ASU W.P. Carey MBA Essays & Analysis 2024-2025

The following essay topic analysis examines the Arizona State University (ASU) W. P. Carey School of Business MBA admissions essays for the 2024-2025 admissions season. You can also review essay topic analyses for other leading MBA programs as well as general Essay Tips to further aid you in developing your admissions essays.

ASU W.P. Carey MBA Essays & Analysis 2024-2025

Let’s take a closer look at each prompt.

Essay 1

Describe your career path both immediately upon graduation, and five years post-MBA.  Include any roles, industries or companies that you will be targeting. How will the W. P. Carey MBA help you accomplish these goals? (500 words or less)
This is a straightforward career goals essay. Applicants are asked to provide information about their immediate post-graduation and longer-range career plans, and to comment on how W.P. Carey will help them get there.

With respect to structure, it will probably make the most narrative sense to open this response by introducing one’s career goals, as well as a few sentences about the professional experiences that have informed (and helped prepare one for) these objectives. Candidates can cover this content in either order: chronologically outlining their short- and long-term plans, or opening with the long-term and then explaining how their target short-term position is a logical first step along that trajectory. Either way, applicants should identify the specific position they hope to obtain after graduating from the MBA program, and may even want to identify 1-2 target organizations for which they would particularly like to work. In describing their long-term goals, meanwhile, candidates should aim to comment on what draws them to this role as well as the larger impact they hope to make on an organization, category, sector, or region.

This opening section about one’s career goals will then provide some context for a discussion of the applicant’s goals at W.P. Carey. This should include comments about how specific courses and student clubs will help the applicant to bridge the gap between their current skill set and the demands of their post-MBA roles, as well as ways the applicant would enhance the experience of other students and contribute to the MBA community. While many of these comments should be career-focused, applicants would also do well to introduce additional interests and planned involvements related to established hobbies, athletic pursuits, and broader community involvement. This will help to round out one’s candidacy in the eyes of the adcom and provide a fuller picture of your interests and potential contributions.

Essay 2

Business is personal at W. P. Carey, so we’re curious… what are the top three moments in your life and how will they prepare you for the MBA experience? (500 words or less)
Begin with a brief introduction that acknowledges the importance of these three moments in your life and how they have collectively prepared you for the MBA experience.

Your three moments can vary in source from personal to professional, whether an achievement, a challenge you overcame, or an impactful experience that influenced your worldview. Perhaps you had a transformative learning experience, or made a key decision that altered your career path. The door is wide open for examples here and will take reflection on your part; developing a personal inventory can help here. You may begin to brainstorm by writing down the 15 to 20 most important events, accomplishments, interests, or experiences in your life. Include the good, the bad, the astounding, the ugly, etc.  Look at the list you have generated and try to determine the themes that unify the important events, interests, and ideas in your life.

You can reflect on these defining moments for you and then connect them to the Carey MBA experience, or you may research what to expect in the Carey MBA and see what resonates with you/your list. For instance, perhaps the supportive environment mirrors your experience with team work and you have a related example to share.

Your conclusion should translate your experiences and related insights into your fit at Carey, not only highlighting how you are prepared for specific aspects of the program, but also contributions that you would like to make.

Essay 3

ASU established a charter in 2014 that states we are an institution “measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed.”  What does this statement mean to you?
This does not include a word limit, but it presumably matches the 500 words or less of the other prompts.

The response should demonstrate your understanding of inclusivity, your commitment to diversity, and how you envision contributing to and benefiting from a community that prioritizes inclusion. It will be important to show your commitment to inclusion, as actions speak louder than words. Also, an anecdote will show that you will live by this charter as an MBA student and part of the Carey alumni community.

With that in mind, you may open with what the statement means to you, connecting it to your personal beliefs or experiences that resonate with the principles of inclusivity and success.

When approaching how to share an example, we turn to the following structure:

• Situation – Set the stage or identify the situation and related challenge.
• Action – Describe the actions you took related to inclusion.
• Outcome – Summarize the (positive) result.

You may then conclude with specific ways you could promote inclusivity within the Carey community, whether through leadership, collaboration, or involvement in student organizations.

Optional Essay 4

Please provide any additional information you would like to bring to the attention of the admission committee. (500 words or less)
This response will be an appropriate place to address any elements of one’s application that need further explanation (e.g. recommender choice, expected promotions, etc.). Applicants should aim to demonstrate good judgment in deciding whether to respond to this prompt, and should take care not to introduce information that appears elsewhere in their materials or that could have been covered in response to one of the above essays.

Clear Admit Resources

Thanks for reading our analysis of this year’s ASU / W.P. Carey MBA essay topics. As you work on your Carroll MBA essays and application, we encourage you to consider all of Clear Admit’s ASU / W.P. Carey offerings:

• ASU / W.P. Carey on the Clear Admit website: up-to-date advice and admissions information
• Clear Admit LiveWire: admissions updates submitted in real time by applicants to Anderson
• Clear Admit DecisionWire: school selections in real-time by admits to Anderson