How to Respond to the New Harvard Business School HBS MBA Application

Show Summary

In this episode, Linda Abraham invites Accepted consultants Esmeralda Cardenal and Kelly Wilson to discuss the updates to the Harvard Business School application and provide insights into how applicants can approach the essays. They emphasize that HBS is still looking for leaders who have made an impact and can grow in any environment. While the criteria may be similar to before, the way applicants communicate their experiences has changed. The panelists advise applicants to focus on the entire application, not just the essays, and to demonstrate growth, leadership, and curiosity throughout. They also discuss the potential impact of the new essay requirements and the importance of authenticity in the application process.

Show Notes

Welcome to the 585th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for tuning in. 

Are you applying to Harvard and other top MBA programs? We have a panel discussion today focused on the changes to the Harvard Business School application. If you like what you hear, I invite you to check out Accepted’s services and take advantage of our free consultation offer. It’s like a free sample, if you will. You can request any of our panelists to provide a free consultation and potentially work with you on your application. To sign up for your free call, please provide the information requested at www.accepted.com/mbafreecall. 

Our panelists today are Esmeralda Cardenal, former director of admissions at top MBA programs, and an experienced Accepted MBA admissions consultant, and Kelly Wilson, former admissions director and dean, and now an experienced Accepted MBA admissions consultant. 

Welcome back to Admissions Straight Talk. [2:00]

[EC] Thank you.

[KW] Kelly Wilson:

I’m delighted you can both join me. 

Harvard Business School has changed things up this year. It has completely rewritten its criteria, completely changed its essay questions, and added a written test requirement for those taking the GMAT Focus, which is currently the only GMAT exam available for applicants. To me, the most significant– and I might add underrated change – is a change in the criteria. The new essay questions are getting all the attention, and they are certainly important and deserving of attention, but the application is more than just the essay questions. 

I’d like to start with the criteria. Panelists, what do you think of the new criteria? [2:03]

[EC] I think Harvard is still looking for basically the same things he had before. A lot of people talking about the change of essays, the change of essays. But at the end of the day, I think they’re still looking for a leader who has made an impact, who is able to grow in whatever circumstances or environment they have developed. I don’t see that as a big difference. The way that you have to communicate that information is now different, but I think the criteria stay the same or basically the same as before. With that in mind, I think that even if the essay questions are shorter, a lot of people have said, “Oh, the new essay questions don’t lead to deep introspection, et cetera,” but I would actually disagree with that because since the criteria are the same, they’re still looking for these three key areas. You still need to do deep introspection to make sure that you fit, that you have stories like that that align. Then you’re able to answer then the essay questions separately.

[KW] The way I was thinking about this, I agree that I don’t think they’re that different. What I looked at was the old criteria, and then I looked at the section in your application we’ll look for, and there’s a lot of parallels there. I agree that it’s positioned differently with the business minded, leadership focused, growth oriented. But once you dig into what they’re looking for, I think it’s very similar.

I agree with you. There are some differences. I think there’s a greater emphasis on diversity here. I also think they’re a little bit more Stanford-like, frankly, in their focus on change. 

I visited a professor at Harvard Business School several years ago, and at one point he asked me, “What do you see as the common thread in your clients who are accepted to Harvard Business School?” I thought for a minute and said, “Leadership and impact.” He smiled and the conversation moved on. Then at the end, I said, “Wait a minute. What do you see as the common thread in your students?” As many clients as we’ve had accepted to Harvard Business School, he’s certainly still seen a lot more Harvard Business School students than I had. He smiled again and he said, “I was smiling because I was thinking the same. That’s what I see as the main common thread among all our students. They’re incredibly diverse in where they’ve led and where they’ve had that impact, but they’re all leaders who’ve had impact.” Again, that conversation was several years ago. But given how slowly schools change, I don’t think that has changed or is going to change. [6:30]

[KW] What did you mean when you said you see more about diversity here?

It says, “Leadership takes many forms in many contexts…They must develop and nurture diverse teams…We create a class that includes different kinds of leaders, from the frontline manager to the startup founder to the behind the scenes thought leader…We are looking for individuals who desire to broaden their perspectives through creative problem solving, active listening, and lively discussions.” That’s where I was seeing it. [8:01]

[KW] The reason I ask is because I would say I think, and I’m curious if you all agree, given that the Supreme Court decision no longer allows admissions to include the factor of race, I think schools needed to find a way to invite examples that might incorporate aspects of diversity that will be able to convey different experiences that people have. I’m glad you pointed that out because that was something that I think is an interesting part of the shorter questions and the more specific prompts, but I’m getting ahead of ourselves maybe.

