65 harvard business school essays pdf

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65 successful Harvard Business School application essays

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65 successful Harvard Business School application essays

By dan erck , pavel swiatek , and the harbus.

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65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays, Second Edition: With Analysis by the Staff of The Harbus, the Harvard Business School Newspaper

YOUR LIFE . . . IN 300 WORDS OR LESS It’s a daunting task. Even the most seasoned professionals find business school application essays to be among the hardest pieces they ever write. With a diverse pool of talented people applying to the nation’s top schools from the most successful companies and prestigious undergraduate programs in the world, a simple biography detailing accomplishments and goals isn’t enough. Applicants need clear and compelling arguments that grab admissions officers and absolutely refuse to let go.To help them write the essays that get them accepted into Harvard or any of the country’s other top programs, the staff of The Harbus---HBS’s student newspaper---have updated and revised their collection of sixty-five actual application essays as well as their detailed analysis of them so that applicants will be able to: * Avoid common pitfalls * Play to their strengths * Get their message across Wherever they are applying, the advice and tested strategies in 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays give business professionals and undergraduates the insider’s knowledge to market themselves most effectively and truly own the process.

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65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays, Second Edition: With Analysis by the Staff of The Harbus, the Harvard Business School Newspaper

By Lauren Sullivan and The Staff of The Harbus

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About this ebook

Updated and revised essays that got their writers into Harvard, the #1 business school in the country, as compiled by the editors of the school's newspaper with tips and strategies to help readers do the same there or elsewhere YOUR LIFE . . . IN 300 WORDS OR LESS It's a daunting task. Even the most seasoned professionals find business school application essays to be among the hardest pieces they ever write. With a diverse pool of talented people applying to the nation's top schools from the most successful companies and prestigious undergraduate programs in the world, a simple biography detailing accomplishments and goals isn't enough. Applicants need clear and compelling arguments that grab admissions officers and absolutely refuse to let go. To help them write the essays that get them accepted into Harvard or any of the country's other top programs, the staff of The Harbus --HBS's student newspaper--have updated and revised their collection of sixty-five actual application essays as well as their detailed analysis of them so that applicants will be able to: * Avoid common pitfalls * Play to their strengths * Get their message across Wherever they are applying, the advice and tested strategies in 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays give business professionals and undergraduates the insider's knowledge to market themselves most effectively and truly own the process.

Teaching Methods & Materials

Lauren Sullivan

Lauren Sullivan edited 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays, a collection assembled by the Harvard Business School newspaper, The Harbus.

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65 successful harvard business school application essays, second edition - lauren sullivan, introduction.

You are inspired, hopeful, accomplished, and eager. You seek personal and professional advancement via an MBA that will prepare you for leadership challenges in any business field. You are aware, however, that Harvard Business School receives about ten thousand applications annually, and you are uncertain how to make your application stand out. We understand. We have been in your shoes.

This book seeks to demystify the admissions process for applicants by providing a selective but robust sample of HBS essays that have successfully survived the admissions committee in the past. We aspire to show you a variety of writing styles, essay responses, and applicant backgrounds that have been successful in the past, but there are no foolproof prescriptions, shorts cuts, or magic formulas. There are probably as many perfect application essays as there are applicants.

The chosen essays highlight ordinary applicants who have demonstrated potential, vision, integrity, and leadership. While the MBA applicant pool can often swarm with people with business backgrounds, we are positive that this book will also inspire nontraditional applicants because they will realize that there is no such thing as a standard applicant at Harvard Business School. We encourage you to bear in mind that your profession is not what makes the essay special. What makes you special is how you make the big (or small) decisions in life and how they have led to your growth. The only common strain in the successful essays is that applicants have clearly described why each experience is challenging, educational, and transformational. We hope this book motivates you to write great essays by revealing who you really are. Be captivating. Be truthful. Be yourself.

When you sit down at a blank computer screen, you may be tempted to think that your experiences to date have been rather pedestrian. You are neither an Olympic gold medalist nor a Pulitzer Prize winner. We hope that the examples in this book will rescue you from this fear. Many of the essays contain simple anecdotes with routine settings that demonstrate the applicant’s maturity, awareness, and potential. Use anecdotes from your life to offer an astute glimpse into your personality, sense of humor, values, thoughtfulness, and all other attributes that will contribute to your success in life and business. Even the most prestigious accomplishment will be deficient if you do not explain why it was important, what you learned from it, and how you have grown because of it.

