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The Iconic HBS Essay is Gone. How to Master the New Prompts.

June 2024 marked a significant shift in Harvard Business School’s MBA admissions process, with the first major update to the essay component of the application since 2016.

That is, the 900-word, open-ended HBS essay— As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program? —has been discontinued in lieu of three shorter prompts.

In this article, we’ll cover the new HBS essays, speculate on why the changes were made, and give our best advice on how Harvard Business School applicants should tackle the new essay themes.

The Harvard Business School Essay Is Now “Essays”

Harvard Business School’s MBA essay prompts for 2024 appeal to “business-minded”, “leadership-focused”, and “growth-oriented” individuals.

The prompts are:

Business Minded

Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you strive to make on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)

Leadership-Focused

What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)

Growth-Oriented

Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)

At first glance, MBA applicants might feel some relief when reading the requirements for these new prompts. Yes, they’re 100 words shorter, but there’s also much more guidance about what to write about—it would seem.

However, the narrower the focus, the easier it is for you to “lose the thread” and get bogged down in the language of the prompt.

Increased specificity can also lead to formulaic responses, which lack the personal storytelling that helps your essays standout. (It also increases the chances of applicants turning to ChatGPT or other LLMs for assistance).

As a result, we feel that you’re going to have to work a little harder to distinguish yourself when responding to these prompts—and you’re going to have to resist the temptation to use ChatGPT for your HBS application .

How to Approach the New HBS Essay Prompts

The biggest pitfall MBA applicants fall into with specific, shorter essays like these is to respond too directly to the prompt without considering the bigger picture.

When approaching the essay writing process, don’t worry too much about the exact themes in each prompt. Instead, reflect on the reasons you feel you should be admitted to HBS in general.

Think through your answers to the following questions:

Why are you qualified?
What do you hope to do post-MBA?
How has your background shaped this motivation?
What in your background provides evidence that you will be successful in your goal or goals?
What impact will your success have on the wider community, career path, and so on?

By orienting yourself to the bigger picture, you can avoid focusing too narrowly on “curiosity” or “leadership qualities.”

Next, think about the topics you don’t need to address in your essays. Factors such as academic ability and career experience will be covered separately in the application or the resume.

Decide what hasn’t been addressed elsewhere, and strategize on how to work this information into the prompts provided.

This is where a consultant can mean the difference between a generic essay and a memorable and highly impactful response. An MBA admissions consultant can help you think through your motivations and craft MBA essays that seamlessly complement your application while showcasing your personality.

If you’re looking for even more insight about how to tackle the three HBS prompts, consider our advice on writing a strong MBA personal statement—including 4 common mistakes you’ll want to avoid .

Why was the Harvard Business School Essay Changed?

We don’t have any insider information on why the original HBS essay prompt was replaced, but we can speculate generally on some factors that might have led to this moment.

New Director of Admissions, New Essays

In October 2023, Rupal Gadhia joined Harvard Business School as the Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid. These changes coincide with her tenure, and we can safely assume that this is not a coincidence.

Typically, when admissions essays shift from longer, open-ended prompts to shorter, more focused ones, it’s because many applicants were not effectively addressing the essay’s purpose and were using the space ineffectively.

Perhaps the regime change paved the way for this update—perhaps it was even in the works for some time.

In addition to a new Director of Admissions, the HBS essay updates also seem to align with a change in the types of candidates HBS is seeking to admit.

A culture shift in the Harvard Business School Admissions Committee?

In previous cycles, Harvard Business School has been quite direct about its interest in individuals with a “habit” of leadership and an analytical aptitude and appetite.

However, this cycle sees a shift towards a broader, softer set of qualities, potentially setting the runway for a minor increase in non-traditional MBA admits.

These qualities directly correspond to the new HBS essays, and Harvard Business School gives some guidance as to how certain candidates should interpret the purpose of the new prompts.

As stated on the “ Who Are We Looking For ?” page, the HBS admissions team will look for individuals who…

Business-Minded: “are passionate about using business as a force for good – who strive to improve and transform companies, industries, and the world.”
Leadership-Focused: “aspire to lead others toward making a difference in the world, and those who recognize that to build and sustain successful organizations, they must develop and nurture diverse teams.”
Growth-Oriented: “desire to broaden their perspectives through creative problem solving, active listening, and lively discussion.”

Now, it is important to remember that Harvard Business School relies heavily on its donors and its reputation with recruiters, who in turn depend on the MBA class composition as it stands today. So we are not likely to see a large shake-up of the school’s MBA class profile overnight.

Further, it’s impossible to predict what industries and profiles are likely to benefit from these changes in admissions criteria.

But if the essay prompts and changes to admissions criteria are genuine and indicative of a broader shift in admissions committee thinking, then we can expect to see individuals who invest in others (especially those who are different from themselves) fare quite well.

Wrapping Up

These changes to the HBS application essays coincide with the appointment of a new Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid and a subtle broadening of the admissions criteria for HBS’s MBA class.

While these shifts may not lead to a dramatic change in the class profile overnight, they do signal an evolving approach to assessing candidates.

For applicants, the key takeaway is to pay close attention to the new essay prompts without getting bogged down by the specific themes.

It’s essential to maintain a holistic view of your MBA applications, emphasizing your overall qualifications, goals, and the unique experiences that align with each program’s values.

Engaging an MBA admissions consultant can be a strategic move, offering you tailored insights and helping you craft Harvard MBA essays that stand out. By focusing on the bigger picture and strategically addressing the prompts, you can present a strong, authentic application that highlights your readiness for the HBS MBA program.

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Harvard Business School MBA Essays & Analysis 2024 - 2025

Harvard Business School (HBS) has released its MBA Essay Questions for the 2024 - 2025 application cycle. This year, HBS has opted to do away with its iconic 900 word essay, instead choosing to ask three essay questions with shorter word limits. Let’s explore each in turn.

Here are the Harvard Business School MBA Essays for 2024 - 2025.

Harvard MBA Essay 1

Business-Minded: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you strive to make on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)

This is your classic career goals essay. The 300 word limit is shorter than the typical career goals essays at other schools, so be direct and brief while writing about your answer.

HBS states that it looks for candidates who “are passionate about using business as a force for good”, i.e individuals who have a clear impact they want to make in the world.

We recommend starting with a story that explains what has inspired your career decisions and goals. This experience should give rise to your ‘purpose’ - the positive, overall impact you want to have on businesses, organizations, and communities.

Now that you have outlined your core mission, explain how you will create a path towards it. What do you plan to do right after your MBA? These short-term goals should be specific, clearly stating your target role, company/companies, industry, and geography. Briefly, discuss the skills you will build and the impact you will have through this role.

Finally, describe your long-term goals. These may be less specific than your short-term goals, but they should align with your ‘purpose’. Explain how you’ll achieve your purpose through this long-term dream job.

Harvard MBA Essay 2

Leadership-Focused: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)

Harvard’s mission to “educate leaders who make a difference in the world” has been its main influence when it comes to evaluating its MBA applications. The school traditionally focuses on leadership qualities and demonstrable impact. So it comes as no surprise that one of HBS’s essay questions this year is geared directly towards your leadership approach.

In this essay, you will need to connect your experiences together to demonstrate what has influenced your leadership style and how you effectively lead others.

You may want to start with an experience which was formative to your growth as a leader. This could be a challenging situation, something new you experienced, a turning point in your personal life, or someone who impacted you. With only 250 words, space is tight, so make sure your story focuses on what you learned.

Then, your second experience could explain how you applied this lesson to positively impact others, or how you plan to apply this lesson in the future.

The AdCom wants to see evidence not only of leadership, but also how you collaborate and invest in others. They want to know that you will add value to the school’s community, so make sure your stories reflect well on the relationships and trust you build as a leader.

Typically, your leadership approach ties back to your career goals and your time at HBS. So if there are any leadership programs or student clubs you will be involved in, you might want to conclude with those.

Harvard MBA Essay 3

Growth-Oriented: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)

This is a curveball of an essay question! It’s unique to HBS, so you may have to dig deeper to find a story that demonstrates your curiosity, appetite for learning, and adaptability.

HBS asks this question to understand your academic readiness. The case study method that is heavily used in the HBS classroom requires students to actively listen, think critically, and collaborate with others. So in this essay, use a story that demonstrates how you take initiative, solve problems creatively or unconventionally, or learn through challenges.

Note that HBS hasn’t asked the “Why HBS” question anywhere, so you might want to include how you will bring your curiosity to the class, an extracurricular, or other community activities.

Use the SCAR structure to answer this essay.

Situation: Provide context to your Curiosity story

Challenge: Outline the challenge you faced

Action: Describe the action you took

Result: Discuss the outcome and quantify it where possible

Analysis: Introspect on the what you learned from this experience and how you'll apply it in the future

Harvard MBA Essay 4

Briefly tell us more about your career aspirations. (500 characters)

This is a short but important essay. You've already written about your goals in Essay 1, so keep them consistent with your essay answer. Here, you can describe your employment plans, industry and function in the online application portal. This essay is an opportunity to showcase precision, clarity, and strategic planning about your goals after your MBA.

Center the essay around your short-term and longer-term goals. Be aspirational but also practical. These goals should be achievable, actionable, and logical.

"My post-MBA plan is to return to Oliver Wyman, which will sponsor my MBA. Upon my return, I will focus on FMCG clients, helping them to restructure and navigate new regulations. After 3-4 years, I may transition to one of these client companies, directly leveraging my leadership and strategy skills to transform the way that Vietnamese consumer goods companies finance their M&A. My long-term goal is to launch a health-tech startup with my sister in Hanoi."

