{"id":50573,"date":"2020-12-01T15:20:09","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T22:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/tackling-the-hbs-essay-start-with-this-step\/"},"modified":"2020-12-01T15:20:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T22:20:09","slug":"tackling-the-hbs-essay-start-with-this-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/tackling-the-hbs-essay-start-with-this-step\/","title":{"rendered":"Tackling the HBS Essay? Start with This Step"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated 11.30.2020<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

At first glance, the Harvard Business School essay question, which remained unchanged again this year, seems fairly simple.\u00a0What more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?\u00a0<\/em>However, after giving it some thought, many candidates find themselves quite lost, trying to figure out what the adcom is looking for and what stories and experiences from their background would be best to include.<\/p>\n

What Does HBS Look For<\/strong><\/h4>\n

As a starting place, it\u2019s important to keep in mind the qualities HBS is seeking in its MBAs. HBS looks for: 1) Habit of Leadership, 2) Analytical Aptitude and Appetite; 3) Engaged Community Citizenship. It wants strong leaders who will change the world. Nearly every successful candidate meets the criteria above so it\u2019s important you demonstrate all of these throughout your application (but not necessarily all in the essays).<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the essay is the place where they will get to know you beyond the nitty-gritty things you provide elsewhere in your application. As such, it\u2019s important to get personal. The goal is to show who you are, what drives you, and what has helped you become who you are today (and that person today is a strong, amazing leader). Your experiences and accomplishments don\u2019t have to be massive things, relatively speaking \u2013 not everyone has started a non-profit or is on a mission to save the world \u2014 but they should be significant to you and your evolution as a person.<\/p>\n

This thing that drives you \/ motivates you \/ has made you who you are could be a thing, person, influence etc. We\u2019ve had applicants write about personal mantras that coaches gave them, childhood experiences or cultural influences that impacted the way they think, hobbies that helped them think outside the box, etc. So settle in and get comfortable turning the microscope on yourself!<\/p>\n

Frameworks<\/strong><\/h4>\n

From our years of advising successful applicants to HBS, we find that it\u2019s helpful to brainstorm leveraging frameworks that can help tie various elements of a candidate\u2019s profile together.\u00a0 This approach provides some structure while leaving plenty of room for personal expression and creativity. To start, consider how your own story could fit into one of the following:<\/p>\n

1) Life Theme: is there something from your life that\u2019s been a theme and you can point to how it\u2019s impacted you personally, professionally and otherwise? It can be cultural heritage, family, traditions (large and small), etc. We\u2019ve even had clients write about something as simple as a hobby like soccer or riding horses.<\/p>\n

2) Defining Trait: pick a trait that you believe really exemplifies who you are. For example, we recently had a client write about how he got comfortable not always being the best and sometimes being the worst; and how overcoming his fear of failure led him to some of his greatest achievements.<\/p>\n

This is probably the most common tack to take. GSB\u2019s prompt in prior years has been \u201cWhat matters most to you, and why?<\/em>\u201d and sometimes people find that to be an easier framework to think inside. This approach could result in a similar essay for HBS and Stanford GSB.<\/p>\n

3) A Passion: Pick something about which you\u2019re really passionate. Maybe you have a strong passion that drives your goals? In the past, we\u2019ve had clients write about diversity and inclusion in the workplace, wanting to change industries, etc., but it\u2019s atypical to spend an HBS essay focused on work.<\/p>\n

Structure Ideas<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Once you\u2019ve brainstormed possible theses and the underlying stories you could use to support them, begin building an outline. Ultimately, you want an essay that is no more than two pages and follows a structure somewhat like the below. In reality, your essay will be more like 8-9 paragraphs because your stories can take up multiple paragraphs.<\/p>\n

P1: Intro (summarizes the main point and is unique\/interesting enough to pull the reader in)<\/p>\n

P2: Context \/ history of what you asserted about yourself in P1 (the \u2018origins\u2019 story, if you will)<\/p>\n

P3: Example story from some point in life (can be any time really)<\/p>\n

P4: Example story from another point in life (stories should demonstrate leadership as much as possible \u2013 these should be your most impressive stories of stepping up to the plate)<\/p>\n

P5: Conclusion<\/p>\n

What to Avoid<\/strong><\/h4>\n

You should never write about \u201cWhy HBS\u201d or really \u201cWhy MBA.\u201d HBS has never directly asked \u2018why HBS\u2019 and that is intentional \u2013 they are confident that their program sets its graduates up for success as leaders. Word count spent detailing \u2018why HBS\u2019 is word count you don\u2019t have to spend talking about yourself and that\u2019s a missed opportunity. It\u2019s possible that you integrate some \u201cWhy MBA\u201d in the conclusion but try to avoid that initially and see how it goes.<\/p>\n

In addition, be careful not to spend too much of the essay focused on work. It is our strong, strong recommendation that your overarching essay topic not be anything hyper professionally specific or undifferentiated like a banking deal team story. If you include something like this, make it an example story somewhere in your essay, not the essay topic itself.<\/p>\n

We hope this helps get you started with the HBS essay! The ambiguity of the question makes it tough, but with self-reflection, vulnerability, and patience you can write a great essay and hopefully have a bit of fun with it along the way.<\/p>\n

If you would like some guidance, click here<\/a> to request a free 30-minute consultation!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post Tackling the HBS Essay? Start with This Step<\/a> appeared first on Vantage Point MBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updated 11.30.2020\u00a0 At first glance, the Harvard Business School essay question, which remained unchanged again this year, seems fairly simple.\u00a0What more would you like us to know as we consider…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1955,775,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-vantage-point-mba","category-admission-consultants","category-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}