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Below, please find details on the 2024–2025 Kellogg Future Leaders application deadlines and essay questions.
Looking for help with your Kellogg Future Leaders MBA applications? Personal MBA Coach’s team includes Frenk Nebiu, a former Kellogg Admissions Director with 8+ years of professional experience across consulting, higher education, and nonprofits.
The 2024–2025 Kellogg Future Leaders MBA Application Deadline: April 23, 2025
Kellogg Future Leaders MBA Application Essays
The Kellogg School of Management updated its 2024-2025 application essays, mirroring changes made to the full-time MBA application this year. While the future leader essays are similar to the full-time essays, there are some minor differences. See below to find out what changed and get Personal’s MBA Coach’s tips for writing essays for Kellogg’s deferred MBA.
Kellogg Future Leaders MBA Essay 1
Intentionality is a key aspect of what makes our graduates successful Kellogg leaders. Help us understand your journey by articulating your motivations for pursuing an MBA, the specific goals you aim to achieve, and why you believe a deferred enrollment program is the right fit for you. Moreover, share why you feel Kellogg is best suited to serve as a catalyst for your career aspirations and what you will contribute to our community of lifelong learners during your time here. (450 words)
This first essay is what Personal MBA Coach refers to as a “goals/why MBA essay.” However, unlike other similar essays, Kellogg is asking applications to explain much MORE than just their goals and why they are looking to pursue an MBA. This is a tall order for only 450 words so it will be important to use your words wisely here!
Personal MBA Coach advises that applicants begin this essay by discussing their specific pre-MBA AND post-MBA goals. Your post-MBA goals should include both short-term and long-term goals that are reasonable for you. While you do not need to add a lot of detail on your educational background or personal experience, it is logical to give the reader some insight about what motivated this goal. Be sure to select goals that are achievable for you! Hint: You likely will not become the Director of Marketing at Pepsi a year after earning your MBA. Check out Personal MBA Coach’s How to Articulate Your MBA Goals blog for more on crafting a compelling goals statement.
Next, a strong essay will explain why you are interested in a deferred MBA. This should include both why you need an MBA overall and why the deferred program is attractive to you.
Finally, allocate plenty of space to discussing both Kellogg’s role in your career and how you will enrich the Kellogg community. Be specific in this section. Everyone will gain well-rounded business skills so a strong essay will dig deeper. While this is NOT a personal story essay, think about what makes you unique and how you might share this on campus and beyond.
Kellogg Future Leaders MBA Essay 2
Kellogg leaders are primed to tackle challenges everywhere, from the boardroom to their neighborhoods. Describe a specific professional or extracurricular experience where you had to make a difficult decision. Reflecting on this experience, identify the values that guided your decision-making process and how it impacted your leadership style. (450 words)
While the full-time MBA version of this essay instructs applicants to focus on their professional experiences, Future Leader applicants can also consider their extracurricular experiences.
With this essay, applicants should try to do 2 key things:
- Show Kellogg how you are a strong leader in action.
- Discuss your values and how they have guided you in the past.
As you select your story here, do not lose sight of objective 2, as Kellogg has removed a long-standing values essay this year.
As you brainstorm topics to cover, be sure that you focus on a particular decision that you made and one that was not easy to come by. You should aim to tell a story that does not require a long, complicated set-up so that you can focus your efforts on detailing your specific actions and why you made the decision you made. Finally, as you select this story, keep in mind that MBA admissions committees are increasingly seeking candidates who understand that their obligations go beyond driving business returns! An ideal essay will show that you have the leadership skills and values in place to make tough decisions.
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Optional Kellogg MBA Application Essay
We know that life is full of extenuating circumstances. Whether you want to explain gaps in work experience, your choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance or something else, you can use this section to briefly tell us anything we need to know about your application. (250 words)
Personal MBA Coach always advises to tread carefully here, as less is more with optional essays.
It is important to note that the Kellogg Future Leaders application also includes a required video component:
We’ve read your essays, we’ve read your resume — now we want you to bring all that to life in a video. Show us the person behind all those carefully crafted words. The video will be comprised of three questions, each designed to help you showcase your personality and share some of the experiences that brought you here today.
Read Personal MBA Coach’s tips for handling videos and other Kellogg MBA application extras.
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