First, make a mental list of the most influential and meaningful events and experiences of your life and begin to map them into your essays, but avoid repetition. While you may want to weave a few over-arching themes in all your essays, use the essays to demonstrate different aspects of your intellectual, emotional, and moral fiber. For instance, if you choose to prove your ability as a competent project manager in one essay, you may wish to discuss a more personal issue like your relationship with your parents or partner in the next. Reach inside yourself for examples of strength, confidence, and accomplishment.

In the end, your fundamental objective is to prove that you are greater than the sum of your individual application parts such as your GMAT score, academic transcripts, or professional laurels. While those parts of the application are significant, your essays will allow you to bring your charisma and individuality to life. So, steer clear of cut-and-paste jobs from the resume.

Once you map out the essays, you will find the word limit excruciating. Although an obstacle, the word count can help you tell your story more selectively and succinctly. After all, does your employer want you to be unnecessarily long-winded and unfocused? Probably not. The essays included in this book will convince you that you can be poignant in few words. We suggest that you create the first draft without a strict word limit. In the subsequent draft, ask yourself repeatedly: What is my core message? Does this sentence improve upon or clarify that message? By doing this, you will be able to distill the key anecdotes and interpretations from a pool of excessive descriptions and unnecessary details.

The essays in this book will help you to assess and celebrate your key experiences in a robust fashion. In the analyses, we consider each author’s motivations, accomplishments, and shortcomings and assess whether they communicate them compellingly and credibly through their choices of content, structure, and style. We have selected essays that deliver the author’s message in a way that stood out from the pack—your ultimate goal as an applicant. To do the same, concentrate on the frank analysis that follows each essay. The constructive suggestions, embedded in the analyses, will enable you to avoid common pitfalls and convert a good set of application essays into a remarkable one.

We believe that you will find the sixty-five essays that follow to be useful examples, but remember to treat them only as examples. Let your uniqueness shine through your own essays and not through imitation of the essays in this book. We cannot promise you that this book will get you into Harvard Business School. There are books, Web sites, and admission consultants that promise such things, falsely. We do not. With this book, however, you will have the tools to get the job done and truly own your business career, so good luck!

Aastha Gurbax

Publisher, Harbus News Corporation, Class of 2008

On behalf of Harbus News Corporation

I. DEFINING MOMENT

Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development. How did this experience highlight your strengths and weaknesses as a leader?

This question may appear quite daunting. By default many applicants first think about their most significant accomplishments. If you have led troops in battle or started a nonprofit, you may think you have this essay in the bag. That is the first trap of this subtle question. A defining experience is not necessarily one that results in achievement relative to peers. In fact, some of the strongest essays focus on monumental failures. Sometimes focusing on a failure actually allows you to answer the question more easily. Many people fail to reflect on their weaknesses and to delve deeply enough into the lessons they have learned. I assure you, you do not have to be Superman to get into business school. Reveal a little of your Clark Kent side. In doing so, you will not only address each component of the essay topic but you will also, and more importantly, become a more interesting applicant.

There is no particular calculus behind what type of anecdote to pick. Just dig deep. Be introspective. Find an anecdote that describes what makes you unique as a person and a leader. Find that story that talks about how you developed into who you are today. Then tell that story with passion. Explain both your actions and thought processes. Leave the reader with a deep understanding of your motivations, character, and goals.

If you choose to focus on an accomplishment, this essay can be a great opportunity for you to add color to something that does not jump off your resume. Though while adding color, make sure you leaven it with humility. Arrogance is one trait that the admissions staff will not appreciate.

—Zachary Surak

STACIE HOGYA

A great leader aspires to do more than simply accomplish her objective. Until I offered to lead a team of skeptical engineers and accountants to develop a marketing department, and to actively participate in business development, I did not recognize how valuable the more could be.

I began the project at a disadvantage; the owners had already spent three months and $20,000 with an advertising agency, but developed no usable material. I wanted to inspire my team’s confidence as I led them into the unknown world of marketing, so I took several strong, decisive actions. I fired the agency and hired a more contemporary group whose personality was a closer match to what my firm wanted to broadcast. I established a marketing committee and presented them with a vivid vision of our goals and my plan to achieve them. While confidence-inspiring, these decisive actions had an undesired consequence: I discouraged my team from providing their input. My actions indicated that I had already made all of the decisions, and that the team’s suggestions would carry no weight.

