harbus mba essay guide 2021

Harvard MBA Essay Samples: How Five Applicants From India Overcame The Odds

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MBA candidates from India make up the most oversubscribed part of the applicant at Harvard Business School. The odds of acceptance for an Indian applicant are considerably lower than the overall admit rate estimated at 9%. In fact, it is believed, based on research , that the acceptance rate for U.S. citizens is four to five times higher than the rate of acceptance for Indian applicants.

So how do successful candidates from India push through the clutter of applications? The answer is the MBA admissions essay that allows an applicant to differentiate him or herself from the crowd of similar candidates. The newest collection of admission essays written by successful applicants to HBS was published last week by the editors of The Harbus , the school’s MBA student newspaper. Among the 32 essays–10 more than last year’s guide–are seven from current HBS students from India. With permission from The Harbus , Poets&Quants has selected five of these statements to provide guidance not only to the applicants who face the toughest odds of admission but to all potential candidates who hope to gain a seat in an elite MBA classroom.

Unlike earlier guides put out by The Harbus , this one is unique in one important way: The editors asked for and publish the standardized test scores, undergraduate grade point averages and extracurricular involvement of every student who shared their essays with the newspaper’s editors. The additional data points provide much needed context to an applicant’s full profile, allowing readers to more thoughtfully assess how their written words combine with their stats to make their applications stand out.

HAVING TEST SCORES & GPAS IS ‘A GAME CHANGER BECAUSE IT PROVIDES THE WHOLE PICTURE’

In the past, The Harbus would ask for those data points but rarely get them. “All the information we get from students is voluntary,” notes Tarin, who has a chemical engineering degree from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science in Pilani, India.  “We would request it in the past but would not get them. This year, and kudos to the students, we asked and they provided it, and we had a lot of interest from the RCs (required curriculum students) this year. This year, they just kept pouring in. People are more willing to share their essays. That’s why we have 32 essays, more than last year, and a lot more context behind them. ”

The summer 2021 edition of the MBA Essay Guide sells for $64.99 and can be instantly downloaded from the newspaper’s website (you can read five of the essays from Indian applicants reprinted with permission from The Harbus  in this article exclusively from Poets&Quants ). Funds raised from the sale of the guides go to the non-profit Harbus which distributes its surplus to a charity at the end of the academic year. The essays in the updated guide all address the school’s current lone essay prompt: “As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program?”

ONLY TWO ESSAY CONTRIBUTORS HAVE GMAT SCORES BELOW 700

While it is always difficult to draw conclusions from a sample, it’s noteworthy that only two of the 32 MBA students who agreed to turn over their essays to The Harbus scored under 700 on the GMAT. The two exceptions both applied with a 680 and one was from South Africa and raised by a single mother, while the other was from Mexico who overcame coming of age in one of the poorest states in America and one of the world’s most dangerous cities. While the applicant from Mexico had a 3.75 GPA to offset her GMAT score, the candidate from South Africa had to surmount both a low standardized test score and low grades with a 2.94.

The collection represents the full gambit of candidates who apply to Harvard, from all different kinds of work backgrounds and geographies. They worked in automotive firms and healthcare companies, consulting and banking, technology and consumer products, venture capital and private equity, nonprofits and the military. Besides the U.S. students who share their essays, there are those from Brazil, China, Singapore, Spain, the Philippines, and the Ukraine. The median GMAT score among those who did not get into Harvard with a GRE is 740, 10 points above the class median. Five of the essay contributors scored 770 on the GMAT, while seven topped out at 760. Somewhat telling is that all of the seven successful applicants from India scored at the class median of 730 or above, with scores of 770, a trio of 760s, a 740 and a pair of 730s.

As in the past, each essay in the guide also includes commentary by essay contributors and individual analyses from the newspaper’s editorial staff. A sample from a 28-year-old U.S. candidate who worked in technology as a strategy consultant who applied with a 3.75 GPA in Economics & Psychology and six years of work experience: “My essay writing process was very iterative. I revised my essay 13 times, so I recommend leaving ample time for the creative process. It helped me to take a break from reviewing and editing and come back with a fresh set of eyes.”

‘A GREAT RESOURCE TO HELP YOU FIGURE OUT HOW YOU WANT TO WRITE YOUR STORY’

The Harbus editors hope the guide jumpstarts the process of brainstorming to help candidates write an essay that would enhance their change of admission. “This book is great resource to help you figure out how you want to write your story in a way that is personal, and gives the reader a glimpse into your world,” according to The Harbus . “Reading the enclosed essays will show you how the admitted students approached the question in creative ways.”

More than that baseline advantage, the collection shows that you don’t need the skills of a New Yorker writer to craft an effective essay. Any applicant who buys and reads the guide would likely feel a sense of liberation in approaching their essays. At the very least, the collection should relieve some candidate’s anxiety over facing a blank screen on a computer. Some of the essays are informal; others are little more than talking resumes. They are generally free of grammatical errors and typos, though many are not as clear nor concise as they could be.

As in the past, certain details in each essay are anonymized, including mentions of a candidate’s identity, city, country and employer and undergraduate college. The reason: To protect the identity of the authors who have contributed their essays for the benefit of other applicants.

A BOLD ESSAY OPENING: ‘I HAVE LITTLE REGARD FOR THE WAY THINGS HAVE BEEN OR HOW THINGS ARE DONE’

Few of the pieces are especially eloquent, though there are some rather compelling openers.

“I love life,” wrote a 27-year-old American applicant who had been involved in investor relations. “I love living and learning; I hate going to sleep but I enjoy dreaming. I find pleasure in watching the world as it flows – gaining perspective on all the different parts of life. I fly planes as a hobby and the view from the pilot’s seat is unlike any other. In one look, I can see the whole world and how it fits together: the untouched (nature), the partially touched (farms), and the fully developed (urban). On every flight, I am in awe of what the world has to offer: beauty, science, and celebration. Moreover, it’s amazing that humans can fly at all – it’s so impossible. The fact that I am doing something that should only exist in dreams inspires me.”

Or how about this bold opening from a 26-year-old who had been the CEO of a tech startup: “I have little regard for the way things have been or how things are done — I only care about how they should be. Our world is rife with outdated solutions to old-world problems, and we cannot simply retrofit new technologies to old systems. We must be ready to question everything. We need the optimism and vision to ask the most important question: If we were to start over today, how would we approach this?”

TWO SMART PIECES OF ADVICE FOR ALL ESSAY WRITING APPLICANTS

The Harbus editors also offer smart advice to would-be applicants. First, begin your writing process with a period of honest reflection about your motivations, goals and choices to date. Secondly, seek out feedback on drafts of your essay from people who know you well. Others can tell you whether your essay is clear, but only people who know you well can tell you whether your essay really brings out YOU.”

Each published essay boasts an often catchy headline written by the editors, including “What Would Dada Do?,” “The Power Of Storytelling,” “Food Is More Than Calories,” and “The Multiple Paths Of Life.”

All in all, the guide is essential reading for all MBA applicants to top business schools, whether you plan on rolling the dice and applying to Harvard or not. The collection proves that there is no cookie-cutting formula for a successful essay. They are of varying lengths, featuring a wide array of topics from very different people with very different experiences. Some essays focus in on specific events of importance, while others follow the authors’ achievements and decisions. As The Harbus editors rightly point out, “We hope that reading these essays brings you closer to writing the essay that best tells your unique story.”

