Harvard Business School Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
As we announced recently, Harvard Business School has released its essay question for the 2016-2017 application season. This year’s prompt hearkens back to the essay from 2014-2015, again asking applicants for what else would pique the admissions committee’s interest outside of the other application materials. The school has also still maintained its post-interview reflection, which will require those who reach the interview stage to submit a reflection essay within 24 hours following their interviews with the admissions committee.
With such a broad mandate, applicants will need to be careful when determining its topic and length. Let’s take a closer look at the essay question:
Essay 1: 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)
The school has provided further advice of which applicants should take note, writing, “There is no word limit for this question. We think you know what guidance we’re going to give here. Don’t overthink, overcraft and overwrite. Just answer the question in clear language that those of us who don’t know your world can understand.”
This year’s essay leaves applicants with a completely open field, but you can start by considering who HBS states they are looking for: students with a habit of leadership, analytical aptitude and appetite, and engaged community leadership. The first step is for you to assess how you best embody these qualities, and how you may elaborate on them outside of your other application materials, including your recommendations, test scores and undergraduate records.
Of these three categories, leadership should be a priority focus. When evaluating an applicant’s credentials, HBS has traditionally been very focused on leadership qualities as well as the impact that the applicant has had on a project, group, or company. Thus, as you brainstorm potential topics for this essay, it might be useful to think about any quantifiable positive change you’ve created that is not adequately described in your other materials. You might explain the magnitude of a professional or personal accomplishment noted on your résumé, for instance. You could also choose a particularly meaningful activity or project and share why it is important to you, especially given your personal or professional goals. Keep in mind, however, the only real directive from the committee: sharing “what more” you want the reader to know about your file. For this reason, applicants could do well to spend extra time fine-tuning their résumés and working with their recommenders in order to ensure that the essay topic does not overlap with anecdotes or qualities already covered in their other materials.
Given the open-ended length, it is possible to cover more than one meaningful activity, project or accomplishment. However, the fact that HBS has been consistently trimming down its essay set in recent years likely indicates that a 1,000-word essay would be unwelcome. Moreover, it may be tempting to draft a lengthy essay on traditional subjects such as your career goals, greatest successes, and interest in the school; however, your need for an MBA or specific career goals may be adequately covered in your other materials. This should help to narrow your focus, select your topic and craft a succinct essay. You should take care to steer clear of simply “recycling” essays from HBS’s peer schools, such as Stanford or Wharton, as the adcom will probably spot such an essay based on the highly unfocused nature of the HBS prompt and will not respond positively.
Post-Interview Reflection
In line with the policy instituted in the 2012-2013 season, applicants who are invited to interview will be asked to write a reflection about their interview experience. This essay must be submitted within 24 hours of completing the interview. Additional instructions regarding the reflection will be sent to applicants who receive interview invitations.
To help draft this reflection, applicants would be wise to jot down some notes immediately after interviewing so that they can later refer to a clear record of what was discussed as well as what, if anything, they would have liked discuss but did not get a chance to cover. When it comes time to write the essay, applicants should approach their response as if they are crafting a closing argument—or, in the words of HBS, “[having] the last word”—to their application.
You’ll want to take inventory of the message you’ve conveyed throughout your application materials (essay, résumé, data forms, etc.) and your interview, and then write your reflection with an eye towards emphasizing the key attributes of your candidacy. Lastly, the 24-hour turnaround means that this reflection will require a focused effort from applicants as well as some careful advance planning.
Harvard School of Business Profile on the Clear Admit website: up-to-date advice and admissions informationClear Admit Harvard School Snapshot: overview of key curricular details and application informationClear Admit Harvard School Guide: in-depth program and campus information and side-by-side school comparisons; everything you need to know for a successful application!Clear Admit LiveWire: admissions updates submitted in real time by applicants to HBSClear Admit DecisionWire: school selections in real-time by admits to HBSFollowing up on the release of the Kenan-Flagler MBA essay topics for 2016-2017, we wanted to offer a few pointers to applicants targeting the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for their business school studies next fall.
The UNC MBA essay set is unchanged from last admissions season. The school poses just one required question to applicants, along with three optional 300-word essays of varying open-endedness. Taken together, the content of these prompts reflects a focus on applicant’s career plans and the reasoning behind them, as well as ways that candidates would contribute to the community and preparation to succeed in the classroom.
The retention of last year’s essay prompts and overall format suggests that the adcom was pleased with the information that candidates’ essays yielded last admissions season. Indeed, it seems that candidates’ choices around the three optional responses in particular present an opportunity to evaluate the applicants’ willingness to put “extra” work into their application, as well as their judgment in determining how many of these prompts to respond to and what to share in each.
