This post has been updated for 2009. Click for my analysis for Fall 2009 Admission Analysis for HBS and Wharton.
In this post, I will look at the "failure essay questions" asked by Wharton and Harvard Business School (click here for my initial analysis of the entire essay set). I think the reason both HBS and Wharton as well as many other schools ask about mistakes, failures, and setbacks is because they want to see that you have the ability to learn from errors and/or problems. Case study analysis, is often the analysis of mistakes, failures, and setbacks.
For a number of years, the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business has asked MBA applicants to analyze a failure or setback that they learned from. While the wording has changed over the years, the Fall 2008 application is no exception:
Essay 2 (Required)
Describe a failure or setback that you have experienced. What role did you play and what did you learn about yourself? (500 words)
I think it is important that we read what is written here very closely as it will help you see that there are multiple correct ways to answer this question.
First, keep in mind that you may not necessarily have been the cause of the failure or setback because it states very clearly that it is just one that you have experienced. Also given that you are asked what your role is, there is no assumption being made that you are the cause. Therefore the failure or setback might very well be one where you are an observer, a victim, and/or the source of a solution.
Second, keep in mind that whatever failure or setback you experienced, it is critical that you learned something meaningful about yourself. And your learning about yourself had been be important, otherwise why tell admissions about it? Therefore the key constraint of this question is that whatever the failure or setback is, you have learned something important from it. While not stated, you may very well find that one way of showing what you learned is to discuss how you applied your lesson to a new situation.
Third, what is the difference between between a failure and a setback? I think the easiest thing to do is look at standard definitions of both words:
FAILURE: 1. The condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends: the failure of an experiment. 2. One that fails: a failure at one's career. 3. The condition or fact of being insufficient or falling short: a crop failure. 4. A cessation of proper functioning or performance: a power failure. 5. Nonperformance of what is requested or expected; omission: .failure to report a change of address. 6. The act or fact of failing to pass a course, test, or assignment. 7. A decline in strength or effectiveness.
SETBACK: An unanticipated or sudden check in progress; a change from better to worse.
All setbacks can in some sense be understood as failures in sense of the seventh definition of failure cited above, but actually the difference is one of nuance: a setback does not carry with it any sense of finality. A failure conveys that sense of finality.
To use the experiment example above, "a setback in an experiment means the experiment could still succeed, but if the experiment is a failure, there is no chance for success. The only option is a new experiment.
I think it is useful to compare the Wharton question with Harvard's Essay 2:
What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)
First, I let's look at the definition:
MISTAKE: 1. An error or fault resulting from defective judgment, deficient knowledge, or carelessness. 2. A misconception or misunderstanding.
A mistake is wider in scope than a failure because not all mistakes necessarily lead to failure though human failures are certainly the result of mistakes. A mistake may lead to either a failure or a setback. A mistake may actually lead to a positive unintended outcome.
Notice that HBS does not say "your mistake." It is possible that the mistake you learned from may like in the Wharton question be one where you were an observer, a victim, and/or the source of the solution.
Like with the Wharton question, HBS emphasizes learning.
I would, in fact, argue that the heart of any sort of "failure question," whether it is an essay question or an interview is what you learned. Also depending on what your role was, how you reacted to the failure, setback, or mistake is also very important.
The basic components of an answer:
1. Clearly state what the failure, setback, or mistake was.
2. Clearly state your role.
3. Explain how you reacted to the situation.
4. Explain what you learned.
Depending on how you write this essay, you may find that if you are applying to both HBS and Wharton, it is possible to use the same topic. Given that you have 500 words (or more) for Wharton, if you are applying to both schools, I would start with Wharton first and than cut it down for HBS. I wish you every success in your failure story.
Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.
-Adam Markus
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ハーバード, ウォートン, ビジネススクール, 大学院入学, 合格対策, エッセイ, MBA留学
September 27, 2007
September 25, 2007
UC Berkeley Law & MBA Tuition Increase
One good argument for doing a graduate degree sooner rather than later is that it gets more expensive over time. This expense can be measured in terms of opportunity costs (lost income) and simple cost of tuition. The following is just one example of the latter.
