July 17, 2025

Wharton MBA Essay Questions for the Class of 2028

 In this post, I analyze the essay questions for the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for Fall 2026 admission. For my most recent posts on Wharton interviews, please see here.

 

My clients have been admitted to Wharton every year since 2002. Since I started my own counseling service in 2007, I have had 103 clients admitted to Wharton's MBA program (88 admitted to Wharton, 1 to Wharton Deferred and 14 admitted to Wharton Lauder). My clients' results and testimonials can be found here.

 

The thing I like most about Wharton is that they really do admit a very diverse class. The class size certainly helps, but beyond that, Wharton is a school where applicants are evaluated holistically and one need not be perfect to gain admission. Such factors as a less than stellar GPA, a less than super GMAT or GRE, being older (30+) or work experience in companies that are not necessarily prestigious are not inherent barriers to admission to Wharton's MBA program.  I have worked with clients who had such issues, but also had amazing strengths which helped them gain admission. This could also happen at HBS or only rarely at Stanford, but it happens more at Wharton. The school's diversity is also shown through the range of courses offered and the many international programs. Some people think of Wharton narrowly as a finance school, but to do so is to ignore the huge course catalog, numerous clubs, and diverse recruiting results.

 

 The deadlines are Round 1: Sep 3, 2025, Round 2: Jan 6, 2026, and Round 3: Apr 1, 2026.  

 

 

Big Changes to the Wharton Essays for the Class of 2028:

-Instead of writing 900 words max for Essay 1 and 2, you now have 550.

-Essay 1 is divided into 2 short goals questions with a total word count of 200 words. The Wharton related part of the question has been deleted:

"Essay 1: Two short-form questions
Essay 1 has been restructured into two short-answer questions, allowing candidates to focus exclusively on their professional goals.

  • What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (50 words)
  • What are your career goals for the first three to five years after completing your MBA, and how will those build towards your long-term professional goals? (150 words)"

-Essay 2 is unchanged in terms of content but is now 350 instead of 400 words long:

"Essay 2: Long-form essay
Essay 2 remains a long-form response but has been refined to center on the impact you’ll bring to the Wharton community, rather than how you’ll spend your time while in the program.

  • Taking into consideration your background – personal, professional, and/or academic – how do you plan to add meaningful value to the Wharton community? (350 words)"

-The Recommendation requirements have also changed: Wharton no longer has its own questions but is using  GMAC's The Common Letter of Recommendation (LOR) and only wants one recommendation. This is big change because Wharton rec questions were totally different from the rest of the M7 and other US MBA programs.  This is very helpful to both applicants and their recommenders.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  1. They are focused on your professional goals and wanted them stated clearly.
  2. They want to know how you will contribute to Wharton.
  3. They DON'T want to know about overall plan for studying at Wharton and how that relates to your goals unless it is relationship to how you can contribute.
  4. Given the very limited length of the essay set, your resume, which is always critical for any school, and the application form content as well as the recommendation are major ways they will be learning about you.
  5. Except for Essay 2, this is extremely simple and fast application to complete if you are applying to other MBA programs and if this is not the first essay set you are working on.

 

 

"Essay 1: Two short-form questions
Essay 1 has been restructured into two short-answer questions, allowing candidates to focus exclusively on their professional goals.

  • What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (50 words)
  • What are your career goals for the first three to five years after completing your MBA, and how will those build towards your long-term professional goals? (150 words)"

If you have not written goals statements for other schools, this will be an extremely easy task. If you need to brainstorm goals, please see my Stanford or CBS posts.

 

 

What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (50 words)

Write as directly as possible what job you want immediately after graduating from Wharton.  Keep it simple and to the point. They are not really asking about why this is your goal, but rather what it is. They are not looking for a deep story here, just a direct and simple plan. Given the current job market, you better have a plan that makes them think you can achieve it.

 

 

What are your career goals for the first three to five years after completing your MBA, and how will those build towards your long-term professional goals? (150 words)"

They want you to connect what you will have done in the short-term (3-5 years) after your MBA to your long-term professional goals. In other words, what skills, experiences, network, etc. will you have gained in the short-term that will put you on the pathway to reaching your long-term professional goals and what are those goals?An effective answer will establish the connection to your short-term and long-term goals, explain what you will have gained in the short-term, and explain your long-term goals. While this is a very short essay, I would devote a sentence to explaining the reason/motivation for your long-term goals in about a sentence.

 

 

"Essay 2: Long-form essay
Essay 2 remains a long-form response but has been refined to center on the impact you’ll bring to the Wharton community, rather than how you’ll spend your time while in the program.

  • Taking into consideration your background – personal, professional, and/or academic – how do you plan to add meaningful value to the Wharton community? (350 words)"

 

WHAT CAN YOU GIVE TO THE WHARTON COMMUNITY?

 

I have been an MBA admissions consultant since 2001 and the contribution question is one that I could explain to a client in my sleep.  I have done it on this blog many times before. Here is one of my old (2008) favorites, which includes a table that I have also used below.

One of the chief functions of an MBA admissions committee is to select people who will add value to the community.  The director and the rest of the committee have done their job properly if they have selected students who can work well together, learn from each other, and if these students become alum who value the relationships they initially formed at business school. Your contribution(s) need to clearly connected to the community. Maybe it will be through the way you work with others, the knowledge you share, or the activities you organize but make sure the reader can fully understand how this be a contribution at Wharton.  You should know enough about the Wharton community to show specific ways you might contribute.

