In this post, I discuss HBS MBA admissions interviews. My long prior post on that topic is here. This post builds on what is in that post so I suggest reviewing it first.
For my detailed suggestions on overall interview preparation, please see:
-MBA Application Interview Strategy
The primary focus of HBS MBA Round 1 Class of 2019 interviews has been on the applicant's professional experience. The was also true of Class of 2018 interviews (2016 entrance). While other subjects do come up, based on reports, I have seen, the vast majority of questions in almost all interviews in the last two years were on professional experience and knowledge. You still have to prep for the full range of questions, but a great deal of attention should focus on your work experience, your industry, and your company. They want to see your ability to discuss and explain your industry and company beyond your own role. The HBS interview content is quite distinct from what you would in a typical MBA interviewer. This is an interview that is used to determine your fitness to be an effective participant in the class and hence the focus is content related to how you could contribute your experience in class discussions.
Some people will read the above and think this just means being prepared to discuss their own work but they would be missing my point. You need to be able to do the following for all of your employers:
1. Explain the nature of the business.
2. Explain the industry overall and the competition.
3. Explain key concepts related to your industry and role/function.
In other words, you should be able to explain your work in a way that would parallel how you might use your knowledge in class at HBS.
Recent interviews do focus both the applicant's own experience as well and you have to be prepared for answering questions about anything you have done that is accounted for in the application. So you need to be able to switch between micro/personal level and big picture questions.
Your goals are likely to be asked about but don't be surprised if you are not asked about why MBA or why HBS. You might be but there is a good chance, you will not be asked that. So you have to prep for it.
You can expect a few questions related to your academic and personal background so you have to be prepared to handle a full range of questions. But don't be surprised if you only get a few questions in this area.
If you are a non-native English speaker, chances are high you will be an interview situation where the number of questions asked is extremely high (maybe not so much of a deep dive at all) because they are testing your English ability: In particular, your fluency. They want to make sure you can handle the HBS classroom. Still, HBS is famous for going in relatively deep with follow-up questions, so you have to be prepared for that as well.
HBS does not seem to be asking applicants about the interview or application process in the interviews I have reports on, which is something they were doing for a while. So while I still suggest being prepared for that topic, it seems like it is not coming up, at least very much.
Finally, keep in mind that while I have just stated the above trends, they can always change. And this why it is important to prepare for the full range of questions that HBS asks.
For information about how I can help you prepare for interviews, see here. My client results and testimonials can be found here.
-Adam Markus
I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.
There was previously no lifetime limit. Now there is. I guess this means that GMAT prep instructors will not be able to keep on taking GMAT. Most applicants never take it 5 times let alone 8 times. However, if someone applies for MBA programs and the comes back to it a few years later, they could easily take GMAT 8 times. Fortunately, there is the GRE!
-Adam Markus
I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.
In this post I will discuss the Class of 2019 MBA application admissions essays for the MIT Sloan School of Management. You can see the my client results and testimonials here.
Before analyzing MIT Sloan School of Management MBA Essays for Fall 2017 entry, I think it is important to take a look at MIT Sloan’s motto:
MIT is well know for transforming theory into practice and this is certainly true of its business school. In my experience those who can effectively demonstrate how and why they share this “core idea” are most likely to be accepted. I also suggest looking at an interview I conducted with members of the Class of 2011 and Class of 2013. For those interested in the LGO Program, I suggest taking a look at this blog by a member of the Class of 2012. For those who can read Japanese, I suggest looking at http://ningsquared.hotcom-cafe.com/wordpress/, http://web.mit.edu/sloanjapan/101/index.html and Kaz’s MIT MBA留学日記 blog. My English language interview with Kaz is here. If you are able to, I suggest visiting campus or attending a Sloan-on-the-Road event. Click here for the full list of admissions events.
ESSAYS
MIT has one required essay (a cover letter) and an optional essay. If you are invited for an interview, there will be another essay to write. The cover letter is new this year but a return to a format that MIT asked for many years. The optional esssay and additional interview invite essay are the same as in previous years.
THE COVER LETTER
Cover Letters accompany resumes and it is reasonable that MIT’s website put the two together:
Regarding the resume, like many schools, MIT only wants one page. Yes, you might have 10 years of experience, two or three degrees, great extracurriculars, publications, etc. but your job is communicate the best stuff in 1 page. Also note that the MIT application form does not provide additional space for discussing things in detail. Their application is one of the easiest to complete, which is the total opposite of HBS and Stanford. Anything you want MIT to know in order to determine whether to invite you for an interview really needs to be in the Cover Letter, Resume, or Optional Essay.
