Essay #1: What evidence can you present to demonstrate your capacity to perform well academically in the Harvard MBA Program? (1/2 page)

Two of my past achievements which provide ample evidence of my ability to excel in graduate studies are: my record during my last two years at college and my promotion from analyst to consultant.

During my last two years at Berkeley, I managed to achieve tremendous success in a wide variety of classes. In all courses, including those in economics and rhetoric, I made significant contributions to classroom discussions and often achieved excellent marks as a result of diligent study and close interaction with other leading students. This success resulted in my being named to the Dean's list for the spring and fall of 1987 and achieving a GPA during the year of 3.8.
After leaving college, I began my career as a Financial Analyst for The Insurance Bank, Inc. Because of my quick mastery of the responsibilities assigned to analysts, I was given additional duties including responsibility for the management of client projects. As a project leader, I learned how to perform basic financial analysis and how to present the findings in an effective manner.

Having successfully completed several assignments, the management of The Insurance Bank, Inc. made me the first analyst in the twenty year history of the firm to be promoted to the position of Consultant.

Essay #2 Discuss a professional project which challenged your analytical skills. (1/2 page)

As a consultant, I am given a leadership role for numerous consulting projects. For each project, I am responsible for choosing the methodology used to obtain the results and for supervising a team of analysts in the completion of the project.

In a recent case I had to provide litigation support regarding the cost of maintaining a business over a five year period. Given the adversarial relationship between the parties, I had access to very limited information for the purposes of this study. My client's lawyer could provide only an account list, summary of annual revenues and a list of services which were performed on the average account. As a result I could not rely on our standard techniques used to calculate the costs of maintaining the business while at the same time I had to develop new techniques which would be admissible in a court of law.

To calculate the servicing costs, I developed two techniques for determining the cost of maintaining the business. The first technique determined costs by calculating the number of personnel which would be required to maintain the accounts and the costs associated with the required number of employees. The second technique determined cost by applying a cost function (function which related cost to the size and number of accounts) to data contained in the account lists provided by our client.

As a result of my development of these two new techniques, explanation of the methodologies in a concise written report, and in-court testimony, the court ruled in favor of my client.