Wharton School of Business MBA Essay Analysis 2021 – 2026

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In this article I am going to discuss the Wharton MBA program. If you’re looking at applying to Wharton, you’ve come to the right place.

 

Let’s first look at the Wharton MBA program and what differentiates it. As we all know, it’s an Ivy League school. It’s part of the three schools, considered to be the elite trio – Harvard, Stanford and Wharton.

 

What I think truly differentiates Wharton is that though it is known as a finance school, more importantly, it has a certain quantitative rigor to it. There is a lot of focus on quantitative skills, analytical skills and a lot of rigorous thinking. If you’re a person who likes that, Wharton is the place for you. Can you apply to the financial industry? Sure! Can you apply to consulting?  That’s also possible! I don’t think you should look at Wharton as a pure finance school. I know it’s known for finance but the quantitative focus is a larger bet.

 

Second,  among all the top schools, Wharton has the most diverse profile. It has the highest percentage of international students among the top schools, and that provides you with rich classroom experience and outside classroom experience. It is not just the country they represent but also the functions. In that way, Wharton is truly global.

 

Third, you probably have to pick the flexible curriculum. There is a fixed core course but you have the flexibility right in your first year to pick a lot of electives. This is great for people who feel they don’t want to have the rigidity of a course where they are told what they have to study. Once you’re done with the basics – statistics, accounts and economics and all of the required courses, you can pick and choose what you want to do. I think that’s another big draw for people applying to Wharton.

 

2018-2019 Wharton Deadlines

 

 

 

2018-2019 Wharton Essay Questions

 

Now, let’s look at the specific questions that Wharton has. It has two essays

 

 

Essay 1 (Required)

 

 

Now, if you think about it, it’s very specific, and a classic career goals essay, which you cannot answer by just saying what you will get from a Wharton MBA. You have to first say what it is that you need from a Wharton MBA, and in order to say that, you also need to say what it is that you’ve done so far.

 

It kind of goes back to the same three step process. Tell them what it is that you have done so far, what it is that you see ahead of you and hope to do in your future. Now that you have said what it is that you hope to do, tell them what you need to reach that goal. Once you say what you need in order to reach there, in the last part you need to say how specifically Wharton can help bridge that gap.

 

S500 words gives you enough space to write a pretty detailed and descriptive essay. In the first part, tell them what you’ve done, where you are in this career juncture, and what you see ahead; this would include your short term and long term goals.

 

In the second part, say what you hope to do to equip yourself to achieve those short term and long term career goals?

 

In the third part, describe how specifically a Wharton MBA will help you achieve your goals. Use the standard 150 + 150 + 150 words for the three parts and maybe 50 words for the beginning and ending.

 

 

Essay 2 (Required)

 

 

Interacting with people from Wharton has given me insight into what Wharton is like. On our panel, we have Aruna who is an MBA from Wharton. Some of my former colleagues are from Wharton, and we have had students going to Wharton. One thing that say when we talk about the Wharton MBA program is the fact that most of the student activities are student run. This means that you volunteer to go talk to an alum to get him on campus. Don’t expect the college to do this for you. From that perspective, what they really want to know is, what it is that you will contribute to the Wharton community.

 

400 words is a lot of space. I would perhaps pick two or three specific things that I bring to the table. For these two or three things, you need to talk about both, what you can give, and how you will benefit, or what you will gain.

 

Let us say that your interest is in science. Now, what does an MBA student really require from science? But you could say that you have an interest in astronomy and you would like to show your classmates how astronomy can be interesting. You can maybe say that when you look at the star filled sky in Philadelphia, you could show them certain constellations. It’s about what you can contribute to the community.

 

What I gave you is just a small example. It could be a sport; maybe you practice yoga. You could say that you like to practice yoga and it helps you calm your mind. In an MBA, people get overwhelmed with a lot of things that are thrown at them. You can say that at such times you could probably take a yoga class. Maybe every morning, you could conduct yoga classes.

