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As I am sure you have noticed, the clock is tick tick ticking and the final HBS admissions deadline for 2019-2020 is zooming up. You are not alone if you procrastinated finishing your HBS essay, reasoning that during your winter break you would have quality time to truly focus on it. Now that you have finished some of your holiday celebrations, you may have found yourself sitting down before your essay and, as you read what might feel like a very unpolished, very unstructured essay, your panic may have begun to set in.
You are not alone. Many candidates have been in those shoes and turned things around, even with days to go before the deadline. What advice can help guide you to improve your essay drastically in the days you have left before the HBS Round 2 deadline?
Our longer blog (link below) reflects the number one piece of advice. It addresses the main mistake many candidates make when addressing Harvard’s open-ended question that reads, “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? No word limit.”
What is that number one mistake? Rambling!
Rambling can take many forms, such as aimlessness, wordiness, content flow that does not make sense, topics that are poorly blended together – usually a combination of all the above! This is the sort of rambling that leaves the reader uttering, “Huh?” Unfortunately, if you leave the admissions reader with the sense that you did not put adequate time into composing the essay, that will not bode well for your admissions success.
What is our advice about how to strengthen a less-than-ideal essay this close to the deadline? There are two key steps.
First, make a self-constructed prompt to guide you as you write. Make sure you are composing an essay that answers that prompt. This is the advice from our longer blog:
When an essay topic is as open-ended as Harvard’s this year, some candidates make the mistake of constructing an essay that wanders in too many directions, rambles in parts and is not coherent. One way to help ensure you write a strong essay is to determine your own essay prompt. Thinking about what that prompt is can help you create a theme that permeates the whole essay. You may end up mentioning a mixture of professional, academic and extracurricular successes, and that is fine. But they should not be clumped together in a scattered sort of way. Flesh out what your theme is. For instance, a successful essay might present topics that reflect the theme, “This is what has influenced me to be who I am today.” Alternatively, a successful essay might reflect themes such as, “These are the things that motivate my future goals,” or “This is who I intend to be in 10 years,” or “This is my personal story and why my passion for my profession is so deep.” The possibilities go on. With such a potentially long essay, make sure your essay holds together well.
Second, get objective feedback about your essay and use that to refine the essay. You may have numerous friends who were admitted into the very best schools like Harvard and Stanford, and perhaps they can give some useful feedback. You can also reach out to an experienced consultant who has worked with thousands of applicants to get guidance about your essay. Some companies offer a service in which they will read your essay and provide a feedback session or a round of editing for a reasonable fee.
Here is the link to our longer blog that addresses how to approach the HBS essay:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/hbs-single-e ... 98196.html
Good luck as you write!
Feel free to reach out to us! We have holiday hours available between now and the HBS R2 deadline.
Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com
https://www.mbaadmit.com
Email: info@mbaadmit.com