Within the context of the Wharton application, Essay 2 is really one of the important places to show why you will add value to Wharton.  One way, I like to think about contribution questions is to use a table like the following:

CONTRIBUTIONSIs it a personal, professional or academic experience?What skill, value, or unique experience is being showcased?So what will you contribute  to the Wharton community?Is this special? Why?
Story 1:    
Story 2:    
Story 3:    
adammarkus@gmail.com. Free to use, contact me if you republish it.    

I use the above table for all types of contribution questions, modifying the categories to fit the question.  What this kind of table does is force you to think about exactly how something from your background is meaningful enough to add value at Wharton.

ADVICE:

  1. Tell your best story or stories that highlight how you will add value at Wharton.  Help the reader understand what is special about you, about the story you tell, and the contribution you make.
  2. You need to learn about a lot about Wharton. Talk to alumni and current students, attend online chats, and dig through the website and otherwise.  Google and network your way into Wharton expertise in order to be able to have really deep contributions. It is one of the schools that requires knowing a lot about it through networking with current students and alumni as well as looking at the program in depth. Wharton wants to be loved. It suffers from an HBS and Stanford inferiority complex. Comparatively speaking, the amount of engagement you should have with this school is very high compared to the rest of the M7 except CBS because this essay requires a significant understanding of how you will contribute to Wharton. For more about this issue, see How much do I really need to know about an MBA program to prepare a strong application for it? It varies!  It provides a comprehensive guide to this issue for Wharton, the rest of the M7, and many other top schools.
  3. With respect to the kind of contributions you make, don't fall into the "Obvious Knowledge Trap."  What do I mean? Here is an example: "As my work on the Tesla/McDonalds Merger and Acquisition shows, I have deep knowledge of  finance and accounting which I will use to help my classmates without a finance background." This topic is bad for a number of reasons. First, that you have such knowledge will be obvious from your resume, application form and/or transcripts, so it is better to focus on something that the reader will not already know about you. Second just sharing knowledge is not enough, better to focus on how you would do that. For example, instead of writing about your knowledge of a topic, write about how you helped others learn something and how you will use that to make a contribution at Wharton. Then specify the Wharton specific context (Classes, clubs, activities, Learning Teams) where you will make that contribution.

 

SPECIFIC ESSAY 2 REQUIREMENTS: Since the question calls for contributions, my suggestion is to include at least two contributions.  The question does not indicate how many aspects of your background you need to focus on. So you can focus on one story from your background or multiple stories. In 350 words, I think 3 topics would be a maximum from your background to focus on but that 2 topics makes more sense.

 

ESSAY STRUCTURE:

It will depend on whether you cover 1 or more topics.   Here are two sample structures that I think are most common:

One Background Topic Essay Structure:

  1. Discuss one personal, academic, or professional story.
  2. Explain one specific and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make at Wharton based on what you do or learn from this story.
  3. Explain another specific and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make at Wharton based on what you do or learn from this story.

Two or Three Background Topic Essay Structure:

  1. Discuss one personal, academic or professional story. Explain at least one specific and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make at Wharton based on what you do or learn from this story.
  2. Discuss another personal, academic or professional story. Explain at least one specific and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make at Wharton based on what you do or learn from this story.
  3. Discuss another personal, academic or professional story. Explain at least one specific and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make at Wharton based on what you do or learn from this story.

Both of the above structures can work well for this kind of essay. It just depends on whether you want to cover one story in depth  and then show two or more contributions from it or show greater diversity of your experience and focus on 2-3 stories.  To tell a story about your background sufficiently and also explain what it shows you will add value at Wharton is very hard to do really effectively in less than 100 words, so 3 topics would be a maximum from my perspective. That said, I will encourage my clients to focus on 2 topics.

 

 

Additional Question (required for all Reapplicants): Please share with the Admissions Committee how you have reflected and grown since your previous application and discuss any relevant updates to your candidacy (e.g., changes in your professional life, additional coursework, extracurricular/volunteer engagements, etc.). (250 words)"

 

Reapplicants, 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 Wharton is right for you.

For more about reapplication, please see "A guide to my resources for reapplicants."

 

"Additional Information: Please use this space to share any additional information about yourself that cannot be found elsewhere in your application. This space should be used to clarify information provided in the application or address extenuating circumstances (e.g., unexplained gaps or inconsistent performance in academic career, choice of recommenders, areas of weakness, etc.) that you would like the Admissions Committee to consider. Please note that this section is not intended to be an additional essay." (500 words)

Use this space to explain anything that can't be explained elsewhere in the application, but as the last sentence indicates they are not looking for an additional essay.  This is a great place to explain your choice of recommenders, a problem in your past (grades, gaps, etc), or to add in information about something you really think Wharton needs to know. It is completely fine to leave this space blank if you have nothing you need to add. This is not the place for a mini-essay on some random accomplishment, but for information or explanations that cannot be included elsewhere.  A list is fine. You don't need to write this like an essay but treat it like an administrative statement. Just fact-based critical information that fits nowhere else and that you want Wharton to consider.

 

Best of luck with your Wharton application for the Class of 2028!

-Adam Markus
at

July 12, 2025

HBS Class of 2028 MBA Admission Application: Joint Degree Application Essays for HKS & SEAS

 This will be a four part series of blog posts on the essays and rest of the application for admission to the Harvard Business School Class of 2028:

-The first post focuses on overall strategy, the 3 essays and the goals statement.

-The second post focuses on the application form questions. It will focus on helping you brainstorm and develop your content.

-The third post focuses on the reapplication essay.

-This forth post is on the joint degree application essays. This post focuses on the HKS and SEAS Joint Degree programs. 

 

My three-part HBS interview prep series starts here.