According to The Daily Californian, the Regents of the University of California, approved a large fee increase for both Berkeley's Law School and Business School:
According to the Associated Press, these increases are being introduced selectively throughout the UC system:
The increases, under which some campuses will be charging more than lesser-known branches, were a departure from the tradition of having more-or-less uniform fees by discipline across the 10-campus system.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
According to The Daily Californian, the Regents of the University of California, approved a large fee increase for both Berkeley's Law School and Business School:
According to the Associated Press, these increases are being introduced selectively throughout the UC system:
The increases, under which some campuses will be charging more than lesser-known branches, were a departure from the tradition of having more-or-less uniform fees by discipline across the 10-campus system.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
September 22, 2007
Harvard LL.M. Essay Questions for Fall 2008
As I discussed in my previous post, I think everyone who applies to top LL.M. programs should think about the Harvard Law School essay questions even if they don't intend to apply to Harvard. Harvard has the most difficult set of essay questions that any LL.M. program asks and most who apply to Harvard will be utilizing their content for other schools. So even if you don't apply to Harvard, you should be aware of what some of your strongest competition will be doing. Harvard has four essay questions (you can download the application here).
The Personal Statement questions:
Personal Statement: Please read parts (a) and (b) below carefully and write an essay addressing both questions, with part (a)constituting at least half of the total length. Your entire statement should be no more than 1500 words—anything exceeding the word limit will be disallowed. Please type or word-process your statement, with your full name on the top of each page and your signature at the end, and attach it to your application.
(a)Briefly describe either an important issue in your field of interest or a current legal problem facing a particular country, region, or the world, and then propose a theoretical framework or a legal analysis or strategy to address this issue.
(b)Please tell us something about yourself—in particular, why you wish to pursue an LL.M. degree at Harvard and how doing so connects with what you have done in the past and what you plan to do in the future. Important: Your personal statement must address the above questions specifically, and must be solely the product of your own efforts. We reserve the right to disqualify a statement written by, or with the help of, someone other than the applicant.
Now while (a) and (b) are the main questions, there are actually two other essay questions:
Academic interests: Please describe the areas of your academic interest, including a list of three to five courses in which you are most interested. If you are interested in pursuing the concentration in international finance, tax, human rights, or corporate law and governance, or in the six-credit LL.M. Thesis option, please so indicate. (Note: Please limit your response to no more than 200 words.)
Career plans: What are your career plans (both short-term and long-term) after you complete your graduate law studies? (Check � no more than 3) Law teaching: Full-time Part-time Government service Law Firm In-house (Corporate counsel) International Organization Non-Governmental Organization Judiciary Prosecutor Research Business (non-law) Other (please specify): Please elaborate on your plans. In which country (or countries) do you intend to pursue your career? (Note: Please limit your response to no more than 200 words.)
Clearly no applicant should duplicate the content they write in essay (b) and in these two shorter questions, yet I believe many applicants do because they treat these two shorter questions as simply application questions and not essay questions. If you think of them as essay questions, you see that, in fact, Harvard gives 1900 words maximum to each applicant. This is more than you are likely to write for any school with the possible exception of schools that don't specify essay length.
Now let's analyze the questions:
(a)Briefly describe either an important issue in your field of interest or a current legal problem facing a particular country, region, or the world, and then propose a theoretical framework or a legal analysis or strategy to address this issue.
Question (a) is what makes Harvard's essay really different from most other LL.M. applications. This is a real test of your analytical and legal thinking. It is also test of your ability to communicate something important in 750-1000 words. You need at least 500 for (b) and (a) must be at least 750 words long. From my experience the most effective way to write this essay is to:
1. Identify a legal issue that you know really well and can provide a nuanced perspective on. Ideally it should also relate to what you intend to study at Harvard, but at minimum should be a reflection of your best legal thinking.
2. Write a long first draft, say 1000-2000 words.
3. Expect to go through at least four more drafts before it is close to being finished.
4. Show it to a lawyer or other legal expert who can assess whether what you say is actually accurate and impressive. With my clients, I always tell them to do this. Even if I am very familiar with the legal issue my client is analyzing, I ask them to try to get expert advice. If expert advice is not available, find the next best thing, a fellow legal practitioner whose opinion you trust.
5. If you use an admissions consultant, you should ask him or her to assess this essay within the context of your entire application and in comparison to other applicants who were admitted to Harvard.