 

It could be anything, but you need to say what it is that you can give to the community, but remember that teamwork is a two way street. You can also say what you would benefit from it. What would you benefit from teaching astronomy to others? Maybe it’s a personal passion that you have. Maybe teaching yoga would allow you the opportunity to practice yoga.

 

Whatever you write, pick two or three things. 150 to 200 words to explain each of these would give you enough space to elaborate. Otherwise, you talk about 10 things, and it will look like a checklist that you’re ticking off. It would be like you went to the Wharton website, looked at all these things and wrote“I want to be a part of the Consulting club”, or “I’ll be part of the Cricket club”. Don’t do that, just stick to two or three ways in which you can contribute.

 

 

Essay for Re-applicants

 

 

You also have the option to write an essay, say, if you have had gaps in your education, or your experience, or there is something else that you think could not fit anywhere else in the application essay. In this case, you utilize this space, but one piece of advice that I always give to the student is, “Do not try to retrofit something that could not find a place anywhere else, just because you have another 250 words to write.”

 

I hope this article was useful to you. If you’re applying to Wharton, and if you would like to know more about how we can help you with your application, just go ahead, and click the link below.

 

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If you are looking to do an MBA from one of the top B-schools abroad, you must have definitely considered applying to Wharton School of Business. And probably that decision is what brought you here to check out how you should approach Wharton’s MBA application essays in 2020, right? Well… you made the right decision.

In this article, we will discuss the Wharton MBA application essay questions in detail and also provide you with tips on how to showcase your profile to the admissions committee at the B-school.

But before we get into the Wharton MBA essay analysis part, here are a few points that you need to know about the Wharton School of Business.

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Getting things straight

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The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is an Ivy League school that is usually an option for students right after Harvard and Stanford. This just means one thing: It has got the legacy. Just like a lot of companies, the MBA program at Wharton is driven by data and it has a certain quantitative rigour to it. So, it is important that the MBA candidates at Wharton brush up their excel skills and probably even learn a bit more.

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Imparting knowledge the right way

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Wharton offers quite a flexible curriculum and you cannot miss the global focus that they try to give their students. They provide this with their international programs offering, global exchange programs, and field tours. They want to ensure that you go to at least one other country and get a sense of all things.

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Coming back to the flexible curriculum at Wharton, though you have a major or as some refer to as the core course, you have a lot of flexibility when it comes to picking your electives. And probably because it is a B-school of the University of Pennsylvania, you will have access to a lot of resources and great professors.

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What Wharton is looking for

As an Ivy league B-school, there will be certain qualities that Wharton will look for when it comes to considering candidates for their MBA programs.

Wharton is an analytical or a quant school. And so, they will definitely comb through your GMAT/GRE scores and your work experience. This is probably just their way of ensuring that you will be able to handle the rigorous coursework that they have there. So, the applicant should be good academically and professionally.

As an MBA applicant, Warton looks for clarity of thoughts in you. You need to be clear about why you are choosing the business school and what you will achieve. As you read this article, you will see how you can tell them these points through your essays.

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Wharton receives a really high number of applications every year. So, ensure that your essays are not last-minute works. They will easily be able to differentiate well-crafted essays from last-minute works based on the quality of your essays. You don’t want to be the one to get rejected.

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What’s in it for you

As mentioned in the previous section, Wharton gets a really high number of applications every year. This means that they have a lot of candidates applying from different parts of the world.

Though the B-school is known as finance or analytical school, the MBA candidates there come from diverse backgrounds. 

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It has the highest percentage of international students among the top schools, and that provides you with rich classroom experience and outside classroom experience. It is not just the country they represent but also the functions. In that way, Wharton is truly global.

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Wharton School of Business  MBA Essays 2020-21

There are two essay questions that you need to submit if you need to complete your ISB application. While both are in the usual essay format, there is a certain twist that the B-school has brought it while drafting the questions. You will understand this as you keep reading this article.

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Wharton Essay Question 1

What do you hope to gain professionally from the Wharton MBA?

