First get the basic principles right and then move on to the essay tips.

Except for the two new choice essays the essay questions in this year's HBS application remain substantially the same. An essay package that offers excellent scope to present a multi-faceted candidature to the Harvard admissions committee.

Harvard Essay 1

What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

Harvard Essay 1 Tips

Straightforward question from Harvard. So start off by forming a straightforward note that lists the 5-6 key achievements from your professional, personal or academic life. Having done that, look at the Harvard MBA application essay package as a whole and then revisit the list. Since you might later write essays highlighting aspects of your leadership, undergraduate days, worldview or career vision, ensuring that abilities/skills already highlighted aren't repeated. The rider to that is that since this is Harvard and since this is an MBA application, there is an exception to that rule - leadership. A generous sprinkling of leadership instances across the entire package might be acceptable and this first essay may be the place for at least one.

The final choice can now be made based on the general importance of the achievements, the extent of your contribution to it's success and what the stories tell about you. Choose the qualities that the accomplishments highlight and decide if those are the traits that you want the Harvard admissions committee to remember about you.

Of course the second part of the question "why do you view them as such" is truly where you must start from: clarify your position on the "why" and you will almost automatically arrive at the answer to the first part.

Go for it!

Harvard Essay 2

What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)

Harvard Essay 2 Tips

This is a straight failure essay.

Learning is however the key aspect of the essay, not the failure as such. Think about why you are writing this Harvard essay and find a situation that has created a difference in your thought process, leadership style, behavior or value system. Once you get a substantial "learning" you can go to the printers with the story.

This year the choice of examples and incidents for the Harvard application essays will be extremely difficult as you are presented with a rich collection of choices. Your choice in Essay 2 depends on your preferred essay questions in question 3.

Go for it!

Harvard Essay 3

Please respond to two of the following (400-word limit each)

Harvard Essay 3.1

1. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?

Harvard Essay 3.1 Tips

As an academic experience preceding the Harvard MBA, your undergraduate performance might be a good guide to what you are capable of at HBS. This Harvard essay should speak of that formative phase in your life that has now made you the irresistible applicant/scholar that you are today!

Write about all that you found interesting, influential and character-shaping during your undergraduate academic experience. And talk about what YOU helped shape during those years. While "academic" might seem a little limiting, please do not restrict yourself to classroom activities: examples of your initiatives, creativity or leadership in the academic sphere (inside and outside the classroom) could top the list of what may put in. Your choice of electives/program, your suggestions for course/class/program/college improvement, your paper presentation/original research are some possibilities apart from simple recounting of academic brilliance.

The little problem with the question is that after a substantial work experience period (4-5+) or following a post graduate academic experience you might find it a little tough to backtrack and look into your undergraduate phase. Also you might feel that the "academic" aspects of your undergraduate days were not exactly electrifying. In which case simply overlook this one and select another essay to write - unlike two years back this is not a mandatory essay!

Harvard Essay 3.2

2. Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization.

Harvard Essay 3.2 Tips

Have you led or been an important component of an organization or community activity? Do you have significant volunteer activity in your resume? In dealing with a community (in which you might have worked or lived or not) have you exhibited praiseworthy skills and/or attitude that would make the HBS adcom misty-eyed with admiration?

Communication, relationship building, leadership, networking, inclusive world view - any or all of these qualities you possess could be covered to best advantage in this essay.

Harvard Essay 3.3

3. Tell us about a time when you made a difficult decision.

Harvard Essay 3.3 Tips

Select a specific situation wherein your decision was difficult - either because it was unpopular or because you stood to lose materially or emotionally. The motivations and reasons that support your decision will be the foundation of this essay.

Recount a dilemma you faced in choosing between diverging options. Your reasoning process, decision making skills, strength of purpose and moral rectitude are some of the possible critical factors that can be highlighted in this essay.

How you make your judgments about events and people, the methods you adopt to understand varied situations and how you balance the various options to make your decision could be your main areas of focus.

Though it is not essential that this be a "success" story where ultimately everyone lives happily ever after, it would be nice to know that your decision ultimately paid off for everyone involved. A display of your strength of character, robust value system and/or intellectual courage might be adequate to polish off the essay.

Go for it!

Harvard Essay 3.4

4. Write a cover letter to your application introducing yourself to the Admissions Board.

Harvard Essay 3.4 Tips

Write an essay in cover letter format which highlights your main qualifications to be part of Harvard Business School and explains why you should be admitted to Harvard and mentions why you are interested in HBS. And yes, this will also act as your "goals essay", unless you plan to use essay 3.5 to that end.

