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June 29, 2023

Harvard Business School MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines [2023 – 2024]

The Admissions Office at Harvard Business School (HBS) has announced updates for the 2023-2024 admissions cycle. The most important update is that if you plan to apply to HBS and have yet to take an entrance exam, you should take the traditional GMAT test (including the AWA) or the GRE. HBS will not accept the GMAT Focus Edition exam because it will not be available until after the Round 1 deadline. This will eliminate any confusion that might occur across Rounds 1 and 2. 

The essay prompt and word limit will remain the same, at a maximum (not necessarily a requirement) of 900 words. The team also indicates that if you can tell your story in 500 words, that’s fine too.

• HBS MBA essay tips
• HBS 2023-2024 deadlines
• HBS class profile
• Sample HBS Essay
• More resources

Harvard will continue being one of the few, if not the only, school with just two rounds (September and January). HBS uses an April deadline exclusively for HBS 2+2, its deferred admission program.

Let’s talk about Harvard’s MBA application

On to the Harvard MBA application and essay question itself: HBS clearly likes  the responses it has received  to the past several years’ excellent essay question because this year’s question is identical. The essay is again required, and there is a 900-word limit

Harvard Business School MBA essay tips

There is one question for the HBS Class of 2026:

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?

The website provides the following advice as well: 

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.

Before you begin to complete your application I have two suggestions for you:

• Review Harvard’s criteria for admission , and its MBA Application Tips: Essay video .
• Watch the embedded video on the case method at HBS.

This is a great essay question. It allows you to choose what you want the school to know about you without having to fit that information into a framework required by a question that doesn’t really align with your story. It also allows you to demonstrate judgment and communication skills, which are critical given Harvard’s residential culture , study groups, and case method. Finally, this essay is a chance for HBS to get to know you beyond your resume and the limited (and limiting) boxes. In fact, as Chad Losee says in his essay tip video, they want to get to know you through your essay. That’s the essay’s purpose.

Now THINK. What else – really and truly – do you want Harvard Business School to know about you? The HBS admissions committee has told you what they want to know in the other sections of the application. “What more” do you want the HBS readers to know?

Please note that your essay has to be additive. “What more” are the key words in the prompt. It shouldn’t be a resume in prose. And it shouldn’t be a series of vague generalities and assertions that would apply to many others. Finally, it can’t be a series of anecdotes with no meaning or significance associated with the experiences. It should reflect at least part of your unique story, the part that you want HBS to know. Finally, your essay should reflect your motivations, values, and dreams.

The answer to HBS’ question is not something I can give or even suggest to you in a blog post aimed at the many (for individual guidance, please see Accepted’s MBA Admissions Consulting ). It must be different for each of you. Again, refer to the HBS criteria, as you contemplate possible topics, but the options are infinite. A few possibilities:

• Provide context for events described in the required elements.
• Delve into your motivations for the decisions or commitments you have made.
• Discuss experiences that shaped your dreams for the future, which might just benefit enormously from an HBS education (caveat: HBS doesn’t ask why you want to attend Harvard, so don’t make this a central theme of your essay).
• Examine challenges you have faced. These could be personal challenges, or perhaps interpersonal challenges.
• Envision something you would like to accomplish at HBS.
• Provide more detail about an activity or commitment that is particularly important to you.

Please don’t limit yourself to these suggestions. I am offering them to stimulate your creativity, not to shut it down. 

If one thing is true, it is that HBS has valued concision. And, in today’s tweet- and sound-bite-driven world, it is requiring short responses in the other portions of the application. Don’t take this essay’s generous word limit as a license for verbosity. Make every word count, no pun intended.

A few cautions and warnings regarding this essay – it is NOT:

• Stanford’s “what matters most to you and why?” essay
• The kitchen sink in which you throw everything
• An autobiography
• A resume in prose or a rehash of your transcript and honors
• An ode to the awesomeness of Harvard (The admissions committee doesn’t need you to tell them they have a great institution that you would be honored to attend. They’ve heard it before.)

For expert guidance on your HBS application, check out Accepted’s  MBA Application Packages , which include advising, editing, interview coaching, and a resume edit for the HBS application. Looking to score some scholarship money while you’re at it? Accepted’s clients received over $3.5 million dollars in scholarship offers in the most recent application cycle.  Explore our services  for more information on how Accepted can help you get into HBS.

Harvard Business School 2023-24 application deadlines

Source: HBS website

* Applications must be submitted online by 12 noon Boston time.

***Disclaimer: Information is subject to change. Please check with individual programs to verify the essay questions, instructions and deadlines.***

HBS class profile [Class of 2024]

Here’s a look at HBS’s Class of 2024 taken from the  Harvard Business School website :

Number of applications:  8264

Enrolled:  1,015

Countries represented:  

• United States: 62%
• Mexico, Central & South America: 5%
• Middle East: 3%
• Oceania: 1%

Women:  46%

International:  38%

US minorities:  52%

Average GPA:  3.70

Average years work experience:  5.0

Percent of class taking GMAT:  74%

• Verbal range: 29– 51
• Quantitative range: 34 – 51
• Total range: 540–790
• Median verbal: 42
• Median quantitative: 48
• Median total : 730

Percent of class taking GRE:  30%

• Verbal range: 147 – 170
• Quantitative range: 150–170
• Median verbal: 163
• Median quantitative: 163

Breakdown of undergraduate majors (137 domestic universities and 158 international universities)

Breakdown of pre-mba industries, sample harvard business school essays from admitted hbs students, are you considering applying to business school.

We have the resources to help you navigate the options and make the right choice for you:

• M7 MBA Programs: Everything You Need to Know
• What It Takes to Get Accepted to HBS, Stanford GSB, and Wharton

Is HBS at the top of your wish list?

Get the competitive edge with HBS-specific advice and inside information:

• “I Wish the Admissions Committee Had Asked Me…” : How to answer open-ended MBA essay questions
• What Harvard Business School Is Looking For: Engaged Community Citizenship
• What Harvard Business School Is Looking For: Analytical Aptitude and Appetite
• What Harvard Business School Is Looking For: The Habit of Leadership
• 7 Important Tips for Your HBS Post-Interview Reflection

Hear directly from Harvard alumni in these inspiring blog posts:

• An MBA Success Story Reflects on His HBS Experience, 7 Years Later, podcast Episode 419
• A Harvard MBA’s Experience & Advice on Writing the Perfect Essay, podcast Episode 375
• Entrepreneurship at HBS: How Stride Will Help You Fund Your Future, podcast Episode 341
• How to Leverage an HBS Education: The Story of LeverEdge, podcast Episode 313
• Ida Valentine: Investment Banker, Inspirational Speaker, HBS 2021, podcast Episode 311
• The Journey from India to Harvard MBA, podcast Episode 220

Do you need help gaining admission to HBS or any other top MBA program? That’s what we do! Explore our MBA Admissions Consulting Services and work one-on-one with an experienced admissions advisor who will help you GET ACCEPTED.

As the former executive director of admissions at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School and assistant dean of admissions at Georgetown’s McDonough School and the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School, Kelly Wilson has 23 years’ experience overseeing admissions committees and has reviewed more than 38,000 applications for the MBA and master’s programs in management of information systems, computational finance, business analytics, and product management.   Want Kelly to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• What Is Harvard Business School Looking For?
• “I Wish the Admissions Committee Had Asked Me…”
• Best MBA Programs: A Guide to Selecting the Right One

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• Menlo Coaching
• Top MBA Programs
• Harvard Business School (HBS)
• The HBS Essay

The HBS Essay: Writing Strategies that Work and What to Avoid

For the last few years, Harvard Business School has challenged MBA applicants with its sole, open-ended essay question:

• 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? (900 words)

Where to Begin?

With its broad nature and 900-word limit, it’s no surprise that many prospective business students have trouble getting started with the Harvard MBA essay, and wonder what direction they should take to answer this perplexing prompt. 

Candidates who are applying to HBS in future rounds will likely face the same essay question. In this article, we highlight common mistakes that applicants make and consider the best way for future applicants to approach this unapologetically unlimited essay prompt.

The HBS Essay: What This Year’s Applicants Should Consider

First off, applicants must realize what they are up against before approaching the infamous HBS MBA admission essay. The Harvard Business School acceptance rate is just 11%. Of the roughly 930 individuals who are accepted, there is a very small slice of amazingly fantastic applicants who write the essay as merely a formality. For the rest of the applicants fighting for the available slots–perhaps loads of you reading this article–there are several candidates who are equally qualified fighting for the same seat: great jobs, great career trajectories, great GPAs and GMATs. This means that your personal essay is meant to differentiate you and show the admissions committee why they should select YOU rather than competing applicants.

Learn from those applicants that came before you and make sure to give special thought on how you can really convey who you are in answering this essay question. It is not your typical essay prompt, so it deserves your time and attention.

Early Birds Toolkit

Learn 3 Steps You Should Take NOW to Improve Your Profile for R1 2024

In MBA admissions, starting early can significantly boost your chances. 

But there are no shortcuts, and while R1 2024 deadlines might seem far off, building your profile takes time.

Our Early Birds Toolkit has everything you need to get started right now —leave your name and email, and we’ll send you three actionable steps to elevate your profile, plus time-saving tools for faster progress.

Looking for Last-Minute Essay Help?

MBA Deadlines are fast approaching…

Did you know that Menlo Coaching can help you with your MBA essays on an hourly basis?

Our five-hour package starts at $2,500, and you can work with our MBA admissions consultants on anything you like, including:

✓ Essay and Resume Edits

✓ Recommender Support

✓ Application Form Reviews

✓ Interview Preparation

Menlo’s Expert Consultant, Yaron Dahan, on: “What more would you like us to know?”

The best advice I can give applicants answering the HBS essay question is this: select a topic that will play as well in the case method as it does with an admissions committee. Ultimately that is what HBS is looking for in its admits: Will this candidate be able to contribute something unique in a case discussion?

Think about the nine areas covered in HBS’s year-one required curriculum (finance, accounting, leadership, marketing, operations, entrepreneurship, strategy, ethics, and government/economics), and figure out where you will be able to add the most value. Dee Leopold, the former admissions director at HBS, told the story of one student who did this very successfully in his interview, and was admitted to the HBS class the following year:

“This is a guy who worked in a small manufacturing facility in a tiny town in Michigan where they make baby formula. He was in quality control, working with union people. Early on the job, they discovered there were bugs in the machinery of the factory. They are contaminating the product, and management was obviously deeply concerned about the problem. The news trucks have gathered outside. The CEO comes. That is an amazing voice to bring to our course on Leadership and Corporate Accountability.”

As an applicant, it’s your job to accomplish the same thing in your essay that this candidate did in his interview. Show them you have a unique contribution to make. If you can do that, then you’ve mastered the HBS essay question.

In the video below, Yaron elaborates on how to approach the personal essays at HBS and Stanford.

Yaron Dahan on Personal Essays for HBS and GSB Admissions

The harvard mba essay: what doesn’t work, playing it safe. .

HBS wants to see several qualities in the applicants it admits: aptitude, accomplishment, character, and passion. Your GMAT and GPA will speak to your analytical aptitude, your resume to your accomplishment, and your recommenders to your character. That leaves your HBS application essay to speak toward your passion: will you have interesting stories and opinions to contribute to the HBS case discussions? Will you involve yourself in the broader Harvard community? Do you have the drive to achieve ambitious things after you graduate? To give the admissions committee confidence in your candidacy, you must let your quirks and passions come through. You cannot play it safe and write a simple, boring essay.

Although you cannot be boring in your MBA essays, you do NOT want to go overboard. In the video below, our co-founder Alice talks about things to avoid while writing the personal essay, namely:

• Using the essay to show literary creativity 
• Boasting in ways that are off-putting 
• Dishonesty and trying to conceal failures

Alice van Harten on Common Mistakes in HBS Essays

Answering the hbs prompt like a typical mba essay question..

The key point of the Harvard Business School essay is the phrase “what more,” which is a clear signal that HBS does not want you using the essay to rehash things that are already covered by your resume, career goals statement, professional recommendations or written application form.

If the HBS admissions team wanted to know why you wanted a business degree, or why you wanted to go to Harvard, or what your career path was, then they would ask. They certainly have asked applicants those questions in years past. But realize that, in providing this very open-ended prompt, HBS expects very open-ended answers. They want answers from applicants that could never be prompted by any questions the admissions committee could ask. They want to learn the things that make you different as an applicant. So take the hint, and realize that HBS ditched the standard essay prompts for a reason. They are looking for something different here. Be creative, and be genuine.

Focusing on one or more of your weaknesses. 

Every year, candidates seem to battle insecurities over the same issues: their GPA was only a 3.2; their GMAT is just a fraction too low; they don’t have many significant extracurriculars. It’s possible that those issues need to be addressed in your MBA application, but this essay is absolutely not the place to do it. HBS will never admit you for mitigating every possible weakness; they will only admit you for showing remarkable strength in one or two really interesting areas. Take the HBA essay question as the opportunity to demonstrate the latter, and leave addressing your GPA or extracurriculars for other parts of your application.

