Wharton Essay Question Analyses and Deadlines 2010-11

Please find below the deadlines for the regular 2-year MBA program and my comments/tips (beside the vertical orange bars) on the essay questions. (For deadline and essay question information for the MBA/MA Lauder program please refer to the Wharton website.) Wharton has changed its essay questions dramatically, and has done away with its traditionally long essay about goals and “Why Wharton.” They ask several specific questions to get at the qualities that they are looking for, and this essay set requires you to tailor your stories to Wharton.

All deadlines are 5:00 p.m. EST.

	Deadline	Decision Notification
Round 1	Oct. 4, 2010	December 17, 2010
Round 2	January 4, 2011	March 24, 2011
Round 3	March 3, 2011	May 12, 2011

 

From Wharton’s website:

Fall 2010 Essay Questions

The Admissions Committee is interested in getting to know you on both a professional and personal level. We encourage you to be introspective, candid, and succinct. Most importantly, we suggest you be yourself.

Required Question:

What are your professional objectives? (300 words)

This is a shortened version of their traditionally long goals essay question. In 300 words or fewer, you are to state your future career goals. You can go ahead and explain briefly why you wish to attend Wharton as well. My sense here is that they are more interested in finding out about you, and can make their own determination as to whether or not you are the right fit based on the three longer essays below.

Respond to 3 of the following 4 questions:

1. Student and alumni engagement has at times led to the creation of innovative classes. For example, through extraordinary efforts, a small group of current students partnered with faculty to create a timely course entitled, “Disaster Response: Haiti and Beyond,” empowering students to leverage the talented Wharton community to improve the lives of the Haiti earthquake victims. Similarly, Wharton students and alumni helped to create the “Innovation and the Indian Healthcare Industry” which took students to India where they studied the full range of healthcare issues in India. If you were able to create a Wharton course on any topic, what would it be? (700 words)

This is an essay in which you can demonstrate your creativity, awareness of current and pressing societal issues, professional skills and experiences, personal qualities, future vision and potential to contribute to the Wharton community and beyond. A strong and credible essay would include your vision for a relevant course rooted in your own experience and expertise. Let’s say that you’d like to create a course to address the topic of microfinance. (And, by the way, you are not restricted to writing about topics related to developing countries.) Why would you be the right person to develop this course? What experiences, skills and knowledge do you have that will enable you to do this? Why is this course important and why would it be relevant (or be of interest) to Wharton students? What would be your mission in the course? When writing this essay, make sure that you focus not just on the future and the hypothetical but also on your own strengths and expertise. Ultimately, this essay is a way for them to learn more about you as a candidate.

2. Reflect on a time when you turned down an opportunity. What was the thought process behind your decision? Would you make the same decision today? (600 words)

There is no right or wrong answer to this question, as some applicants will talk about a lost opportunity that they do not regret, while others may talk about having done things differently. Again, the admissions committee wants to get better insight into you as a person, and is more interested in understanding how you go about making decisions. The key question here is “What was the thought process behind your decision?” They are asking for an honest, reflective and thoughtful response. In business and especially in high level management, executives are asked to make significant decisions on a regular basis. Sometimes they must do so with limited time and limited information. Wharton wants to know how you go about making decisions. Are you thoughtful? Do you weigh carefully the different options available? What risks do you take? If you do regret a decision, what have you learned from it?

3. Describe a failure that you have experienced. What role did you play, and what did you learn about yourself? How did this experience help to create your definition of failure? (600 words)

This is a standard question with a slight challenge at the end. It is important for business schools to understand how you respond to failure. No person will go through a career without making mistakes, and here it is not the mistake that the admissions committee cares about but your follow up and lessons. They want to know if you have taken the time to reflect on what you did and, if so, what you had gained from it. They want to see honesty, maturity and growth. In choosing an appropriate topic, don’t be afraid to go with a fairly big failure. The important thing is telling them what you learned as a result.

As for your own definition of failure as a result of this experience, think about what failure means to you. How would you define it? Is it a terrible? Is it a reflection of your character, or something else? What does it tell you about yourself? Think about what “failure” means to you now that you have experienced it.

