Wharton’s Application Deadlines & Essay Questions for 2022-23

Wharton has released their application deadlines and essay questions for the 2022-23 application cycle. Here are the important dates, and Admitify’s guidance on Essays 1 and 2.

DEADLINES

R1: 7-Sep-2022           R2: 4-Jan-2023            R3: 29-Mar-2023        Deferred: 26-Apr-2023

Essay 1: How do you plan to use the Wharton MBA program to help you achieve your future professional goals? You might consider your past experience, short and long-term goals, and resources available at Wharton. (500 words)

Admitify Guidance: Despite this unique wording, this first essay is a fairly conventional goals essay. I would begin stating your post-MBA goals (short- and long-term, Plan A and Plan B) directly in 100-150 words. Start with your big-vision long-term goal as far as you know it, mentioning possible job titles and potential employers and perhaps sharing some market research type data that would capture the size of the opportunity. Provide a Plan A and Plan B goal. Then in fewer words describe a Plan A and Plan B short-term goal, again mentioning possible job titles and potential employers, and explaining briefly how these practical, placeable short-term goals help ‘set up’ your long-term goals. Briefly state why you have these goals (where they come from, why they are meaningful to you). Then briefly state why you need an MBA to achieve them (what skills or assets do you lack). The rest of the essay (300 words) should detail all the Wharton resources (curricular, experiential, global, extracurricular etc.) that will provide the skills/assets you lack in order to achieve your goals (dig down here so you are mostly naming resources that are really unique to your goals). Wherever possible connect the Wharton resource you name directly to the professional skill it will make possible.

Essay 2: Taking into consideration your background – personal, professional, and/or academic – how do you plan to make specific, meaningful contributions to the Wharton community? (400 words)

Admitify Guidance: This essay enables you to share personal differentiators that you couldn’t share in the first essay. Given the tight space provided here, limit your ‘background’ differentiators to about 3 (possibly 4) things that capture different sides of you – that capture the 3-4 features that taken together really differentiate you from other applicants. This could be your industry or function but lean toward personal differentiators such as your extracurricular or community leadership, any unusual life experiences, any ‘diversity’ elements, any interesting hobbies. Limit yourself to 200 words describing concisely, vividly the differentiators (and briefly why it matters to you). This will give you another 200 words to describe the relevant Wharton community activity where you can share this differentiator. For this second piece of the essay I recommend drilling down and finding out as much as you can about the activity (often a student club) that fits your differentiator. It’s not enough to say ‘I will be an active member of the Hang-gliding Club.’ Google the club/activity, reach out to club officers, look for ways in which you could add value or take the club in a new direction (such as starting a conference, adding a new geography, etc.) Take a hint from Wharton’s Team-Based Discussion prompt where they regularly allow (force) participants to give them ideas that will help them improve Wharton. Do the same here: add value. Note that some applicants won’t have 4 differentiators so they will have more space to describe the two differentiators they do have and more space to drill down and find creative, savvy, substantive ways to improve the relevant Wharton activity. Some applicants will have such an obvious, powerful differentiator (one that needs space to fully appreciate) that it will make sense to devote all 200 words to that single differentiator, with the remaining 200 words focused on the Wharton activity (or activities) most relevant to that differentiator.

The online application is expected to be available in early July, but it’s not too early to begin working on your essays with one of our expert coaches. Contact us today!