DON’T MISS: MEET THE HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL CLASS OF 2022 or  HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFILE: HBS ENROLLS LARGEST MBA COHORT EVER 

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July 21, 2020

A Harvard MBA’s Experience & Advice on Writing the Perfect Essay [Episode 375]

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How to write an acceptance-worthy essay for HBS [Show summary]

Harsha Mulchandani, member of the Harvard Business School Class of 2021, offers her perspective on student life at HBS, as well as what her work on the Harbus Essay Guide has taught her about writing the perfect admissions essay.

How can The Harbus Essay Guide help you craft your admissions essays? [Show notes]

Is HBS on your list? Hear from this student about her experience so far at Harvard Business School (shut down and all) and about how the Harbus Essay Guide can help you get accepted.

Our guest today, Harsha Mulchandani, lived most of her life in India. She earned an integrated MS in mathematics and computer science in 2015 from IIT Kanpur. She then launched her professional career at Boston Consulting Group and left BCG to become an investment analyst in 2017. She moved to Boston to attend Harvard Business School last summer and join the class of 2021.

For her summer internship, she is an M&A and operations associate while also serving, separately, as a product manager for Harbus, HBS’ student newspaper. For Harbus, she works primarily on the Harbus Essay Guide , which just came out, and its interview guide, which will come out shortly.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, where you grew up, and what you like to do for fun? [2:05]

I grew up in India. For the largest part of my life, I was in a town in the northern part of India called Jaipur. You may have heard of it as the “Pink City” or a city famous for forts and palaces, or more recently for weddings. It’s getting popular. I spent a large part of my time, until I was 18, there. And then I shifted to Kanpur to do my integrated master’s in mathematics and scientific computing. I spent about five years there. After that, as you mentioned, I launched into management consulting with the Boston Consulting Group. A large part of my two and a half years there was focused on consumer goods, and I did a project with the government of Rajasthan, which is my home state as well. And then from there, I went on to a private equity fund called Westbridge Capital. I spent about a year and a half there, and I’m here now. That’s what I did before joining HBS, other than of course getting married.

And for fun, I’ve been into dance all my life. I used to do a lot of dance growing up, in college and now in HBS. And I like to go for short runs and listen to some of my favorite podcasts.

Why did you decide to get an MBA? [3:46]

I guess this is the question that people ask any MBA graduate often, or someone who is deciding to go into an MBA. I guess the most important question to answer is, why an MBA? And I guess for me, the answer was never just about only the hard skills or only the more tangible skills. It was a mix of a hard skills agenda and a more personal development agenda. And the answer for me somehow has always been a cross cut of those two. My exposure to working styles had only been focused on my own geography, which is India, so being able to develop a more global working style, interacting with some of my colleagues who have had experience working here or have grown up here. That was one of the things on my list. I wanted to interact with people and figure out what it is out there.

A lot of people do it on investment calculations and take the salary of their next job and say, “Okay, in how many years can I make up for the salary?” But I guess for me, it was always that you have to add that personal development equation into that. It’s a melting pot of so many different cultures, being able to listen to speakers from Brian Stevenson to Alan Horn. And also personally for me as an entrepreneur, I guess America is a much deeper market capital wise. Just to be exposed to the venture capital/private equity community here. I guess if I put all of that into the equation, it would seem favorable for me to come here and do an MBA.

Do you remember anything particularly challenging about your MBA application process, or was it smooth sailing? [5:23]

No. It was definitely one of the toughest things I’ve done in my life. I say that because I guess the process just needs a lot of patience and perseverance to go through the same essay, the same story again and again, and just having them be true, to be able to define it every time and having those meaningful conversations and figuring out what matters to you the most, developing a coherent story and saying, okay, this covers the entirety of my life. These are the events which are the most important to me, but does it also speak truly of who I am? It speaks to my achievements, it speaks to my strengths, but it’s also unique in my voice. Getting all of that together and figuring out the right set of people and mentors who were really important to me to guide me through the journey, that was the most important, crucial, critical part of the process for me.

Harvard Business School MBA Essay Tips & Deadlines [2020 – 2021]

You had very high expectations of Harvard when you decided to attend. Is it meeting your expectations? [6:32]

It’s definitely meeting my expectations, and I say that not just because I started in this school and I did make that choice. But I think in terms of giving me the access (and not just me of course, all the students), that can be really crucial and be able to let this moment in our lives, be it through speakers in a startup boot camp, or be it through a speaker who’s coming as a part of your course and speaking in the auditorium. And then bringing some of those speakers within the class and having them discuss their stories with you, through the case that you just read, and discuss extensively with your classmates .

It’s difficult to concisely put it, but I guess in those bits and pieces is where the actual change is happening. When we are in the process and stuff we can say, this is tangibly how I’m changing every day, but when you’re outside of those two years, that’s when you realize, okay. Yes, wow. This is what I took back from the experience.

I’m just going to go through the process, focus on the stuff that I like, and be sure to expose myself to everything that I came for, and take stock at the end of two years of how it went. But as of now, I think I got all that I could by being in all the right places and by speaking to a great number of people. I have developed a community of mentors, of professors, and my colleagues here who came from a breadth of experiences. And I love that.

Is there anything that could be improved at Harvard? [8:27]

I’ve thought about this a lot. And I think in terms of what could be improved, I’d say the flexibility of the academy curriculum. I think HBS has specifically designed the first year in a way that’s mandated a certain set of courses for everyone to take, but I guess for people coming from varied experiences, like for me, I had a little bit more experience in finance than maybe some of my other classmates. Some others may have a little bit more experience in operations. So I guess for everyone to be able to curate their own experience academically for the first year I felt was important. I wouldn’t say that I didn’t learn from the courses, but maybe I could have learned more if I had the opportunity to curate them myself.

How was your adjustment to online learning, social distancing, and sheltering in place in terms of your experience as a Harvard Business School student? [9:26]

When this thing broke out, somewhere in the beginning of March, we were told that our spring break travel was going to be canceled. And that was just one in a large line of dominoes that were going to be kicked down. And then immediately we were told that, through the spring break, HBS is going to work with all the classes on a Zoom model, to see how the case method could be adapted online. And then when we opened up, all we saw was our classmates replaced with these 49 boards on the Zoom screen, our actual hand being replaced with this Zoom hand that we could raise in order to be able to speak in class.

So it’s been interesting. It’s been an interesting learning experience. Some of what we lost was those 20 minute conversations in between the classes, reading from the body language of some of my classmates, going back and following up on some of the comments asking, “You said this, but did you really mean this?” I guess some of those conversations have been cut short, but to put this in light of whatever else is happening in the world right now, I still feel we are in a much better place. I think we are in an age, in an era where technology can take care of a lot of this. I don’t know if this would have happened 10 years back, how any of these courses could have been adapted to it. HBS sent out an email saying it was the first time since World War II that in-person, physical classes were being suspended and an online model was taking over.

WATCH: How Will Covid-19 Impact Your MBA Admissions Journey >>

The challenge was also on the other side for some of the professors who were so used to an in-class teaching to be able to adapt their teaching to online. How do you call everyone in the class from a calling pattern basis fairly? How do you make people feel they are heard? How do you make your appreciation still felt for everyone’s views? So I guess those were some of the changes. On the more personal side of it, my husband and I immediately shifted to deciding who’s going to take their course from the room, who’s going to sit in the living area, who’s going to make breakfast, who’s going to make lunch. So those are some of the changes that we went through.

Were there any silver linings to remote learning? [12:00]

This is a question that I’ve thought about a lot and not just for the podcast. One thing that resonates with me a lot is what online has done is it’s made everyone equally distant. No one is far, no one is near. And to that end, I think the access, which we felt was high in the sense of being able to get great speakers in school … For example, you would see that sometimes a speaker couldn’t fly in because they were snowed in or some other reason, but now given everyone is so used to this way of thinking, so used to Zoom, access to anyone and everyone is possible. So I guess bringing all those people in, being able to listen to many more people than we could have thought we would, I guess that is something which to me is an interesting experiment.

