sudden wrote:
Questions:
1) Are people addressing the why HBS question?
2) Since HBS gives such tiny word limits, it's hard to paint much of a picture of anything. I assume that means they are judging people based on stats more so than comparable schools. My strategy has been to hammer on anything and everything I have related to leadership (a lot, actually) and basically ignore everything else that can easily be listed elsewhere -- I guess my academic accomplishments / non-leadership ECs, etc. will have to speak for themselves. Any thoughts here?
1) I did address the why HBS question in my essays. I think I worked it in with the last essay, about my future career goals and how HBS will help me out. I actually got pretty specific and mentioned how I was looking forward to a lot of their strategy classes even though I want to enter corp finance.
2) Because of the tiny word limits, I had minimal space to create smooth transitions. Looking back now, my essays are a little choppy but still got the main points across. You will just have to decide what information takes priority and how detailed you need to get.
I suggest that you emphasize activities that show leadership ability, HBS doesn't want to touch you if you don't. More than any other school, HBS is about
educating leaders, not developing them. For my essays, I made sure that each and every story tied into attributes I believe are necessary to be a successful leader.