Harvard Optional Essay

Please use this space to share any additional information about yourself that cannot be found elsewhere in your application and that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee. This space can also be used to address any extenuating circumstances (e.g., unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, areas of weakness, etc.) that you would like the Admissions Committee to consider. (500 words)

Few applicants have followed the “traditional” employment route with no bumps in the road. So it’s not an issue that you took an unconventional path, as long as you make it clear.

But it is a problem if the reader of your application doesn't understand your journey. This essay is your opportunity to make it crystal clear.

Some unconventional aspects of your application might include: a low GPA in an academic semester or a gap in your resume because of Covid-19. Or perhaps you have an overlapping experience you’d like to address.

Important: Don’t be tempted to use the entire word count! Instead, be as concise as possible in explaining your exceptional circumstances, and close the essay with a constructive outcome, such as what you learned from the experience.

Check out our Harvard MBA Interview Guide for in-depth insights into Harvard's interview process, what they're looking for in prospective candidates, interview questions, and tips to ace your interview.

For the full HBS MBA application course with example essays based on real essays by previous applicants, check out the Harvard application program on MBAconsultant.com.

We help determined applicants get admitted to top business schools. Get in touch if you think we can help you with your MBA application. Book a free 20 mins chat now.

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HBS – How to Answer the New Essay Prompts (2024-2025)

Picture of Harvard Business School campus

HBS sent the MBA community reeling when it announced (after months of rumors) that it would be changing its longstanding, single essay prompt this year. The prior question , “As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program?”, was introduced in 2016 and lasted for 8 application cycles.

Now, under the new leadership of Rupal Gadhia, who replaced Chad Losee as the Managing Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid in 2023, the school has joined the latest MBA admissions trend: more but shorter essays.

The 2024-2025 HBS Essay Prompts

Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)

Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)

Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)

For a full list of 2024-2025 application deadlines and essay prompts, click here .

A Mixed Bag

Our team has mixed feelings about these new essay prompts. On one hand, the change is a huge positive for applicants who were often anxious and paralyzed by the ambiguity of the prior open-ended essay prompt. The now very direct questions leave little to assumption and lay bare the school’s intentions behind each question.

However, as you may have noticed, the word count is extremely limiting in these essays. In fact, we’ll go as far as saying that the low word count limit will likely be the hardest part of writing these essays . Fitting impactful and introspective stories into 250-300 words will be an extraordinary feat in writing and editing. And we wonder if the brevity will come at the cost of depth. But the good news is that all applicants are playing by the same rules – and are subject to the same limitations. And we have no doubt you’re up for the challenge.

What Does HBS Look For?

As a starting point, it’s helpful to consider the qualities HBS looks for . Note that these qualities were updated this year as well and it’s no coincidence that they align with the essay prompts above.

Business-Minded
Leadership-Focused
Growth-Oriented

HBS wants strong, conscientious leaders who will change the world. Every successful candidate needs to not only meet the criteria above but do so in their own distinctive way.

Start Big Picture, Then Drill Down to Each Question

It can be tempting to jump straight into the prompts and start brainstorming the best story to answer that specific question. But we urge you to pause and look at the big picture first. Go back to your personal brand and what you stand for. What is the message that you want to deliver to HBS loud and clear?

Write that message at the top of your essay brainstorming document and refer to it frequently. Use it as your guidepost as you ideate on individual essay topics. And ask yourself, does this story a) answer the prompt? AND b) support and reinforce that message? Your answer should be yes.

The Career Goals Question

The first essay prompt centers around the “why” behind your career choices to-date and your aspirations for the future. HBS is looking for clear cause and effect here and a strong essay will draw simple but powerful connections between your past and your future.

We recommend starting by writing down key inflection points or “aha” moments in your past that sparked your interest in using business as a force for good. These can be but certainly don’t have to be professional experiences. From that list, choose the most influential 1-3 past experiences that you will expand on and connect with your passion for creating an impact.

Then the remainder of the essay can describe your future aspirations. It’s important to convey not just what you hope to accomplish, but also why it matters to you and how you plan to leverage your unique background and insights to make a difference.

The Leadership Question

In this question, HBS is asking you to elaborate on both who you are as a leader and how you’ve had an impact . In other words, this essay must reveal your character, your special brand of leadership , and how you lead – and how those have left a mark on others.

To accomplish this, we recommend following the outline of the prompt. Open by sharing a defining moment or experience that explains the origin of your leadership values and character. This will most likely be a personal experience and can certainly reflect the influence of a role model or leader you admire, a challenge you overcame, or even a unique family dynamic. Anything is fair game here so get creative.

Then you can tell a story of a specific time when you positively impacted others through your leadership. To select the best story here, we recommend writing down all of the key moments in your life where you demonstrated leadership, regardless of whether it was in a formal role. Then from that list, choose your proudest or most defining experience.

Lastly, with the remaining word count, you can close the essay by describing the kind of leader you hope to become, connecting that future vision with the leadership brand you have today and your career goals.

The Growth Mindset Question

If the first two questions put you in the driver’s seat of impact , the third question reverses the roles and asks you to discuss a time when you’ve been impacted . More specifically, the question is asking about a time when you sought out a new experience, new knowledge, a new perspective, or any other avenue that was the opposite of certainty.

Unlike the other questions that ask you to connect the dots between multiple experiences, this question is asking you to recount one specific story or anecdote. We recommend choosing the one most compelling story – the story that exemplifies your curiosity AND strongly supports your personal brand / overarching application theme.

Because curiosity is a core value for HBS, we recommend choosing a story where the stakes were high and the impact on you was truly meaningful. If you’re struggling to identify a good story here, start at the end. Identify specific instances where you experienced personal or professional growth – where there was a clear before and after. Then, backtrack to the actions you took that led to those leaps in growth.

A classic STAR (Situation, Action, Task, Result) format will help you make the most use of the limited word count here. Describe the context of the situation, what sparked your curiosity, and the steps you took to satisfy it. Then conclude by explaining the impact of your curiosity on your development.

What to Avoid

You’ll notice that none of the questions ask you “why HBS” or “why MBA”. This is not a trap. HBS simply isn’t interested in understanding your reasons. So, we don’t recommend spending your specious word count on addressing “why HBS” or “why MBA”. These essays should be deep and personal. What drives you? Who are you as a person (if someone were to start writing a biography about you right now?) And importantly, for HBS, it should point to good examples of how you are a leader.

Get Personal

Your experiences and accomplishments don’t have to be massive things relatively speaking – not everyone has started a non-profit or is on a mission to save the world – but if they are significant to you and your trajectory and evolution as a person, then that’s the point. The goal is to show who you are, what drives you, and what has helped you become who you are today.

Lastly, check out HBS’ Portrait Project . The stories students share and the level of personal depth they go into is exactly the kind of direction you should be taking with these essays.

Reading this essay analysis is a great starting point in your HBS application process. It will point you in the direction and help you avoid some common pitfalls. But remember that general guidance will only get you so far. Feedback on your individual story and writing is what will supercharge your essays.

If you would like some personalized guidance, click here to request a free 30-minute consultation!

After embarking on my own MBA journey, I co-founded Vantage Point MBA Admissions Consulting to help aspiring business school students get accepted to the top MBA programs in the U.S. and Europe. As President, I currently lead a team of over 25 superstar consultants to give our clients an unmatched experience, with a focus on white glove, personalized collaboration and mentorship.

2024-2025 Stanford MBA Essay Tips

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August 1, 2024

Harvard Business School MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines [2024 – 2025]

Harvard Business School (HBS) continues to be one of the few schools, if not the only one, with just admissions two rounds (September and January). HBS uses an April deadline exclusively for HBS 2+2, its deferred enrollment program.

The HBS admissions office announced several updates for the 2024-2025 admissions cycle. New criteria for admission were laid out and three shorter essays introduced in place of the program’s long-standing single essay prompt. Although the essays have been shortened, applicants must still understand the importance of self-reflection before picking up the proverbial pen. We have all had experiences in our lives that have shaped who we are personally and professionally. It is critical to spend time focusing on your motivations and identifying your strengths and weaknesses to uncover your authentic story so you can present it effectively to the admissions committee.

HBS is looking for some specific information from its candidates, and the program’s decision to request that information through three brief essays might make the task of writing these essays seem easier at first. However, it is often more challenging to provide a story’s context and convey the details of the impact you have made with fewer words. It is essential to recognize that the essays are part of a holistic process, and the story you want to tell is found in the various parts of your application, not just in your essays. Make sure that you are clear on what you want to convey to the admissions committee across the totality of your application. Each essay asks you to identify one or more experiences that have been formative in some way. Beyond selecting a specific life event or events (personal or professional) to discuss in each essay, you must convey the outcome or the impact of the experience(s). Don’t use the same experience from one essay to the next. Consider each essay a novel opportunity for HBS to learn something new about you.

Before jumping into your essays, remind yourself that Harvard’s mission is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. Also, review the Who Are We Looking For? section of HBS’s website, which identifies the three characteristics that are common among its students: Business-Minded, Leadership-Focused, and Growth-Oriented. Further, HBS provides context for the meaning of Business-Minded, Leadership-Focused, and Growth-Oriented and is specific about how it will identify each of these characteristics throughout your application.

Ready to get to work on your HBS application? Read on.

HBS application essay tips

Hbs application deadlines, hbs class profile.

Business-Minded Essay:

Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)

This question asks you to consider past experiences, drawn from any aspect of your life, that have shaped you in some way. How have they influenced your career aspirations and the choices you have made throughout your career so far? While you’ll reference the short- and long-term goals you outlined in the Post-MBA Goals section of the HBS application, you’re not expected to provide the same level of detail here. Rather, describe how these experiences have shaped your professional journey and continue to inspire your plans for your career.

