Blog

What does a nonprofit manager who graduated from Harvard Business School (HBS) in 2010 and studied ethics and leadership have in common with an investment banker applying to HBS in 2024 to study finance and global business? Virtually nothing. At mbaMission, applicants often ask us whether they should work with a consultant who earned their … Read More  

We at mbaMission know of a man now in his 80s who graduated from a virtually unknown Canadian undergraduate school in 1963 and who, with no work experience at all, applied to Harvard Business School (HBS), Wharton, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), earning acceptance at all three (though the GSB deferred his entry … Read More  

For the 2026–2027 application season, Harvard Business School (HBS) requires three application essays that each focus on a different element of the MBA program’s admissions criteria. For the school’s first required essay, you will need to reflect on your past and explain how certain choices you have made have influenced your professional aspirations. Leadership is … Read More  

If you are applying to business school, you have probably heard about the “case method” more times than you can count—and likely wondered what the experience is like and what it asks of MBA students. In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast, host Harold Simansky and mbaMission Executive Director Jessica Shklar sit down with Harvard … Read More  

The MBA admissions process is unpredictable and highly subjective. Every year, the applicant pool is packed with highly qualified applicants—too many for the schools to admit, in fact—and as a result, incredible candidates are invariably rejected. Over the past 20 years, we have seen both the good and the bad of MBA admissions, and on … Read More