 

My comprehensive service clients have been admitted to HBS for the Classes of 2027, 2026, 2025,  2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2010, and 2009. My clients' results and testimonials can be found here. In addition to providing comprehensive application consulting on HBS, I regularly help additional candidates with HBS interview preparation.  Since I started my own counseling service in 2007 (worked with many admits from 2001-2007 when I worked for a company), I have worked with 100 successful applicants from Canada, Europe, India, the Middle East, Japan, South Korea, other parts of Asia, and the United States on HBS application. I think that this range of experience has helped me understand the many possible ways of making an effective application to HBS. l I can tell you is that HBS takes a truly diverse range of people. Some had high GPAs and a great GMAT or GRE scores, others had GPAs and scores well below the 80% range for HBS, but what they all had in common were strong personal and professional backgrounds that came out in their essays.

 
 
 
HBS offers a number of Joint Degree programs with the MBA, I am only focusing on the two that I am likely to ever advise clients on.  Unlike Harvard Kennedy School, where I have been helping clients gain admission for over two decades (albeit in small numbers), SEAS is a program that I have only helped a client with once and did not work out post-HBS interview. The app was solid. We still start with  HKS.
 
 
HKS MPP or MPA-ID Joint Degree: How do you expect the joint degree experience to benefit you on both a professional and a personal level? (400 words)
My clients admitted to HKS have include both those admitted to the Joint HBS/HKS program, GSB/HKS program,  and Wharton/HKS Dual Degree program. I have also worked with applicants who were applying only to HKS. HKS provides a very different kind of education from an MBA program, more academic and obviously looking at things through the perspective of public policy, international relations, development studies, etc. For the right candidate, it provides a complementary education to what they will encounter in an MBA program.
 
 
The key challenge of writing this essay is to not duplicate what you write in the HBS essays. Use this essay to explain the synergy that will be gained from doing both degrees. The professional part seems obvious enough (What skills will you gain? What network will you gain? How will it help you with your career objectives?) but the personal part sometimes confounds my clients. I tell them to think about it terms of the perspectives they will gain and from the opportunity to be enriched by a much range of ideas but also by the fact that those who do the HKS Joint Degree are their own tribe and establish close relationships in a very different classroom atmosphere than is offered by HBS. I encourage my clients who apply for this degree to talk with alumni and current students from the program in order to gain these kind of personal insights. Dig into the HKS program either the MPP or MPA-ID and explain why you think it benefit you.
 
 
I think it is especially important that you focus on the synergies created by doing both degrees for your future career. One need not have political ambitions to attend HKS, though that is certainly possible, but may have a large number of reasons for why it makes sense. For example if you are planning to work in a highly regulated industry, work directly with government (such as the case of some consulting firms), or are interested in solving complex public/private issues, HKS could offer what you need in addition to the MBA.
 
 
 
It is important that you well align the content of your Joint Degree Essay, HBS essays, and HKS essays for your own sanity but do keep in mind that your admission to these programs is separate and each program has own its admissions. At least for HKS, I don't believe that applying for the Joint Degree has any significant impact on whether one is admitted to HBS, at least I have never seen anything indicating this.  Which is to say that I don't think applying for the Joint Degree improves or decreases ones chance of admission at HBS.  It is an additional one year commitment, so just make sure you are ready to spend three years in school.
 
 

Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) Joint Degree

Essay Question: The MS/MBA program is focused on design, innovation, and entrepreneurship within a technical/engineering context. Describe your past experiences in these areas and your reasons for pursuing a program with this focus.

(Recommended: 500 words)

Keep in mind that your overall personal background should be in the main HBS MBA essays and not here. Make sure you effectively align the MBA essays, the SEAS essay, and the 500 character goals statement so that they support and don't overly duplicate each other, though some overlap (see below) is inevitable. The SEAS essay consists of two parts:

 

PART 1: Discuss past experiences with design innovation, and/or entrepreneurship within a technical engineering content. If you don't have any past professional, academic, or other experience in any of these areas, the program is not for you.  Assume that you should be spending at least half if not more of the essay providing an analysis of those experiences. Your resume and application form should back-up what you write about in the essay. My suggestion would be to highlight 2-4 specific ways your past experience demonstrates your fit for the program.

 

PART 2: Discuss reasons for pursing the program. The reasons would relate directly to your post-MBA objectives, so there should be some inherent overlap between this essay and what you write in the 500 character goals statement (see below regarding that). You should certainly justify why the program is right for you based on what you can read about on the program website.   I would also suggest reading a Q&A with the program's co-chair. When explaining why you want to attend a program, do not just make a series of dumb lists of classes or tell the program about itself, but explains what you want form the program.   You need not mention the names of particular courses as long as it would be clear to your reader that your learning needs align well with curriculum.  If you have a particular interest in a more specialized course or studying with a particular professor, it might be worth mentioning it as long as it is an explanation of why you want to study the subject and not based on circular reasoning;

 

 An example of circular (tautological) reasoning:  "I want to take Integrated Design because I am interested in learning about integrated design."This kind of circular reasoning is so common. Usually, it takes place within a paragraph consisting of many such sentences. They actually convey nothing about the applicant.  They are just abstract needs and will have limited impact on your reader.  The admissions reader wants to learn about you, not about their own program.
 
 
 An example of an explanation for why:  "While I have been exposed to some user design issues,  I presently lack the kind of comprehensive understanding of design issues that are critical to my future goals...."  A complete explanation would include additional details about the kind of issues that the applicant is interested in learning about and/or specific ways the applicant intended to apply what he or she would learn at Harvard to those goals.  By focusing on very specific learning needs and explaining those needs in relationship to one's goals and/or past experience, the admissions reader will be learning about you.
 