One Menlo Client’s Experience Working on the HBS Essay

Harvard’s MBA admissions essay is not for the faint of heart. It takes dedication, perseverance, and quite a bit of time. It is not a personal essay that you can whip out in one sitting, and we’ve heard many clients say that they woefully underestimated the time and effort needed to complete it well.

For Menlo Coaching client Vicky, the secret to HBS success was to go beyond just talking about her successful career in consulting and retail, and talk about her long-term vision for her family’s manufacturing business.

In the video below, she discusses how we helped her through the MBA admissions process generally, and with finding the right story for HBS specifically (use the chapter “Essay Writing Process” to jump directly to that part).

Wondering if you’re behind for Round 1 2023?

Based on the data from our Applications Platform …

95% of our slots are filled for R1 2023

90% of our clients have finished the GMAT

53% of our clients have finalized school selection

38% of our clients have started essay writing

HBS Essay Examples: How Former Clients Approached the Harvard MBA Essay & Application Journey and Won Admission

Related articles.

• How to Get Into Harvard Business School
• The Harvard Business School MBA Program Overview
• Achieving Work-Life Balance as a Top MBA Graduate
• How One HBS Alum Leveraged Her MBA for Entrepreneurship

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✓ Compare pricing across 35+ MBA admissions consulting firms

✓ Learn why “success rates” are not to be trusted

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✓ Prep for your consultation calls

HBS Essay Advice and Application Deadlines: 2023-2024

Harvard Business School released details on the upcoming 2023-2024 business school application season, sharing the HBS application deadlines and the required essay for class of 2026 hopefuls.

The 2023-2024 Harvard Business School application deadlines are as follows:

Round 1: September 6, 2023 Round 2: January 3, 2024

Harvard Business School also announced that the GMAT Focus will NOT be accepted for this upcoming application cycle. Only 2+2 candidates will be able to submit the GMAT Focus.

As Personal MBA Coach predicted, HBS is minimizing changes this year and keeping the one and only HBS essay question the same. The 900-word limit will remain.

The HBS MBA essay is as follows:

“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?”

“How do I get into HBS” is one of the most common questions we hear from MBA applicants.

The HBS essay is arguably one of the most difficult to tackle, given its open-ended nature.

This application essay is an open invitation to show HBS what is truly interesting about your profile. This question allows you to focus and elaborate on what is important to you. Think about the HBS essay as your chance to let them “meet” the real you — the authentic person behind the resume and application questions.

As everyone is likely well aware, HBS educates and admits leaders. It goes without saying that whatever story or stories you choose should show your leadership and demonstrate how you have excelled across disciplines.

HBS students will emerge as leaders in the areas they are most passionate about. They will drive change. They are not afraid to stand up for their beliefs. They show courage. You want the admissions committee to see and understand how you personify these traits.

Personal MBA Coach advises applicants to watch this video on the HBS case method to re-enforce how critical leadership and diversity of thought is to HBS. Keep this in mind, along with Harvard’s other stated values of analytics and community, as you craft your HBS essay.

While we recommend that most applicants show their professional accomplishments, make sure to share enough anecdotally so that the admissions committee can learn more about you on a personal level.

Successful essays have included some sort of personal anecdote at a minimum and often a much more detailed personal story, which is often tied to a recurring theme throughout your essay.

Think about what makes you unique and why you made the choices that you did. The most accomplished individuals follow their passions, and these are usually shaped by particular experiences or personality traits. Consider what has had the greatest impact on your choices, who you are today, or who you want to be. This will likely give you some areas to expand upon. But do not just tell this story; as we have said in the past, try to help the reader live it.

Personal MBA Coach’s HBS Essay Guide – Key Takeaways:

Make your essay interesting to read. Each year the admissions team receives ~10,000 applications.

Differentiate yourself, particularly if you come from an overrepresented industry, such as consulting or banking, or an overrepresented demographic pool. HBS looks to select a well-rounded class, and it will be crucial to show how you will add unique value.

Consider this essay as a starting point for an interview conversation. HBS has very detailed interviews that are planned in advance for each applicant and will dive into at least one aspect of your application. Be ready to talk in great detail during the interview about anything you submit as part of your application.

Show rather than tell. Essays are much more impactful when they describe something about you, showing it in action instead of just stating the facts. Give the reader details about the situation. Add names to the players within your stories. Describe your setting and tell the reader how you felt. Find out how Personal MBA Coach helped one of our clients tell their story and get into Harvard Business School:

The HBS essay will be VERY different for everyone. Do not fall into the trap of trying to write an essay like one you have read in the past or like your friend is writing. There will be a wide range of successful essays this year, and proper execution will be the key rather than simply the content alone.

While HBS retained the 900-word limit in an effort to eliminate any stress about how much is too much to write, most essays that work will fall somewhere between 700-900 words. Consider quality over quantity. If you can write a solid 600-word essay that is powerful and moving, do not feel the need to lengthen it. We have helped many applicants write successful essays on the shorter side.

Are you looking for support with your Harvard Business School MBA applications? Find out how Personal MBA Coach can help with our Comprehensive MBA Packages .

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Harvard MBA Essay for the Class of 2026

In addition to the HBS deadlines , the Harvard MBA essay for the 2023-24 admissions season has been confirmed. The essay question remains unchanged and HBS will continue to impose a word limit this season.

Here is how Harvard Business School admissions explained the word count when they introduced it for the first time last year:

We have heard from some applicants that, without a word limit, sometimes questions (and stress) arise about the “right” word length. We hope that including a limit provides applicants with a little more direction and eliminates the stress about how much is too much to write. 

Do you need to submit 900 words? No, certainly not. Successful applicants may share what they wish to in 500 or 700 words, for example, or go up to 900.

The Harvard MBA Essay

“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?” (900 words max.)

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.

Joint program applicants for the Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School must provide an additional essay:  How do you expect the joint degree experience to benefit you on both a professional and a personal level? (400 words)

“The essay really is make or break for HBS,” shares one of the former HBS Admissions Officers on the SBC team. “So many applications have acceptable credentials up to that point of the application. It really is the essay that sets the overall application apart and earns it the interview.”

The HBS MBA application will open in summer 2023.

Check out our targeted tips for the Harvard MBA essay. And don’t hesitate to contact us to learn how Stacy Blackman Consulting can help with your Harvard MBA application. Meanwhile, here’s a snapshot of the expertise on our  consulting team :

SBC’s star-studded consultant team is unparalleled. Our clients benefit from current intelligence that we receive from the former MBA Admissions Officers from Harvard HBS, Wharton and every elite business program in the US and Europe.  These MBA Admissions Officers have chosen to work exclusively with SBC.

Just two of the many superstars on the SBC team: Meet Anthony , who served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise.

Meet Andrea , who served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions Marketing at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years.

Tap into this inside knowledge for your MBA applications by requesting a consultation .

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How to Write the Harvard HBS MBA Admissions Essay – Tips for 2022-2023

• May 10, 2022

7 Steps to Answer the Harvard MBA, HBS Essay Question:

“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?”

When you’re putting together a successful HBS essay, the most valuable thing you can do is tell an Epic Story . Before I get into what that means, let’s clear one thing up: There is  no set formula for writing the Harvard essay. There’s no “right” way to do it, no “right” thing to say. But, take it from me, an Epic Life Story is the best thing you could possibly have in your application toolkit. 

Table of Contents

Prefer videos.

Find out how to ace Harvard’s admission essay in 2022

So what is an Epic Story?

An Epic Story is a narrative that takes the reader — any  reader, adcom members included!— on a journey through a series of key events .Epic Stories situate the reader in space and time and establish a crucial emotional connection between writer (you!) and reader. Emotional connection is king when it comes to MBA applications. It’s how you stand out from the pack. And that wide-open Harvard MBA Essay is the perfect platform for doing this work.

What if I don’t have an Epic Story?

If you’re afraid you don’t have what it takes to tell an Epic Story, let me let you in on a little secret: You do . It’s not about having the most page-turning life events under your belt—you don’t need to have cured cancer or sailed solo around the world, although that would be totally awesome if you did!—it’s about being human and sharing that essential, inspiring, loveable humanness with your reader in the most effective way possible.

Each of us has an Epic Story to tell. Promise. You just have to dig deep and tap into it. So before you protest that your life (or your writing skills) just don’t fit the bill for this kind of thing, take a look at the foolproof steps I’ve put together below for how to tell an Epic Story and write your Best Harvard MBA Essay !

1. Take a closer look at that HBS Essay Question; it’s not as open ended as you think!

Let’s take a closer look at that question. Here’s the Harvard Business School essay prompt, straight from the horse’s mouth: “ 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? ” And here are the essay tips HBS gives: “ 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 .”

Before we get into the how-to of all this, it’s worth pausing for a minute to pick those last two statements apart. Harvard asks you not to overthink, overcraft, or overwrite . They’re really driving at something here. They want YOU to remain in your essay—your essence, who you are at the core. They want a real person to come through the page, not some hollowed out, cookie-cutter façade designed to meet some assumption about who they want you to be.

Okay, that was a mouthful. But what I’m saying—and what Harvard is saying—is simple: be you . Don’t obscure (or write over ) who you really are by trying to fit some imaginary mold or by writing what you *think* “they” want to hear. As the HBS admissions director warns in their App Tips Series , “Be careful in all that polishing that you don’t ‘shine away’ your personality.”

Lest you forget, the adcom is made up of humans . And all humans want the opportunity to connect with and contribute to other humans. So give them that chance with your essay.

So what is Harvard really looking for?

“ What more would you like us to know?”

It’s a wide open question—and that’s part of what makes it so intimidating, as John Byrne, editor-in-chief of Poets & Quants, points out in a helpful piece written earlier this year—but Harvard does give you two key pieces of information about what they’re looking for in the essay instructions: clear language, and a ticket into your world . They want to know more about who you are based on where you’ve been (literally and figuratively speaking). The background, life experiences, and human encounters that shaped you.

“What more ” is the other key part of this equation. As the Harvard App Tips highlight, this essay should NOT be a rehashing of your resume. The adcom will be bored to tears if you give them your resume (again) in paragraph form.

Instead, your Harvard Essay should be a supplement: think of it as one key building block in the larger structure of your application. It builds on the rest, fits in with the rest, but it adds something completely new. Even more than that, it should create a world that is all your own for the reader to step into. (More on how to do that momentarily.)

With an essay question that leaves so much in your court, Harvard is really looking for evidence of self-knowledge . They want to know that you’ve done the deep introspection necessary to communicate what drives you and what you, as a one-of-a-kind human being, will contribute to their incoming class. They also want to see that you resonate with their values and their mission —that you can demonstrate a habit of leadership , among other qualities.

If you aren’t familiar with Harvard’s mission, here it is : “The mission of Harvard Business School is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world.” This is a really concrete mission that they have. They're not out to teach business; they're not out to help people make more money. They're out to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. And if you're talking to a leader, the most important question you can ask that person is, “What do you want me to know about you?” With this question, you're given free license to say whatever is meaningful, interesting, and important to you about yourself.

Soooo before you start getting too caught up in what they might “want” to hear from you (keep resisting that urge!), let’s talk about the most vital step in the entire application process: self-discovery .

2. Use Self-Reflection to ensure that your HBS Essay is unique

Step 1 in our magical essay process at Career Protocol is always self-discovery.

Self-discovery is a really underrated process. Seriously. Sooo SO underrated. As we’ve learned in over 30 years of collective admissions experience, the very best MBA applications are built on foundations of deep self-awareness, self-compassion, and clarity. Our Discovery Process is the tried-and-true, totally irreplaceable first step to essay-writing MAGIC. (I can’t get enough of it. Can you tell?)

So what should you write about for your Harvard essay?

Glad you asked! You’re gonna love the answer: It depends.

On what? On what you find out about yourself during the vital process of self-discovery. This is your starting point. There are no shortcuts to self-knowledge, and no successful Harvard Application Essay will come to fruition until you’ve taken a good hard look at yourself, your life, your accomplishments, and—most importantly—how you define all of the above.

One of the most valuable things the Discovery Process will teach you is that, as a candidate for admission, you are more than your GPA. You are more than your professional record. You are far more than any one component of your application, and Harvard’s adcom—like any other group of humans—wants to see the whole picture . The essay is where this all comes together. 

There are 5 key areas of inquiry that you should dig into when you’re preparing to write the Harvard Essay (or any essay for a school of your choice).

     1.  Your Back Story

If you had to sum up your life story in a couple of paragraphs (or even pages), what would you choose to write down? What would you tell others, if you had to give a succinct “back story” for who you are? What snippets of information would make the cut? Which life experiences? As you explore your back story, you might also think about the people in your life who have had the greatest influence on you. Consider your hobbies and what makes you tick—even if it’s something you used to love to do, but haven’t found the time for lately. Write it all out.

