Harvard MBA application Essay Topic Analysis 2013 – 2014

Harvard Business School http://www.hbs.edu/

You’re applying to Harvard Business School. We can see your resume, school transcripts, extracurricular

activities, awards, post-MBA career goals, test scores and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?

Yes. This is Harvard Business School’s only essay topic for the 2013-

14 admission cycle. And as expected, this has led to loads of head-scratching and anxiety for all the applicants.

Only a handful of things can cause fear in the hearts of applicants, and one of those is a vague essay topic… But here,

Harvard has taken it a notch further by not only making the topic vague but also the need and the word count

(if indeed you need to write this essay ).

After all, This represents a marked difference to any other school applications!

An optional essay!

Just answer the question in clear language that those of us who don’t know your world can understand.

This is the additional guidance provided by the school itself to alleviate your stress levels. And one thing you must avoid at

all cost, especially with Harvard, is to go against the advice of the school.

There is no word limit for this question. We think you know what guidance we’re going to give here.

Don’tOver think Over craft Overwrite

Understand and completely assess your situation and the application that you are about to submit to Harvard…

• Does it give the school a complete picture about who you are?

• what you have done?

• Is there a different angle to you that the school should know about before taking a call on your application?

• Did an experience change you for the better, and if so, is that something that would interest Harvard?....

These are just some of the questions that you need to answer.

And once you have these answers, you would know for sure whether you need to write this essay or not.

Though the generic advice would be …

WRITE AN ESSAY… UTILIZE THIS SPACE…

At the same time, understand that writing this essay just for the sake of writing would get you nowhere .. and may even give

you negative points instead.

Before writing the story down, the first question you need to answer is

how long should it be?

Given the trend over the past few years, schools especially Harvard have been cutting down the word counts. So, last

year Harvard had 2 essays

with 400 word limit each… that’s a total of 800 words.

Now, you are an individual with some amazing experiences and a unique background! So, most likely, you would have a story or two to tell. Once you have finalized the story, how exactly should you express yourself?!?!

Our estimate is that you would do well not to exceed that, no matter how tempting, exciting and awe-inspiring your story

could become. Ideally, a strong essay should be between 600 to 750 words.

Note that there is no right or wrong word count, and a great essay might be done in 500 words or 800 words… It all

depends on the story!

The word count is set… we now move onto the structure… In terms of paragraphs, we suggest that you keep about 4-5, depending on the story you have. Lesser than that and you

would have very long paragraphs, which might lose the reader;

Greater than that and you would have too short paragraphs, which might reduce the impact.

The start, as always, is critical. Go all out to capture the reader’s attention.

“Show them, don’t tell them” needs to be your mantra here! Take the reader right into the situation… Use vivid imagery,

metaphors, quotes… in short, whatever it takes to make the reader curious.

After nailing down the start, the next paragraph can ideally be used to go deeper into the experience or the issue.

•Why was this a major challenge? •Were there any conflicts going on?• How could you tap this potential opportunity?

The third paragraph would focus on the decisions (if any!) you took, or the events that happened thereafter…

Example could be .. you convinced your management to invest in a deal that might have been perceived as risky at first… but you dug deeper to show that it was the right thing to do…

the questions you faced… people you approached …

Coming towards the final leg of the essay, the next two paragraphs must be used to emphasize the result (needless to say, if applicable…)

… and

• more than the result, the lessons you learnt during this entire experience..

• how does this make you better… ? • Best case, you can tie this up with how this has led you to

your chosen path and your next stop…

The conclusion must in some subtle way also justify why you wrote about this essay … how the aspect you covered about

your candidature in the essay are not covered elsewhere.

Some topics that you must look at would be:

1. Leadership experience… a project at work/in your local community/at a club.. something you are proud of?

2. Extracurricular experience… a state-level sports player.. how did that experience help you perform under pressure/deadlines… work well within a team etc.?

3. Ethical dilemma situations… moral/ethical crisis.. how did you handle? what did you learn? and how have you grown since then.

Remember that this is the only place in your entire application where you are (figuratively!) speaking to admissions

committee…

Show them that you are not just an application on paper and that there is much more to you than meets the eye

(comes out of the recommendation/resume/transcripts etc…)

For more information about Harvard MBA application Essay Topic Analysis

2013-2014contact us:

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