0:02 Man, I miss the good old days of that
0:05 monolithic Harvard MBA application
0:08 essay, 900 words. What more do you want
0:10 us to know?
0:12 All good things must come to an end. If
0:15 you've been grappling with these three
0:18 Harvard essays that are not at all
0:19 mutually exclusive and collectively
0:22 exhaustive, you are not alone.
0:24 Self-reflection and self-awareness is
0:27 always at the core of great MBA essays.
0:29 So, let's do some work together today on
0:33 your foundation for your Harvard essays. [Music]
0:36 [Music]
0:38 Welcome back to NBA Monday. I'm Angela,
0:40 career coach, MBA coach. I got my own
0:42 MBA from the University of Chicago Booth
0:44 School of Business. I joined the Boston
0:46 Consulting Group where I used to recruit
0:49 MBAs from Harvard. And for the last 18
0:51 years, I've been coaching applicants to
0:53 the world's top business schools. I've
0:55 actually helped over a hundred people
0:56 get into Harvard. So, if you're looking
0:58 for MBA application advice this year,
1:00 please hit that subscribe button. Here's
1:01 what we're going to cover in today's
1:04 video. I'm going to cover insights and
1:05 thoughtprovoking prompts that are going
1:08 to allow you to bring out your very best
1:10 in each and every Harvard MBA
1:12 application essay so that your entire
1:15 application can present a full and
1:17 coherent picture of who you are. [Music]
1:21 [Music]
1:24 First, a couple of words about my essay
1:25 writing philosophy. Throughout most of
1:27 your education, you've been taught
1:30 top-down writing. You come up with a
1:32 thesis, you have your idea, you
1:34 construct the whole essay around that
1:38 core idea, and the rest of the substance
1:40 of the essay flows from top down, from
1:43 that core idea on down. I think this is
1:45 a terrible way to approach MBA essays
1:46 because at best, you're going to end up
1:48 sounding logical and analytical, and at
1:50 worst, you're going to end up sounding
1:53 hackneeded and overpolished and trit.
2:00 worthwhile to approach your MBA
2:02 application essays from the bottom up,
2:05 meaning from your own experiences, from
2:08 your stories, from the aspects of your
2:10 life experience that have shaped you and
2:14 build your stories on top of that and
2:17 worry about what the topline says when
2:20 you get to the end. So, your approach to
2:22 answering any Harvard essay should be
2:25 first start with a catalog of your
2:27 experiences which you've explored and
2:29 reflected on. Second, look at each of
2:32 the Harvard MBA application essays and
2:35 decide which of your experiences are
2:39 going to give you the most leverage in
2:41 answering each individual question. But
2:44 again, it's arising from the story. Then
2:47 write the story and iterate. And because
2:49 these questions are not meiy, like I
2:51 said in my last video, you may find
2:53 yourself taking what's written in the
2:55 curiosity essay and moving it to the
2:57 leadership essay or moving it to the
2:59 businessminded essay as you go through
3:01 the process. And that's perfectly fine.
3:04 Your goal is to make sure that you're
3:06 showing all the best of you. Where it
3:08 fits in the three essays is less
3:10 important. In my last video, I talked
3:12 about how Harvard evaluates applicants
3:14 and what their values are and what's
3:16 most important to them in the admissions
3:18 process. If you missed that video,
3:19 you're going to want to go back and
3:20 watch it. You can find the link right
3:22 there and also in the description below.
3:24 The bottom line is that Harvard is
3:25 looking for leaders and they have a
3:27 specific understanding of what
3:29 leadership means, which they state
3:31 transparently on their website. I talk
3:33 about it in that other video. Let's dig
3:35 into essay one, the business-minded
3:38 essay. The question, please reflect on
3:40 how your choices have influenced your
3:42 career path and aspirations. Notice the
3:45 word reflect. In this essay, you're
3:47 being asked to really address your
3:50 career, both what has come before and I
3:52 believe implicitly, what is going to
3:55 come after Harvard. The best way to get
3:57 at your best answer to this question is
4:01 to think about the how of your career.
4:05 How have you had an impact to date? How
4:09 have you made a difference? How do you
4:10 intend to make a difference in the
4:13 future? I say how and you might
4:17 immediately go to thinking what like
4:19 what industry are you going to join?
4:21 What function will you have? What will
4:23 be the company or even the title that
4:25 you'll hold? You might even think in
4:26 terms of buzzwords like I'm going to be
4:28 a leader. I'm going to be a manager. I'm
4:31 going to build a great culture. But none
4:33 of that is how. That's all still at the
4:35 level of what we need to drill down one
4:38 layer deeper to really get at your best
4:40 answer. The how means how will you go
4:43 about doing things. So to prepare for
4:45 this question, I really encourage you to
4:47 start with the future to look at your
4:50 life 5 to 10 years after Harvard and
4:52 really think about what does your life
4:54 look like? Imagine what are you doing
4:58 dayto day, week to week exactly what are
5:02 the qualities and actions and ways that
5:06 you are making a difference. And since
5:08 Harvard is about leadership, you're
5:10 really going to want to think about how
5:13 you're going to lead. Will you be uh
5:15 building great teams? If so, how will
5:17 you do that? Will you do it by
5:19 innovating creative processes that make
5:21 team communication better? or will you
5:23 do it by managing and mentoring people
5:26 more effectively? Really think through
5:29 how you uniquely have made change happen
5:32 to date and intend to make change happen
5:34 in the future. Even if you can't nail
5:36 the specifics, you should be able to
5:39 presence a feeling. You should be able
5:42 to have a vibe of what your mark in
5:44 leadership is going to be and is going
5:47 to look like based on everything that
5:49 has come before. By the way, I've put
5:51 together an entire HBS essay prep
5:53 toolkit for you and you can go download
5:57 it at this QR code right here or at the
5:59 link down in the description. It's a set
6:01 of questions that if you answer them and
6:03 reflect really deeply on them, and I
6:06 mean like take time, take days, journal
6:09 about your answers to these questions,
6:11 the picture of who you are and who you
6:13 want to show yourself to be to Harvard
6:15 will start to emerge clearly. It's like
6:18 one of those magic eye pictures where
6:20 it's just dots, but the closer you look,
6:24 you can see a dragon or a bear or
6:26 your own leadership future. But it's not
6:28 enough to have a vision for your future
6:30 leadership because here comes question
6:34 two. What experiences have shaped how
6:37 notice the how how you invest in others
6:41 and how you lead? Now when you first
6:42 read this question you might think that
6:45 it's mostly about the experiences that
6:46 have shaped you and that is a part of
6:48 this question but the most important
6:52 thing really is the how. How do you
6:56 invest in others and how do you lead? So
6:58 this is really about seeing and
7:00 nurturing the potential in others.