I had to change my leadership approach to focus on facilitating collaboration rather than dictating a course of action. Because our consultants present information in a systematic and analytical fashion when communicating with our clients, I took this familiar approach in my communications with my team. Instead of presenting my strategy and looking for feedback, I coached the team through the process, and we developed strategies together.

As a result, the consulting team took ownership of the project and got more involved. We worked with the new agency to create an identity that highlighted our unique personality. Marketing committee meetings were well-attended, and members were active participants; they planned business development initiatives under the theme, Growing the business is everybody’s business. Most importantly, many of the consulting team members personally thanked me for making participation in business development so easy.

Through this experience, I matured as a leader and learned that leading is as much about accomplishing your objective as it is about holding your team together. I learned the value of guiding my team to define a shared vision in which we could all be stakeholders rather than simply presenting a strategy. I was most effective by leading strongly enough to inspire confidence but not so strongly that I prevented involvement.

Stacie’s experience may look very similar to your experience. Do not fret. Her essay is traditional in both its anecdote and style. Many applicants will discuss lessons learned when effecting change from a consultative role. More still will start their essay with a thesis statement, followed by an example, and end with more detailed reflection on the example. That being said, Stacie still manages to stand out in several

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Your life in 300 words or less. It's a daunting task. Even the most seasoned professionals find business school application essays to be among the hardest pieces they ever write. With a diverse pool of talented people applying to the nation's top schools from the most successful companies and prestigious undergraduate programs in the world, a simple biography detailing accomplishments and goals isn't enough. Applicants need clear and compelling arguments that grab admissions officers and absolutely refuse to let go. To help them write the essays that get them accepted into Harvard or any of the country's other top programs, the staff of The Harbus— HBS's student newspaper—have updated and revised their collection of sixty-five actual application essays as well as their detailed analysis of them so that applicants will be able to: * Avoid common pitfalls * Play to their strengths * Get their message across Wherever they are applying, the advice and tested strategies in 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays give business professionals and undergraduates the insider's knowledge to market themselves most effectively and truly own the process.

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Career Aspirations What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you? So you have spent the last five years trolling the seas in a British Naval submarine, have been trading on the floor...

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The Harbus is the official student newspaper of the Harvard Business School, the number-one business school in the country. This weekly has been providing the news to students, faculty, and alumni since 1937.

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Lauren Sullivan

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Updated and revised essays that got their writers into Harvard, the #1 business school in the country, as compiled by the editors of the school's newspaper with tips and strategies to help readers do the same there or elsewhere YOUR LIFE . . . IN 300 WORDS OR LESS It's a daunting task. Even the most seasoned professionals find business school application essays to be among the hardest pieces they ever write. With a diverse pool of talented people applying to the nation's top schools from the most successful companies and prestigious undergraduate programs in the world, a simple biography detailing accomplishments and goals isn't enough. Applicants need clear and compelling arguments that grab admissions officers and absolutely refuse to let go. To help them write the essays that get them accepted into Harvard or any of the country's other top programs, the staff of The Harbus —HBS's student newspaper—have updated and revised their collection of sixty-five actual application essays as well as their detailed analysis of them so that applicants will be able to: * Avoid common pitfalls * Play to their strengths * Get their message across Wherever they are applying, the advice and tested strategies in 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays give business professionals and undergraduates the insider's knowledge to market themselves most effectively and truly own the process.

65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays: With Analysis by the Staff of The Harbus, the Harvard Business School Newspaper

Lauren sullivan.

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

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65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays, Second Edition

With analysis by the staff of the harbus, the harvard business school newspaper.

• 3.6 • 19 Ratings

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Updated and revised essays that got their writers into Harvard, the #1 business school in the country, as compiled by the editors of the school's newspaper with tips and strategies to help readers do the same there or elsewhere YOUR LIFE . . . IN 300 WORDS OR LESS It's a daunting task. Even the most seasoned professionals find business school application essays to be among the hardest pieces they ever write. With a diverse pool of talented people applying to the nation's top schools from the most successful companies and prestigious undergraduate programs in the world, a simple biography detailing accomplishments and goals isn't enough. Applicants need clear and compelling arguments that grab admissions officers and absolutely refuse to let go. To help them write the essays that get them accepted into Harvard or any of the country's other top programs, the staff of The Harbus --HBS's student newspaper--have updated and revised their collection of sixty-five actual application essays as well as their detailed analysis of them so that applicants will be able to: * Avoid common pitfalls * Play to their strengths * Get their message across Wherever they are applying, the advice and tested strategies in 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays give business professionals and undergraduates the insider's knowledge to market themselves most effectively and truly own the process.