If things remain online next year or even moved to a hybrid model , that is something that I’d expect a lot more of. And I think the second bit is that people generally started becoming a lot more sympathetic towards either the class of 2020 or those who were in their MBA process in 2020. People just generally were more receptive to us reaching out, more helpful as mentors. A lot more internships opened up towards the end because so many internships got canceled in the process too, that a lot of people who otherwise wouldn’t think of internships just came out. Even the HBS alumni group came out and said, “Okay, we are going to create these internships for you. Why don’t you come and work for us?” There are definitely some silver linings, although a large part of it is, I would say, disappointing compared to what could have actually been.

If you had known, let’s say in 2019, what was going to happen and that part of your education was going to be entirely online, would you still have wanted to come? [13:40]

It’s a difficult question to answer. It’s hard to imagine because we’ve lived through it. And honestly, it doesn’t seem like things are too bad because we find ways to connect somehow. It’s human to find ways to stay in touch, to find ways to be in touch with people who you’ve spent the last one year with. So I don’t think I would have canceled. Knowing what I know now, I would still not have possibly canceled my MBA because I still have the unique connections that I’ve formed. It’s just impossible to think that I could have replicated them with anything else.

A lot of people have reached out to me. And what I suggested to them was, because HBS classes are open for anyone to attend, I suggested a lot of them to come and attend classes. See for themselves how the Zoom experience works out. There will be technical glitches very often. You will have your hand raised and you still won’t be called a lot of the time, but I guess that’s the new reality we live in and we make the best of it.

Was your internship canceled, or did it go smoothly? [15:19]

When I came in, I wanted to work in a startup to see if that entrepreneurial bug that I have is actually worth exploring and to be able to see if that hustle is really for me. For me, it went fairly smoothly. It continued the way I had planned it to be. But I guess for some of my colleagues, I did see internship offers being rescinded in some of the later days as companies realized that they didn’t have enough resources to direct towards the internship program. A lot of programs were shortened. Even some of the larger firm names ended up changing their programs to a six week program from what was originally a 10, 12 week program.

How did you get involved with Harbus and the Harbus Essay Guide ? [16:10]

Writing has always been a thing for me. I tried to write a personal blog. In my undergrad days, I was the newsletter editor for the entrepreneurship newsletter. The writing bug was there somewhere. And when I saw the opportunity to combine the idea of having a newspaper, and then having alongside that some products that I could product manage and eventually be independently handling, that idea was really exciting to see how we could modernize the concept of a newspaper and bring more products that are digitally available, which makes the process and the whole concept of HBS more accessible to applicants. It was exciting for me. And I remember writing down when I was researching before coming to HBS, I remember writing down Harbus as one of the top three clubs that I wanted to join.

What new products have you come up with for Harbus? [17:18]

Some of the products that we used to have are going to be presented with fresher content again this year. So we have an essay guide, which we will be talking about. And then there is an interview guide, which we are working through, to make a new version for and have it out in time so that people can address what to do as they prepare for their interviews this year or for the next year. That is another product that we’re thinking of having. We recently revamped our website. We are thinking of making some of the older newspaper archives available for alumni or for people who want to know what’s generally going on in the campus but cannot be in it. Other than of course the digital version, which is already available on the website, and some of the archives as well. Those are some of the plans that we have for this year. We may have something totally new at the end of this year.

What’s new in the guide (since Harvard’s essay question hasn’t changed)? [18:20]

The format of the guide remains exactly the same. It has 22 essays this time. We tend to keep it to that number. It starts with a brief analysis by one of the Harbus editors. We have the essay, and then we have some commentary from the person whose essay it is. What’s different and what continuously changes is that we try to bring a set of fresher voices because as career paths change, as the admissions committee looks at careers in a different way … For example, three years back, HBS did not look at startups in India the same way as it does now. The recruiting from India was a lot more focused on private equity, maybe some of the more standard career paths, but now we have some of the more unconventional career paths being taken seriously too. (This is true for a lot of geographies; I just gave an example that I’m aware of.)

READ: Sample HBS Application Essay from  The Essay Guide >>

We keep bringing those fresh voices to the fore and keep expanding the book of possibilities to say, “Well, this is acceptable too and this is acceptable too.” The two guides will read very differently in terms of the kind of choices people talk about, the kind of risks people take. For us, we always try to expand these choices because personally for me, when I read the guide that was available during our time, I kept thinking, “Oh, okay. So this can also be that. This essay might not work for me. This story is not mine, but I know this is possible too. And this is possible too.” It’s to keep expanding those boundaries.

Do you think there’s any difference in the nature of the essays in this essay guide, since there was a change in director in the admissions office, and the world has changed? [20:03]

Definitely. The last guide was around the time when Chad Losee became Director of Admissions. Other than what I spoke about in terms of how people have voiced some of their stories, I don’t think there is a large change. What we are trying to say is some of the things that held true, still hold true. And a lot of it is continuously changing. So the point is not to work in a given set of industries, but to be articulate about what you can take from it and keep moving forward. The primary benefit of the guide is to be able to give you all the possibilities out there. There is no perfect essay that would exactly work for you, but if any of it makes sense to you, then do think about applying.

When we say that no essay is perfect, it means that this voice might not be yours, but you have a voice and it is important for that to be heard too. People want it to be an authentic reflection of themselves , and that’s why it’s important for us to keep putting these out, to tell people what’s really out there and that your story matters too. 

I can think of one or two of the essays, which when I read them, I thought, “Oh, this person took a really big risk.” For example, I think in one of the essays, a person talks about their failures, their mistakes, and their weaknesses. And I thought, “Would you want to expose all of that to the admissions committee?” But I guess that’s the voice. If you have the confidence to speak out about it, and that’s what you took from that experience, it’s a powerful experience. And it’s a narration that deserves to be told.

Similarly, I remember there’s another essay which talks about a person who’s worked in banking and private equity, yet the entire essay almost focuses on beauty and how there’s some beauty in working in a wedding dresses business or in yoga, in practicing that form of exercise. It’s about how you bring your experiences together in a coherent format and be true to what you think your personality really is. This is the only part of your application which is effectively a story . Everything else is where you’re putting facts. Your GMAT score is a fact; your resume is a collection of facts. This is authentically your story. And as humans, stories for us have been the most effective form of communication. So put all your heart and soul into it.

What are your plans for the future after the MBA? [24:04]

That’s, I guess, the million dollar question! I don’t know. With all that’s going on with the world right now and uncertainties, a lot of this is also changing the way we thought of our careers in a more global way. It’s tough to say which geography I might end up in. Will it be in the U.S. for a few more years or back to India immediately? My aim is always, and has always been, to be an entrepreneur. I come from a family of entrepreneurs. It’s a really abused term, but creating products is something that has always excited me. My family has a confectionery business, and I guess took my love for consumer products from there. The industries that I want to be in are not necessarily food-related; I think the concept of the rapidly revolving industries of skincare or apparel or fashion tech are superbly exciting to me. I see myself landing somewhere in that zone in the future.

