Carnegie Mellon Tepper

Pittsburgh, PA · Private · 2-year full-time

Median GMAT Focus: 655 (595–715 (middle 80%))
Median GPA: 3.38
Class size: 144 (Class of 2027)
Median base salary: $160,000 (Class of 2025)
Program tuition: $168,372 (≈ 2 × first-year tuition)

Deadlines

Round 1: Sept. 30, 2026
Round 2: Jan. 8, 2027
Round 3: March 3, 2027
Round 4: May 5, 2027
Round 4 Final: June 15, 2027

Essays

Required essay, option 1 (choose 1 of 2) (500 words)

At the Tepper School, we value leaders who can make confident decisions when facing complexity and uncertainty. Tell us about a time when you had to take action without having all of the answers. How did you navigate the situation and what was the outcome?

Required essay, option 2 (choose 1 of 2) (500 words)

The Tepper School of Business is committed to helping students reach their full potential by supporting their professional and personal transformation. How do you hope to transform, both professionally and personally, during your time in the program? Please describe your development goals and steps you plan to achieve them.

Video essay: Goals (Up to 2 minutes)

We know this is an important component of your decision to attend business school. We take it seriously as well. Please describe your post-MBA career goals. It would be helpful to consider the following information in your response: You have up to 2 minutes to respond to this question. Please be as specific as possible. If you have not yet identified specific companies, that is okay. Just tell us what interests you for your next role or company. What about the industry, company, or functional role is appealing to you? If you have any criteria you are using to evaluate career opportunities, please share those as well. We may have great opportunities to add to your list. How does this post-MBA career goal relate to your long-term career plan?

Optional essay

There also is an optional essay for additional information about your candidacy that you may wish to share with the admissions committee. Use this essay to convey important information that you may not have otherwise been able to convey. This may include unexplained resume gaps, context for recommender selection, etc. However, do not feel obligated to complete the optional essay.

Editor's notes

Round 1 closes Sept. 30. If you're an international applicant, your real window ends with Round 3 on March 3, 2027, because the two Round 4 deadlines are for domestic applicants only. Don't plan on a spring safety net that doesn't exist for you.
Tepper interviews are behavioral and run by the admissions team, and the invitations start within a week of the deadline. That doesn't leave much time to prepare after you submit. Build your teamwork, leadership, success and failure examples while you write the essay, not after.
Take the quant signals seriously. Tepper requires a semester of calculus with a B or better (or a course before you start), says successful EA takers have heavy quantitative backgrounds, and 41% of the Class of 2027 majored in engineering. If your transcript is light on math, use your test score to prove the point.
Split the work between the essay and the video. Goals live in the two-minute video, so whichever written prompt you choose, don't spend it on career plans. The uncertainty prompt wants one decision told well; the transformation prompt wants concrete development steps at Tepper.