Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business MBA Essay Analysis 2021

Are you looking to pursue an MBA in Canadian business schools? If so, Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business could be your go-to college. In this article, we will be discussing how you can approach MBA Essay Analysis at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business in Ontario, Canada.

Before we guide you on the application essays, let us tell you a little bit about the location, Canada, and the B-school. It is always better to work on your application and essays after getting to know about the college and the program.

Here’s a trend we have seen over the years:

A lot of applicants who plan to apply to B-schools in the US, keep Canadian B-schools as a second option. In some cases, we have seen that the applicants want to keep Canadian B-schools as a part of their Plan A and consider the US B-schools as a part of their Plan B.

If you are moving to Canada to pursue an MBA or any other course, you might want to be in and around the Toronto metropolitan area. If you look at the best B-schools in Canada, Rotman School of Management, Schulich School of Business and Smith School of Business, they are all in this area.

You wouldn’t want to go up the Montreal, Quebec region. That’s a really cold area. We are not saying that Toronto is not a cold place. It is definitely cold. But when compared to Montreal, where the lowest recorded temperature is -34℃, Toronto might be a better place to live and study.

Moving on to the next point about Canada, you must know that the economy is small. But, as an international applicant, you will benefit from the VISA regulations they have in place.

Unlike many other countries that make you leave for your home country immediately after you graduate, Canada is a place where you can stay and work. You can benefit from this rule irrespective of which B-school you study in Canada.

Now, why should you apply to Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business, right?

Here are two main reasons for you to apply to Smith School of Business:

1. The B-school offers a one-year MBA program. If you are someone who wants to acquire all the skills, graduate in a year and start working, the MBA program at Smith School of Business might be a good choice.

2. The B-school has a January intake as opposed to a July, August or September intake. So, if you applied to a B-school for the September intake and you wish to apply to one more college that has an intake in January, you can look at applying to Smith School of Business.

So, to wrap it up, these are the three main reasons for you to consider applying to the Smith School of Business:

1. They have a 12-month MBA program
2. They have their intake in January
3. They are located in Canada

If you would like to know more about the B-school, please feel free to check out the exclusive page we have curated for you. You can find all the details pertaining to the B-school including the class profile, recruiters and even average salary of Smith’s alumni there!

Now that we have given you enough information about the business school and the location, let us move on to the MBA application essays.

What you need to know here is that you don’t have to write any essays to complete your MBA application. The B-school has taken away all the written essay components and have replaced it with a video component.

But this shouldn’t be of much of a surprise to you, right?

People are more comfortable talking these days. The time to write about why you will be the perfect candidate for the B-school is probably gone. Now, you can speak to them and try to convince them.

Another point is that more and more people are consuming video content. These days, people are reading less (We do not recommend this. ;)) and watching more.

Be it on Netflix, Youtube or any other platform, people are constantly consuming video content now.

So, the video component at Smith School of Business can be considered as an extension of this new way of consuming content.

Want to know what our GMAT and MBA expert, Arun Jagannathan, has to say about approaching the Smith School of Business video essays? You can check out this video to know!

Now, let us look at how you can take the MBA application video component and how to approach it.

Smith School of Business MBA Application Essay 2020-2021

Once you fill out the application details and get to the essay component, you will have a button that leads you to the ‘KIRA Platform’. This is the platform on which you will be completing your video component of your application.

Once you are on the platform, here’s what you need to do first:

Take a deep breath and relax.

You must be thinking that we are joking, right? Well, we are not. We are giving you these tips only so that you can comfortably get the live recording done.

Here are two other tips that will help you create the best impression while answering the questions live:

1. Sit in a quiet room/place
2. Keep the light source in front of you

Being a quiet place will help you focus on the questions in hand and to utilize the given time to make valid points. You don’t want to be distracted when you are answering these questions.

And the reason why we ask you to keep the light source in front of you is so that your face is clear and well lit. If you have the light source behind you, your face will not be clear and will seem dark.

You don’t have to worry about the equipment that you need to appear for the video component. You can just use your laptop. You don’t need to use an external mic or camera.

Now that you know how to get the technicalities right, we will help you out with the kind of questions that they usually ask.

Questions that you can expect

There are three questions that we have generally seen them ask:

i. Why do you want to do an MBA?

ii. What are your post-MBA career goals?

iii. Why do you want to apply to this particular MBA program?

These are the standard questions that you can expect.

But, since they are trying to know you in a real-time sense, they could also ask you situational questions.

For instance, “Tell us about a time when your boss asked for something and you did not know how to do it. How did you react?”.

Or, “Tell us about a time when someone from your team did not pull their weight. How did you tackle that situation?”.

With these questions, they are trying to know your situational leadership potential.

You can never be fully prepared for these video essay questions.

Typically, you will have about 30 seconds to understand and reflect on the topic and about one to two minutes to respond to a question.

Additional tips to get the perfect video essays

While we have covered most of the points above, here are two more tips that will help you to deliver the best video essays:

1. Use the Kira platform and get used to it before you submit your application. This will make you feel more comfortable and confident.

2. Keep a pen and paper handy. You can make notes of the points that you want to convey to them. You can refer to them while you answer the questions.

If you make sure to keep in mind all these points and put them to practice, we cannot think of a reason for your video essays to go wrong. 🙂

Also watch: How to Write The Queen’s School of Business MBA Essays: Detailed Analysis [2020-21]

Before you leave, do check out the MBA application deadlines to Smith School of Business below.

Smith School of Business MBA Application Deadline 2020-2021

Want to know more about the MBA Application Deadlines for Top B-Schools? Here’s the entire list of top B-Schools along with their deadlines – MBA Application Deadlines 2020-2021

We, at CrackVerbal, have worked with many students who wanted to get into B-schools across the world. We have guided them through the entire application process until they got admission at their dream B-school.

So, if you feel that you need help with your MBA applications, feel free to reach out to us.

We will be happy to help you get into your preferred B-school. 🙂

Want to know more about the business school? Get all the information about Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business!