What would you have liked me to ask you? [25:25]

Generally, whenever someone asks me about my advice on researching or thinking about an MBA, I generally tell them to not singularly focus on that one dimension of their career, or “How will this advance my career? How will this help me make a career switch?” That’s a really important question to ask because it’s a monetary investment. But through my time, I’ve realized that your own personality is such a multidimensional thing. Speak to as many people, as many seniors as you want from the school, or who have had the experience of applying, just to understand what else is added to their personality, not just career. How else did it help them? Did it help them meet new people or help them attend classes across the river or to another school? Because Boston is a wonderful town. It has MIT, it has all the other Harvard schools. What did it help you do other than be in the classroom and have the career that you wanted? If you look at that question from a more multidimensional perspective, it makes a lot more sense.

Where can listeners learn more about the Harbus Essay Guide ? [26:52]

Our website is harbus.org . There is a link on the website that links to the essay book, and the direct link is harbus.org/the-essay-book . You’ll get the guide there available in three formats. We are presenting the latest version, which is the 22 essays, and we also have combined essays from some of the previous years and some of the previous guides. Pick what works the best for you. I personally had a combo guide which worked the best for me because it told me how things have evolved through the years, what kind of stories were much more acceptable now. It was a super helpful resource for me. So personally, big recommendation! Go ahead and buy it.

Related Links:

• Harbus website
• Harvard Business School Application Essay Tips
• Get Accepted to Harvard Business School , an on-demand webinar
• Sample HBS Application Essay from The Essay Guide
• Accepted MBA Admissions Services

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How to Write the Harvard HBS MBA Admissions Essay – Tips for 2022-2023

• May 10, 2022

7 Steps to Answer the Harvard MBA, HBS Essay Question:

“As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program?”

When you’re putting together a successful HBS essay, the most valuable thing you can do is tell an Epic Story . Before I get into what that means, let’s clear one thing up: There is  no set formula for writing the Harvard essay. There’s no “right” way to do it, no “right” thing to say. But, take it from me, an Epic Life Story is the best thing you could possibly have in your application toolkit. 

Table of Contents

Prefer videos.

Find out how to ace Harvard’s admission essay in 2022

So what is an Epic Story?

An Epic Story is a narrative that takes the reader — any  reader, adcom members included!— on a journey through a series of key events .Epic Stories situate the reader in space and time and establish a crucial emotional connection between writer (you!) and reader. Emotional connection is king when it comes to MBA applications. It’s how you stand out from the pack. And that wide-open Harvard MBA Essay is the perfect platform for doing this work.

What if I don’t have an Epic Story?

If you’re afraid you don’t have what it takes to tell an Epic Story, let me let you in on a little secret: You do . It’s not about having the most page-turning life events under your belt—you don’t need to have cured cancer or sailed solo around the world, although that would be totally awesome if you did!—it’s about being human and sharing that essential, inspiring, loveable humanness with your reader in the most effective way possible.

Each of us has an Epic Story to tell. Promise. You just have to dig deep and tap into it. So before you protest that your life (or your writing skills) just don’t fit the bill for this kind of thing, take a look at the foolproof steps I’ve put together below for how to tell an Epic Story and write your Best Harvard MBA Essay !

1. Take a closer look at that HBS Essay Question; it’s not as open ended as you think!

Let’s take a closer look at that question. Here’s the Harvard Business School essay prompt, straight from the horse’s mouth: “ As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program? ” And here are the essay tips HBS gives: “ There is no word limit for this question. We think you know what guidance we’re going to give here. Don’t overthink, overcraft and overwrite. Just answer the question in clear language that those of us who don’t know your world can understand .”

Before we get into the how-to of all this, it’s worth pausing for a minute to pick those last two statements apart. Harvard asks you not to overthink, overcraft, or overwrite . They’re really driving at something here. They want YOU to remain in your essay—your essence, who you are at the core. They want a real person to come through the page, not some hollowed out, cookie-cutter façade designed to meet some assumption about who they want you to be.

Okay, that was a mouthful. But what I’m saying—and what Harvard is saying—is simple: be you . Don’t obscure (or write over ) who you really are by trying to fit some imaginary mold or by writing what you *think* “they” want to hear. As the HBS admissions director warns in their App Tips Series , “Be careful in all that polishing that you don’t ‘shine away’ your personality.”

Lest you forget, the adcom is made up of humans . And all humans want the opportunity to connect with and contribute to other humans. So give them that chance with your essay.

So what is Harvard really looking for?

“ What more would you like us to know?”

It’s a wide open question—and that’s part of what makes it so intimidating, as John Byrne, editor-in-chief of Poets & Quants, points out in a helpful piece written earlier this year—but Harvard does give you two key pieces of information about what they’re looking for in the essay instructions: clear language, and a ticket into your world . They want to know more about who you are based on where you’ve been (literally and figuratively speaking). The background, life experiences, and human encounters that shaped you.

“What more ” is the other key part of this equation. As the Harvard App Tips highlight, this essay should NOT be a rehashing of your resume. The adcom will be bored to tears if you give them your resume (again) in paragraph form.

Instead, your Harvard Essay should be a supplement: think of it as one key building block in the larger structure of your application. It builds on the rest, fits in with the rest, but it adds something completely new. Even more than that, it should create a world that is all your own for the reader to step into. (More on how to do that momentarily.)

With an essay question that leaves so much in your court, Harvard is really looking for evidence of self-knowledge . They want to know that you’ve done the deep introspection necessary to communicate what drives you and what you, as a one-of-a-kind human being, will contribute to their incoming class. They also want to see that you resonate with their values and their mission —that you can demonstrate a habit of leadership , among other qualities.

If you aren’t familiar with Harvard’s mission, here it is : “The mission of Harvard Business School is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world.” This is a really concrete mission that they have. They're not out to teach business; they're not out to help people make more money. They're out to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. And if you're talking to a leader, the most important question you can ask that person is, “What do you want me to know about you?” With this question, you're given free license to say whatever is meaningful, interesting, and important to you about yourself.

Soooo before you start getting too caught up in what they might “want” to hear from you (keep resisting that urge!), let’s talk about the most vital step in the entire application process: self-discovery .

2. Use Self-Reflection to ensure that your HBS Essay is unique

Step 1 in our magical essay process at Career Protocol is always self-discovery.

Self-discovery is a really underrated process. Seriously. Sooo SO underrated. As we’ve learned in over 30 years of collective admissions experience, the very best MBA applications are built on foundations of deep self-awareness, self-compassion, and clarity. Our Discovery Process is the tried-and-true, totally irreplaceable first step to essay-writing MAGIC. (I can’t get enough of it. Can you tell?)

So what should you write about for your Harvard essay?

Glad you asked! You’re gonna love the answer: It depends.

On what? On what you find out about yourself during the vital process of self-discovery. This is your starting point. There are no shortcuts to self-knowledge, and no successful Harvard Application Essay will come to fruition until you’ve taken a good hard look at yourself, your life, your accomplishments, and—most importantly—how you define all of the above.

One of the most valuable things the Discovery Process will teach you is that, as a candidate for admission, you are more than your GPA. You are more than your professional record. You are far more than any one component of your application, and Harvard’s adcom—like any other group of humans—wants to see the whole picture . The essay is where this all comes together. 

There are 5 key areas of inquiry that you should dig into when you’re preparing to write the Harvard Essay (or any essay for a school of your choice).

     1.  Your Back Story

If you had to sum up your life story in a couple of paragraphs (or even pages), what would you choose to write down? What would you tell others, if you had to give a succinct “back story” for who you are? What snippets of information would make the cut? Which life experiences? As you explore your back story, you might also think about the people in your life who have had the greatest influence on you. Consider your hobbies and what makes you tick—even if it’s something you used to love to do, but haven’t found the time for lately. Write it all out.