The Cover Letter to Rod Garcia: Back to Old Classic at 50% Length
Unitl removing the cover letter for 2014 entry, it had been a part of the application process for many years. Now it is back but instead of being 500 words is now 250.
Keep in mind that great cover letters result in job interviews. The purpose of a cover letter is accompany a resume. In MIT’s case the cover letter does not only accompany the resume, but the whole MBA application. Still, assume the point of this cover letter is to get you an interview! How will your cover letter standout? If you don’t know how to do a US-style cover letter, you need to learn. Use Google!
MIT specifically requires that you write a 250-word maximum essay in the form of a cover letter that will convince them why you belong at MIT Sloan. I think it is critical that you really are well-informed about Sloan, so in addition to making full use of standard admissions information, please take a look at MIT Sloan Management Review and listen to the MIT Sloan Management School of Management Podcast (available on iTunes).
The essay should be focused on highlighting your accomplishments, but clearly you can’t cover them in any great detail in the space provided. My suggestion is that you tell a story about yourself and why you fit at MIT Sloan that incorporates some of your key accomplishments. If you can touch on about 3-4 key selling points while actually making an argument for why you belong at MIT Sloan, you will have done a good job.
Focus on your accomplishments, but also reveal how your passions, values, and interests show why you belong at Sloan. If you can answer the following questions in a convincing manner you will be on the right track:
1. Why do you fit at Sloan? In other words how do your accomplishments/values/experiences show why you fit at MIT Sloan? 2. What do you want to learn at Sloan? Why? The more specific, the better.
3. What motivates you and how does this relate to what you can learn at and contribute to Sloan? Your contributions also relate to your accomplishments.
4. Can you briefly state what your values are? That is to say, what are your core beliefs that are likely to provide Rod Garcia and his colleagues with a better understanding about what kind of person you are?
You will notice that I have specifically not included post-MBA career goals in the above questions. That is because your cover letter should not focus on such goals. It should focus on why you want to go to Sloan. They are judging you based on what you have done as indicator of what you are likely to be capable of in the future. They are also judging you on your ability to effectively explain why you you belong at MIT Sloan. If you have attended Sloan-on-the-Road event or visited the campus, you probably heard from admissions that MIT does not ask for the sort of standard goals essays that almost all other schools ask for. Honestly this one of the things I love about this school. Admissions knows applicants are going to figure out what they want to do after they start an MBA program, so they think the question is absurd. Having seen what happens to my clients once they graduate, I ca n say that MIT is often right about this: Many never do what they write in their essays. This is in no way intended as a criticism of my past clients. I tell this to all my clients so that they can relax and just simply concentrate on making sure that their goals are solid without having to think that these absolutely must be their real goals. Just as long they are comfortable with their goals as one possible future and can be convincing both on paper and in an interview, that is enough. Still, goals questions are useful if you are trying to determine someone’s vision and their ability to actually put together a plan (think business plan). Of course, a goals essay is simply the standard sort of essay that all kinds of graduate programs require. For other schools, think of them as a formal requirement that simply has to be met.
Given that you have only 250 words, you really need to think very carefully about the most important things you want Rod and his colleagues to know about you.
Given the completely open ended nature of this additional information, I think the important thing to really consider first is what you think they need to know about you. Again don’t write a career goals essay or an essay totally focused on why you want to go to MIT Sloan. Instead tell them more about you in whatever format you want.
While it is surely possible to discuss problematic issues here as would be typical for the optional essay of another school, I would only do that if absolutely necessary and in conjunction with something more positive.
To be honest, I have found a creative essay to be as effective as a multimedia presentation, which you could surely do with this. If you think you can answer the question most effectively by writing an essay, just do that. A creative essay means one that does not appear to be an answer to another school’s question, but is uniquely made for MIT.
Regarding time, try to give yourself significant time before the deadline if you are going to make anything from scratch. In my experience, most successful versions for answering this kind question take more time and drafts. Of course, some applicants can do it right quickly (or might have to do it quickly), but since you are trying to make a positive impact on MIT admissions by helping them understand more about you, you certainly want to put together something effective.
One very common initial error with this question is to focus on being creative at the exclusion of thinking about the purpose: to provide more information about you that MIT should know because you think it will increase your chance of admission. It may be creative, but make sure that MIT admissions knows you better after they read/view/listen to your presentation. It is your job to provide a sufficiently clear message regardless of the way you present yourself.
