This HBS application essay review highlights how an applicant, Suzanne, effectively showcases her multifaceted identity and growth potential through a personal narrative centered on her lifelong passion for art, demonstrating depth, vulnerability, and a commitment to continuous learning.
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Hi, I'm Liza Wheel, founder of Gate
House Admissions. And I'm Jeremy
Jeanwald, founder of MBA Admission. And
we're back with our series of HBS
application essay reviews. We've already
looked at Suzanne's businessminded and
leadership focused essays, and we love
them. And now we'll turn to her
growthoriented essay. If you want to
follow along, use the link below to
download a free copy of our book of
sample essays from successful HBS
admins. Let's go ahead and get started.
I've been drawing ever since I was
young. When I moved to the US at age 11,
I made my first friends through drawing
because it transcended language and
cultural barriers. As I got older, I
wanted to learn about other aspects of
art. So, I joined the design team at
BEu's Daily Free Press. Designing
special layouts was particularly
challenging because writers were often
more focused on content than design. To
facilitate collaboration, I created a
request form with questions on the
stories featured, design ideas, and key
deadlines. This gave designers a
starting point and encouraged writers to
be more involved in the creative
process. During co I started sharing my
art on Instagram. The conventional
wisdom is to post frequently and
consistently which my consulting job
didn't allow. Resigned to lower
engagements, I was surprised when a
comic I posted went viral. I realized
that it was because the comic was funny.
An art that elicited an emotional
reaction did better than something that
was just nice to look at. By being
strategic, I've managed to gain 20,000
plus followers despite only posting one
to two times a month. While I've been an
artist my entire life, I know there's
still more to learn. Whether it's
working in a new medium, improving the
creative process, or finding the most
effective way to engage with a digital
audience. I look forward to bringing
that same curiosity to the HBS classroom
and community. Jeremy, what do you
think? Well, I think first and foremost,
we're again learning about a new side of
this person and and not just a new side
like a new activity. Um, but really
there's depth depth to this interest in
in art and and um and you know a true
commitment to it and it's it's a it's a
creative intellectual pursuit as much.
It it really wasn't for an audience
until until she tried. It was just more
like um this you know her own passion
project. and and so, you know, it it
sort of again sort of keeps us with
these nice little surprises, right? Um,
you know, we have someone who it makes a
lot of sense that this person loves
animated films because this person is is
an artist. And so it it sort of links
all these pieces together. Um, we're
kind of moving this uniquely powerful
business story into this story about
identity and mentoring others and and
having an impact in a in a smaller
community and then finally into sort of
this like very personal world like we're
we're learning about her uh you know as
an artist and and uh and so I'm I'm
intrigued and I'm engaged in her story.
I'm like god this is this is really
someone who is there's a lot of layers.
There's a lot of depth here and that's
very appealing. Yeah. I also, you know,
going back to that, we learned in her
last essay, in her leadership focused
essay, she's an introvert and yet here
she is posting on Instagram her art. I
mean, just the the vulnerability in
doing that. And and watching the
followers, you know, not, you know,
probably recognizing or saying she
recognized that she should be posting
more often. And then imagine I I don't
know, as a reader, I'm like, "Oh my
gosh, imagine when her comic went viral.
She put herself out there and and just,
you know, just saw it sort of light up
with followers. You can't put the genie
back in the bottle at that point. It's
like, you're out there, you know,
introvert, extrovert, you're out there.
Yeah. And I it just again, it gives us
there's just so many layers to who she
is. And um we might have preconceived
notions of what it means to be an
introvert. And that's what I think
throughout these three essays, she's
done a very effective job of challenging
that by revealing that she's a leader.
She can stand up for what she believes
in. She can explain what she believes
in. And she's willing to put herself out
there in in ways that uh you know
perhaps uh people might have a
stereotype of that that runs counter to
it, right? I think she's just some
someone also she's she's getting the
point across that she has very high
expectations for herself. committed to
excellence. The things she does, she
does extremely well. And again, whether
that's insights that change a major
media company or being a really good
mentor to one person or being committed
to art, this person is someone who is
and that's who do you want in your in
your in your seauite or whatever her
ultimate goals are. Um, you want someone
who's got the highest expectations for
themselves to be like motivated
internally to do things to make others
and organizations and themselves
successful. And um, and so she's she's
played on all those levels here so far,
right? She's played on this on the on
the individual uh, you know, the team,
the company, and then internally she's
played on that level as well. Um, so
we're just getting a a very full,
thoughtful, um, self-aware picture of of
this individual and it's it's driven by
unique experience. Again, you can't you
can't fudge that. You can't be like,
"Okay, well, I'm Jeremy. I'll write
about my art, my passion for art." Hey,
spoiler alert. I'm not an artist. Okay.
It's not happening, you know. Um, but
you but you know, everyone has their own
their own interests and and as long as
you can prove that you've done it
inordinately, which she's done, then she
owns it. Yeah. I also like at the end
again she um she recognizes there's lots
more growth to be had right and she
doesn't just say that she calls out
different areas of art and creativity
that she could continue to learn so you
know the easy the platitude is oh and I
still have ways to grow but it's much
harder to actually articulate what are
those areas and and how is she pushing
herself and we have no doubt that
Suzanne will indeed continue to push
herself to grow as an artist as a leader
as a uh analytical leader within Netflix
or wherever she ends up. It's really
exciting to see. So, no wonder that uh
HBS was impressed with her. I certainly
was. Yeah. Fantastic. Suite of essay.
Suzanne did a great job. Good. Well,
thank you everyone. Follow the series
for more reviews of real essays from HBS
admits and be sure to download our book
which is linked below for dozens more
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