     2.  Your Academic Achievements

I like to think in terms of achievements during the self-discovery process, because—as you’ll discover if you undertake this work—everyone defines achievement differently. We each have our own yardstick for measuring accomplishment. (Some of us find it painfully difficult to call anything at all an achievement.) What you deem an achievement is telling, and thinking in this way encourages you to drill down to what really matters (and has mattered) to you. So, first, consider what your top academic achievements would be.

     3.  Your Community and Extracurricular Achievements

Same thing here, only with community work and extracurricular involvement. What have you accomplished outside of school and work that really meant something to you?

     4.  Your Professional Achievements

You know the drill by now. If you had to list your top professional achievements, what would they be?

     5.  Your Personal Achievements

Last, but certainly not to be underestimated, what are your top personal achievements? What are some of the moments in your life that really stay with you—those poignant human-to-human experiences, the times when you were able to make a contribution, pure and simple, to another person (or group of people)?

If you want a sense of how all that discovery rolled up into successful essays for our clients, here is a smattering of general topics and big picture summaries of successful MBA essays:

• A few days in the life
• Career story twists and turns
• Difficult relationship with a parent
• Journey into entrepreneurship
• Journey to master confidence
• Lessons from observing managers
• Lessons learned through an important hobby
• Life story told through difficult decisions
• People who influenced me
• Perspectives on success and leadership in career to date
• Problem solving
• Rags to riches through failure, leadership style
• Sports and career
• Struggle to be a woman in male-dominated field
• Struggles to live up to values and culture
• Travel and passion for understanding others

The thing to notice is that there really isn’t anything special about any of these topics. You, too, could probably write an essay about a number of them. What made these essays unique wasn’t the executive summary of the story, it was the depth of character they revealed in the telling. Depth of character flows from values.

Homing in on your Values

By the time you’re done listing and evaluating your personal achievements, you’ll have built up some muscle for defining what matters to you at a fundamental level: what your intrinsic values are.

Values are the basis of a person's principles or standards of behavior—their judgment of what is important in life. These are the things you would never change about yourself, because if you did, you would no longer be recognizable to yourself as you. Without them, you’d be some other person. Any great Life Story Essay should encapsulate and reflect these intrinsic values, even if they’re never overtly mentioned, and that’s part of what makes any essay founded on self-discovery unique .

One great piece of advice from a Harvard alum is to ask yourself, after you’ve drafted the essay, “Could this essay also describe someone else?” If you’ve done the hard but rewarding work of self-discovery, the answer will be: No .

In an essay like Harvard’s, you are the hero of your own story. If you use the steps above to home in on your values, you will significantly deepen your awareness about the specific kind of hero you are. We want to get clearer and clearer about what kind of hero you are, because that's where your uniqueness lies.

Finding your Voice

The final aspect of essay-writing that self-reflection will help you tap into is your voice .

Your voice is critically important to your success in your MBA applications. It sets you apart, instantly and continually, from any other writer. Even if another applicant narrated the exact same experiences, it wouldn’t come out sounding the same. (Because they wouldn’t have your voice .)

So how do you find it? What defines it? It's really choice. When I help clients find their voice, what I’m really doing is helping them identify the key choices that produced their life as they know it and developed them into the people that they are.

Character is the combination of values and choices.

As I hope I’ve driven home by this point, values are an important part of the equation. But they're not the whole story. We become who we are by virtue of our choices . Sometimes those choices result in (or include) failure, whether it’s failing to live up to your values or failing in some other way because you adhered to those values. Keep in mind that these brushes with failure are a very important part of your story . They reveal your humility and your vulnerability.

Talking about success without revealing the human part of it—your failures, fears, and setbacks— will not inspire someone . It might read like an interesting set of facts, but the reader isn’t really going to understand, or respect, or feel connected to you. In order to be inspired, they need to see your humanity .

As you wrap up the self-discovery process and start planning your essay, ask yourself: What are some of the most important choices that I've made so far? And why did I make them? How did I make them? And what were the consequences? Where did they lead me? These kinds of questions will help you clarify your values and decide which life stories you want to include.

3. Create an Essay Outline

If you ever learned how to write college essay outlines, you may know a thing or two about the general outlining process. (Get some tips from the experts here and here .)

We’re not sticklers when it comes to the kind of outline you should make for your Harvard Essay—or any essay. It could be anything from a paragraph-by-paragraph or point-by-point game plan for your essay to a sketch of the general flow. (I prefer the latter, but if detailed outlines are your jam, have at it!!)

For me, the outlining process is a means to an end: a way to determine what’s in and what’s out, structure your thinking, and get that scary ole writing process kicked off!

However you choose to do it, don’t spend a lot of time trying to perfect the outline . Personal essay writing is an iterative process: You are learning the story as you tell it, and it's impossible to figure it all out before you sit down to write it. Use the outlining stage (even if you never actually create an outline!) as a space for answering this vital question: What will you include?

What’s In and What’s Out ?

As you probably know, Harvard has three criteria that they're looking for in every applicant:

• engaged community citizenship
• a habit of leadership
• and analytical aptitude and appetite.

(This is in their stated evaluation criteria .) Most applicants will show analytical aptitude and appetite through grades and scores, possibly in work experience and recommendations, and very definitely in some ways through the resume.

Likewise with a habit of leadership. If you're doing your resume right (check out our bomb crash course in MBA resumes ), it should show all the ways in which you've been a leader so far in your community and in your career. And your recommendations should further corroborate that, because your recommenders *should* be speaking to your leadership qualities. (More on our coaching for recommenders here , ‘cause that’s a whole other story.)

So for most people, the essays include an element of engaged community citizenship. This one is the hardest to quantify, and it's the hardest to turn into a resume bullet. One of the things that most of our successful HBS client essays have in common is that they are covering—in some way—the candidate’s penchant for being an engaged citizen of the communities that they've been a part of.

But—I can’t stress this enough—your resume is going to do the heavy lifting in conveying your accomplishments. The essay really isn't about how great you are, or how accomplished you are, or what you've achieved in your life. It's about the intangibles. It's about your values and your character. To put it one more way: it’s essentially about what you stand for.

Leaders of Consequence

Harvard wants to admit and shape Leaders of Consequence . But what does it mean to be a Leader of Consequence? First of all, it doesn’t mean that you’ve checked off a certain set of accomplishments. Rather, it’s a very powerful way of being .

• Leaders of Consequence are empathetic, so they have the ability to connect with other people.
• They're inspiring people, but they're also very human. They exude a sense of humility and vulnerability.
• They have a vision. To be a leader, you're going to have to have some kind of vision.

Schools are also looking for these qualities in the application. And the HBS Essay is the ideal place to exhibit them. This doesn't mean you won't talk about success and accomplishments in the essay, it just means that that's not really the point. The point of the Harvard MBA Essay is to reveal these softer and less tangible qualities about you, your values, and your character.

It’s a platform for sharing your authentic self. Sharing is the key word here: It's not about talking about or telling them who you are. Instead, it's about sharing your experiences, values, beliefs, thought processes and strategies, feelings, desires, hopes, and fears through some of the strategies I’ll discuss below. These are all the things that make you human.

What about my goals?

One of the most common questions I get from clients is whether the HBS Essay should include your goals. The quick answer ? Probably not. In our experience, for only one in about 9 or 10 MBA applicants is career vision an essential part of their Epic Story. For these people, fully sharing who they are and how they want to be known for the purposes of admission requires a discussion of the future. For everyone else, your goals belong squarely in the 500-character short answer box about goals.