Some Questions to get you brainstorming:
1. What do you want MIT Admissions to know about you that would positively impact your chances for admission?
2. What major positive aspects of who you are have not been effectively INTERPRETED to the admissions committee in other parts of the application?
3. Beyond what you have discussed in the cover letter, what would you tell someone about yourself to create a strong first impression?
4. If there was one story about yourself that you think would really help admissions understand you and
want to admit you, what is it?
5. Do you have a personal interest (painting, video, photography, and poetry for example) that would work effectively?
6. Is there some aspect of MIT Sloan that itself really relates to you? What about my career goals and what kinds of classes I want to take? My clients sometimes have the urge to tell MIT about career goals or why MIT, but they are not asking for these details here. Actually, except for some interviews, MIT never asks about career goals. Admissions is very clear about stating that they assume your goals will change and that you are going to MIT to figure out what you really want to do. That has always been their message when applicants asked in the past why there was no career goals essay. You need to align yourself with MIT, so you might find it necessary or useful to mention something specific there in this essay, but only do so if such content really helps to tell your story.
Given the open-ended nature of the question, I am sure my questions above don’t cover all possibilities, but I hope they are a good start to getting you thinking.
MIT used this question last year in a longer format which may have involved multiple examples. In this case, those fortunate enough to be called for an interview will only need to write about a single topic.
We can break this into a number of possible topics that relate to MIT Sloan’s mission, which I will break into three categories:
1. Describe a time when you were principled. While this might simply mean discussing a time when you were ethical in terms of a decision or action you took, it could also relate to a situation when you convinced others (a boss, a colleague, a team, an organization, etc.) based on position you held. Being principled might mean ethical, but also relates to ones professional ideas or even perceptions of the world. To be principled means to stand up for what you believe in.
2. Describe a time when you were innovative. Think of situations were you were creative, original, or otherwise made a positive impact by doing something new. Maybe you were innovative in your approach to solving a problem, but this could be about many possible topics. For example, describing a time when you improved something, invented something, established a new best practice, or formulated a new idea.
3. Describe a time when you showed leadership. Think of situations when you actively lead as a thought leader, team leader, supervisor, decider, and/or convincer. Leadership takes many forms. Leadership is no easy thing. Nor is it obvious. The worst possible thing is to conceive of leadership as simple formal responsibility or a title because this conveys nothing about the person in that position. While some applicants will have held formal leadership positions, many will not. Formal leadership positions are great to write about if they involve the applicant actually having significant impact, making a difficult decision, being a visionary, showing creativity, or otherwise going beyond their formal responsibility, but the same is true for those showing leadership without having a formal title. If you are having difficulty really understanding leadership, find out what kind of leader you are by taking this quiz based on Lewin’s classic framework. I think leadership is more complicated than Lewin’s framework, but this quiz is a great way to get you started thinking about yourself, a key part of answering any leadership essay question effectively.
Ideally it would be great to have a story that combines all three of the above aspects, but don’t worry if it does not. For example, if you find your story focuses on being principled rather than innovative, I would not necessarily abandon that story. The point is to give MIT an understanding of you as a person sufficient for them to understand why you fit at MIT Sloan.
Finally, given that this essay is being asked as part of your interview, assume that whatever you write about you may need to elaborate on in detail in the interviews. I could be wrong about this, but until I read something from MIT admissions indicating otherwise or subsequently get interview reports from my clients or elsewhere indicating otherwise, I assuming that this essay is a part of the interview process. Therefore only write about a topic that you will be comfortable discussing in detail.
Best of luck with your application to the Class of 2019! If you do get to write on the interview invite essay, be sure to read my post on interviewing at MIT Sloan.
-Adam Markus
I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.
In addition to the resume template I make available, Harvard Law School has a great collection of CV templates useful for anyone pursuing graduate studies in law.
For LL.M., you can see other resume templates at the Harvard Law School site. This is a great collection of legal resumes for a variety of purposes. I don’t necessarily think these are better templates than one I suggest, but they do provide a great variety of legal related bullet points which applicants might find useful to review. And as far as template goes, whatever works well is ultimately fine with me. Different formats work well for different applicants, which is the point of the HLS collection.
-Adam Markus
I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.
