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Harvard Business School (HBS) is taking a bold new approach to its application essays this year by offering just one question—and one that is much more open to interpretation than many applicants would probably like:

You’re applying to Harvard Business School. We can see your resume, school transcripts, extracurricular activities, awards, post-MBA career goals, test scores and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?

There is no word limit for this question. We think you know what guidance we’re going to give here. Don’t overthink, overcraft and overwrite. Just answer the question in clear language that those of us who don’t know your world can understand.

Few things strike more fear into an MBA candidate’s heart than vague essay directions. Because of HBS’s lack of guidance with respect to word limits and its extremely open-ended question, knowing whether you are truly responding with information that the admissions committee wants and needs will be difficult. The committee further complicates things by specifically noting the information it will already have—transcripts, extracurricular activities, awards, etc. This may make you wonder if mentioning such information is a complete no-no and would weaken your chances for admission.

First, we would like to allay your fears to some degree and help you reframe your view of this question. Think of it as an opportunity to round out your candidacy in the admissions committee’s eyes the way you want, not within the parameters of a narrowly focused topic someone else has chosen. This is your chance to tell the school what you really feel it should know about you—what you believe makes you a worthy  candidate, deserving of a spot in HBS’s next incoming class.

So now let us take a step back and think about what the non-essay portions of your application—your resume, for example—actually convey, so you can start to determine which parts of your profile need presenting or could benefit from more detail. Your resume is a map of your professional, educational and extracurricular life to date, and although it may provide a narrow window into your personal life, by and large, it does not offer profound insight into your values, emotions, challenges, important relationships and other key elements of your character and journey. An appropriate analogy might be that the admissions committee will learn about you in black and white from the other parts of your application, and this essay is what will transform your story into bright colors.

Definitely heed the school’s directions—thoroughly consider what the other elements of your application provide and identify the information that is missing that you believe is key to your candidacy. Then ask yourself whether these missing elements constitute information that is simply important to you or that will effectively enhance the admissions committee’s knowledge of you—not as a professional but as a human being. If you are grouping together a few accomplishments and searching for a theme to link them, you are on the wrong track. However, if you are thinking carefully about key moments, experiences and people in your life that are central to who you are and what you offer—and that the admissions committee could not possibly surmise from your “black and white” application—then you are likely on your way to writing a compelling essay.

Will what you are planning to write tell the admissions committee about your values—about who you are, rather than what you have accomplished or tried to accomplish? Be sure to clearly convey why you have made certain choices in your life and, most importantly, how you have conducted yourself and made those choices. For example, sharing the story of how you started over as an immigrant in your essay is profoundly more compelling than merely stating your citizenship via a drop-down menu in the application’s short-answer section. Detailing how you resigned from a nonprofit board to expose rampant chicanery on that board will convey much more than including a list of extracurriculars at the end of your resume. We do not expect that you will have these stories, but be sure to pinpoint situations and characteristics that bring “color” to your file. Remember that your goal is to reveal your personality and stand out as an individual, not by claiming specific life accomplishments, but by demonstrating perspective and values and by showing you have lived an interesting life that your classmates will appreciate and that will allow you to bring depth to class discussions.

As we have noted, the school stipulates no word limit for this essay. We expect that most applicants will write between 500 and 1,000 words and that the average will be right in the middle at roughly 750. This is not to say that there is a right word count, but this is a reasonable range you can use for guidance. If you truly feel that you have more to say that is critical and that you simply cannot fit within these parameters, then you can go longer, but we think that such cases will be rare. You will need to show some restraint and recognize that you cannot share “everything.” Writing excessively—and unnecessarily—will only reveal that you lack self-awareness and the ability to censor yourself. Keep in mind that HBS operates on the case method, in which you will be expected to identify the most important facets of a situation and be able to discuss them clearly and succinctly in a class setting. This essay could be, on some level, the admissions committee’s way of evaluating your ability to do just that—only with yourself as the subject. You do not want to send the message that you are the self-important individual who will speak inordinately in class, but instead that you are the thoughtful one who understands what is important and can pinpoint and reveal truly interesting and relevant information.