Building a Narrative (Or, as we like to call it, Storyboarding )

Alright, now the next step in the process is storyboarding . You’ll take all of the material, all of the amazing things about your life that you identified in the Discovery stage, and boil it down into the few components that you're going to put together to answer this question.

The big thing you have to keep in mind when you're approaching the Harvard question, and really any essay question, is that you need to answer the question directly . Harvard is asking, “what more would you like us to know?” So you're going to have to tell them, “here's what I'd like you to know.” You don't have to have that sentence in there , but it is effectively the question that you're answering. So start from that place.

Key Stories

The Discovery Process will also help unearth the building blocks of your HBS Essay: key stories . In order to tell an Epic Story, you need to determine the pivotal anecdotes it’s comprised of. If your Epic Life Story is a constellation, think of your key stories as the individual star points.

Pro Tip: Imagine your Epic Life Story as a biopic.

I prefer to think about the Epic Life Story Essay in cinematic terms. From this perspective, it’s essentially a biopic : it’s a movie about your life so far. (You know, like that one about Mike Tyson that’s coming out?) So instead of using a traditional outlining framework—point one; subpoint A, B, C; point two; and so on—we’ll map your Life Story and your narrative in terms of scenes. At Career Protocol, we treat your essay like we would a screenplay.

In my experience, this leads to a much more dynamic version of your story. It also gives you more breathing room for the creative process than a tightly structured outline. So as you plan your Harvard essay, try thinking about it in these terms: What comes first in the movie? And then, what comes next? And what comes after that?

Oh, and make sure you nail that opening line.

TL;DR (A Step-by-Step Cheat Sheet for Our Storyboarding Process)

• Choose the core value that you want the Harvard adcom to know about you. You can choose at most two to focus on. (Typically one is enough. You don't need to boil the ocean on the values front.)
• Determine the three or four most important scenes in the film of your life related to this value. Think about which life choices were most revealing of your character and/or which experiences most shaped you and forced you to change. These are the key anecdotes (a.k.a. key stories).
• Decide what other scenes or details from your life are going to help fill in the rest of your film.
• Get writing! See what your story says, and then refine it around your values so that it reflects what you want the adcom to know about you to the greatest possible extent.

4. Decide how to start your essay (Note: That first line is crucial.)

Sitting down to write the first words of an essay can be an intimidating moment. Maybe you love that fresh start, that blank page staring back at you, but more likely you dread it. Never fear! I’m about to give you some great advice for tackling that first line and starting your writing process off on the right foot. (Er, finger?)

You want to be in the mindset of upliftment and inspiration before you sit down to write. That will ensure that what comes out will actually resonate with your best self and not, you know, the you who woke up on the wrong side of the bed and didn't drink your coffee.

So be sure that you're caffeinated if you drink caffeine. Be sure that you ate and slept well. Be inspired, and then sit down and see what comes out. For more great advice on how to write your Best MBA Essay—including how to get inspired!—check out our new article, Pro Tips: How to Write a Great MBA Essay. (The long and short of it is: Pixar movies .)

What should a first line look like?

Here are some first lines from actual winning Harvard essays:

Here are some examples. Some of these are from our clients, others are from The Harbus MBA Essay Guide (Summer 2020 Edition or the 2016-2017 Edition):

“On March 1st, 1995 my family boarded a plane at [INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT] with our entire lives packed into a few suitcases.”

“An early influence on my worldview was my father.”

“I never got along with my father.”

“As a six foot tall sixth grade girl, you really only have two choices: (1) stand up and be proud of your height or (2) slink off awkwardly and hide.”

“While my application materials have highlighted some of my proudest professional achievements, I want you to also know about the influence my parents have had on my life, my values, and the direction of my career.”

“I am defined by my appreciation for beauty.”

“I have cried exactly four times at work.”

“A wise woman once told me that I have had an extraordinary number of failures for someone my age.  I’d never thought about it that way before, but she’s got a good point.”

“It’s summertime, I’m 11, and the cool things to do are ride around town on bikes, eat ice cream, and play tennis.”

“The proudest moment of my lacrosse career is also my most embarrassing one.”

“I didn’t do well in school as a kid.”

“‘What should I do about praying at work?' [Name] asked me, concern emanating from her voice.”

“I had a near-death accident in September last year that knocked me out and ended me up in a hospital with a brain haemorrhage, a broken shoulder and a fractured ankle.”

“My mother fully believed in being ahead of the curve at all times.”

What you'll notice about these opening lines is that they're very workmanlike. They're direct. They get right into the story—say what happened, what was happening, sum it up, hop to it.

Each one of these is also interesting . It grabs you. It makes you want to keep going. And that's because each of these first lines uses the rules of narrative to bring you into the story. One of the most important rules to remember is that stories take place in space and time . Good stories, stories that grip the reader, have to be grounded in these dimensions.

As you may have noticed, most if not all of these winning first lines set the stage: They give you something you can picture, a scenario or location you can imagine—something to sink your teeth into.

Excuse me, rules of narrative?

There are some rules to how you think about your first sentence. It doesn't have to be flowery, it doesn't have to set an elaborate scene (in fact, for gosh sake, please don’t do any of that!!). It's almost certainly better if it's not dialogue or a quotation, despite some things you may have read here or there on the internet. (That can sometimes work, but it's rarely the most jet-fueled, engaging way to bring the reader into your world.) Instead, you want to dive right into the story and let the story carry you as you're writing it.

In summary.

Outline it if you want to, but don't waste a lot of time on that. Then get yourself to a position of being inspired. Decide on the opening line, and then just write—just write the story. You've got the big scenes, you've got the ideas in your head. Write it and see what comes out, and then iterate. The key scenes will come into focus as you edit.

For more on this—and for all my auditory learners out there—watch my MBA Monday video on how NOT to write a boring first line (or essay) .

And for an even more in-depth read on the storyboarding and essay writing processes we’ve developed at Career Protocol, dive into “ A Screen writer's Guide to Epic MBA Narratives. ”

5. Draft your HBS Essay (Write. Revise. Rewrite.)

“Good writing is essentially rewriting.”                   – Roald Dahl

“The only kind of writing is rewriting.”                – Ernest Hemingway

The next step on this essay-magic journey is storyshaping . This is a huge labor of love.

Let me say that again. It’s a HUGE labor of love .

Drafting continues to deepen the Discovery process. (By drafting, or storyshaping, I mean some combination of writing and rewriting and revising.) Most of our clients are still discovering their story as they're in the process of telling it. Your understanding of your values and exactly how you want to communicate them is clarified with each passing draft. So that's why we call it storyshaping.

The first thing to know about this stage is that there is no right number of drafts . Everybody needs a different number of iterations. Here’s how many drafts it took some of our clients who got into Harvard to write their masterpieces:

Our process includes unlimited drafts and boy do we mean it!

It may take a while because you’re a perfectionist, or because you totally changed gears in the middle, or because the story continues to evolve. You have to follow that inspiration and allow the story to go where it wants to go.

There's nothing better or worse about taking more or fewer drafts. Like everything else in this process, it depends on you, your writing habits, and how much time and space your story needs to achieve its potential. So for those of you who plan to go through this process on your own, give yourself plenty of time to revisit your draft and shape the essay as you go.

And what about word count ?

Okay, so word count. This is one of my favorite subjects. If you had to guess the upper limit of word count for a successful HBS Essay, what would you say? The lower limit?

If you read any other advice about the Harvard Essay, you're going to find that almost everyone says 1000 words. Tops. Or 750-1250 words . Tops. Or 1100 words. Tops . Or something like that. So let me be the one to tell you: Any firm answer to this question is a load of hooey. The length of the essay is totally irrelevant.

