Ask Jon Frank- P69-Q&A:WHY MBA? 7 OVERLOOKED REASONS TO GET AN MBA

JonFrank

You’re applying to Harvard Business School. We can see your resume, school transcripts, extra-curricular activities, awards, post-MBA career goals, test scores and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy? There is no word limit for this question. We think you know what guidance we’re going to give here. Don’t overthink, overcraft and overwrite. Just answer the question in clear language that those of us who don’t know your world can understand.

Here’s the question again, stripped of all the surrounding fluff?

What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?

They’re sending a message. To repeat something is to waste an opportunity. You have a shot to do something cool here. To show that you’re a leader, a doer, a “has success written all over him” guy. But so, how do you do it?!

Well, first things first. There’s no word limit, true, but there IS such a thing as too long a response here. Let’s put it differently. The guy with insane credentials, insane natural assets won’t need to write much. That may make the guy who DOES feel the need to write a lot seem like he’s…. over compensating? While there’s no word limit, we’re not sure your final product needs to be much more than 600 words or so. 700 maybe as a max, but if you’re going overboard, it’s gonna likely feel strained.

So what do you do with 400, or 500 words?

Well, let us ask you a question. Why do you think you belong at Harvard Business School? Let’s assume for a second that Harvard is the ultimate in business school education, in terms of experience, career prospects, all that stuff. Let’s just pretend, even if you don’t buy it. Pretend it’s the best, and that more qualified people want a seat there than there are seats. What is it about you that makes you feel like one of those seats belongs to you?

Seriously. What?

What STUFF about you makes you feel like you should be rubbing elbows with the elitest of the elite? (It’s a hard question to answer, but as an exercise—skin it that way, see what happens.)

Let’s further pretend that you went ahead with that exercise and generated a bullet point list of STUFF, reasons you belong at HBS. Or a short paragraph. Something. What do you DO with this now? How does this become the beginnings of an essay?

Well, we’re not there yet. This exercise may or may not become anything—but it can be an incredibly interesting thing to articulate in your own head. Put it aside for now, let’s figure out how to WRITE this sucker.

Imagine sitting across from the HBS guys reviewing your app. And imagine saying this to him (literally, say this out loud, feel what it’s like to say/think it):

• You know my GMAT
• You know my GPA
• You’ve seen what I’ve accomplished thus far in my career
• You’ve seen evidence of leadership from my resume
• You’ve heard from others (my recommenders) that I’m a born leader, along with a bunch of other Harvard-worthy things
• You don’t need a reason for why I wanna go to Harvard because it’s like asking someone why they want the best thing instead of the second best thing
• You know all of that—and you’re compelled, but you wanna hear one more thing about me—one other THING about what I’m all about, or what I’ve done, something I have in the works, some… THING to help you realize that offering me a seat is the best decision YOU could ever make; well here goes:

{What follows from all that?}

Any obvious contenders for what fills that space? Is there one obvious thing you simply MUST talk about? Several? Well, choosing this “thing” is gonna be hard. And you may decide the “thing” needs to be captured in three buckets, not just one. But if you go that route, be careful not to spread yourself too thin because too much stuff can start to seem… compensatory. Brevity, strength of position, confidence, all that stuff matters here. This is Harvard, just look at how much they wanna know about you? Very little—so don’t give ‘em the library of Congress.

Give them something substantive. Something assertive. Something badass. Something that makes the reader go… “Yah, that IS a reason to give this guy a seat here.” Or, more practically-speaking, “Yah, that IS a reason to call this kid in for an interview.” (Cuz that’s the main objective here right? Give ‘em JUST enough that they want to MEET you. You’ll never give them enough to offer you an admit-without-interview.)

Before you put pen to paper, let’s talk about one more step. Once you’ve identified the THING or THINGS, ask yourself WHY this should put you over the top. Don’t gloss over it, force yourself to ARTICULATE it. If you can’t, guess what… your “thing” may need some re-thinking. Don’t take this lightly, folks; articulating this is gonna be hard as hell. But if you’re able to do it, you’ll be able to develop your argument much more effectively.

Think about selling a physical product. Like a pen. Or a brand of tea. Or a particular television model. Why should someone own THAT particular brand? Yes, it may have many virtues in the abstract, but why must A CERTAIN SOMEONE actually care about those things? That’s when you start to acquaint YOURSELF with the product’s intrinsic VALUE. Yes this pen can write with this amount of thickness, has ink that will last this long, and on and on and on. But… why must CONSUMER X own it?

Figure out why Harvard must hear about this THING or these THINGS you wanna tell them. If you can’t articulate it… may mean you need to do some more soul-searching. If you can, start making that case, not by articulating that reason—but by DEMONSTRATING it through your storytelling skills.

