Harvard MBA Essays

With the confirmation of Harvard MBA deadlines for the world’s one of the most reputed B-schools, the Harvard Business school has released its MBA essay for the 2025-26 admissions season. For several seasons now, Harvard has used a standard prompt to give an open end to candidates to discover the top qualities that would help them enrich the diverse Class of MBA with their experience, knowledge, and intellect.      

The application deadlines for the MBA Class of 2026 are:

Harvard MBA Application	Harvard MBA Deadlines for Online Application due by Noon Boston Time	Admission Board Decision
Round 1	03 Sep 2025	10 Dec 2025
Round 2	05 Jan 2026	25 March 2026

Applicants to the MBA Class of 2028 (matriculating fall 2026) need to respond to these three essay prompts:

Essay 1 – Business-Minded: Please reflect on how your choices have influenced your career path and aspirations. (up to 300 words)

A standard, straightforward, and clever prompt to evaluate an applicant’s credentials. 

Before we rush down to put thoughts into words, it’s better to have it all planned out in the open. Design a brief structure emphasizing leadership, analytical skills, decision making, an appetite for knowledge, and a very active, engaged community worker (all the qualities that Harvard looks for and values the most).

Check out to the Harvard GMAT Score.

biotechnology program.

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We follow a unique framework to help applicants dig deep into their work experience, leadership potential, strengths, weaknesses, etc., and structure the stories in a way that can bring the most impact. 

Our best advice here is: Don’t overstate, overthink, and overwrite. Just get to the basics! Answer the question in a very clear language so that even those unaware of your world can understand.

The emphasis must be a positive change in the community! Harvard loves entrepreneurs who have created positive qualitative differences in people’s lives in their journey to become the best amongst the crowd! Mention these instances no matter how small, as it’s not about the magnitude but the impact itself!

Finally, try not to overlap with examples and materials already listed on other documents sent to the committee. In this case, you are just not utilizing the valuable essay space provided.. That’s exactly where an expert’s advice could come in handy! 

We at MBAandBeyond ensure that none of the essay topics overlaps with any examples or qualities already covered in the other materials. At the same time, we dig deep into all the important aspects of your profile to understand and bring your most impactful stories and align them with the values of each school in the application. 

Essay 2 – Leadership-Focused: What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (up to 250 words)

Essay 3 – Growth-Oriented: 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)

Suggested Reading- How to bring collinearity to your applications!

HARVARD – POST-INTERVIEW REFLECTION

Now, that’s an interesting prompt! Within 24 hours of your interview, each candidate must submit a written reflection about the whole experience through the online application system of HBS. 

This tradition has continued since the 2012-2013 season when applicants invited to the final stage interview are asked to write a reflection about their interview experience. 

Although the entire thing is based on a personal level of understanding, we do have some crucial tips for you!

First of all, take a break! It has been going on for a  long time! All these procedures, one after the other, are tiresome and are bound to take a toll on the body and the mind!

Now with a new sense, recall and try to jot down some notes about any crucial advice given, of what was discussed, and more specifically, any good topic or point you did not get a chance to cover. By doing this, you now get a clear record you can later refer to while drafting your essay. Furthermore, this should sound like a closing argument to your application, your final act before they announce the results!

Take out all you want from your inventory and draft a last piece emphasizing the key attributes for your candidacy, your major learnings from the interview about HBS, and make them feel that you are not here just for the knowledge and degree but to stand out in this dynamic business world with ideas that would not only transform the business environment but transform people’s lives!  

That’s all for the HBS essay prompt! We hope this has helped you. However, if you are looking for a bit of more personal and precise advice, feel free to hop on a 1:1 profile evaluation call with our experts, where we’ll dive deep into your profile and help you understand your chances to top B-schools with absolutely honest feedback.

To understand how our process helps aspiring MBA candidates see a glimpse of how our Profile evaluations and consulting assistance works! 

For more on B-School essays, you can check the links for our articles below!

Suggested Reading 

• CBS Essays
• Wharton MBA Essays

At MBA and Beyond, we are determined to help you develop a unique structure for each essay question providing step-by-step procedures to build a specific answer that would help you stand out among the crowd! We are a team of expert consultants who follow a unique process to achieve maximum efficiency, quality, and interaction, ensuring a 100% unique and authentic application! 

Good luck!

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