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HBS Essay Questions Released: 2008/2009 MBA Application Season Underway

The 2008-2009 MBA application season is now officially underway!  (Did you heart rate just increase?) As you will see below, HBS has just released its essay questions — the first of the top-schools to do so. Oddly, we received notification via Google Alerts and our HBS RSS feed that they were up on May 12, but it seems that they have just been “revealed”. We will be posting our essay analysis shortly; so stay “tuned” to our blog.

  1. What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)
  2. What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit) 
  3. Please respond to two of the following (400-word limit each):
  • What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?
  • Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization.
  • What area of the world are you most curious about and why?
  • What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?


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  • Dartmouth Tuck (Round 1)
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  • Georgetown McDonough (Round 1)
  • Oxford Saïd (Round 2)
  • Penn State Smeal (Round 1)
  • UCLA Anderson (Round 1)
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  • UW Foster (Round 1)

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