     2.  Your Academic Achievements

I like to think in terms of achievements during the self-discovery process, because—as you’ll discover if you undertake this work—everyone defines achievement differently. We each have our own yardstick for measuring accomplishment. (Some of us find it painfully difficult to call anything at all an achievement.) What you deem an achievement is telling, and thinking in this way encourages you to drill down to what really matters (and has mattered) to you. So, first, consider what your top academic achievements would be.

     3.  Your Community and Extracurricular Achievements

Same thing here, only with community work and extracurricular involvement. What have you accomplished outside of school and work that really meant something to you?

     4.  Your Professional Achievements

You know the drill by now. If you had to list your top professional achievements, what would they be?

     5.  Your Personal Achievements

Last, but certainly not to be underestimated, what are your top personal achievements? What are some of the moments in your life that really stay with you—those poignant human-to-human experiences, the times when you were able to make a contribution, pure and simple, to another person (or group of people)?

If you want a sense of how all that discovery rolled up into successful essays for our clients, here is a smattering of general topics and big picture summaries of successful MBA essays:

• A few days in the life
• Career story twists and turns
• Difficult relationship with a parent
• Journey into entrepreneurship
• Journey to master confidence
• Lessons from observing managers
• Lessons learned through an important hobby
• Life story told through difficult decisions
• People who influenced me
• Perspectives on success and leadership in career to date
• Problem solving
• Rags to riches through failure, leadership style
• Sports and career
• Struggle to be a woman in male-dominated field
• Struggles to live up to values and culture
• Travel and passion for understanding others

The thing to notice is that there really isn’t anything special about any of these topics. You, too, could probably write an essay about a number of them. What made these essays unique wasn’t the executive summary of the story, it was the depth of character they revealed in the telling. Depth of character flows from values.

Homing in on your Values

By the time you’re done listing and evaluating your personal achievements, you’ll have built up some muscle for defining what matters to you at a fundamental level: what your intrinsic values are.

Values are the basis of a person's principles or standards of behavior—their judgment of what is important in life. These are the things you would never change about yourself, because if you did, you would no longer be recognizable to yourself as you. Without them, you’d be some other person. Any great Life Story Essay should encapsulate and reflect these intrinsic values, even if they’re never overtly mentioned, and that’s part of what makes any essay founded on self-discovery unique .

One great piece of advice from a Harvard alum is to ask yourself, after you’ve drafted the essay, “Could this essay also describe someone else?” If you’ve done the hard but rewarding work of self-discovery, the answer will be: No .

In an essay like Harvard’s, you are the hero of your own story. If you use the steps above to home in on your values, you will significantly deepen your awareness about the specific kind of hero you are. We want to get clearer and clearer about what kind of hero you are, because that's where your uniqueness lies.

Finding your Voice

The final aspect of essay-writing that self-reflection will help you tap into is your voice .

Your voice is critically important to your success in your MBA applications. It sets you apart, instantly and continually, from any other writer. Even if another applicant narrated the exact same experiences, it wouldn’t come out sounding the same. (Because they wouldn’t have your voice .)

So how do you find it? What defines it? It's really choice. When I help clients find their voice, what I’m really doing is helping them identify the key choices that produced their life as they know it and developed them into the people that they are.

Character is the combination of values and choices.

As I hope I’ve driven home by this point, values are an important part of the equation. But they're not the whole story. We become who we are by virtue of our choices . Sometimes those choices result in (or include) failure, whether it’s failing to live up to your values or failing in some other way because you adhered to those values. Keep in mind that these brushes with failure are a very important part of your story . They reveal your humility and your vulnerability.

Talking about success without revealing the human part of it—your failures, fears, and setbacks— will not inspire someone . It might read like an interesting set of facts, but the reader isn’t really going to understand, or respect, or feel connected to you. In order to be inspired, they need to see your humanity .

As you wrap up the self-discovery process and start planning your essay, ask yourself: What are some of the most important choices that I've made so far? And why did I make them? How did I make them? And what were the consequences? Where did they lead me? These kinds of questions will help you clarify your values and decide which life stories you want to include.

3. Create an Essay Outline

If you ever learned how to write college essay outlines, you may know a thing or two about the general outlining process. (Get some tips from the experts here and here .)

We’re not sticklers when it comes to the kind of outline you should make for your Harvard Essay—or any essay. It could be anything from a paragraph-by-paragraph or point-by-point game plan for your essay to a sketch of the general flow. (I prefer the latter, but if detailed outlines are your jam, have at it!!)

For me, the outlining process is a means to an end: a way to determine what’s in and what’s out, structure your thinking, and get that scary ole writing process kicked off!

However you choose to do it, don’t spend a lot of time trying to perfect the outline . Personal essay writing is an iterative process: You are learning the story as you tell it, and it's impossible to figure it all out before you sit down to write it. Use the outlining stage (even if you never actually create an outline!) as a space for answering this vital question: What will you include?

What’s In and What’s Out ?

As you probably know, Harvard has three criteria that they're looking for in every applicant:

• engaged community citizenship
• a habit of leadership
• and analytical aptitude and appetite.

(This is in their stated evaluation criteria .) Most applicants will show analytical aptitude and appetite through grades and scores, possibly in work experience and recommendations, and very definitely in some ways through the resume.

Likewise with a habit of leadership. If you're doing your resume right (check out our bomb crash course in MBA resumes ), it should show all the ways in which you've been a leader so far in your community and in your career. And your recommendations should further corroborate that, because your recommenders *should* be speaking to your leadership qualities. (More on our coaching for recommenders here , ‘cause that’s a whole other story.)

So for most people, the essays include an element of engaged community citizenship. This one is the hardest to quantify, and it's the hardest to turn into a resume bullet. One of the things that most of our successful HBS client essays have in common is that they are covering—in some way—the candidate’s penchant for being an engaged citizen of the communities that they've been a part of.

But—I can’t stress this enough—your resume is going to do the heavy lifting in conveying your accomplishments. The essay really isn't about how great you are, or how accomplished you are, or what you've achieved in your life. It's about the intangibles. It's about your values and your character. To put it one more way: it’s essentially about what you stand for.

Leaders of Consequence

Harvard wants to admit and shape Leaders of Consequence . But what does it mean to be a Leader of Consequence? First of all, it doesn’t mean that you’ve checked off a certain set of accomplishments. Rather, it’s a very powerful way of being .

• Leaders of Consequence are empathetic, so they have the ability to connect with other people.
• They're inspiring people, but they're also very human. They exude a sense of humility and vulnerability.
• They have a vision. To be a leader, you're going to have to have some kind of vision.

Schools are also looking for these qualities in the application. And the HBS Essay is the ideal place to exhibit them. This doesn't mean you won't talk about success and accomplishments in the essay, it just means that that's not really the point. The point of the Harvard MBA Essay is to reveal these softer and less tangible qualities about you, your values, and your character.

It’s a platform for sharing your authentic self. Sharing is the key word here: It's not about talking about or telling them who you are. Instead, it's about sharing your experiences, values, beliefs, thought processes and strategies, feelings, desires, hopes, and fears through some of the strategies I’ll discuss below. These are all the things that make you human.

What about my goals?

One of the most common questions I get from clients is whether the HBS Essay should include your goals. The quick answer ? Probably not. In our experience, for only one in about 9 or 10 MBA applicants is career vision an essential part of their Epic Story. For these people, fully sharing who they are and how they want to be known for the purposes of admission requires a discussion of the future. For everyone else, your goals belong squarely in the 500-character short answer box about goals.

Building a Narrative (Or, as we like to call it, Storyboarding )

Alright, now the next step in the process is storyboarding . You’ll take all of the material, all of the amazing things about your life that you identified in the Discovery stage, and boil it down into the few components that you're going to put together to answer this question.

The big thing you have to keep in mind when you're approaching the Harvard question, and really any essay question, is that you need to answer the question directly . Harvard is asking, “what more would you like us to know?” So you're going to have to tell them, “here's what I'd like you to know.” You don't have to have that sentence in there , but it is effectively the question that you're answering. So start from that place.

Key Stories

The Discovery Process will also help unearth the building blocks of your HBS Essay: key stories . In order to tell an Epic Story, you need to determine the pivotal anecdotes it’s comprised of. If your Epic Life Story is a constellation, think of your key stories as the individual star points.

Pro Tip: Imagine your Epic Life Story as a biopic.

I prefer to think about the Epic Life Story Essay in cinematic terms. From this perspective, it’s essentially a biopic : it’s a movie about your life so far. (You know, like that one about Mike Tyson that’s coming out?) So instead of using a traditional outlining framework—point one; subpoint A, B, C; point two; and so on—we’ll map your Life Story and your narrative in terms of scenes. At Career Protocol, we treat your essay like we would a screenplay.

In my experience, this leads to a much more dynamic version of your story. It also gives you more breathing room for the creative process than a tightly structured outline. So as you plan your Harvard essay, try thinking about it in these terms: What comes first in the movie? And then, what comes next? And what comes after that?

Oh, and make sure you nail that opening line.

TL;DR (A Step-by-Step Cheat Sheet for Our Storyboarding Process)

• Choose the core value that you want the Harvard adcom to know about you. You can choose at most two to focus on. (Typically one is enough. You don't need to boil the ocean on the values front.)
• Determine the three or four most important scenes in the film of your life related to this value. Think about which life choices were most revealing of your character and/or which experiences most shaped you and forced you to change. These are the key anecdotes (a.k.a. key stories).
• Decide what other scenes or details from your life are going to help fill in the rest of your film.
• Get writing! See what your story says, and then refine it around your values so that it reflects what you want the adcom to know about you to the greatest possible extent.

4. Decide how to start your essay (Note: That first line is crucial.)

Sitting down to write the first words of an essay can be an intimidating moment. Maybe you love that fresh start, that blank page staring back at you, but more likely you dread it. Never fear! I’m about to give you some great advice for tackling that first line and starting your writing process off on the right foot. (Er, finger?)

You want to be in the mindset of upliftment and inspiration before you sit down to write. That will ensure that what comes out will actually resonate with your best self and not, you know, the you who woke up on the wrong side of the bed and didn't drink your coffee.

So be sure that you're caffeinated if you drink caffeine. Be sure that you ate and slept well. Be inspired, and then sit down and see what comes out. For more great advice on how to write your Best MBA Essay—including how to get inspired!—check out our new article, Pro Tips: How to Write a Great MBA Essay. (The long and short of it is: Pixar movies .)

What should a first line look like?

Here are some first lines from actual winning Harvard essays:

Here are some examples. Some of these are from our clients, others are from The Harbus MBA Essay Guide (Summer 2020 Edition or the 2016-2017 Edition):

“On March 1st, 1995 my family boarded a plane at [INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT] with our entire lives packed into a few suitcases.”

“An early influence on my worldview was my father.”

“I never got along with my father.”

“As a six foot tall sixth grade girl, you really only have two choices: (1) stand up and be proud of your height or (2) slink off awkwardly and hide.”

“While my application materials have highlighted some of my proudest professional achievements, I want you to also know about the influence my parents have had on my life, my values, and the direction of my career.”

“I am defined by my appreciation for beauty.”

“I have cried exactly four times at work.”

“A wise woman once told me that I have had an extraordinary number of failures for someone my age.  I’d never thought about it that way before, but she’s got a good point.”

“It’s summertime, I’m 11, and the cool things to do are ride around town on bikes, eat ice cream, and play tennis.”

“The proudest moment of my lacrosse career is also my most embarrassing one.”

“I didn’t do well in school as a kid.”

“‘What should I do about praying at work?' [Name] asked me, concern emanating from her voice.”

“I had a near-death accident in September last year that knocked me out and ended me up in a hospital with a brain haemorrhage, a broken shoulder and a fractured ankle.”

“My mother fully believed in being ahead of the curve at all times.”

What you'll notice about these opening lines is that they're very workmanlike. They're direct. They get right into the story—say what happened, what was happening, sum it up, hop to it.

Each one of these is also interesting . It grabs you. It makes you want to keep going. And that's because each of these first lines uses the rules of narrative to bring you into the story. One of the most important rules to remember is that stories take place in space and time . Good stories, stories that grip the reader, have to be grounded in these dimensions.

As you may have noticed, most if not all of these winning first lines set the stage: They give you something you can picture, a scenario or location you can imagine—something to sink your teeth into.

Excuse me, rules of narrative?

There are some rules to how you think about your first sentence. It doesn't have to be flowery, it doesn't have to set an elaborate scene (in fact, for gosh sake, please don’t do any of that!!). It's almost certainly better if it's not dialogue or a quotation, despite some things you may have read here or there on the internet. (That can sometimes work, but it's rarely the most jet-fueled, engaging way to bring the reader into your world.) Instead, you want to dive right into the story and let the story carry you as you're writing it.

