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HBS has revamped its MBA admissions process by introducing new essay prompts, marking the first significant update since 2016.

Gone is the 900-word, open-ended essay prompt, replaced by three shorter, focused questions. In this article, we'll break down each essay prompt, offering insights into what HBS seeks and tips on how to craft compelling responses.

Read our full article on Harvard MBA Essay Analysis and Tips 2024-2025
 

1. Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you strive to make on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (Text box, 300 words maximum)
 
1A. What HBS Wants from This Essay

HBS is looking to understand how your past experiences have shaped your career goals and aspirations. They want to see the pivotal moments and influences that have driven your passion for your chosen path. This essay should highlight how your experiences have molded you into the professional you are today and how they connect to your future goals.

1B. How to Write the Business-Minded Essay

Writing this essay requires a focused approach on your past and present experiences.

Here’s a structured framework to guide you:

  • Introduction: Start with a brief introduction that sets the stage for your essay. Mention that you will discuss pivotal experiences that have shaped your career direction and leadership style.
  • Example of Influential Experience: Choose a specific, significant experience from your background that has influenced your career choices and leadership development. Prioritize professional or business experiences.
  • Describe the Experience: Provide a detailed description of the experience, including the context, your role, and the impact it had on you and others. For instance, if you led a project at work, describe how you identified a critical issue and spearheaded an initiative to address it. Explain the steps you took, the challenges you faced, and the measurable outcomes. Highlight how this experience influenced your professional growth and shaped your approach to leadership and problem-solving.
  • Highlight Your Leadership Traits: Reflect on the leadership traits you demonstrated. Did you show initiative, inspire others, or innovate? How did these traits contribute to your success?
  • Impact on Others: Discuss the specific impact your actions had on others, such as mentoring someone or driving organizational growth.
  • Connection to Career Aspirations: Connect this experience to your current career aspirations. Explain how it has influenced your professional decisions and why it is pivotal to your future plans. Discuss your ambitions for making a broader impact and how your leadership will contribute to these goals.

1C. Tips for Writing

  • Be Authentic: Share genuine experiences that reflect who you are and what drives you.
  • Focus on Specificity: Use concrete examples and specific details to illustrate your points.
  • Connection to HBS: Draw connections between your goals and HBS’s offerings, community, and values. Show how HBS is integral to your future success.

2. Leadership-Focused Essay What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (Text box, 250 words maximum)

2A. What HBS Wants from This Essay

HBS wants to see how you've made a difference through your leadership. They are interested in specific actions you took, the outcomes, and how you inspired others and drove change.

2B. How to Write the Leadership-Focused Essay

Crafting a compelling leadership essay requires highlighting impactful experiences and articulating your vision for future leadership.

Here’s a framework to guide your thoughts:

  • Introduction to Impactful Experiences: Introduce a specific experience that has shaped your leadership journey, whether professional, extracurricular, or community involvement. Highlight the context, your role, and the challenge or opportunity you faced.
  • Inspiring Change: Describe how you mobilized or inspired change. Emphasize your proactive approach and the actions you took to achieve results.
  • Result and Impact: Detail the tangible or intangible outcomes of your leadership efforts. Discuss the positive changes that resulted, such as increased morale or improved team dynamics.
  • Linking to Future Leadership: Connect your past experiences to your future aspirations as a leader. Explain how these experiences have influenced your leadership philosophy and the type of leader you aspire to become. Focus on specific traits or skills you aim to develop further at HBS.

2C. Tips for Writing

  • Be Specific and Authentic: Choose experiences that truly reflect your values and leadership style.
  • Show Cause and Effect: Demonstrate the cause-and-effect relationship between your actions and their outcomes.
  • Highlight Personal Growth: Share insights into how these experiences have shaped your leadership capabilities and aspirations.