 
Just as with HKS, I would not assume any advantage in terms of admissions outcomes by applying for the SEAS Joint Degree.

 

Best of luck with your application to HBS!

at

HBS Class of 2028 MBA Admission Application: The Reapplication Essay

 This will be a four part series of blog posts on the essays and rest of the application for admission to the Harvard Business School Class of 2028:

-The first post focuses on overall strategy, the 3 essays and the goals statement.

-The second post focuses on the application form questions. It will focus on helping you brainstorm and develop your content.

-This third post focuses on the reapplication essay.

-The forth post is on the joint degree application essays.

 

My three-part HBS interview prep series starts here.

 

My comprehensive service clients have been admitted to HBS for the Classes of  2027, 2026, 2025,  2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2010, and 2009. My clients' results and testimonials can be found here. In addition to providing comprehensive application consulting on HBS, I regularly help additional candidates with HBS interview preparation.  Since I started my own counseling service in 2007 (worked with many admits from 2001-2007 when I worked for a company), I have worked with 100 successful applicants from Canada, Europe, India, the Middle East, Japan, South Korea, other parts of Asia, and the United States on HBS application. I think that this range of experience has helped me understand the many possible ways of making an effective application to HBS. l I can tell you is that HBS takes a truly diverse range of people. Some had high GPAs and a great GMAT or GRE scores, others had GPAs and scores well below the 80% range for HBS, but what they all had in common were strong personal and professional backgrounds that came out in their essays.

 

 

HBS REAPPLICANTS:

[Required] Please use this space to share with the Admissions Committee how you have reflected and grown since your previous application and discuss any relevant updates to your candidacy (e.g., changes in your professional life, additional coursework, and extracurricular/volunteer engagements). (250 word limit)
 
The reap essay was new to HBS for the Class of 2025 and is a great addition to the HBS MBA application. It makes a lot of sense to decide to what you will cover in this reapplication essay once you have a high degree of clarity about what will be covered in the three main essays and goals statement.
 
 
It is critical that you showcase what has changed since your last application that now makes you a better candidate.  In my experience working with many successful reapplicants to HBS, career growth and greater self-reflection are the two most non-test score based ways for showing improvement. A part of your self-reflection might be significantly altered career 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 here as the 500-character (approx 100 words) is not the place to explain that change. HBS is not into the "Why HBS Question" in their essays and interviews. For  schools like Columbia and Wharton, I generally recommend making a clear case for why you are better fit or can contribute more now. It is fine to use that same rhetoric in this essay, but less critical than really highlighting what has improved about you as an applicant in terms of professional, academic, and extracurricular/volunteer activities. For more about reapplication, please see the Reapplication section of my Key Posts page.
 
 
An essay of 250 words is long enough to write effectively on 2-4 topics.  My suggestion is that you view this essay as interconnected with the rest of the essay set. In other words, decide what stories or aspects of stories you are highlighting in all your essays and don't repeat the same thing about the same thing.  For example,  it t would be perfectly reasonable to mention the same topic, for example a specific work related accomplishment, where you focus on the leadership aspect in The Leadership Essay and focus on how it enhanced your understanding of  your industry  or highlights your innovative problem solving in the Reap essay.
 
Given that HBS is not focused on the why HBS question, please don't waste word count on HBS in this essay unless it is something really valuable to mention.  Visiting HBS or talking with alumni, for example, would not be worth wasting word count here.  On the hand, if you have something substantive to mention, feel free to mention. HBS is not especially interested  on contribution answers (they rarely if ever ask about how you will contribute at HBS during an interview)  so unless you have a specifically awesome contribution, don't bother with that either.
 
 
I think one of the great ways to use this essay is to cover something or things about you that you are not able to write about in your other HBS essays. For example if you feel like you really want to highlight a specific accomplishment that just does not fit into the other essays as long as you can show how it makes you a better candidate now,  you can write about it here.
 
 
Below is the Reapplicant Page. You will find further advice after that on some of the items mentioned below. 
 
Previous Application
 

 
 
 
With respect to the number of times one has applied, clients and potential clients often ask me about about whether it is possible to get into HBS if you have been rejected multiple times. The answer is yes. I have worked with clients who applied to HBS 2-4 times before and were admitted.  HBS has always taken a very positive approach to reapplicants and will admit those who have been rejected both with and without interview.   Do keep in mind that rejection in a prior year is not necessarily an indicator that one will be rejected in the current year. Improvements in your profile as well as an enhanced application can make a real difference.  Also keep in mind that you can get rejected for issues that don't relate specifically to you. For more about that see here.
 
One of the largest pools of reapplicants are those that previously applied to 2+2.  For such candidates, their situation will have changed so greatly that writing about what has changed is very easy as they now have work experience. It is entirely possible that such candidates profiles, goals, and key stories will have so greatly changed that the reap essay should focus on how the applicant has grown and matured since the 2+2. This is actually a much easier task than highlighting changes for someone who is just reapplying a year after getting rejected because the amount of change from being a college student to even someone with work experience is generally great.
 
 
I have not worked with someone who was previously admitted to HBS and is reapplying. I have experience with that  for other schools. In such situations I have recommended explaining why now rather than previously is the right time to enter the program. The argument involves showing what has changed, just like with any other reeapplicant, except the emphasis is explaining why you are now ready to commit to HBS.
 
 
If you have been rejected from HBS after interviewing there, please consider why.  In some cases, it may not be obvious to you.  If so, there is nothing to necessarily add into the essay about it.  On the other hand if you think you gave weak answers to a particular question, consider how you will mitigate that in what you write in the reap essay or in the other essays. If your English ability or communication in general was an issue, highlight how you have improved in that area. And if you know your interview was bad, please prepare better if you are invited again.  For HBS interview prep, please see here.
 
