Crafting well-written essays is both challenging and rewarding. You can find advice and essay guidance from many outside influencers and websites; however, my colleagues and I want you to hear directly from those of us who are reading and evaluating your essays. Below I offer insight to help you craft your responses to our 2025–2026 essays.
Essay Question #1: "Why are you pursuing an MBA and why now? How will the distinct Tuck MBA contribute to achieving your goals and aspirations? What particular aspects of Tuck will be instrumental in your growth?”
This essay maps to our “Aware” criterion, so before you start reflecting and writing, review what being aware, ambitious, and purposeful means at Tuck. Essay 1 is intended to explore your “vision for the future” aspect of Awareness. We want to hear about your plan for the path forward and how the Tuck MBA in particular will help you reach your aspirations.
Consider devoting roughly half the essay to why an MBA is right for you, and the other half to why Tuck is right for you. For the first part: explain why, given the various paths for growth and development, you’ve chosen to pursue the MBA degree and why you seek it at this stage of your professional development. Whether you come from a professional or personal background where pursuing an MBA is a typical step towards your goals or whether it’s less common, demonstrate that you’ve given real thought to the value of an MBA for you. Whether you are very early in your career, already have extensive experience, or you are right at the Tuck average months worked, show that you understand why this is the right time for you to step away from working and towards an MBA. An MBA can add value across a variety of professional pursuits. We hope to see that you can express thoughtfully how an MBA adds value to yours. If you are pursuing a joint or dual degree with Tuck, please help us understand how these degrees complement each other and your goals. If you already hold a graduate degree that is similar to an MBA, be sure to address why you need a Tuck MBA in addition to what you already have.
For the second part: explain why you are applying to Tuck. Show clarity and awareness about how Tuck uniquely advances you towards your goals. That requires aligning what Tuck offers with what you want. The strongest essays are ones where the reader cannot simply replace the word "Tuck" with any other school name without the essay losing its meaning. Whether it is aspects of Tuck’s curricular or programmatic offerings, individualized career guidance, or the uniquely supportive community and alumni network, help us understand what it is about Tuck that speaks to you and why it will help you achieve your aspirations.
Sometimes we see candidates include a long list of names of all the Tuckies they have connected with. Please seek out members of our community to learn about the Tuck experience, but rather than focusing on who you have spoken with in your essay, reflect directly on what you have learned from those conversations and how it relates to your goals.
Since you’ve stated your short- and long-term goals elsewhere, you don’t need to restate them here. We read each application in its entirety, so the person reading your application has already seen your goals before reading your essay. Some of you may choose to use this essay to elaborate on goals, while others might make your case for an MBA and Tuck without explicitly referencing your goals. Either way, consider this essay a supplement to your goals rather than a recitation.
In summary: a strong response goes beyond generic responses, applicable for any MBA program or any Tuck applicant, and instead provides a clear, highly personalized articulation of the match between you and Tuck.
Essay Question #2: “Tell us who you are. How have your values and experiences shaped your identity and character? How will your unique background contribute to Tuck and/or enhance the experience of your classmates?”
Like the first essay, this second essay also maps to our “Aware” criterion. Essay 2 explores the understanding of yourself aspect of Awareness. As you approach it, think about the interplay between individuality and community. Some of you have asked us whether your response should show that you “fit in” with Tuck or whether it should highlight that you are different and distinct. They’re not mutually exclusive. Our extraordinary community is a tapestry of the collective individuals therein who choose to consistently engage. We want you to confidently bring your whole unique personal self, including your strengths and growth areas, to Tuck.
In alignment with Tuck’s core values of being personal, connected, and transformative, we strive to get to know our candidates well, and this essay is another deliberate step to learn more about you. Applicants will sometimes ask me how they can differentiate themselves when they come from an industry that is heavily represented in the pool. This is a great place to do that! You are so much more than a job title. Use this space to tell us about the real you, things that we couldn’t otherwise know just by looking at your resume.
Perhaps my favorite aspect of this question is that there’s no one right answer, or even a right category of answers. We’re expecting responses that are as diverse and wide-ranging as our students. Maybe you define who you are most strongly through your professional experiences and aspirations. Or perhaps your sense of self is rooted in your life story that may not have anything to do with your professional work. Maybe a community of importance, a culture, specific relationships, challenges overcome, or personal values shaped who you are. The heart of this question is about your individuality and ability to contribute to the fabric of Tuck. Your answer is not limited to describing a single experience in your life. Instead, if applicable, feel free to include multiple aspects of your background that have come together to shape who you are.
Finally, we are interested in hearing about the person who will show up at Tuck and how you will enrich the community rather than the things you will do here. We expect some of you may choose to explicitly name aspects of Tuck where you will engage. That’s okay, but the true heart of this essay is your individuality, what you will contribute to Tuck and what your classmates will learn from you, rather than a list of classes you will take and clubs you will join.
In summary: we hope your response is honest, revealing, and deeply personal—one you and only you could have written!
Essay Question #3: “Describe a time when you meaningfully invested in someone else's success without immediate benefit to yourself. What motivated you, and what was the impact?”
This essay maps directly to our “Encouraging” criterion, so we suggest that you review what it means at Tuck to be encouraging, collaborative, and empathetic. We are excited to learn about how you empathize with and support others.
One of the hallmarks of the Tuck experience is the support that members of our community—students, alums, faculty, and staff—provide to each other. Tuckies go out of their way to help, even when it is not convenient, easy, or directly benefitting them. In this essay we are looking for how you have actively supported someone else “without immediate benefit to yourself.” We hope you will go beyond a simple tactical description of teamwork, an example of supervising someone that would be a normal part of your job, or doing something that would be expected of anyone in your situation or role. We hope to see that your interactions and empathy are not routine, common, or expected.
Unlike in essay 2, here we’re asking you to tell one specific, discrete story rather than offer general reflections or a collection of stories. The 2000 character limit is brief, so use good judgment about the level of detail to provide. Give enough context to set the stakes while leaving yourself enough space to focus on what you did and what outcome you achieved. Tell a story that focuses on your engagement with one other person, or perhaps a very small group, conveying the richness and depth of interpersonal interactions. We are interested in the relationships you built, the personal investment you made, and the impact you had. Here too, we expect a breadth of responses. Your story can be personal or professional. What matters most is the depth of experience and its meaning to you and to those affected by your actions.
In summary: a strong response will focus on a meaningful engagement with another person or small group, and go beyond what’s expected, routine, or common.
A Note on Character Limits
We recognize that 2000 characters is not a lot of space, and it is sometimes harder to write a shorter essay than a longer one. The ability to concisely make your point is a valuable skill, and we hope the character limits will encourage you to distill your answers into what is truly most important to you. Please do not use tricks, like stringing together multiple words, to get around the limits. Doing so would demonstrate a lack of awareness and will be viewed negatively by the Admissions Committee.
As always, my Admissions colleagues and I are happy to help if you have further questions about your essays or any other part of your Tuck application. Happy writing—we look forward to getting to know more about you through your essays!
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