All MBA Application Related Tips

The school’s culture and openness to embrace the idealistic values of the current generation determines the language you use in MBA Essays. For Tuck, emotionally strong words are not the norm. However, the school is open to reading challenging scenarios and debate-inducing political subjects if the applicant has the skills to define the problem in an apolitical narrative. That is the first iteration of our edit – removing redundant political statements.

The Tuck Sense of Inclusion professional examples are broad. Depending on your industry and the performance metrics, you are likely to attract peers with different social, communication, and ethical perspectives.

When you work in Finance, Creative (YouTube) or Consulting, there is self-regulation and ethical behavior that is paramount for the health of the entire ecosystem.

Technology as a lever is a common theme for applicants from developing economies. African applicants use this narrative to demonstrate the gaps in policy and infrastructure. Many such essays feel like the FIELD courses that Harvard Business School initiated for their MBA program. Some MBA admission consultants nudge clients to include the narrative to show fit with Harvard.  

One of the biggest challenges I found while editing essays for Consortium applicants is in differentiating the struggles. It is shocking but unsurprising to see how common the thread of the story is for each applicant who had to face the inter-generational consequences of racism.

It is easy to forget the horrors of war when one is in the comforts of an AC room with food on the plate and no worries about water, electricity, or the safety of your family. The narratives all look familiar - as if we have read them a million times. None of the sufferers feel Deja vu. They mask the horrors with the new American dream.

The exploratory narrative works in rare cases. It is even rarer to read this type of essay for a Harvard MBA.

Family Business dynamics can go either way.

One group of MBA applicants is eager to uphold the legacy of the parent’s business with innovation, technology, and a mindset fit for the AI and the Creator generation.

Before you create a narrative for the Harvard MBA open-ended essay with cliched accounts of the challenges of exploring in unforgiving terrains, and the roadblocks a manager faces working with rig workers of diverse motivations and cultures, you must learn about the historical perspective on where Harvard University stands on the fossil fuel industry.