In summary.

Outline it if you want to, but don't waste a lot of time on that. Then get yourself to a position of being inspired. Decide on the opening line, and then just write—just write the story. You've got the big scenes, you've got the ideas in your head. Write it and see what comes out, and then iterate. The key scenes will come into focus as you edit.

For more on this—and for all my auditory learners out there—watch my MBA Monday video on how NOT to write a boring first line (or essay) .

And for an even more in-depth read on the storyboarding and essay writing processes we’ve developed at Career Protocol, dive into “ A Screen writer's Guide to Epic MBA Narratives. ”

5. Draft your HBS Essay (Write. Revise. Rewrite.)

“Good writing is essentially rewriting.”                   – Roald Dahl

“The only kind of writing is rewriting.”                – Ernest Hemingway

The next step on this essay-magic journey is storyshaping . This is a huge labor of love.

Let me say that again. It’s a HUGE labor of love .

Drafting continues to deepen the Discovery process. (By drafting, or storyshaping, I mean some combination of writing and rewriting and revising.) Most of our clients are still discovering their story as they're in the process of telling it. Your understanding of your values and exactly how you want to communicate them is clarified with each passing draft. So that's why we call it storyshaping.

The first thing to know about this stage is that there is no right number of drafts . Everybody needs a different number of iterations. Here’s how many drafts it took some of our clients who got into Harvard to write their masterpieces:

Our process includes unlimited drafts and boy do we mean it!

It may take a while because you’re a perfectionist, or because you totally changed gears in the middle, or because the story continues to evolve. You have to follow that inspiration and allow the story to go where it wants to go.

There's nothing better or worse about taking more or fewer drafts. Like everything else in this process, it depends on you, your writing habits, and how much time and space your story needs to achieve its potential. So for those of you who plan to go through this process on your own, give yourself plenty of time to revisit your draft and shape the essay as you go.

And what about word count ?

Okay, so word count. This is one of my favorite subjects. If you had to guess the upper limit of word count for a successful HBS Essay, what would you say? The lower limit?

If you read any other advice about the Harvard Essay, you're going to find that almost everyone says 1000 words. Tops. Or 750-1250 words . Tops. Or 1100 words. Tops . Or something like that. So let me be the one to tell you: Any firm answer to this question is a load of hooey. The length of the essay is totally irrelevant.

A few stats from some of our recent Harvard admits will help you get a sense of just how varied and individualized the writing process is for the HBS Essay.

Here’s a sampling of our successful clients’ word count in recent years:

You want to tell the story in as much time as it takes to really do it justice. For most people—it’s true—that’s somewhere in the 1200-1400 range. But not for everyone! Some essays will take a lot more than that, and some will take less.

For successful essays in the 1000-word range, they’re shorter because they have a simpler and more straightforward story to tell. The successful client essays that broke into the 2000-word range had the most amazing, fascinating, and riveting life stories and experiences I’ve ever come across.

I repeat: There. Is. No. Right. Number.

The takeaway here is that each story has its own cadence and its own pace. It takes place in its own time. Again, the number of words that it has is completely irrelevant. You want to tell the story in the amount of space that allows you to fully show the admissions committee your best self . Because, ultimately, it's not your essay that gets you in. It's not your GMAT. It's not even your resume. It's who you are .

6. Seek out feedback

Please remember : Essays need readers . Every storyteller needs an audience.

One of the best things you can do for yourself when you’re writing the HBS Essay is find someone to bounce drafts off of. (Trust me, you’ll be SO thankful you did.) You need to know how the story that you’re telling is going to land for someone else.

Gauging a reader’s reaction and asking for feedback can help you answer questions like: Do any of my anecdotes need more detail? Is everything spelled out clearly enough? Do any parts of my essay seem to drag on endlessly? Am I emphasizing the right things? And—in more extreme but all-too-common cases—do I come off sounding like a selfish jerk? Or an airhead? (Obviously you’re not those things, which is exactly why we don’t want your essay putting off those vibes!!)

This back-and-forth between you and a trusted reader is a fantastic way to give greater definition to your narrative. If you move from draft 1 to draft 2 to draft 3 all inside the vacuum of your own mind, you’ll get caught up in one big smush of perfectionism and wordsmithing and miss the most important point: the big picture—emotional connection with the reader.

But do choose wisely . We’re the best at what we do (in large part, I’d argue, because we love doing it ). So if you want a buddy for your HBS essay-writing and beyond, start your journey with Career Protocol today.

If working with a professional is out of the question, ask a friend, peer, or mentor to be your trusted reader. Choose someone you can count on to be honest with you—to give you their true reactions and ask questions freely, rather than petting your ego. (This isn’t the time for that!!!)

But also make sure to choose someone whose opinions about you are generous and who doesn’t feel the need to control your narrative or grammar. Moms can sometimes be great. But sometimes they have their own preconceived notions about who they think you are that isn’t well aligned with who you ACTUALLY are today. And that grammar stickler friend of yours just might wordsmith all the life out of your writing voice.

More advice on this here:

So, I’ll say once more, choose your reading buddy wisely! To collect great feedback, try using our Friends-Family Fly Test . And remember, we’re here if you need us.

7. When in Doubt: Read more great advice & some solid essay samples

Here’s some advice on approaching the hbs essay from a few of our harvard admits:.

“I think for HBS, I always considered it a long shot, so I wasn't afraid to present what I felt was my true story. I think it's more of an opportunity to reflect on what the most important part of your story is. I wanted to be honest and true to myself, because I knew that I'd otherwise look back and think, ‘Wait a minute. What if I had just told the story I wanted them to know all along?’”

“Be honest! Show the school your capacity for self-reflection, give a thoughtful appraisal of your past actions/mistakes.”

“Be authentic! It is really easy to be caught in the trap of saying what you think is important or focusing on what may be perceived as ‘most impressive,’ but from what I have seen, admissions committees are so good at sniffing out inauthentic essays that it may end up backfiring!”

(are you noticing a trend here?)

“After you have a few drafts under your belt, take a break on your application for a few days. When you come back, reread your essay while asking yourself ‘does this cut to the core of who I really am?’ Share your essay with your family and close friends with the same question. If you don’t get a resounding yes from all parties, go back to the drawing board.”

“DON’T SUBMIT SOMETHING THAT FEELS FORCED OR FAKE. I wrote an entire draft of my HBS essay and spent two weeks trying to edit it into something I believed reflected who I really am, and at the end of it I decided to start over. Don’t be afraid to start over.”

One more nugget of wisdom from an HBS admit:

“Definitely try to be as concise and to-the-point in your essays as possible. Also, do not feel the need to crack open your SAT vocab books!”

And now a final word from me…

This is my most important piece of advice in approaching the Harvard Essay:

There are no guarantees. Most of you will not get in. That's a fact. So you might as well do yourself proud in the essay. Write it in such a way that you can look back on the choices that you made on this journey with no regrets , because you told the story that you wanted to tell. You authentically answered the question. You told Harvard what it was that you really wanted them to know about you.

If you remember, choice equals voice. You're making choices continually—even as you go through this process. I recommend that you make strong choices in your essays, and especially when you're applying to Harvard.

Helpful Sources

Harbus 2021  Essay Guide. Need I say more? (Check out earlier editions, too, to broaden your sample set.) But be sure to read SEVERAL essays so you get clear about the fact that there is no right answer. Don’t anchor your story to someone else’s. Own it.

Subscribe to our Career Protocol YouTube channel to watch my MBA Pro Tips, including my Top Tips for Writing the Harvard Essay.

And if you’re wondering how to write those other Epic Life Story essays, listen to me tackle Stanford’s “What Matters Most to You and Why?” (also on our YouTube channel)

Aaaaanddd on that note: Our Top 10 Tools for Your Creative MBA Essays

Angela Guido

Student of Human Nature| Founder and Chief Education Officer of Career Protocol

Let’s have a conversation!

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Homepage > MBA Admissions > Harvard Business School MBA essay tips for 2023 intake

Harvard Business School MBA essay tips for 2023 intake

Posted by Suheb Hussain | Jan 24, 2023 | Business Schools , MBA Admissions , MBA Application Process

The Harvard MBA admissions process is one of the most competitive in the world, and like the 2022 admissions, for its 2023 MBA application, there is only one essay prompt, and it does not have a word limit. Through the HBS MBA Essay question, the admissions committee wants to know what more you would like them to know as they consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School (HBS) MBA program.

In this article, Poonam Tandon from myEssayReview, who has been helping students with their MBA applications since 2011, shares her tips on the Harvard MBA essay for the 2023 intake.

Harvard MBA essay analysis by Poonam Tandon from myEssayReview (MER)

Let’s take a closer look at the HBS MBA essay prompt .

QUESTION: 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? (900 word limit)

This open-ended question needs to be tackled very strategically, and it requires a significant amount of introspection. Since the essay prompts says,  ‘what more would you like us to know’ , you should make sure that you do not merely repeat what you have already discussed in other application materials.

To avoid overlapping elements in your essay, you must go through other application materials (résumé, application form, and LORs) and discuss with your recommenders what examples they will be discussing in their letters. However, you may still discuss at length the achievements you have already touched upon in your résumé.

Before choosing your stories (personal and professional), please get a thorough understanding of what  Harvard is looking for in candidates , and then weave your stories/ accomplishments around these traits. HBS is looking for candidates with  “ a habit of leadership, analytical aptitude and appetite, and engaged community leadership.”  Therefore, your stories should illustrate these traits with a focus on  leadership .

Be authentic and genuine. Show your confidence and passion for what you have done and what you plan to do- academically, personally, socially, and professionally. Remember, you are a unique individual, so use this essay as a platform to show your uniqueness. Do not be afraid to share your mistake or failure at some point in life. Harvard is not looking for mistake-free individuals.

The key is how you have learned from your mistakes, overcome life challenges, and have emerged a more influential person.

Since there is a 900-word limit for this open-ended question, please write accordingly. You may decide to submit an essay between 500- 750 words. If you choose to write a longer essay, make sure to keep it under 900 words. MER clients have written compelling essays within 800-900 words.

Mistakes to avoid while writing the 2023 Harvard MBA essay

• ‘Don’t overthink, overwrite, and over craft’. When working with people on the HBS essay, I often need to remind them that though re-writing and revising is the essence of writing, overwriting sometimes may kill the very soul of the essay.
• After you have brainstormed and finalized your stories, have confidence in your stories and writing style, and organize them coherently and succinctly. Refrain from making countless unnecessary revisions thinking, “Is this what admission committee would like to know?”
• Write from your heart in a concise and straightforward language. This is not an academic paper, and flowery prose will not get you in. We recommend expressing your passion and drive, your leadership experiences, analytical aptitude, and background in a simple, but effective and concise language that reflects your unique voice.
• Avoid using the word ‘leadership’ in every single sentence. Some applicants think that their best bet to impress the admission committee is to use ‘leadership’ in every sentence. Follow the thumb rule of ‘show not tell’ and allow your unique accomplishment stories (personal, professional, and social) to vouch for your leadership skills.
• Avoid writing a ‘why MBA’ and ‘goals’ essay since you will be covering these topics in other application materials.
• Avoid telling the school how great they are. They are aware of their greatness.
• Even though the essay question doesn’t ask ‘Why HBS’, you will still like to let them know what you envision getting involved in to reach the next level of your career and how you plan to leave Harvard a better place.
• Avoid spoon-feeding the Ad Com. For example, don’t waste precious space by starting your essay with the following statement: “I would like the admission committee to understand what has driven my personal and professional growth.” Also, please do not wrap up your essay by stating, “I hope that through this essay you got an insight into my personal and professional life for better evaluation of my candidacy.” Please remember that the purpose of writing this essay is to offer the admission committee insights into your personal and professional attributes/ strengths. Hence, such explicit statements are redundant and will not add any value to your story.

Harvard MBA Application deadline 2023

Applicants who want to get admitted to the Harvard Business School (HBS) need to submit an online written application form, after which selected candidates are invited for an interview.

For the 2023 HBS admissions, there are two rounds of intake, and Round 1 deadline is September 7, 2022 and Round 2 deadline is January 4, 2023. Please note that the application should be submitted online by 12 Noon Eastern Time.

Learn more about the Harvard Business School – Class Profile, Employment report, and Notable Alumni.

What do HBS MBA Adcoms say about this year’s application

Jana Kierstead, the Executive Director of the MBA and Doctoral Programs at HBS Harvard Business School, says ,

“Our admissions and financial aid processes have not changed nor have our decision criteria: admission is based on merit and financial aid is based on need”

Meanwhile, the applicants are encouraged to download the  Application Guide  to learn more about what’s inside.