(b)Please tell us something about yourself—in particular, why you wish to pursue an LL.M. degree at Harvard and how doing so connects with what you have done in the past and what you plan to do in the future.
This is actually a very standard question though somewhat different from the standard catchall questions that most other schools ask. The real issue here is think first what you don't need to include here and that requires looking at the next two essays first, so we will come back to this question.
Academic interests: Please describe the areas of your academic interest, including a list of three to five courses in which you are most interested. If you are interested in pursuing the concentration in international finance, tax, human rights, or corporate law and governance, or in the six-credit LL.M. Thesis option, please so indicate. (Note: Please limit your response to no more than 200 words.)
For most other schools, this would be a standard part of the main question, but Harvard does it a little differently. This means that in (b) you don't have discuss your academic interests in detail because you will doing it here. In the context of your answer, provide the list they ask for. I suggest only focusing on two or three areas of legal interest because if you try to do more you will not be able to say anything very intelligent about it. Instead come across as someone with a very focused academic plan. Your academic plan at Harvard should be consistent with your future career plans.
Please elaborate on your plans. In which country (or countries) do you intend to pursue your career? (Note: Please limit your response to no more than 200 words.)
You should use this space to provide a specific career plan. You will have already talked about your future in (b), but at a more conceptual level. Here you should provide details of your future plans.
One thing to keep in mind: HARVARD IS FOR LEADERS. It does not matter if your leadership is as a judge, a prosecutor, a leading attorney in your field, a government expert, a scholar, or a in-house legal counsel, Harvard is looking for people who will make a difference. Your career plan is the place to show how you will use the legal knowledge you acquire at Harvard to become a credit to the legal profession. In (b) you will focus on "why?"
Now back to (b):
(b)Please tell us something about yourself—in particular, why you wish to pursue an LL.M. degree at Harvard and how doing so connects with what you have done in the past and what you plan to do in the future.
Given that you don't need to provide the details of either your academic plan at Harvard or your career plans, there is plenty of room in (b) to focus on what Harvard wants to know:
1.Why do you want an LL.M. at Harvard? Explain clearly the reason(s) for obtaining an LL.M. and at Harvard in particular.
2. Connect to the past: You need to reveal something about yourself, in particular your motivations for pursuing a legal career and need to trace that motivation to your desire to pursue an LL.M. Tell a story that reveals something about you. If you are having difficulty understanding how to do that, I suggest taking a look at one of my earlier posts.
3. Connect to the future: You need to explain why an LL.M. will help you achieve your future goals. The details for that plan will be discussed in your career plan essay. If you are having difficulty formulating goals, please click here.
A good (b) answer should effectively provide the conceptual backbone that connects all four essays because essay (b) is about your past and future motivations as a legal professional. Those motivations should certainly impact what legal issue you write about in (a) as well as your academic plan at Harvard and your future career plans.
Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
ハーバード,米国ロースクール、米国大学法学院, 大学院入学, カウンセリング, コンサルティング, 合格対策, 合格率, エッサイ, LLM留学
The Personal Statement questions:
Personal Statement: Please read parts (a) and (b) below carefully and write an essay addressing both questions, with part (a)constituting at least half of the total length. Your entire statement should be no more than 1500 words—anything exceeding the word limit will be disallowed. Please type or word-process your statement, with your full name on the top of each page and your signature at the end, and attach it to your application.
(a)Briefly describe either an important issue in your field of interest or a current legal problem facing a particular country, region, or the world, and then propose a theoretical framework or a legal analysis or strategy to address this issue.
(b)Please tell us something about yourself—in particular, why you wish to pursue an LL.M. degree at Harvard and how doing so connects with what you have done in the past and what you plan to do in the future. Important: Your personal statement must address the above questions specifically, and must be solely the product of your own efforts. We reserve the right to disqualify a statement written by, or with the help of, someone other than the applicant.
Now while (a) and (b) are the main questions, there are actually two other essay questions:
Academic interests: Please describe the areas of your academic interest, including a list of three to five courses in which you are most interested. If you are interested in pursuing the concentration in international finance, tax, human rights, or corporate law and governance, or in the six-credit LL.M. Thesis option, please so indicate. (Note: Please limit your response to no more than 200 words.)