3. Growth-Oriented Essay Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (Text box, 250 words maximum)

3A. What HBS Wants from This Essay

HBS seeks candidates who embody curiosity, a quality fundamental to their MBA experience. The essay invites you to narrate an instance where your curiosity sparked a transformative journey, whether through a hobby, intellectual pursuit, or personal endeavor.

3B. How to Write the Growth-Oriented Essay

This essay provides a platform to showcase how your curiosity has driven personal and professional development. Here’s how to structure your response:

  • Introduction to Curiosity: Introduce the area of your life where curiosity has been most compelling. Highlight the passion and dedication you’ve invested.
  • Example of Curiosity in Action: Share a specific example that illustrates your pursuit of knowledge. Describe a pivotal moment where your curiosity led you to explore new ideas, challenge assumptions, or change perspectives.
  • Impact on Growth: Discuss how this curiosity-driven journey has influenced your personal and professional growth. Reflect on the skills or insights gained.
  • Connection to HBS: Tie your growth narrative back to HBS’s learning environment. Explain how your demonstrated curiosity will enrich classroom discussions and contribute to the case study method, highlighting unique perspectives and insights.

3C. Tips for Writing

  • Be Specific and Personal: Choose an example that resonates deeply with you and allows you to showcase your genuine passion and commitment.
  • Show Transformation: Emphasize how your curiosity has not only broadened your knowledge but also catalyzed personal growth, demonstrating adaptability and openness to new ideas.
  • Link to Future Goals: Connect your growth story to your career aspirations. Illustrate how the skills and lessons learned through your curiosity-driven pursuits will benefit your future endeavors post-MBA.

Final Thoughts

Craft each essay with clarity, coherence, and a genuine narrative that highlights your unique strengths and ambitions. Your journey and the lessons learned along the way will not only set you apart but also illustrate your potential to thrive at HBS and going forward. Good luck!

Drop me a line if you'd like personalized support on your B-school application journey.

Regards,
Arvind Kumar (HEC Paris MBA alum and Former Admissions Interviewer)
Founder, admitStreet | Schedule a free chat­
W: https://admitstreet.com | E: [email protected]LinkedIn ­
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This is a great HBS essay guide. Thanks for this!
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The Harvard Business School (HBS) has released the application deadlines and essay prompts for the MBA Class of 2027 (matriculating fall 2025):


Application Deadlines



 Applications received after September 4, 2024, will be considered in Round 2. Those received after January 6, 2025, will not be considered.


Required Essays

Applicants to the MBA Class of 2027 need to respond to these three essay prompts:
  1. Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
  2. Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)
  3. Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)

Joint degree applicants have an additional essay prompt depending on the specific program they are applying to, such as the Harvard Medical School, Harvard Law School, or Harvard Kennedy School.


Post-Interview Reflection

Within 24 hours of the interview, candidates are required to submit a written reflection through the online application system. Detailed instructions will be provided to those applicants who are invited to interview.The HBS admissions team is looking for applicants who are business-minded, leadership-focused, and growth-oriented. They encourage candidates to be authentic and true to themselves in the application process.At MBA and Beyond, we are determined to help you develop a unique structure for each essay question providing step-by-step procedures to build a specific answer that would help you stand out among the crowd! We are a team of expert consultants who follow a unique process to achieve maximum efficiency, quality, and interaction, ensuring a 100% unique and authentic application! 

Good luck!

MBAandBeyond


If you have any further questions related to your profile or want to have a 1:1 discussion with our top profile experts, feel free to schedule a complimentary profile evaluations session with our experts . We match you with the students and alums of top B-schools according to your background and target schools.


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Thankyou for the help :D
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HBS has always valued concision. Each student needs to speak in class to obtain participation point. For the benefit of the whole, each student needs to succinctly make a point that is additive to the case discussion and know when to pass the mike. Adcom puts you to the test by packing a lot into a 30-minute interview – can you provide insight concisely and know what to stop talking?This year, they are assessing this attribute earlier in the process by asking you to squeeze in quite a bit of information in very few words.

