Harvard Essays and Essay Tips (2008):

First get the basic principles right and then move on to the essay tips.

Harvard Essay 1 Tips

What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

Straightforward question from Harvard. So start off by forming a straightforward note that lists the 5-6 key achievements from your professional, personal or academic life.

Having done that, look at the Harvard MBA application essay package as a whole and then revisit the list. For example you might later write essays highlighting aspects of your leadership, undergraduate days, worldview or career vision. So no point reiterating a point unless you have a good story that is not repeated. The rider to that is that since this is Harvard and since this is an MBA application, there is an exception to that rule - leadership. A generous sprinkling of leadership instances across the entire package might be acceptable and this first essay be may be the place for at least one.

The final choice can now be made based on the general importance of the achievements, the extent of your contribution to it's success and what the stories tell about you. Choose the qualities that the accomplishments highlight and decide if those are the traits that you want the Harvard admissions committee to remember about you.

Of course the second part of the question "why do you view them as such" is truly where you must start from: clarify your position on the "why" and you will almost automatically arrive at the answer to the first part.

Go for it!

Harvard Essay 2 Tips

What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)

This is a straight failure essay.

Learning is however the key aspect of the essay, not the failure as such. Think about why you are writing this Harvard essay and find a situation that has created a difference in your thought process, leadership style, behavior or value system. Once you get a substantial "learning" you can go to the printers with the story.

This year the choice of examples and incidents for the Harvard application essays will be extremely difficult as you are presented with a rich collection of choices. Your choice in Essay 2 depends on your preferred essay questions in question 3.

Go for it!

Harvard Essay 3 Tips

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

a. Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development. How did this experience highlight your strengths and weaknesses?

Hey, leadership is very important to HBS. Harvard mentions it wherever and whenever they can. So you will do well to assume that this essay is important. Write about an experience where you were in a leadership position, preferably one that helped define what kind of a leader you are today. Choose an experience that had it's successes but was certainly improvable - so that you can include your leadership strengths and weaknesses. The story can go back in time since the focus is on a developing leader (but let's skip the story about your leadership experience in the first grade classroom!). The leadership development, after the mentioned experience, can actually form the central focus of the essay if that is what you want.

b. How have you experienced culture shock?

How do you complement the international flavor and global outlook of the most famous business school in the world? What is your attitude to an international mix of colleagues (or classmates)? How you have dealt with these in the past might give clues to how you approach them in the future (at Harvard and later). This essay is a great platform to show your global viewpoint, international exposure and maturity in cross-cultural interactions. Typically, "culture shocks" also make for great stories.

c. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?

Write about what you found interesting, influential and character-shaping during your undergraduate academic experience. If you possess substantial work experience or find it tough to backtrack and look into your undergraduate phase, please attempt another essay.

d. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?

A leading MBA essayist recently told me that she felt dizzy every time she tried to imagine the number of applicants who want to graduate from a leading Ivy League B School, join McKinsey (or another leading Management Consultancy) and then found their own company. If you imagine the career track in your Harvard essay to be similar to that, perhaps you should think again. Not that there anything intrinsically wrong with the idea (or with McKinsey or with entrepreneurship) but that is certainly not a differentiating or different answer. Some lucid thinking and creativity will go a long way in transforming this from a well-disguised sleeping pill to the high point of your Harvard application. Harvard gives you greater scope than in a usual "what is your career goal" question. Define the goal and explain your vision. Show how it makes sense for you and for HBS. Strategic thinking, passion and intelligence: show these in the essay and you'll have my vote.

e. What global issue is most important to you and why?

This is an essay explicitly targeted at gauging your worldview, maturity and aptitude for analyzing and communicating great issues. The choice obviously should have universal ramifications and should also (hopefully) find at least a local and partial solution through you. The latter is not explicitly stated in the question, but is implicit - after all this is not just an essay writing competition!

f. What else would you like the MBA Admissions Board to understand about you?

Do you know why, in most places, we advise against attempting an optional essay? Because the temptation to use 400 words worth of admission committee time to repeat points, contradict the other essays or otherwise simply bore them into a blank stupor, is for some unimaginable reason too sweet to resist. Here when you have the choice of making it a mandatory essay, take that option only if you feel you can convey greater meaning with greater power than in any of the other five essay choices. If you can, please go ahead. If not, please DO NOT.