4. Discuss a time when you navigated a challenging experience in either a personal or professional relationship. (600 words) 

Wharton wants to know how you handle conflict and difficulty, since this is something that you will inevitably go through in your future career, and how successful you are at managing relationships will be key in determining how successful you will be in your work. The word to pay attention to here is “navigated.” Show the process, how you dealt with with this person and evolved the relationship. And though they say “personal” here, I would limit the use of personal topics – e.g., no discussion of romantic relationships or other relationships that involve issues not relevant to business school. 

Tags: advice, MBA deadlines, MBA essay questions, Wharton

Essay Writing: Make it about YOU

Having now gone through another 3/4 of a season analyzing and assessing essays, I’m going to talk about one of the most common issues I see: the generic essay.

Does this sound familiar?

“As a consultant, I’ve been focusing on strategizing solutions and advising clients in order to help them meet their management goals.”

If you’re a consultant it should definitely sound familiar, because it is your job description! It’s your job description whether you’re at McKinsey, BCG, or Bain & Company (etc.) and whether you’re in New York, Mumbai or Buenos Aires (etc.). In fact, that description may sound familiar even if you’re not in consulting. Take out “consultant” and substitute your career and the sentence could still make perfect sense. It is similar to a cashier saying, “I am a cashier and I focus on helping customers check their items out of the store.” Admissions committees know what consultants (and investment bankers and salespeople…) do. But what can you tell them about what you have done, about what you have contributed?

Avoid the generic sentence that tells the admissions committee nothing about you. Your goal, with each sentence that you write, is to give the admissions committee an additional morsel of information or insight about who you are as a person – what you have done, what you hope to learn, what you value. If two or three sentences go by and the reader still doesn’t know anything further about you, then you are not effectively using the space given in the essay.

Another place where I see similar genericness is in the “Why XYZ School” section of the goals essay. Here is an example:

“Your global leadership program will teach me all the fundamentals about leading in global settings, exposing me to various ideas and perspectives about leadership in international business.”

It is like saying,

“Your cake baking class will allow me to learn about all the various aspects of how to bake a cake, turning batter into a cake through the method of baking.” 

Instead of re-describing to the admissions committee what their resources are all about, explain how they will allow you to get the specific knowledge, skills and experiences you are looking for. Why, specifically, do you want to study international leadership? Are you hoping to work in the international division of a company after your degree? Do you currently lack international experience, or are you hoping to build upon what you already have? What specific knowledge – market entry, human resource management, strategy, etc. – do you need in order to achieve your goals? 

If you find that any of your text can be written by any other applicant, then you know you are being too general. With each essay you have limited space in which to tell your story; make sure you are telling yours, not that of 500 other applicants.

エッセイ課題分析： Tuck (Dartmouth)

Moto and I had a very nice visit at Tuck back in May, when we were invited to the Tuck Conference for International Advisors. To really get a sense of how strongly Tuck feels about teamwork and collaboration, one does need to make a visit on campus. Even as conference attendees we were overwhelmed by the warmth and personal attention shown to us. The community feel and supportive atmosphere are palpable. Non “people persons” and non team players will have a difficult time here. I say all this as this understanding of their unique atmosphere will give you a sense of how to approach your essays for Tuck. They are looking for intelligent, hard working and accomplished leaders, but they are also going to pay much attention to your personality and to how well you will fit into their culture and campus.

 

Deadlines:

 

Early Action
October 15, 2008

November Round
November 12, 2008

January Round
January 7, 2009

April Round
April 1, 2009

 

Please see below for the essay questions and my comments and advice:

 

Although there is no restriction on the length of your response, most applicants use, on average, 500 words for each essay. There are no right or wrong answers. Please double-space your response.

 

1.   Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA program for you? (If you are applying for a joint or dual degree, please explain how the additional degree will contribute to those goals.)

 

This is a straightforward question regarding your goals and reasoning for getting an MBA at Tuck. As with other goals essays, be sure to give some background of your career experiences that have led up to the establishment of your goals. And be sure to do as much research as possible to be able to explain why Tuck is the right school for you.