This post is on the University of Chicago Booth’s MBA application essays for 2016-2017 admission to the Class of 2019. The University of Chicago is a very intellectually serious place. Booth reflects that culture. Not everyone who goes there is an intellectual, but most are quite smart. Your objective is to show you understand yourself, understand what you want to do in the future, and understand why Booth is right for the fight school for you now. You can find testimonials from my 29 clients admitted to Booth here. I would suggest reading the Q&As I conducted with former clients who are members of the Classes of 2013, 2012, 2012, 2011, and 2010 as these interviews will provide you with Booth student perspectives on the program. If you are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, I would especially suggest reading my Q&A with LGBT member of the Class of 2013. I have also written a comparison of Booth and Kellogg in terms of their location and culture, which can be found here.
BOOTH’s NON-ESSAY GOALS STATEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION.
While Booth previously had longer short answers here, which amounted to the length of a full essay, they now provide 250 characters (NOT WORDS) each for the long and short term goals in the application. The questions don’t ask for why you want to go to Booth and there is no place for that here. Tell them in the essay. You can also elaborate further on your goals in your essay if you need to, but depending on what you write about, you might not need to.
For more about writing goals that are both ambitious and visionary, see here. If you are having difficulty formulating your goals, please see my analysis of Columbia Essay 1 as it provides a framework for developing goals.
I have taken this content from the online application:
“Post-MBA
250 characters remaining
250 characters remaining
”
Where to Begin? Start with non-essay goals content above, since whatever you write in the essay should have some connection to it. In general, for any application, starting with the goals always makes sense because what you say in it will impact what you say elsewhere. After all, you want to show how other aspects of who you are will support your goals.
Next: This is really up to you, but I suggest really trying to figure out what specific topics you want to focus in on in the main essay.
Next: Write the Optional Essay and/or Reapplication Essays if you need to.
Finally: After you have written everything, make sure it works as part of your entire application strategy. Review your entire application and think about whether you have presented all aspects of yourself as clearly as possible. Specifically, think about your application meets Chicago Booth’s three central evaluation criteria: curriculum, community, and career.
THE ESSAY
I have taken the essay from the online application.
————————————————————–
“Instructions: Please answer the Full-Time MBA Essay and any other essays that pertain to you.
Full-Time MBA Essay
The following is a collection of shared Booth moments. Choose the moment that best resonates with you and tell us why.
[Note, I am not including these 10 photos and accompanying descriptions but you can get on the online application or on the Booth website]
Choose the format that works for you. Want to illustrate your response visually? Submit a slide presentation. Like to express yourself with words? Write a traditional essay. Use the format that you feel best captures your response, the Admissions Committee has no preference.
Determine your own length. There is no prescribed minimum or maximum length. We trust that you will use your best judgment in determining how long your submission should be, but we recommend that you think strategically about how to best allocate the space.
Technical Guidelines:
File Size: Maximum file size is 16 MB.
Accepted Upload Formats: Acceptable formats are PDF, Word, and PowerPoint. We strongly recommend converting your piece to a PDF file prior to submitting.
Multimedia Restrictions: We will be viewing your submission electronically and in full color, but all submissions will be converted to PDF files, so animation, video, music, etc. will not translate over.
What kind of answers seems to work best? There is no single style of essay or presentation that has worked best in the past. Even very simple "show and tell" style presentations can work if they help admissions understand you and why you should be admitted. That said, I think that answers to this question that make choices about what to present and that are unified by a concept or theme tend to work best. The nature of the prompt this year actually takes the hard work out of that. I try to always get my clients to provide something that stands out and has a unique perspective, which is best conveyed when one takes a distinct point of view and has a clear focus. Some people try to jam everything in their lives onto slides or in an essay. I think this is a very bad idea. Better to provide Booth with a set of clear messages, whether in slide or essay format.
A simple way to outline an answer to the Booth essay question regardless of format.
Step 1: Begin by stating which moment resonates with you. Don’t make the reader have to figure this out. It should be clear from the outset.
Step 2: Provide one reason why the moment selected resonates with you and explain it by referring to something about you in terms of your background, values, goals, skills, selling point, etc.
Step 3 to ?: Repeat Step 2 above for each subsequent step.
What this outline will do is generate a set of ways that you resonate with Booth. I assume that will be more than one way, but hey if you have a great answer, one way might work. That said, the successful versions of this essay I saw last year involved multiple reasons (usually 3-5 reasons).
General Advice Tell them about you, but don’t focus on what they can find elsewhere in the application. I think they are looking for a meaningful assessment of your personality. I use the word “meaningful” because it does not necessarily require logic or analysis to do so. For example, an image with some kind of description may provide Chicago Booth with great insight into who you are. Since Chicago is specifically being “non-traditional,” you certainly can be also so long as you answer the question. On the other hand, you might find a typical interpretative structure better for you, in which case I suggest you think seriously about writing an essay.
