Oh thank goodness HBS eliminated the "introduce yourself to your section" essay from last year! This year, they've essentially gone back to the topic they used in previous years:
"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?"
The fact that they brought back the PREVIOUS essay topic can provide some important clues for what NOT to write about THIS year... I explain why here.
In sum, my guess is that "Introduce yourself"
tempted too many people to focus on certain things...at the expense of what HBS actually wants to hear about. So they ditched it!
Also, as a side-note, the deadlines remain pretty much the same from last year, with Round 1 being super-early:
Round 1: September 7, 2016
Round 2: January 4, 2017
Round 3: April 3, 2017
ApplicantLab users had almost 4x the admissions rate last year as the overall applicant pool -- I'm looking forward to this season!