Top US Business Schools Slash MBA Admissions Essay Requirements

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Four of the top US business schools have reduced the requirements they place on new applicants for their MBA admissions essays.

Within the last month, the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, Columbia Business School, Harvard Business School (HBS), and NYU Stern School of Business have all made announcements that they will reduce the requirements previously placed on applicants to their programs through MBA admissions essays, Businessweek reports.

A brief overview of the changes are:

•    Michigan Ross: A four part essay question reduced to three parts with a 450 total word count. One of three required essay questions removed, while one optional essay remains, but with a lowered word count of 300 (from 500).
•    Columbia: One essay question simplified, while another 500 word essay has been removed and replaced with a 250 word essay. A short-form question has been made even shorter, reduced from 200 characters to just 100.
•    HBS: Removal of two required essays, each with a 400 word limit. Introduction of an optional essay that simply asks if a candidate would like to give any more information. Required letters of recommendation also reduced from three to two.
•    NYU Stern: Predominantly the same, however the third of the three MBA admissions essays, which asks for any other information the applicant might like to add, is now optional.ac

Why cut MBA admissions essay requirements?

With four of the world's top business schools cutting their MBA admissions essay requirements, many will wonder whether other schools will follow suit. However, the truth is that like the actual MBA programs on offer, admissions requirements need to constantly evolve in order to best represent the continually evolving world of business.

As HBS' admissions director Dee Leopold explains in a recent blog post explaining the change to essay requirements at her school, “it’s not an essay-writing contest.”

"There is always – and will always be - great variance in both subject matter and degree of polish in the essays of admitted candidates," Leopold writes. "Maybe there will be admits this year who say we don’t need to know anything else beyond the credentials they have already submitted – for them, the application may be 'essay-less'. I also think that removing the word limit brings this process closer to the way things work in the real world which is always our goal."

HBS' new MBA admissions essay requirements, or lack of them as the only essay question is now optional, means it is somewhat of a rarity compared to other MBA program application requirements. Most, if not all top business schools will require at least one essay from potential applicants.

Whether other schools will emulate HBS' major change, minimise MBA admissions essay requirements like Michigan Ross, Columbia and NYU Stern, or simply leave them as they are over the coming years is yet to be seen. What is almost guaranteed though, is that many schools, applicants and industry analysts will be comparing the 2013 demographic of applicants to HBS' MBA program [hyperlink to HBS article from Thursday] to next year's when they are released.