Since this is an all-purpose essay (oops.. cover letter) a holistic picture of your candidature needs to be presented, including your career progression, your personal achievements/interests, your expectations from Harvard and your "fit" with HBS. How you contribute to the Harvard MBA class would be an underlying overt or subliminal theme.

Harvard Essay 3.5

5. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?

Harvard Essay 3.5 Tips

A leading MBA essayist recently told me that she felt dizzy every time she tried to imagine the number of applicants who want to graduate from a leading Ivy League B School, join McKinsey (or another leading Management Consultancy) and then found their own company. If you imagine the career track in your Harvard essay to be similar to that, perhaps you should think again. Not that there is anything intrinsically wrong with the idea (or with McKinsey or with entrepreneurship) but that is certainly not a differentiating or different answer. Some lucid thinking and creativity will go a long way in transforming this from a well-disguised sleeping pill to the high point of your Harvard application. Harvard gives you greater scope than in a usual "what is your career goal" question. Define the goal and explain your vision. Show how it makes sense for you and for HBS. Strategic thinking, passion and intelligence: show these in the essay and you'll have my vote.

First get the basic principles right and then move on to the essay tips.

Harvard Essay 1

What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

Harvard Essay 1 Tips

Straightforward question from Harvard. So start off by forming a straightforward note that lists the 5-6 key achievements from your professional, personal or academic life. Having done that, look at the Harvard MBA application essay package as a whole and then revisit the list. Since you might later write essays highlighting aspects of your leadership, undergraduate days, worldview or career vision, ensuring that abilities/skills already highlighted aren't repeated. The rider to that is that since this is Harvard and since this is an MBA application, there is an exception to that rule - leadership. A generous sprinkling of leadership instances across the entire package might be acceptable and this first essay may be the place for at least one.

The final choice can now be made based on the general importance of the achievements, the extent of your contribution to it's success and what the stories tell about you. Choose the qualities that the accomplishments highlight and decide if those are the traits that you want the Harvard admissions committee to remember about you.

Of course the second part of the question "why do you view them as such" is truly where you must start from: clarify your position on the "why" and you will almost automatically arrive at the answer to the first part.

Go for it!

Harvard Essay 2

What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)

Harvard Essay 2 Tips

This is a straight failure essay.

Learning is however the key aspect of the essay, not the failure as such. Think about why you are writing this Harvard essay and find a situation that has created a difference in your thought process, leadership style, behavior or value system. Once you get a substantial "learning" you can go to the printers with the story.

This year the choice of examples and incidents for the Harvard application essays will be extremely difficult as you are presented with a rich collection of choices. Your choice in Essay 2 depends on your preferred essay questions in question 3.

Go for it!

Harvard Essay 3

Please respond to two of the following (400-word limit each)

Harvard Essay 3.1 Tips

1. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?

As an academic experience preceding the Harvard MBA, your undergraduate academic experience might be a good guide to what you are capable of at HBS. This Harvard essay should speak of that formative phase in your life that has now made you the irresistible applicant-scholar that you are today! Talk about all that you found interesting, influential and character-shaping during your undergraduate academic experience. And talk about what YOU helped shape during those years. Examples of your initiatives, creativity or leadership in the academic sphere could top the list of what may put in; but remember that we are just at the beginning of a long Harvard essay package and you really don't have to oversell yourself before the audience has settled into their seats.

The little problem with the question is that after a substantial work experience period (5+) or following a post graduate academic experience you might find it a little tough to backtrack and look into your undergraduate phase. OK so who said you HAD to write this essay?!

Harvard Essay 3.2 Tips

2. Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization.

Have you led or been an important component of an organization or community activity? Do you have significant volunteer activity in your resume? In dealing with a community (in which you might have worked or lived or not) have you exhibited praiseworthy skills and/or attitude that would make the HBS adcom misty-eyed with admiration?

Communication, relationship building, leadership, networking, inclusive world view - any or all of these qualities you possess could be covered to best advantage in this essay.

Harvard Essay 3.3 Tips

3. What area of the world are you most curious about and why?

Looks tough initially but a fairly simple question actually.

Choose a spot on the globe. Then show a personal, non-trivial connection to the place through your past actions, present ideas or future dreams. Does the place resonate with a discovery, invention or development that is of great interest to you? Has the place witnessed a horror or beauty that you feel strongly about?

This question lays out a canvas for you to explore and showcase your best.

Go for it!

Harvard Essay 3.4 Tips

4. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?