Career plans: What are your career plans (both short-term and long-term) after you complete your graduate law studies? (Check � no more than 3) Law teaching: Full-time Part-time Government service Law Firm In-house (Corporate counsel) International Organization Non-Governmental Organization Judiciary Prosecutor Research Business (non-law) Other (please specify): Please elaborate on your plans. In which country (or countries) do you intend to pursue your career? (Note: Please limit your response to no more than 200 words.)
Clearly no applicant should duplicate the content they write in essay (b) and in these two shorter questions, yet I believe many applicants do because they treat these two shorter questions as simply application questions and not essay questions. If you think of them as essay questions, you see that, in fact, Harvard gives 1900 words maximum to each applicant. This is more than you are likely to write for any school with the possible exception of schools that don't specify essay length.
Now let's analyze the questions:
(a)Briefly describe either an important issue in your field of interest or a current legal problem facing a particular country, region, or the world, and then propose a theoretical framework or a legal analysis or strategy to address this issue.
Question (a) is what makes Harvard's essay really different from most other LL.M. applications. This is a real test of your analytical and legal thinking. It is also test of your ability to communicate something important in 750-1000 words. You need at least 500 for (b) and (a) must be at least 750 words long. From my experience the most effective way to write this essay is to:
1. Identify a legal issue that you know really well and can provide a nuanced perspective on. Ideally it should also relate to what you intend to study at Harvard, but at minimum should be a reflection of your best legal thinking.
2. Write a long first draft, say 1000-2000 words.
3. Expect to go through at least four more drafts before it is close to being finished.
4. Show it to a lawyer or other legal expert who can assess whether what you say is actually accurate and impressive. With my clients, I always tell them to do this. Even if I am very familiar with the legal issue my client is analyzing, I ask them to try to get expert advice. If expert advice is not available, find the next best thing, a fellow legal practitioner whose opinion you trust.
5. If you use an admissions consultant, you should ask him or her to assess this essay within the context of your entire application and in comparison to other applicants who were admitted to Harvard.
(b)Please tell us something about yourself—in particular, why you wish to pursue an LL.M. degree at Harvard and how doing so connects with what you have done in the past and what you plan to do in the future.
This is actually a very standard question though somewhat different from the standard catchall questions that most other schools ask. The real issue here is think first what you don't need to include here and that requires looking at the next two essays first, so we will come back to this question.
Academic interests: Please describe the areas of your academic interest, including a list of three to five courses in which you are most interested. If you are interested in pursuing the concentration in international finance, tax, human rights, or corporate law and governance, or in the six-credit LL.M. Thesis option, please so indicate. (Note: Please limit your response to no more than 200 words.)
For most other schools, this would be a standard part of the main question, but Harvard does it a little differently. This means that in (b) you don't have discuss your academic interests in detail because you will doing it here. In the context of your answer, provide the list they ask for. I suggest only focusing on two or three areas of legal interest because if you try to do more you will not be able to say anything very intelligent about it. Instead come across as someone with a very focused academic plan. Your academic plan at Harvard should be consistent with your future career plans.
Please elaborate on your plans. In which country (or countries) do you intend to pursue your career? (Note: Please limit your response to no more than 200 words.)
You should use this space to provide a specific career plan. You will have already talked about your future in (b), but at a more conceptual level. Here you should provide details of your future plans.
One thing to keep in mind: HARVARD IS FOR LEADERS. It does not matter if your leadership is as a judge, a prosecutor, a leading attorney in your field, a government expert, a scholar, or a in-house legal counsel, Harvard is looking for people who will make a difference. Your career plan is the place to show how you will use the legal knowledge you acquire at Harvard to become a credit to the legal profession. In (b) you will focus on "why?"
Now back to (b):
(b)Please tell us something about yourself—in particular, why you wish to pursue an LL.M. degree at Harvard and how doing so connects with what you have done in the past and what you plan to do in the future.
Given that you don't need to provide the details of either your academic plan at Harvard or your career plans, there is plenty of room in (b) to focus on what Harvard wants to know:
1.Why do you want an LL.M. at Harvard? Explain clearly the reason(s) for obtaining an LL.M. and at Harvard in particular.