I think you’re making a very valid point. The main reason I wanted to start with the criteria is I think applicants need to know that when they’re filling these applications out that it’s not just the essays. As important as the essays are, it’s the boxes too. When they’re asking about your family background, if you come from a disadvantaged background and you’ve now made it to Harvard or Yale or you’re a top student, well, that’s a sign of growth. I think that’s a key point here. In terms of the post-MBA goal, what kind of impact do you hope to have? Maybe your short-term post-MBA goal is to get a job in X, Y, Z. But that’s not really impact;, that’s getting a job. How do you see it going beyond? They might even have changed that to post-MBA aspiration. How can applicants show these qualities throughout the application? [9:32]

[EC] What I would say is it’s not only the essays. It’s not only the essays. It is very, very important that the resume tells a story as well. Usually, for a lot of the time, and that’s what happened when I was admissions director, the resume will be the very first thing that you read. If the resume is vague or doesn’t really convey that many accomplishments or impact, then I would glance over it a little bit quicker than if the resume had a lot of meat, a lot of information in there. I think it should tell the same story that you’re telling in the essays. Then also the letters of recommendation should also corroborate the story you’re telling, the growth mindset, how great of a leader you are, and how you’ve led, and how you have turned around from a situation of weakness, let’s say, or a room for improvement. Things like that and your business mindset. I think that those two things need to of course talk besides everything else, besides the career aspirations and everything. You have to still think through the criteria as you prepare every item of the application.

[KW] I agree with Esme in terms of how she’s talking about the component parts. I do think that there is an initial inclination anyway just to focus on the essay because that does feel like the biggest part of the application where candidates are conveying who they are and what they’ve done. The reality is every piece of that application is a perspective of that person. Those components should work together, for sure. An applicant should step back and make sure that the full application in the holistic aspect of it conveys a cohesive story. It’s beyond just looking at the essay questions.

In terms of the resume or the work history or the activity history, which are probably the meatier parts of the boxes, what are some of the pitfalls that applicants need to avoid in completing them? [13:06]

[KW] I alluded to what I’m about to say here, but I think a pitfall is for an applicant to think about their candidacy as just in one lane when the reality is they need to think about it from these varying perspectives. There’s not one right answer or one right type of experience for someone to draw on. I think the authenticity is something that candidates should strive for as they’re pulling together all of the components of their application to demonstrate who they are.

[EC] I would say that a common pitfall that I see over and over again, and Kelly hastouched a little bit on this before, is the overemphasis on the essays and the underemphasis on the other parts of the application. Oftentimes I see clients rushing through the application boxes because they feel that it’s less important, and these are just as important. I would say that that’s a common thing that you have to… I make my clients all, once they have decided to apply to school, to create an account and start filling the personal information part of the application for two reasons.

One, so they can start receiving the communications from the school, but the second reason is so that they are aware of the length of the portal and how many questions they have to answer and give themselves time to answer each one of those questions. I think those questions plus the essays, the resume, and every item of the application, it is a whole. Conveys all the stories. There are parts of your background that you might not be able to answer them in the essays, but that you will be able to for reasons for leaving a job or gaps in your resume or any other parts of extracurricular activities or things like that that you can actually explain in the application boxes. But you need to spend time on them, especially because they are so limited in characters and wording.

The only thing I would add to what you both have said is in terms of the resume, work, and activity history sections, don’t just describe what you did, describe the impact that you had. Both Kelly and Esmeralda have said the achievements that you had, the leadership roles you had. Admittedly, you don’t have a lot of room. So to the extent possible, quantify, because that’s one very succinct way to highlight not just what you did but what you’ve done, the results that you’ve achieved. It’s not just about your responsibilities, it’s about results. That’s the impact that Harvard wants to see in those sections. That can really, again, help you bring out and show that you have the business-minded focus, leadership focus, and growth mentality that Harvard is looking for. 

Let’s turn to the essay questions. Do you have suggestions for approaching the new essays? [15:45]

[EC] For the business-minded essay, first of all, keep in mind that you’re going to have also the career aspirations essay, which is I believe 500 characters long. You don’t want to repeat that information there. What I would do is, first of all, they’re asking for a reflection of your experiences. Not for your experience, but experiences. I would describe, provide a short summary of those experiences, how they have influenced your career. Then focus more on, I would say the impact that you would have in the mid to long-term.

