HEC Paris is one of the leading MBA programs in Europe, offering a 16-month program of study with two intakes, in January and September.
HEC Paris occupies a unique space between one-year MBA programs like INSEAD’s and traditional two-year programs. Its international scope, deep academic rigor, program structure and access to a worldwide network make it an excellent choice for anyone looking to pursue an international MBA.
The HEC Paris MBA essays are comprehensive; there are five required essays and one optional question. These range from the practical “Why HEC Paris? Why now?” to the provocative: “Imagine a life entirely different from the one you now lead; what would it be?”
Thankfully, most are short answer questions, with a 250-word maximum. Taken together, they offer valuable storytelling opportunities. Here are the HEC Paris Essay questions and what they are looking for in each of the essays, along with tips for tackling them.
HEC’s MBA Essays Decoded
HEC asks unique questions in its essays, and it is important to answer all parts of the question. Think about what each question is really trying to learn about you. Craft answers that distinguish you from your high-achieving peers. Articulate your uniqueness strongly in your application, along with how your vision for your future will both contribute to and benefit the HEC community.
Avoid redundancy across your responses and look to create a unifying narrative that is creative, authentic and coherent.
Essay 1
Why are you applying to the HEC MBA Program now? What is the professional objective that will guide your career choice after your MBA, and how will the HEC MBA contribute to the achievement of this objective? (500 words max)
This first HEC Paris essay is looking to see ambitious career aspirations and backgrounds. You’ll want to focus on how HEC’s international scope, deep academic rigor, program structure and access to a worldwide network connects with your goals and aspirations. Remember that you are selling your future vision as much as your current skills, GMAT scores, and accomplishments.
To start, reflect on why this is the exact time that you need to earn an MBA. Explain how you came to that decision. What will an MBA at this point enable you to do, and why is HEC the program that makes the most sense for you? Make sure you articulate how the HEC program is different, and how that difference aligns with your career plans.
Think about how your life and career will look if everything goes the way you plan. How that will also be of value to the school? Do you plan on starting your own company one day? Will you lead change in the way we source energy? Are you passionate about using technology to solve a previously intractable problem? All of these are great stories about your future. They become even better when you tie them to the specific characteristics of the school.
Explain how you will achieve your career in steps: the MBA, the few years after the MBA, ten years out, and more. The more you can show you have aligned your career vision with realistic steps to get there, the more impressive your essay will be.
Tips for Writing
- Start out with a story or example to hook the attention of your reader
- Highlight what you are passionate about (that links to career goals)
- Describe your career goal post-MBA and why now is the right time to get an MBA
- Conclude by explaining, based on your research into HEC’s offerings, why you are pursuing their program. What courses, connections/partnerships, professors, treks, clubs, etc. relate to your goals?
View Fortuna’s MBA Admissions Essay Masterclass featuring HEC Paris, London Business School & INSEAD. Additional sessions from our MBA Admissions Essay Masterclass series are available on Fortuna’s YouTube channel.
Essay 2
What do you consider your most significant life achievement? (250 words)
Like the question above, this HEC Paris essay also requires a high degree of self-awareness and reflection. Step back to consider the biggest and most important things that have happened in all of your life — not just your career. It may be an example of something in which you doggedly persevered and finally succeeded in achieving. It may be reaching a personal best, a first-time experience, or a change in how you did something. What makes the best essay is not how big or important the achievement is compared to others, but how well you describe the why and how it is important to you, and your ability to convey that sense of importance to the admissions committee.
Essay 3
Leadership and ethics are inevitably intertwined in the business world. Describe a situation in which you have dealt with these issues and how they have influenced you. (250 words maximum)
This is an important HEC Paris essay, and it challenges many applicants. The key to getting this essay right is not to show how you made a more ethical choice or exposed a specific wrong, but rather to show a sophisticated understanding of how ethical choices and leadership continually come up in one’s career and how you handle them. Choosing a specific, cogent example, briefly explaining the situation, and then talking about how it made you think, consider, act, or even change your own philosophy and work approach, can be very good.
Other powerful essays for this question include examples of making tough choices between two or more options that all had significant upsides and potential negative consequences. The best essays show thoughtful reflection and a balance between needing to make a decision or take an action with the ethical repercussions of doing so – and how that choice influenced or changed you.