@JonFrank
HBS 2005

栗子公主

I wonder where we can start a deeply discussion about the essays

m1nt

dear Jon, thanks for alll the suggestions you and your team gave, you guys are awesome, gave me so many useful info and tips. those tips are valuable that i cant figure out by myself or find online.
should say almost saved my life, haha

JonFrank

1. The mission of the MIT Sloan School of Management is to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world and generate ideas that advance management practice. Discuss how you will contribute toward advancing the mission based on examples of past work and activities. (500 words or fewer, limited to one page)

MIT has clearly made some sweeping changes to their slate of essay requirements. Most notably, cutting out their famous cover letter essay. They’ve whittled it down to two main essays. MIT has been vocal about their belief that past achievements is the best predictor for future success (we couldn’t agree more). And here in their first essay, they’re setting the table for you.

Let’s look closely here. This is not a goals essay. Yes, they are asking you about what you will do “in the future” toward advancing their mission, but, they want the evidence to come from prior experiences. Now, before we get all twisted up, let’s simplify it and cut to the heart of it.

Where in your past should we look to be wowed?

What are the moments (either or both inside and outside of work) where we catch a glimpse of something SPECIAL about you? Run-of-the-mill isn’t gonna excite anyone, folks—especially not the ultra-elite like MIT. So, it’s gotta be stuff that’s frickin AWESOME. They’ve done you a favor (hopefully) by limiting your choices to something that has occurred in the past three years. If you’ve read our stuff, attended our webinars, met our guys, you’ll have heard us allude to “assembling your greatest hits.” Well, this is a perfect example of when you’ll wanna be familiar with only the COOLEST things in your personal repertoire, and figure out how to answer this question from there, rather than let this question be the driver of you.

Once you’ve selected the stuff that makes your special sauce shine the MOST (aim for two examples, maaaaybe three, but that may be stretching it), now you’ll wanna engineer this sucker to wow MIT. Don’t come out and state plainly that aspect X of your achievement shows how principled and innovative you are. Show it. How?

Here’s a “thought exercise” to help you tease out possibilities.

Consider ways in which someone ELSE in your shoes may have approached the SAME task in a way that was UN-principled, or LESS principled. And in the same vein, not-so-innovative or LESS innovative. Surely you can imagine this, otherwise your example may not be the best one.

Let’s look at it another way.

Go back to the starting point of the task/example. Imagine someone looking in on this from a distance. Imagine this person PREDICTING how one would solve this problem/approach it. Hopefully, they’d say something like “well, in this scenario, I would expect for you to do X, Y and Z in order to achieve this thing.” But then something much cooler happens. You do what you did, and it SURPRISES THAT PERSON. How? Because you did something that was remarkably “innovative.” And remarkably “principled.” And it makes that guy say “Hunh, I’m impressed by the way you handled this in such an innovative and principled way.” What did you do that would have surprised that guy?

If you look at it using either or both of these hypothetical ways, you may be able to isolate the “thing” that made your example (and therefore you) special.

Here’s how it might look:

Establish the problem, situation, status quo, etc. Establish the goals. Establish the challenges.
Rather than robotically walk us through the stuff you DID, here (for MIT), be sure to incorporate some insight into decisions you made that went above and beyond “what the other guy would have done.” Show us how you could have done X but chose to do Y. Or, that normally the approach here would have been A but YOU chose to do something innovative by doing B.
Rinse and repeat with a second example.
As a final “tag” to this essay, take a few sentences to articulate why this stuff matters to you, and how this instinct (of being principled/innovative/etc.) underscores everything you do, and is a big reason you’ve been successful in the past, and why it’s gonna make you successful in the future. Let us taste it. Connect all this past greatness to something in the future that creates in itch in us to want to share in your success.
2. Describe a time when you pushed yourself beyond your comfort zone. (500 words or fewer, limited to one page)

In order to know “beyond,” first we need to know “the zone.” This is your “status quo,” and we need to understand this before we can relish in this cool moment when you extended yourself BEYOND it. Unless you do this, we won’t have a reason to appreciate all the good stuff.

Consider a guy whose achievement is that he built some shelves.

Well, if the guy’s a carpenter, and has been building shelves for thirty years, and the shelves he “built” were actually in an IKEA Billy shelf… um, building some shelves isn’t so interesting.

But if the guy is a war veteran, who lost an arm in combat, now building shelves is a whole lot more interesting, wouldn’t you say?

Context, folks—it’s so crucial, do NOT overlook this.

So, let’s look at the elements:

Establish the situation.
Establish your own limits (you can play with order here, either could be an interesting way to start this essay).
Discuss the DILEMMA (if any) or the PROSPECT of doing something that WOULD stretch your comfort zone. If it happened so quickly that you didn’t even realize you were doing it, it’s less compelling. Jumping in front of a train to save a child, for example, while an amaaaazing story…it may be SUCH a basic instinct that it doesn’t quite qualify.
Then discuss the DISCOMFORT (for example) or QUALITY of actually experiencing this out-of-comfort moment… did you doubt yourself mid-way? Did it feel wrong? Right? Bad fit? Good fit? Bring us into it.
Finally, why should we care about this story? What did it tell you about yourself? And what should it tell us about you and your future?
Optional Essay: The Admissions Committee invites you to share anything else you would like us to know about you, in any format. NOTE: “Please limit the experiences you discuss to those which have occurred in the past three years.”

