1. What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)
2. What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)
3 and 4.
Please respond to two of the following (400-word limit each):
A) What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?
B) Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization.
C) Tell us about a time when you made a difficult decision.
D) Write a cover letter to your application introducing yourself to the Admissions Board.
E) What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?
Tips
1. This essay provides you an opportunity to show what you are as a person. This is a simple yet very important essay question.
You should list down major achievements in your life across personal, professional and social domains. While shortlisting 3 most substantial ones, remember two parameters
a. Harvard focuses a lot on leadership but do not harp explicitly on the keywords such as ‘leadership, team work etc.
b. Keep a good mix of personal/ social/ professional achievements as you need to show depth as well as diversity of your personality
c. STAND OUT – try to select achievements which differentiate you from others.
The second part of the question is very critical. “Why do you view an achievement among most substantial ones” - the answer may be some traits/ values you believe in or impact on community. Without a genuine and strong answer to this part, any achievement highlighted will have low impact
2. This essay asks you for an important facet of leadership – “Learning from mistakes”. Please note that “learning” part in this question is more important than the ‘mistake’ part. You need to think about an incident which had a significant impact on you (your thinking, style of leading, your ethics/ values etc).
Preferably select an incident where you were operating in capacity of a leader (it could be professional/ personal/ social). Generally people write about professional experiences. Hence, if you can think of an impactful incident in personal/ social domain, this may help you differentiate your profile.
Do not forget to mention how you have carried forward and implemented these ‘learning from a mistake’ in future course of your life.
For questions 3 and 4
A) Harvard focuses on developing leaders and it typically prefers people with low work experience for its MBA program. Hence this essay should contain some bit of leadership instances in undergraduate experience. Try to think of instances that helped you identify and develop you as a person (leadership traits included). You need to represent your natural leadership instincts, ability to take initiative, identify and develop on opportunities etc..
Do not go overboard because everybody knows undergraduate life has some constraints in terms of how much impact can be created.
B) “How do you motivate people” “How do you arrange for events in a social context” are the questions that this essay places in front of you. Please ensure that you keep professional life out of this question. Your impact on society is as important as it is on you as an individual.
You may have been a volunteer in some task in a community or might have started a new initiative. What matters is your passion for that activity, your efforts, moves to inspire others and the IMPACT. This essay will indirectly reveal your relationship building skills and ability to think beyond yourself.
C) This is a new addition to Harvard essays but something which has been asked by some other schools in their MBA applications.
You would need to choose a situation (personal or professional) where you made a difficult decision. This situation/ decision could be difficult owing to various reasons – need to go against the norms/ social trends, impact on your or some close person’s life etc.
You can follow the structure: a brief about the situation -> your decision making approach -> the decision and -> the impact/ learning
This essay is a good platform to highlight your ability to consider various perspectives in a tough situation, ability to strike the right balance, ability to be rational and consider possible alternatives. And of course all these add up to your decision making skills. Please note in this essay you are also indicating your values.
D) This is also a new addition. Writing a cover letter requires you to put forth the most important points in your profile/ personality in front of the admissions committee. Please be judicious while choosing to write this.
Best way to approach will be to pen down important traits of your personality and achievements in life. Then you should pick up the important points and build a flow/ story in the cover letter. You must indicate a fit with the school (don’t go overboard).
You would definitely need to briefly answer “Why HBS” in this question.
PLEASE do not forget to use an appropriate cover letter template/ structure
E) This question indirectly asks “Why MBA” and “Why HBS”. Given Harvard’s focus on strategic thinking, try to give it a good thought find a non typical answer. What do you really envision your career to be. Also mention, how you plan to implement it. Try to think beyond typical consulting/ investment-banking/ entrepreneurship paths. You can be creative and differentiate yourself here. (Eg – I want to start low cost mass education in the developing world). You should try to link this vision to something in past
Also do some research on HBS and find how HBS would impact you and help you achieve this vision. Please be very specific in answering this part of the question. Talk about specific communities, courses, opportunities that HBS will provide and show a direct linkage with your goal.
