HBS Class of 2027 MBA Admission Application: The Reapplication Essay
Aug, 07, 2024
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.
–The second post focuses on the application form questions. It will focus on helping you brainstorm and develop your content.
–This 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.
HBS REAPPLICANTS:
[Required] Please use this space to share with the Admissions Committee how you have reflected and grown since your previous application and discuss any relevant updates to your candidacy (e.g., changes in your professional life, additional coursework, and extracurricular/volunteer engagements). (250 word limit
The reap essay was new to HBS for the Class of 2025 and is a great addition to the HBS MBA application. Keeping in mind that essays for HBS will change significantly because the Class of 2027 questions are new , it makes a lot of sense to decide to what you will cover in this reapplication essay once you have a high degree of clarity about what will be covered in the three main essays and goals statement.
It is critical that you showcase what has changed since your last application that now makes you a better candidate. In my experience working with many successful reapplicants to HBS, career growth and greater self-reflection are the two most non-test score based ways for showing improvement. A part of your self-reflection might be significantly altered career goals. I think it is reasonable that they may have altered since your last application, but if the change is extreme, you had better explain why here as the 500-character (approx 100 words) is not the place to explain that change. HBS is not into the “Why HBS Question” in their essays and interviews. For schools like Columbia and Wharton, I generally recommend making a clear case for why you are better fit or can contribute more now. It is fine to use that same rhetoric in this essay, but less critical than really highlighting what has improved about you as an applicant in terms of professional, academic, and extracurricular/volunteer activities. For more about reapplication, please see the Reapplication section of my
Key Posts page.
An essay of 250 words is long enough to write effectively on 2-4 topics. My suggestion is that you view this essay as interconnected with the rest of the essay set. In other words, decide what stories or aspects of stories you are highlighting in all your essays and don’t repeat the same thing about the same thing. For example, it t would be perfectly reasonable to mention the same topic, for example a specific work related accomplishment, where you focus on the leadership aspect in The Leadership Essay and focus on how it enhanced your understanding of your industry or highlights your innovative problem solving in the Reap essay.
Given that HBS is not focused on the why HBS question, please don’t waste word count on HBS in this essay unless it is something really valuable to mention. Visiting HBS or talking with alumni, for example, would not be worth wasting word count here. On the hand, if you have something substantive to mention, feel free to mention. HBS is not especially interested on contribution answers (they rarely if ever ask about how you will contribute at HBS during an interview) so unless you have a specifically awesome contribution, don’t bother with that either.
I think one of the great ways to use this essay is to cover something or things about you that you are not able to write about in your other HBS essays. For example if you feel like you really want to highlight a specific accomplishment that just does not fit into the other essays as long as you can show how it makes you a better candidate now, you can write about it here.
Below is the Reapplicant Page. You will find further advice after that on some of the items mentioned below.
Previous Application
With respect to the number of times one has applied, clients and potential clients often ask me about about whether it is possible to get into HBS if you have been rejected multiple times. The answer is yes. I have worked with clients who applied to HBS 2-4 times before and were admitted. HBS has always taken a very positive approach to reapplicants and will admit those who have been rejected both with and without interview. Do keep in mind that rejection in a prior year is not necessarily an indicator that one will be rejected in the current year. Improvements in your profile as well as an enhanced application can make a real difference. Also keep in mind that you can get rejected for issues that don’t relate specifically to you. For more about that see
here.
One of the largest pools of reapplicants are those that previously applied to 2+2. For such candidates, their situation will have changed so greatly that writing about what has changed is very easy as they now have work experience. It is entirely possible that such candidates profiles, goals, and key stories will have so greatly changed that the reap essay should focus on how the applicant has grown and matured since the 2+2. This is actually a much easier task than highlighting changes for someone who is just reapplying a year after getting rejected because the amount of change from being a college student to even someone with work experience is generally great.
I have not worked with someone who was previously admitted to HBS and is reapplying. I have experience with that for other schools. In such situations I have recommended explaining why now rather than previously is the right time to enter the program. The argument involves showing what has changed, just like with any other reeapplicant, except the emphasis is explaining why you are now ready to commit to HBS.
If you have been rejected from HBS after interviewing there, please consider why. In some cases, it may not be obvious to you. If so, there is nothing to necessarily add into the essay about it. On the other hand if you think you gave weak answers to a particular question, consider how you will mitigate that in what you write in the reap essay or in the other essays. If your English ability or communication in general was an issue, highlight how you have improved in that area. And if you know your interview was bad, please prepare better if you are invited again. For HBS interview prep, please see
here.
If you were previously waitlisted at HBS, don’t assume it will be any easier getting in this time. Waitlisted applicants could have made it in, but did not. There is no inherent advantage to having been previously waitlisted at HBS because they look anew at a new application. Assume that there is something(s) you need to improve on and use the reapplicant essay to show improvement.
Best of luck with your new application to HBS!
-Adam Markus
I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.