They may have a different spin on it (limiting your options to the last three years), but the approach to the Optional Essay is aaaalways the same.

@JonFrank
HBS 2005

lzhao2

Thanks JonFrank!
your analysis is very helpful

JonFrank

Hey everyone! How's going??!!!

JonFrank

CAN MY CAREER GOAL CHANGE AS A RE-APPLICANT?

Question:

Can my career goal change as a reapplicant? My long-term goal has changed since the last time I applied. Is this okay?

Answer:

So, first thing to be aware of here: the reapplication process is different in a number of ways. Some schools will have you do the same essays as everyone else. Others will have a specific reapplicant essay. But the goal of the reapplicant app, no matter what version of the app you’re doing, is to show PROGRESS. Why are you a better applicant than you were last year?

Adcoms WANT to see some change in your application—if they didn’t admit you before, why would they admit you now with the same old application material? You gotta dust that old thing off and give it a nice polishing. If you’re sending in the same essays, the same work experience with no growth, the same test scores…you’re gonna experience some major déjà vu come admissions decision time. So it’s great to reevaluate your app. Show how you have more to offer. Show that you have a higher GMAT score. More responsibility at work. So that when the adcom compares this year’s app and your app from last year, it’s clear how much more awesome you are.

Which means you must have thought it through pretty seriously, right? So if it changes drastically within a year, that could raise some adcom eyebrows. It could make you seem flaky, or seem as if you’re just writing what you think the adcom wants to see to get you accepted. No no no no. It’s got to be for REAL.

Still, it is TOTALLY fine—and, sometimes, a good thing—to change your long-term career goal, as long as you explain WHY, and explicitly.

So for example: if you’re a pharma management consultant, and your long-term goal last year was to start a hospital group in rural India, but now you want to start a healthcare consulting company, that’s totally okay…as long as you can show WHY and HOW you’ve come to that conclusion.

Work something like this into your app: “After much consideration, I have shifted my goals this year to YYY, because I believe it is better for reasons AAA BBB and CCC.” Show how the experiences you’ve had within the past year have led you to this decision. Show how you’ve learned. Be straightforward, be clear, and show it as an IMPROVEMENT. That’s how you’re gonna make the long-term career goal change work FOR you.

And how you’re gonna end up with a BETTER result this time around….

Makes sense?

Jon frank

red1358

Hi Jon,

I have a question regarding to GMAT.
I took GMAT multiple times. The first time I got 710.
However it is not my target score so that I retake again.
But the score is dropped to 680. Then I took it the third tome, it was 660. I regret to take it so many times.

How does the admin officer view this? Will they look at the highest score in each session? I do have significant improvement in IR in the secord and third time. Or they will question my academic abilities?

thanks very much!

JonFrank

Question:

How do I answer the MBA essay question, “Why Wharton?” or “Why Booth? ” or “Why School X?” How do I answer this question differently than everybody else?

Answer:

Ahhhhh! An excellent question. Think of it this way—how do you “prove” to a girl you love her? (Or to a guy you love him?) By saying “I love you”??? Nah. That only works on TV (although it does help!) But when you say it in the right way, it will be believed.

What is the right way? When you REALLY DO love the school, you know the school inside out and are really excited about the possibilities it will open up. (Kind of like real love.)

Real love ain’t surface-y. It’s not all about looks and prestige and reputation. Real love involves a deep understanding and a personal and specific connection to what makes the school special TO YOU.

So if you haven’t already, you gotta do your research. Find out everything you can about that school that is right for YOU and YOUR goals, and will HELP you achieve your goals. Keep your own personal background and pursuits in mind here. Because that school you want, it doesn’t have to be everybody’s soul mate, but in this essay it has to be yours:

• What are some of the centers on campus that relate to your goals? What initiatives, events, and research happens there that will benefit you?
• What are some special events the school puts together that relate to your goals? Conferences? Visiting professionals? Talks?
• Are there clubs that specifically match what you’re working on?
• Professors whose work you admire, classes you’re dying to take?
• Something about their study abroad or other travel opportunities that speaks to your specific interests?
  

And then take it one step further: actually reach out to people in those groups/classes/etc. Visit the school and talk to people, sit in on a class, visit with the AdCom. Get as much specific info as you can so you can put it all in your essay and really make it convincing. If you’re writing a love poem to your sweetheart, do you write about their “brown hair” or their “hair the color of roasted chestnuts”? (Ok, both of those are cheesy and cliche, but you get the idea. One is generic, the other shows you are so into them that you not only noticed their hair was brown, but you noticed the exact shade.)

AdComs need to be wooed a little in that way. So when you get all that specific information that proves why you two are perfect together, you can gush about all of it in your application. Explain to the school how, without a doubt, this is the best school for you and you’re the best guy or gal for that school.

–Jon Frank

JonFrank

Everybody hates "Why School X" essays.. because you don't want them to all look the same. You need to really dig deep and find the differences among different programs and explore your true interests with that school in order to write an outstanding essays. Not easy.. man!