A Kaplan survey of the admissions committees at U.S. MBA programs shows that most programs do not plan to reduce their number of application essays as Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, and Yale did recently. Only 13% of the 204 schools that participated in the survey responded that they requested fewer essays this year, and only 3% said they planned to limit their essays for the coming year.

The survey’s results show us that most MBA programs put great value on essays that allow candidates to share information about themselves, though some of the top programs reduced the number of required essays or their word counts in an attempt to streamline the admissions process and receive the necessary information from candidates in a more focused manner. This is not necessarily beneficial to candidates, some of whom find greater difficulty when given less room to express themselves.

 

Put Me in Business (applying in less than a year)
Put Me in Business (applying in more than a year)