Wharton MBA Fall 2008 Essay Questions & Tokyo Event

Click here for my Fall 2009 (Class of 2011) essay analysis.


UPDATE AS OF 2/8/2008: I will not change my comments below regarding the ethics of Wharton because I think it is important that readers know what I had thought. I stand by my analysis of the essay questions, but given recent events, completely renounce my statements regarding the ethics of the admissions office. Wharton is a great school, but should have been better served by that office. I hope that corrective action is taken at PENN by those who should know better.


I should disclose that I have a bias for the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business, not only because of the great clients I have worked with who attend/have attended there, but because of the very open nature of Wharton's admissions process. As someone who believes strongly that the only ethical approach to admissions is one based on providing applicants with complete information about a transparent process, I consider Wharton's admissions practices a yardstick by which to measure other schools. Click here to learn more about Wharton's admissions process.

Wharton's Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, Thomas Caleel, gave an extensive presentation in Tokyo on September 26, 2007 that was a further demonstration of the very honest and applicant friendly approach that is the hallmark of this school's process.

I mention all of this because I think with Wharton, they are not engaged in trying to stump applicants. To paraphrase what Mr. Caleel said about his own approach to interview questions (he conducts admissions interviews including Tokyo hub interviews), "I ask easy questions that are hard to answer." I think this is equally true of Wharton's essays. They are not trick questions, but that does not make them easy to answer.

First, here is the entire set of questions:

Essay 1 (Required)
Describe your career progress to date and your future short-term and long-term career goals. How do you expect a Wharton MBA to help you achieve these goals, and why is now the best time for you to join our program? (1,000 words)

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)

Essay 3 (Required)
Tell us about a situation in which you were an outsider. What did you learn from the experience? (500 words)

Essay 4 (Required)
Please Complete One Of The Following Two Questions:

1. Where in your background would we find evidence of your leadership capacity and/or potential? (500 words)
2. Is there anything about your background or experience that you feel you have not had the opportunity to share with the Admissions Committee in your application? If yes, please explain. (500 words)

Essay 5 (Optional)
If you feel there are extenuating circumstances of which the Committee should be aware, please explain them here (e.g., unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, TOEFL waiver request, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, significant weaknesses in your application). (250 words)

In total you will need to write at least 2500 words. Keep in mind that Wharton is flexible about word count:

Essay length? We often get asked about essay length, specifically whether it is OK to go over the number of words suggested. Recognize we do not count words (this would take longer than actually reading the essay), nor does our online system count words (and therefore does not truncate the essay at the specific limit etc.)

+/- 10% is going to be fine (and remain unnoticed). Any more than this and it may become an issue as writing succinctly is a skill that is useful in business and business school. You should also realize your readers are reading multiple essays from multiple applicants so writing long essays is not likely to be a positive.

The exceptions to the above may be if you have a more unusual background (by business school standards) and feel you have a little more to explain (about your less traditional goals, experience etc.) In this case you may need to explain the nature of your experiences in more detail, but this does not give you the license to write at will!

I don't think there is a case where it makes sense to write much less than the suggested word count as the essays are going to be an important component to your application and should be used as such.

Summary: Over or under by 10% is fine. In exceptional cases, more than 10% is fine. Say everything you need to say, but use good judgment.

I frequently have applicants start with Wharton because it is flexible on word count and because the essays that you write for Wharton will be helpful for other applications as well.

Essay 1 (Required)
Describe your career progress to date and your future short-term and long-term career goals. How do you expect a Wharton MBA to help you achieve these goals, and why is now the best time for you to join our program? (1,000 words)
At the Tokyo event, Mr. Caleel made it very clear that applicants should answer the entire question, but it does not need to be answered in any particular order. The question breaks down into the following components:
1. Describe your career progress to date.
2. Describe your future short-term career goals.
3, Describe your future long-term career goals.
4. How do you expect a Wharton MBA to help you achieve these goals?
5. Why is now the best time for you to join our program?

