Duke MBA Essays & Analysis 2024-2025

The following essay topic analysis examines Duke / Fuqua’s MBA admissions essays. The Duke MBA essays are 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.

Duke MBA Essays & Analysis 2024-2025

Let’s take a closer look at each of the Duke MBA essays.

Required Short Answer Questions

Answer the following question in 100 words. What are your post-MBA career goals? Share with us your first-choice career plan and your alternate plan.
Identify your goals and even name a company or two that you are targeting immediately post-MBA. Then, cover how the short term is a stepping stone to the long term. Highlight the impact you hope to make because of what you’ll be doing, too, if you have space. Although asking about career alternatives is a bit unusual as far as b-school applications go, applicants simply need to identify a second post-MBA position that would also lead them toward their stated long-term goals.

Duke MBA Essay 1 – 25 Random Things About Yourself

The ‘Team Fuqua’ spirit and community is one of the things that sets the MBA experience apart, and it is a concept that extends beyond the student body to include faculty, staff, and administration. Please share with us “25 Random Things” about you. The Admissions Committee wants to get to know YOU – beyond the professional and academic achievements listed in your resume and transcript. Share with us important life experiences, your hobbies, achievements, fun facts, or anything that helps us understand what makes you who you are.

Your list will be limited to 2 pages (750 words maximum). Please present your response in list form, numbered 1 to 25. Some points may be brief, while others may be longer.
This nontraditional MBA application essay has been a staple of the Duke application for several years running. This suggests that the format is working, i.e. that the adcom has been pleased with the information this exercise provides about candidates’ backgrounds and fit with Team Fuqua. This open-ended prompt allows applicants to showcase interesting and meaningful facts about themselves that they otherwise might not get a chance to share with the adcom. It also amounts to a test of the applicant’s creativity and judgment in arriving at a well-rounded set of admissions-appropriate tidbits.

So, in the spirit of the Duke MBA essay, here’s our list of ten not-so-random things to think about when developing your response to this prompt:

1. Keep it positive! Share happy memories, silly details, interesting talents, or (very short) stories of resilience and accomplishment. Steer clear of failure or disappointment (unless you can be light-hearted or self-effacing about it).
2. Aim to cover all domains of your life, including your interests outside of work and even important personal details and relationships. Writing about the reason you admired your grandmother growing up or what you learned during a long-distance phase in your relationship will help the adcom get to know you on a level beyond your resume.
3. Short list items are okay!
4. In fact, the most effective responses to this question will intersperse very brief items (of just a few words) with longer ones that might include several sentences, creating an almost poetic effect.
5. First-date and job-interview rules apply here — think twice before discussing religion or politics. If these areas are important enough to you to warrant mentioning, limit your comments to personal meaning and community aspects (i.e. don’t try to educate or persuade the reader).
6. Take a lifespan view. Sharing a few details from your childhood can give the admissions reader insight they won’t find anywhere else in your file. Meanwhile, covering present-day favorites (e.g. food, film, travel destination, place to visit in your city or town) can show the reader who you are today.
7. Brief anecdotes — for example, about learning something the hard way while traveling internationally or working hard to improve at a new hobby — can showcase both your interests as well as your process when faced with a challenge.
8. We recommend a maximum of 5 work-related list items (and suggest that you aim for even fewer). As the preamble hints, the adcom can read about your professional background elsewhere in your application.
9. Aim for balance in content throughout your list; rather than listing items chronologically or by domain (i.e. professional, personal, extracurricular), change things up throughout and keep your reader on her toes to make this truly “random.”
10. Show your draft to a close friend or relative to get feedback on how well you’re capturing your personality (and on whether you’re overlooking anything).

Duke MBA Essay 2: The Fuqua Community and You

Fuqua prides itself on cultivating a culture of engagement. Our students enjoy a wide range of student-led organizations that provide opportunities for leadership development and personal fulfillment, as well as an outlet for contributing to society. Our student-led government, clubs, centers, and events are an integral part of the student culture and to the development of leaders. Based on your understanding of the Fuqua culture, what are 3 ways you expect to contribute at Fuqua?

Your response will be limited to 1 page (500 words maximum).
Fuqua has presented a prompt about its student culture for many years, and this Duke MBA essay question is no exception. Applicants may want to begin by thinking about an element or two of the student culture with which they find the greatest resonance, and should also consider which are already evident in their activities and accomplishments to date. In fact, one to two examples that illustrate their skills and potential to make a positive impact should be woven in to selected means of contributing. Consider this in light of the idea that past behavior supports future success.

Of course, the majority of this response should center on the applicant’s three planned activities and contributions as a Daytime MBA student. Given the adcom’s preamble about student-led government, clubs, centers and events, applicants will be expected to be fairly concrete in their comments about how they’ll engage in specific activities, to the point of discussing their behavior outside of the classroom and identifying specific student organizations in which they might take a leadership role.

While there is also a focus on personal development, applicants should also describe the impact they hope to make during their two years on campus—after all, this is also geared towards contributing to a community. Candidates should note that speaking convincingly about their ability to make a positive difference will likely require some informed sense of the areas of opportunity and need on campus. Conversations with students and alumni will be very important in producing the most effective essay possible.

Optional Essay

If you feel there are circumstances of which the admissions committee should be aware, please explain them here (e.g. unexplained gaps in work, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance). Note that you should NOT upload additional essays nor additional recommendations in this area. The Optional Information section is intended to provide the admissions committee with insight into your circumstances only.

Your response will be limited to 1 page (500 words maximum).
This Duke MBA essay is a fairly narrow prompt, and applicants should only use this optional essay to address liabilities in their candidacies. While the adcom allows responses of up to one page, applicants should keep their responses as brief and direct as possible.

Clear Admit Resources

Thanks for reading our analysis of this year’s Duke MBA essays. As you work on your Fuqua MBA essays and application, we encourage you to consider all of Clear Admit’s Duke offerings:

• Duke Fuqua School of Business Profile on the Clear Admit website: up-to-date advice and admissions information
• Clear Admit LiveWire: admissions updates submitted in real time by applicants to Fuqua
• Clear Admit DecisionWire: school selections in real-time by admits to Fuqua