A leading MBA essayist recently told me that she felt dizzy every time she tried to imagine the number of applicants who want to graduate from a leading Ivy League B School, join McKinsey (or another leading Management Consultancy) and then found their own company. If you imagine the career track in your Harvard essay to be similar to that, perhaps you should think again. Not that there anything intrinsically wrong with the idea (or with McKinsey or with entrepreneurship) but that is certainly not a differentiating or different answer. Some lucid thinking and creativity will go a long way in transforming this from a well-disguised sleeping pill to the high point of your Harvard application. Harvard gives you greater scope than in a usual "what is your career goal" question. Define the goal and explain your vision. Show how it makes sense for you and for HBS. Strategic thinking, passion and intelligence: show these in the essay and you'll have my vote.

First get the basic principles right and then move on to the essay tips.

Harvard Essay 1 Tips

What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

Straightforward question from Harvard. So start off by forming a straightforward note that lists the 5-6 key achievements from your professional, personal or academic life.

Having done that, look at the Harvard MBA application essay package as a whole and then revisit the list. For example you might later write essays highlighting aspects of your leadership, undergraduate days, worldview or career vision. So no point reiterating a point unless you have a good story that is not repeated. The rider to that is that since this is Harvard and since this is an MBA application, there is an exception to that rule - leadership. A generous sprinkling of leadership instances across the entire package might be acceptable and this first essay be may be the place for at least one.

The final choice can now be made based on the general importance of the achievements, the extent of your contribution to it's success and what the stories tell about you. Choose the qualities that the accomplishments highlight and decide if those are the traits that you want the Harvard admissions committee to remember about you.

Of course the second part of the question "why do you view them as such" is truly where you must start from: clarify your position on the "why" and you will almost automatically arrive at the answer to the first part.

Go for it!

Harvard Essay 2 Tips

What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)

This is a straight failure essay.

Learning is however the key aspect of the essay, not the failure as such. Think about why you are writing this Harvard essay and find a situation that has created a difference in your thought process, leadership style, behavior or value system. Once you get a substantial "learning" you can go to the printers with the story.

This year the choice of examples and incidents for the Harvard application essays will be extremely difficult as you are presented with a rich collection of choices. Your choice in Essay 2 depends on your preferred essay questions in question 3.

Go for it!

Harvard Essay 3 Tips

Please respond to three of the following (400-word limit each)

a. Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development. How did this experience highlight your strengths and weaknesses?

Hey, leadership is very important to HBS. Harvard mentions it wherever and whenever they can. So you will do well to assume that this essay is important. Write about an experience where you were in a leadership position, preferably one that helped define what kind of a leader you are today. Choose an experience that had it's successes but was certainly improvable - so that you can include your leadership strengths and weaknesses. The story can go back in time since the focus is on a developing leader (but let's skip the story about your leadership experience in the first grade classroom!). The leadership development, after the mentioned experience, can actually form the central focus of the essay if that is what you want.

b. How have you experienced culture shock?

How do you complement the international flavor and global outlook of the most famous business school in the world? What is your attitude to an international mix of colleagues (or classmates)? How you have dealt with these in the past might give clues to how you approach them in the future (at Harvard and later). This essay is a great platform to show your global viewpoint, international exposure and maturity in cross-cultural interactions. Typically, "culture shocks" also make for great stories.

c. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?

Write about what you found interesting, influential and character-shaping during your undergraduate academic experience. If you possess substantial work experience or find it tough to backtrack and look into your undergraduate phase, please attempt another essay.

d. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?

A leading MBA essayist recently told me that she felt dizzy every time she tried to imagine the number of applicants who want to graduate from a leading Ivy League B School, join McKinsey (or another leading Management Consultancy) and then found their own company. If you imagine the career track in your Harvard essay to be similar to that, perhaps you should think again. Not that there anything intrinsically wrong with the idea (or with McKinsey or with entrepreneurship) but that is certainly not a differentiating or different answer. Some lucid thinking and creativity will go a long way in transforming this from a well-disguised sleeping pill to the high point of your Harvard application. Harvard gives you greater scope than in a usual "what is your career goal" question. Define the goal and explain your vision. Show how it makes sense for you and for HBS. Strategic thinking, passion and intelligence: show these in the essay and you'll have my vote.

e. What global issue is most important to you and why?

This is an essay explicitly targeted at gauging your worldview, maturity and aptitude for analyzing and communicating great issues. The choice obviously should have universal ramifications and should also (hopefully) find at least a local and partial solution through you. The latter is not explicitly stated in the question, but is implicit - after all this is not just an essay writing competition!

f. What else would you like the MBA Admissions Board to understand about you?

Do you know why, in most places, we advise against attempting an optional essay? Because the temptation to use 400 words worth of admission committee time to repeat points, contradict the other essays or otherwise simply bore them into a blank stupor, is for some unimaginable reason too sweet to resist. Here when you have the choice of making it a mandatory essay, take that option only if you feel you can convey greater meaning with greater power than in any of the other five essay choices. If you can, please go ahead. If not, please DO NOT.

