Harvard Essays and Essay Tips (2008-2009):

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.

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