Essay 4
Imagine a life entirely different from the one you now lead, what would it be? (250 words)
This HEC Paris essay is an opportunity to show both creative and analytical thinking. Imagine someone who is currently a banker in Hong Kong, for instance, and how completely different his or her life would be as a farmer in the American Midwest. This would be a very different life, but the banker’s character, skills, and natural abilities would be similar. So what would a numbers-oriented, fast-thinking individual contribute to farming, crop yields, markets and so forth? That makes for a very interesting essay and shows how you think about yourself and the world.
It’s a hypothetical question, of course, but it could also be an opportunity to showcase something you used to do a lot or participate in but did not entirely follow that path. Dare to have a little fun here! What you choose and how you bring this alternate identity to life — briefly, of course — conveys volumes about your character, personality and values.
It also shows an awareness of our global world and how culture, language, national origin, and other differences form our experiences. Thinking through a really different life for yourself should involve some reflection about what you have experienced and how that would change in very different circumstances.
Essay 5
Please choose from one of the following essays: (250 words):
a) What monument or site would you advise a first-time visitor to your country or city to discover, and why?
This is an opportunity to show you have a global mindset and are open to different cultures, values, languages, etc. Your response reflects how you would get along in a diverse classroom. You could tie your answer to a personal experience where you experienced culture shock of some sort and how you felt.
b) Certain books, movies or plays have had international success that you believe is undeserved. Choose an example and analyze it.
This HEC Paris essay shows some of your interests in culture, science, current events, or politics. It also demonstrates how you evaluate material. You should offer specific examples of why the acclaim is undeserved and defend those opinions.
c) What figure do you most admire and why? You may choose from any field (arts, literature, politics, business, etc).
This question really asks two things: What qualities do you value and admire most, and who embodies these qualities? You can write about someone in the present day or the past. You do not have to pick someone hugely famous. In fact, the most interesting essays often spotlight someone who is lesser known while explaining their admirable characteristics.
The best responses to this HEC Paris essay show a resonance between your personal goals and aspirations and the individual you highlight.
Optional Essay 6
Is there any additional information you would like to share with us? (900 words max)
This essay is not required but is a good opportunity to address two specific points in your candidacy. You can either use this space to address a perceived weakness in your application. This might include a lower GMAT score despite working with complex number sets in your day-to-day job. You might need to explain a lackluster undergraduate GPA due to extenuating circumstances here.
If you have significant gaps on your CV, such as a year of traveling or a longer gap between positions, you can mention it here. This is a great place to talk about what you accomplished during that time and how you grew or learned something new. It is also good to give context if something unforeseen happened that held back your progress or success.
You can use this essay to talk about an important aspect of your life and career that did not come up in the previous essay questions. Another effective way to use this additional HEC Paris essay is to talk about your experience visiting the campus in person, and how that experience solidified your decision to apply and attend the HEC MBA. If you had substantive contact with either current HEC students or alumni, it’s fair game to mention specific advice they gave you and why it inspired you.
Caution: Do not use this space to repeat ideas or further explain answers in previous essays.
How to Prepare for the HEC Interview Presentation
HEC asks candidates who are invited to interview to make a short 10-minute presentation on a subject of their choice. This is an opportunity to showcase your composure and clarity of thought and your ability to deliver a coherent argument or explanation, while. expressing both creativity and passion in your presentation.
It does not have to relate to your job or career; in fact, some of the best presentations don’t. It should be a subject that is relevant to you that you can communicate well to the interviewer. It’s also important that you keep your presentation short; five or six slides should be plenty, including the introductory slide.
What you want to do in 10 short minutes is impress a concept or new way of thinking to your interviewer and show how you have come to a specific conclusion or observation. Keep it engaging and interesting, too – the more memorable, the better.
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Check out Fortuna’s extensive MBA Essay Tips for analysis, insights, and advice for tackling the MBA essays at every top business school on your list.
Fortuna Cofounder and director Matt Symonds captured insights about HEC Paris when speaking with Sara Vanos from HEC Paris in February 2022 during the CenterCourt MBA Festival.
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