Because if career aspirations are going to have your short term, you’re going to decide what you’re going to do after the MBA, role, industry, et cetera. I would not talk about those in this essay, you only have 300 words, but should be maybe a reflection of what you’ve done up to now and what you plan to do later on in the future and the anticipated impact that you see coming in. I see this as more of a goal essay, but taking in mind that you’re going to have another goals essay very short and to the point in the form, so you have to manage those two.

[KW] I would just add as you think about your experiences and you think about how did that change you? How did that shape you? The word influenced here is all of us have life experiences that direct us forward, and we get to decide how we use that life experience in the choices we make. I think it’s really important to understand that it is because of your experiences that you think about things in the way you do. I agree that the forward-looking conversation around the impact that the candidate plans to have in the business organizations or community, the forward-looking, is I would say most important part of this essay.

Let’s discuss the leadership-focused essay, what suggestions do you have for applicants? [21:20]

[KW] Again, we’re drawing on the experiences and how that has changed who we are or helped defined who we are. I think here it’s important to really think about opportunities to lead, whether it’s formal or informal. How have you made someone’s life better, invested in others, and to demonstrate that you have an idea of how this investment should work, but then going beyond again to how do you want to further develop? Some applicants will not have as much experience in formal leadership at least, but certainly with coming to business school have an idea of going forward into their career and thinking about how they want to be known as a leader and what kind of leadership traits that as an applicant you want to carry through your career, I think is an important thing to share here.

[EC] I think it’s very important that they say back to the criteria, it doesn’t matter if they have had or not a formal leadership role. That is a big question that I see coming up again and again for my clients when they said, “Oh, I am not a project manager. Oh, I don’t have this role.” I’m working with a client right now whose role is software engineer too, whatever that is, but he has had not only promotions but also leads team in different countries, et cetera. He is a leader, whether his role in that direct… He has no one that he is supervising directly, but he’s still a leader. I think you have to keep that in mind in terms of when they talk about leadership focus, a lot of people say, “Oh, I haven’t had leadership,” or no, maybe you do, so let’s explore what you have done.

Also, I think that a lot of questions we have to raise to ourselves answering the essays about this to answer this essay. For instance, when have I been a source of inspiration to others? How others took my initiative… I mean my ideas and roll with it? What happened to those things? I think it is good to recognize if you have been a leader already. If you already been the leader that you want to be and say what other areas you would like to develop to be even a stronger leader. I think it’s a lot of self asking questions about how your experiences, especially if you haven’t had a formal leadership role, and be able to put that into paper in terms of saying how that has shaped you and where you want to go from there.

I agree with both of you. I just want to add a couple of points. I think Esme, you were touching on this. Years ago, I was at a class and the speaker was speaking about the difference between leadership by status and leadership by stature. You can also say leadership by virtue of talent or by virtue of title. If you are a leader by virtue of title, you might want to touch on how you earned that title. Again, you don’t have to touch on it in all places, but you can touch on in different places some of these things so that you’re not repeating yourself. How did you get the title? What have you done with it? How have you nurtured and empowered those people working with you or under you? Also quantify how many people you’ve led.

Years ago, my son was on the yearbook committee at his high school. He found the program they were using – I think it was Photoshop – really fascinating. The professional who was guiding them was urging all members on the yearbook committee to learn the program. Well, he sat down every night and worked to master this program. The person who was initially chosen to be the chair of the yearbook committee didn’t, and the yearbook fell behind. My son is a fairly quiet guy. He’s not your flashy kind at all. He’d learned the program, so he was helping everybody on the committee. When the chair who had been elected and selected finally admitted he wasn’t capable of leading it, they all chose my son because he’s the one who’d applied himself and mastered the tool. They got it done in time for graduation which was a big question at the time. 

I assume that applicants to Harvard would have more current examples than something from their senior year of high school, but that is a very simple example of somebody who assumed a leadership role based on what he had done by virtue of his character and his diligence. Keep that in mind. Again, you want to provide examples whether you have a title or not, how you got the title, how you’ve used the title to empower others, and also remember to indicate somewhere, not in all places, but somewhere, how many people you’ve led.

