Harvard Business School MBA Essay Tips & Deadlines

1) 3 years investment banking in SF. 2 years PE in New York (think large mega-fund)
2) GMAT: 750 (73% M / 98% V)
3) State school in the south, ranked just inside the top 50. 3.2 GPA. Finance. Some personal family issues and health issues but also because i was heavily involved in leadership. also our school was not on recruitment lists for IB programs so we spent a lot of time focusing on recruiting / networking / essentially fighting our way into IB instead of focusing on studies
4) school: head of student government – drove many initiatives on campus while in office and received various leadership honors for involvement in other student orgs, ambassador programs; sat on committees to allocate tuition and fee revenues; post-school: in SF led the community service team in my bank’s group in SF (put on various events, coordinated volunteer week). in NY joined a consulting organization that assembles teams to tackle organizational issues at non-profits. i led this team.
5) None aside from series certifications
6) Raise a search fund using my experience in the middle market. use the search funds to consolidate industries that i follow closely (namely, wine). disrupt the wine industry using new agricultural techniques not yet seen in the industry and by growing brand presence internationally in markets where american wines have yet to break through.

Hi Linda,

My basic profile is as below. May I ask you to see it?

1) Brief description of your full-time work experience.

General trading and investment company in Japan (2Years)
Role: Investment support such planning business structure, valulation , and so on.

Deloitte consulting in Japan (1Years, I was told by my agent that it was needed to work for either strategic consulting firm or Investment banking in Japan if I want to move to buyside job)
Role: Under a manager, I managed most of the Strategy consulting PJ by myself and chosen TOP15% worker among the same title. I also coworked with foreign Deloitte members.

Activist hedge fund in Japan(2Years)
Fund’s aim is to propose board members or management members of listed companies how they can raise their long term corporate value.
Role: I was accepted by the president to be Vice President because I achieved affluent experience in
prior jobs.
As a vice president, my role was planning the investment ,due diligence, making strategic hypothesis of portfolio companies, and keeping relation with management and board members.
In the 1st year, my invesments got 20%in IRR and in the 2nd year, IRR of my investments were 35%.
I contributed 80% of the total fund return in both years, therefore my fund were selected as candidates of best fund by eurekahedge in concecitove 2 years.

2) Your GMAT or GRE. Percentiles preferred.

700 GMAT/ IELTS 7.5

3) College info: The name of the college, your GPA or grade average, your major, year of graduation. For any graduate degrees, please provide the same info. If you grades are low, please indicate if there were extenuating circumstances.

Waseda University in Japan. 3.5/4.0 in GPA. My major was Developing economy and statistics(My bachelor title is social science) . Waseda University is one of the most prestigious university in Japan. There were some people who also graduated from HBS in the past.

4) Significant college and post-college extra-curricular activities or community service, especially leadership experience.

College activities: Volunteer members for the restoration of the town hit by significant earth quake in Tohoku area Japan on 2011/3/11 . Founded foot ball club in my first year.
Post college extra curricular activities: Now I am engaging in the IFRS study group whose purpose is to improve the communication among stakeholders such as business manager in listed companies, BIG4 auditors, IFRS committee members including regional heads and to make IFRS standards better. I am suggesting how IFRS disclosure should be improved from buyside view while raising case study(eg, How we evaluate one of portfolio companies M&A decision and what information we require to evaluate the M&A)

5) Important certifications like CFA, CPA, FSA, or CA.

Chartered member of the security analysts association of japan
(Sort of CFA in JAPAN)

6) Your post-MBA goal.

Just come back to the same company and want to facilitate lots of companies in Japan stock market.

My long concern is to contribute to the economy of Japan from financial advisor aspect because many board members and management members do not fully understand the relation between corporate finance and business and they often make corporate value disruptive decisions.
(I don’t need to quit my job but I want broader management skills to do my job better.)

Hi Linda!

1) 27 yo, white American male. 5 years of work experience, all with US Bank. 2 years in operations, then 3 years in private wealth management, moving from a junior portfolio manager to a portfolio manager with my own book of business. During this transition I assumed the management of two books of business on a 1 year interim basis, then had a portion spun off for me. I’ve been managing this book of clients for 1 year.
2) 760 – 99%
Q:50 – 86%
V: 44 – 98%
IR: 8 – 93%
AWA: 5.5 – 80%
3) Cornell College, 3.66/4.0, Economics and Business, 2012
4) Student radio station manager – 2 years
Baseball team (DIII) – Senior year captain
Tutor for Economics department – 101/102 classes
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation – Milwaukee’s Finest Honoree 2016 – This is a 12-week young professionals program where young professionals that have shown leadership are matched with a family and get a min. goal of $2,500 for fundraising.
Toastmasters – Currently the President of my club, previously the VP of Education; also competed in general speech, humorous speech and impromptu speaking competitions at a high level
5) CFA charterholder
6) Transition into Private Equity with a plan B of consulting. The through line there is that I want to have a direct impact on strategy and management decisions on a variety of companies in different sectors.

Hi Linda,
I would love to receive your feedback on my profile.

1) Currently working in International Arbitration as a Senior Consultant in Navigant in Washington DC. Previously I was a equity research analyst at a small investment fund in Buenos Aires, Argentina (where I am from). Total 5.5 years of experience.
2) GMAT: 730
3) Bachelor in Economics from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. Graduated in 2012 at the top 7% of my class. GPA: 9.14/10
4) Volunteer in Un Techo para mi Pais in Buenos Aires, working in the Microfinance team and in Girls on the Run in Washington.
5) I’m a CFA Charterholder.
6) Open a Navigant office in Buenos Aires to expand the International Arbitration practice in LATAM.

Thanks in advance.
Best,
Martina

Hi Linda,
Here is my profile! I’d appreciate to hear your opinion about my chances at HBS and potentially other comparable programs (I am planning to apply in a couple of years in order to gain more work experience):
1. 26 years old from Italy – Previously had long term internships (6 months each) at 2 bulge bracket investment banks in NYC, worked at PwC in Italy for about a year and currently working in investment banking in London (just started)
2. GMAT 700 (will most likely need to re-take this)
3. Northeastern University (BSBA, 2015, GPA: 3.9), London Business School (Master in Finance, 2017, GPA: 3.6)
4. Student consultant representing Northeastern University at case competitions, co-founder of alternative investments society, equity research analyst for small university fund, volunteered at Morgan Stanley Children Hospital, and beach clean-up when I was in community college.
5. N/A
6. I am planning to work in finance (possibly PE) for a couple of years and then ultimately leverage my work experience and learnings from HBS to become an entrepreneur and develop my parents’ small company internationally.

Thank you so much for your insights!