HBS Class of 2027 MBA Admission Application: The Application Form
Aug, 07, 2024
Categories: Admissions Consulting | Advice | application | Essay Analysis | HBS | Resumes
This will be a five part series of blog posts on the essays and rest of the application for admission to the Harvard Business School Class of 2027:
–The first post focuses on overall strategy, the 3 essays and the goals statement.
–This second post focuses on the application form questions. It will focus on helping you brainstorm and develop your content.
–The third post focuses on the reapplication essay.
–The forth post is on the joint degree application essays.
–The fifth post will be on recommendations and is intended to apply to both HBS and other schools.
My three-part HBS interview prep series starts here.
My comprehensive service clients have been admitted to HBS for the Classes of 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2010, and 2009. My clients’ results and testimonials can be found here. In addition to providing comprehensive application consulting on HBS, I regularly help additional candidates with HBS interview preparation. Since I started my own counseling service in 2007 (worked with many admits from 2001-2007 when I worked for a company), I have worked with 95 successful applicants from Canada, Europe, India, the Middle East, Japan, South Korea, other parts of Asia, and the United States on HBS application. I think that this range of experience has helped me understand the many possible ways of making an effective application to HBS. l I can tell you is that HBS takes a truly diverse range of people. Some had high GPAs and a great GMAT or GRE scores, others had GPAs and scores well below the 80% range for HBS, but what they all had in common were strong personal and professional backgrounds that came out in their essays.
THE HBS APPLICATION FORM
I don’t generally discuss the details of a school’s application on this blog, but have done so with HBS for the past several years. There are a few reasons I do this for HBS:
- I assume with the HBS application form every subjective content on your part matters.
- HBS is very specific in what they ask for and this requires applicants to make a number of significant decisions about what to emphasize.
- I work with a lot of clients who apply to HBS and many who get in, so this is a good app for me to analyze in detail.
- While not all online apps are the same, once you understand how one works, it makes it easy to do the rest. While GSB has a more exhaustive application form, HBS requires harder choices of what to include. Practically speaking I would generally recommend doing GSB first before HBS, but content-wise HBS is the harder egg to crack and hence better for me to review comprehensively.
We will go page by page. Fortunately it is very easy to cut and past the app form into my blog. However the formatting is a bit of a mess below which happens when one pastes HTML code from one page into another. I am not enough of a perfectionist to try and fix the HTML so sorry for the ugliness, but if you read my blog because of my lovely design and consistent formatting, you need to check your eyes.
I am only focusing on questions with highly subjective content, since these are the ones clients ask me about.
I will not be covering the Goals Statement here since that was covered in the prior post and will not cover reapplication here because that will be covered in the next post.
My advice will appear after the relevant app content and be marked “ADVICE.”
Some general advice when filling out the HBS application:
OVERALL STRATEGY: Keep the HBS admission criteria of being Business-Minded, Leadership-Focused, and Growth-Oriented in mind. I discuss these criteria in the first post. This does not mean that everything you fill out in the application form directly relates to these criteria, but certain answers certainly will. Sometimes your answers will simply be fact-based explanations that don’t directly relate to these core criteria but will help contextualize your relationship to these criteria. For example, your family background may directly relate to any of these three criteria very directly, but sometimes will just help the reader better understand your background that have impacted your life-choices, opportunities, and challenges.
ESSAY ALIGNMENT STRATEGY: Since the HBS essays are very short, you simply cannot explain the full context to almost anything you are writing about. The application form and resume as well as the recommendations can provide that context. Once your essays are done, you may find that come content can be removed from them because it is covered in the rest of the application.
RESUME VERSUS APPLICATION FORM: My clients frequently have questions about what should be on the resume versus what should be in the application form and whether it is redundant to include things on both. I will discuss this issue on a case-by-case basis below for some of the most common areas of overlap. Overlap between the two is inevitable. The point is to maximize both the application form and resume.