Harvard Essay 1

What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?

Harvard Essay 1 Tips

As an academic experience preceding the Harvard MBA, your undergraduate academic experience might be a good guide to what you are capable of at HBS. This HBS essay should speak of that formative phase in your life that has now made you the irresistible scholar-applicant that you are today!

The little problem with the question is that after a substantial work experience period (5+) or following a post graduate academic experience you might find it a little tough to backtrack and look into your undergraduate phase. So who said everything was perfect?!

Harvard Essay 2

What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

Harvard Essay 2 Tips

Straightforward question from Harvard. So start off by forming a straightforward answer that lists not 3 but 6-10 key achievements from your professional, personal or academic life.

Having done that, look at the Harvard essay package as a whole and then revisit the list. For example you might notice that there are separate leadership, ethics and academics related questions. So no point reiterating a point unless you have a good story that is not repeated. The rider to that is that since this is Harvard and since this is an MBA application, there is an exception to that rule - leadership. 4-5 sprinklings of leadership instances across the entire package might be just right and this might be the place for at least one.

The final choice can now be made based on the general importance of the achievements, the extent of your contribution to it's success and what the stories tell about you. Choose the qualities that the accomplishments highlight and decide if those are the traits that you want the Harvard admissions committee to remember about you.

Of course the second part of the question "why do you view them as such" is truly where you must start from: clarify your position on the "why" and you will almost automatically arrive at the answer to the first part.

Harvard Essay 3

Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development. How did this experience highlight your strengths and weaknesses as a leader? (400-word limit)

Harvard Essay 3 Tips

Hey, leadership is very important to Harvard. Harvard mentions it wherever and whenever they can. So you will do well to assume that this essay is important.

Write about an experience where you were in a leadership position, preferably one that helped define what kind of a leader you are today. Choose an experience that had it's successes but was certainly improvable - so that you can include your leadership strengths and weaknesses. Simple?

The story can go back in time since the focus is on a developing leader (but let's skip the story about your leadership experience in the first grade classroom!). The leadership development, after the mentioned experience, can actually form the central focus of the essay if that is what you want.

Harvard Essay 4

In your career, you will have to deal with many ethical issues. What are likely to be the most challenging and what is your plan for developing the competencies you will need to handle these issues effectively? (400-word limit)

Harvard Essay 4 Tips

It is so very easy to write a bad essay here, even after some hard work.

That last statement is actually designed to make you smile with anticipated pleasure. Did you?

If not, maybe the next paragraph will make you feel better.

There are very few questions in any essay package that most applicants will get almost completely wrong. Each such question gives you the opportunity to create a well-defined advantage for yourself. This Harvard essay is undeniably one such. Unless you you are determined to do it wrong smile you must!

Apart from your own attitude towards ethics, and your past experiences where your value system may have been challenged, you will probably do well to talk to a few people in your chosen industry and supplement it with online research to uncover specific (or even unique?) ethical challenges that you will face in your chosen sphere of activity.

Harvard Essay 5

What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you? (400-word limit)

Harvard Essay 5 Tips

A leading MBA essayist recently told me that she felt dizzy every time she tried to imagine the number of applicants who want to graduate from a leading Ivy League B School, join McKinsey (or another leading Management Consultancy) and then found their own company. If you imagine the career track in your Harvard essay to be similar to that, perhaps you should think again. Not that there anything intrinsically wrong with the idea (or with McKinsey or with entrepreneurship) but that is certainly not a differentiating or different answer. Some lucid thinking and creativity will go a long way in transforming this from a well-disguised sleeping pill to the high point of your Harvard application.

Harvard gives you greater scope than in a usual "what is your career goal" question. Define the goal and explain your vision. Show how it makes sense for you and for HBS.

Strategic thinking, passion and intelligence: show these in the essay and you'll have my vote.

Harvard Essay 6

What other information do you believe would be helpful to the Board in understanding you better and in considering your application? (400-word limit)

Harvard Essay 6 Tips

Here we have a Harvard style optional essay - no option!

Point 1: Let us not stare a gift horse wherever.. grab the chance to write on any aspect of your life, career, value system, thought process or whatever else you feel will advance the quality of your Harvard application. This is 400 words worth of free airtime for brand YOU. Broadcast!

Point 2: Do you know why, in most places, we advise against attempting an optional essay? Because the temptation to use 400 words worth of admission committee time to repeat points, contradict the other essays or otherwise simply bore them into a blank stupor, is for some unimaginable reason too sweet to resist. Here you have no choice - write you must. So please resist the urge!

Go for it!