Some Questions to get you brainstorming: 1. What do you want Chicago to know about you that would positively impact your chances for admission? 2. What major positive aspects of your life have not been effectively INTERPRETED to the admissions committee in other parts of the application? 3. If you were going to tell admissions 3-5 things about you that would not be obvious from rest of the application, what would they be? Why should Booth care? 4. If there was one story about yourself that you think would really help admissions understand you and want to admit you, what is it? 5. Do you have a personal interest (painting for example) that would work effectively in a PowerPoint? 6. If you have a sense of humor and/or creativity, how can you express it here?
7. Why did you want to apply to Booth to begin with? What do you like about the school?
8. How can you reinterpret one or more of the Booth moments in a way that would be counter-intuitive and interesting? As you can see, these questions would lead to very different kinds of responses. There is no one way to answer this question, but I believe there are right ways for every applicant to do so. Finally, think big and be creative. To answer this one effectively will take time unless you already have content from an another school that will work here, but if you want to get into Chicago Booth, put in the time. Make sure your essay does not look like it was written for a different school.
Some Common Questions I Get Asked About Presentations The content below specifically relates to making a slide presentation based answer.
1. If I make a presentation is this a test of PowerPoint Skills? No. I think it is a test of your ability to prepare a very simple presentation about yourself. Remember that you are preparing slides for a presentation and unlike a presentation that you would deliver, you are not able to take full advantage of what PowerPoint can do. In fact, for anyone who has actually is good at PowerPoint, they may find it necessary to compromise on their aesthetics and technical skills in order to most effectively answer the question. Especially those who believe in providing a minimal amount of content per slide will likely find it necessary to increase the amount of content they include. As someone who previously made the transition from text heavy slides to minimalist ones when delivering sales and marketing presentations, I know that if I had to answer this question, I would have to compromise on what I consider to be my own best practices for making PowerPoint slides.</ p>
2) In your opinion, should one use a minimalistic approach involving images to convey one’s ideas? I think this will really depend on you. The important thing is to effectively convey something important about who you are to the admissions committee. If that can be done effectively with more images that is great, if it can be done effectively with minimal or no images that is also great. The important thing is that your reader understands the significance of any images you use. Luckily, you have the notes for that purpose. Just as in “real” PowerPoints, images or any graphic element can be used effectively or badly. Always ask yourself, “Why am I using this image? Does it really help them understand me?” If it does, keep it. If it is mere decoration, think about eliminating it or replacing it with something that will have a positive impact on Chicago’s ability to understand who you are.
3) Would a little bit of humor do good e.g. a cartoon? I think humor can be used effectively. You must practice extremely good judgment when using humor for any application. Don’t make a joke simply to make one. Use humor if it is effective in conveying something that will compel admissions to want to interview you. I have had a number of clients who successfully used humor in their presentations for Chicago Booth.
Re-applicant Essay: Upon reflection, how has your perspective regarding your future, Chicago Booth, and/or getting an MBA changed since the time of your last application? (300 words maximum)
Unlike some schools, the reapplicant essay and optional essay are different. (Note: You will not see the Reapplicant Essay online on the essay page unless you have already clicked that you are a reapplicant on the “Chicago Booth and You” page). Booth wants all reapplicants to write this essay regardless of the number of years ago that someone applied. Use this space to specifically explain what has improved about you since you last applied. You can certainly mention improved test scores, but I would not use every much of your word count for that. Typical topics include the development of a new skill, promotions that demonstrate your potential for future success, involvement in an extracurricular activity, learning significantly more about Booth, and why your goals discussed in Essay 1 now are better than the ones you presented last time.
An effective answer here will do the following:
1. Showcase what has changed since your last application that now makes you a better candidate.
2. Refine your goals. I think it is reasonable that they may have altered since your last application, but if the change is extreme, you had better explain why.
3. Make a better case for why Booth is right for you.
Optional Essay: Is there any additional information that you would like the Admissions Committee to know? If so, please address in an optional essay. (300-word maximum)
This question is completely open-ended. I highly recommend using it discuss something positive as well as any concerns you may have that cannot be addressed in the application form. Your first priority should be to use it explain any problems or concerns you have. Your second priority should be to discuss that one additional story or specific facts that Booth really needs to know about you.Use this answer to provide admissions with another reason to invite you to a Booth interview. Make sure your answer does not look like it was written for another school, but feel free to use this in any way that you need or want to.
For my post on Booth admissions interviews, see here.
-Adam Markus
I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.