 
If you were previously waitlisted at HBS, don't assume it will be any easier getting in this time.  Waitlisted applicants could have made it in, but did not.  There is no inherent advantage to having been previously waitlisted at HBS because they look anew at a new application. Assume that there is something(s) you need to improve on and use the reapplicant essay to show improvement.
 
 
Best of luck with your new application to HBS!
at

HBS Class of 2028 MBA Admission Application: The Application Form

 This will be a four part series of blog posts on the essays and rest of the application for admission to the Harvard Business School Class of 2028:

-The first post focuses on overall strategy, the 3 essays and the goals statement.

-This second post focuses on the application form questions. It will focus on helping you brainstorm and develop your content.

-The third post focuses on the reapplication essay.

-The forth post is on the joint degree application essays.

My three-part HBS interview prep series starts here.

 

My comprehensive service clients have been admitted to HBS for the Classes of  2027, 2026, 2025,  2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2010, and 2009. My clients' results and testimonials can be found here. In addition to providing comprehensive application consulting on HBS, I regularly help additional candidates with HBS interview preparation.  Since I started my own counseling service in 2007 (worked with many admits from 2001-2007 when I worked for a company), I have worked with 100 successful applicants from Canada, Europe, India, the Middle East, Japan, South Korea, other parts of Asia, and the United States on HBS application. I think that this range of experience has helped me understand the many possible ways of making an effective application to HBS. l I can tell you is that HBS takes a truly diverse range of people. Some had high GPAs and a great GMAT or GRE scores, others had GPAs and scores well below the 80% range for HBS, but what they all had in common were strong personal and professional backgrounds that came out in their essays.

 

THE HBS APPLICATION FORM

 

I don't generally discuss the details of a school's application on this blog, but have done so with HBS for the past several years.   There are a few reasons I do this for HBS:

  1. I assume with the HBS application form every subjective content on your part matters.
  2. HBS is very specific in what they ask for and this requires applicants to make a number of significant decisions about what to emphasize.
  3. I work with a lot of clients who apply to HBS and many who get in, so this is a good app for me to analyze in detail.
  4. While not all online apps are the same, once you understand how one works, it makes it easy to do the rest. While GSB has a more exhaustive application form, HBS requires harder choices of what to include.  Practically speaking I would generally recommend doing GSB first before HBS, but content-wise HBS is the harder egg to crack and hence better for me to review comprehensively.

 

We will go page by page. Fortunately it is very easy to cut and past the app form into my blog. However the formatting is a bit of a mess below which happens when one pastes HTML code from one page into another.  I am not enough of a perfectionist to try and fix the HTML so sorry for the ugliness, but if you read my blog because of my lovely design and consistent formatting,  you need to check your eyes.

 

I am only focusing on questions with highly subjective content, since these are the ones clients ask me about.

 

I will not be covering the Goals Statement here since that was covered in the prior post and will not cover reapplication here because that will be covered in the next post.

 

My advice will appear after the relevant app content and be marked "ADVICE."

 

Some general advice when filling out the HBS application:

OVERALL STRATEGY: Keep the HBS admission criteria of being Business-Minded, Leadership-Focused, and Growth-Oriented in mind. I discuss these criteria in the first post.  This does not mean that everything you fill out in the application form directly relates to these criteria, but certain answers certainly will.  Sometimes your answers will simply be fact-based explanations that don't directly relate to these core criteria but will help contextualize your relationship to these criteria.  For example, your family background may directly relate to any of these three criteria very directly, but sometimes will just help the reader better understand your background that have impacted your life-choices, opportunities, and challenges.

ESSAY ALIGNMENT STRATEGY:  Since the HBS essays are very short, you simply cannot explain the full context to almost anything you are writing about. The application form and resume as well as the recommendations can provide that context.  Once your essays are done, you may find that come content can be removed from them because it is covered in the rest of the application.

RESUME VERSUS APPLICATION FORM: My clients frequently have questions about what should be on the resume versus what should be in the application form and whether it is redundant to include things on both.  I will discuss this issue on a case-by-case basis below for some of the most common areas of overlap.  Overlap between the two is inevitable.  The point is to maximize both the application form and resume.

ACCURACY OF INFORMATION:  It is important that the information you provide is accurate. This is especially the case for anything that could be independently verified.

LIMITED LENGTH ANSWERS:  Given limited length, every character or word counts. Use character efficient wording, Arabic numerals, minimize punctuation, don't use quotation marks, never double space, and remove all extraneous words such as "various."

 

PERSONAL

Geographic Background
As we try to get to know you, it is helpful for us to learn about where you grew up – for many people that could mean more than one place! Please share with us where you spent the majority of your life from birth to age 18. If you moved around during this time, feel free to share that as well.

250 Characters

 

ADVICE: While some of this information may have been communicated in your essay, you should feel free to leverage this space to explain circumstances around where lived between 0-18.  If you were raised in multiple countries or locations you can explain that in the Additional Context answer. You should not feel obligated to write anything here if there is nothing worth noting. Some possible topics:

  1. Growing up in multiple geographies
  2. Growing up as a minority in your community.
  3. Growing up in a location where the primary language was not your primary language.
  4. Growing up in a location that your family has deep ties to.
  5.  The personal significance of where you grew up. The impact of that place(s) on you.
  6.  Context related to one or more of your essays.