7:02 Harvard has this great statement in
7:06 their evaluation criteria. I'll link to
7:08 uh who we're looking for in the
7:10 description below. What they say is we
7:13 are looking for individuals who aspire
7:15 to lead others toward making a
7:18 difference in the world.
7:20 So you see, it's not just about you
7:23 making a difference. It's not about you
7:26 being the leader and being in charge.
7:28 It's really about nurturing the
7:31 greatness in others and empowering them
7:34 to make a difference as well. It's
7:36 really like creating an exponential
7:41 effect as was referenced in a Harvard
7:44 College commencement address that you
7:46 might find really inspiring and that I'm
7:48 going to link in the description below.
7:49 So, in preparation to answer this
7:51 question, you really want to think about
7:54 where in your career have you seen and
7:58 nurtured the best in others,
7:59 even when it wasn't apparent. You want
8:02 to look for those times where the
8:04 obvious choice might have been to do it
8:07 yourself or to overlook someone or uh to
8:10 go with the tribe, but instead you made
8:14 a choice to see what someone was capable
8:16 of and to bring out the very best in
8:17 them. This is just one of a few
8:19 questions I have for you in that Harvard
8:22 essay prep kit. But the most important
8:25 thing here is that you're you're not
8:27 just talking about when you were in
8:30 charge or when you took initiative. It's
8:33 really about bringing others up behind
8:35 you and along with you. So put the
8:36 emphasis in this essay and in your
8:39 exploration on how you have led and
8:41 influenced others to be their best
8:44 selves. For the third question,
8:46 and I I have to say I really I really
8:48 love this question. It's only this
8:50 question that makes the loss of the
8:52 monolithic what else do you want us to
8:55 know worthwhile. And here's the
8:58 question. Curiosity can be seen in many
9:00 ways. Please share an example of how you
9:03 have demonstrated curiosity and how that
9:06 has influenced your growth. So this is a
9:08 new element to the Harvard application
9:09 in the last couple of years. They used
9:12 to prioritize analytical aptitude and
9:14 appetite. meaning you like numbers, you
9:17 like to dig into data, you like to, you
9:19 know, find evidence for things and prove
9:21 it through analysis. But now they've
9:24 shifted it to this more internal value
9:27 of curiosity. Curiosity is always about
9:30 the unknown. It's not just about
9:32 analysis. It's about conquering
9:35 uncharted territory and embracing the
9:38 discomfort of ambiguity and not having
9:40 all the answers. So to answer this
9:41 question, you're going to want to look
9:43 at the places in your life where you've
9:45 consciously and concertedly taken an
9:48 effort to grow and to evolve. You're
9:51 also going to look at the places where
9:53 you did something unexpected. You made a
9:56 choice that maybe everybody thought you
9:57 were going to go left and you went
9:59 right, but when you went right, you knew
10:00 what you were doing and you did it for a
10:02 specific reason. Those are usually the
10:04 times where you're embracing the
10:07 unknown. Just as curiosity is about the
10:09 unknown, growth is often about
10:12 persistence. So you want to find the
10:13 places where you discovered something
10:18 unknown, you followed a yearning, you
10:20 ended up somewhere interesting
10:23 uh versus where you had been before. It
10:24 can be something big or it can be
10:27 something really really small. But look
10:29 in your experience for those tender
10:31 moments where you said, "I don't know
10:34 the answer, but I'm going to proceed
10:36 anyway." I've got a lot more great
10:38 questions for you to reflect on in my
10:41 Harvard essay prep toolkit, which I hope
10:45 you will download and use it to explore
10:46 your experiences. If you enjoyed this
10:49 video, if you found it eye opening to
10:51 start to look at these deeper questions
10:53 about yourself, or maybe if you found it
10:56 confronting and annoying to confront and
10:57 look at these deeper questions about
10:59 yourself, then you might want to
11:01 consider working with an MBA protocol
11:05 coach to do the spelunking into the deep
11:07 dive of your character that is really
11:10 required to put forward the very best
11:13 application you can for schools like
11:15 Harvard and Stanford. You can request a
11:18 call to build your custom MBA guided
11:20 quest package with a member of our team
11:22 at the link below, mba protocol.com/mbba.
11:24 protocol.com/mbba.
11:26 And if you like this video, please give
11:27 it a thumbs up and leave me a comment.
11:30 It just helps other people discover our
11:32 channel and discover the great free
11:34 content that we are putting out every
11:36 Monday. I hope to see you next week on
11:38 NBA Monday. And if you haven't subscribed,
11:39 subscribed,
11:43 maybe do that so you don't miss a video.
11:46 I'll see you next week through I've put
11:48 I've put together an ent an entire
11:50 Harvard essay prep toolkit. Why is this
12:01 Don't panic.
