Nanyang (NTU) MBA

Rankings | Class Profile | Employment Report | Sample Essays | Interview Questions

NTU – Nanyang Business School – Introduction

One of the most exciting cities in all of Asia is Singapore and Nanyang Business School was the very first MBA school in the country.  It’s full-time MBA program, which boasts a focus on Asia, can be completed in just 12 months. Students go through nine core courses and four electives during the year but also have time for either an overseas or local business study mission as well as an industry project.

With nearly nine out of ten students from outside Singapore, the school attracts a wildly diverse group of MBA candidates, especially from all across Asia. An unusually high percentage are women, 43%, compared with the more typical one-third in U.S. business schools. The vast majority of Nanyang’s MBAs tend to land jobs in Asia (some 81% of the Class of 2011), with 14% going off to Europe and 5% to North America. The school says that 48% of the class used the MBA degree to transition to a new industry, while 46% changed functions. For more details Click Here…

NTU MBA Rankings

NTU MBA Class Profile & Employment Report

NTU MBA Application Deadlines

NTU MBA Application Tips

NTU Essay 1: Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your near-term (3 – 5 years) future career objectives and how pursuing an MBA will help you achieve them. (400 words)

Quick essay Tips – To write career essays for the NTU MBA program, a very simple structure to follow is

1. Explain your current position and work experience → 2. State your short and long-term goals → 3. Skillsets you have acquired throughout your career so far → 4. Explain what you currently lack to attain your short and long-term goal → 5. Show how an MBA from a school like NTU can help you bridge the gap in your skills to achieve your short-term goal.

Detailed Essay Writing Tips – The best and an easy approach to write this NTU application essay is to break it into two parts:

• First Half – explain “what are your goals and why you need an MBA”
• Second Half – establish ”Why or how the NTU MBA program is the perfect fit for you?”

First Half – Goals and why MBA?

Start with a strong introductory paragraph on who you are and what are your desired goals from an MBA.

Eg: “I am an engineer with four years of experience in the IT sector leading projects for clients across multiple countries. In the short term, i want to transition from a software developer role to a product manager role” 

For the main body, start on a strong note, show what skills you already have. B-schools in general prefer to see a strong academic track record, progress in the professional career, client management exposure, leadership and international experiences. Highlight some of your key achievements with numbers or awards that you may have received. Show your outstanding performance via the promotions or opportunities to lead or international deputation.

After establishing the strengths of your profile, move on to show how the limitation of your current role and skills are hindering your future career progress or desired transitions. Establish the need for upskilling yourself which can only be done via an MBA at this stage of your career. Talk about how an MBA can enhance your business acumen, leadership skills, soft skills for communication and presentation or provide you the network to grow your career or business.

This sets the context for your “Why MBA” argument. The first half of the essay explains what you already have and what you lack to grow in your career. Lastly how an MBA can unlock opportunities for you to grow. 

Second Half – Why NTU MBA?

To answer the – “why NTU MBA” part of the essay, build your argument on 3-4 points which helps you fulfill the gaps in your skillset and achieve your goals. Reasons to choose the NTU MBA program should align with your reason to do an MBA as mentioned in the first half of the essay.

Ensure your reasons portray a holistic approach to how you intend to gain/upskill from the MBA program. An easy way to structure can be to break it down across three buckets –

• Inside the class – what excites you the most about the NTU MBA program in regards to the academic curriculum? Is it a particular specialization? Range of Electives? Quality of Professor?  Feel free to name drop a few.
• Outside the class – outside of the academics, how do you plan to make the most of the opportunities available at NTU? Clubs? Networking event? International exchanges? Leadership seminar? Speak with Alum, current students and find specifics which perfectly aligns with your needs to achieve your goals in a particular industry or function.
• Outside of campus – show how the overall school brand, alumni network which you would carry and be a part of long after your campus stint can help you build a successful career in the long term.

Closing argument

Summarize your entire essay in 3-4 lines and confidently portray how you believe the NTU MBA program is the perfect next step or logical step for you to achieve your career goals and how you would be a great fit and valuable addition to the class if selected.

NTU Essay 2: Tell us about two achievements (one as a leader and one as a team member) that you are most proud of, and why you feel that to be so. (400 words)

First of all, start jotting down all the successful experiences you had in life – big or small – whatever you think are significant achievements of your life. Most people fall back to professional experiences but it is strongly advised to go beyond professional stories. It may be easier to bucket and think across three areas – professional, extra-curricular, personal. Your first championship medal in sports, founding an NGO, breaking family convention value for love marriage or entrepreneurship, the experience of surviving a terminal disease, leading a team towards a great vision, achievements in either sporting arena even if it is yoga and meditation – it could be anything you consider is a big part of YOUR life and you think it changed you or left you with a lifelong impact for the good.

Then pick one story where you were a leader and one story where you were a team member. Dedicate one paragraph for each of the two stories. Remember with every story you are revealing one more dimension of yourself to the reader. Pick stories that are impactful, and the ones that let the reader know more about you than just the resume, and the ones that portray a wholesome balanced picture of who you are.

When illustrating examples, an easy method to follow is the STAR methodology. Situation → Task → Action → Result.

Start with describing the situation or problem at hand to give a background to the reader. Explain what was expected out of you to do and the consequence of the task. Explain how this difficult situation drove you to take certain actions. It is important to show what the outcome of the action was and what are the results that you obtained. Conclude by showing how WHY you are proud of this particular achievement? Why do you value this particular achievement the most?

NTU Essay 3: Share with us a situation where you faced adversity. Describe how you resolved/managed it and what you learned from the experience. (400 words)

Before jumping into writing the essays, you should introspect and come up with one strong example or situation in your life where you overcame a significant challenge. To compete at the highest level for application to schools like NTU, dig deeper than just professional challenges.

Everyone at NTU has 4-5 years of experience and everyone will have some sort of professional challenges they have overcome. How do you stand apart? Most people use examples primarily from professional experience. But it is much better if you can also showcase examples from social voluntary work, start-ups, your extracurriculars or personal life challenges where you have overcome difficulties.

When illustrating examples, an easy method to follow is the STAR methodology. Situation → Task → Action → Result.

Start with describing the situation or problem at hand to give a background to the reader. Explain what was expected out of you to do and the consequence of the task. Explain how this difficult situation drove you to take certain actions. It is important to show what the outcome of the action was and what are the results that you obtained.

Conclude by showing what you learned from this experience or situation. How has this made you a better person or a better leader? how these learnings will enhance your prospects of being a successful leader or prove you to be a good value addition to NTU’s MBA program.