 

 

 

FAMILY

 

Additional Family Context

250 characters remaining

 

ADVICE:  This is space for discussing issues in your family background that HBS should know about if they impacted your life. For example, if you come from a family with very limited economic resources it would be something that could be discussed here.  If you are first generation college student, you can use the additional info to discuss that if you like.  Possible topics:

  1. Major positive or negative impacts of your family on you.
  2.  Economic considerations that impacted your family life.
  3. The ethnic, religious, or other identity of your family and its impact on you.
  4. The culture or values of your family and its impact on you.
  5.  Context related to one or more of your essays.

 

 
 
RESUME
Please provide a current resume or CV. Ideally, this would be about 1-2 pages in length and include dates and locations of your employment.
Work Experience. We often get questions about the amount of work experience we look for in our review process. As the case method relies on exchanging perspectives, the Admissions Board recommends that applicants have at least two years of full-time work experience (prior to enrolling). If you are currently an undergraduate student, you may be eligible for the 2+2 Deferred Admission Program.

 
 

ADVICE: The resume has always been an important part of any MBA application.  You can find a resume template I have linked to on my blog here.  That resume template can also simply serve as a checklist for what to include.   I think it best to think of a resume as a record of accomplishment. If you have sufficient accomplishments, 2 pages is possible. However, please keep in mind that almost all other MBA programs want one page. Also, while HBS will take a 2 page resume, HBS also loves brevity, so only use more than a page if it is really justified.  Excess detail that creates lack of clarity and focus to what you want to present yourself is one major danger with any resume and more likely to occur with 2 pages.  Older applicants with a number of different roles/employers and those with extensive accomplishments that simply cannot be effectively accounted for are the most likely to need 2 pages.

 

Some applicants try to a use an MBA student's recruitment resume format as the basis for their own resume, but I don't consider this a good idea as such resumes serve a very different purpose.  An MBA resume should really designed to focus on you overall, that is your academic, professional, and personal accomplishments and key facts. A recruiting resume is meant for a different kind of audience, recruiters, and typically focuses on a much more narrow range of information.

 

When I first start working comprehensively with any client, whether they are applying to HBS or not, I always start with the resume for a couple of reasons:

1.  It is a great way for any applicant to summarize the most important information about themselves and their accomplishments. It sometimes helps applicants actually remind themselves of what they have done.

2.  For me, it is a way I learn about a client so that I can better understand their background. Without it, I cannot even begin to really advise on what should be in essays.

One key thing to remember about what you include on your resume:  Anything that is there, just like any component of the application, may become the basis for a HBS interview question. Therefore if you don't want to talk about it and don't need to write about it, leave it off the resume.

 

I included the "Work Experience" statement here to just remind readers that it is fine to have less than 2 years of experience when you apply to HBS, but you must have 2 years of experience prior to entering HBS in August.

 

GAPS IN EMPLOYMENT

1000 characters remaining
 
ADVICE:  Many applicants have gaps in employment. For some recent advice from the Harvard Business Review, see this short article on explaining gaps.  While HBS does not define what a gap is, some other schools specify 3 months or more. In general, I think that 3 months is a good standard for what would be considered a gap.
 
The most important thing to do with a gap is explain it. Childcare, a family emergency,  a major health issue, job loss, long vacations, becoming a trailing partner due to your significant other gaining employment or entering into graduate school in a new location, etc. are all valid gaps.
 
What would be an invalid gap:  "I quit my job to party for a while and live off my savings.  While many have benefitted from prolonged periods of hedonism, don't write about that here.  Travel is totally valid just explain what you got out of it.
 
 
A clear just the facts explanation is best. This is not essay, it is an explanation.
 
 
 
 

Employment

"We're eager to learn more about your work experience – beyond what’s on your resume! While your resume provides a great overview, we look to this section of the application for context and thoughtful reflection on all that you’ve achieved in a professional setting. We know a few of the questions on this page may seem duplicative to what’s on your resume, and we encourage you to use the short answers here to give us insight into your experience that we wouldn’t get anywhere else. Feel free to let your personality show through as you answer these questions!

You have space to report up to three employers. Generally, we ask that you list an employer once, even if you’ve had different roles with that employer (for example, if you've been promoted). However, you are welcome to list the same employer twice if you feel the nature of your work changed substantially across roles (for example, moving to a different division or business unit). It’s up to you.

Here are some other tips to keep in mind:

  • Put your current or most recent employer first. If you have multiple current employers, list your primary role first.
  • Please report your annual salary and bonus in U.S. dollars. Use any currency conversion scale you like. When reporting your salary and/or bonus, please don’t include any additional compensation, like housing or relocation allowances, cost of living adjustments, tax exemptions, combat or hazardous duty pay, stock or equity options, etc. Note that salary is not a critical evaluation metric. We sometimes look at this information as one of many factors we consider to better understand role and progression, but always within country, regional, industry, and company context."

 

ADVICE: To some extent this information will overlap with the resume. This is nothing to worry about. That said the challenge question ("Most Significant Challenge" 250 characters) in particular is very possibly something you would not be covering in your resume.  Regarding the accomplishments, they ask for multiple ones, so it is best to provide two or three.

 

Note the point about U.S. dollars.  One reason I always tell my clients to put all amounts in their applications in USD when applying to a US school is because it makes it easy for your reader to understand.  HBS adcom, like any admissions office, does not want to spend time trying to figure out the amount of something.

 

ADVICE on Employer form below: You can only list three employers, so if you have more than choose wisely.  One justification for using a two page resume would be to fully elaborate on positions you can't account for here.  However only do that if you feel you simply can't account for everything important.   I am showing the full form here but only commenting on its subjective elements.