Essay 1

Business-Minded: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you strive to make on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)

What experiences have motivated you to make the career choices you have made so far, and what new experiences motivate you to your new career aspirations?

In some ways, this is like a goal essay but with the focus more on the “why” that the “what.” Why did you choose the path so far and why are you seeking the goals you aspire to post-MBA?

And rather than listing a title, function and geography here you are asked the harder question of that positive impact you hope to generate.

We are looking for individuals who are passionate about using business as a force for good – who strive to improve and transform companies, industries, and the world.”

It’s no secret full-time MBA programs spend more money to educate you than you pay in tuition, so I encourage candidates to think of themselves as investible opportunities. What is the positive social ROI you will generate by way of achieving your career aspirations? How is business school the best way to achieve the impact you wish to make? The mission of HBS is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. Why should HBS pick you?

My outline would be as follows – make sure to write chronologically.

1.       Discuss the watershed moment that led you to what you are doing now, (your “why” then)

2. Discuss the similar watershed moment that led to the post-MBA goal you are going for (your “why” now”) – this is likely to be a problem if solved would generate positive social impact.

“We are seeking those who are eager to solve today’s biggest problems and shape the future through creative and integrated thinking.”

3.       Discuss the positive impact you will make after having achieved this – if possible, think of the ripple effects. Of course, consider how you plan to make your next organization successful but also communities that might benefit from that success. This answers the HBS ROI of Why You in terms of business success, problems solved by your innovations, populations uplifted by your commitment to change, etc.

#HBSEssay #BusinessSchool #MBAgoals­
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­HBS Essay 2 - Leadership-Focused

"Leadership-Focused: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)"

Given the incredibly tight word limit, I would recommend you focus the first part around experience(s) that have shaped who you are as a leader, in whatever form that has taken. Sometimes I need to remind people that leadership is not people management – in fact, it doesn’t really need to include managing others at all.

“We deliberately create a class that includes different kinds of leaders, from the front-line manager to the startup founder to the behind-the-scenes thought leader.”

At its core, I believe leadership means taking the initiative to solve problems.

It's clear from the 2nd part they want a class comprised of those who HAVE in fact invested in others; this question has a bit of a gatekeeping quality to it. Try to provide a continuum from the experience that shaped who you are and then how that became the catalyst for how you invest in others.

For some, investing in others comes so naturally you barely recognize it. It might help to “crowdsource” this question to get more clarity and objectivity on your special brand of investing in others.

To address the last part of the question, you might consider what leadership characteristics you need to achieve your goal. You might even Google something like “most important leadership qualities of a ____ fill in your goal job here.” State the vision of "future you" as a leader.

#HBSEssays #HBSEssays2025 #MBAJourney #InvestInOthers #BusinessSchool #MBAMentorship­
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­Essay 3

Growth-Oriented: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)

Here’s what I think they are looking for:

Willingness to do the work:

“Our case and field-based learning methods depend on the active participation of curious students who are excited to listen and learn…”

I often say that MBA applicants are both the consumer and the product. HBS wants to protect that product. They need students who are eager to read cases and rigorously engage with their learning team, a process that leads to a dynamic classroom environment. Many are eager to deprioritize academics in their MBA program but that is not how things work at HBS.

The value proposition of HBS is largely about how much you extract from the classes. You invest a great deal of time but learn a lot in equal proportion.

Being open and coachable:

“At HBS you will be surrounded by future leaders from around the world who will make you think more expansively…”

In their description of what constitutes “growth-oriented” they mention listening twice which I believe is intentional. You need to listen closely to your fellow classmates to make an additive point to the case discussion. They want to avoid those who talk to hear themselves talk. The sum (classroom case discussion) is greater than the whole of its parts.

As you might imagine, many apply to HBS to achieve status more than transformation. They might be high achieving but lack a beginner’s mindset.

