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On Wednesday, September 8, join mbaMission as we break down each Harvard Business School essay question to help you create your own story, as part of Beat the GMAT’s Free “Write Like an Expert” Series. The schedule is as follows:

10:00 AM – 10:30 AM PST (1:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST): Breaking down Harvard’s essay topics

• What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)
• What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)
• 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?
  • What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?
  • Tell us about a time in your professional experience when you were frustrated or disappointed.
  • When you join the HBS Class of 2013, how will you introduce yourself to your new classmates?

10:30 AM – 11:00 AM PST (1:30 PM – 2:00 PM EST): Q&A

To register for this session, visit Beat the GMAT.

Most business schools will ask your recommenders to describe a weakness of yours, or a time when they offered you constructive feedback. You may face great temptation to ask your recommenders to avoid writing anything critical or to present a “disguised strength” as a weakness. So your recommender might write something like one of the following entirely disingenuous statements, believing that he/she is helping you, when in fact he/she is not:

• “John needs to learn to balance his work and home life better—he is always at work, making sure that he stays on top of every detail.”
• “Mary is a perfectionist and holds others, who just may not be capable, to the same high standard that she holds herself.”

Alternatively, a recommender who is afraid of hurting your candidacy may write about a “professional development” weakness, focusing on a business skill that you have not yet had the opportunity to learn or develop, rather than describing an area in which you need to improve:

• “Rodney is an excellent communicator in small group settings; he has not, however, had the opportunity yet to give presentations to large groups, and I think doing so is the next important step in his career path.”
• “To move to the next level, David needs to start sourcing his own deals, rather than just working on deals that others have found.”

This may be shocking, but admissions officers understand that there is no such thing as a perfect employee/MBA candidate and are skeptical of the sincerity of any recommender that presents you as such. Such falsely positive comments do nothing to help the admissions committee get to know you better and instead undermine the integrity of your recommender’s letter. Although you do not want your recommenders to present unprofessional traits (e.g. “Denise is lazy”), recommendation letters should involve honest, detailed reflection using a critical (not negative) eye. Remember, when it comes to recommendations, too much of a good thing can actually be a bad thing.

Please respond fully and concisely using 1.5 line spacing. Your response to each question should be no more than 2 pages in length, with a font size no less than 10-point.

Today, companies must navigate through complex and interdependent issues. They must deal with health and security matters, environmental impact questions, and diversity and cultural concerns. Leaders need adaptability, imagination, emotional intelligence, and business acumen. Thus, Duke is in the midst of an ambitious global venture that will embed and connect us around the world, and we are seeking future leaders of consequence, who value diversity and collaborative leadership, and who aspire to impact the companies and communities of which they are a part in a lasting and positive way.

In an effort to identify, engage, and foster the development of future leaders of consequence, the Admissions Committee would like to get to know our applicants in a more holistic manner. We would like to know who you are, what has shaped you into the person you are today, and how you hope to impact both Duke and the communities of which you will be a part in the future. The essays are your opportunity to convey that to us. Please be open, genuine, and passionate. Share with us what makes you a dynamic, multi-dimensional person.

1. Describe your vision for your career and your inspiration for pursuing this career path.

In many ways, essays one and three constitute the components of a classic Personal Statement. And, 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, via our online store. Please feel free to download your copy today.

All of that written, you will notice that Fuqua does not explicitly ask about your short- and long-term career goals but instead asks about your “vision for your career.” Short- and long-term goals can be somewhat confining, but Fuqua instead offers you some flexibility and allows you to provide a broader and more reasoned compendium of your objectives and the path you hope to take to reach them. In some ways, this question is more challenging than a traditional “goal statement” as you will need to be less practical and more profound in discussing your future.

2. How will your background, values, and non-work activities enhance the experience of other Duke MBA students and add value to Fuqua’s diverse culture?

This essay is broad and sweeping in nature, so it allows you to strategically showcase a mix of your greatest community and personal strengths. You should attempt to select a diversity of experiences and present them in such a way that you will be able to relate them back to your ability to contribute in a variety of areas – for example, the classroom, study teams and the community at large. A successful essay will be one that not only details your personality/experiences, but also clearly illustrates how you will “enhance” Fuqua — meaning that you show your intimate understanding of and connection to the Fuqua culture/experience.

3. Why Duke? (If you are interested in a specific concentration, joint degree, clubs or activities, please discuss how you would contribute to these in this essay.)

Please consult our analysis of essay one as it encompasses a response to essays one and three. For a thorough exploration of Duke’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Fuqua School of Business.

Optional Essay (not required)

If you feel there are extenuating circumstances of which the Admissions Committee should be aware, please explain them here (e.g., unexplained gaps in work, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, significant weakness in your application).

However tempted you might be, this is not the place to paste in a strong essay from another school or to offer a few anecdotes that you were unable to use in any of your other essays. Instead, this is your opportunity, if needed, to address any lingering questions that an admissions officer may have about your candidacy, such as a poor grade or overall GPA, a low GMAT score, a gap in your work experience, etc. In our mbaMission Optional Statement Guide, available through our online store, we offer detailed advice on when and how to take advantage of the optional essay, with multiple examples, to help you mitigate any problem areas in your profile.

When considering possible MBA programs, many applicants feel that they are choosing, and ultimately purchasing, a brand. While that may be your perspective as you enter an MBA program, if you ask current students, virtually all will tell you that the educational experience itself far outweighs “brand,” as it pertains to your professional success. We speak with thousands of MBA applicants each year through our free consultations and free events and have discovered that few truly know the personalities with whom they will be interacting each day – their potential professors. So, we are launching a new weekly blog series: Professor Profiles. Each Wednesday, we will be offering you an insider’s view as we profile standout professors at top business schools, as identified by current students whom we have interviewed. Our first entry follows…

Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.

As you no doubt know, we at mbaMission are strong believers in students helping students go beyond the web sites in order to truly experience MBA programs, thereby ensuring “fit.” Far too many students rely on rankings, which are arbitrary and fluctuate wildly, and do not really take the time to get to know the character of their target programs. A priori experience is truly invaluable as you seek to identify your ideal match – to that end, the MBA Tour presents a tremendous opportunity for you to meet with many MBA Admissions Officers from MBA programs around the world, by bringing them all to one location. At MBA Tour events, you will have the opportunity to interact with Admissions Officers, and often students and alumni, from top schools and ask each of them the questions that you need answered — all in a risk-free environment.

We have attached a calendar of North American events below and will be attending several of the events ourselves (stay tuned to find out which ones). Visit the MBA Tour web site for more information on each event:

• Thurs., Sept. 2, 2010 – Houston
• Sat., Sept. 11, 2010 – Boston
• Sun., Sept. 12, 2010 – Washington DC
• Tues., Sept. 14, 2010 – Chicago
• Sun., Sept. 19, 2010 – New York City
• Mon., Sept. 20, 2010 – New York City (Euro MBA)
• Thurs., Sept. 23, 2010 – Atlanta
• Sat., Sept. 25, 2010 – Los Angeles
• Sun., Sept. 26, 2010 – San Francisco