Wok of worlds - Harvard - Business admissions essay tips

Business admissions essay tips

Early morning. A genomics laboratory in Germany.

I drop reagent into vials containing my skin cell scrapings and the chief scientific officer nods approval. Due diligence is always engaging, but it rarely provides the opportunity to purify one’s DNA. I had asked to experiment with the company’s new testing kits in order to evaluate whether the technology is simple enough to permit layperson use, as management touts. This analysis will support my investment case.

I next meet with the company’s CEO. We trade fresh biotech gossip and then I challenge the growth rates he is projecting for a new business unit, citing evidence from my own industry analysis. In the past few years I have learned to balance a strong company rapport with the ability to ask tough questions. En route to the airport, I call Fidelity portfolio managers with my revised thesis and downgraded numbers on this company and urge them to sell their stock. As the sole European biotechnology analyst, the portfolio managers rely on my guidance to position their funds.

Back in the London office.

I write a note of thanks in Italian to a company that visited our office the previous week. My U.S. counterpart calls. I had suggested that we share industry insights on a regular basis to help each other pick stocks. Now we are working together to determine whether a recent spate of profit warnings from the life science companies are isolated events or indicative of a slowdown in capital equipment spending.

Prowling the corridors, later that day.

Armed with DCF spreadsheets and Play-Doh, I talk through pipeline assumptions with a dubious fund manager. I construct model antibodies and drug receptors to explain how a Nordic company I want him to buy makes drugs with superior side effects. He calls trading to build a position, and I am pleased with the results of my interactive teaching.

Evening, markets closed. Stocks at rest. I wonder what intrigue they will bring tomorrow.
I head home to stir-fry a dinner for friends with my new wok.

Analysis

Lexie does a nice job with this essay by demonstrating that she is a hands-on and curious analyst. 

Throughout the essay Lexie emphasizes that not only can she run the numbers but also ask tough questions of CEOs and then explain complex technologies to fund managers back at the home office. She is engaged in her work but not so deeply so as to lose the necessary perspective to evaluate companies. This maturity is what distinguishes Lexie from the hundreds of other equity analysts who apply to HBS each year. Instead of just saying, “This is what I do,” Lexie takes it to the next level and demonstrates why she thinks she is more capable than other applicants with similar backgrounds.

The tone of the essay is confident but not condescending and says to HBS: “This is why I am good at what I do—pick me!” You can tell Lexie takes pride in what she does and believes she is helpful to her colleagues. The take-home message here is, do not shy away from saying you are good at what you do. Be careful how you say it, however. Do not be arrogant; be humble and demonstrate why you are good at your job and why what you do every day is relevant in a broader context.

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