ACCURACY OF INFORMATION: It is important that the information you provide is accurate. This is especially the case for anything that could be independently verified.
LIMITED LENGTH ANSWERS: Given limited length, every character or word counts. Use character efficient wording, Arabic numerals, minimize punctuation, don’t use quotation marks, never double space, and remove all extraneous words such as “various.”
PERSONAL
250 Characters
ADVICE: While some of this information may have been communicated in your essay, you should feel free to leverage this space to explain circumstances around where lived between 0-18. If you were raised in multiple countries or locations you can explain that in the Additional Context answer. You should not feel obligated to write anything here if there is nothing worth noting. Some possible topics:
- Growing up in multiple geographies
- Growing up as a minority in your community.
- Growing up in a location where the primary language was not your primary language.
- Growing up in a location that your family has deep ties to.
- The personal significance of where you grew up. The impact of that place(s) on you.
- Context related to one or more of your essays.
FAMILY
| Please provide a current resume or CV. Ideally, this would be about 1-2 pages in length and include dates and locations of your employment. |
| Work Experience. We often get questions about the amount of work experience we look for in our review process. As the case method relies on exchanging perspectives, the Admissions Board recommends that applicants have at least two years of full-time work experience (prior to enrolling). If you are currently an undergraduate student, you may be eligible for the 2+2 Deferred Admission Program. |
ADVICE: The resume has always been an important part of any MBA application. You can find a resume template I have linked to on my blog here. That resume template can also simply serve as a checklist for what to include. I think it best to think of a resume as a record of accomplishment. If you have sufficient accomplishments, 2 pages is possible. However, please keep in mind that almost all other MBA programs want one page. Also, while HBS will take a 2 page resume, HBS also loves brevity, so only use more than a page if it is really justified. Excess detail that creates lack of clarity and focus to what you want to present yourself is one major danger with any resume and more likely to occur with 2 pages. Older applicants with a number of different roles/employers and those with extensive accomplishments that simply cannot be effectively accounted for are the most likely to need 2 pages.
Some applicants try to a use an MBA student’s recruitment resume format as the basis for their own resume, but I don’t consider this a good idea as such resumes serve a very different purpose. An MBA resume should really designed to focus on you overall, that is your academic, professional, and personal accomplishments and key facts. A recruiting resume is meant for a different kind of audience, recruiters, and typically focuses on a much more narrow range of information.
When I first start working comprehensively with any client, whether they are applying to HBS or not, I always start with the resume for a couple of reasons:
1. It is a great way for any applicant to summarize the most important information about themselves and their accomplishments. It sometimes helps applicants actually remind themselves of what they have done.
2. For me, it is a way I learn about a client so that I can better understand their background. Without it, I cannot even begin to really advise on what should be in essays.
One key thing to remember about what you include on your resume: Anything that is there, just like any component of the application, may become the basis for a HBS interview question. Therefore if you don’t want to talk about it and don’t need to write about it, leave it off the resume.
I included the “Work Experience” statement here to just remind readers that it is fine to have less than 2 years of experience when you apply to HBS, but you must have 2 years of experience prior to entering HBS in August.
Employment
“We’re eager to learn more about your work experience – beyond what’s on your resume! While your resume provides a great overview, we look to this section of the application for context and thoughtful reflection on all that you’ve achieved in a professional setting. We know a few of the questions on this page may seem duplicative to what’s on your resume, and we encourage you to use the short answers here to give us insight into your experience that we wouldn’t get anywhere else. Feel free to let your personality show through as you answer these questions!
You have space to report up to three employers. Generally, we ask that you list an employer once, even if you’ve had different roles with that employer (for example, if you’ve been promoted). However, you are welcome to list the same employer twice if you feel the nature of your work changed substantially across roles (for example, moving to a different division or business unit). It’s up to you.
Here are some other tips to keep in mind:
- Put your current or most recent employer first. If you have multiple current employers, list your primary role first.
