Example #9: Mental Health and Junior Bankers (Manifesting an App)

Sample NYU Stern Change Essay: Manifest It (Helping Junior Bankers Manage Mental & Physical Health) (338 Words)

Example #10: Music and Addressing Homelessness Among Teenagers

Sample NYU Stern Change Essay: Manifest It (Addressing Homelessness Among Teenagers in Baltimore) (346 Words)

4) Five Sample Essays for the career goals Essay

Example#1: Post-MBA Industry: Finance

Sample NYU Stern Essay: Short-Term Career Goals (150 Words) (Finance)

Example#2: Post-MBA Industry: Consulting

Sample NYU Stern Essay: Short-Term Career Goals (146 Words) (Consulting)

Example#3: Post-MBA Function: Product Management/Industry: Automotive

Sample NYU Stern Essay: Short-term Career Goals (148 Words)(Product Management)

Example#4: Post-MBA Industry: Marketing Consulting – Fortune 500 New Media Companies

Sample NYU Stern Essay: Short-Term Career Goals (149 Words)(Marketing Consulting – Fortune 500 New Media Companies)

Example#5: Post-MBA Industry: Retail Family Business to Luxury

Sample NYU Stern Essay: Short-Term Career Goals (150 Words)(Retail Family Business to Luxury)

5) 6 Examples to create the Personal Expression Visual Essay

Book Details

Page Length: 349

Version: 2025 Entering Class

Founding Consultant - F1GMAT, Author, Editor

Author: Atul Jose, Founding Consultant (F1GMAT)

Over the past 15 years, Atul Jose has helped MBA applicants gain admissions to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Chicago Booth, Kellogg, Columbia, Haas, Yale, NYU Stern, Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, Cornell, UCLA Anderson, London Business School, INSEAD, and schools in the top 30 global MBA ranking.

Through F1GMAT's NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide, Atul is bringing the secrets of creating persuasive essays into an easy-to-read format.

Who Should Buy NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide?

If your essay looks too bland, NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide will show you, with examples, on how to use the elements of Storytelling like Incorporating "The Struggle", using Emotional connectors, narrating the Journey and the use of Chronology, Vividness and Active Verbs to transform your essays.

If you feel that the Essays are not persuasive, NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide will teach you how to use the W-Pattern narrative, Contexts, Turning Points and "The Show Don't Tell Approach" to write a Winning MBA Essay.

If you don't know how to review your essays, NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide will demonstrate how to improve readability with the power of iteration, and maintain your original voice by removing review biases.

If you don't know which Images to use for the Visual Essay, the NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide has examples of the best combination of images for a persuasive Visual Essay

If you don't know how to approach the Change Essay, we have shared Samples with two themes - One with NYU Stern's Change Slogan and the other on how applicants have embraced change

Reviews:

"For visual essay, I tend to think of the choice of images linearly to a story. The Essay Guide examples showed me themes by which the images could be arranged. The slogans expressed the missing link between the image and the relevance of the image for my life or career event." - Verified Purchase

"The Guide is part tutorial on writing MBA application essays and part specifics on writing Stern Essays. The book helped me approach the Change narrative with a fresh outlook. An excellent tool for the Stern application! " - Verified Purchase

"This book does exactly as the title suggests: acts as a guide to improve your essays for NYU Stern's MBA Application. The 'Change' theme is a complete relook at a traditional way of answering the dream it and drive it narrative that connected with my story. " - Verified Purchase

"Comprehensive and detailed with the description of each specialization that I generously borrowed and rephrased for my goals essay. " - Verified Purchase