A few stats from some of our recent Harvard admits will help you get a sense of just how varied and individualized the writing process is for the HBS Essay.

Here’s a sampling of our successful clients’ word count in recent years:

You want to tell the story in as much time as it takes to really do it justice. For most people—it’s true—that’s somewhere in the 1200-1400 range. But not for everyone! Some essays will take a lot more than that, and some will take less.

For successful essays in the 1000-word range, they’re shorter because they have a simpler and more straightforward story to tell. The successful client essays that broke into the 2000-word range had the most amazing, fascinating, and riveting life stories and experiences I’ve ever come across.

I repeat: There. Is. No. Right. Number.

The takeaway here is that each story has its own cadence and its own pace. It takes place in its own time. Again, the number of words that it has is completely irrelevant. You want to tell the story in the amount of space that allows you to fully show the admissions committee your best self . Because, ultimately, it's not your essay that gets you in. It's not your GMAT. It's not even your resume. It's who you are .

6. Seek out feedback

Please remember : Essays need readers . Every storyteller needs an audience.

One of the best things you can do for yourself when you’re writing the HBS Essay is find someone to bounce drafts off of. (Trust me, you’ll be SO thankful you did.) You need to know how the story that you’re telling is going to land for someone else.

Gauging a reader’s reaction and asking for feedback can help you answer questions like: Do any of my anecdotes need more detail? Is everything spelled out clearly enough? Do any parts of my essay seem to drag on endlessly? Am I emphasizing the right things? And—in more extreme but all-too-common cases—do I come off sounding like a selfish jerk? Or an airhead? (Obviously you’re not those things, which is exactly why we don’t want your essay putting off those vibes!!)

This back-and-forth between you and a trusted reader is a fantastic way to give greater definition to your narrative. If you move from draft 1 to draft 2 to draft 3 all inside the vacuum of your own mind, you’ll get caught up in one big smush of perfectionism and wordsmithing and miss the most important point: the big picture—emotional connection with the reader.

But do choose wisely . We’re the best at what we do (in large part, I’d argue, because we love doing it ). So if you want a buddy for your HBS essay-writing and beyond, start your journey with Career Protocol today.

If working with a professional is out of the question, ask a friend, peer, or mentor to be your trusted reader. Choose someone you can count on to be honest with you—to give you their true reactions and ask questions freely, rather than petting your ego. (This isn’t the time for that!!!)

But also make sure to choose someone whose opinions about you are generous and who doesn’t feel the need to control your narrative or grammar. Moms can sometimes be great. But sometimes they have their own preconceived notions about who they think you are that isn’t well aligned with who you ACTUALLY are today. And that grammar stickler friend of yours just might wordsmith all the life out of your writing voice.

More advice on this here:

So, I’ll say once more, choose your reading buddy wisely! To collect great feedback, try using our Friends-Family Fly Test . And remember, we’re here if you need us.

7. When in Doubt: Read more great advice & some solid essay samples

Here’s some advice on approaching the hbs essay from a few of our harvard admits:.

“I think for HBS, I always considered it a long shot, so I wasn't afraid to present what I felt was my true story. I think it's more of an opportunity to reflect on what the most important part of your story is. I wanted to be honest and true to myself, because I knew that I'd otherwise look back and think, ‘Wait a minute. What if I had just told the story I wanted them to know all along?’”

“Be honest! Show the school your capacity for self-reflection, give a thoughtful appraisal of your past actions/mistakes.”

“Be authentic! It is really easy to be caught in the trap of saying what you think is important or focusing on what may be perceived as ‘most impressive,’ but from what I have seen, admissions committees are so good at sniffing out inauthentic essays that it may end up backfiring!”

(are you noticing a trend here?)

“After you have a few drafts under your belt, take a break on your application for a few days. When you come back, reread your essay while asking yourself ‘does this cut to the core of who I really am?’ Share your essay with your family and close friends with the same question. If you don’t get a resounding yes from all parties, go back to the drawing board.”

“DON’T SUBMIT SOMETHING THAT FEELS FORCED OR FAKE. I wrote an entire draft of my HBS essay and spent two weeks trying to edit it into something I believed reflected who I really am, and at the end of it I decided to start over. Don’t be afraid to start over.”

One more nugget of wisdom from an HBS admit:

“Definitely try to be as concise and to-the-point in your essays as possible. Also, do not feel the need to crack open your SAT vocab books!”

And now a final word from me…

This is my most important piece of advice in approaching the Harvard Essay:

There are no guarantees. Most of you will not get in. That's a fact. So you might as well do yourself proud in the essay. Write it in such a way that you can look back on the choices that you made on this journey with no regrets , because you told the story that you wanted to tell. You authentically answered the question. You told Harvard what it was that you really wanted them to know about you.

If you remember, choice equals voice. You're making choices continually—even as you go through this process. I recommend that you make strong choices in your essays, and especially when you're applying to Harvard.

Helpful Sources

Harbus 2021  Essay Guide. Need I say more? (Check out earlier editions, too, to broaden your sample set.) But be sure to read SEVERAL essays so you get clear about the fact that there is no right answer. Don’t anchor your story to someone else’s. Own it.

Subscribe to our Career Protocol YouTube channel to watch my MBA Pro Tips, including my Top Tips for Writing the Harvard Essay.

And if you’re wondering how to write those other Epic Life Story essays, listen to me tackle Stanford’s “What Matters Most to You and Why?” (also on our YouTube channel)

Aaaaanddd on that note: Our Top 10 Tools for Your Creative MBA Essays

Angela Guido

Student of Human Nature| Founder and Chief Education Officer of Career Protocol

Let’s have a conversation!

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HBS GURU --B SCHOOL CONSULTING

This wide-ranging interview with me appeared in the march 13th 2006 edition of harbus, the newspaper of the harvard business school, the case for admissions consultants:, an interview with sandy kreisberg founder of cambridge essay service.

HARBUS –THE NEWSPAPER OF HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL

HARBUS: Why did you say our HARBUS essay book “65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays” is really “65 Mediocre Essays From Successful Applications?”

SANDY: Ha, ha. Well, on the record, probably “35 Mediocre Essays,” which are either under-cooked in terms of facts, quotes, examples, or got to the real point at the end and then did not bother to start over, or never followed up on the meaning/significance of the experience. Those are classic mistakes, but at HBS, essay execution does not count so much as essay DNA. If you have powerful experiences, the adcom will meet you half way.

HARBUS: What do you mean?

SANDY: I read lots of applications from accepted HBS students with weak or so-so essays, or essays that could have been improved, or essays that are, in cases, confusing, but you can usually figure out why those applicants were accepted. They presented diverse, powerful experiences, even if not fully captured. Applying to HBS is not an essay contest. If applicant A has a perfect essay about not much, and if applicant B extrudes the factual underpinnings of having a big impact on an underserved group, you go with applicant B, on the theory that she can perfect her writing when she gets here, or never become a great writer but become a powerful leader, and hire professionals to do her writing.

HARBUS: Is that true at all schools?

SANDY : No, at Wharton and Stanford essay execution really counts way more. At Wharton you can commit suicide if you don’t really nail why Wharton, why now, goals. At Stanford, you really need to be on their wavelength in Essay A about what matters most, although if they want you, they will blink a bit, too. Although, HBS, to its credit I suppose, will blink the most, both about technical essay execution and stats, especially the GMAT.

HARBUS: OK, given the recent push back from adcoms about consultants, what are the best arguments in favor of consultants?