The second part of the prompt requires you to be forward-looking and consider the broader impact you’ll have as you continue your professional journey. Whether with businesses, organizations, or communities, you will contribute to their success in some way. What difference will you make with these entities as you navigate the path to achieving your career goals? Discussing your impact across all three arenas is unnecessary. Instead, focus on an authentic example based on your particular engagement and the specifics of how you will make a difference.

Leadership-Focused Essay:

What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)

With this question, the HBS admissions committee wants you to identify pivotal experiences that have influenced your development into the person you are. Remember to use a different experience than you did in the first essay. Whether that’s a personal challenge that had a profound impact on your values or an event that changed your perspective, this essay requires you to dig deep and reflect on the effect the experience had on your perception of leadership and your outlook on navigating your environment. Beyond explaining why or how the experience shaped you, the admissions committee wants to know what you have done with your learning. What specific actions have you taken to support others in their journey that showcase what you learned? This can range from supporting a coworker during a challenging period to working with a volunteer group helping homeless youth learn life skills. Beyond investing in others, what leadership traits do you recognize and aspire to develop? Why is it important that you achieve this development?

Growth-Oriented Essay:

Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)

To begin this essay, reflect on times when you were curious about something and were motivated to continue learning because you were driven to grow. What was it that fed your curiosity? How did that strong desire to learn manifest itself? The experience you describe of being curious will demonstrate what you did to continue the learning process. What activities did you engage in, and how did they contribute to your ongoing development? Were there specific people that you interacted with, and if so, what did you learn from them? Next comes, as you might have guessed, the impact. Based on the curiosity that drove you to continue learning, describe how you grew. What part of the experience contributed to your growth? How did your perspective change, or what skills did you develop through the process?

Round	Application Deadline	Decisions Released
1	September 4, 2024	December 10, 2024
2	January 6, 2025	March 26, 2025

Source: HBS website

Applications must be submitted online by 12 noon Boston time.

***Disclaimer: Information is subject to change. Please check with HBS directly to verify the essay questions, instructions, and deadlines.***

Here’s a look at HBS’s Class of 2025 (data taken from the HBS website ):

Number of applications: 8,14

Enrolled: 938

Countries represented

United States: 61%
Europe: 10%
Mexico, Central and South America: 5%
Middle East: 3%
Oceania: 1%

International: 39%

U.S. Race/Ethnicity (Federal guidelines reporting)

Asian American: 22%
Hispanic or Latino: 11%
Black or African American: 10%
Multi-race: 6%
Did not report: 1%
American Indian or Alaskan Native: 0
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: 0

Average GPA: 3.73

Average years of work experience: 4.9

Median GMAT: 740 GMAT range: 500-790 Median GMAT Verbal: 42 GMAT Verbal range: 25-51 Median GMAT Quantitative: 49 GMAT Quantitative range: 31-51 Percentage of class that submitted GMAT scores: 69% Median GRE Verbal: 163 GRE Verbal range: 150-170 Median GRE Quantitative: 163 GRE Quantitative range: 145-170 Percentage of class that submitted GRE scores: 39%

Undergraduate majors

Engineering: 25%
Business/Commerce: 22%
Economics: 21%
Math/Physical sciences: 17%
Social Sciences: 12%
Arts/Humanities: 4%

Pre-MBA Industry

Consulting: 17%
Venture Capital, Private Equity: 17%
Technology: 13%
Consumer Products, Retail, E-Commerce: 10%
Financial Services: 10%
Manufacturing, Industrial, Energy: 9%
Health Care, Biotech: 7%
Military: 6%
Nonprofit, Government, Education: 6%
Media, Entertainment, Travel: 3%
Services: 2%

As the former executive director of admissions at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School and assistant dean of admissions at Georgetown’s McDonough School and the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School, Kelly Wilson has 23 years’ experience overseeing admissions committees and has reviewed more than 38,000 applications for the MBA and master’s programs in management of information systems, computational finance, business analytics, and product management. Want Kelly to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

M7 MBA Programs: Everything You Need to Know in 2024
Admissions Straight Talk podcast
The Selectivity Index , a free tool

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2024-2025 Harvard Business School MBA Essay Tips and Example Essays

Jul 1, 2024

Who is Harvard looking for?
How should I answer Harvard essay questions?
We help your Harvard essays shine

UPDATE : This article was originally posted on July 23, 2018. It has been updated with new information and tips below.

When many people think “business school,” the first MBA that pops into their mind is Harvard Business School. Established in 1908, HBS has been at the forefront of business education for more than a century.

However, receiving more than 8,000 applications per year, Harvard Business School is one of the most difficult MBA programs to enter.

That’s why we’ve prepared this guide to help you use your Harvard admissions essays to stand out. We’ve rounded up our best tips and links to Harvard Business School MBA sample essays to ensure you give your HBS application your best shot.

1. Who is Harvard looking for?

Every year, Harvard Business School admits the largest single MBA class in the world, with around 1000 students starting each year. In general, Harvard tends to admit applicants with 5 years of work experience and outstanding test scores. The median GMAT for the Class of 2025 was 740, and the median GRE was 163Q, 163V.

Harvard also places a strong emphasis on diversity, with the Class of 2025 containing 45% women and 39% international students.

In addition, some of the key characteristics HBS looks for in applicants are:

If this sounds like a community in which you’d be right at home, you’ll first have to prove you’ve got what it takes by successfully answering Harvard’s brand new essay questions.

2. How should I answer Harvard essay questions?

Writing any admissions essay is a tough task, however, Harvard raises the bar. Keep reading for a more in-depth look at how to turn this rather open-ended task into standout essays!

2.1 Goals short answer tips

Briefly, tell us more about your career aspirations (500 characters, including spaces) .

Then, you’ll see a box where you have 500 characters to share your goals. In the box, directly state your short-term and long-term goals in simple, clear terms. You have a whole essay to talk about the impact and motivation behind your goals, so you don’t need to focus on that here.

If you’re struggling to define your goals for the MBA, check out this post !

2.2 Essay 1 tips

A MAJOR change, HBS has introduced three short essays, including this goals-type essay , to replace the long, open-ended question it favored for years.

However, with only 300 words , HBS forces you to clearly state some of the most fundamental — and important! — information in your MBA application .

First, we suggest that you review how HBS defines “business-minded” and how they expect to see this in your application.

You have a 500-character short answer in the application form itself where you need to state your short and long-term goals, so there is no need to restate them here. You can just jump right into the experiences that have influenced your career choices.

We do suggest that you start off the essay with context into why the goals you’re pursuing are right for you. This might be a STAR-format story (or 2 mini STAR stories) that is related to your goals or part of your personal track record that motivated you to pursue the goals you stated. Make sure that the story or stories that you choose are all directly related to your career goals and that you can make a clear link between them and your career path both now and in the future.

If it helps you to briefly mention your goals ( think a few words here) to help transition your essay from past to future, you can briefly mention your career aspirations on a high level. For example, you might use something like, “Looking ahead, as a leader in the healthcare space…” and then continue on with the second part of the essay.

In the second part of the essay, the focus is all on impact. Here, you want to be crystal clear about the legacy you hope to leave behind with your goals.

The question asks you to think about impact beyond just your own career and prompts you to consider the impact your goals will have on businesses, organizations, and communities. We always encourage our clients not just to think about the direct impact their goals will have but also how their goals will make the world a better place.

For example, if you want to launch a startup that offers services to SMBs, which are currently underserved in your country, make sure to show how this will impact the business landscape, as well as how it will make the lives of those your company will improve as a result of using your service.

Additionally, we often encourage clients to think about the concept of a “parallel goal.” For example, if your main goal is to move up the ranks in the private equity industry, perhaps your parallel goal is to continue the work you’ve done to break down gender barriers in the male-dominated finance industry. Or, if you’re planning to become an operations-focused consulting partner, perhaps your parallel goal is to serve as an example for other LGBTQ+ leaders in your firm and continue mentoring younger professionals in your industry.

If you do have a parallel goal, make sure that it connects with your previous track record. You don’t want to mention how you’re dedicated to mentoring others in your future career if you’ve never mentored anyone before, as this will come across as inauthentic. If you do mention this type of goal in addition to your “main” goal , make sure you also show the impact you hope it has.

In short, make sure you consider the wide-reaching impact of your goals and clearly state it. It’s also a great idea to back this impact up with why you’re passionate about pursuing these goals at some point in this section since your passion for your future is what makes your career plans come alive!

2.3 Essay 2 tips

Leadership-Focused: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)

This question is challenging because it asks you to cover so much ground in just 250 words.

First, we suggest that you review how HBS defines “leadership-focused” and how they expect to see this in your application.

Then, start with a reflection on your leadership style. You need a clear definition of your leadership approach here for this essay to work effectively. It’s short, so bringing in stream-of-consciousness explorations of leadership or examples that are all over the place will demonstrate a lack of coherence and focus that won’t impress the adcom.

Once you’ve thought about this, work on developing a list of your best leadership examples. We suggest one personal/extracurricular and one professional story if you can and if it’s aligned with your leadership theme. This shows a great range of leadership and demonstrates that you’re a leader not just because it’s required of you at work but also because you seek to lead and make an impact wherever you find yourself.

After choosing your examples, it’s time to start writing. We suggest you start with a hook intro that brings in some type of wording that directly states your overall leadership style or focus. This will give the essay the organization and coherence we’re looking for while also grabbing the adcom’s attention.