2. Connect to the past: You need to reveal something about yourself, in particular your motivations for pursuing a legal career and need to trace that motivation to your desire to pursue an LL.M. Tell a story that reveals something about you. If you are having difficulty understanding how to do that, I suggest taking a look at one of my earlier posts.
3. Connect to the future: You need to explain why an LL.M. will help you achieve your future goals. The details for that plan will be discussed in your career plan essay. If you are having difficulty formulating goals, please click here.
A good (b) answer should effectively provide the conceptual backbone that connects all four essays because essay (b) is about your past and future motivations as a legal professional. Those motivations should certainly impact what legal issue you write about in (a) as well as your academic plan at Harvard and your future career plans.
Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
ハーバード,米国ロースクール、米国大学法学院, 大学院入学, カウンセリング, コンサルティング, 合格対策, 合格率, エッサイ, LLM留学
Why All LL.M. Applicants Need to Understand Harvard's Questions
After almost six years of counseling clients on US LL.M. admissions I have reached the conclusion that anyone applying to top LL.M. programs needs to understand the Harvard essays even if they are not applying there. When it comes to LL.M., I think Harvard Law School does. My reasoning is as follows:
1. Harvard Law School is the top general LL.M. program. Yale and Stanford are harder to get into, but they are small specialized programs. Harvard has the best name brand reputation of any American university in the world and so does its law school.
2. Not a single one of the LL.M. admits to Harvard I worked with or know about ever rejected it to attend Columbia, Chicago, or other top general LL.M. programs.
3. For applicants who apply to Harvard, it is the hardest application they will likely have to complete. The only other exception might be UC Berkeley because of the need to have a very detailed plan of study, but that is arguable and highly variable.
4. Most importantly, those who apply to Harvard are also applying to the other top programs and many will most likely be utilizing their Harvard content to prepare essays for other schools. The rigorous analytical and legal thinking that makes for great Harvard essays will thus impact not only their chances for admissions at other schools, but all other applicants' chances as well.
Therefore even if you don't apply to Harvard's LL.M. you need to apply the same level of intellectual rigor to your essays that a successful Harvard admit would be applying to his or her essays. Since you are competing with those who apply to Harvard, you need to write essays at the same level as required by Harvard. In my next post, I analyze Harvard Law School's four essay questions for Fall 2008.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
コロンビア, ハーバード, シカゴ, スタンフォード, 米国ロースクール、米国大学法学院, 大学院入学, カウンセリング, コンサルティング, 合格対策, 合格率, エッサイ, LLM留学
1. Harvard Law School is the top general LL.M. program. Yale and Stanford are harder to get into, but they are small specialized programs. Harvard has the best name brand reputation of any American university in the world and so does its law school.
2. Not a single one of the LL.M. admits to Harvard I worked with or know about ever rejected it to attend Columbia, Chicago, or other top general LL.M. programs.
3. For applicants who apply to Harvard, it is the hardest application they will likely have to complete. The only other exception might be UC Berkeley because of the need to have a very detailed plan of study, but that is arguable and highly variable.
4. Most importantly, those who apply to Harvard are also applying to the other top programs and many will most likely be utilizing their Harvard content to prepare essays for other schools. The rigorous analytical and legal thinking that makes for great Harvard essays will thus impact not only their chances for admissions at other schools, but all other applicants' chances as well.
Therefore even if you don't apply to Harvard's LL.M. you need to apply the same level of intellectual rigor to your essays that a successful Harvard admit would be applying to his or her essays. Since you are competing with those who apply to Harvard, you need to write essays at the same level as required by Harvard. In my next post, I analyze Harvard Law School's four essay questions for Fall 2008.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
コロンビア, ハーバード, シカゴ, スタンフォード, 米国ロースクール、米国大学法学院, 大学院入学, カウンセリング, コンサルティング, 合格対策, 合格率, エッサイ, LLM留学
September 21, 2007
Free GRE Preparation
While looking at the University of California Office of President's website, I came across http://www.number2.com/, a site that offers free GRE preparation. I am not sure how good their preparation system is, but if the University of California is willing to link to it, I would certainly think it would be worth trying. "The company was founded by professors and graduate students who wanted to make high quality test preparation universally accessible." Sounds good to me. If you use it, please let me know what you think.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
大学院留学
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
大学院留学
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