Word limit: 500 words

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This is a typical career goals essay and the one point that you need to remember here is that they do not want you to repeat what you have already mentioned in your application or resume.

So, what should you do?

Here’s how you should go about answering this question. Before you start telling them what you hope to gain, you need to set a context. They need to know where you stand right now professionally. Ensure that you show your career progression in this paragraph.

And then you need to tell them where you wish to be after you complete your MBA at Wharton. You need to be very specific when it comes to this point. You need to know what job role you want to take up and which industry you want to be a part of. This will give them a sense of progress that you are looking to achieve in a year or two.

Once you mention the two factors, you can tell them what you will gain professionally from Wharton that is going to help you get to where you want to be. A point that you need to note here is that you don’t have to tell them what they already know about themselves. By this, we mean to say that you shouldn’t copy-paste anything from their website.

You need to tell them how certain aspects of their course or college will help you gain professionally and how at the end of the course, Wharton would have helped you achieve your post MBA career goal!

So, this is how you should go about Wharton’s essay one. And you can divide the essay by utilizing approximately 100 words each for the first to points and maybe 300 words to explain what Wharton will help you gain professionally. You can even use 150 words each for the first two paragraphs and then keep aside 200 words for the final one. This is purely based on how you write your essay.

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Wharton Essay Question 2

Taking into consideration your background – personal, professional, and/or academic – how do you plan to make specific, meaningful contributions to the Wharton community?

Word limit: 400 words

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This is an essay question that gives you the opportunity to pitch yourself. You get to tell the Adcoms. at Wharton what the B-school will get from you if they give you the MBA admit. Here’s where you write down how you will help the school.

Wharton has a lot of student-run bodies. Let’s say that you are going to tell them that you will be joining the health care club. They don’t want to know what you will benefit out of it but what you can bring to the table. So, if you know a few experts in the industry who will make great speakers, you can say that you will bring them to the campus. And if you know the founders of some company, you can say that you will get them to speak to the students as well.

By saying all this, the AdComs. Should understand that you are an expert and you will be able to contribute to the B-school in a lot of ways. You need to tailor your experience in such a way that they feel that you will be an asset to the institution. So, instead of saying what all you can do, tell them how they will benefit from all this. You need to show that you have a clear plan.

Since you have 400 words, we would suggest that you give them two examples. You can try to give three examples, but if you feel that you will not be able to provide clarity and elaborate on the examples, you can stick to two of them.

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Essay for Re-applicants

Explain how you have reflected on the previous decision about your application, and discuss any updates to your candidacy (Ex.: changes in your professional life, additional coursework, extracurricular/volunteer engagements).

Word limit: 250

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So, you have been given 250 words here. What do you do with it?

Using these 250 words, you need to show them how you have progressed from the last time you submitted your application. You should be able to showcase the difference between what and how you were back then to how you have changed with respect to your career, volunteer experiences, or academics.

And this story should get them convinced that you are the right fit for Wharton.

So, if you’re applying to Wharton this year and feel that you need expert guidance to brainstorm and help you bring out your story through the essays, feel free to reach out to us.

Before you leave, if you are looking to apply to Wharton, you need to know the deadlines, right?

So, here are the Wharton School of Business MBA application deadlines.

Wharton School of Business MBA Application Deadlines

If you really want to get into Wharton, you might want to keep these deadlines in mind. Moreover, with these deadlines, you can now plan your MBA application process better.

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Wharton School of Business MBA Application Deadlines

Round 1 September 15, 2020 

Round 2 January 5 2020

Round 3 31 March 2020

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So, here we leave you with the most important points and dates that will help you get into Wharton.

If you would like to watch what our GMAT and MBA Expert, Arun Jagannathan has to say about writing your Rotman essay, you can watch the video here.

And as mentioned earlier, if you feel that you need more help in drafting your essays or reviewing your application or let’s say, even brainstorming your ideas, you can always reach out to us.

You can click on the image below and get in touch with our expert.

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