I will not provide much further analysis of this question, but instead, I suggest taking look at my analysis of Chicago GSB Essay 1. If you are having difficulty formulating your goals, please see this post. Regarding learning about Wharton, there is little reason for me to discuss that as you can easily learn about by visiting the Wharton website and their truly excellent MBA Admissions Blog!

ESSAY 2: You can read my already posted analysis of Essay 2 here.

Essay 3 (Required)
Tell us about a situation in which you were an outsider. What did you learn from the experience? (500 words)
This is a very open-ended question that admissions can use to understand how you relate to other people. When thinking about this essay, I suggest you focus on a positive situation where you...
(1) learned how to become an insider;
(2)maintained your status as an outsider, but learned something important about yourself;
(3) maintained your status as an outsider, but learned something important about the group you were outside of;
(4) demonstrate an understanding of group dynamics;
(5) demonstrate cultural sensitivity;
(6) demonstrate self-awareness;
(7) demonstrate the ability to integrate yourself into a new situation and have impact;
(8) demonstrate knowledge about the group/place you were outside of;
AND/OR
(9) demonstrate your independence by embracing the status of outsider in order to have impact, preserve your own ethical standards, and/or position.

My suggestions are inherently abstract because of the many possible ways of positively writing this essay. I don't suggest writing about a failure or setback here because you will have already addressed that topic in Essay 2. As I mention in my analysis of the HBS essays, it is possible to use the same content for Wharton 3 and HBS 3b depending on your choice of topics.

Essay 4 1. Where in your background would we find evidence of your leadership capacity and/or potential? (500 words)
Please see How to write an MBA Leadership Essay. The guidance I provide in that post applies to this question. Unlike the HBS question, you don't necessarily have to focus on a single story, but most applicants will in order to provide a fully developed example.

Essay 4. 2. Is there anything about your background or experience that you feel you have not had the opportunity to share with the Admissions Committee in your application? If yes, please explain. (500 words)
This question is exactly the same as HBS 3f. You should use this essay to focus on an important part of who you are that will help convince Wharton that you belong there. I will provide a more extensive analysis of this question in a future post.

Essay 5 (Optional)
If you feel there are extenuating circumstances of which the Committee should be aware, please explain them here (e.g., unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, TOEFL waiver request, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, significant weaknesses in your application). (250 words)
See my post on Chicago GSB's optional question as what I wrote there, applies here as well. At his Tokyo presentation, Mr. Caleel specifically encouraged applicants to use this space if they need to because it is better to tell him the reason then to make him guess. Given that he reads all the applications, I suggest doing so IF YOU NEED TO. Don't write anything if you have no concerns.

Question? Comment or write me at adammarkus@gmail.com
-Adam Markus
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How to write an MBA Leadership Essay

You can find my analysis for Fall 2009 Admission here.

In this post, I will specifically refer to Harvard Business School Essay 3a for Fall 2008: Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development. How did this experience highlight your strengths and weaknesses?

HBS is about leadership. The HBS mission statement makes that clear: The mission of Harvard Business School is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. As such HBS places a very high premium on applicants' leadership potential:
A Habit of Leadership
We recognize—and welcome—leadership that may be expressed in many forms, from college extracurricular activities to academic or business achievements, from personal accomplishments to community commitments. We appreciate leadership on any scale as well, from organizing a classroom to directing a combat squad, from running an independent business to spearheading initiatives at work. In essence, we are looking for evidence of your potential — a portfolio of experiences, initiatives, and accomplishments that reflect a habit of leadership.
Harvard thus has a very open-ended conception of leadership, but they are rigid in the necessity that applicants demonstrate it. I think this is true for other schools to a varying extent as well. For example, like HBS, "INSEAD is looking for applicants who can demonstrate their potential as leaders." Even if a set of business school essay questions does not necessarily explicitly ask for you to show leadership, it had better be expressed.

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, in fact, have held formal leadership positions, many will not have.

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, I have a few suggestions.

First, one great place to read about leadership, and business in general, is Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. The last time I checked there were 159 articles on leadership posted there.