Let’s move to the growth-oriented essay. [24:17]

[EC] I would recommend if you use professional examples for the first tool, this is a great way to use a personal example, so the admissions committee gets to know you. I would also try to use the STAR method, the situation, task, action, results, just to keep it focused on how you’ve grown, what the situation has, how you’ve grown and the results that came from it. Definitely keeping the curiosity and the passions in mind as you do this. I would say be creative in terms of this is your time to shine in terms of sharing with admissions committee who you are, what you do.

For instance, if you are… Again, if you are an engineer and have worked in [inaudible 00:28:58], maybe this should be something about completely different that is not, let’s say. I would say to just keep that in mind. Keep that in mind. You don’t want to talk about the same things in each essay. Even if you use different examples, you want to change it a little bit. Also, ideally, always keeping the growth mindset. How you’ve grown. That’s why I think that you have to have a cause and effect or a start method where you presented before and the after, and so that they can clearly see how you’ve grown.

[KW] I just want to underscore a little bit of what Esme said, the idea of being able to choose an example that might be a little bit different. I think this is the easiest place to be creative with the answer. I’m thinking about a client that I’ve worked with who had an engineering background and was also a piano player. He had this right brain, left brain thing going on, which I thought was really interesting. He talked about wanting to learn more about this one particular composer and spending his time doing that. He was able to convey how that curiosity, that desire to learn more about something that he didn’t know about in terms of being a pianist, really rounded out this art form that he really has loved. To me that’s an example that you could expand on that would be very different than a work example, but also I think the idea of really being motivated and underscoring the curiosity I think could lead to a really interesting example here.

I also like the idea of using this for a non-work activity. Going back to the diversity point that we made earlier, curiosity can be seen in many ways. I also want to point out that this is the one essay where Harvard says, “Please share an example.” One example. I think that Esme’s and Kelly’s point about using the STAR or CAR approach… They only want one example here. It makes storytelling much easier. 

Everybody’s going to be writing about leadership. Everybody’s going to be writing about business orientation. Everybody’s going to be writing about growth. I think the old question allowed for more individuality than these questions do, but Harvard still wants this diverse class and still wants this different perspective. How can they be individuals, given the tight word limits and the more directed questions in this application? [30:45]

[EC] First of all, I think that there are a lot of people saying that these new essay questions don’t allow for deep introspection. I actually disagree. They are just different. They’re different, they’re shorter, but you still need to do the introspection in order to answer them. We at Accepted… I really love the questionnaire that we give out to our new clients because it allows them to really do that introspection and put down in the screen too and then paper, what they’ve done, achievements, everything. We ask these questions, we lead the client to answer this questionnaire for this introspection to happen. I think that is a very, very important step that you need to do to answer these essays.

My very first advice would be you want to write more before you write less. Don’t attempt to write your first raft of 250 words and write 250 words because it is going to be nearly impossible. If you get to do it, more often than not you won’t be saying anything because people get to be so focused on saying very little that you ended up saying very little of everything. What I would say is write freely, answer the question freely first. Then once you have the example and you have all the items and example, then that’s when you start cutting it down until you take out all the fats and leave it to 300 or 250 words. That will be my actually very first advice on how to approach these essays. Kelly, I’m sure you have more so I’m not [inaudible 00:34:11]-

[KW] I’m thinking, Esme, back to an answer you gave earlier, which was to make sure that your clients are starting an application early and really understanding what all of the questions within the application are asking. That’s where I was thinking of from the standpoint is start with the end in mind as you’re getting ready to think about essays. Step back and think about what does the rest of the application tell HBS about you, and what are the things that they don’t yet know that could differentiate you? Then prioritize those things by which would give you… Or which would give them insights into who you are and how the program will be better because you’re there as a student and as an alum.

Exactly what you said, Esme, I start by answering without considering the word count. Then I think the first edit is to… One of the first things to do is to think about what detail can be rolled up and what detail is critical to leave in terms of getting to that word count. Then when even the first round of editing is done, let’s make sure that we go back to that beginning and the things that you want to make sure that you’re conveying that they weren’t edited out because we’re rolling some of the detail up. I think that’s the challenge with the shorter essays, for sure, is to be able to tell the story you want to tell and convey the appropriate detail where it’s needed.

I think you’re both giving great suggestions. What I sometimes recommend applicants do is start with notes. I’m not talking about essays or full sentences. List the things you want the school to know, in this case Harvard to know. Then look at the places you’re going to have to show them whether the resume, the work history, the activity history, the essays, and fill it in. This is so that there’s minimal overlap and the reader is getting the fullest picture of the applicant. 

