SMU MBA

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

SMU offers a 15 month MBA program with the option to finish it sooner in 10 months. The class is also diverse with 65% international students, most of whom are from the Asian region. The school also provides an overseas Immersion Program with countries including Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Students can also opt for an exchange semester with one of the 5 partner universities. With an average salary of S$85000, SMU is ranked 58th Worldwide and 31st for value for money by FT MBA ranking 2021. For more details Click Here…

SMU MBA Rankings

SMU MBA Class Profile & Employment Report

SMU MBA Application Deadlines

SMU MBA Application Tips

SMU Essay 1:  Why do you want to earn an MBA and why are you choosing to apply to SMU? If you are selected, how will you contribute to the SMU MBA program? (500 words)

Quick essay Tips – To write career essays for the SMU 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 SMU 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 SMU application essay is to break it into two parts:

1. First Half – explain “what are your goals and why you need an MBA”

• Second Half – establish ”Why or how the SMU 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 a 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 SMU MBA?

To answer the – “why SMU 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 SMU 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 SMU 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 SMU? 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 SMU 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.

For SMU MBA essay samples, you can also read some of the great essays written by our clients here on the sample essays page.

SMU Essay 2:  Describe your greatest weakness and how you have tried to overcome it. (300 words)  

Before jumping into writing the essays, you should introspect and come up with one strong example or situation in your life where your weakness manifested into poor results. To compete at the highest level for application to schools like SMU, dig deeper than just professional challenges. And NEVER try to portray strength as a weakness. NOBODY is perfect. Everybody has some or another weakness. Introspect deeply and come up with genuine weaknesses.

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 weakness drove you to take certain actions or prevented you from taking certain desired actions. Then, show what the outcome of the action was and as a direct consequence of your weakness.

Conclude by showing what you learned from this experience or situation. What steps have you taken to overcome this weakness? how these learnings have made you a better person now or how you believe SMU’s MBA program is going to help you further to overcome this weakness.