Learn by Example: Accomplishments
What are the three most substantial accomplishments, and why do you view them as such?
While the other essay topics may change somewhat year to year, this essay continues to be a permanent fixture in the HBS application. With a more generous word limit of six hundred words, it offers a unique opportunity to tell the admissions committee what is most important to you as an individual and as a professional.
Many applicants have trouble identifying their most significant accomplishments. You may wonder if your achievements are significant enough. It is expected that college students with a few years of work experience will not have restructured a Fortune 500 company or received a Nobel prize. Achievement, however, does not need a grandiose setting. It can be taken from parenthood or interaction with peers. Admissions officers want your achievement to be relevant to you before it is relevant to anyone else. Ask yourself the following questions when selecting your accomplishment: Can I convince the reader that this achievement is worthwhile to me, not that it is ground-breaking in its own right? Did I make a meaningful impact to my life through this accomplishment? Will these accomplishments complete a picture of the larger person that I am?
Applicants also find that sharing their stories is not easy—they can be too personal, too long ago and hard to communicate. Try to open up in this essay. What has made you happy and proud in your life? What makes you tick? Be original. Be honest. For some authors, accomplishment takes place in the context of parenthood. For others, it manifests itself in guiding an entrepreneurial family-owned company. In one of the selected essays, accomplishment took shape through conquering bulimia.
There are no set rules, but most applicants allocate roughly two hundred words to each accomplishment. Many applicants stick to the safe but overused template of one academic achievement, one professional achievement, and one extracurricular achievement. Do not feel compelled to do so—the essays that follow a different format can be more lively and memorable.
This essay requires introspective analysis within a meaningful personal context. The point of this essay is not to simply brag about an award you won at college or a mountain you hiked. Remember that the actual result is in many ways less important than your thoughts and actions and what you have taken away from the experience.
