CMU Tepper School of Business has released its full-time MBA essays for the 2022-2023 intake along with the application deadlines.

Why should you consider applying to CMU Tepper School of Business?

The Tepper School of Business is the business school of Carnegie Mellon University and is located in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, USA.

Tepper’s full-time MBA is a STEM-Designated MBA program.

Here’s how Tepper describes its MBA program on its website –

“Centered at the heart of the Carnegie Mellon tech powerhouse, the Tepper Full-Time MBA program delivers an analytics-focused curriculum that equips you with the ability to unlock the full power of data.”

Tepper is ranked #16 among all the US Business Schools by US News and World Report, which also ranks Tepper #2 in Information Systems, #2 in Business Analytics, and #2 in Production and Operations Management.

Rankings aside, Tepper is a school with many firsts to its credit.

Tepper – A Pioneer in Many Areas

Mini-Semester System

The Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business pioneered the mini-semester system, which is essentially four quarters of 6.5-week classes. This system allows students to take more than 32 different courses while enrolled in the MBA program. The Tepper School prefers this structure as students can gain exposure to a greater breadth of topics, as well as several electives.

Experiential Learning in Business

Tepper was the first to use computer simulations for experiential learning of business roles; such simulations have subsequently been adopted by other institutions.

Replicated Wall Street’s Trading Software

In 1989, the school’s Financial Analysis and Security Trading Center (FAST) was the first educational institution to successfully replicate the live international data feeds and sophisticated software of Wall Street trading firms

Favors An Analytical and Quantitative Models based Pedagogy

Prior to the founding of the Tepper School, management education typically used the case method approach popularized at the Harvard Business School. Although the Tepper school did not entirely abandon this methodology, it has also focused on management science or decision-making based on quantitative models and an analytical approach.

In fact, in the 50s and 60s, the school led Carnegie School, an intellectual movement, a new approach that emphasized behavioral, decision-making, and quantitative methods

On a side note – CMU has produced 9 Nobel Laureates in Economics! Joining Tepper and therefore, CMU, means you’ll be in a distinguished company.

Application Deadlines for CMU Tepper MBA 2022-2023

The round 1 deadline for CMU Tepper MBA this year is on October 2, 2022, with the final round ending on March 12, 2023.

At MBAEssayNation, we highly recommend you submit your applications either in Round 1 (most advisable) or Round 2 (second best option) to maximize your chances of gaining admission to CMU Tepper’s full-time 2-year MBA program.

Check out CMU Tepper’s full-time MBA deadlines along with the final admission notification dates –

CMU Tepper MBA Essays for 2022-2023

Essay 1

What is your professional goal immediately following graduation from Tepper? What other role would you consider? In other words, what is your Plan B? (150-word limit)

Essay 2

The Tepper community is dynamic and unique. Each community member’s individual journey has shaped them into classmates who are collaborative, supportive, and inclusive. Describe how you have overcome adversity during your journey. What did you learn about yourself and how has that shaped who you are? (Maximum 350-500 words)

 Essay 3 (Optional)

Use this essay to convey important information that you may not have otherwise been able to convey. This may include unexplained resume gaps, context for recommender selection, etc. However, do not feel obligated to complete the optional essay.

Essay 4 (For Reapplicants)

If you are a re-applicant, use the optional essay to explain how your candidacy has strengthened since your last application.

Tips for Writing CMU Tepper MBA Essay 1

Essay 1

What is your professional goal immediately following graduation from Tepper? What other role would you consider? In other words, what is your Plan B? (150-word limit)

To tackle the first part of this essay, identify your post-MBA goal. Be specific about the role, the company, and the industry you visualize yourself to be in right after your MBA.

Because of the short word limit, reserve enough space to elaborate on the second part of the essay which is your plan B.

An example of how we crafted the flow of this essay for one of our clients can be seen below –

We first described precisely what our client’s post MBA goals are – the role, the company, and the industry.

Next, we delved deeper into their plan B by outlining how our client would leverage their experience – essentially, transferable hard skills – to transition to their plan B post-MBA role, again, within a specific industry and companies they’d like to work with.

Additionally, we talked about why our client is excited about their post-MBA goals.

Essays with such short word limits require precise responses.

In this case, it means you should know not just what you plan to do post MBA but also why you want to do it; at the same time keep your response concise, clear, and compelling. That’s why most MBA applicants struggle with such essays the most.

Tips for Writing CMU Tepper MBA Essay 2

Essay 2

The Tepper community is dynamic and unique. Each community member’s individual journey has shaped them into classmates who are collaborative, supportive, and inclusive. Describe how you have overcome adversity during your journey. What did you learn about yourself and how has that shaped who you are? (Maximum 350-500 words)

Reflect and identify an example either from your personal or professional life that talks about a challenging situation you found yourself in and how you managed to deal with it.

The way to detail out the experience would be to use a simple framework such as the START framework –

START which stands for Situation, Task, Actions, Results, and Takeaways can help you elaborate by explaining the context of your adversity, highlighting the challenges and setbacks you faced, elaborating on the specific actions you took, emphasizing the results you achieved, and concluding with your key takeaways or learnings from the experience.

Finally, wrap up this essay by talking about how you plan to use the takeaways at Tepper to enhance the learning experience of your peers and to build an inclusive environment for your fellow students.

An edited version of a final essay –

Tips for Writing CMU Tepper MBA Essay 3

Essay 3 (Optional)

There also is an optional essay for additional information about your candidacy that you may wish to share with the admissions committee. Use this essay to convey important information that you may not have otherwise been able to convey. This may include unexplained resume gaps, context for recommender selection, etc. However, do not feel obligated to complete the optional essay.

Respond to this optional essay only if you want to elaborate on a topic that might be of concern such as a low GPA, a career break, or why you chose a certain recommender who may not be your direct supervisor.

While doing so, pre-empt any concerns the AdCom may have about your candidacy by showing actions you have taken to ensure such situations are unlikely to arise again in your case.

For example, say you had scored low in a quantitative course during your undergraduate program, you can allay the concerns of the AdCom about whether you’ll be able to keep with their quant-heavy curriculum by showing how you’ve sharpened your quantitative skills by excelling in a role that requires strong quantitative abilities.

For everything else, such as achievements and other interests, you would have ample space in your application to talk about – which means, you can confidently skip this essay -which means less work for the AdCom, who will greatly appreciate you for this!

Essay 4 (For Reapplicants)

If you are a re-applicant, use the optional essay to explain how your candidacy has strengthened since your last application.

This is the place where you talk about the steps you have taken to improve your profile such as getting a higher score on your GMAT or GRE, taking up bigger responsibilities at work, contributing to a social cause, working on a side project, and more. Again, it’s important to talk about the impact that you’ve created and how you have evolved, personally, professionally, or both, since you last applied to Tepper.

FAQs about Tepper School of Business Full-Time MBA Program

• Acceptance Rate – 27.7%
• Average GMAT Score – 691
• Accepts GRE? Yes
• Average Experience – 5.4 years
• Average Starting Salary – $134,847
• Percentage of women students – 21%
• Tuition – $70,000 per year

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