Have the Last Word: The Post-Interview Reflection (conditional on being interviewed)

From the admissions committee: “Following the interview, candidates are required to submit a written reflection using our online application system. This must be submitted within 24 hours following the completion of the interview. Detailed instructions will be provided to those applicants who are invited to the interview process.”

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Virtually all MBA application essays are written in the past tense, which makes sense, considering that candidates are most often discussing past experiences. Although the past tense is quite “user friendly,” another choice is to use the present tense to heighten the immediacy of the experience being presented and to draw the reader into the story. Consider the following examples:

Past tense: “I arrived at my supervisor’s office at 11 a.m.; we tabled the deal no less than 15 minutes later. Then, the two of us sat by the phone, casually chatting about baseball, and waited. When our CEO finally called two hours later, we discovered that we had indeed submitted the winning bid….”

Present tense: “I arrive at my supervisor’s office at 11 a.m. Fifteen minutes later, we table our deal. For the next two hours, as we casually chat about baseball, we wait by the phone. When it finally rings, our CEO is on the line, informing us that our offer has been accepted….”

These examples do not represent “right” and “wrong” options but instead illustrate two different styles a candidate might use, both of which can be equally effective; choosing which is the better fit for a particular essay depends entirely on the skill of the writer. Executing well in the present tense can sometimes be difficult, and we recommend that candidates undertake the task with caution. Further, this choice also depends significantly on the story’s content and context—the present tense is a good option when the experience recounted involves “high drama,” but it is not necessarily appropriate for every essay.

Michigan Ross has streamlined its essay questions for this season, dropping its previous Essay 4 completely, reducing the word count for Essay 3 from 500 to 400 (though the wording remains the same) and reframing its approach to Essay 2 while increasing the word count from 300 to 450. What can we deduce from these changes? The most important nugget of information is that Ross wants to gain a more thorough understanding of its applicants’ goals, aspirations and fit with the school (evidenced primarily in the 50% increase in word count for Essay 2). Our analysis follows…

1. Introduce yourself to your future Ross classmates in 100 words or less.

How many words is 100? This sentence alone accounts for ten percent of that allowance. Because this essay’s word count is so tight, many candidates will struggle with it. Still, in 100 words, you can write a brief vignette/story that broadly represents you—that stands for who you are. Or, you could offer several short/clever sentences that capture your personality. You might even present a theme or two with supporting anecdotes. In short, you have plenty of room to be creative and to reveal what makes you interesting. (We strongly recommend not offering a historical statement that summarizes your biography/resume.)

By the way, the paragraph above is exactly 100 words.

2. a. What about your professional experiences has led you to determine that business school is the right next step? (150 words)

b. As you have researched MBA programs, what actions have you taken to learn more about Ross and what has led you to believe that Ross is the right MBA program for you? (150 words)

c. What career do you plan to pursue after business school and why? (150 words)

Michigan Ross’s director of admissions, Soojin Kwon, explained to Bloomberg Businessweek that the admissions committee has increased the word count for Essay 2 and divided the question into three parts, because the responses the school received in the past to the more general version of the question lacked focus. So, know that the school’s admissions committee is looking for you to be definitive. You will need to present clear goals, show detailed evidence of your research and explain—in an unequivocal manner—what inspired you to pursue business school. In short, give the admissions committee what it wants and is clearly asking for!

Because Personal Statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge. Please feel free to download your copy today.