Employer 1 (current or most recent employer)

 
Details

Your Workplace Location:

Status

Start Date
End Date
Current or Most Recent Role

First or Initial Role (Repeat your current/most recent role if you've only had one.)

Short Answers

 

 

EMPLOYER DESCRIPTION 
250 characters remaining
ADVICE:  Provide a clear description of the company. Fine to focus on the specific part of the employer you worked for.  This is especially a good idea if you were employed by a large organization.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PLEASE briefly explain your role within your organization without using jargon or technical terms.
250 characters remaining
ADVICE:  As the instructions indicate keep this description of  your role simple to understand. Overlap with the resume is very possible here and no problem.  This answer does not require being clever but being clear and direct.

 

 

 

 

REASON FOR LEAVING

250 characters remaining

ADVICE: The reason for leaving is often best stated as the justification for the next position you took, but in some cases, it will be necessary to mention things like the company firing you or going out of business.  If the issue involved in you leaving is negative, just address it directly and if necessary elaborate on it in the Supplemental Information section or Gap section.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
250 characters remaining
ADVICE: Clearly it is impossible to highlight these accomplishmentS in detail. Since they are asking for multiple, it is a good idea to provide two here as they are asking for multiple. This will overlap with the resume in almost all cases and might overlap with the essays as well.   Keep in mind that whatever  you mention here, you are likely highlighting a potential interview question topic.

 

 

 
 
 
 
MOST SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGE
250 characters remaining
ADVICE: This is a unique question and one that does require being clever. If you have multiple Employers, your answers to this question should highlight different challenges you encountered.
Challenges are just hard things you encountered.  Hopefully you will be highlighting your ability to manage/overcome/mitigate the challenge encountered.  HBS is not asking for a failure here, they are asking for something really hard that you had to deal with. Good answers will highlight a key selling point about you. In general, I suggest trying to avoid overlap with the essays in terms of what mini-challenge you focus on though it could certainly relate to a story discussed in your essays.

 

 

 

 

Education

ADVICE: ACADEMIC TRANSCRIPTS

First, keep in mind that admissions officers read transcripts and are trained to know what they are reading. They don't just look at GPA  (If your school calculates it).  If there is something really bad on your transcript (a fail, a withdrawal, etc) or odd, you really do want to explain it in the 500 character (not word) Additional Section. If is just a C and you have no specific excuse, don't bother trying to explain it.  If your academic performance varied greatly from year to year (or semester to semester), was there a reason for it?  Is it one that you want to provide? For example, if you were taking a major leadership position in a student organization, running a start-up, working a lot to pay for school,  doing major research, experienced a major illness or misfortune,  or playing a varsity sport, you do have a topic worth discussing. Finally, If your transcript,  GMAT/GRE, or resume don't indicate that you have solid quantitative skills, you should explain why you do if you can. The proper place to provide that explanation is in the additional section.

 

 

 

 

Academic Disciplinary Action

600 characters remaining
 

ADVICE: While most applicants will not have to deal with this rather unpleasant topic, if you have to do so because the disciplinary action is (1) can found through a Google search and/or (2) indicated in your university transcript, then approach it with directness and honesty.  Document the situation and outcome. Provide any links or other evidence as required.   Filling this out will not doom your application, but failing to do so if this issue is easily discovered, will do so. Treat this with utmost seriousness.

 

I have worked with just a couple of clients in the past who had to answer this question.  Based on their admissions results, I think being honest and direct about something that had to be discussed did not hurt them. They way they handled it was to explain what happened, explain any mitigating circumstances, explain their positive response to what occurred, provide referrals to authority who could verify their actions and/or include links to publicly available online information about the situation. The pathway to successfully handling such a situation is to be honest and direct.

 

However, be absolutely certain you are doing this because you have to. When not to complete this: I would not advise providing this information if it is non-discoverable.  In other words, if you were subject to disciplinary action during junior high or high school or university  and no one could know that, I would not report it.  If there is nothing in university transcripts and nothing discoverable online,  you are essentially providing information that  cannot be verified, which is not helpful to you.   Additionally, if you were subject to disciplinary action during university and it is not on your transcript and is not public, it is actually ambiguous as to whether it even fits here because there is nothing official that can be easily confirmed.

 

Activities

List up to three activities in order of importance to you (i.e., list the most important first). Please tell us about the things you do or have done while not at work or in class – there are no "wrong answers" here. Include activities such as community service, engagement with campus organizations, family obligations, or religious activities. We use this section mostly to get a sense of how you spend time outside of the classroom and workplace. If there are additional activities you wish to tell us about, please include them on your resume/CV.

Dates of Participationto

ADVICE:

Given HBS' instructions on this, I do highly recommend including your best extracurricular activities that showcase your leadership and community engagement and/or unique experiences/interests. If you have done nothing impressive extracurricular-wise after graduating and have 3 good activities from university, feel free to just use use this section for those activities. If you did nothing but study during college or university and really have no activities, hopefully you have three post-college things to include.  If you have any activities that are directly relevant to your professional goals or to your personal story and you really want to emphasize them, use this space accordingly. While I would surely emphasize the most impressive activities, if you need to focus on personal interests that were not group focused (running for example) because you simply don't anything better, put it here.  Activities that show you are well-rounded, civically engaged, artistic, athletic are all possibilities here.

 

Keep in mind that extracurricular activities can (and usually should)  also be fully accounted for on the resume.  Also, if you are not using the space for anything else, the 75 word supplemental information  section could be used for elaborating on anything you consider really important, but could not include in this section or in the resume.