Free Resources from MER

• 10 Key Essay Tips with Examples
•  Success Stories -MER Students
• Harvard MBA Mansi’s video interview

Since 2011, MER ( myEssayReview ) has helped many applicants get accepted into the top 20 MBA programs. (Poonam is one of the  top 5 most reviewed consultants on the GMAT Club .)

Do you have questions about your application? E-mail Poonam at  [email protected]  or sign up  here  for a free consultation.

About the author

Poonam, one of the  top 5 most reviewed consultants on the GMAT Club , is a master storyteller with more than three decades of experience in successfully helping students craft compelling stories for undergraduate and graduate school programs.

A Ph.D. in English, with three decades of teaching experience in India and the US, Poonam launched myEssayReview (MER) in 2011 to provide highly personalized and dedicated consulting services to Business School applicants. Since then, she has helped hundreds of students around the world get into top MBA, EMBA, part-time MBA, and specialized graduate programs. A full-time consultant, Poonam is passionate about her work and is highly committed to each of her students’ success.

Are you aspiring to become a part of the Harvard MBA program? A 740+ GMAT score can increase your chances of pursuing an MBA at the Harvard Business School. Sign up for our free trial and get access to our GMAT resources today

Here are some additional articles that you might be interested in reading:

• What is a good GMAT score for the HBS?
• Harvard Business School – Class Profile, Employment report, and Notable Alumni.
• Seven steps to get into Harvard Business School
• GMAT 770 – Admit from Harvard, Wharton, INSEAD, Stanford and Kellogg
• Top One-Year MBA Program in the U.S.
• Career goal essays and Why MBA essays
• How to impress the MBA Admissions committee
• The importance of MBA Essays in the application form

About The Author

Suheb Hussain

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Harvard MBA essay analysis and tips for 2024 intake

Admit expert.

• June 15, 2023

Harvard MBA applicants are some of the most competitive in the world. In addition to a high GPA and impressive work experience, applicants must also submit one essay as part of their application. Through your essay, you have the opportunity to show who you are beyond your test scores and grades.

The admissions committee wants to see what makes you tick, what motivates you, what challenges you have overcome, and how you have been a proven leader in your professional and personal life.

Essays are also an important way to demonstrate your writing ability and communication skills- two essential qualities for success in business school and in your career. So take the time to craft a well-written, thoughtful essay that tells the admissions committee who you are and why you deserve a spot in the Harvard MBA program.

In this article, we have outlined a few guidelines that you should keep in mind while writing your essay. By following these guidelines, you can maximize your chances of crafting an essay that will make a lasting impression on the Harvard admissions committee.

Harvard MBA application deadline 2024

Mba essay prompt for 2024 intake, what is harvard mba admissions committee looking for in the essay, things to keep in mind before writing the harvard mba essay, harvard mba essay analysis and 6 tips for 2024 intake, hbs mba essay faqs.

For the 2023 HBS admissions, there are two rounds of intake. The Round 1 deadline is September 6, 2023, and the Round 2 deadline is January 3, 2024.

Please note that the application should be submitted online by 12 Noon Boston Time.

Same topic, different word limit

The MBA essay topic is the same as it was for the 2023 admissions.

There is just one topic which is:

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?

There is limit of 900 words mentioned by Harvard Business School admissions committee.

According to Chad Losee, Director of admissions,  

• The prompt will remain the same as in previous years: “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?”
• We are, however, adding a 900-word limit to the essay. Why you might ask? Well, we have heard from some applicants that, without a word limit, sometimes questions (and stress) arise about the “right” word length. We hope that including a limit provides applicants with a little more direction and eliminates the stress about how much is too much to write.
• Do you need to submit 900 words? No, certainly not. Successful applicants may share what they wish to in 500 or 700 words, for example, or go up to 900.

Every year Harvard Business School receives around 10,000 applications and it’s safe to assume, that almost all applicants will have impressive credentials – Resume, test scores, grades, and letters of recommendation. So, what is the Harvard MBA adcom looking for in this essay?

One word – Character

HBS is interested in character more so than credentials. The HBS Admissions Committee looks for enthusiastic, principled people who have the capacity to carry out the school’s purpose of developing leaders who have the potential to make a difference in the world. 

Character does not manifest itself in a resume, test scores, grades, or transcripts. The essay is your chance to show them what you’re made of and what drives you. Because the competition is fierce, this is where you can persuade them that you have what it takes to be a part of this incredible community.

Although this part is simple to understand, the actual process of doing this efficiently is far more difficult.

Please keep in mind that your essay must be additive. The prompt’s keywords are “what more?” It should not be an extension of your resume. 

Here are 3 things to keep in mind:

• It shouldn’t be a series of broad generalizations and assertions that could apply to a lot of people. 
• It cannot be a collection of anecdotes with no meaning or significance attached to the events. It should include at least a portion of your unique story, the part you want Harvard MBA adcom to know. 
• It should demonstrate your motivations, values, and goals.

The answer to the Harvard MBA essay question is not something we can provide or explain in a single blog post because we need to know different aspects of your personal and professional life. It must be unique to each of you. For individual guidance please reach out to us at [email protected]  

However, we can definitely provide basic analysis and tips on the Harvard MBA essay topic for the 2023 intake. Continue reading to know more.

Let’s take a closer look at the HBS MBA essay prompt.

QUESTION: 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? (900 words)

Here are 6 Harvard MBA essay tips:

Choose your words carefully

The first thing you must do is go through other application materials (résumé, application form, and LORs) and discuss with your recommenders what examples they will discuss in their letters to avoid overlapping elements in your essay. However, you may continue to elaborate on the accomplishments mentioned in your résumé if they add value to your essay and help you elaborate on your story. 

It’s not a good idea to try to pack as many arbitrary stories about you into 900 words or less. Accept the “less is more” philosophy instead. You may focus on a single idea and provide data to support it, or you could craft a fascinating narrative that touches on information the committee wouldn’t otherwise know about you. Keep in mind that this is a “search for authenticity” rather than an “essay writing contest.”

Choose your stories based on what HBS admission committee is looking for

Please get a thorough understanding of what Harvard is looking for in candidates before choosing your stories (personal and professional), and then weave your stories/achievements around these traits. HBS seeks candidates with “a leadership habit, analytical aptitude and appetite, and engaged community leadership.” 

In other words – HBS is seeking individuals who are ambitious and extraordinary, with a leadership habit, a history of community involvement, and the appetite and knack for achievement that set them apart from those who are merely intelligent and diligent.

They look for a penchant for repeatedly exceeding targets in addition to an established professional track record and strong qualifications. They also want people who are motivated by a higher cause and have the potential to uphold the prestige of the institution. 

Your task with the essay is to combine this with an engrossing tale of who you are as a person. And if that seems intimidating, remember that you are the only person who has experienced your story, making you uniquely suited to share it.

To learn more about what HBS is looking for and how to make your application stand out, get in touch with us at [email protected]

Be genuine and authentic

Demonstrate your self-assurance and enthusiasm for what you have done and what you intend to do- academically, personally, socially, and professionally. Remember that you are an individual, so use this essay to demonstrate your individuality. Do not be afraid to admit to making a mistake or failing at some point in your life. Harvard is not looking for perfect people.

What’s more interesting to read: The life story of someone who had everything go according to plan or the tale of someone who overcame incredible obstacles and showed grit and fortitude to not just survive but also thrive?

Because of this, the more personal and open you can be about why you do what you do, the more memorable and appealing you will be. Because there are so few of them. Few people are completely honest, and even fewer are vulnerable during the storytelling process. Some of the best essays begin with a failure story and how it shaped them.

The important thing is that you have learned from your mistakes, overcome life challenges, and emerged as a more influential person.

Avoid fluff in your essay

Don’t, for instance, open your essay by saying, “I would like the admission committee to grasp what has pushed my personal and professional progress.” This will only take up valuable space. 

Furthermore, avoid concluding your essay with the phrase “I hope that via this essay you acquired an insight into my personal and professional life for better evaluation of my application.” 

Please keep in mind that the goal of this essay is to provide the admissions committee with details on your character traits and professional strengths. Therefore, such specific assertions are unnecessary and won’t improve your story in any way.

Use vivid remembrance to demonstrate your experiences and difficulties and how you overcame them and made you what you are today.

You can sort through your experience with the help of an admissions consultant to determine what to concentrate on. 

Do you want to impress the HBS Adcom?

At Admit Expert, we have helped hundreds of students get into top MBA programs around the world. We would be happy to help you too. Schedule a free call with us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you achieve your goals.

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In general, it’s a good idea to start with experiences that helped create your ideals and outlook on life. You might discuss a difficulty or a time when you fell and got back up, for instance. Remember to SHOW them the impact rather than just telling them about it as you should emphasize how it changed you as a person and what you gained from the experience.

Draft and revise your Harvard MBA essay

Drafting adds to the depth of the Discovery process. You keep remembering more instances that can add value to your essay. Almost all of the candidates we have helped keep discovering their story as they tell it. With each draft, you gain a better understanding of your values and how you want to communicate them. That is why it is referred to as shaping your story

The first thing to understand about this stage is that there is no correct number of drafts. Each person requires a different number of iterations. Therefore, at Admit Expert we help you with multiple drafts to make sure you make your essay as perfect as possible.

So, if you plan to do this, give yourself plenty of time to revisit your draft and shape the essay as you go.

Get Feedback on your essay

Finding someone to read your drafts when writing the HBS MBA Essay is one of the best things you can do for yourself. You must understand how the story you are telling will be received by others.

This back-and-forth between you and a trusted reader is an excellent way to give your story more definition. If you go from one draft to the next without looking at the big picture i.e., emotionally connecting with the reader, you’ll end up with a story that might not reverberate with the HBS adcom.

So, if you want someone to give you honest feedback, get in touch with you and we’ll help you create a perfect HBS MBA essay draft.

Yes, Harvard MBA adcom has added a 900-word limit to the essay

Character is the most important aspect that they want to know. They want to know something that is not conveyed through your resume, transcripts, GMAT score, or letters of recommendation.

Do you want to get into your dream business school?

Take the first step towards your MBA dream and schedule a free 1 on 1 application strategy call with us.

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Harvard Business School Essay Questions and Strategic Guidance, 2023-2024

Harvard Business School (HBS) announced its essay question for the 2023–2024 application season today. The good news is that this essay prompt is not new; in fact, HBS has used this exact question every year except one since the 2012–2013 application season, with the only notable change being the addition of an official word limit last season. In the past, the admissions committee had let applicants decide how long—or short—their essay would be, but after recognizing the angst that making such a judgment call caused for candidates (as if determining what to write about was not challenging enough!), it introduced the 900-word maximum to provide a bit of guidance.

The HBS essay prompt is therefore very familiar—at least to us. Collectively at Gatehouse Admissions, we have coached hundreds and hundreds of applicants in crafting their HBS essay, and we have read thousands more submitted essays. Based on our experience, we have developed the following guidance to help you develop your essay.

Essay prompt: 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? (900-word limit)

How should i get started on my hbs essay.

What makes Harvard’s essay question so perplexing is that it essentially offers you a blank slate; you have up to 900 words to write about whatever you want . That level of freedom can be intimidating and scary, but focus instead on the upside—you are in the driver’s seat, and you get to decide what to tell HBS!

To avoid becoming overwhelmed as you figure out where or how to start HBS’s essay, remember to look inward. Keep the perspective on you and what you want to tell the admissions committee; do not try to guess what HBS wants to know, compare yourself to your peers, or employ a tactic that you heard was successful for someone else. These strategies will likely lead you down the wrong path. Also, remember that the admissions committee will have your resume, short answer responses, transcript(s), and letters of recommendation. Your essay is your opportunity to go beyond all this information the admissions committee already has and provide color that the other materials cannot easily convey.

What should I write about in my HBS essay?

HBS is looking for evidence that you are someone who can lead, drive impact, work well with others, demonstrate empathy and humility, solve problems, implement solutions, be open to feedback and other perspectives, make decisions, and so on—all hallmarks of a good leader. HBS also wants to know that you can learn from both your wins and your failures. In fact, the school is very open about the kind of candidate it seeks! HBS states that it is looking for applicants who display a Habit of Leadership, Analytical Aptitude and Appetite, and Engaged Community Citizenship .

This does not mean that you must discuss any or all of these specific topics in your essay, however, and if you do, avoid addressing them head on (e.g., “A time I displayed leadership was…”). Just keep in mind what the admissions committee is watching for, and this should help you identify strong potential stories and the most relevant details to emphasize.

How much should I talk about HBS in my essay?

HBS should be in the back of your mind as you determine what you want to write about and as you draft. At each iteration of your essay, ask yourself, “Why do I want to tell them this? Will sharing this information [or story] give them confidence that I am the sort of leader, teammate, person, and citizen who will make an impact on the world?” If what you want to tell them does not add to or clarify the picture of your potential, then it probably does not belong in your essay.