- Please report your annual salary and bonus in U.S. dollars. Use any currency conversion scale you like. When reporting your salary and/or bonus, please don’t include any additional compensation, like housing or relocation allowances, cost of living adjustments, tax exemptions, combat or hazardous duty pay, stock or equity options, etc. Note that salary is not a critical evaluation metric. We sometimes look at this information as one of many factors we consider to better understand role and progression, but always within country, regional, industry, and company context.”
ADVICE: To some extent this information will overlap with the resume. This is nothing to worry about. That said the challenge question (“Most Significant Challenge” 250 characters) in particular is very possibly something you would not be covering in your resume. Regarding the accomplishments, they ask for multiple ones, so it is best to provide two or three.
Note the point about U.S. dollars. One reason I always tell my clients to put all amounts in their applications in USD when applying to a US school is because it makes it easy for your reader to understand. HBS adcom, like any admissions office, does not want to spend time trying to figure out the amount of something.
ADVICE on Employer form below: You can only list three employers, so if you have more than choose wisely. One justification for using a two page resume would be to fully elaborate on positions you can’t account for here. However only do that if you feel you simply can’t account for everything important. I am showing the full form here but only commenting on its subjective elements.
| Details |
|---|
| Status |
|---|
| Current or Most Recent Role |
|---|
| First or Initial Role (Repeat your current/most recent role if you’ve only had one.) |
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| Short Answers |
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REASON FOR LEAVING
250 characters remaining
Education
ADVICE: ACADEMIC TRANSCRIPTS
First, keep in mind that admissions officers read transcripts and are trained to know what they are reading. They don’t just look at GPA (If your school calculates it). If there is something really bad on your transcript (a fail, a withdrawal, etc) or odd, you really do want to explain it in the 500 character (not word) Additional Section. If is just a C and you have no specific excuse, don’t bother trying to explain it. If your academic performance varied greatly from year to year (or semester to semester), was there a reason for it? Is it one that you want to provide? For example, if you were taking a major leadership position in a student organization, running a start-up, working a lot to pay for school, doing major research, experienced a major illness or misfortune, or playing a varsity sport, you do have a topic worth discussing. Finally, If your transcript, GMAT/GRE, or resume don’t indicate that you have solid quantitative skills, you should explain why you do if you can. The proper place to provide that explanation is in the additional section.
ADVICE:
Given HBS’ instructions on this, I do highly recommend including your best extracurricular activities that showcase your leadership and community engagement and/or unique experiences/interests. If you have done nothing impressive extracurricular-wise after graduating and have 3 good activities from university, feel free to just use use this section for those activities. If you did nothing but study during college or university and really have no activities, hopefully you have three post-college things to include. If you have any activities that are directly relevant to your professional goals or to your personal story and you really want to emphasize them, use this space accordingly. While I would surely emphasize the most impressive activities t, if you need to focus on personal interests that were not group focused (running for example) because you simply don’t anything better, put it here. Activities that show you are well-rounded, civically engaged, artistic, athletic are all possibilities here.
Keep in mind that extracurricular activities can (and usually should) also be fully accounted for on the resume. Also, if you are not using the space for anything else, the 75 word supplemental information section could be used for elaborating on anything you consider really important, but could not include in this section or in the resume.
Awards and Recognition
List any distinctions, honors, and awards (academic, military, extracurricular, professional, community) in order of importance to you (i.e., list the most important first). You may list up to three awards.
ADVICE: For some applicants this section is really easy to fill out because they have won a number of awards, distinctions, or honors and just need to prioritize them. Other candidates will freak out about this section because they never won anything that they think fits. While, it is sometimes really the case that I will have perfectly great applicant who has nothing to report in this section, most applicants are actually likely to have something. HBS is not asking you a narrow question here, so think broadly. It is possible that this section will overlap with the resume, employment, essay, or extracurricular section of the application. With respect to what to mention, this is so case-by-case that any attempt to provide general advice on it, may prove unhelpful. That said I would prioritize university or later awards and not those prior to university unless they are outstanding. If you became a Chess Grand Master at age 15, won national or international level sports competitions, or 5 Grammy’s when you are barely 18 (Don’t worry Billie Eilish is not your competition for a seat at HBS), et al than certainly mention pre-college stuff.
