Harvard Business School.
Harvard Business School announced a surprising departure from its single, open-ended application essay to three short essays with specific prompts. The HBS website sums up the kind of applicant they are seeking: “We are looking for future leaders who are passionate about business, leadership, and growth.”
The prompts for the class that will begin in fall 2025 instruct applicants to address each topic in turn.
- Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
- Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)
- Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)
The prompts ask applicants to go beyond simply asserting their allegiance to the ideals of business, leadership and growth. Each prompt asks for evidence: “experiences,” “experiences” and “an example.”
The prompts do not expect a straightforward list of what happened in the past. Rather, the prompts encourage reflection on how these experiences affected present realities and future goals.
Applicants are asked to reflect on past, present and future as an ongoing process of becoming who they are now and who they wish to become. Even the “Business-Minded Essay” is about past choices and future impact; it also assumes you “plan to serve.” The “Leadership-Focused Essay” does not ask applicants to recite a list of titles, but to discuss who they are and how they relate to others; not what title they aspire to, but “what kind of leader you wish to become.”
Perhaps the most surprising essay prompt is number three, which asks about curiosity. It opens the door to discuss a more personal aspect of the applicant. The prompt asks not about end result, but about the process of change. Once again, the emphasis is on “growth.”
In short, the prompts ask about person and process.
How The 3 New Prompts Differ From Last Year’s Single Question
This year’s prompts give applicants more direction than the previous open-ended instruction, which was: “As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program?”
Applicants may find it easier to follow these more detailed instructions and to stay on topic. They no longer need face an open question and a blank page.
Another aid is the shorter word limit. The essay on being business-minded has a limit of 300 words, and the essays on leadership and growth through curiosity are limited to 250 words each.
A third difference is the specific inquiry about business. Last year’s prompt allowed a candidate to choose anything they thought would be important for HBS to consider. Some applicants struggled to decide whether to focus on business or something beyond work. While the “Business-Minded Essay” is still personal, it does ask the applicant to reflect on their career.
One might also speculate that the new, more directive prompts makes it easier for the admissions committee to compare essays across applications, while still leaving room for considerable variation in how applicants choose to address the essay prompts.
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