HPS doesn't just have new essay questions for 2024 it also has new selection criteria are you one business-minded two leadership focused three growth oriented those are the three traits the HBS Adcom is now looking for and the School's application essays are inspired by those traits many applicants will analyze their lives and wonder whether they can sufficiently reveal these traits let me assure you that these labels are so broad that you very likely have nothing to worry about the vast majority of HBS applicants undoubtedly have many anecdotes to choose from that demonstrate that they possess these characteristics before I leap into each of the essay prompts individually I want to remind you of a core tenant of my essay writing philosophy which is also MBA missions writing philosophy and I discuss this at length in our essay writing module within our highly customizable OnDemand course on track by MBA Mission which I definitely recommend checking out whenever you encounter a suite of essays for a school you should consider them as a portfolio rather than individually and you have to keep the admissions reader learning about you with each essay many admissions Consultants will tell you that you are a brand and therefore need to regularly hit the same note to reinforce that brand and frankly that is just terrible advice you need to show that you're are a multi-talented and multi-dimensional human being after all do you know of any leading CEO who can only hit one note of course not they're far more capable than that so I strongly suggest that you brainstorm your responses to all three prompts thoroughly and then ask yourself is the reader going to learn something new about me with each essay as they progress through my application if your answer is no you need to definitely reconsider your choices and just a quick note in our onrack essay module I also discuss the fundamentals of narrative writing crafting strong introductions and numerous other Concepts that will help you understand how to really grab and hold your reader interest and that is the purpose of writing essays I want to note that hbs's essay questions this year are a little conversive each one has several moving parts and you'll need to create different linkages as you go so big picture as I just explained you want the admissions reader to learn something new about you from one essay to the next and then within each essay you'll need to make sure that you have answered all the questions in the prompt and truly connected the dots between them you'll know notice that the questions require you to draw connections from your past experiences to your current choices and future Ambitions okay that was a critical Preamble but let's jump into essay 1 The Prompt is business-minded please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you'll have on the businesses organizations and communities you plan to serve up to 300 words let's start with the first part of the prompt what experiences have influenced your career choices this could be something as specific as a bit of sage advice from a mentor or something as broad as a challenging family circumstance that forced you to take a specific position or it could be something as personal as a core set of beliefs that motivated you or as thoughtful as a skill that manifests that led you to a career where it could be applied obviously many other answers are also possible but you need to find the root of your professional identity and choice es and then link it to your very plausible but ambitious career aspirations those aspirations should be something you might have to stretch yourself to achieve but certainly not the point that they Verge on fantasy so once you've identified the core experience that influence your career and goals you need to explain the impact you hope to have here's where a lot of applicants will go off the rails and do a backflip to ensure that they present the Adcom with some kind of social Mission don't fall into that tempt and try to force that kind of narrative you can have a positive impact on others in many ways by building organizations with Integrity by reflecting on stakeholders as you manage your career if you do have a social Mission great but if you don't you won't be offering a credible linkage by simply stating that you do so truly think about how you can be impactful don't just write what you think the Adcom wants to hear don't just include a trade cliche on to sa 2 leaders ship focused 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 you might have noticed that the structure here is quite similar to that of essay 1 you're asked to identify a core shaping experience that led you to a leadership perspective you have today you need to connect those two pieces you also need to reveal how the experience has since LED you to invest in others and finally you must link that perspective to to the Future and demonstrate some awareness for how you'd like to develop as a leader going forward or apply those skills let's say that hypothetically you were extremely competitive and passionate about a sport when you were younger and that inspired you to become a volunteer coach in that sport you were very intensely committed as a coach and gained powerful takeaways from that experience and you plan to apply them in your career and want to expand on them as you grow into leadership positions well this might be a simplif example but you can see the critical connections youd need to present to answer this question for the Adcom of course your story will be your own and will thus imbue your essay with power and sincerity go back to a core experience that's a true Catalyst for quote unquote who you are and once you've identified that experience the linkages should naturally reveal themselves if you're trying to force a narrative and trying to force linkages you are probably on the wrong track finally essay 3 growth ored curiosity can be seen in many ways please share an example of how you've demonstrated curiosity and how that's influenced your growth up to 250 words this is the least complicate of the bunch what have you been curious about in your life truly intensely curious did you read about a historical figure and then go down the rabbit hole and read another dozen bios about her if so what was it about this person that inflamed your curiosity and and what is it about this person that inspires you and has influenced how you've grown or maybe reading isn't your thing no problem have you committed yourself to a meditational practice and thus become curious about how your own mind works were you asked to take on a work project and found yourself taking it way further than anyone asked because it became a labor of love did you pick up an instrument for the first time and become inspired to teach yourself to play the specifics of what you've done are not actually all that important what is important is showing your commitment you need to offer the ad comma narrative that reveals not just the hobby or interest but also your ongoing thirst for knowledge or experience or both and then you need to show how that manifests in your growth again maybe you committed to meditating regularly and this is quite logically manifest in more reason decisionmaking maybe you picked up an instrument and this has given you a broader sense of your capabilities and made you eager to develop new skills again the outcome of your efforts is not all that important but rather the connection between your curiosity and how it has affected your sense of s and your understanding of your capabilities so there you have the HBS application essays they're not for the faint of heart they demand that you engage in some serious self-reflection that you consider them as a group that you review them meticulously to ensure that you're answering each prompt in full and that you use A Narrative Approach to drive your story and hold the reader's attention HPS doesn't make applying to its program easy but if you get in you won't lament the effort you had to put forth best of luck with your applications and be sure to check out our next video comparing HBS and another top program the Stanford GSB