Average GMAT Score: 720
Application Deadlines
Round	1	2	3
Deadlines	1 Oct 2010	11 Jan 2011	31 March 2011

 

 

Essay Question For Year 2011

What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)

Please respond to two of the following (400-word limit each):

• What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?
• What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?
• Tell us about a time in your professional experience when you were frustrated or disappointed.
• When you join the HBS Class of 2013, how will you introduce yourself to your new classmates?

 

Recommender Questions for the Class of 2013

 

Recommendations must be completed online. The form includes the following three essay response questions, along with other types of questions.

• Please comment on the context of your interaction with the applicant. How long have you known the applicant and in what connection? If applicable, briefly describe the applicant's role in your organization. (250-word limit)
• Please describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant's response. (250-word limit)
• Please make additional statements about the applicant's performance, potential, or personal qualities you believe would be helpful to the MBA Admissions Board. (250-word limit)

 

Essay Question For Year 2010

Essay 1
What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? Please limit your response to two, double-spaced, typed pages.

 We suggest that you choose 3 accomplishments based on following factors:

•  Impact: These accomplishments should have made a big impact. The impact could be professional (e.g. increased sales by $XX, started a company, effectively managed a diverse team) or personal (e.g. changed you as a person).

 

•  Leadership: The example should showcase your leadership traits/qualities. Harvard is big on leadership and any example that underscores leadership would be powerful.

 

•  Diversity of examples: It would be advisable to have examples from different areas of your work (e.g. professional, community work). Must have at least one example from the professional environment.

Essay 2
What have you learned from a mistake? Please limit your response to two, double-spaced, typed pages.

 

The most powerful examples are one where the mistake is personal and the learning is powerful and lasting (e.g. something that has taught you to change the way you work). Focus both on mistake and learning, they should go hand in hand. E.g. On an assignment in a foreign country as a team leader, I did not spend time learning the local culture and the personality of my team members. This created a dysfunctional team environment which ultimately led to delay in the project. This taught me an important lesson to invest time upfront to understand my team mates.

Essay 3

Please respond to two of the following :

1. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience? Please limit your response to two, double-spaced, typed pages.

Focus on something that is not already mentioned in the above essays and the one that showcases leadership (e.g. president of student     association, started a non-profit, tutored kids in local school, played in a rock band) and also the breadth of your personality (e.g. examples of leadership role in sports or cultural organizations).

 

2. Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization.Please limit your response to two, double-spaced, typed pages.

Give an example where you have made an impact (e.g. helped XX kids go to school, provided food to XX people) in a community organization. Just participation would not be a powerful example. Also, it should showcase a leadership trait (e.g. initiative taking, fund rising, stating a community organization).

3. What area of the world are you most curious about and why? Please limit your response to two, double-spaced, typed pages.

It would be good if your example ties into a story that you have touched upon in your previous essays (e.g. professional or personal). Also, your choice of place and why would convey an aspect of your personality, so think carefully before choosing your example.

 

4. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you? Please limit your response to two, double-spaced, typed pages.

Be ambitious in your career vision. Just saying that you want to work in a strategy consulting firm is not ambitious enough (that is easy if you get into Harvard). Harvard looks for people who have the vision to make a big impact in the world. So, be ambitious and bold, yet realistic in your career vision (e.g. entrepreneurship).

 

Also, the part about why it is meaningful is very important. This conveys what you value.