Then, bring in your two leadership examples. You won’t have space for long STAR-format stories here, so you want to summarize them in a few sentences. Make sure you still cover what happened, how you demonstrated leadership, and the results/what you learned in the end. Considering the word count of the essay, we suggest you spend ~75 words for each example.

Finally, end your essay by exploring the leader you want to become. Be specific about how you want to improve and how you want to continue to make an impact as a leader. You want to connect this with the definition of leadership HBS gives above, but don’t dedicate word count to talking about HBS’ specific curriculum and leadership classes you want to take during your MBA.

Instead, focus on the bigger picture and make sure the growth you say you want to pursue directly aligns with the stories and theme you mentioned above. We suggest you spend ~75 words on this section before ending with a killer conclusion sentence that ties it all together.

Need more guidance?

Our MBA Resource Center has dozens of successful HBS MBA essays that worked to get our clients admitted to help you plan out a winning Harvard Business School essay. Our library also includes guides for all top global MBA programs, detailed essay brainstorms, interview tips and mocks, CV templates, and recommendation letter guides. Click to join !

2.4 Essay 3 tips

Growth-Oriented: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)

First, we suggest that you review how HBS defines “growth-oriented” and how they expect to see this in your application.

Though you may be tempted to cram in as many examples of curiosity as you can in this question, HBS clearly asks you for a single experience, though they do not dictate that you must draw this example from your professional experience.

As such, considering the fact that you want to show growth in this example, brainstorm a list of examples in which you faced a clear challenge and were able to overcome it using curiosity.

Does the question say there has to be a challenge? No.

Do essays where applicants use overcoming challenges as a platform for demonstrating skills tend to work better than others? Yep!

So, we suggest focusing on examples where your curiosity was key in solving the problem you faced. As such, an example where applying your already expert programming skills was what helped you face down the challenge won’t work well here.

Instead, think of examples rich in creative problem solving, like learning a new skill to ensure a solution was reached or even demonstrating active listening and understanding both sides of an argument to resolve conflict.

Finally, make sure your story has a clear outcome or resolution and that it impacted your growth as a leader or person in some way.

When you start writing your essay, begin with a hook introduction that sets the stage and makes your reader want to keep reading to find out what happens.

Then, show the challenge you were facing. When writing this essay, do not skim over the conflict part of your story . Though we work hard to avoid conflict in real life, a bit of conflict in your story here demonstrates your curiosity applied to real life. Finally, we truly feel you should stick to the STAR framework to ensure you deliver a winning answer.

Continue by showing what you did (this is the part in which you’re actively demonstrating your capacity to lead). During this section, focus on showing how you accomplished what you did and why you felt the actions you took were appropriate for the challenge.

End your essay by showing the result you were able to achieve (we suggest you focus on examples with positive outcomes), what you learned, and specifically how you grew in some concrete way as a result of the experience.

TOP TIP : It’s important to specifically call out “curiosity” in this essay. This will ensure that you fully and clearly answer all aspects of the prompt. Make sure, however, that you are specific about your curiosity – how you applied it, what you learned, etc. Don’t just name-drop curiosity and keep going. Make sure it’s an integral part of the story.

3. We help your Harvard essays shine

One of the most common mistakes we see in MBA essays is that candidates fail to tell compelling stories . This is important because if your stories are not compelling, they will not be persuasive. At the same time, they must be backed by strong examples that establish a track record of success and prove to the admissions committees why you belong at their school.

Striking this balance between content and creativity can be tough, however, as succeeding means not only choosing the right stories but ensuring they are told in an optimal manner.

This is why our iterative developmental feedback process here at Ellin Lolis Consulting helps you mold your message through the application of our storytelling expertise until it reflects exactly what makes your profile stand out and show fit with your target program.

That’s the approach we took with Fernando, who was admitted to Harvard. In their words, “ I absolutely recommend Ellin’s work to anyone who is applying to – or thinking about applying to – an MBA program. She definitely made the process smoother and helped me get to the end goal: get accepted at Harvard!”

Not only can you take advantage of our editing expertise through multiple edits – you can also benefit from it after a single review! If your budget is tight, our editors will be happy to help polish your text as much as possible and leave “bonus comments” so you can keep working on it on your own!

No matter how long we work with you, we will always ensure your essays shine . Sign up to work with our team of storytelling experts and get accepted.

4. Deadlines

The HBS MBA deadlines for the 2024-2025 season are below. You can access the HBS application here .

HBS MBA Round 1 Deadlines

Application Deadline : September 4, 2024

Interview Notification : TBD

Decisions Released : December 10, 2024

HBS MBA Round 2 Deadlines

Application Deadline : January 6, 2025

Decisions Released : March 26, 2025

HBS MBA 2+2 Deadlines

Application Deadline : April 25, 2025

Decisions Released : June 27, 2025

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Harvard Business School New MBA Essay Prompts (2024-2025)

Your essential guide to the latest HBS MBA essay prompts, featuring expert advice, strategic insights, and additional resources to help you craft standout essays for your Harvard Business School application.

Posted July 1, 2024

Featuring Jordan M.

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Harvard Business School (HBS) has once again set the stage for aspiring leaders to showcase their potential with the release of its new MBA essay prompts for the 2024-2025 application cycle. This extremely rare update presents both a challenge and an opportunity for applicants to showcase their unique experiences and perspectives. In this article, we’ll explore these new prompts, provide strategic advice on how to approach them, and offer tips to help you craft top-of-the-barrel essays that can enhance your application.

New Harvard MBA Essay Prompts (2024)

The old HBS essay prompt was, "As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program?" Instead of one, longer essay, aspiring candidates of the class of 2027 have three, shorter essay prompts to respond to:

Business-Minded Essay : Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
Leadership-Focused Essay : What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)
Growth-Oriented Essay : Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)

Prompt 1: Business-Minded Essay

Breakdown: The main goal of this prompt is to connect your past experiences with your future career goals. That said, it’s an opportunity to show how your journey has shaped your professional ambitions and commitment to making a positive impact. HBS wants to see that you know where you've been and where you're going and that there is a narrative that ties it all together. Here’s how to approach it:

Identify Core Motivations: Start by reflecting on 3-4 pivotal experiences that you feel significantly influenced your career choices. These could be professional roles, projects, volunteer work, or personal challenges. Then, consider how your interests, passions, and motivations have evolved over time because of these experiences.
Connect Past to Future: Clearly explain how the experience(s) you selected helped shape your career goals. How did you navigate those experiences as you did? Why did you make the decisions you made? Be specific about what you aim to achieve and why these goals are important to you.
Make Your Essay Forward-Looking: Create a forward-looking narrative that ties your past experiences to your future goals. Show how these experiences have prepared you to make an impact on businesses, organizations, and communities. As a bonus point, use this moment as a chance to show your awareness of broader social and economic movement and demonstrate your overall desire to contribute meaningfully to your anticipated industry. Note: When looking at your application, AdComs want to see proof that you will do and accomplish what you say you will. Having a cohesive theme and clear goals will help you make a persuasive argument.
Keep It Professional: Remember that the prompt specifically asks to see how your past experiences have impacted your career choices and how you see yourself fitting into the professional world in the next several years. With that in mind, make sure you stick to talking about your future job prospects in this essay.

Prompt 2: Leadership-Focused Essay

What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (250 words)

Breakdown: This prompt asks you to explain your personal development and leadership philosophy. It’s all about introspection and understanding how your experiences have molded your approach to leadership.

Examine Your Leadership Journey: Reflect on the various stages of your leadership journey. Identify key moments where you had to step up, make decisions, or influence others, and think about how these experiences have shaped your leadership style.
Use Personal Anecdotes: Use personal anecdotes to illustrate your points. Stories about how you have invested in others, facilitated a strong work environment, or even reached a breakthrough while working as a team can be very powerful in showing your leadership potential. With each example you provide, make sure to explain what you’ve learned from those interactions using the STAR Method.
Show Investment in Others: As you’re outlining your response, an example of how you have supported and developed others will likely come to mind (i.e. mentoring, team leadership, community involvement, etc). Remember, however, that you’ll also need to show how you want to continue acting as a leader and investing in others.
Define Your Leadership Style: Clearly describe the type of leader you aspire to be. Highlight qualities like empathy, resilience, innovation, or inclusivity, and explain how your experiences have reinforced these traits.

Pro Tip: If you’re having trouble nailing down or putting words to your particular brand of leadership, try taking a leadership style quiz. Lucky for you, Harvard has its own page for this exact dilemma! Using the resources provided here by HBS – and perhaps even mentioning them in your essays or interviews – will help you stand out as an applicant familiar with the resources HBS has to offer.

Prompt 3: Growth-Oriented Essay

Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (250 words)

Breakdown: HBS is using this prompt to see how the gears turn in your head. They want to know if you have intellectual curiosity and if so, how it drives your personal and professional growth. Treat this prompt as an invitation to highlight a specific instance where your curiosity led to significant learning or development.

Identify a Defining Moment of Curiosity: Reflect on a time when your curiosity led you to explore new ideas or opportunities. Think about moments of genuine interest when you went beyond the surface to deeply investigate a topic, problem, or question.
Describe Your Process: Explain what sparked your curiosity and how you pursued it. Detail the steps you took, the questions you asked, and the challenges you faced.
Highlight the Impact: Discuss the outcomes of your efforts. What did you learn? How did it change your perspective or abilities? How has it influenced your approach to other situations?
Show Benefits: Highlight the long-term and tangible benefits of your curiosity. Discuss how this experience has influenced your growth, changed your perspective, or contributed to your success in other areas.

HBS Essay Tips for Success

1. be specific and concrete.

