Yale SOM MBA Application Essays

Essay 1: Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made. (500 words maximum)

Essay 2: How did you arrive at these career interests? How have you or how will you position yourself to pursue them? (250 words maximum)

Essay 3: If any aspect of your candidacy needs further explanation (unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, academic performance, promotions or recognition, etc.), please provide a brief description here. (200 words maximum)

Yale SOM MBA Winning Sample Essays – 1

Yale SOM MBA Essay 1: Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made. (500 words maximum)

When you look at my resume, it is no secret that my life’s greatest commitment was baseball.  Within my career, the greatest single commitment I made to the sport itself was to play as a professional rather than taking a more traditional route towards a corporate career.

For twenty years, I competed and excelled against the top competition in the world. I won a gold medal with Team USA at the IBAF World Championships in 2012, I was a part of Vanderbilt University’s first-ever men’s national championship in 2014, and I was selected as a team leader by the players and coaches and led us back to a second consecutive national title appearance in 2015.  These successes were the result of an unwavering commitment to my passion and sacrifice of the many leisurely activities my peers enjoyed.

I had a tremendous career, which ultimately led to my greatest achievement as well as my toughest decision. On June 11, 2016, in the 11th round of the Major League Baseball draft, I was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals. I was torn between whether I should use my education to propel me into a career in finance or should I follow my passion and see how far I could take my baseball career.  I consulted everyone close to me–family, professors, working professionals, and current and former players.  After endless hours of consideration, I decided that I would be doing myself the greatest disservice possible if I didn’t see my passion through to its very end: I chose baseball.

The greatest commitment of my life led me to this momentous achievement. Getting drafted was a dream come true.  By the end of my first season, I was selected as the Cardinal’s minor league pitcher of the year.  I was immediately considered a top prospect and was on the fast track to the major leagues.

Unfortunately, at the beginning of the 2017 season, I developed a severe bone deformity on the head of my femur, tore multiple ligaments, and underwent a comprehensive surgery.  In surgery, the doctors found that I had removed most of my hip cartilage and would probably never be the same. I spent the next two years giving absolutely everything I had, I sought out specialists and did everything I was prescribed, but nothing helped.  Eventually, after years of making every possible attempt at resurrecting my career, I decided that it would be best to move on and pursue a more stable corporate career.

This decision, however, has not come without its share of sacrifice.  Although the opportunity to work at my father’s company still existed upon my retirement from baseball, the years that I had spent out of the workforce amount to thousands of valuable hours of experience that I had to forgo.  While I have been quickly catching up, working on three of the Company’s largest deals in its history, there still is much I aspire to learn.  Business school will provide me the perfect opportunity to immerse myself into an environment of accelerated learning where I will be able to develop the target areas I need to improve upon.

Yale SOM MBA Essay 2: How did you arrive at these career interests? How have you or how will you position yourself to pursue them? (250 words maximum)

In 2019, after gathering 3 years of experience as a professional baseball player, I retired from the sport due to severe injuries that hampered my career.  Since retiring from baseball, I have joined my father’s firm, Elite marketing, to start my second professional inning in the corporate world.

As a two-time entrepreneur and CEO of a 23-year-old company, my father has been a great mentor and inspiration to me. I also have a very strong personal relationship with my father. After retiring from baseball and trying my hand to have a career in finance, it was a no-brainer that I wanted to join my father and help him grow the Firm.

In the last two decades, my father has helped the firm grow from a small enterprise to a firm capable of handling large international projects, and now we both feel the need to bring in someone with the know-how to lead us into international expansion and growth. As the next generation, I would like to take on that mantle from my father.

That is why I would like to step out and upskill myself via an MBA to build on my understanding of media and internet-based marketing business, and also develop a more comprehensive understanding of international business practices.  I believe that Yale SOM will provide me not only the best learning experience possible but also a great alumni network with hundreds of bright young people that will represent our next generation of business partners.

Yale SOM MBA Essay 3: If any aspect of your candidacy needs further explanation (unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, academic performance, promotions or recognition, etc.), please provide a brief description here. (200 words maximum)

I would like to take this opportunity and explain my extended timeline to complete my bachelor’s and my choice of recommenders.

It took me five years to complete my bachelor’s because in my junior year, I was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals to play professional baseball.  As a professional player for a Major League Baseball team, I had to go and play a full baseball season during the spring and summer. I could then only return to campus to take a fall semester and complete my credits for graduation. Because of this setup, it took me two years to finish my final two semesters at Vanderbilt.  This is the typical timeline for professional baseball players.

The second thing I would like to explain is the choice of my recommenders.  I chose Pryor Smartt and Zach Walker because the firm I am currently working at is owned by my father and I wanted to make sure you received honest, impartial commentary on my character. I didn’t request anyone from my baseball team to write a recommendation as I felt that wouldn’t be a typical recommendation a B-school might be looking for.  Hence, I tried staying with a professional recommendation from my brief career.

Yale SOM MBA Essay 4: If you have had any post-undergraduate gaps in full-time employment greater than three months (other than for graduate study), or if you are currently unemployed, please use the space below to provide more information. (250 words maximum)

After playing professional baseball for St. Louis Cardinals from 2016-2019, I was released in early April of 2019.  For the next couple of months,  I focused intensely on my training while trying to get re-signed by another Major League Baseball team.

For 2 months I trained at a biomechanics lab in Seattle that specializes in pitching mechanics design to both improve performance and reduce the likelihood of injury.  After that, I was signed to an independent professional team in St. Paul Minnesota called the St. Paul Saints.

I arrived in St. Paul in early August 2019 but unfortunately was plagued by the same injuries I had been dealing with for the prior few years.  It was at this time that I came to accept that while I would always love the game of baseball, my body was no longer fit for the job.  At that point, I decided it would be best to retire from baseball, and immediately I went to my first job at Lead Capital Partners in Nashville.

I was released from the St. Louis Cardinal in early April of 2019.  For the months of April through August of that year, I trained and tried to get re-signed by another MLB team.  The first move I made was to go train at a biomechanics lab in Seattle that specializes in pitching mechanics design to both improve performance and reduce the likelihood of injury.  After I left there, I was signed to an independent professional team in St. Paul Minnesota called the St. Paul Saints.  I arrived in St. Paul in early August but unfortunately was plagued by the same injuries I had been dealing with for the prior few years.  It was at this time that I came to accept that while I would always love the game of baseball, my body was no longer fit for the job.  From there I immediately went to my first job at Lead Capital Partners in Nashville.