 

2. Tuck defines leadership as “inspiring others to strive and enabling them to accomplish great things.” We believe great things and great leadership can be accomplished in pursuit of business and societal goals. Describe a time when you exercised such leadership. Discuss the challenges you faced and the results you achieved. What characteristics helped you to be effective, and what areas do you feel you need to develop in order to be a better leader?

 

In line with Tuck’s people-centered culture, this leadership question is different from other more typical leadership questions in that it has a “people focus.” The key is Tuck’s definition of leadership as stated in the first sentence; Tuck is concerned with how you inspired and how you enabled others to carry out a team or project goal. Thus, this essay will not be simply about how you took charge of a project in order to reach a successful outcome, but how you coached, motivated, inspired and/or taught staff or team members to reach the final outcome together. In writing this essay be sure to think about both the strengths and weaknesses that you showed during this experience.

 

3. Discuss the most difficult constructive criticism or feedback you have received. How did you address it? What have you learned from it?

 

Constructive criticism or feedback is negative but helpful comments and feedback that you receive from another person. For example, when your boss tells you that you have a tendency to take on too many projects because you are afraid to say “no” to others, that is constructive criticism. Constructive criticism or feedback is something that might be a little painful to hear, but is designed to help you improve yourself. The reason Tuck asks this question is to see how you react to feedback. Do you accept the feedback in a mature fashion, or do you tend to get angry and defensive? What do you do with that feedback afterwards? Do you reflect on the feedback and try to make improvements? You may use feedback that comes from any person – a supervisor, colleague, professor, team member, friend or family member – the important information is the feedback and what you did with it. For most applicants though, a work-based example is typically most appropriate.

 

4. Tuck seeks candidates of various backgrounds who can bring new perspectives to our community. How will your unique personal history, values, and/or life experiences contribute to the culture at Tuck?

 

This essay is where you are best able to show your non-professional side. The essay is quite open-ended and you are free to find the best way to show the non-work dimensions of your background. When I advise my students, I typically ask them to focus on their values, which is usually a good springboard for writing about their unique life experiences (your personal values typically come from some particular life experiences, as well as become the impetus for pursuing certain experiences and activities). Focus on what is particularly unique to you, but don’t worry about having to show something that few other applicants have. You may be an accomplished tennis player or mountain climber, or you may have lived in 5 different countries or speak 6 languages. Given the strengths of Tuck’s applicant pool, though, there will be many applicants with such impressive backgrounds. The key to making your essay memorable is not the type of experiences you have had but the impact those experiences have had on you. Just listing accomplishments and strengths is not enough; you will need to openly reflect on how these experiences have made you the person you are today, or why these experiences are important to you. The more personalized the story, the more unique it will be, even if you talk about something as commonplace as enjoying swimming and traveling.

 

5. Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere that may be helpful in reviewing your application (e.g., unusual choice of evaluators, weaknesses in academic performance, unexplained job gaps or changes, etc.). Complete this question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application.

 

This question is self-explanatory; use this space to mention anything that might not be clear to the admissions committee. Many of my students worry about writing explanations that sound like “excuses.” If you are offering an honest explanation to clarify an issue of potential doubt, then you will actually be helping the admissions committee rather than making excuses. An explanation will only sound like an excuse if it is written in a self-protective, defensive way (e.g., “I couldn’t achieve a high enough GMAT score because I was so busy with my work, working 80 hours a week because my colleague took vacation…”). When you write this kind of essay, be sure you are offering information that will be useful for the admissions committee; think of it as helping the admissions committee to do their job more efficiently.

 

Also, Tuck has a reason for asking for 4 main essays (they don’t have much time to read extra essays). Try your best to include your most representative stories in the 4 main essays, and use Essay 5 only to talk about something that you really couldn’t in the essays above.

 

6. (To be completed by all reapplicants) How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? Please reflect on how you have grown personally and professionally.

 

Tuck would like to see that you are a stronger candidate this year than last. When you write this essay, think about any growth areas in your work (differences in responsibility or projects accomplished, promotions, awards) and personal life (community activities, English (if TOEFL or GMAT was an issue in your last application), personal experiences (e.g., travel). If your goals were not as clear last year, you should also use this essay to discuss how your career goals and/or reasoning for an MBA at Tuck have further solidified.