Write and wrong

I've been asked about writing for essay competitions, so I've included some rough thoughts below. Although these are specific to competitions, I think some general lessons hold for other kinds of essays, particularly those for business school applications.

• As a very crude framework, use the three P's of writing and presenting. Be precise, be professional, be profound. With precision, you say exactly what you mean to say. If you don't know what you're trying to convey, your audience won't be able to somehow figure it out, so write with clarity. Professionalism pertains to the tone and style you use, which requires you to know your audience. Don't write beneath their level, and don't go over their heads. Write to be understood, using humor, references and the language register that resonates with your reader. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, be profound. Your essays should not tell people something they already know, something they won't care about, or something they will instantly forget.
• Mean what you say. Have a point of view, and share it. If you lack conviction, your audience won't be convinced. Be passionate and informed. Without the former, your essay is boring; without the latter, it's merely a rant.
• Good writing raises questions and encourages further exploration of the topics you've raised. Unless you're writing a lengthy monograph, you won't exhaust all of the possibilities of your subject in a single essay. The reader should be sufficiently intrigued by the possibilities your essay raises.
• Competition writing requires tightly structured essays. Remember that your reviewers may be going through dozens, even hundreds of essays each. They probably won't have the time or inclination to slog through a meandering, unstructured essay. Have a rock-solid structure to build on.
• At the outset, it's okay to iterate a few times on the main theme of your essay. You may find it changing as you develop your arguments. Just make sure that by the time you're finished your theme has crystallized.
• Don't raise too many points. Depending on the essay format and audience, 3-5 discrete themes or points should suffice. Fewer than that and it may not be substantial enough; too many and it may be hard to follow.
• Remember that all of you paragraphs should ultimately support your overarching argument. Try to articulate the purpose of your essay in one sentence. This sentence doesn't necessarily have to be in the essay itself, but write it down and use it to remind yourself of the point of your essay. Filter your words against this theme (which may evolve at the outset; see earlier point). This will help ensure that extraneous elements are cut out.
• In general, write an essay that's longer than what's required and then trim it to fit, rather than writing one too short and then padding it. You'll have a tighter, more effective result.
• Make it personal. To distinguish yourself, call on the various threads of your own experiences, viewpoints and observations. These are the things that can make an essay uniquely yours, and help it to stand out.

A thousand words

If you're wondering what students are like at HBS, one of the single best ways to find out is via the Portrait Project. This initiative was started with the Class of 2002 and asks students to respond to a simple question derived from a poem. HBS seems to keep this under the radar for some reason, and it's not readily accessible from the main internet portal. Check out the vignettes from the Class of 2009 (and prior years) here: Portrait Project.

Great Expectations

I wasn't sure what to expect from business school when I applied. I had attended an undergraduate business school that shared space with a graduate program, and all I observed of the MBAs around me at the time didn't suggest that I would enjoy a similar experience. HBS was a surprising place. For those of you who are considering business school, think hard about what you're trying to get from the experience. Here are some dimensions that matter:

• Sections: MBA programs vary in their emphasis on a section (or cohort, cluster, "ocean" if you're at MIT Sloan, etc.). Some schools are all about the section and structure the entire experience around it, while for others they are more or less incidental. Some people may thrive in the former, others in the latter, but in any case the difference matters.
• Teaching approach: The mix of cases, lectures, field studies and other learning models varies tremendously. I've found that the case method is perfect for me. It's the right way for me to learn a lot of things. However, learning everything by large group discussion might drive you crazy, so know which camp you fall in when you choose a business school.
• Size: The size of the school correlates with the resources it has for activities. Bigger schools can do more, have slicker conferences and flashier speakers, but smaller schools may develop a more cohesive esprit de corps. (At graduation a few weeks ago there were numerous classmates walking across stage whom I had never seen before.)

It's minnertime

One term that has fully entered the lexicon of male HBS students is "minner," the term for dinners attended only by the men of the section. Lest you think this is some modern version of the boys-only treehouse, it's common for both the men and women of HBS sections to have a few dinners or social events per year that are just for them. The term is delightfully compact, instantly recognizable (unlike its midday counterpart, the "munch") and loaded with the connotations of minners of the past.