That said, discussing anything specifically about HBS in your essay is not imperative. That is because HBS does not ask you to! HBS can be secondary or even an afterthought in your essay, and many successful applicants do not mention the school at all! Discuss HBS only if your rationale for business school and for choosing HBS in particular is truly core to your “What more?” story.

How should I construct my HBS essay?

Once you have brainstormed your experiences and have pinpointed the themes and/or stories you want to share, start by writing an overarching, one-line response to the essay prompt at the top of your essay draft. If you cannot articulate it well and distill it down into a single sentence (two max), your essay is likely trying to cover too many unrelated topics or lacks a cohesive theme.

Next, consider the different ways you could craft your essay, be it as a journey through key pivotal moments, a series of stories and examples that illustrate some superpower or core value of yours, or a fuller picture of you—a mosaic—that captures some of your most compelling and relevant traits. Whatever way you choose, make sure that your essay has a strong spine that ties together the different elements.

Additional Resources

• Read a successful HBS essay , annotated with instructive callouts and commentary on what makes it a good example
• Review 25 HBS essays in our book “What Matters?” and “What More?”: 50 Successful Essays for the Stanford GSB and HBS (and Why They Worked)
• Learn the basics of good writing in our two free, video-based essay workshops, The Importance of Business School Application Essays (and How to Write Them) and Your Career Statement – Fact, Fiction, and How to Build One , hosted by Liza Weale, founder of Gatehouse Admissions

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How To Write Harvard HBS Essay With Examples

Harvard Business School’s MBA is one of the most well-known, acclaimed professional degrees in the world. When applying to HBS is a competitive next step in your education and career, every aspect of your application deserves careful deliberation and preparation, especially your HBS essay. 

The application essay requires even more thought because Harvard Business School views essays as a real-time representation of who you are (besides the interview and statement of purpose ), professionally and personally. This blog will take you through a step-by-step process so you’ll know exactly how to write the Harvard Business School essay.  

Hopefully, it will also help invigorate your pride in your own story, for Harvard Business School will be more likely to see your potential if you demonstrate that you see it too.

Harvard Business School Essay Prompts

The Harvard Business School essay is just one component of a complete MBA application, but it certainly has its own considerations. So, it is important that you take time to consider the essay separately from the rest of the documents and information in your application. The essay prompt is as follows:

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?

This essay question is particularly challenging for many applicants due to its vague nature.  The other potentially unexpected kicker to this prompt: there is no word limit. Regarding the length of your essay, the Harvard Business School webpage suggests that you “use your best judgment, and try to be clear… and concise.” 

We’ll discuss how to best work on this deliverable later in the blog, as it is an important factor in the overall presentation of your writing. 

Unless you have an exceedingly in-depth resume, the essay is definitely going to be the most personal aspect of your application. The essay is your chance to use your own words to describe yourself, your values, and your insights. 

It will be the most significant signal to the admissions committee as to how your background has influenced you and how HBS would fit well into your future.

How to Write Harvard Business School Essay in 6 Steps

Organization is key to ensuring quality in your HBS essay. It’s important to order tasks in an accomplishable, reasonable way where each goal is clear and manageable. 

Exploring blogs about MBA essay writing is one way to get ideas flowing. To help wrap your head around organizing your essay-writing efforts, here are some beginning-to-end steps for the creation of your HBS essay:

• Self-Reflection
• Decide on the Right Story and Its Theme
• Write an Outline
• Start Your Essay Carefully and Deliberately 
• Draft Your Essay and Revise
• Get an Outside Perspective ‍

1. Self-Reflection

Start the process of HBS essay writing with something as equally fundamental as it is simple: thought. Consider the role that the essay will play in your application and how to make the essay benefit your goal of getting into Harvard Business School. 

There are two sides to useful self-reflection regarding a goal like a Harvard MBA.

First, think purposefully about your career goals and tie them to an MBA at Harvard Business School. Ask yourself, how would a Harvard MBA help you get to where you want to go, professionally? What would you most like to gain from your time studying at HBS? 

Thinking about these things and then including them in your essay will demonstrate to the admissions committee that you have a clear trajectory for your MBA experience and your career. 

Additionally, revealing these considerations in your essay will speak to your confidence in your aspirations and in your decision to apply for Harvard Business School, which will likewise be attractive to the admissions committee.

The other side to a useful introspection would be considering what you as a student would contribute to Harvard and to its MBA program. A US News article about successful MBA essays encourages you to highlight what you would contribute to the HBS MBA program, so that you come across as a useful addition instead of simply a “taker.” 

If you were in the admissions committee's shoes, what would be the most enticing aspects of your past education, your experiences , and your personality. Essentially, you should think, specifically and without judgment, about what your biggest strengths as an applicant are, realistically. 

Knowing this will help you, both consciously and subconsciously, weave your most compelling characteristics into your essay so that the admissions committee gets to know your best side. ‍

2. Decide on the Right Story and Its Theme

You absolutely do not want to use your essay as a canvas on which to dump information about yourself. Harvard is not interested in reading an essay that expands on your entire resume or simply describes you. Tell a story! 

Elucidate on an impactful experience or explain a significant lesson you’ve learned. You’ll probably either overflow with abounding exciting examples to choose from, or you’ll struggle to find even one compelling anecdote. 

Don’t worry if you sit in this situation for a while; after all, you’ll ultimately still need to decide on just one topic, whether that means whittling down your options or sifting through your past to isolate that one perfect story. 

Once you finally do settle on that one excellent, fascinating subject that excites you enough to write about, you should also deliberate about what you intend your themes and tones to be. What would the ideal takeaway(s) be for a reader of your essay? 

Additionally, and this is annoyingly subjective, so apologies; how do you want to sound ? You should have a picture of how your essay will present your information, and you should have a picture of how your essay will present you . 

The admissions committee will use the essay to try to imagine you and the role you’d play at Harvard , so keep in mind how they would do this with the essay you write. ‍

3. Write an Outline

This step is fairly straightforward. Take the most important points of your topic, and put them in an order that would flow well as you write. Make sure, as you lay these points out, that they align with each other coherently and that they reflect your intended theme. 

From there, write out some thoughts on how best to integrate each point into a complete essay. You might want to explicitly write out which details are most crucial to each part of your story or subject. For example, let's say your compelling story about a transformative internship abroad begins by explaining what you were doing before it. 

Then, intuitively, you’d have to include details about where you were at this stage of the story and whether you were working, studying, traveling, etc. Put this information in your outline, so you know that you don’t leave things out and lose your reader. ‍

4. Start Your Essay Carefully and Deliberately

The way you begin your essay is quite important and will in many ways determine how the rest of your essay will shape out. First things first, make sure you feel good about your first sentence. 

Just like the opening scene of a movie, the first statement or two of your HBS essay will introduce your writing style and general tone to the admissions committee readers. Consistency always improves readability, and consistency starts with your opening sentence. 

Try to make the first couple sentences intriguing to garner some interest right from the get-go.

From the first sentence, ensure you’re keeping to your tone, at least peripherally. We can all agree a shift in tone tends to break the flow of good writing, and to have that break early on in your essay might throw the admissions committee off. 

The more sentences you write in a consistent tone and manner, the easier it will be to continue to write in holding with them. Because you’re trying to tell one, coherent story, the reader will be most interested if your writing follows an intuitive flow of ideas.

5. Draft Your Essay and Revise

From this last point, try as best you can to find a steady pace, and begin expanding on your outline. The nice part of this step is that you don’t have to get carried away with wording, sentence structure, or length. Again, focus on including all the relevant details and continue matching your tone. 

Try to write at a reasonable rate for decent chunks of time instead of writing intermittently while giving in to distractions. The more consecutively you write each sentence and paragraph, the better they’ll run together when someone’s reading them.

The reason you’ve already prepared an outline, and plan to edit throughout the rest of your writing process, is to make your first attempt at writing the essay as easy as it can be. 

Mistakes and breaks in your thinking can easily be caught by careful reading after the fact, so capitalize on inspiration when it hits and simply get your first draft onto the page. When writing an important, personal essay like this one, it also serves you well to keep boosting your confidence. 

If you fixate on word choice and how your writing is sounding, you’ll be more likely to break up the flow of your statements and make reading your essay feel choppy. You are telling your own story, and the point of the essay is for the admissions committee to get a better idea of your personality and character, so take pride in the fact that you’re unambiguously the best writer for this subject. ‍

6. Get an Outside Perspective‍

Once you’ve written the entirety of your essay and edited it carefully and precisely, get some extra peace of mind by having one or two other people read your essay. The more insightful and writing-experienced your readers of choice are, the more you’ll benefit from their critiques and opinions. 

The crucial part of this step is to get thoughts from someone unattached to your writing. As fervently and specifically as you may edit your own essay, you’ll always struggle to distance yourself from your emotional attachment to certain phrases, details, or even words. It’s ok. Every writer goes through this with the things they write. Trust us.

This other person allows you to hear a perspective from someone who read every sentence as how it sounded, not how it was intended. In this way, they fill the shoes of the admissions committee, but at a stage where you can still make changes to your essay. 

Don’t take criticisms personally; it's better to hear them now than to be at their mercy after submitting your application. 

No, you don’t need to force yourself to accept every change proposed by your reader(s). The point of an outside perspective is not to find a qualified editor and let them rewrite an essay about something important to you. 

This step is more useful just in reinvigorating your own thoughts about your paper because, in the late stages of your essay writing, it's much easier to get bogged down with the same considerations and forget the bigger things you’re trying to say to the admissions committee.

3 Successful Harvard Business School Essay Examples That Worked

Here are successful Harvard Business School essay examples to give you an idea of what to write. 

Sample Essay #1

“Start again,” my mother would demand after tossing my less-than-perfect homework into the trash. As a kid, I was taught that ‘work is finished when it’s not just your best work, but the best.’ Most kids would resent a parent for this, but I didn’t: my mom practiced the same rigor with her own work. She had to—a Latin immigrant with only a high school degree in 1980s [City] was held to a higher standard, especially one fighting to change both the media’s and corporations’ impressions about Latinx consumers.

I have applied this doctrine of “do better, be better” throughout my life, focusing on improving my own communities, be it through offering students a taste of food around the world with a college underground pop-up kitchen or planning a [Latinx event] as a conference chair. Last year gave me the chance to continue to work on being an inclusive leader in the Black/Latinx (B/LX) community as a ‘white-passing’ individual. Ultimately, however, these concerns were unimportant when given the opportunity to improve things now for the B/LX community. My new work projects helped me confront leaders I felt had not supported teams during the summer’s tragedies. I learned how feedback framed as suggestions could have powerful consequences. In fact, one of my managers actually came to me for advice on how to engage his peers in order to help his local community use pooled funds from [consulting group].

These experiences have helped me refine my long-term aspirations. Though I would still like to build on my mother’s legacy of a community-minded entrepreneur, I dream of founding my own venture capital fund. I want to alter the face of business by empowering young, diverse entrepreneurs who will bring novel approaches to lingering problems from past generations. Rather than improve my community only through projects supporting others’ priorities, I intend to be an active participant, building an incubator for entrepreneurs of color to eliminate barriers that maintain inequality such as urban food insecurity and underfunded education systems.

HBS will immerse me in the rapidly evolving entrepreneurial environment, helping me to understand process and practice creating ideas as both a founder and funder. On campus, I intend to be an active participant in HBS’ Anti-Racism goals, fighting to bring equity and inclusion with the same passion I have brought to my office and B/LX network. After graduating, I plan to continue engaging with HBS, either by working with student-run investment groups (like IVP’s Steve Harrick and the students behind the inclusion-focused Phoenix Fund) or working with professors to influence HBS’ future (like alumni Lulu Curiel and Eric Calderon, who helped develop a case study with Professor Alvarez to improve Latinx representation in MBA programs). Internalizing the case-method and the hands-on experiences acquired in my two years on-campus will embolden me to disrupt the status quo, both from the grassroots and executive levels.

What Made It Successful 

So, what works well in this thoughtful, personal HBS application essay? Starting with the introduction, the anecdote that this writer starts their essay with grabs attention through the strict rigor that their mother required for them growing up. 

Again, the key to the first few statements of an application essay lies in their ability to compel the reader to read on. An excellent introduction. will ensure  reading your essay is  a pleasure instead of a chore. 

Further on in this essay example, the reader understands where the applicant's motivation for equality and fair representation stems from, and this theme persists throughout the piece. It’s through demonstrating strong points like these that the reader reaches a higher empathy for the writer, which never hurts when applying to Harvard Business School. 

We also gain appreciation for the leadership skills of the writer due to their clear descriptions of past examples. Crucially, do not just hear how these examples played out, but what lessons the writer learned from them that they continue to apply. 

Finally, the essay’s conclusion cites both short-term and long-term goals for the writer's schooling and career, and this section feels very specifically written for HBS. 