Avoid vague generalizations and instead focus on giving specific examples that illustrate your points. Use detailed anecdotes to bring your experiences to life. Whether you’re discussing a professional achievement, a leadership challenge, or a moment of curiosity, specificity will make your essay more engaging and memorablee. Writing descriptive stories with clear points and imagery allow the admissions committee to better visualize your experiences and understand your unique journey, and will ultimately benefit your application in the long run.

2. Focus on Leadership and Growth

Leadership and growth are central themes in the HBS essays. Highlight instances where you’ve demonstrated leadership, invested in others, and pursued personal and professional growth. Reflect on how these experiences have shaped your leadership style and growth mindset. By letting your leadership potential and commitment to continuous improvement shine through to the admissions committee, you’ll prove that you’re a perfect match with HBS’s core values.

3. Maintain Professionalism

While it’s important to be authentic and personal, make sure your essays maintain a professional tone. Especially for the business-minded essay, focus on professional experiences and how they have influenced your career choices. Striking the right balance between personal insight and professional achievement is crucial for a compelling narrative.

4. Seek Feedback

Once you’ve drafted your essays, seek feedback from trusted mentors, peers, or professional advisors. Fresh perspectives can help provide valuable insights and help you refine your narrative. Be open to constructive criticism and use it to enhance the clarity, coherence, and impact of your essays.

5. Edit and Proofread

Keeping any given feedback in mind, carefully edit and proofread your essays to ensure they are free from any grammatical errors and typos. Clear, error-free writing tells the admissions committee that you have a strong attention to detail and commitment to excellence. Reading your essays aloud or using text-to-speech tools can help catch errors you might miss while reading silently. A polished essay enhances your professionalism and credibility.

By following these tips, you’ll be on the right track to write essays that not only meet the HBS application requirements but also perfectly embody your unique strengths, experiences, and aspirations. Good luck with your application process!

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HBS New Essays FAQs

How do Harvard’s new essay prompts differ from last year?

The essay prompts for the 2024-2025 application cycle differ drastically from the previous year. Instead of HBS' traditional one essay requirement - "Is there anything else we should know about you?" - applicants now have three, shorter prompts to respond to, all targeting a different characteristic (business, leadership, and growth).

How many essays are required for the HBS application?

For many years, HBS required only one main essay. Starting in 2024, applicants now have three essays.

What is the word limit for HBS essays?

The word limit for the new HBS essays is as follows: 300 words for the business-minded prompt and 250 words each for the leadership-focused and growth-oriented prompts. As you’re writing your essay, remember to stick to this limit to keep your essay concise and focused. Being able to stay within the word limit while still writing a strong essay is the best way to demonstrate your ability to communicate effectively.

Can I reuse essays from other applications?

While it may be easy to draw inspiration from essays written for other applications, each response should be tailored specifically to HBS’s prompts. Doing this helps you better present yourself as the kind of hard-working, dedicated student HBS is looking for and highlights why you are a good fit for their program. Likewise, admissions officers can quickly spot when someone is using a fill-in-the-blank style of essay, so always make sure your essay is original and direct.

How important are the essays compared to other application components?

Essays are a critical part of the HBS application as they offer the only opportunity for you to trusly share your voice with the admissions committee. Because of this, the essays represent your chance to showcase your personality, values, and potential fit with the HBS community. While other components of your application such as test scores, resumes, and recommendations are also important, the essays help provide personal context and depth to your overall application.

When is the deadline for the HBS application?

Deadlines for this year’s application cycle are September 4th, 2024 for Round 1 and January 6th, 2025 for Round 2. Admissions decisions will be released by December 10 and January 6 for each respective round.

For more expert advice on writing your essay and other critical components of your MBA program applications, take a look through the following articles:

Harvard Business School: MBA Program & Application Overview
How to Write a Powerful MBA Essay
A Comprehensive MBA Timeline–With Chart
How to Ace the HBS MBA Interview
The HBS Waitlist Strategy
Harvard Business School MBA Application Deadlines
How I Got Into Harvard Business School With Low Test Scores

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Revealed: Harvard Business School’s New MBA Essays For Applicants

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Harvard Business School’s Baker Library.

With just 10 weeks before its first application deadline on Sept. 4th, Harvard Business School today (June 25) revealed a newly revised application for MBA candidates, including a new set of three short essays along with a refresh on how it will evaluate applicants for future classes.

The new prompts?

Business-Minded Essay : Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)

Leadership-Focused Essay : What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)

Growth-Oriented Essay : Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)

NEW HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL ESSAYS PUT THROUGH BY NEW MBA ADMISSIONS CHIEF

Eagerly awaited by thousands of prospective students and admission consultants, you can bet that the admissions pages of the HBS website were continually refreshed all morning for a glimpse at the new essay. The Harvard Business School essay prompt for the Class of 2027 was posted at 10:30 a.m. with the opening of the 2024-2025 application online.

This year’s change was put through by Rupal Gadhia , who joined the school as managing director of admissions and financial aid last October. A 2004 Harvard MBA, Gadhia came to the school with no previous admissions experience, having been the global head of marketing for SharkNinja robots.

In explaining the change in a blog post , Gadhia noted that “we have refreshed the criteria on which we evaluate candidates. We are looking for applicants who are business-minded, leadership-focused, and growth-oriented…This is your opportunity to discuss meaningful or formative experiences that are important to you that you haven’t had a chance to fully explore elsewhere in your application…Be authentic, be yourself.”

WHAT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL IS REALLY LOOKING FOR IN THE NEW ESSAYS

The school added some context to its new criteria for admission, more clearly defining what it means by business-minded, leadership-focused, and growth-oriented.

Business-Minded

We are looking for individuals who are passionate about using business as a force for good – who strive to improve and transform companies, industries, and the world. We are seeking those who are eager to solve today’s biggest problems and shape the future through creative and integrated thinking. Being business-minded is about the interest to help organizations succeed, whether in the private, public, or non-profit sector. This business inclination can be found in individuals with a variety of professional and educational experiences, not just those who come from traditional business backgrounds.

In Your Application: We will look for evidence of your interpersonal skills, quantitative abilities, and the ways in which you plan to create impact through business in the future.

Leadership-Focused

We are looking for individuals who aspire to lead others toward making a difference in the world, and those who recognize that to build and sustain successful organizations, they must develop and nurture diverse teams. Leadership takes many forms in many contexts – you do not have to have a formal leadership role to make a difference. We deliberately create a class that includes different kinds of leaders, from the front-line manager to the startup founder to the behind-the-scenes thought leader.

In Your Application: Your leadership impact may be most evident in extracurriculars, community initiatives, or your professional work.

Growth-Oriented

We are looking for individuals who desire to broaden their perspectives through creative problem solving, active listening, and lively discussion. At HBS you will be surrounded by future leaders from around the world who will make you think more expansively about what impact you might have. Our case and field-based learning methods depend on the active participation of curious students who are excited to listen and learn from faculty and classmates, as well as contribute their own ideas and perspectives.

In Your Application: We will look for the ways in which you have grown, developed, and how you engage with the world around you.

TIGHTER TIMEFRAME FOR ROUND ONE APPLICANTS

The new essay prompts come nearly two months after candidates to the school’s MBA program would more typically know what was expected of them. Some admission consultants say the delay over the prompt’s release, along with nearly a month’s slow down in releasing application deadlines, is “wildly insensitive” to applicants who will have less time than normal to prepare for the round one deadline of Sept. 4th.

That’s especially true because the most successful applicants to HBS have highly demanding jobs that consume the vast majority of their time. Many candidates go through multiple drafts of their essays to get them as close to perfection as humanly possible. MBA admission consultants are expecting a lot of up-to-the-deadline work this year to help prep candidates for Harvard and other top business schools.

The new application still preserves the post-interview reflection for applicants who are invited to a 30-minute admissions interview. Within 24 hours of the interview, candidates are required to submit a written reflection through the school’s online application system.

REACTION TO THE NEW CHANGE IS MIXED

Early reaction to the change suggests the likelihood of mixed reviews. “This is an uninspired and odd set of questions,” says Sandy Kreisberg, founder of HBSGuru.com and an MBA admissions consultant who closely reads the tea leaves of Harvard’s admissions process. “I don’t know how it’s different from what else do you want us to know about you, frankly,” he adds in a reference to last year’s single essay prompt.

“HBS has certainly moved from the abstract to the concrete,” believes Jeremy Shinewald, founder and CEO of mbaMission, a leading MBA admissions consulting firm. “Some applicants previously felt like they didn’t know where to start and some weren’t sure if they had answered the question, even when they were done. Now, the questions are quite straightforward and all have a cause and effect relationship — one where the applicant discusses the past to reveal the present or future. Smart applicants will understand how to share their experiences and, more importantly, how to relay their values. Some will mistakenly try to whack HBS over the head with stories of their epic feats, but the key isn’t to brag or embellish – the key is to simply create a clear relationship, via narrative, between past experience and true motivations.”

Shinewald found it astonishing that Harvard could not have made the change earlier. “It is, of course, surprising that HBS left applicants on edge until the last minute, all to create very traditional essays,” he adds. “As applicants learn in MBA classrooms, change can be hard and take time. The bottom line here is that these essays are somewhat of an applicant’s dream – they allow the savvy applicant to play to their strengths and draw on their best anecdotes and experiences to create a complete story. Some applicants will lament the absence of a ‘Why HBS?’ prompt, but my guess is that the admissions committee recognized that they would get an almost homogenous collection of essays touting the case method and other well known features. HBS gets some kudos for keeping the focus on the applicant.”