 

Awards and Recognition

List any distinctions, honors, and awards (academic, military, extracurricular, professional, community) in order of importance to you (i.e., list the most important first). You may list up to three awards.

 

Date

ADVICE: For some applicants this section is really easy to fill out because they have won a number of awards, distinctions, or honors and just need to prioritize them. Other candidates will freak out about this section because they never won anything that they think fits.  While, it is sometimes really the case that I will have perfectly great applicant who has nothing to report in this section, most applicants are actually likely to have something.  HBS is not asking you a narrow question here, so think broadly.  It is possible that this section will overlap with the resume, employment, essay, or extracurricular section of the application.  With respect to what to mention, this is so case-by-case that any attempt to provide general advice on it, may prove unhelpful. That said I would prioritize university or later awards and not those prior to university unless they are outstanding.  If you became a Chess Grand Master at age 15,  won national or international level sports competitions, or 5 Grammy's when you are barely 18 (Don't worry Billie Eilish is not your competition for a seat at HBS), et al than certainly mention pre-college stuff.

 

One way to get an extra activity into the resume is to mention an activity that resulted in an Award or Recognition here and not in the Activities section.

 

 

 

Test Scores

Writing Assessment

Writing is an essential component of the MBA program. Therefore, to be admitted to HBS all students must have an official writing assessment. You can satisfy this with a valid GRE, GMAT (10th Edition), or English language test score (for those whom English test is required). If you only submitted the GMAT (Focus Edition), which lacks a writing section, HBS will contact you at the interview stage about taking the separate GMAC Business Writing Assessment. If you wish to take the GMAC Business Writing Assessment before knowing your interview status, here is the link.

Note: Because the written application has plenty of opportunities to showcase your writing abilities (e.g. essays, short answers), you will not be at a disadvantage if you do not include the GMAC Business Writing Assessment until after you are invited to interview.

ADVICE: If you take GMAT Focus and did not take an English language test, you will need to the GMAC Writing Assessment if you are offered an interview.  Amongst the M7, only HBS and MIT (not in all cases) will require a writing exam (GMAC Business Writing Assessment) for those invited for interview who took GMAT Focus and did not take an IELTS or TOEFL. I see nothing on the websites for Booth, CBS, Kellogg, Stanford, and Wharton indicating a need for a writing exam result. GRE includes a writing test. Unless an applicant applying with GMAT Focus needs an English test score, taking the GMAC Writing Exam is cheap and fast (30 minutes, $30) compared to TOEFL (116 minutes, approx $200 depends on country) and IELTS (165 minutes, really variable India- 17K INR, $203; Japan 27K JPY, $171; US $280-340). Anyway, if you took GMAT Focus, don't worry about taking this test until you get an invite unless you just like taking tests.  There is no advantage to submitting it at the time of application.

 

 

English Language Tests

An English Language Test (TOEFL, IELTS, PTE, or Duolingo English Test) is required if you received your bachelor's degree from a university where English is not the language of instruction. Applicants who received a bachelor's degree from a university where English is NOT the sole language of instruction but received a Master's Degree or PhD degree from a university program where English was the sole language of instruction are also strongly advised, though not required, to submit a test as part of your application.

The same rules apply here – we'll start reviewing your application with self-reported scores, but please send us the official score report as soon as possible. We will accept the in-person or the at-home versions of: the TOEFL iBT and the TOEFL iTP Plus (in China in partnership with Vericant); the IELTS and the IELTS Indicator; the Pearson Test of English (PTE); the Duolingo English Test.

ADVICE: For applicants who are required to take an English test, there are now four options. I have had never had a client take PTE or Doulingo, so have no idea about those tests. Both my Japanese clients and the the Japanese test prep experts I have discussed TOEFL and IELTS with (Shout out to Iijima-san at Affinity and Kono-san at Konojuku) have always told me that a 7.5 IELTS is easier to get than the 109 TOEFL that HBS prefers. I am quite certain this is the case.   I have no specific benchmarks for PTE or Doulingo, but assume a high score on either would be fine.  English ability is really critical at HBS. The HBS interview for non-native English speakers is, in-part, a fluency test. So even if you look good in terms of your test score, you really have to deliver during the interview.

 

 

Supplemental Information

Artificial Intelligence Usage

This is a new question for the application form. If your essays were generated by AI and look like they were, that will be a problem. If you use AI for editing, depending on how you use it, that could also look bad or might be totally fine. AI directors are notably bad (see an article on this that I  convinced John Byrne, the founder of Poets and Quants to write) and unlikely to become great. Not sure whether HBS will use them, but I would not be surprised if applicants get asked about use of AI in their interviews.  Since AI is permitted to be used, as long as it is not doing the writing for you, it is fine to indicate YES.
 
Additional Information

Please share additional information here if you need to clarify any information provided in the other sections of your application. This is not meant to be used as an additional essay. Please limit your additional information to the space in this section.

We know you'll be tempted, but please don't send us any additional materials (e.g., additional recommendations, work portfolios). To be fair to all applicants, extra materials won't be considered.

75 words remaining
 
ADVICE: Use this space  to explain anything that can be effectively explained in the space provided.  This is a great place to explain your choice of recommenders, a problem in your past, or to add in information about something you really think HBS needs to know. It is completely fine to leave this space blank if you have nothing you need to add. This is not the place for a mini-essay on some random accomplishment, but for information or explanations that cannot be included elsewhere.  A list is fine. You don't need to write this like an essay.

 

 

FINAL ADVICE: Don't treat it like some form you can do at the last minute.

The HBS app form is not rocket science but it does take time. So give it the necessary time.

 

 
 
Best of luck to everyone applying to HBS!
at