Last updated on July 26, 2022
HEC Paris has two intakes – January and September for its Full-Time MBA program. HEC accesses its application on a rolling basis and has a deadline almost every month. The following are upcoming deadlines for its September 2023 intake:
| Round # | Deadline | Decision Date |
| Round # | August 15, 2022 | September 17, 2022 |
| Round # | September 15, 2022 | October 22, 2022 |
| Round # | October 15, 2022 | November 19, 2022 |
| Round # | November 15, 2022 | December 17, 2022 |
Essay Debrief
HEC Paris has the following 5 essay questions for its Winter/Fall 2023 intake. Let’s take a closer look at them.
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 max words)
One of the more obvious questions asked by any business school yet one of the most important. Let’s break it down:
- Why MBA?
- Why now?
- What is your short-term goal?
- What is your long-term goal?
- Why HEC?
It is imperative that you answer directly and clearly what HEC is asking you. And if you answer the above 5 questions you will have answered them. The first and second questions are pretty straightforward and you should be tired by now to reiterate this again and again but it’s necessary. The third and fourth questions have to be looped together in what HEC is asking as a ‘professional objective’. While they haven’t specifically asked for either, reading closely you will understand that the language of the essay prompt is in the singular form and clearly says ‘after your MBA’ which indicates short-term goal. However, you should provide a theme of sorts for the career that you envision. And finally, how will HEC help you in achieving those objectives.
Answering these questions will provide you only with a skeleton. You will have to enclose these answers in a theme congruent with your whole application. A good essay will have a good flow from para-to-para and tell a good story.
2. What do you consider your most significant life achievement? (250 words)
HEC is asking you to mention your most-valued achievement. As you may already know, sticking to professional achievement is best when writing your MBA application. Simply stating the achievement isn’t enough here. You will also need to explain why. Use the STAR approach to explain your achievement meaningfully and succinctly. Don’t forget to answer – Why do you consider it the most significant achievement? Provide the reader with a background of the situation in order to maximize the impact of your achievement. Quantifying also helps the reader put things into perspective.
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)
This is an ethical dilemma question. We all have some time or other faced an ethical dilemma in life. Looking at corporate frauds such as Worldcom or Satyam Computers, business schools have to ask themselves whether they could have done something to instill better values in those CEOs. HEC would like to understand one such situation you faced and how did it influence you. Explain the situation clearly, what challenges you faced, what was the ethical dilemma, what you did to resolve it and finally how did it affect you.
4. Imagine a life entirely different from the one you now lead, what would it be? (250 max words)
A psychoanalytical question that will shed light on things you wish you had done differently. It will show a different side of you to the HEC admissions committee. Instead of over-analyzing what to write just have fun with it. You may choose to write from a personal or a professional point of view. We all have thought about a different life or a restart button sometimes. Plus, 250 words isn’t that many words to write a detailed scenario. Just mention what and why.
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?
b) Certain books, movies or plays have had an international success that you believe to be undeserved. Choose an example and analyse it.
c) What figure do you most admire and why? You may choose from any field (arts, literature, politics, business, etc)
These questions continue the series of psychoanalytical questions. You have to answer any one of the questions above within 250 words. By choosing to write about
– a monument or site
– book, movie, or play
– or figure
you indeed shed light on what you value more than others and the why is open for interpretations. Here you have the opportunity to not just mention the chosen one but also explain the why.
Who or what you select to mention in these questions is nearly not as important as why you have chosen to write about it. You may think of it as an extemporary speech competition in schools where half of the class would speak for an issue and half against it.
Apart from the essays above HEC Paris application requires:
- Two References
- Resume
If you’d like to discuss your profile and know whether HEC, Paris is the right school for you or not then fill out this form and we can have a FREE call. Check out our tool MBA Matrix, where you can search and compare more than 300 MBA programs. MBA Matrix contains deadlines, essay questions, all rankings, average GMAT scores and a lot more all in one place. You can say nice things to me on What’s App or comment below!
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Happy Writing!