Adds Petia Whitmore of My MBA Path: “I think they reflect one of the traits of this new generation of candidates which is that they don’t handle ambiguity well. So it seems like Harvard had to spell out what they’re looking for way more prescriptively than in the past.”

Some, however, find the new essays a return to the past. “To me, the prompts feel quite regressive, and a return to the more formulaic approach that pervaded MBA applications two decades ago,” believes Justin Marshall, a New York-based MBA admissions consultant. “Because the previous prompt was so open ended, it forced applicants to be introspective and self-aware. You couldn’t just ramble for 900 words; you had to identify themes in your life to show how your personal experiences shaped your values, your leadership style, and your goals. Comparatively, these new prompts are much more paint-by-numbers. Applicants will likely cover the same ground in terms of topic, but there’s very little room for nuance and self-expression. I think it will be harder for applicants with less conventional backgrounds and experiences to differentiate themselves. I’m sure HBS grew tired of reading so many painfully earnest ‘life story’ essays, but I suspect they’ll soon find themselves yearning for essays that have a heartbeat and personality. 250 words just doesn’t allow for that unless you’re a very crafty writer.”

Whatever the case, getting into Harvard’s MBA program is still a daunting exercise. Last year, 1,076 of the 8,264 candidates who applied for admission to Harvard Business School gained admission, an acceptance rate of 13.2%, making HBS the second most selective prestige MBA program in the country after Stanford Graduate School of Business which had an admit rate of 8.4%. Harvard saw a 15.4% drop in MBA applications from the 9,773 it received a year-earlier.

Joint degree applicants for the Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School must provide an additional essay: How do you expect the joint degree experience to benefit you on both a professional and a personal level? (up to 400 words)

BIGGEST CHANGE IN HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL ESSAY IN NEARLY A DECADE

Joint degree applicants for the Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences must provide an additional essay: The MS/MBA Engineering Sciences program is focused on entrepreneurship, design, and innovation. Describe your past experiences in these areas and your reasons for pursuing a program with this focus. (recommended length: 500 words). Applicants will also be able to respond to an optional essay.

In any case, it’s the biggest change in Harvard Business School’s application in nearly a decade. The last time HBS made a major switch, moving to the essay prompt it just eliminated, was in 2016. That change to just one essay with no word limit and a post-interview reflection was made by then admissions chief Dee Leopold.

When Leopold applied to Harvard as an MBA candidate in 1978, she had to write eight essays. Over her years as managing director of admissions, she first cut the essays down to four and then one, making it optional, and finally the one last prompt with a post-interview reflection, saying that applying to HBS should not be a writing contest .

OUR BUSINESS CASUAL PODCAST: The New HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL MBA Application: Fortuna Admissions’ Caroline Diarte-Edwards and ApplicantLab’s Maria Wich-Vila join P&Q’s John A. Byrne to offer applicant advice on how to answer the new HBS essay prompts

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HBS Interview Prep: Format, Criteria + Sample Questions

Are you one of the lucky applicants who just received an interview invitation from Harvard Business School? The HBS interview really is the deciding factor as to whether or not the candidate gets in. SBC’s team includes several Harvard Business School admissions experts, including former HBS Admissions Officers who also hold HBS degrees. In other words, their expertise is deep.

SBC consultant and former HBS Admissions Officer Andrea has exclusive insider advice about preparing for the HBS interview. Today, we’re sharing this wisdom with you.

“The interview really is the deciding factor as to whether or not the candidate gets in,” Andrea reveals. “Very few interviews don’t go well, so you really have to rise to the top of the good interviews.”

Contact one of our SBC Principals to request availability for HBS interview preparation by emailing hbs@stacyblackman.com . HBS interview prep support at SBC is available only after the school has extended interview invites. Here’s the overview of SBC’s interview prep services.

The Harvard HBS Interview

What is the #1 most important tip?

“The single most important element of the interview is demonstrating deep intellectual curiosity with the ability to develop a point of view or perspective,” says Andrea. HBS continues to assess leadership and academic and quantitative capabilities during the interview. Now, the focus turns toward personal qualities that are hard to assess in a deep way on paper.

“You cannot let even the smallest question seem surface level,” she warns. “Demonstrating depth of insight and the ability to cross-correlate are so important.”

What does the HBS interviewer do to prepare?

Andrea reveals that your HBS interviewer will prepare beforehand by extensively reviewing your application, line by line, to formulate tailored questions. That way, the HBS interviewer is fully briefed, and the questions are forward-moving—not a recap of what was already submitted.

“The interviewer is trying to get into the mind of the interviewee,” Andrea explains.

HBS interviews usually have an observer plus the interviewer. The interview observer’s presence, the tailored, probing questions, and the post-interview reflection are factors that demonstrate the thoughtfulness of the HBS interview process. Despite the extensive prep, there’s always room for spontaneity during the interview. This ensures interviewees stay on their toes. Questions often change, and the interviewer can navigate toward whatever direction the conversation goes.

Be sure to check out the B-Schooled podcast Episode #41, which is dedicated to explaining HBS’s unique, personalized interview process, and also covers tips on how candidates can prepare.

HBS Interview: Do’s

Prepare to engage naturally, be on your toes. Conversational is better than scripted.
Answer the questions asked. Listen and adapt.
Self-reflect. Open up about growth, learning, setbacks, adapting, and other real-life experiences.
Know your audience. Would Aunt Betty understand your explanation of your job? Avoid industry-heavy jargon.
Roll with any nerves that may surface. A shake, shift, stutter, or twitch is fine as long as you can articulate answers well.
Ensure you’re in a quiet space without interruptions, and turn off all noise-making tech. Even open windows can create distracting noise. Dress in business attire. Test sound and lighting beforehand.

HBS Interview: Don’ts

Don’t fixate on worries or insecurities about your candidacy for HBS. Everyone has some level of fear, especially for interview prep. Most interviewees are in the same boat.
Don’t try to be perfect or overly rehearsed. It’s not the time for an engineered speech but rather a thoughtful conversation in which you’re fully in the moment, reflective, and authentic.
Don’t tell the interviewer what you think they want to hear.
Don’t be a jerk. You’d be surprised how often this happens!
Don’t be late. It’s unacceptable to be even a minute late.
Don’t have any interview prep materials with you. You don’t need any papers or your phone.

How to Prepare for the Interview

Remember, at HBS, no applicant is admitted without an interview. The school wants to hear and understand you beyond your application. Your interviewer will want to understand the kaleidoscope of your traits and attributes.

“Each AdCom member is given almost free rein to determine how or what they’d like to assess in the interview. Be nimble and ready to go deep on any topic,” Andrea advises.

Make sure you know everything on your resume. Prepare to answer questions ranging from major industry headlines to hobbies and interests. For example, if you’ve said you’re a historical fiction buff, be ready to discuss it.

This interview will also cover the nuances of several of your life choices. Make sure your answers show character and introspection. You won’t have any notes in front of you, so become well-versed in your own experiences, both professional and personal.

Share framing and context before explaining details. The interviewer has already read a lot about you. Now, it’s your job to make them excited about you—something you fully control with how you shape your answers.

Motivations, learnings, anomalies, growth, hesitations, and realizations are all ways to show depth of character and genuinely connect with the interviewer beyond the facts they have already read.

Since the interviewer’s questions are tailored to your candidacy specifically, know there’s a reason for each question. The interviewer may be asking in reaction to a recommender comment, the challenges of your industry applicant pool, or other reasons based on your application.

“At the end of the interview, if you are asked what else should we know about you, know that it is not a throwaway question,” Andrea says. “You should have managed the interview to that point so that you know what you wanted to share that you haven’t and take the opportunity to work it in.”

HBS Interviewer Evaluation

Afterward, your interviewer writes a summary of the experience, including the good, the bad, and the ugly. The interview write-up ends with a recommendation to the director on whether to admit.

There are roughly three recommendations: “No way,” “solid—fine to be in class,” and “rock star.”

Having a rock star interview almost guarantees you get in. If you have a solid/fine interview, the director will use those to fill in the class. Many in this category will not get in.
Of every ten who interview, approximately seven to eight will give a good-to-great interview. Unfortunately, one or two will bomb it. Then, of those seven to eight strong interview performances, two or three will be admitted.

Applicants should remember that there are few hard and fast rules when it comes to admissions at HBS. Admits can fluctuate depending on the round, the quality of the applicant pool, etc.

Here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team .

HBS Admissions Board at Harvard Business School HBS MBA

HBS Admissions Board at Harvard Business School Kellogg MBA

Director HBS Admissions at Harvard Business School MBA, the Wharton School

HBS Admissions Board at Harvard Business School

Director HBS Admissions at Harvard Business School HBS MBA

Admissions Officer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB) MBA, Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB)

Asst Director MBA Admissions at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB) Director MBA Admissions at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business

MBA, Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB) Minority Admissions, the GSB Diversity Programs, the GSB

Associate Director MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania

Associate Director MBA Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute

Director, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania Professional Writer

Assistant Director MBA Admissions at Columbia Business School (CBS) NYU Admissions

Assistant Director MBA Admissions at Columbia Business School (CBS) M.S.Ed, Higher Education, U of Pennsylvania

Associate Director MBA Admissions at Columbia Business School (CBS)

Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure. Ashley holds an MBA from HBS. During her HBS years, Ashley was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...

Kerry is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). During her 5+ year tenure at HBS, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a wide range of backgrounds across the globe. She also led marketing and outreach efforts focused on increasing diversity and inclusion, ran the Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP), and launched the 2+2 Program during her time in Admissions. Kerry holds a B.A. from Bates College and ...

A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally. Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...