It’s clever that HBS asks for an example where the applicant’s pursuit of learning something new resulted in a transformation. This helps them identify those who can truly leverage the opportunity.­
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­HBS Essay 2 - Leadership-Focused

"Leadership-Focused: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)"

Given the incredibly tight word limit, I would recommend you focus the first part around experience(s) that have shaped who you are as a leader, in whatever form that has taken. Sometimes I need to remind people that leadership is not people management – in fact, it doesn’t really need to include managing others at all.

“We deliberately create a class that includes different kinds of leaders, from the front-line manager to the startup founder to the behind-the-scenes thought leader.”

At its core, I believe leadership means taking the initiative to solve problems.

It's clear from the 2nd part they want a class comprised of those who HAVE in fact invested in others; this question has a bit of a gatekeeping quality to it. Try to provide a continuum from the experience that shaped who you are and then how that became the catalyst for how you invest in others.

For some, investing in others comes so naturally you barely recognize it. It might help to “crowdsource” this question to get more clarity and objectivity on your special brand of investing in others.

To address the last part of the question, you might consider what leadership characteristics you need to achieve your goal. You might even Google something like “most important leadership qualities of a ____ fill in your goal job here.” State the vision of "future you" as a leader.

#HBSEssays #HBSEssays2025 #MBAJourney #InvestInOthers #BusinessSchool #MBAMentorship­
­
Farrel, you hit the nail on the head with "leadership is not always about people management" I was reminded of my own application journey when it was so hard for me as a B-School applicant to see myself as a leader and write about my experiences from that perspective. I did not have direct subordinates or much authority over people. Many applicants tell me that they do not have that direct authority either and therefore feel that they do not have the right kind of leadership experience to apply to the best B-schools. Demonstrated leadership can also come from taking up whirlwind initiatives when you do not have direct control over many things or people, and yet being able to use your will and skill to persuade people at all levels to drive change in the team and organisation.
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Thank you!! I love that last line, so well stated!!

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­HBS Essay 2 - Leadership-Focused

"Leadership-Focused: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)"

Given the incredibly tight word limit, I would recommend you focus the first part around experience(s) that have shaped who you are as a leader, in whatever form that has taken. Sometimes I need to remind people that leadership is not people management – in fact, it doesn’t really need to include managing others at all.

“We deliberately create a class that includes different kinds of leaders, from the front-line manager to the startup founder to the behind-the-scenes thought leader.”

At its core, I believe leadership means taking the initiative to solve problems.

It's clear from the 2nd part they want a class comprised of those who HAVE in fact invested in others; this question has a bit of a gatekeeping quality to it. Try to provide a continuum from the experience that shaped who you are and then how that became the catalyst for how you invest in others.

For some, investing in others comes so naturally you barely recognize it. It might help to “crowdsource” this question to get more clarity and objectivity on your special brand of investing in others.

To address the last part of the question, you might consider what leadership characteristics you need to achieve your goal. You might even Google something like “most important leadership qualities of a ____ fill in your goal job here.” State the vision of "future you" as a leader.

#HBSEssays #HBSEssays2025 #MBAJourney #InvestInOthers #BusinessSchool #MBAMentorship­
­
Farrel, you hit the nail on the head with "leadership is not always about people management" I was reminded of my own application journey when it was so hard for me as a B-School applicant to see myself as a leader and write about my experiences from that perspective. I did not have direct subordinates or much authority over people. Many applicants tell me that they do not have that direct authority either and therefore feel that they do not have the right kind of leadership experience to apply to the best B-schools. Demonstrated leadership can also come from taking up whirlwind initiatives when you do not have direct control over many things or people, and yet being able to use your will and skill to persuade people at all levels to drive change in the team and organisation.

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I applied to HBS for MBA class intake 2025 in round 2 without any external help with my admission. With a GRE score of 310, and 5 years of experience as a consultant, I went through to interview stage. However, I did not get the offer. I'd like to offer some free 30-minute sessions with anyone who doubted if their score could make the cut to the top B-schools and offer some advice on the essay. Please reach out if you are keen.