Wharton Posing New Applicant Questions

Kreisberg’s advice for this year’s applicants?

How will the Wharton MBA help you achieve your professional objectives? (400 words)

“Note, they say the Wharton MBA, so they expect, in addition to some statement of your goals, some specific stuff about Wharton. Although you should spend 90 minutes on their websites digging up a few Wharton specific items, I would spend most of my energy here on stating goals and how those goals grow out of your immediate past and what the challenges you will have meeting those goals and then some few words on how Wharton will help. The dirty little secret is that adcoms will read the Wharton stuff at supersonic speed. They really want to hear about your goals.”

1. Select a Wharton MBA course, co-curricular opportunity or extra-curricular engagement that you are interested in. Tell us why you chose this activity and how it connects to your interests. (500 words)

“If you have done the goal statement correctly, it is hard to add value by picking a course, per se, especially if the course is old school lecture. You can choose an extracurricular activity and use it as a blank slate to connect it to your own extracurrics. That’s a good way to go, especially if you have a signature extracurricular activity you want to talk about. Once again, remember the golden rule: What you have, in fact done, and what that means to you is more impressive than what you claim you want to do.”

2. Imagine your work obligations for the afternoon were cancelled and you found yourself “work free” for three hours, what would you do? (500 words)

“Columbia used to ask this question, and I don’t recall ever being impressed by the answers in terms of the value add they provide on an application. All that said, here are the obvious ideas: 1. Engage with some extracurricular, 2. Meditate and talk about why and what you have learned or any similar activity, like gardening. This type of answer only works if you have a history of that. Jogging is a bummer answer, 3. Read (say what and why), 4. Call Mom–which is actually a pretty good answer if you can connect it to family dynamics. 5. Clean up—though honestly I ain’t seeing the value add. Some of those can add value, depending on what the rest of your application looks like.

“Top bad answers: 1. Catch up on Facebook postings, 2. Check out the soaps, 3. Start drinking early, 4. Go to Starbucks, 5. Go to the Barnes museum (well, this might work if you really know about art versus if you are just checking a box, and 6. Dribs and drabs. You know, sending some messages, taking a walk, cruising for a date, sleep.

3. “Knowledge for Action draws upon the great qualities that have always been evident at Wharton: rigorous research, dynamic thinking, and thoughtful leadership.” – Thomas S. Robertson, Dean, The Wharton School

Tell us about a time when you put knowledge into action. (500 words)

“Well, get past the idiotic quote. This is a possible answer if you want to talk about a powerful extracurricular or volunteer gig with real results, or some signature work project (less winning but some people find it hard to avoid.)

Kresiberg’s overall advice for handling Wharton’s questions:

1. Executive with specificity and actual details of your life.

2. Show don’t tell (most people don’t know what that means, but find out and do it.

3. Step back and ask yourself, ‘Ok, they already know who I am from my recommendations and resume. What else am I adding here? Is there anything important about me that is not in this total application? What more could I say?

“The biggest mistake people make in applications like these, and to some extent in the HBS application, is not realizing how much the adcom already knows about you from your resume and recommendations,” he adds.

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