Harvard MBA Essay Guide (2025 Entering Class)

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2024-25 Harvard MBA Essay: Applicants to the MBA Class of 2027 (matriculating fall 2025) need to respond to three essay prompts:

• 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)

Only 1 in 9 gains admission to Harvard MBA program. If you write your essay focused only on your achievements, post-MBA goals, and your pre-MBA experience, you will be among the rejected applicants.

ATTENTION is the secret ingredient. How will you get the attention of the essay reviewer?

You know why parables shared 1000 years ago are still shared among us?

Storytelling!

Yes, the art of storytelling has transformed Apple from an unknown start-up to a brand synonymous with Quality and gained admissions for MBA Applicants from competitive demographics.

F1GMAT's Harvard MBA Essay guide will teach you how to transform your essay to an epic life journey with trials and tribulations that will move the admission team.

Who Should Buy The Harvard MBA Essay Guide?

If your essay looks too bland, Harvard MBA Essay Guide will show you, with examples, on how to use the elements of Storytelling like Incorporating "The Struggle", Using Emotional connectors, narrating the Journey and the use of Chronology, Vividness and Active Verbs to transform your essays.

If you are stuck in the Writing process, Harvard MBA Essay Guide will show you how to silence the Analytic Mind and overcome mental blocks.

If you feel that the essays are not persuasive, Harvard MBA Essay Guide will teach you how to use the W-Pattern narrative, Contexts, Turning Points and "The Show Don't Tell Approach" to write a Winning MBA Essay.

If you don't have enough leadership experience, Harvard MBA Essay Guide will show you how to highlight non-obvious qualities like Trust, Focus, Listening Skills, Personal Responsibility, Humility, Self-Knowledge, and other secondary traits to prove your leadership.

If you don't know how to review your essays, Harvard MBA Essay Guide will demonstrate how to improve readability with the power of iteration, and maintain your original voice by removing review biases.

Pages: 352

Entering Class:  2025

Author: Atul Jose, Founding Consultant (F1GMAT)

Over the past 15 years, Atul Jose has helped MBA applicants gain admissions to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Chicago Booth, Kellogg, Columbia, Haas, Yale, NYU Stern, and other top schools.

Through F1GMAT's Essay Guides, Atul is bringing the secrets of creating persuasive essays into an easy-to-read book format.

Harvard MBA Essay Guide Includes

20 Narratives for Harvard MBA Essay    

Read the Context of the 20 Sample Harvard MBA Essays from F1GMAT.com

1)    The Power of Community: Business-Minded Essay    

Sample Harvard MBA Essay – The Power of Community (298 Words)    

2)    Failure and Entrepreneurship: Business-Minded Essay    

Sample Harvard MBA Essay – Entrepreneurship as an Identity and supporting minority Entrepreneurs (297 Words)    

3)    Creativity: Business-Minded Essay    

Sample Harvard MBA Essay – Creativity, Passion and Career Choice (296 Words)    

4) Reluctant Entrepreneur: Business-Minded Essay    

Sample Harvard MBA Essay – Numbers to Healthcare Entrepreneurship (300 Words)    

5) Passion vs. Talent: Business-Minded Essay    

Sample Harvard MBA Essay – Passion vs. Talent (293 Words)    

6)    Transforming Rural Education & Mentorship – Leadership Essay    

Sample Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Establishing a Cooperative and Transforming Rural Education (250 Words)    

7)    Small Business Values – Leadership Essay    

Sample Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (250 Words)    

8) Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra    

Sample Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (250 Words)    

9)Breaking Away from Family Business - Leadership    

Sample Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business (244 Words)    

10) Trauma, Healing and Finding Authentic Leadership    

Sample Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Trauma, Healing and Finding Authentic Self (242 Words)    

11) Communication in Non-Profit - Leadership    

Sample Harvard MBA Leadership Essay & Mental Health – Building Awareness (246 Words)    

12) War, Immigration and Starting Over Again - Leadership    

Sample Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration, and Starting Over Again (250 Words)    

13) Military and the search for IMPACT –Growth Oriented Essay    

Sample Harvard MBA Essay – Military and the search for IMPACT (244 Words)    

14)The American Dream – Growth-Oriented Essay    

Sample Harvard MBA Curiosity and Growth Essay – The American Dream (248 Words)    

15) Crypto – As a Tool for Good – Growth-Oriented Essay    

Sample Harvard MBA Growth and Curiosity Essay – Crypto As a Tool for Good (250 Words)    

16) Finding Creative Solution to Scarcity – Curiosity    

Sample Harvard MBA Curiosity and Growth Essay – Creative Solution in Scarcity (247 Words)    

17) Gaming for Good - Growth Through Eliminating Bad Habits    

Sample Harvard MBA Curiosity and Growth Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming for Good (244 Words)    

18) AI in Healthcare – Growth through Collaboration    

Sample Harvard MBA Curiosity and Growth Essay – Creating a Global AI in Healthcare Community (248 Words)    

19) Life Starts at NO – Growth through Resilience    

Sample Harvard MBA Curiosity and Growth Essay – Life Starts at NO (245 Words)    

20) Learning from the Best – Growth through Peers    

Sample Harvard MBA Curiosity and Growth Essay – Learning from the Best (249 Words)    

 

+ The Art of Storytelling

+ Leadership Narratives

+ Review Tips

+ Persuasion Strategies

+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice

+ How to write about your Strengths

+ How to write about your Weaknesses

 

 

Reviews: 
"I loved this book. Mr. Jose writes in a digestible language that is engaging and easy to follow. The book builds on the skills and goes into depth about storytelling and using patterns to engage readers.  I also liked the sample essays. Many I found moving and opened up to the possibility of highlighting certain vulnerable moments in my life. The transitions from personal to professional and back to personal is a technique I picked up from the book. " - Verified Purchase
 
"Atul spends a good part of the book breaking down how to add the story to the essays, some of which is unconventional from any books on writing I have read.  It made me wonder about the persons quoted in the samples who fought against all odds to find a chance to be among the best at Harvard. At times, some lines made me think hard about my life, the hurtful comments, life's unpredictability, and the reserve I found to fight back. Inspiring!" - Verified Purchase
 
"Bottom line, this is the best book on writing Essays in the market. The book includes hundreds of brilliant, actionable techniques and strategies to expand applicants' storytelling skills. As a first-time writer who is used only to emails and reports, this book helped me with the tough decisions of designing the story. I planned to read some interesting sections from the index, but Atul's voice is so unique that he made me care about writing.  " - Verified Purchase
 
"The author masterfully explains why we connect with certain stories, from the use of chronology, the transitions, and the reveal in the 'middle' that breaks the expected structure of an essay. While the examples are largely from profiles of applicants who had considerable struggles and growth in their life, there were a couple of examples that looked similar to my profile - a typical PE candidate. " - Verified Purchase