Let’s take a closer look at each of this year’s UNC Kenan-Flagler essay questions:
Essay 1: Please describe your short and long term goals post-MBA. Explain how your professional experience has shaped these goals, why this career option appeals to you, and how you arrived at the decision that now is the time and the MBA is the appropriate degree. (500 words maximum)
Appearing on the UNC MBA application for several years running, Kenan-Flagler’s lone required prompt is a fairly standard career goals essay. Structurally, we recommend that applicants address each element of the essay in the order in which it is presented. Applicants will want to begin by describing their professional aspirations, including both the position they hope to obtain immediately following an MBA, as well as their long-term objective. Candidates will then need to touch on the ways their work experiences to date have informed these goals, as well as the reasons that this career option is appealing. In addition to a match with their existing skills and interests, we suggest that applicants also address the impact their long-term position would enable them to have on an organization, industry, sector, or region. Effective essays will clearly address each of these four points (i.e. short-term goal, long-term goal, how past experience has shaped these, and why this path is appealing) in just 200-250 words in order to leave ample room for a robust why MBA discussion.
On that topic, applicants will then want to explain why they have chosen to pursue graduate business education at this point in their careers, and the ways that an MBA will prepare them for their stated goals. Naturally, in the course of the “why MBA” portion of this response, it would behoove candidates to comment on how exactly the Kenan-Flagler MBA would position them to achieve their career goals (rather than writing generically about the benefits of this credential). Candidates should aim to devote at least 200 words to a discussion of how specific courses and student clubs at UNC would impart the skills and knowledge they need to bridge the gap between their current abilities and what they’ll need to be effective in their chosen career paths. Learning about the details of Kenan-Flagler’s MBA program will therefore be essential in answering this last part of the prompt. Taking the time to learn about the school’s curriculum, special programs and extracurricular activities — whether through a visit to campus, conversations with students and alumni, or reading the Clear Admit School Guide to Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC — will pay dividends here.
Essay 2 (Optional): What personal qualities or life experiences distinguish you from other applicants? How do these qualities or experiences equip you to contribute to UNC Kenan-Flagler? (300 words maximum)
This question gives applicants the opportunity to share some information about their interests and experiences that set them apart from other candidates, while simultaneously showcasing their knowledge of and fit with Kenan-Flagler. While this essay is technically optional, we strongly recommend that all UNC MBA applicants provide a response to this question. Indeed, applicants would be remiss not to take this opportunity to help the adcom get to know them better — and to continue to demonstrate their interest in attending their MBA program.
Specifically calling for “personal qualities and life experiences,” this essay invites applicants to provide more intimate insight into who they are and what they care about outside of the office. Details matter here, so think about how you can translate your passions and past experiences into involvement on the UNC campus, and indicate specific contributions that you would like to make. Creating a link between your past and your potential future at the program will enable you to present a consistent and clear picture of your candidacy, as well as your professional and personal interests. The more information you can provide about how exactly you would contribute (playing a certain role in organizing a particular annual event, for example), the more reason you’ll give the adcom to admit you.
Essay 3 (Optional): If your standardized test scores are low, or if you have not had coursework in core business subjects (calculus, microeconomics, statistics, financial accounting), please tell us how you plan to prepare yourself for the quantitative rigor of the MBA curriculum. (300 words maximum)
This response is directed toward applicants with quantitative liabilities in their applications. Applicants should therefore first consider whether either of the conditions of this question applies to them; if your GMAT score falls below the average of enrolled students in the MBA program or if your academic transcripts don’t demonstrate a track record of success in quantitative work in classroom settings, then you should consider addressing this question. As for the response itself, applicants should focus on ways they’ll prepare before they arrive on campus, whether through additional coursework, group or self-study, or through seeking out more quantitatively-oriented responsibilities at work.
Essay 4 (Optional): Is there any other information you would like to share that is not presented elsewhere in the application? (300 words maximum)
This response will be an appropriate place to address any elements of one’s application that need further explanation (e.g. recommender choice, expected promotions, etc.). The wording of this essay is fairly open and inviting, and so it may be an appropriate place to share an additional anecdote or highlight an impressive accomplishment. Applicants should aim to demonstrate good judgment in deciding whether to respond to this prompt, and should take care not to introduce information that appears elsewhere in their materials or that could have been covered in response to one of the above essays.
Clear Admit Resources
Thanks for reading our analysis of this year’s UNC MBA essay topics! As you work on your Kenan-Flagler MBA essays and application, we encourage you to consider all of Clear Admit’s UNC / Kenan-Flagler offerings:
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