请教今年哈佛论文第一题

brucejohnson

今年哈佛essay第一题是：What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience? (400-word limit)。是只能谈专业学习方面的经历吗？大学期间的课外活动（包括与专业有关的实习和无关的学生会活动）可以说吗？不知录取委员会想考察什么方面的能力，写这篇论文有哪些思路，应强调什么？因为400字真是太少了，感觉说不出什么来。恳请各位高人指点。多谢。

yaoyao99

1. No

2. Yes

3. Leadership experience if you have any.

brucejohnson

感谢yaoyao版主这么快就回复了。如果不仅局限于专业课程的学习，我倒是有些可说了。多谢指教。

yaoyao99

No problem!  Anything that happened during your undergraduate years (internship, projects, activities) should be fair game.  Good luck!

brucejohnson

再次感谢yaoyao版主，并继续请教：

一、我在国家机关工作，申请MBA的不能让领导和同事知道。主要原因就是单位不鼓励、不容忍工作人员自已联系留学再辞职。因此我不可能找current superisor当推荐人。我想这主要也是个机关文化的问题。我在MBA TOUR上和几家心仪学校招生人员交流过，对方都表示理解，但要求我在optional essay里解释清楚。我想我的情况在中国申请者里应该也算普遍的，但真要落笔又觉得难写了。不知有何好的建议，是否需要实话实说或有更好的理由？

二、哈佛的最后一篇论文题目是what other information do you believe would be helpful to the Board in understanding you better and in considering your application? UCLA等学校的optional essay也是类似题目。我不想就把这篇论文仅用于解释推荐人的问题，浪费展示自己的机会，还想写一些更有价值的素材。请问能否在一篇essay里同时兼顾？即使我的素材与推荐信解释没有任何关系。

yaoyao99

1. They get plenty of questions like that.  Don't worry about it.  Tell them the truth so they won't be contacting your supervisors. 

2. Note it's not really an optional essay.  Well, you could always write "no, there's nothing else" but that's pretty lame.  Figure out a way to break the essay down, using subtitle, different paragraphs, or whatever it is. 

Hope that helps!

brucejohnson

thank you again, yaoyao! Your reply is very helpful!