65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays, Second Edition

About the Author Lauren Sullivan edited 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays, a collection assembled by the Harvard Business School newspaper, The Harbus. Staff from The Harbus, the Harvard Business School student newspaper, contributed to 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays from St. Martin's Press. Product Description YOUR LIFE . . . IN 300 WORDS OR LESS It's a daunting task. Even the most seasoned professionals find business school application essays to be among the hardest pieces they ever write. With a diverse pool of talented people applying to the nation's top schools from the most successful companies and prestigious undergraduate programs in the world, a simple biography detailing accomplishments and goals isn't enough. Applicants need clear and compelling arguments that grab admissions officers and absolutely refuse to let go. To help them write the essays that get them accepted into Harvard or any of the country's other top programs, the staff of The Harbus---HBS's student newspaper---have updated and revised their collection of sixty-five actual application essays as well as their detailed analysis of them so that applicants will be able to: * Avoid common pitfalls * Play to their strengths * Get their message across Wherever they are applying, the advice and tested strategies in 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays give business professionals and undergraduates the insider's knowledge to market themselves most effectively and truly own the process. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays, Second Edition With Analysis by the Staff of The Harbus, the Harvard Business School NewspaperBy St. Martin's GriffinISBN: 9780312550073 Career Aspirations What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you? So you have spent the last five years trolling the seas in a British Naval submarine, have been trading on the floor of the stock exchange, or have just recently graduated from college. Moreover, you have just spent several essays talking about your scintillating experiences of the last decade. Now it is time for you to answer what is arguably the most important question of the application: What do you want to be when you grow up? More precisely: what is your career vision and why do you need a Harvard MBA to achieve it? A well-structured response to this question will address four critical points. First, what are your short-term and long-term career plans? Second, why is this your chosen path? Before you start writing your response, carefully consider both parts of the question. Do not only state a goal. Provide enough context so that the audience understands your decision-making process. This is especially important for applicants with traditional business school backgrounds who intend to return to their current fields. While it is nice that you still hope to find yourself at a prestigious consulting firm in ten years, ensure that you can articulate what about the job, specifically, really satisfies you. Above all, your career vision must be sincere and credible. If you want to be Chairman of the International Red Cross, fine, but ensure that you lay out a reasonable plan to get there. After you have addressed what you want to do, explain why you need Harvard Business School to achieve your goals. It is important to note that the specificity with which the career question mentions HBS varies from year to year. However, just keep your audience in mind when crafting your response. Harvard’s mission, after all, is “to educate leaders who make a difference in the world.” But beyond the mission, keep in mind that the school has been working to differentiate itself from other business schools in a number of more subtle ways in recent years, launching among other things its Global Research Centers and its Healthcare Initiative. Understanding your audience is useful ad