Given Harvard’s desire to have this diverse class, you want to highlight your multidimensionality so that you’re not just going to be in one bucket. You’re going to fill several buckets and several different needs that they want to have in their class or labels that they want to have in their class, assuming they’re looking for that.

There are also mechanics in writing that will put your writing on a diet. Give it Ozempic. Use the active voice for more vigorous writing. If you write, “The boy threw the ball,” or, “The ball was thrown by the boy,” the latter is the passive voice, and it’s much wordier. You don’t want that. Use the active voice. 

There are also lots of things you can do to put your writing on a diet. Did you come to the conclusion that something happened or did you conclude? Did you make a decision or did you decide? If you can use a verb where there are nouns, you are almost always making your writing more concise. There are other tricks like that. “He went in a hurry,” or “He hurried.” Any of those things will just make your writing more concise and allow you to reveal more about your experience and qualifications. 

Do you think these essays are going to be easier or harder for applicants this year than the one long question that they had previously? [35:48]

[KW] As I was thinking about the impact of the new essay questions from the school’s perspective, I think it’s a much more directed prompt that likely will give them specific information that they’re seeking, right? The broader, longer essay allows for more leeway and many schools are going to several short essays. I was just looking at a couple of other schools that have done the same thing, but and so I think that in some respects it’s harder, but I think now that we have the tip of putting your writing on a diet, super helpful. But I do think it’s harder to convey a story with fewer words because you may not be able to be as descriptive. I think this is where we can help candidates as they’re really going through this essay process, help them to achieve the essay that they’d like to have at the end.

[EC] What I would say is, yes, it’s easier to come up with examples. They’re pretty much asking you what you need to write about. The part of not knowing what to write about, of course you don’t have to worry about that anymore. That’s easier. What I think is harder is to stand out because everybody’s going to be writing about leadership, everybody’s going to be writing about growth. How do you stand out from everybody else? Especially if you have an overrepresented background in terms of industry focus, et cetera. How do you stand out? I think that’s going to be the key here.

That’s what I think you have to… But if you keep your… Again, if you still do your introspection, and if you have a story of what you want to say and diversify what you’re going to say where, like you said Linda, I think that you will be able to still convey it. But if you just approach the essays, okay, I’m going to find examples for this and just write the essays without thinking about other parts of the application, then I think you might have a harder time standing out from everybody else who’s doing exactly the same.

I think it’s interesting you’re saying that the more conventional applicant is going to have a harder time standing out. I would say the more distinctive applicant is going to have a harder time standing out because there are fewer places to show that distinctiveness, thinking of some of the older Harvard essay questions. But I think the bottom line is everybody’s going to have a hard time standing out because the questions are so focused and so short. I think that’s going to be the challenge with this set of questions. I think on one hand, as you said, Kelly, it means that Harvard is probably going to get answers that are giving it more of what it wants as opposed to the more open-ended question that was there previously. 

The last major change in Harvard’s application is the requirement for applicants who are taking the GMAT Focus, if invited to interview, to also take a writing assessment. Why do you believe Harvard is adding this requirement? Do you think more applicants are going to take the GRE as a result? [40:42]

[EC] I’m already recommending, as a consultant, my clients to take the GRE over the GMAT just because it is less costly, and they don’t have to spend lots of time and money and getting the writing, the GMAT writing assessment. I think that’s something that GMAT… I think it is considering and talking with HBS at the moment, I believe MIT is another school that is asking for that. I would say I think it’s a mistake the GMAT made, and I think it might be a year before that is fixed because people have to decide what tests to take. I think that that’s what it is. How about you, Kelly?

[KW] I agree. It’s surprising on one hand that the folks at the Graduate Management Admission Council didn’t anticipate this as a potential issue, or maybe they did and that was the risk they were willing to take. But the analytical writing or the writing component of the GRE, it’s the one piece of the application that is certain to be written by the applicant. Schools don’t look at it as a polished piece of writing, but it certainly does provide adcom with a check of writing skills if that’s something that they need. On one hand, I’m not surprised that HBS is adding this requirement. I think there’s more than one way to skin that cat, I guess to use a phrase, KiraTalent also has a writing component that schools could use as well. It just dawned on me, let me go back to say, so the Graduate Management Admission Council obviously have packaged the writing component as a separate tool, so perhaps they were thinking of it.