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50 MBA Essays That Got Applicants Admitted To Harvard & Stanford

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What Matters? and What More? is a collection of 50 application essays written by successful MBA candidates to Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business

I sat alone one Saturday night in a boardroom in Eastern Oregon, miles from home, my laptop lighting the room. I was painstakingly reviewing a complex spreadsheet of household energy consumption data, cell by cell. ‘Why am I doing this to myself? For remote transmission lines?’…I felt dejected. I’d felt that way before, during my summer at JP Morgan, standing alone in the printing room at 3 a.m., binding decks for a paper mill merger that wouldn’t affect my life in the least.

That’s how an analyst at an MBB firm started his MBA application essay to Stanford Graduate School of Business. His point: In a well-crafted essay, he confronts the challenge of finding meaning in his work and a place where he can make a meaningful difference. That is what really matters most to him, and his answer to Stanford’s iconic MBA application essay helped get him defy the formidable odds of acceptance and gain an admit to the school.

Getting into the prestigious MBA programs at either Stanford Graduate School of Business or Harvard Business School are among the most difficult journeys any young professional can make.

NEARLY 17,000 CANDIDATES APPLIED TO HARVARD & STANFORD LAST YEAR. 1,500 GOT IN

This collection of 50 successful HBS and GSB essays, with smart commentary, can be downloaded for $60

They are two of the most selective schools, routinely rejecting nine or more out of every ten applicants. Last year alone, 16,628 candidates applied to both schools; just 1,520 gained an acceptance, a mere 9.1% admit rate.

Business school admissions are holistic, meaning that while standardized test scores and undergraduate transcripts are a critical part of the admissions process, they aren’t the whole story. In fact, the stories that applicants tell the schools in the form of essays can be a critical component of a successful application.

So what kinds of stories are successful applicants to Harvard and Stanford telling their admission officers? For the first time ever, a newly published collection of 50 of these essays from current MBA students at these two schools has been published. In ten cases, applicants share the essays they wrote in applying to both schools so you can see whether they merely did a cut-and-paste job or approached the task anew. The 188-page book, What Matters? and What More?, gains its title from the two iconic essay prompts at Harvard and Stanford.

THOUGHTFUL CRITIQUES OF THE ESSAYS

Stanford can easily boast having the most difficult question posed to MBA applicants in any given year: In 650 words or less, candidates must tell the school what matters most to them and why. Harvard gives applicants ample room to hang themselves, providing no word limit at all, “What more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?”

One makes this unusual collection of essays powerful are the thoughtful critiques by the founders of two MBA admissions consulting firms, Jeremy Shinewald of mbaMission and Liza Weale of Gatehouse Admissions. They write overviews of each essay in the book and then tear apart portions by paragraphs to either underline a point or address a weakness. The book became available to download for $60 a pop.

As I note in a foreword to the collection, published in partnership with Poets&Quants, the essay portion of an application is where a person can give voice to who they are, what they have achieved so far, and what they imagine their future to be. Yet crafting a powerful and introspective essay can be incredibly daunting as you stare at a blank computer screen.

APPLICANTS OPEN UP WITH INTIMATE STORIES THAT SHOW VULNERABILITY

One successful applicant to Harvard Business School begins his essay by conveying a deeply personal story: The time his father was told that he had three months to live, with his only hope being a double lung transplant. had to undergo a lung transplant. His opening line: “Despite all we had been through in recent years, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I asked my mother one summer evening in Singapore, ‘What role did I play during those tough times?’”

For this candidate to Stanford Graduate School of Business, the essay provided a chance to creatively engage admission readers about what matters most to him–equality-by cleverly using zip codes as a hook.

60605, 60606, 60607.

These zip codes are just one digit apart, but the difference that digit makes in someone’s life is unfathomable. I realized this on my first day as a high school senior. Leafing through my out-of- date, stained, calculus textbook, I kept picturing the new books that my friend from a neighboring (more affluent) district had. As college acceptances came in, I saw educational inequality’s more lasting effects—my friends from affluent districts that better funded education were headed to prestigious universities, while most of my classmates were only accepted by the local junior college. I was unsettled that this divergence wasn’t the students’ doing, but rather institutionalized by the state’s education system. Since this experience, I realized that the fight for education equality will be won through equal opportunity. Overcoming inequality, to ensure that everyone has a fair shake at success, is what matters most to me.

