Wharton MBA Essay 2: Describe an impactful experience or accomplishment that is not reflected elsewhere in your application. How will you use what you learned through that experience to contribute to the Wharton community? (400 words)
The first line of the question is a hint on what you should highlight in Essay 2.
“Describe an impactful experience or accomplishment that is not reflected elsewhere in your application.”
By application, the admission team means the essays and the short answer that are part of the online application. Any impactful experience worth mentioning should be part of your resume.
Once you shortlist the experience, here is how you structure the essay
1) Start with a personal story
Since Essay 1 on the professional gain is focused entirely on your work, the essay on impactful experience should start with a personal story. It could be related to your parent/grandparent/sibling/hometown/childhood. By taking the reviewers to a world outside the realm of your professional experience, you are sharing the origins of your value, interest, and ambition.
2) Community
Like it or not, the admission team categorizes you based on your ethnicity, nationality, ‘place of origin’ (tier-1, tier-2 or metropolitan city), life experiences (growth/hardship/childhood), and talent (music, writing, public speaking, dance, stand-up, sports). Narrating causes that match your unique identity is a strategy that has worked for Wharton MBA applicants.
Writing about Police brutality and bridging the trust deficit between the police force and citizens is a narrative that works in this essay if you are an African American applicant.
Writing about the opioid epidemic in American rural communities, predominantly white neighborhoods, is a relevant cause if your hometown is in rural America.
Writing about Pollution and means to mitigate the toxic air is relevant if you are a Chinese applicant.
Writing about the sanitation crisis in rural India is a cause that would be relevant if you are from India.
These are some of the examples, but you get the idea.
Causes that are popularized in media has the highest recall. Hence narrating them breeds familiarity.
Familiarity = Likability
3) What You Learned
After you have offered enough context, your involvement through a non-profit or a consulting project should provide the reviewers with a clear narrative on how you envision a better future, divide the problem into smaller tasks, build teams, communicate, lead and reach a solution.
The thought process and the long-term vision demonstrate that your involvement in a cause/community is not based on short-term incentives but long-term IMPACT.
4) Value at Wharton
None of the narrative on IMPACT means anything if you can’t translate those learnings into the Wharton community.
Reading about the student-led clubs, conferences, competitions and research centers specializing in Finance/Entrepreneurship/ Retailing/Risk Management/Social IMPACT/Real Estate/Public Policy/Family Business/Operations Management/Leadership/Analytics are essential to map your experience to Wharton.
Most commonly, applicants share their intent to start a new club that is in alignment with the cause. Don’t worry about the feasibility of the plan, share ‘why’ it is important.
Maybe it is about translating your unique leadership and exposure for a SOCIAL impact consulting project.
Maybe it is about using a life/death experience (military) to demonstrate how to thrive under extreme pressure.
Maybe it is about leveraging a new research center to fulfill a long-term vision.
Maybe it is about accessing the professors to solve the last-mile problem you have yet to solve.
Maybe it is about finding a partner at Wharton for an Entrepreneurial project
The permutation and combinations are many.