Including references to Harvard Business School and its alumni, as done in this example, shows the admissions committee that your efforts in writing this essay are totally aimed at getting into HBS’s MBA, and that you’ve thought hard enough about the decision to do in-depth research.

Sample Essay #2

Our life experiences shape our skills, perspective and help define our paths. Reflecting on my personal and professional journey, I would like to share three lessons which have strongly shaped my journey and outlook.

My first lesson is about people. I feel fortunate to have understood the enormous potential in empathizing and collaborating with individuals to achieve community success, organizational targets and personal goals.

Perhaps due to my father’s frequent job transfers, I grew-up as a reticent, lone worker, shying away from forging long-lasting relationships. While excelling academically, I skipped participating in anything at school that required dependence on other people. It was only at my undergraduate institution, [University] that I really started building relationships with my hostel-mates and exploring the various opportunities [University] offered.

However, soon dark realities came to the forefront when a final-year student committed suicide while my close friend, [Name], got sucked into a vortex of depression due to his poor academic performance. Deeply shaken, I resolved to address mental-health issues on campus and joined the Institute Counseling Service, comprising student volunteers, faculty and professional counselors who sought to provide emotional and academic help to students.

Driven to make a difference, I led 240 student volunteers, strengthened our mentorship program to identify students in need of professional help and organized Orientation Programs. To dispel the stigma associated with mental-health and build trust, we increased the approachability of counsellors by initiating hostel visits and collaborated with NGOs to use theatre and generate awareness. I personally mentored students and it was heartwarming to create an environment in which people were able to discuss their personal issues freely with me. While I gained friends for life, I realized there is no greater happiness than witnessing one’s mentee overcome difficulties and be successful! Listening to varied personal experiences inculcated empathy and fostered ability to forge strong interpersonal connections.

This experience stayed with me during my professional journey with [Consumer Goods Company]. Just out of college, I had to navigate union strikes, reconcile socio-political contexts and motivate 600+ unskilled workers, several years my senior to transform the quality performance of an $800M factory in a small town. Leveraging interpersonal skills, I understood employee concerns and created an experiential training program. Listening to them, educating them, sharing success and owning failures together, I immersed myself in the workforce environment, instilling a culture of innovation and change. Our efforts reaped dividends as we eliminated all consumer complaints and achieved the best-ever performance in quality metrics, securing [Consumer Goods Company] market-share and launching 24 premium product variants. Thus, I learnt to drive organizational change by harnessing people’s potential.

My second life lesson is about values. I feel long-term success can only be achieved if one has the character to stand by one’s principles during testing times.

At age-5, I recall accompanying my mother to court hearings to witness a long-drawn trial involving my father. Overtime, I understood how my father had been slapped with a fake harassment case because he refused to accept a bribe for professional favors. Standing by his principles, he was later acquitted emerging as my inspiration and teaching me values of honesty and integrity.

After 17 years, these values were tested. Early-on in my role as Quality Manager of [Consumer Goods Company] plant, consumer complaints for a particular defect inflicted 10% market-share losses in [Big City]. On probing, I realized that we had overlooked an important data trend during manufacturing that could have averted the disaster. While corporate auditors were preparing a report attributing the occurrence of defect to chance, I presented the true picture, taking full responsibility. It was a difficult decision as our factory had already lost credibility prior to my joining. Our General Manager intervened to manage the crisis and while recognizing my ethics and courage, placed faith on my ability to redeem myself.

Motivated to prove myself, I worked incessantly with my team, ensuring that I drive systemic changes and build a culture of continuous improvement. Within one-year, we achieved benchmark performances, restoring faith in the unit/team. During our annual performance review, our unit was appreciated for data-integrity, reinforcing my belief in my value system.

The third lesson is about impact. I believe true success is achieved when people are guided by a desire to create sustainable impact and make a positive difference in society.

During a factory-visit, I engaged with our CEO, and advocated driving growth by monetizing [Consumer Goods Company] distribution network to service regional firms/startups. Intrigued, he inducted me into his office in the Trade Marketing and Distribution function in a strategic role, a move unheard for any non-MBA engineer. Initially, I engaged with product entrepreneurs to offer them [Consumer Goods Company] distribution for scaling-up. One case was [Company], a [City]-based startup that innovated on cost-effective sanitary napkins. We are helping them reach 60M consumers in [Country], a country where 75% women resort to unhygienic alternatives. Curious to understand their success, I engaged with the founder, [Name]. I realized [Name] was driven by a desire to positively impact the lives of rural women and this motivated him to innovate continuously.

Reflecting on this conversation, I identified how [Consumer Products Company] could play a larger role in adding to consumer-value and go beyond giving distribution access to CPG startups. If tech leaders such as Google, Microsoft could incubate technology startups, we needed to explore similar models in the CPG space. I formulated a strategic investor model to incubate and eventually acquire CPG startups, a first for an Indian CPG firm, and pitched it to senior leadership. They appreciated my vision of synergizing with startups, providing [Consumer Products Company] marketing expertise and product development insights to encourage product innovation, thereby creating an inorganic growth roadmap for [Consumer Products Company] vision of achieving $15B by 2030.

These lessons provide the foundation to succeed and define my professional ambitions. Going forward, I envision energizing the [Country] CPG startup ecosystem, stimulating innovation and strengthening symbiotic relationships with Corporations to deliver high social-impact products, creating sustainable value for 1.2B Indian consumers. While my experiences have created the primer, I see Harvard as the perfect catalyst to transform me into a change leader. Building on my life lessons, I can’t wait to engage with classmates who bring with them a wealth of global experiences and stories!

Sample Essay #3

I remember my hands trembling as I clenched the scissors, and my mother’s gorgeous locks fell to the ground − I was six years old. Compelled to quit her studies after marriage, my mother resumed her masters in [course] after ten stifling years. With my father’s solitary income going into tuition for my mother, sister and me, a proper haircut was a wasteful luxury. My parents shielded us from their struggles, but the gravity of our situation hit home as I cut my mother’s hair.

When my mother finally cleared her examinations, I expected things to change. Instead, she declined lucrative offers to join public-services, catering to marginalized populations through [country’s] public healthcare system. My parents unwavering desire to lead a life of meaning, fuelled my own. Over the course of my journey, I have carved my own path to making a difference – one of spreading my ideas and impact, beyond what I could accomplish alone. I would like to share how three transformative experiences, starting over a decade ago, have progressively shaped this lifelong approach.

At 13, I was devastated to see my sister’s tiny frame shake violently as she coughed from asthma. What affected me most was learning that we had all contributed to these respiratory problems, by making [city] the most polluted city in the world.

I refused to remain a silent spectator and started an environment club, [club], at school. Digging-up compost pits and conducting tree-plantation drives, our team explored every opportunity to make our premises greener. The efforts of our small 10-member team indicated to me the potential to spur larger change by motivating all 1500 students to step-up. Our idea to achieve this, by integrating environmental-awareness within our curriculum, was dismissed by the administration for lack of resources. Undeterred, I started writing applications to garner financial support, and within months, led our team to the first place in a national competition. The $15K we won infused both resources and enthusiasm to implement our eco-friendly curriculum.

Juggling my graduation-examinations and endless hours of organizing activities for the entire school, we grew [club] five-fold. Students stepped-up to expand our efforts, from transitioning our school to using solar energy to organizing large-scale zero-waste campaigns. ‘Exponential’ was no longer just a graph I studied, I could tangibly see my impact multiplying by mobilising individuals around me.

Eager to replicate our success beyond school, I initiated environmental workshops for children from urban-slums in [city].

“Boys don’t need to save money for dowry, do they not have to conserve environmental resources either?” asked 11-year old [name]. Half-way into my first workshop, my analogy of saving money to explain the concept of conserving environmental resources, had derailed my session-plan.

Having witnessed the consequences of gender-disparity in my own childhood I started my non-profit [non-profit], during college, to promote holistic life-skills education to uproot such evils. I was happiest spending weekends in community-centres and public-classrooms, with my team of student-volunteers, conducting activity-based workshops for hundreds of children. I vividly remember when, beaming with pride, [name] told me that she had saved enough money to buy her house. She not only grasped complex concepts of banking and savings, but acknowledged herself as a financially-independent female – albeit in a game of Monopoly!

By graduation, we grew to a 20-member team and reached 1,000+ children. However, once I moved to join Investment-Banking, our student-volunteer model disintegrated and fundraising for a full-time team seemed impossible. While struggling to sustain momentum, I saw a class-teacher enthusiastically taking initiative to support our program, during a workshop. Watching her, it struck me that scaling-up [non-profit] was not the only way to further impact.

‍ "Over the course of my journey, I have carved my own path to making a difference – one of spreading my ideas and impact, beyond what I could accomplish alone."

Restructuring our workshops into a comprehensive curriculum, we showcased it to the state academic department. Winning their support, we trained 100 public-school teachers and principals to deliver the program. Within two years, these teachers extended our program to 10,000 children and even co-opted their colleagues. Their efforts reaffirmed my conviction that enabling change-agents at a systemic-level could accelerate impact at scale.

To steer my journey in this direction, I decided to quit my investment-banking job in [country] and return to [country]. Forgoing the financial comfort I was finally providing my family weighed on me, but I chose to follow my heart. I joined [foundation], a philanthropy focused on driving systemic change to tangibly impact India’s education landscape.

Innovative, low-cost teaching-aids developed by [company], my [foundation] portfolio-organisation, drastically improved learning for children in rural classrooms. However, their low-monetization potential generated minimal funder interest, threatening their existence. Their question, “How will we serve these children, when we can barely stay afloat?” echoed my own struggles at [non-profit].

Collaborating with the [state] government, I helped [company] reduce costs through subsidies and extend their program to 40,000 students. I was leading large-scale projects with public systems at [foundation], but I realized that empowering social-enterprises such as [company] to drive systemic change could create ripple-effects throughout the ecosystem.

My ten-year-old self wouldn't believe just how far I have come – my hands no longer shake when I take decisive actions, whose outcomes I cannot always predict.

Today, non-profit social-enterprises in India fail to reach their potential, owing to lack of financial and strategic support - the largest remains 1/100th the size of its global peers. So, I took on the mandate to launch an Accelerator within [non-profit], to ensure this support, even though this meant leaving my team and starting out alone. My path was uphill, given [non-profit’s] strategic shift towards working directly with governments − the initiative was peripheral for every decision, be it budget-allocations or team-building.

The eagerness of portfolio-organizations in leveraging every support opportunity kept me going. Months of co-creating monetization strategies and facilitating government meetings paid off, in one instance, enabling immense expansion for the portfolio-organization to reach 800,000 children. Such successes helped evangelize our potential and we are now raising an independent fund to support 30 entrepreneurs to help transform education for 5M children.

My ten-year-old self wouldn’t believe just how far I have come – my hands no longer shake when I take decisive actions, whose outcomes I cannot always predict. Striving to continually widen my impact has helped me progress from empowering school-students to supporting social-entrepreneurs, towards enabling an entire ecosystem of social change-makers.

Battling one constant challenge throughout, that of inadequate resources, has highlighted how social-finance could be the ‘driving-force’ towards my goal. Most importantly, I have learnt that beyond individual efforts, by spearheading thought-leadership and global alliances, I can mobilize the entire ecosystem, catalyzing robust social-investment markets in India.

My friend [name] described how assimilating diverse perspectives through the case-method at HBS helped him understand nuances of business across cultures, while the vibrant community provided access to global networks. HBS equipped him to launch and grow his company across eight emerging economies, through partnerships with local entrepreneurs. Similarly, I am convinced that the ideas, experiences and relationships built at HBS will help me realize my vision where every [club], [non-profit] and [company] can go on to create the change it aspires to.

Mistakes to Avoid in Your Harvard Business Essay

1. Show Don’t Tell

If you use your essay to outright explain what you’re trying to show the admissions committee about yourself, you run a much higher risk of losing readability and taking your application from an opportunity to a plea. Instead, demonstrate your takeaways, your best qualities, through your story and its examples. 

The reader is far more likely to be compelled by the conclusions of your essay if they feel like they came to them themselves. By not explicitly explaining the point of your essay, you come across more sure in the topic you’ve chosen and its ability to reveal the point. ‍

2. Avoid Lackluster Anecdotes

Your essay will be bolstered or weakened by the intrinsic quality of the experiences about which you write. Only include anecdotes that you’d be just as comfortable and confident about retelling to dinner guests or friends at a bar. 

Obviously, the formality of those situations and the Harvard Business School MBA application differ starkly, but the gist of this statement is that if you’d feel awkward telling a story to your friends, it’d be hard to make it sound good for an unseen admissions committee reader. 

If it’s a story you’ll enjoy writing about, it’ll stand a better chance of being enjoyable to read. ‍

3. Don’t Narrate – Craft a Compelling Story

Ensure your topic flows seamlessly through relevant experiences and lessons. Establishing clear cause-and-effect relationships among different events not only maintains the reader's interest but also justifies each inclusion in your essay. While coherence is essential, be cautious not to force connections between unrelated experiences or anecdotes; instead, strive for a well-integrated narrative with a cohesive beginning-to-end structure."