HOW AN APPLICANT TO BOTH SCHOOLS ALTERED HIS ESSAYS

Yet another candidate, who applied to both Harvard and Stanford, writes about being at but not fully present at his friend’s wedding.

The morning after serving as my friend’s best man, I was waiting for my Uber to the airport and—as usual—scrolling through my phone,” he wrote. “I had taken seemingly hundreds of photos of the event, posting in real time to social media, but had not really looked through them. With growing unease, I noticed people and things that had not registered with me the night before and realized I had been so preoccupied with capturing the occasion on my phone that I had essentially missed the whole thing. I never learned the name of the woman beside me at the reception. I could not recall the wedding cake flavor. I never introduced myself to my friend’s grandfather from Edmonton. I was so mortified that before checking into my flight, I turned my phone off and stuffed it into my carry-on.

The Stanford version of his essay is more compact. In truth, it’s more succinctly written and more satisfying because it is to the point. By stripping away all but the most critical pieces of his narrative, the candidate focuses his essay entirely on his central point: the battle of man versus technology.

Even if you’re not applying to business school, the essays are entertaining and fun to read. Sure, precious few are New Yorker worthy. In fact, many are fairly straightforward tales, simply told. What the successful essays clearly show is that there is no cookie-cutter formula or paint-by-the-numbers approach. Some start bluntly and straightforwardly, without a compelling or even interesting opening. Some meander through different themes. Some betray real personality and passion. Others are frankly boring. If a pattern of any kind could be discerned, it is how genuine the essays read.

The greatest benefit of reading them? For obsessive applicants to two of the very best business schools, they’ll take a lot of pressure off of you because they are quite imperfect.

GET YOUR COPY OF WHAT MATTERS? AND WHAT MORE? NOW

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Endless MBA Options: Which Is Right For You?

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ADVICE COLUMN: How Do I Navigate The Waitlist?

• How To Use Poets&Quants MBA Admissions Consultant Directory
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• MBA Admission Consulting Claims: How Credible?
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内容简介  · · · · · ·

YOUR LIFE . . . IN 300 WORDS OR LESS

It’s a daunting task. Even the most seasoned professionals find business school application essays to be among the hardest pieces they ever write. With a diverse pool of talented people applying to the nation’s top schools from the most successful companies and prestigious undergraduate programs in the world, a simple biography detailing ac...

It’s a daunting task. Even the most seasoned professionals find business school application essays to be among the hardest pieces they ever write. With a diverse pool of talented people applying to the nation’s top schools from the most successful companies and prestigious undergraduate programs in the world, a simple biography detailing accomplishments and goals isn’t enough. Applicants need clear and compelling arguments that grab admissions officers and absolutely refuse to let go. To help them write the essays that get them accepted into Harvard or any of the country’s other top programs, the staff of The Harbus ---HBS’s student newspaper---have updated and revised their collection of sixty-five actual application essays as well as their detailed analysis of them so that applicants will be able to:

* Avoid common pitfalls

* Play to their strengths

* Get their message across

Wherever they are applying, the advice and tested strategies in 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays give business professionals and undergraduates the insider’s knowledge to market themselves most effectively and truly own the process.

原文摘录   · · · · · · 

喜欢读"65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays, Second Edition"的人也喜欢  · · · · · ·

短评  · · · · · ·  ( 全部 9 条 )

1 有用 aoreal 2012-03-20 17:29:05.

鲜活的灵魂/此书很安慰人:哪怕是哈佛MBA这种看起来是leader中的leader,其实也有一样的脆弱、羞涩、多愁善感以及种种不完美

0 有用 k-pax 2020-08-11 20:03:05

读了几篇，真的非常朴实的essay ，作者真是完全没有接受过MBA商校浸染过的申请者们。

0 有用 Cecilia 2019-12-31 01:37:07

真正的leader其实是了解自己弱点的人，如同罗曼罗兰所说，世上只有一种英雄主义。不知申请Harvard，申请别的学校也值得一看。

0 有用 Roark 2020-10-14 09:04:34

很好的书，给文书写作提供了很多insights，也能看到其他申请成功者的心路历程。

0 有用 Yakuuult 2015-06-28 00:29:51

对我这种非商学院申请者，语言风格上很有参考价值。

0 有用 Hamlet 2020-07-01 06:07:57

0 有用 毛茸大师🐶 2016-10-04 15:15:09.

入选范文和题目已经有点outdated 但仍不失为解题思路和business writing的绝佳参考。

> 更多短评 9 条

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