12 Strategies for HBS MBA Essays
Let’s look at the three HBS prompts — below, I’ll share a baseline strategy, some prompts for answering the essay, and then get into some higher-level context.
Video and text below, choose which works best for you.
HBS MBA Essays: Overall
1. It is extremely notable that HBS’s “Who Are We Looking For?” page is divided into sections that mirror these three essays — ignore this at your peril. I’ll refer to this ur-text in the deeper analysis below.
2. 250 words is about 15 sentences. That means a laser-like focus on tight expression: no throat-clearing, no hesitation, no filler, no jargon. With longer essays, even if you dodge the topic initially, you’ll have enough space that you’ll be forced to say something meaningful. Here, you can easily slip into repetition, vagueness, and filler. Don’t repeat the question (“My choices have influenced my career path in many ways”) — figure out what you want to say and say it.
3. These are three essays of approximately equal length. Think of them as a triptych — an opportunity to view a total composition with three different parts that must cohere. The three essays should work in harmony to showcase your accomplishments and ambitions. Reviewing your personal and professional history, you’ll likely have experiences that naturally fit one or two of the prompt. Think strategically about the remaining ones so that they fill out your profile and allow us to see you in full.
HBS Question 1: Business-Minded
Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your choices have influenced your career path and aspirations. (300 words)
From Who Are We Looking For: We are looking for individuals who are passionate about using business as a force for good – who strive to improve and transform companies, industries, and the world. We are seeking those who are eager to solve today’s biggest problems and shape the future through creative and integrated thinking. … We will look for evidence of your interpersonal skills, quantitative abilities, and the ways in which you plan to create impact through business in the future.
Baseline
This essay asks you to briefly explain the choices — plural — that have delivered you to this point, and then to project into the future, analyzing how those choices have shaped your ambitions. It encourages you to put the reader in your shoes, as you confronted these choices and asks you to explain how that process will make your ambitions both possible and laudable.
Some questions to consider:
– What choices in your life thus far have meaningfully shaped your career path?
– How have they enabled you to envision your future with greater clarity and ambition?
– How have they enhanced your ability to work in service of “companies, industries, and the world”?
Higher thinking
Choices require agency. You want to focus on an active choice you made (rather than a choice that was perhaps made for you — making a choice is not the same thing as confronting an obstacle). The alchemy here is key: who were you before the choice, how did you confront the choice, and how did the result of the choice shape where your sense of what’s possible — your aspirations? We make all kinds of choices for all kinds of reasons — many out of weakness or duress. These circumstances can make for compelling essays if they are carefully managed, and if we see how much you’ve learned and grown since making that choice.
Let’s give them what they asked for (always within reason, of course). Where, in this choice, can we see evidence of your interpersonal skills? Did others help you come to your decision? How did your decision impact others? Do you have quantitative abilities that come into play here? And as always, the most important beat comes last: how will you create impact through business in the future? Adcoms want to invest in students who will be successful, so that HBS will be seen as the catalyst for that success. How can your work in business be a force for good, or how can you show that through your aspirations?
HBS Question 2: Leadership-Focused
Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (250 words)
From Who Are We Looking For: We are looking for individuals who aspire to lead others toward making a difference in the world, and those who recognize that to build and sustain successful organizations, they must develop and nurture diverse teams. Leadership takes many forms in many contexts – you do not have to have a formal leadership role to make a difference. We deliberately create a class that includes different kinds of leaders, from the front-line manager to the startup founder to the behind-the-scenes thought leader. … Your leadership impact may be most evident in extracurriculars, community initiatives, or your professional work.
Baseline
This essay asks you to share experiences (plural) that have contributed to the development of your leadership style and how — given that leadership style — you have been able to invest in others.
Some questions to consider:
– Where can you demonstrate your leadership style — whether in professional work, community initiatives, or extracurriculars?
– How can you show us your leadership style?
– Given your unique leadership style, how do you invest in others?
Higher thinking
I always think of this as the Big Brothers/Big Sisters essay, because most first drafts I see involve mentorship — and indeed, the Who Are We Looking For page mentions community initiatives here.
There are other perspective here: What does true leadership mean within your organization? Does it mean to go through the door first? Does it mean to play conductor while giving a staff of prima donnas the space they need to do their best work?
Napoleon was a leader. Mother Theresa was a leader. What is your unique style of leadership, and given that, what does it mean to invest in those who follow you? Does it mean stepping up or stepping back? Again, catalysis is key: How did your investment in others catalyze greater change within your organization?
HBS Question 3: Growth-Oriented
Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (250 words)
From Who Are We Looking For: We are looking for individuals who desire to broaden their perspectives through creative problem solving, active listening, and lively discussion. … We will look for the ways in which you have grown, developed, and how you engage with the world around you.
Baseline
Unlike the others, this essay asks for an example (singular) that demonstrates your curiosity and how pursuing that curiosity has led to your growth. This question permits perhaps the widest latitude of the three questions, and allows you to pull in quirkier examples, as long as they are in service of your career ambitions as you describe them elsewhere in the package.
Some questions to consider:
– What curiosity have you felt that attaches itself well to your larger career goals?
– For example – have you ever asked yourself how something worked and in answering that question stumbled onto an important business insight that proved critical in your career?
– Many Fortune 100 companies are built on a simple bit of curiosity (“Why can’t my phone also play music?”) Curiosity is broad — where have you displayed curiosity in a fruitful way?
Higher thinking
I like to think of this as the “please don’t be a jerk” essay. Creative problem solving, active listening and lively discussion are hallmarks of a life lived in engagement with others. How do you grow? How does curiosity trigger that growth? This can be curiosity about a place, a person, a business, a product, a flag, a social reality: Why do French businesses close on August 15? Why is your boss always camera-off on Zoom? How well did the World Cup really do for its sponsors? How much does it really cost to make a Five Guys burger? When did Utah get a new flag? People pursuing careers in business are often driven by unstoppable curiosity — how has yours triggered your growth, and where did it take you?