Second, 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.

Third, if you have not done so, I suggest reading relevant essays in 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays: With Analysis by the Staff of the Harbus, The Harvard Business School Newspaper. Reading through the essays on leadership should help you to understand the great diversity of topics that are possible.

OK, now that we have grounded ourselves in understanding the importance of leadership and begun to develop some possible leadership stories, how does one proceed?

I have developed the following grid to help you outline your leadership story. The categories this grid employs may go beyond any particular schools essay requirements. Filling it out completely will help you write about your leadership in a way that will help convince admissions of your leadership potential.
CLICK TO ENLARGE. EMAIL me at adammarkus@gmail.com if you want the original excel version.

How to use the grid:
1. Decide a specific story
2. Identify the most significant things you did in the situation, these are you action steps.
3. For each action step identify
a. What skills or qualities you demonstrated to complete this step.
b. The strengths and/or weaknesses you demonstrated to complete this step.
c. The kind of leadership you demonstrated.
d. What you still need to learn about leadership.
4. Think about the results and identify how they relate to your action steps.
5. After completing the chart you will see that some aspects of your action steps maybe repeated. If there is a total duplication and nothing new is shown, you need to try and think more. Either you need to redefine the action step or you may decide not to focus on it very much.
6. Once you think you have two to four fully worked-out action steps, start writing your essay. In the initial draft get everything in.
7. Next start re-writing. Eliminate duplicate points made between action steps. Make choices about what parts of each action to step to highlight. Given that there are usually word limits, you will have to some decisions.
8. Finalize. For purposes of HBS question 3a- Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development. How did this experience highlight your strengths and weaknesses?- ask yourself the following questions (the questions you ask at this stage will vary depending on the exact wording of the essay):

1. Is this essay about one experience? That is to say, one story?
2. Why is this a defining experience? What does your essay really reveal about you?
3. What strengths as a leader have you discussed?
4. What weaknesses as a leader have you discussed?

Finally, thinking and writing about leadership is an important part of preparing for interviews because you can be certain that you will have to talk about leadership.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.

-Adam Markus
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HBS Essays: Choices! And easier too! (updated)

You can find my analysis for Fall 2009 Admission (Class of 2011) to HBS here.

This is the first in a series of posts on the Harvard Business School MBA Application Essays for the Class of 2010. Click for further analysis of Essay 2 and Essay 3a.
It is rather obvious that the questions an MBA program asks you reflect its admissions strategies. This is as true for the Harvard Business School as for any other school. For example when HBS introduced the following question in 2005, it was directly connected to an effort to recruit younger applicants:
3 c. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?
This question is obviously ideal for a graduating senior or someone with 1 or 2 years of work to answer. Given the emphasis that HBS puts on academic ability, it is no surprise that they ask this question. For those who have been out of school for a while or would prefer to emphasize other aspects of their background, this question was not perceived as an ideal one to have to answer. Now luckily it need not be answered because HBS has now introduced a choice of questions into its application. Of course, many schools have done this for a long time. For example, Kellogg has consistently given applicants one or more essays where they have had a choice of topics.

HBS, for the last several years has been considered a hard application by many, not principally because of the lack of choice of which questions to answer, but because of the difficulty of some the questions as well as the word count limits. In particular, the question I just mentioned and a question on ethical issues you expect to encounter in in your professional future were considered quite difficult. The ethical issues question has now been removed entirely. However looking over the present set of questions, I don't think any of them can be described as difficult.

THE TWO MANDATORY QUESTIONS
All applicants will have to answer the two mandatory questions in this essay set. The fact that these two questions are mandatory indicates that HBS wanted to have a common point of comparison for all applicants based on these two topics. As you will see, HBS does not ask the "Why MBA?" question as one of these two. It may initially seem that the choice of these two is arbitrary, but it most certainly is not.