Obviously the new GMAT was in the works for a long time. AI burst on the scene in November of 2022, about a year and a half ago, a little more than a year and a half ago. By then, GMAT Focus was well into development. I think the point of the GMAT Focus and the new GRE was to be friendlier to the test taker without being less predictive for the business schools. I’m wondering if this was underway before AI burst on the scene and the possibility of AI-written essays. GMAC was basically figuring, “This will sell us more GMAT tests because it’s not going to have the writing component and it’s going to be shorter. We’re going to have the other stuff tested and still be predictive.” Then AI came, and suddenly it was like the schools felt like they really want a writing sample that they know an applicant wrote. [43:41]

[EC] Absolutely.

[KW] I think you’re absolutely right there.

[EC] I think that’s one more reason why your essays have to be genuine, have to, I would say stay, away from ChatGPT and AI at all parts. Spend time with your essays, spend time on your story, try to be as genuine as possible so that they don’t sound fabricated by an AI tool.

What do you wish I would’ve asked you about the HBS application? [45:39]

[KW] I think we talked about it. What I had thought about is just in terms of the Supreme Court decision and where people can draw on their life experiences, I think there is room in this new approach to the essay or essays, there is room to draw on those different life experiences. I think that’s the one component that… Last summer, a lot of people were talking about the Supreme Court decision. The schools have had to work through that this past year. We’re seeing as a result of that through looking at the different applications how different schools are dealing with navigating that decision. This definitely is an important component, but I do think we touched on that for sure.

[EC]I would say the question that we can discuss is whether the applicant pool would change as a result of this change in the essays. It’s something I wonder myself because now the essays are similarly easier, and at least the large part of the applicant pool feel like, okay, these are essays that I can answer because they’re a little bit more similar to what the other business schools ask. In my experience, I’ve been doing this for almost 10 years, I felt that applicants, there is some sort of fear about facing the HBS essay because, “Okay, I really want to apply to HBS, but where do I start? What do I say? What’s unique about me? How do I convey this part of my background with the fact that I want an MBA program from Harvard? How do I do that? Every other school is asking me exactly, but this one…” I wonder if we’re going to see an increase in applications just because of the sheer fact that the essay questions are easier to answer. That, again, I don’t have the answer to that question. My prediction is probably yes, but it will be interesting to see once the application deadline’s rolling and we see some data.

Do you think that was part of the motivation for the change? [47:53]

[EC] Could be. They have changes in their leadership. You have a new dean coming in and she has fresh ideas. Probably was a result of not only her, but maybe the whole committee’s decision. Another thing could be a reason of a lot of physical exhaustion when you’re reading as long essays year after year after year. It can be a little daunting. Also, the fact that as an admissions officer, you also want to make sure everybody under the same rules and see. You want people that have a business mindset, that have leadership, that have growth. If you don’t ask those questions, some people are not going to tell you those questions. They’re going to talk about something else. I guess a lot of the things went into detail. Could be the application, in light of changes, wanting to get more applicants could be one reason. I don’t think it was the only reason why they did that, but could be one of them. Yeah.

[KW] I do find it interesting. On one hand you think why does HBS need more applicants? But on the other hand, it’s the composition of the applicant pool and certainly people who, like you said, may have been intimidated by the much broader question or maybe someone who just hasn’t had the resources to invest in some of the activities that could help them prepare for this application. Perhaps that will allow them to be on the playing field.

Anything else you want to bring up before we bring this to a close? [49:40]

[EC] What I would just say is don’t take the essay changes and the shortness of the essays now, the requirements, as a hint that you don’t need to do the deep introspection for HBS. You still need to do just like you did before. You still need to come up with examples and need to come up with a whole story that tells that you’re not repeating yourself or creating redundancies. They don’t want to see the same story over and over again with different language. I think that you need to just do the deep introspection. I would actually invite you to come on board and work with us, even if it’s just for the brainstorming session and getting that done so that you can get some really good examples and really put together a really compelling application.

[KW] I would just echo Esme and say that certainly knowing yourself and understanding what motivates you and what drives you is a key part of navigating the MBA admissions process in general and certainly for the HBS application.

Relevant Links:

•  Sign up for a Free Consultation
• Esmeralda Cardenal, Consultant profile
• Natalie Grinblatt Epstein, Consultant profile
• Michelle Stockman, Consultant profile
• Kelly Wilson, Consultant profile

Related shows:

•  Do You Have the Spike for Toronto Rotman?
• MIT Sloan: For Rising Executives Considering an MBA
• How to get into Berkeley Haas
• What’s New at Penn’s The Wharton School. And How to Get In

Subscribe:

        

Podcast Feed