Wharton essay analysis - 工管

Hi all, please see below our analysis and advice on this year's Wharton essay
topics. Good luck!

Best,
Kevin Chen
www.clearadmit.com
[email protected]







In one respect, Wharton's MBA application essays for the coming year look
very similar to last year's; after a brief required question about
professional objectives, applicants choose among a handful of additional
essay options (two of which are returning topics from last season) to round
out the set. The difference, meanwhile, is that applicants now respond to
just two of three essay options, whereas last year they chose three out of
four topics to address. The upshot of this is that candidates now have one
fewer essay through which to share information about their backgrounds,
accomplishments and interests, effectively putting even more pressure on the
three essays they will ultimately write.

Let's take a closer look at each of Wharton's prompts and consider what
effective responses might include:

Required Question:
What are your professional objectives? (300 words)

Wharton's abbreviated opening essay returns for a second year, allowing
applicants just 300 words to describe their post-MBA plans to the admissions
committee. While this is a variation of the typical career goals essay,
applicants will likely be well-served by adopting a big-picture approach to
this question; in addition to describing their immediate post-MBA career
goals, applicants should also explain their long-term plans and the broad
impact they hope to have on their industry, community, country or region.
With only 300 words allotted for this essay, applicants will need to be
highly efficient with their writing. It should also be noted that this prompt
doesn't specifically call for a ‘why Wharton’ discussion, though a few
words on how the MBA program would facilitate one's progress toward the
outlined objectives would certainly be appropriate, if space allows.

Respond to two of the following three questions:

Option 1: Reflect on a time when you turned down an opportunity. What was the
thought process behind your decision? Would you make the same decision today?
(600 words)
Also making a repeat appearance in this year’s essay set, this question
poses an interesting challenge for applicants. There’s a good deal of nuance
to consider here; for example, if one responds with an instance in which he
or she would not make the same choice today, this may begin to sound more
like a mistake or a failure if not presented in an effective way. At its
heart, this is a question about the ways the applicant approaches the
decision-making process: the way he or she weighs priorities, evaluates risk,
and determines a course of action. To keep the tone positive and avoid the
subject of regret, one viable approach would be to outline a time you saw an
opportunity but realized it would be unwise to take it because you weren’t
prepared to fully benefit from it. Another example could be a time when an
applicant made a well-considered decision to turn down an opportunity,
undertaken for the right reasons, that opened up doors that accepting the
opportunity would not have.

Regardless of the nature of the opportunity and whether you would make the
same decision today, the key here will be to provide a sound explanation of
the reasons you made the decision you did, providing the adcom with insight
into your thought process and allowing them to better understand how you
would function at Wharton and in your future career. We encourage applicants
to think strategically about the topics they might use in answering this
question, and to consider how the content would work with other essay topics.
For example, the ultimately-turned-down opportunity might in itself present a
chance to introduce a new aspect of one’s candidacy to the application that
the adcom would not have learned of otherwise.

Option 2: Discuss a time when you faced a challenging interpersonal
experience. How did you navigate the situation and what did you learn from
it? (600 words)
This question, albeit with a slightly different wording, appeared in Wharton’
s application for the first time last year, and although the prompt no longer
explicitly says so, applicants could conceivably answer this question with a
story about a challenging episode in either their personal or professional
lives. The requirements that the experience simply be “challenging” and “
interpersonal” opens the floor to a wide range of situations; for example,
one might write about recognizing a professional opportunity and struggling
to bring someone else on board, or about leading a team with a particularly
uncooperative member. For those who are more inclined to tell a personal
story, remember that no matter what the topic, the goal is to demonstrate one
’s maturity and ability to overcome obstacles. Whether the story is personal
or professional, the major themes of growth and learning remain the same.
After describing the initial challenge and its origin in detail, applicants
should comment on both their thoughts and actions in response, highlighting
their perseverance in resolving the situation – ideally to positive effect.
This essay is a good place to highlight instances of resourcefulness, as well
as to provide a comprehensive picture of personal and professional
development over the course of the narrative.

One final note about topic selection for this essay: Wharton likely asks this
question to understand how the applicant manages conflict or
misunderstanding, and to generalize this one situation to a broader picture
of how he or she might work through issues with Wharton classmates, learning
team members, and future colleagues. The interpersonal experience that you
select should therefore be transferable in some way, centering on a
relationship that is similar to those you will forge in the future.
Colleagues, supervisors, subordinates, classmates, teammates, friends, and
even one-time interactions with strangers are all fair game here. Meanwhile,
though the door is open to personal examples, challenging situations
involving interactions with members of your family will probably not be
sufficiently transferable to future working relationships.

Option 3: “Innovation is central to our culture at Wharton. It is a
mentality that must encompass every aspect of the School – whether faculty
research, teaching or alumni outreach.” – Thomas S. Robertson, Dean, The
Wharton School
Keeping this component of our culture in mind, discuss a time when you have
been innovative in your personal or professional life. (600 words)
A new prompt for this admissions season, this question invites applicants to
discuss a situation in which they’ve applied creativity and resourcefulness
to effect some kind of change for the better. As with the program’s other
essay options, Wharton allows applicants to draw from the personal or the
professional realms in addressing this prompt, so candidates could
conceivably write about anything from developing a defensive strategy for a
recreational soccer team, to devising a marketing strategy for a struggling
product line. Whatever sort of example you settle on, remember that, by
definition, “new” and “novel” will be key criteria in judging whether
your example is in fact innovative; the admissions committee is looking for
examples in which applicants have generated solutions, fabricated items, or
created new tools or techniques. To demonstrate the value of your innovative
act, it will also be important to provide a complete narrative in your
response to this essay, explaining the situation and the need you saw,
commenting on your innovative thought process and actions, and providing an ‘
after’ snapshot that illustrates the results of your efforts. Finally,
considering Dean Robertson’s definition of innovation as a “mentality,”
applicants may want to conclude by describing how the situation they chose
is part of a broader pattern, or to comment on their characteristically
creative approach to problems or commitment to improvement.

Conclusion
Wharton introduces their essays by encouraging applicants to be “
introspective, candid, and succinct.” To this, we would like to add “
careful and strategic,” particularly with respect to choice of topics and
the ultimate balance of content across the full set of essays. If you’re
struggling here, feel free to contact us for a free consultation, during
which we can help you go through the elements of your candidacy and determine
which experiences and characteristics to highlight in this set of essays.


--