How to strengthen your Bentley application

Sign up + add your profile to see your specific gaps for Bentley.

Best application round for you

EA gives you an early decision without a binding commitment. Same or slightly better odds than RD.

What Bentley weights most

Bentley prioritizes students with demonstrated quantitative aptitude and clear commercial ambition, especially applicants who pair math/analytics strength with concrete business experience like internships, DECA, CFA-level study, or leadership in school finance/entrepreneurship clubs. They weight demonstrable fit for their career-focused ecosystem and Boston finance/tech pipelines more than broad extracurricular variety; applicants without measurable quantitative coursework or real-world business exposure are judged more strictly than at general liberal-arts schools.

Supplemental essay strategy

Use the "why Bentley" essay to cite specific resources that match your career plan, for example the McCallum Graduate School connections (undergrad internship programs), the Trading Room, the Shapiro Career Center, or partnerships with Boston firms, and give one short example of how you will use them in year one. If applying to a quantitative major, reference specific coursework or faculty and any relevant projects or certifications (e.g., Python, R, Bloomberg Market Concepts) to show you can handle the curriculum.

Recommended competitions

Where to focus next

If you only have time for one thing this month, do this:

1. Read 2 admitted-student essays from Bentley (search official admissions site or Reddit r/bentley). Notice the level of specificity — that's the bar.
2. Write the ‘why this school’ supplement first, before anything else. If you can't fill 250 words with school-specific reasons, pick a different school.
3. Find one current student to ask about their experience — admissions offices often connect prospective applicants with current students. The follow-up email becomes specific essay material.