SANDY: Consultants can level the information grid, both in the obvious example that applicants from banks and consulting shops have a lot of contextual information about applying, about what questions really mean–if not the secret handshake–then just the data base of previous successful applicants from their firms, and access to mentors, successful peers now at school X, Y, and Z etc.

HARBUS: And?

SANDY: And in the not so obvious example of being a group of dedicated school watchers, who stay around year after year, (consultants) can be an added voice to that of the official information provided by the school. Consultants are like stock analysts, who are not perfect either obviously, but who do interpret what the official company line is, have industry expertise, and in cases, force a company to own up to mistakes, or just operate with the healthy knowledge that someone is watching them.

HARBUS: Huh? Consultants do that?

SANDY: You bet, consultants are outgrowths of the blog and internet culture of the past 10 years, and most consultants, including me, define their ‘brand’ on blogs and internet forums like Business Week’s, which has about 10 leading consultants all giving advice, chewing over any event like grade disclosure, hacking, interview scheduling, 3rd-round applications, age limits at various schools, dean changes, EMBA vs. MBA in public forums. The more history, data, insight I bring to those discussions, the more I get a following, the more I define a personal brand, the more clients I get, etc.

HARBUS: But can’t the schools address those issues?

SANDY: Well, sure, but adcoms are limited both legally, and probably temperamentally, and institutionally, to take a wide view of things. For instance, the GMAT range is 560-800, the age-range is 21 to 36, etc. But applicants want to know who gets in with a 560 GMAT, and how many students are over 32, and how many students get in Round 3.

HARBUS: Who does get in with a 560 GMAT?

SANDY: Ha, ha, I thought you could tell me.

HARBUS: Name some things consultants have pointed out to the blogosphere?

SANDY: That 3rd Round is really, really hard at Wharton and Stanford, and probably a bit harder at HBS; that most folks over 32 or so, who are not military, are going to have a hard time getting in to Harvard or Stanford; that Harvard is not as fond of IIT graduates from India as Wharton is; that Harvard’s recent claim that grade non-disclosure was implemented to insulate its January cohort (of beloved memory) who were, in fact, different in terms of background, etc. was a major 180 from what it was telling the January cohort at the time; that interviews at Stanford usually have zilch impact on your admit decision, while bad interviews at HBS are usually a prelude to a ding or WL.

HARBUS: How many HBS students use consultants?

SANDY: Well, the HARBUS survey said 10 percent, and my own guess is probably as many students use consultants as HBS faculty and staff use admissions consultants for their own children – in one form or another, including sending them to schools that hire consultants.

SANDY: And, that is probably higher than 10 percent.

HARBUS: What do you think HBS adcoms are looking for?

SANDY: It’s no secret undergraduate GPA counts more than they let on, as a gross metric. Although, like I said, they are willing to blink, in lots of individual cases, to their credit. If you don’t come from the most popular 50 feeder companies or organizations, you need to pop some other part of the application, like extras, or stats. If you are a regular Joe or Jane from Ivy/near Ivy/ banking/ consulting, it gets real, real hard separating the last 75 applicants on the train from the next 100 on the curb. I don’t envy the adcom making those calls. Every year, I run across 20 or so people who get dinged at HBS who seem just great to me, but I’d have a hard time kicking out 20 members of the class to make room for them.

HARBUS: You said you convince about 100 applicants a year not to apply to HBS? What makes you so sure?

SANDY: Because I try to convince 200, and of the 100 who apply anyway, none get in.

HARBUS: Because?

SANDY: Too old, too ordinary, no stardust, nothing driving them in, disfavored cohort (IT) to boot, deluded (owns auto detailing shop, sells residential real estate, web designer). OK, the adcoms are going to come up with one of each of those (laughing). I’m sticking with the program, I don’t mean someone who once sold residential real estate, I mean that is the current job-not that there is anything wrong with that, as Seinfeld says.

HARBUS: If you were on the adcom, what would you do about consultants, and what changes would you make in the application process?

SANDY: Nothing and nothing. I love the HBS process, and not because it is good for me, it isn’t. I’d do better if essay execution counted more, as it is, I tell lots of applicants not to bother hiring me, ‘You could make this application way better, but it ain’t going to make a difference, you deliver the package, and that is all that counts, the wrapping paper just has to have the right address.’

HARBUS: So what do you love about it?

SANDY: I think it is a very good corkscrew that gets out the cork, and the cork is mostly the stuff of your real experiences, and a slight aroma of reflection, hope, aspiration and potential.

copyright 2022 @HBSGuru.com

Application Strategy + Essay & Recommendations Review

Offered by Harsha M.

ex-Harbus MBA Essay Guide CEO and Essay Curator

Studied at Harvard Business School

Works at Heyday

This package is for anyone looking for guidance on application strategy as well as looking for help to draft and review essays and 2 recommendations for a school of choice. This includes 3 calls of 1 hour each, the first one dedicated to finalizing application strategy, second to essay review (essay should be in a second draft stage at the minimum), and third to recommendation review.

What will you take away from this package?

Reviewed and finalized draft of essay and recommendations, and a clear application strategy

How will this coaching take place?

This package will be delivered via live sessions .

My style is flexible based on client needs. I usually ask the client to self assess the strengths and weaknesses of the application to figure out where I can add the most value (typically on the intro call). I also keep myself available for shorter queries over text/ email before and after the calls to round out client takeaways.

Services included with this package:

Recommendations

Application Strategy

Additional details

More packages from harsha, custom hourly coaching · $200 /hour.

Get help with Editing, School Selection , and more .

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Total price

Coaching time.

Joined July 2022

- Harvard Business School 2021 graduate - Harbus Essay Guide 2020 CEO/ Content Curator; interviewed 50+ students and alums with successful HBS admits - Featured by Poets & Quants and Accepted.com for "What's new in 2020 MBA admissions"

20+ people coached for MBA

Open to working with clients outside the U.S.

3h of coaching

We can improve your MBA profile and boost your candidacy. Gain insight into the review process and eliminate weaknesses from your MBA application.

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5 Common Interview Questions from Harvard Business School

Today is the final day Harvard Business School will extend Round 1 interview invitations , and to prepare nervous applicants, the school’s independent newspaper The Harbus has shared five common MBA interview questions that cropped up last year during the admissions interviews of current first-year students.

Here, we share excerpts from the article, which provides valuable, first-hand tips for successfully navigating the questions frequently posed by HBS interviewers:

Walk me through your resume. The Harbus says: “Make your resume a narrative rather than merely relating a series of unconnected events. Focus on upward progression…Keep your ‘walk’ to 5 minutes, and don’t spend all your time in one area versus another.”

What is one thing I’d never have guessed about you, even after reading your application? The Harbus says: “Here is an opportunity to go beyond your achievements – or at least your business-related achievements – and tell your interviewers about something that really makes you tick…Think about what would make you an interesting or valuable section mate to have at HBS.”

What is the most interesting conversation you’ve had this week? The Harbus says: “ Keep this professional, worldly and, most likely, news-related…use this as an opportunity to showcase your preparation, especially your morning news routine.”

How do you make big decisions? The Harbus says: “This is another perfect question for examples. Tell a story, but make sure the actual decision has a logical, step-by-step process behind it. Show your personality in the answer too…don’t be afraid to talk about your gut.”

Describe an ethical grey area you had to navigate. The Harbus says: “The hardest, most complicated, problems and questions often result in the best leadership development. Don’t try to whitewash the situation; acknowledge how hard the choice was and walk the interviewer through the process you went through to come to your final outcome.”

For more tips on how to answer each of these real Harvard Business School application interview questions, follow the link above to the original Harbus article.

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