For a thorough exploration of Michigan Ross’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

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Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand, but the educational experience itself is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we profile Aswath Damodaran from New York University’s (NYU’s) Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Having earned the Stern School of Business Excellence in Teaching Award (awarded by the graduating class) seven times during his career at NYU, received the NYU Distinguished Teaching Award in 1990, and five times been voted Professor of the Year by the graduating MBA class, Aswath Damodaran (“Corporate Finance,” “Equity Instruments and Markets”) is known for being available to assist students in any way he can. During mbaMission’s tour of the school, a student (now alumnus) told us of having sought Damodaran’s counsel about a project he was assigned during a summer internship and how the professor had happily responded. A second year interviewed by mbaMission called Damodaran, “highly respected on the Street [Wall Street],” and a first-year student told us, “I’m looking forward to Aswatth Damodaran’s ‘Corporate Finance’ class that I’ll be taking next semester because he’s a legend when it comes to valuation and corporate finance.” Another first year we interviewed named Damodaran as the professor who had impressed her the most.

Damodaran is widely published, with more than ten titles to his name, including Corporate Finance: Theory and Practice (Wiley, 2001) and Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset, Second Edition (Wiley, 2002)—textbooks reportedly used in some of his classes. In August 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek named Damodaran one of the top ten Most Popular Profs at Top Business Schools. A first year mbaMission interviewed declared, “I’m in his class now, and I will say that he is the guru on corporate finance. There is no one that will teach you corporate finance better than Aswath Damodaran. That’s just not going to happen. He’s fantastic.”

For more information about NYU Stern and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

The Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) is apparently content with its essay questions, because it has made no changes to them or to the allowed word count this season. Having made slight tweaks to its prompts in recent years, the GSB’s MBA admissions committee seems to have found an approach that elicits the information it wants.

With respect to word count, Stanford is unique in that it asks you to limit yourself to 1,600 words total but allows you to determine how you would like to distribute them among the various questions. Stanford does offer some guidance—recommending 750 words for Essay 1, 450 words for Essay 2 and 400 words for Essay 3—but you can take the school at its word (small pun intended!) and use a different distribution if you feel that you can better reveal yourself through, for example, a 650-word Essay 1 and 500-word Essay 3.

Stanford’s admissions committee offers some great advice on how to write its application essays here: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/dir_essays-p.html. We feel that the committee’s most important guidance is the following:

Because we want to discover who you are, resist the urge to “package” yourself in order to come across in a way you think Stanford wants. Such attempts simply blur our understanding of who you are and what you can accomplish. We want to hear your genuine voice throughout the essays that you write and this is the time to think carefully about your values, your passions, your hopes and dreams.

In truth, this is good advice not just for Stanford’s essays, but for all business schools’ essays. Rather than trying to portray yourself as something in particular (which you may or may not in fact be), focus on showcasing who you actually are and give the admissions committee the information and picture of you it needs to make its decision. Stanford is not interested in classifying its applicants as certain types but in discovering individuals and what they have to offer.  And now, on to the essays…

Essay 1: What matters most to you, and why?

When candidates ask us, “What should I write for what matters most to me?,” we offer a pretty simple tip—start brainstorming for this essay by asking yourself that very question: “What matters most to me?” This might seem like obvious advice, of course, but many applicants get flustered by the question, often believing that an actual “right” answer exists that they must identify, and never pause to actually consider their sincere responses, which are typically the most compelling.

So, we advise that you brainstorm in depth and push yourself to explore the psychological and philosophical motivations behind your goals and achievements—behind who you are today. We cannot emphasize this enough: do not make a snap decision about the content of this essay. Once you have identified what you believe is an appropriate theme, discuss your idea(s) with those with whom you are closest and whose input you respect. Doing so can help validate deeply personal and authentic themes, leading to an essay that truly stands out.

Once you have fully examined your options and identified your main themes, do not simply provide a handful of supporting anecdotes—or worse, recycle the stories you used in a similar essay for another school. A strong essay response to this question will involve a true exploration of the themes you have chosen and reveal a thorough analysis of decisions, motives and successes/failures, with a constant emphasis on how you conduct yourself. If you are merely telling stories and trying to tie in your preconceived conclusions, you are most likely forcing a theme on your reader rather than analyzing your experiences, and this will be transparent to any experienced admissions reader. In short, be sure to fully consider and develop your most sincere answer(s), outline your essay accordingly and then infuse your writing with your personality, thoughts, feelings and experiences.

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