4. Don’t Do This Yourself

Utilize guides and blog posts about the undertaking of applying to an MBA program, getting as specific to Harvard Business School as you can. 

Reviewing a concise guide about applying to Harvard Business School can be the best way to ensure that your application is sound, not just for any MBA program, but for Harvard Business School’s MBA.

 Many resources, like Final Application Reviews, will focus heavily on your essay, but will also provide insight on every aspect of your application so you feel best about your attempt.

If you still have questions about the HBS essay, check out these frequently asked questions. 

1. How Can I Best Edit My Essay?

To best edit your essay, focus on refining syntax, word choice, and common mistakes in MBA application essays. Research prevalent errors, specifically addressing them to catch the admissions committee's attention. Utilize tools like Grammarly for a comprehensive review, increasing the likelihood of submitting an error-free essay.

2. How Long Should My Essay Be If There's No Word Limit?

In the absence of a specified word limit, aim for conciseness while conveying your message effectively. Generally, one to three pages or around 500-1000 words is a reasonable guideline, allowing you to present a comprehensive narrative without unnecessary information.

3. Is the Essay Portion Different If I’m Reapplying?

No, if you're reapplying to Harvard Business School, the essay portion remains the same as for first-time applicants. There is no distinct essay prompt for reapplicants.

4. Can I Use the Same Essay If I’m Reapplying?

HBS does not explicitly prohibit this, but, intuitively, it’s probably a better idea to write a new essay. You would have no way of knowing that your essay and the topic you chose played no role in your initial rejection. 

5. Are There Bad Topics to Write About?‍

Yes, some topics are best avoided in your essay. Steer clear of overly controversial or sensitive subjects and refrain from solely highlighting academic or professional achievements unless they contribute to a broader, more personal theme. 

Also, avoid repeating stories already addressed in recommendation letters to provide the admissions committee with new insights. Choose an original and unique topic that reflects your character, emphasizing its personal significance. 

If you struggle to justify your topic's importance, consider opting for a more compelling subject for your essay.

6. Can I Over-Edit My Essay?

Excessive editing can make your writing sound stiff and fragmented. The concept of "over-editing" suggests a misuse of time better spent on other tasks. It's challenging to determine the perfect editing point, but if changes result in minimal, unclear differences, you may be over-editing. 

Recognizing this, it's advisable to ease back on editing efforts, especially if changes are made simply because they come to mind.

Conclusion‍

Harvard Business School's MBA program is highly competitive, and the HBS essay is your chance to stand out. Choose a topic that excites you and reveals your unique experiences. Use organizational resources and time management for effective essay development. 

Simplify the process with outlined steps, ensuring authenticity and enthusiasm. Maintain confidence in your chosen topic and writing style for a more assured essay. This is an opportunity to showcase why you're applying to Harvard Business School, so approach it with confidence and purpose.

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Harvard Business School Essay Example

June 8, 2023

Jeremy Shinewald

How do you write a standout Harvard Business School (HBS) admissions essay? The answer might surprise you. Your goal is not to “wow” the admissions committee with fancy adjectives or to share spectacular achievements that admissions officers have never read or heard about before. Instead, your HBS admissions essay is your opportunity to share your values —to stand out on the basis of who you are and what you stand for.

Let us start with the basics. HBS actually has just one essay question, with no word limit: “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?” 

The first thing to note about this question is that it is totally open-ended. Because it is so open-ended, many applicants have no idea where to start. And without a word limit, many also have no idea where to stop! Let us address the end first. We recommend that applicants target 1,000 to 1,250 words, but some candidates’ essays might be as short as 800 words or as long as 1,500. However, anything longer than 1,500 words can start to seem like an imposition on the admissions reader, while anything shorter than 800 could mean that you are short-changing yourself and not giving the admissions committee as full a picture of who you are. 

As for the open-ended nature of the question, the whole essay really hinges on the word more —“what more would you like us to know?” The admissions committee should already be able to learn a lot about the path you have taken via your resume and short answers, and they should also learn about your professional performance and character via your recommendations. But through your essay, they should truly learn more about you . As I noted earlier, the goal of your essay is to share more about your values—possibly even about your soul. 

To help illustrate my point, I would like to review here a successful application essay from my book “What Matters?” and “What More?”: 50 Successful Essays for the Stanford GSB and HBS (and Why They Worked) , titled “Shhh! Can You Hear Me Listening?” If you do not have a copy of the book, you can download the essay here. I want to start by highlighting a few key takeaways. First, this is not an essay about the kind of vocal leadership many people expect from an HBS MBA. In fact, it is the exact opposite; it is an essay about the often undervalued skill of listening and how it is reflective of the applicant Paul’s empathy. Those are the values Paul highlights throughout the essay: listening, empathy, better listening, more empathy. Rather than trying to hew to some perceived notion of who he thinks he “should” be for HBS, Paul discusses who he actually is! By doing so, he gets to a truly authentic place—he shares his soul. Second, this essay, like almost all essays should be, is a story of growth and change. We get a sense of both who Paul was and who he is now, and although he is not a radically different person, his growth and his ability to effectively wield his sense of empathy reveal themselves as very powerful, making his story compelling for the reader. 

Third, Paul makes almost no mention of his work. In his 11-paragraph essay, his work does not come up until the ninth and tenth paragraphs, and even then, his workplace is merely a setting. Paul does not reveal a big product launch or a huge win for the team.  He simply shares how he used his listening and empathy skills to break down interpersonal logjams at work, as he also does in his community and personal life. Now, I am not saying that you cannot write about your work accomplishments in this essay. My point is that you should not feel compelled to do so, and you definitely should not make your essay a work biography. Lastly, Paul does not mention his career goals or why he is targeting HBS for his MBA, and if you reread his essay, you will probably recognize that for him to suddenly shift gears at the end and begin discussing them would be very odd. His professional goals do not have much to do with listening or empathy, though these skills will serve him well. In short, the HBS prompt does not ask you to write about your career goals or “why HBS,” so do not feel that you must share this information in your essay, especially if you would have to force it to fit!  

Okay, so, let us dig into how Paul gets to that authentic place with his story. He does so by writing with honesty and simplicity. In this case, it is almost an equation: honesty plus simplicity equals authenticity. Consider this excerpt from the essay:

The 10-hour surgery, though harrowing, was a stunning success. Assuming my work was done, I flew home to San Francisco with an enormous burden lifted. In the subsequent months, though, my mother would call me almost every day crying. Sometimes she was upset that my father—struggling with his recuperation—wasn’t appreciative or, worse, was harsh with her; other times she was stressed by the body- and mind-numbing labor that goes into postsurgical care. I listened and would tell her that everything was going to be alright, but no amount of reassurance seemed to make her feel better.

In this short paragraph, we learn that Paul and his family have experienced a medical miracle, but Paul is not giving us the Hollywood ending. He talks about the emotional struggle of the recuperation and the helplessness he experiences during this time. Because of his straightforward language and his honesty in terms of the ups and downs, we can trust him as a narrator. In short, he reveals his authentic persona, and the admissions officer reading the essay will know that this applicant is a real person. 

I want to highlight in a little more detail how well Paul uses that simplicity in another part of his essay. The directness and clarity of the language is really wonderful.

One evening, I stumbled upon an opportunity to volunteer at Helping Hands, a suicide prevention hotline that focuses on providing emotional support. I knew that helping strangers would be rewarding in itself but also thought the program could expand my own perspective and help me guide my family through this emotional crisis, so I signed up on the spot.

Paul did not need to write, “I stumbled upon a compelling opportunity and urgently lunged for the phone. It was now my dream to volunteer with Helping Hands!” In short, creating faux drama is not an effective tactic. Your story either has a compelling angle or it does not. Because Paul’s does, the language does the work for him.

Of course, authenticity on its own is not enough. As I noted earlier, Paul’s story is compelling because we experience his growth. In the following excerpt, Paul discusses the impact of a challenge he faced, one for which he had to listen thoughtfully to a deeply troubled person as part of his volunteer work with the hotline. Clearly, he is tested when he has to empathetically listen to someone with whom he never would have engaged otherwise, and this becomes a unique catalyst. 

Working with Helping Hands also taught me the importance of knowing my own emotional limits, so I learned to practice self-care as a means to engage others. I started journaling regularly and became far more open to being vulnerable. Having inherited a stoicism from my father, I had to take an honest, critical look at myself in order to manifest this shift. When I allowed myself to truly unmask my feelings, I started to find real strength and resilience within.

As you write your HBS essay, remind yourself that you are not just sharing your journey or a theme—that is an oversimplification. Almost everyone, at some level, is going to be sharing how they have grown, developed, and become the person they are today. 

In the end, Paul’s essay is straightforward, yet fiercely original, not because he climbed Everest or cured cancer, but because he has engaged in life with tremendous self-awareness, faced deeply personal challenges, and grown by helping others. There is no magic recipe for how one should write their essay, but we can recognize a few key ingredients in Paul’s essay.

Of course, your story will be your own, and it will be distinct. For even more successful HBS essay examples, be sure to download a copy of our book “What Matters?” and “What More?”: 50 Successful Essays for the Stanford GSB and HBS (and Why They Worked) . If you would like to learn more about what your best story might be, or if you have any questions about your profile, sign up for a free 30-minute consultation . Members of our team are available to connect and give you thoughtful advice and feedback.

Application Tips Essays Harvard University (Harvard Business School)

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Harvard MBA Essay Examples

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A soldier who served on the front lines in Afghanistan. A process engineer challenged by a long series of early failures. And a female consultant whose passion became healthcare.

Three MBA applicants to Harvard Business School last year. Three students in the newest crop of MBA students at Harvard this fall. All of them answered the question now being asked of 2017-2018 applicants to Harvard:  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?

The school provides minimal guidance for applicants trying to make an impression. “There is no word limit for this question,” advises HBS admissions. “We think you know what guidance we’re going to give here. Don’t over think, overcraft and overwrite. Just answer the question in clear language that those of us who don’t know your world can understand.”

Each of the three applicants above wrote a clear and compelling essay in their applications, essays that Poets&Quants is reprinting with permission from the MBA Essay Guide Summer 2017 Edition recently published by The Harbus , the MBA student newspaper at Harvard Business School. The guide contains 39 essays written by successful candidates who are now starting the MBA program at HBS. Proceeds from the sale of the guidebook go to benefit the non-profit foundation that supports The Harbus .

With application deadlines rapidly approaching at Harvard Business School and many other prestige MBA programs, these successful essays will, no doubt, give current candidates a bit of guidance. More importantly, the essays that follow are most likely to provide comfort, that there is no formula or singular way to craft a successful answer.

THREE SUCCESSFUL ESSAYS. THREE VERY DIFFERENT APPROACHES.

The latest edition of the MBA Essay Guide from The Harbus costs $61.49

In his 1,130-word essay, the U.S. Army applicant ties together his experiences of leading soldiers on the front line in Afghanistan together with staff postings in Army operations and logistics to paint a portrait of a dedicated and people-oriented leader.

Inspired by a selfless act from her nine-year-old mentee, this management consultant decided to challenge herself to make an impact in healthcare. In a 937-word essay, she uses a particularly difficult turnaround situation which she was put in charge of as exemplifying her strongest skills: building relationships and uniting people around a common goal.

In a 1,358-essay, a process engineer opens up to a long series of failures in his early life. By showing both vulnerability and honesty, he is able to transform this list of fruitless endeavors into a credible “badge of honor,” evidence of his resilience, determination and strength of character. It quickly becomes apparent that what appeared to be failures in the first half, actually proved to be successes or openings for new opportunities, given enough time and perseverance.

ONE APPLICANT DID 25 DRAFTS BEFORE COMING UP WITH ONE SHE LIKED ENOUGH TO SUBMIT

Behind every MBA application is a person and a story, and in this trio of representative essays the approaches taken by each candidate is as different as the essays they submitted to the admissions committee at HBS.

The engineer went through took eight drafts over two months. “I thought about what personal traits I wanted to share with the ADCOM and identified stories from my past that identified those traits,” he explains. “After two or three drafts, I’d figured out the right narrative and kept refining it, taking as much as a week to finalize each draft. My best advice is to be honest, start early, and have someone who knows what the ADCOMS are looking for to read through a couple of your drafts and give you pointers.”

The consultant estimates that she went through 25 drafts to get to her final version. “I think the most important thing with the essay is to iterate,” she advises. “Because the question is so open-ended, it is important to reflect as much as possible and give yourself the time (in my case two months) to go on the journey necessary to realize what you care most about communicating and how to do so in the most effective way. I also cannot overstate the importance of finding someone who will give you honest feedback.

(See on the following pages the complete and full MBA essays submitted to Harvard Business School)

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