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Learning from the Best: Harvard MBA Growth Essay Sample

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)

Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.

Curiosity: Peers

Curiosity (Explained): Harvard MBA is famously selective, but I don’t see many applicants sharing the perspective of learning from the best in their essays.   

MBA Essay Strategy: The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.

Theme: Learning

Theme (Explained): Reaching out to the best to learn and acquire skills is a strategy I have seen only among a few. Most are introverted to reach out to the subject matter expert. By narrating examples of reaching out to the best, you are sharing a personality trait that is valued at Harvard MBA.

Profile: Engineer

Industry: Oil and Gas Industry

Opener: The opener establishes the applicant’s early exposure to isolation and limited access to the best resources in the community.

Sample Harvard MBA Curiosity and Growth Essay – Learning from the Best (249 Words)

I was five when my mother shared that “we would be leaving the comforts of Mumbai” to <x> - a village 200km away to start a rural school. 

Growing up, I felt inadequate, but my mother showed me the possibility of learning from the best. The invitation to NASA space camp reconciled the notion that one can stay far away from the crowd but reach out to the best in the world if one is determined to do so.

When we pioneered Remote Operations in our offshore drilling, there were no ..

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Download F1GMAT's Harvard MBA Essay Guide for the Complete Sample Essay on Learning (20 Sample Essays with unique themes + 300 Pages of Essay Writing Tips - Storytelling Strategies and the Secret to creating a persuasive Harvard MBA Essay)

 

 

F1GMAT's Harvard MBA Essay Guide

 

• Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your choices have influenced your career path and aspirations. (up to 300 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)
• Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (up to 250 words)

Download F1GMAT's Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20+ Essay Examples & 300+ Pages of Essay Writing Wisdom)

 

About the Author 

Atul Jose

I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.

 

For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.

 

My work covers the full MBA application deliverable: career planning and profile evaluation, application essay editing, recommendation letter editing, mock interviews and interview preparation, scholarship and fellowship essay editing, and cover letter editing for funding applications. Full bio with credentials and admit history is here.

 

I am the author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, the best-selling essay guide covering M7 MBA programs. I have written and updated the guide annually since 2013, which makes the 2026 edition the thirteenth.

 

The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.

 

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