One way to get an extra activity into the resume is to mention an activity that resulted in an Award or Recognition here and not in the Activities section.
Test Scores
Writing Assessment
Writing is an essential component of the MBA program. Therefore, to be admitted to HBS all students must have an official writing assessment. You can satisfy this with a valid GRE, GMAT (10th Edition), or English language test score (for those whom English test is required). If you only submitted the GMAT (Focus Edition), which lacks a writing section, HBS will contact you at the interview stage about taking the separate GMAC Business Writing Assessment. If you wish to take the GMAC Business Writing Assessment before knowing your interview status, here is the link.
Note: Because the written application has plenty of opportunities to showcase your writing abilities (e.g. essays, short answers), you will not be at a disadvantage if you do not include the GMAC Business Writing Assessment until after you are invited to interview.
ADVICE: If you take GMAT Focus and did not take an English language test, you will need to the GMAC Writing Assessment if you are offered an interview. Amongst the M7, only HBS and MIT (not in all cases) will require a writing exam (GMAC Business Writing Assessment) for those invited for interview who took GMAT Focus and did not take an IELTS or TOEFL. I see nothing on the websites for Booth, CBS, Kellogg, Stanford, and Wharton indicating a need for a writing exam result. GRE includes a writing test. Unless an applicant applying with GMAT Focus needs an English test score, taking the GMAC Writing Exam is cheap and fast (30 minutes, $30) compared to TOEFL (116 minutes, approx $200 depends on country) and IELTS (165 minutes, really variable India- 17K INR, $203; Japan 27K JPY, $171; US $280-340). Anyway, if you took GMAT Focus, don’t worry about taking this test until you get an invite unless you just like taking tests. There is no advantage to submitting it at the time of application.
English Language Tests
An English Language Test (TOEFL, IELTS, PTE, or Duolingo English Test) is required if you received your bachelor’s degree from a university where English is not the language of instruction. Applicants who received a bachelor’s degree from a university where English is NOT the sole language of instruction but received a Master’s Degree or PhD degree from a university program where English was the sole language of instruction are also strongly advised, though not required, to submit a test as part of your application.
The same rules apply here – we’ll start reviewing your application with self-reported scores, but please send us the official score report as soon as possible. We will accept the in-person or the at-home versions of: the TOEFL iBT and the TOEFL iTP Plus (in China in partnership with Vericant); the IELTS and the IELTS Indicator; the Pearson Test of English (PTE); the Duolingo English Test.
ADVICE: For applicants who are required to take an English test, there are now four options. I have had never had a client take PTE or Doulingo, so have no idea about those tests. Both my Japanese clients and the the Japanese test prep experts I have discussed TOEFL and IELTS with (Shout out to Iijima-san at Affinity and Kono-san at Konojuku) have always told me that a 7.5 IELTS is easier to get than the 109 TOEFL that HBS prefers. I am quite certain this is the case. I have no specific benchmarks for PTE or Doulingo, but assume a high score on either would be fine. English ability is really critical at HBS. The HBS interview for non-native English speakers is, in-part, a fluency test. So even if you look good in terms of your test score, you really have to deliver during the interview.
Supplemental Information
Please share additional information here if you need to clarify any information provided in the other sections of your application. This is not meant to be used as an additional essay. Please limit your additional information to the space in this section.
We know you’ll be tempted, but please don’t send us any additional materials (e.g., additional recommendations, work portfolios). To be fair to all applicants, extra materials won’t be considered.
FINAL ADVICE: Don’t treat it like some form you can do at the last minute.
The HBS app form is not rocket science but it does take time. So give it the necessary time.