Essay Snark - EssaySnarks Strategies for the 2012-13 MBA Admissions Essays for Harvard Business School

EssaySnark's Strategies for the 2012-'13 MBAAdmissions Essays for Harvard Business School

A SnarkStrategies Guide

by EssaySnark

Snarkolicious Press

SMASHWORDS EDITION FOR 2012

version 1.0

originally published June 8, 2012

Revised and Expanded from the 2011 edition

This SnarkStrategies Guide is copyright2012 EssaySnark.

Cover image copyright Eric Issele, used underlicense from Fotolia.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may bereproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronicor mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by aninformation storage system, without permission from thepublisher.

This publication is provided as is, withoutwarranty of any kind, either express or implied. The author andSnarkolicious Press assume no liability for errors or omissions inthis publication or other documents which are referenced or linkedto this publication. While we certainly hope that you will besuccessful in your quest for admission to an MBA program, we cannotoffer any promises that you will be. In no event shallSnarkolicious Press or its authors, principals, subsidiaries,partners, or owners, be liable for any special, incidental,indirect or consequential damages of any kind, or any damageswhatsoever, arising out of or in conjunction with the use orperformance of this information. Applicants to any graduate programor university should verify the school's policies, applicationrequirements, processes, procedures, and other criteria. Thispublication could include technical or other inaccuracies ortypographical errors. Changes are periodically added to theinformation herein; these changes will be incorporated into neweditions of this publication. Thus, different versions or formatsof this publication may include different information.

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal use only.This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to others. If you wouldlike to share this book, please purchase an additional copy foreach person you share it with. If you're reading this book and didnot purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, thenyou should go to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thankyou for respecting the author's work.

Look for other SnarkStrategies Guides atSmashwords:

YourMBA Interview

Reapplicant Guide

Stanford GSB (2011 )

Berkeley-Haas School of Business (2011)

Northwestern Kellogg (2011)

Dartmouth Tuck (2011)

NYUStern 2011

SnarkStrategies Guides for other schools are alsoavailable in digital and e-reader editions at your favoritebookseller or from the EssaySnark blahg at essaysnark.com .

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Applying to Harvard? Awesome! (So iseverybody else... not to freak you out or anything.)

Harvard gets well over 9,000 applicationseach year. No wonder they cut down the number of essays to just twothis year! Even with just two essays, with all you BraveSupplicants applying, that's still a lot for them to read. You needto work hard to make sure that your application doesn't suffer fromsome common (and avoidable) errors that can quickly move it to thereject pile. This SnarkStrategies Guide will set you upwith the info you need on the most important elements of theHarvard MBA admissions process including the new twists they'vethrown at you this year. We cover the 2012 application and providethe essentials that you need to know if you are interested inapplying to this very competitive school.

Please note that this SnarkStrategiesGuide is focused on HBS's standard full-time program, not onHBS 2+2, the special program for applying to Harvard straight fromcollege. If you're interested in 2+2, you'll still benefit from thediscussion on essay questions and application strategy providedhere, but we're not going into tactics around when to apply and whothey're looking for.

And to set expectations right here at thefront: EssaySnark will not tell you what to write in your Harvardessays. Sorry. We will tell you about some avoidable errors thatmany people make. Plenty of Brave Supplicants will do just fine inhunkering down with these tips plus their own first-hand research and tackling their Harvard application. A trip to Cambridge canbe incredibly useful in understanding what this school is about. Ifyou can do so, it would be to your advantage, particularly if youcan do it before you start on your essays.

Of course, if you find yourself stuck onanything, drop on over to our blahg at or even tweet us if it's a simple question and we'll see whatwe can do to help out.

Congratulations, Brave Supplicant! Bypurchasing this SnarkStrategies Guide, you have indicatedthat you are taking your HBS application seriously. Cool.

Before we dive into the practical advice forall things Harvard, we have to pause and ask you: Are you ready forthis?

Getting into HBS is no easy task, as weimagine you already realize. The odds are not in your favor. Why isthis? Because it's an incredible place, and everybody wants to gothere, so they have a lot of fine candidates to choose from. Thevast majority of applicants are qualified to attend, based on thestatistics of GMAT score and GPA and work experience. They have themental horsepower and the appropriate experience to benefit from anMBA. Obviously though, the vast majority of applicants are notadmitted. The ones that make it successfully through and receive anoffer of admission are those who do their homework. Who know whatHarvard is about, and have good reasons for wanting to go there.And, who demonstrate that they are what we call Harvardmaterial.

So here's EssaySnark's first question toyou:

Do you know what Harvard is about?

This is an important question. And we reallywant to know your answer. Take a moment and jot down your ideas onwhat Harvard stands for. On the things they're known for. On howthey do things. What do you know about Harvard so far?

Yes, right now. Go ahead.

If you felt like you couldn't come up withmuch, that's OK. That's what this process is about. Figuring outwhere the gaps are, and filling them. You can spend more time onthe HBS website, and ideally you'll get the chance to go to an infosession, or even better, take a trip to Cambridge and visit campus.Sit in on a class. Get to meet some students. Ask questions. Figureout what makes Harvard Harvard. What it is about Harvard BusinessSchool that makes everyone want to go there? What is exciting aboutthe place? You need this information to do a good job on youressays.

But we'll come back to that. First:

Yes they did! In case you're not aware, theHarvard application has for years and years consisted of four essayquestions. This year just two? Wow! Talk about shaking things upin the bschool admissions world?

Even more of a shake-up is the newpost-interview write-up, which we'll discuss for you in as muchdetail as we can, later in this Guide.

So why did they make these changes? Theobvious reason is it was in reaction to the admissions consultantswho have their fingers all over Harvard's applicants. EssaySnarksort of agrees with Harvard on this we see a lot of admissionsconsultants who go way too far in advising their clients, to theextent that the essays the applicant is submitting aren't reallythe product of his own native thought processes. So what's the goodin that? Harvard is being deceived a bit with consultants who takethis approach.