Geri is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). In her 7 year tenure in HBS Admissions, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a diverse set of academic, geographic, and employment backgrounds. Geri also traveled globally representing the school at outreach events in order to raise awareness for women and international students. In additio ...

Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years. Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...

Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years. In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee. In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School. Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...

Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...

Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...

Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics. Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...

Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford. Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...

Anthony served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise. During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year. Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...

Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies. In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...

Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team. During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students. She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...

Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS). During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...

Erin has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU's Stern School of Business. At Columbia Business School, Erin was an Assistant Director of Admissions where she evaluated applications for both the full time and executive MBA programs, sat on the admissions and merit scholarship committees and advised applicants on which program might be the best fit for them based on their work experience and pro ...

Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director. Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants.

HBS Post-Interview Reflection Tips

The “post-interview reflection” has no official word limit and is due within 24 hours of the interview. Nonetheless, we suggest you keep it to one page or less in length. In it, you should thank the interviewer(s) and recap what you enjoyed about your conversation. Don’t forget to answer the question they asked directly. (In the past, it has been, “How well did we get to know you?”.)

If you believe the interview went well, you don’t need to write more than a few paragraphs. But what if you felt you could’ve answered a question better or think there’s something substantive you should have included? Then use the reflection to add clarity or dimension in a way that further demonstrates your intellectual curiosity.

End with a 30,000-foot reflection on what the entire process has meant to you, any deep insights you have as a result, and what lies ahead for you.

Sample HBS Interview Questions

Below is a recent set of questions from an interview with Chad Losee from an SBC client:

Where are you currently?
How is your family?
What does it mean to be the head on such a big project?
What does a day look like in your work? Follow up on specific examples.
What’s your style of leadership? What would those you manage say about you?
Describe a time you had issues with staff that reported to you. How did you work around that?
What point in life made you want to have a life of impact?
Who have you had an impact on?
Name some companies you like.

Here is another set of interview questions from HBS shared by an SBC client:

How was your experience growing up in [country] and then moving to the US?
Why did you attend your college, and why your [major]?
Walk me through this deal on your resume.
Tell me about a deal that was difficult for you.
How do you manage your analysts?
Why impact investing?
How would you convince potential investors of your vision?
Describe a class that you think would empower you to achieve your goals.
Which class would be hard for you?
How would you increase minority presence in large corporations?
What else do you wish to talk about?

The SBC team wishes you much luck with your HBS application and interview and would love to support your efforts. Contact one of our SBC Principals to request availability for HBS interview preparation by emailing hbs@stacyblackman.com ASAP. As a reminder, HBS interview prep support at SBC is available only after interview invites have been extended. Here’s the overview of SBC’s interview prep services.

Baker Library image credit: Dariusz Jemielniak ( CC BY-SA 3.0 )

SBC’s star-studded consultant team is unparalleled. Our clients benefit from current intelligence that we receive from the former MBA Admissions Officers from Harvard HBS, Stanford GSB and every elite business program in the US and Europe. These MBA Admissions Officers have chosen to work exclusively with SBC.

Just two of the many superstars on the SBC team: Meet Erin , who was Assistant Director of MBA Admissions at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) and Director of MBA Admissions at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Meet Andrea , who served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years.

Tap into this inside knowledge for your MBA applications by requesting a consultation .

5 Common Interview Questions from Harvard Business School

5 tips for harvard business school applicants.

Advice for First-Years from an HBS Alumna

Ace Your Harvard Business School Interview

Learn about our all-in service, meet the sbc consulting team.

(323) 934-3936 info@StacyBlackman.com

Latest Blog Post

B-schooled podcast #219: reflections from my 20-year stanford gsb reunion (part 2).

B-Schooled co-host Chandler returned to the Bay Area in May for his 20-year Stanford GSB reunion. During the weekend, Chandler kept a notebook at his side and wrote down many thought-provoking quotes and notes ... →

What to Expect from the 2023-2024 MBA Essay Questions

While we cannot perfectly predict the future, our 16 years of experience as an MBA admissions essay consultant and careful analysis of past trends can help us assess what MBA candidates should expect with this year’s MBA essay questions.

Many MBA hopefuls who have already narrowed their target school lists are anxiously awaiting the release of the 2023-2024 MBA application essay questions and deadlines. In previous years, we have seen MBA essay questions released as early as the beginning of May. Using our insider knowledge of what each school is looking for, as well as successful business school essay examples from past admissions cycles, Personal MBA Coach has already begun working with our round 1 clients on a number of essays.

For this year’s prediction, we have divided top MBA programs into three categories and have included details on which MBA essay or essays to begin working on today!

MBA programs where at least one MBA application essay is unlikely to change
MBA programs where smaller changes are most likely
MBA programs with a higher likelihood of changing the MBA application essay questions

MBA Programs Where at Least One MBA Essay Is Unlikely to Change:

For the programs below, Personal MBA Coach believes that at least one of the 2022-2023 MBA essay questions will return for the 2023-2024 MBA application cycle. If any of the MBA programs below are on your list, we urge you to get started on the relevant MBA application essay questions today!

Harvard Business School

Stanford GSB

Columbia Business School

Chicago booth.

HBS has asked the same MBA application essay question over the past few years, and we expect this year’s question is likely to remain the same.

HBS’s 2022-2023 MBA Essay Question was:

As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA Program?

Stanford Graduate School of Business

Like HBS, Stanford GSB has not changed its MBA essay questions in recent years. While Stanford GSB has made some changes to the required essay length, we would be surprised to see a major essay question change from Stanford.

Stanford’s 2022-2023 MBA essay questions were:

Essay A: What matters most to you, and why?

For this essay, we would like you to reflect deeply and write from the heart. Once you’ve identified what matters most to you, help us understand why. You might consider, for example, what makes this so important to you? What people, insights, or experiences have shaped your perspectives?

Essay B: Why Stanford?

Describe your aspirations and how your Stanford GSB experience will help you realize them. If you are applying to both the MBA and MSx programs, use Essay B to address your interest in both programs.

Columbia Business School’s first MBA essay has taken a similar form over the past years. While the exact wording could vary, we do not expect any significant change in CBS’s first MBA essay question.

Columbia’s 2022-2023 first MBA essay question was:

Through your resume and recommendations, we have a clear sense of your professional path to date. What are your career goals over the next 3-5 years and what, in your imagination, would be your long-term dream job? (500 words)

We also anticipate Columbia Business School’s essay about program fit to remain on the 2022-2023 CBS application.

This MBA essay question was:

Why do you feel Columbia Business School is a good fit for you? (250 words)

Watch Personal MBA Coach’s quick tips video for Columbia Business School application advice:

As with CBS, Wharton has kept its first MBA essay question largely the same for the past few years, and we expect some version of the same essay question this year.

Wharton’s 2022-2023 first MBA essay question was:

How do you plan to use the Wharton MBA program to help you achieve your future professional goals? You might consider your past experience, short and long-term goals, and resources available at Wharton. (500 words)

As with Wharton and CBS, Kellogg also is unlikely to change its essay questions.

Kellogg’s 2022-2023 first MBA essay question was:

Kellogg’s purpose is to educate, equip and inspire brave leaders who create lasting value. Provide a recent example where you have demonstrated leadership and created value. What challenges did you face and what did you learn? (450 words)

Similarly, Kellogg’s second MBA essay question has stayed the same for the past few years, and we do not anticipate that it will change.

Kellogg’s 2022-2023 second MBA essay question was:

Values are what guide you in your life and work. What values are important to you and how have they influenced you? (450 words)

Chicago Booth joins the list of schools for which Personal MBA Coach clients are working on essay #1.

Chicago Booth’s 2022-2023 first MBA essay question was:

How will the Booth MBA help you achieve your immediate and long-term post-MBA career goals? (Minimum 250 words, no maximum)

MIT Sloan’s cover letter essay has not changed in a while, and we expect it to stay the same in the 2023-2024 cycle.

MIT Sloan’s 2022-2023 MBA essay question was:

MIT Sloan seeks students whose personal characteristics demonstrate that they will make the most of the incredible opportunities at MIT, both academic and non-academic. We are on a quest to find those whose presence will enhance the experience of other students. We seek thoughtful leaders with exceptional intellectual abilities and the drive and determination to put their stamp on the world. We welcome people who are independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative — true doers. We want people who can redefine solutions to conventional problems, and strive to preempt unconventional dilemmas with cutting-edge ideas.

Taking the above into consideration, please submit a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA program. Your letter should conform to a standard business correspondence, include one or more professional examples that illustrate why you meet the desired criteria above, and be addressed to the Admissions Committee (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation).

We do not expect the Yale SOM essay question to change from the previous cycle.

Yale SOM’s 2022-2023 MBA essay question:

Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made. (500 words)

MBA Programs Where Smaller Changes Are Most Likely:

London Business School

Aside from minor tweaks or word limit adjustments, we would be more surprised to see major MBA application essay question changes from these programs.

If one or more of these schools is on your list, we suggest that you begin brainstorming, outlining and hopefully writing your essays as soon as possible. This will free up time (both personally and professionally) as summer nears.

MBA Programs with a Higher Likelihood to Change the MBA Essay Questions:

Below is a list of MBA programs for which Personal MBA Coach recommends that our clients hold off drafting their MBA essays. For some schools in this list, we suggest that you begin brainstorming now as the risk of a change is smaller. For other schools, hold off entirely until the MBA applications open later this spring. There are plenty of other MBA application components that candidates targeting these MBA programs can get started on today!

