A reader and applicant to Duke's Cross- Continent EMBA program has requested that I post tips on Duke's EMBA essays. And that's exactly what I am going to do now.

For general advice on approaching the EMBA application, please see "Executive MBA: Applying to EMBA Programs."

Duke EMBA Essay Questions 2005-06

Essay 1

Assume we know nothing of your industry, your organization, and your job. Briefly describe what products and services your organization provides and your top three job responsibilities within the organization. Address your impact on organization strategy and your level of decision-making ability. Tell us why you want to earn the MBA, how it fits into your career plan, and what you will contribute to the MBA program? (Limit to 2 pages)

Write tight to answer this question. The directions are clear and you have a lot to do. Focus on the responsibilities that have allowed you to contribute the most to your organization. In the part of your answer that addresses your level of influence also try to very briefly quantify your impact. (For example, raised revenue X%, reduced cost y%, or improved employee retention by Z%.)

Then segue into a response to a fairly standard "why MBA" question. What would be a good segue? How you want to expand your influence at work and build on the duties that you have found most satisfying professionally. Then explain why an MBA supports that goal. What aspects of Dukes program will help you achieve it?

Finally close with what you intend to contribute. In this last section of the essay, show that you have done your homework and have a good grasp of this program. Talking to current students or recent alumni should give you a more realistic understanding of how you could contribute.

Essay 2

Tell us about your most challenging team experience. What role did you play? What factors made it a challenge? How did your group address these issues? What did you learn? (Limit to 2 pages)

You could use a professional or non-professional experience here, but most of you will choose a professional experience here.

Again, the question is very clear and highly directed. Discuss a challenging team interaction. Why was it challenging. What role did you play. Probably the most important element of this question is the last one. Think about it and try to avoid the superficial responses that plague so many essays. Don't write what you think they want to hear.

Essay 3

Discuss a person, event or experience that has significantly shaped your life and explain why. (Limit to 2 pages)

Unlike the first two, this is a very broad question. It's a "We-want-to-get-to-know-you-question." Certainly if you answered questions 1 & 2 with professional examples, you should write here about the non-professional side of you. To craft a winner, think deeply about the forces that have shaped you and write in a revealing, non-clichéd way about them.

AAMC Stat, a weekly ezine sent out by AAMC, announced:

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Stanford's Graduate School of Business frequently says that it seeks applicants who "have excelled by doing ordinary things extraordinarily well."  While Stanford GSB uses this phrase frequently, many other programs seek that quality too

Last week I saw the excellent documentary, Paperclips. It tells of a seemingly ordinary middle school principal and two of her teachers in a tiny hamlet in rural Tennessee who want to teach their isolated students about diversity. They decide their students should study the Holocaust. Because the eighth graders couldn't grasp the enormity of it, the teachers and students decide to collect paper clips – one clip for each of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis. This seemingly typical history project turned into a remarkable event that garnered international attention, transformed the students and teachers, and galvanized a small Southern town into building its own lasting memorial to all the victims of Hitler's tyranny.

Paperclips shows what can happen when a small group of people with limited resources (and a lot of luck or blessing, depending on your theological bent) commits. And while I certainly don't expect you to collect millions of paper clips or transport cattle cars around the world, I am positive that this inspiring movie will provide an extraordinary lesson in attributes that all admissions committees value:

• Passion
• Commitment
• Initiative
• Impact 

A few item of interest to MBA applicants:

• MBA Buzz , a new website for MBA's, slices and dices admissions stats graphically. It is an interesting presentation and fun, but I wonder how the site will control for false entries because anyone can enter data. I am also concerned that it will inevitably lead to even more of an over-emphasis on GPA , GMAT, and quantity of work experience when at the top schools the qualitative factors play a major role. Finally, it attempts to graph essays and extra-curriculars and I simply don't see how it can do so. Perhaps the site owner can comment. In addition to the  plotter, MBA Buzz aggregates blogs by schools and has the obligatory message board.
  
• Dean's Talk blog post on "Why Should Deans Blog."  I just found this to be a fascinating view on the benefits of blogging. No specific, concrete tie to MBA admissions, but in general it's valuable for you to have a window into the thoughts of business school leaders.
  
• Tuck's application volume and Europe initiative. In parallel with its India Initiative Tuck launched its European Initiative. Within the announcement, Tuck reveals,  "Through the first three rounds of applications for the class of 2008, European applications rose approximately 25 percent, as compared with this time last year. As a whole, applications are up about 40 percent." (Emphasis added)
• Businessweek has published a special section on family businesses and includes an article, "Making an Educated Decision" MBA programs that offer something special to MBAs who want to go into a family business. The article is OK as far as it goes, but it leaves out many programs that offer courses on family business dynamics within the MBA program.