Wharton MBA Application Requirements Trimmed: MBA News

By QS Contributor Updated Jun 15, 2014

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Wharton MBA Follows Trends at Top US Business Schools

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The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania has followed suit with many other top US business schools by trimming down its Wharton MBA application requirements.

Previously, to apply to the Wharton MBA program, applicants would need to submit three essays totalling 1,400 words. However, potential students going through the Wharton MBA application system this year will only need to submit two essays, totalling 1,000 words.

The Wharton MBA application essays this cycle are:

• What do you aspire to achieve, personally and professionally, through the Wharton MBA? (500 words)
• Academic engagement is an important element of the Wharton MBA experience. How do you see yourself contributing to our learning community? (500 words)

Wharton MBA Follows Trends at Top US Business Schools

In recent months, many of the top US business schools have announced similar cuts to their MBA application requirements, particularly the essays that many potential MBA applicants have to submit.

While many schools simply reduced either the number of essays required, or the word count, Harvard Business School made the radical move of removing two required essays and replacing them with one optional essay. As a result, MBA applicants can now apply to the Harvard MBA program without submitting a single essay.

Of course, Harvard's reduced MBA application requirements are very rare at a top business school, as MBA admission teams need to be able to distinguish between the many hundreds of applicants applying to their programs. While it's unlikely that other schools will go that far, the new trend among the top US business schools appears to be, like in the Wharton MBA application requirements, a reduction in the number and length of the essays.

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