Michigan Ross (brainstorm only)
UCLA Anderson
Berkeley Haas (brainstorm only)
Dartmouth Tuck

Keep in mind, the details shared above are predictions only! As soon as this year’s MBA application essay questions are released, Personal MBA Coach will let you know what has changed and will share advice on how to tackle each MBA essay question.

Join our weekly MBA Tips newsletter to be sure you do not miss anything!

Want access to an industry expert’s insight, detailed in-line editing, business school essay examples and more? Personal MBA Coach is willing to be your admission essay consultant! Visit our comprehensive packages to learn more.

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19 Dec 2023

Answering Your Questions About the HBS MBA Application

As we approach the next application deadline, we have noticed a few common questions from prospective students regarding the HBS MBA application. Check out the top 5 questions we get from applicants and the top 3 questions we wish we received, below. We hope this information is useful as you finalize your applications in the next few weeks! We also encourage you to check out the FAQs webpage and our Pep Talk video series .

You Might Want to Read

HBS Application Tips from MBA Admissions
Answering Your Questions About the 2+2 Program
How I Spent My HBS 2+2 Deferral: Jada Haynes

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IMAGES

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2020/21 Harvard Business School Essay Analysis [Sample Essays]
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004 Essay Example Harvard Business School Top Mba Essays Sample

COMMENTS

Application Process
Submit A Written Application. To apply to Harvard Business School, we ask you to assemble and prepare a variety of materials that will help us assess your qualifications. Remember, all materials must be submitted to HBS online by the application deadlines. The following serves as a preview of what you need to prepare. + Transcripts.
PDF HBS MBA Application Guide 2023-2024
MBA Application Guide 2023-2024 GETTING STARTED The following serves as a preview of what materials you need to prepare to apply to Harvard Business School. Read the application requirements on our website for more detailed information and review the characteristics that we look for in applicants. Application opens Summer 2023.
HBS Essay Topics, Post-Interview & Analysis 2024-2025
Harvard MBA Essay - Post-Interview Reflection 2024-2025. Since the 2012-2013 season, applicants who are invited to interview have been asked to write a reflection about their interview experience. Typically, this Harvard MBA essay must be submitted within 24 hours of completing the interview. Additional instructions regarding the reflection ...
The Iconic HBS Essay is Gone. How to Master the New Prompts
How to Master the New Prompts. June 2024 marked a significant shift in Harvard Business School's MBA admissions process, with the first major update to the essay component of the application since 2016. That is, the 900-word, open-ended HBS essay— As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your ...
50 MBA Essays That Got Applicants Admitted To Harvard & Stanford
NEARLY 17,000 CANDIDATES APPLIED TO HARVARD & STANFORD LAST YEAR. 1,500 GOT IN. This collection of 50 successful HBS and GSB essays, with smart commentary, can be downloaded for $60. They are two of the most selective schools, routinely rejecting nine or more out of every ten applicants. Last year alone, 16,628 candidates applied to both ...
Harvard Business School MBA Essays & Analysis 2024
Book a free 20 mins chat now. Harvard Business School (HBS) has released its MBA Essay Questions for the 2024 - 2025 application cycle. This year, HBS has opted to do away with its iconic 900 word essay, instead choosing to ask three essay questions with shorter word limits. Let's explore each in turn.Here are the Harvard Business School MBA ...
HBS
The 2024-2025 HBS Essay Prompts. Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words) Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest ...
Harvard Business School MBA Essay: 5 Things to Do
HBS 2+2 Deferred MBA Essay Prompts. As of 2024, HBS has updated its deferred MBA essay prompts for the first time in The Harvard MBA essay questions this year are direct and to-the-point, giving applicants the ability to highlight three different parts of their personality and journey. The HBS essay prompts are as follows:
Sample Harvard Business School Application Essays
Word Count: 805. This sample essay is from The Harbus MBA Essay Guide and is reprinted with permission from Harbus. We highly recommend the book! If you would like advice on responding to this year's HBS essay question, (which is different from the 2014-15 prompt) please read our Harvard Business School essay tips.
8 FAQs on the MBA Application
Top 5 Questions We Get from Applicants. 1. Does HBS have a preference between the GMAT and GRE? We do not have a preference for one test over the other. If you submit multiple test scores from GMAT or GRE to HBS, we will only look at the score from your highest single test sitting. Nearly 30% of our current first-year students at HBS submitted ...
Harvard Business School Essay Tips, 2024-2025
Harvard Business School (HBS) has introduced brand new essay prompts for the 2024-2025 application season. In doing so, it has stepped away from the single open-ended essay question it has consistently posed since 2016 in favor of three questions that are far more direct.
Harvard Business School MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines [2024
September 4, 2024. December 10, 2024. 2. January 6, 2025. March 26, 2025. Source: HBS website. Applications must be submitted online by 12 noon Boston time. ***Disclaimer: Information is subject to change. Please check with HBS directly to verify the essay questions, instructions, and deadlines.***.
Direct from the Director
The Harvard Business School MBA is now a STEM-designated degree. This designation will allow all our MBA students, beginning with the Class of 2025, to pursue the opportunities a STEM-eligible degree affords. The degree qualifies international students on an F-1 visa for a 24-month extension, allowing up to three years of eligibility to work in ...
2024-2025 Harvard Business School MBA Essay Tips
2.2 Essay 1 tips. Business-Minded: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you strive to make on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words) A MAJOR change, HBS has introduced three short essays, including this goals-type essay, to replace ...
Poets&Quants
For many years, HBS has asked applicants to its MBA program to answer only one essay question: As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program? (900 words) For such a simple question, it certainly produces a lot of confusion! ...
Harvard Business School New MBA Essay Prompts (2024-2025)
Enroll. Harvard Business School (HBS) has once again set the stage for aspiring leaders to showcase their potential with the release of its new MBA essay prompts for the 2024-2025 application cycle. This extremely rare update presents both a challenge and an opportunity for applicants to showcase their unique experiences and perspectives.
Harvard Business School MBA Essay Examples
Harvard MBA Essay Examples. A soldier who served on the front lines in Afghanistan. A process engineer challenged by a long series of early failures. And a female consultant whose passion became healthcare. Three MBA applicants to Harvard Business School last year. Three students in the newest crop of MBA students at Harvard this fall.
Revealed: Harvard Business School's New MBA Essays For Applicants
The Harvard Business School essay prompt for the Class of 2027 was posted at 10:30 a.m. with the opening of the 2024-2025 application online. This year's change was put through by Rupal Gadhia, who joined the school as managing director of admissions and financial aid last October. A 2004 Harvard MBA, Gadhia came to the school with no ...
New Harvard MBA Essay Set for the Class of 2027
In addition to the HBS deadlines, the new Harvard MBA essay set for the 2024-25 admissions season has been confirmed! After many years of asking the same open-ended prompt, Harvard Business School has introduced three new essays for this application cycle. Per the HBS Direct from the Director blog:
Find Answers
Yes. Interviews are conducted by invitation only and at the discretion of the MBA Admissions Board. If you are invited to interview, you must participate in order to complete the application process. We do not admit anyone to HBS without an interview; however, we do not interview all applicants.
HBS Interview Prep: Format, Criteria + Sample Questions
MBA Essay Questions; MBA Essay Tips; GMAT and GRE; For EMBA Applicants; For College Seniors; Diversity; Scholarship Opportunities; Top 10 Blog Posts; ... In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School - a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School.
What to Expect from the 2023-2024 MBA Essay Questions
Kellogg. As with Wharton and CBS, Kellogg also is unlikely to change its essay questions. Kellogg's 2022-2023 first MBA essay question was: Kellogg's purpose is to educate, equip and inspire brave leaders who create lasting value. Provide a recent example where you have demonstrated leadership and created value.
Answering Your Questions About the HBS MBA Application
As we approach the next application deadline, we have noticed a few common questions from prospective students regarding the HBS MBA application. Check out the top 5 questions we get from applicants and the top 3 questions we wish we received, below. We hope this information is useful as you finalize your applications in the next few weeks! We also encourage you to check out the FAQs webpage ...

The Iconic HBS Essay is Gone. How to Master the New Prompts.

The Harvard Business School Essay Is Now “Essays”

Business Minded

Leadership-Focused

Growth-Oriented

How to Approach the New HBS Essay Prompts

Why was the Harvard Business School Essay Changed?

New Director of Admissions, New Essays

A culture shift in the Harvard Business School Admissions Committee?

Wrapping Up

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HBS – How to Answer the New Essay Prompts (2024-2025)

The 2024-2025 HBS Essay Prompts

A Mixed Bag

What Does HBS Look For?

Start Big Picture, Then Drill Down to Each Question

The Career Goals Question

The Leadership Question

The Growth Mindset Question

What to Avoid

Get Personal

2024-2025 Stanford MBA Essay Tips

Which program are you applying to?

Harvard Business School MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines [2024 – 2025]

HBS application essay tips

2024-2025 Harvard Business School MBA Essay Tips and Example Essays

1. Who is Harvard looking for?

2. How should I answer Harvard essay questions?

2.1 Goals short answer tips

2.2 Essay 1 tips

2.3 Essay 2 tips

2.4 Essay 3 tips

3. We help your Harvard essays shine

4. Deadlines

HBS MBA Round 1 Deadlines

HBS MBA Round 2 Deadlines

HBS MBA 2+2 Deadlines

Real MBA Essays That Got People In

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Table of Contents

New Harvard MBA Essay Prompts (2024)

Prompt 1: Business-Minded Essay

Prompt 2: Leadership-Focused Essay

Prompt 3: Growth-Oriented Essay

HBS Essay Tips for Success

2. Focus on Leadership and Growth

3. Maintain Professionalism

4. Seek Feedback

5. Edit and Proofread

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