1. What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)
HBS has asked this question for a very long time. According to 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays, "This is one of those essays that is probably a permanent fixture in the HBS application (p. 121)." I think the reason HBS has made this one of the mandatory questions is quite simple:
-Accomplishments reveal your potential to succeed at HBS and afterwards.
-Accomplishments reveal your potential for contributing to your classmates.
-Everyone has had accomplishments, so it is easy to compare applicants.
-What you consider to be an accomplishment are real tests of your self-awareness and judgment.

2. What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)
This second mandatory question has been asked by HBS and many other schools. Note the use of the word "mistake" and not "failure." Mistake is much more broad category that includes failure. I think using the word mistake takes into account that some people simply have not experienced outright meaningful failure, but we all have erred whether intentionally or otherwise. The reason I think it is included is because learning from mistakes is a core part of what case study analysis is about. Please click here for more about Essay 2.

CHOICES
3. Please respond to three of the following (400-word limit each)


a. Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development. How did this experience highlight your strengths and weaknesses?
I know that some will say that since HBS is all about leadership, you should write Essay 3a. Now 3a is most certainly a classic MBA essay topic and one that in various forms has been a part of the HBS application for a very long time. I would say that 3a is not necessary to write if you have sufficiently demonstrated your leadership potential elsewhere, especially in 1. IN ANY EVENT, IF YOU APPLY TO HBS YOU SHOULD READ MY DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THIS QUESTION BECAUSE DEMONSTRATING LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL IS CRITICAL AT HBS. However, since you will likely have to write on this topic for other schools and will most certainly need to be ready to discuss it in an interview, I think it is great to write on if you have a strong topic. Keep in mind that a defining experience need not be an accomplishment, but given that you are already writing about a mistake in Essay 2, if you decide to write about any sort of failure here, you should make sure that it is quite distinct from what you write in Essay 2 and that your overall essay set focuses effectively on your potential.

b. How have you experienced culture shock?
This is a new question for HBS, but a very standard for European MBA programs like HEC, INSEAD, and London Business School. This question really tests ones potential to succeed in new or challenging environments: International experience and experience in unusual places would demonstrate this. Another would be your ability to handle a difficult social environment. If you are also applying to the University of Pennslyvania, it would certainly be efficient if you have a topic that will work for both the HBS question and Wharton's Tell us about a situation in which you were an outsider. What did you learn from the experience?

c. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?
I have already partially addressed this question above. I think that this question is great for any applicant who learned something valuable in their undergraduate academic program. You don't need a high GPA to answer this one and in fact those who don't have a high GPA, but actually did something meaningful as part of their program of study, should consider writing on this to help mitigate the impact of a weak GPA.
d. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?
As with Essay 3a, I think some will say that you must write on this topic. While I think it is important that the MBA Admissions Board understand what motivates you, I don't believe that you necessarily have to answer this question to tell them that. While many applicants are likely to want to answer this question, if you want to set yourself apart from the pack, don't do it unless your answer is really very compelling. The reason they made it optional is because they don't want to read standard obligatory goals essays. That said, you still need to have very clear goals. Whether you write on this question or not, I strongly suggest taking a look at my three previous posts on goals: (1) (2) (3).

e. What global issue is most important to you and why?
Again, a new question for HBS. This one, like Essay 3c. is ideal for recent graduates. Anyone should be able to write on this topic, but obviously it is ideal for anyone with a serious record of commitment to a global issue. It is also an alternative space for discussing goals if your goals relate to a global issue.

f. What else would you like the MBA Admissions Board to understand about you?
The mother of all choice questions! Here you can write about anything that you think the Board really needs to know. While I will discuss this one in greater detail, I would say that you should avoid using this as a typical optional question like Chicago GSB's optional question. Instead use this question as another way to help HBS understand you and to become convinced that you belong there.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.
-Adam Markus
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MBA留学

Fall 2008 MBA "Failure Essay Quesions"

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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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 regental item, total fees for Boalt will spike to $30,931 in 2008-09 and could reach $40,906 in 2010-11, up from $26,897 this year.

Total fees for the Haas graduate program will jump to $30,913 in the coming year and could hit $40,882 by 2010-11, up from this year’s $26,881.

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
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