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SFU  /  Essays  /  Prompt 3

SFU: Beedie BBA: your defining activity

300 words maximum

To what activity do you dedicate most of your time? Why is this activity important to you, and how does engagement in this activity support your future aspirations?
What it’s really asking

This is the core written response on the Beedie School of Business BBA supplemental application. SFU's business school wants the one activity you give the most time to, why it matters, and how it connects to where you are headed. It is a focus test as much as a content test.

Why they ask it

Beedie reads this to see whether you can pick one thing and go deep, reflect on it, and link it to a future in business. Applicants who dump a full activity list show exactly the scattered thinking the question is designed to screen out.

Three ways in
Choose what is true

Choose the single activity that is genuinely true, even if it is unglamorous (a part-time job, a family business, a team you actually run).

Zoom to one moment

Show one specific moment or responsibility inside that activity instead of describing it in general terms.

Draw the business line

Draw a real line from the activity to a business aspiration, naming what it taught you that a future in business needs.

✕  Weak opening

“I am involved in many extracurricular activities, including debate, volunteering, student council, and my school's business club.”

✓  Strong opening

“Every Saturday I run the front counter at my parents' bakery, which means I am the one deciding how much to discount the unsold loaves by 4pm.”

✦ Annotated example · Debate as decision practice. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
Most weeknights I am at debate practice, and most weekends from October to April I am at a tournament, which makes competitive debate the activity I give the most time to by a wide margin.1I started because I liked winning arguments. I kept going for a less flattering reason: debate is the only place I have found that forces me to argue positions I disagree with, out loud, in front of judges who keep score.2In a round on carbon pricing I drew the side I personally opposed, spent forty minutes building the strongest version of it, and lost anyway. The judge's feedback was that I had argued my own doubts instead of my case.That note changed how I prepare. Now I write the opposing case first, in full, before I write mine, so I stop smuggling my real opinion into a brief that is supposed to be persuasive.3As captain I run a Tuesday clinic for our novices, where I make them flip sides mid-round on purpose. Two of them reached provincials this year, which I count as more useful than any medal I have won.4This connects directly to where I am heading. I want to study business and eventually work in policy or strategy, fields where the costly mistake is falling in love with your own first answer.5Debate did not teach me to be right. It taught me to assume I am partly wrong, find out exactly where, and fix it before someone keeping score does it for me.
  1. 1Answers the literal first question (the activity you dedicate most time to) in sentence one, with a time claim that feels measured rather than boasted.
  2. 2The honest pivot ('a less flattering reason') is the self-awareness SFU rewards, and it deepens the 'why important' beyond a trophy story.
  3. 3Shows a concrete behavior change driven by specific feedback. This is evidence of growth, not an adjective about being 'dedicated' or 'passionate.'
  4. 4Adds a leadership detail with a measurable outcome (two novices to provincials) and a value judgment that reveals priorities.
  5. 5Bridges explicitly to future aspirations and to Beedie's business focus, satisfying the third part of the prompt with a clear, plain line.
Stuck? Start here
  • Which single activity do I honestly give the most hours to, even if it is a job or something unglamorous?
  • What is one specific decision or responsibility inside that activity that I actually own?
  • What did that activity teach me that a future in business genuinely requires?
Before you submit
  • I write about exactly one activity and resist listing others.
  • I include a concrete moment, decision, or result, not a general description.
  • I name a real business aspiration and connect it to the activity, within 300 words.

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