I have watched the world change around people who were unprepared for its transformation. I have defined “commodity” for Brazilian coffee brokers whose market suddenly seemed to ignore them. I have argued about Mercosur with a tired finance minister in Ecuador, and have seen Dominican friends fight for jobs in a new zona franca condemned by international labor groups.

I want to help clarify the confusion, and I want the Harvard Business School to be my ally.

I am choosing HBS for the traditional outputs. I want to increase my impact on organizations, to join a network of people with the courage to reach difficult goals, to gain unmatched credibility as a messenger. HBS has an outstanding reputation for offering these things, and my research confirms it. Most of the HBS students and alumni I know are expanding their definitions of greatness.

I also want the journey. I want the daily luxury of exploring the world with the extraordinary community that HBS builds. I want to engage Frances Frei on my company’s failed technology dream and see Haitian competitiveness from Michael Porter’s perspective. I want to argue with James Austin about the private sector’s ability to drive social change and discuss the responsibilities of corporations with exceptional peers who will translate their convictions into meaningful action.

I came to ontheFRONTIER to learn to fight poverty in a new global context. I want to advance that fight, and I want to test and improve my strategy at HBS, a place that will hold me to the highest standards of analysis and tutor me in the messy art of leadership.

Analysis

This poetic essay grabs your attention from the get-go. It snubs the traditional thesis-plus-evidence structure and craftily spins the rationale for pursuing an MBA at HBS. Most striking still is the passion that Anne exudes for impacting the world around her.

While not stated outright, and even without the context of the entire application, the reader can deduce Anne’s ambitions to continue in her field of economic development. She describes her past experience through expressive snippets of her work in emerging markets. These accounts are ever more powerful because of the personal touches she colors them with—a conversation with Ecuador’s finance minister, friends seeking employment in the Dominican Republic—and despite all these global accomplishments, she makes a strong case for returning to school for an MBA.

While Anne dedicates more words to HBS than we would recommend, she succeeds in providing incisive examples of why HBS is her school of choice. She has obviously done background research and is familiar with the faculty and their work. In the process, she exposes her own personal interests and motivations. The strength of this essay lies both in the nobility of Anne’s goals and in the eloquence of the delivery. The reader is convinced through Anne’s well-expressed convictions that she will be a powerful agent of change.

From 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays edited by the Staff of the Harvard Crimson. Copyright (c) 2009 by the authors and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Publishing Group