HBS 2012 - Calling All Applicants

Can anyone please post the link to dee's blog?

hbs.edu/mba/admissions/blog.html

below link fr. Poets and Quants reports on use of plagiarism detection software by UCLA. Jeepers guys, be sure to change 'glad to attend' to 'happy to attend' and you can avoid this.

PoetsAndQuants UCLA's Anderson School Rejects A Dozen MBA Applicants for Plagiarism this year http://t.co/Yn84f3fA http://t.co/Sh8714bW

MORE ON UCLA BUSINESS SCHOOL PLAGIARISM--POETS AND QUANTS HAS INTERVIEWED THE ADCOM: REALLY WORTH A READ.

http://poetsandquants.com/2012/02/01/uc ... lagiarism/

UCLA’s Anderson School of Management said that it has rejected 52 MBA applicants in the school’s first and second admission rounds for plagiarizing their their MBA application essays. In an interview with PoetsandQuants, Senior Associate Dean Andrew Ainslie said the school’s admission office detected 12 plagiarists in its first round and 40 more in the second round.

http://poetsandquants.com/2012/02/01/uc ... lagiarism/

The sad thing is these candidates will likely get in somewhere since it's not likely the school will share their information with other schools, which means they will take someone else's spot. I fully understand why people use consultants for advice navigating this long, arduous process, but paying someone to write your essay's for you (which likely is the case) or copying essays published elsewhere is pretty low. I mean these are supposed to tell your story. Yes they are difficult to write because the require introspection, but if you are too lazy to write your own essays how are you going to function in a demanding job after graduation? Why even pursue an MBA in the first place? You'd be better served finding a low-key job with little managerial or functional responsibilities, not exactly the thing most people attending top business schools seek.

Such black and white thinking. At first, I thought it was irony.

I'm not typically a black and white thinker (I'm a consultant after all), but when it comes to this I am. Having people review your application and advise you how to present yourself is a great thing (you'd be kind of crazy not to do it, even if just asking advice from friends), but relying on someone else to write the essays for you or to flat out copy them is wrong. It defeats the whole purpose of the essays in the first place as they are essentially personal statements. I mean if you can't define why you want to go to business school, what your approach to leadership is, or what your three greatest achievements are, is it really worth the significant investment? You can only fake your way through this so long.

totally agree with consulting2finance

the only other scenario i can think of are the kids who come from super privileged backgrounds / rich families who can afford these consultants and just want to get an MBA so they can 1) have a prestigious MBA on their resume & to talk about at cocktail parties 2) look for spouses 3) party it up in a 2-year vacation.

of course, i am grossly & horribly generalizing here, so i apologize if i have offended anyone... but i have a feeling that i may not be that far off.

For international applicants, sometimes we don't really understand the application process considering some countries only have 'tests' to get into college. So a guidance is needed and most everyone that applies from my country (Brazil) uses consultants.

It's one thing to use a consultant, and a completely different thing to have your consultant right your essay!

Tyra Banks to address 100 lucky HBS students on Valentine's Day--itickets are by lottery. She's a ~~~alum, ahem. http://t.co/jncBK8ew

For those of you who got interview invites--good luck! I would really recommend doing a mock interview. I just did one and it was awesome practice.

I just had a great call with Sandy, who was very helpful. With his experience, he was throwing me a seemingly endless list of interview questions that covered all the major potential topics in an interview. He asked questions tailored to my resume, pointed out key areas of weaknesses in my apps and interview skills, and then gave me specific, actionable advice on how to improve. He also followed up with a long list of additional questions and reports from past applicants to give me a better sense of what to expect. I feel a lot more confident now that I've had a mock interview and realized I'm not as bad as I thought I would be... Would highly recommend working with Sandy, as long as you have a relatively thick skin and can deal with brutally honest feedback. No sugar coating here!

Just my 2 cents in case anyone is thinking about mock interviews and which admissions consultant to use.

..

Does anyone know when the HBS admitted students' weekend is for R2 applicants?

Their website just says events are held in March and April, and I am wondering if R1 admits were sent the actual dates for both admit weekends.

Agree. I was almost nervous for my mock interview with him, even stuttered at times, before being very articulate in the real interview!

Is there a pattern on how HBS sends the interview invites?? geographical zone, industry or its just random???

Sandy!

Are support letters from HBS alumni taken into account?? I´ve heard a lot regarding these e-mails to adcoms, and was wondering how´d they affect an app candidacy???

did any reapplicants from previous years have interviews?

if so did the adcom actually ask them questions regarding their reapplication decision, how they improved or what has changed or reference the old essays?

How much TIME i should spend reviewing my OLD application from LAST YEAR bc it says the at adcom has access to ur old application.

SANDY--any knowledge of how much an applicants application from previous years is addressed in an interview the following yr? have you worked with reapplicants who were former waitlisters who are interviewing for a second yr? any feedback is welcome

Hey guys,

I'm still licking my wounds from my HBS interview in November (got a ding if you couldn't tell), but thought I'd share my advice. Take it for what it's worth.

I recommend spending at least 75% of your prep on interviewing techniques (e.g., poise, taking time to think through your answers before speaking, remaining calm). I am in consulting and regularly lead meetings with client executives so I felt pretty comfortable in this area and focused most of my attention to prepping for various questions. I even did a mock with Sandy in which he praised my poise and communication style (BTW, I recommend Sandy)...

All that went out the window in Dillon House...I turned into a babbling idiot as if I had never talked to anyone in my life. Oh, and I only got one question that was even remotely similar to any questions I had prepped for.

Long story short, don't worry about the questions, you'll know all the answers. Just make sure you're able to convey them without sounding like an idiot

Good luck!

I'm considering the 2+2 program. I applied round 2. I realize that all of you are very well versed on the ideas of HBS admissions and so I thought I'd put my info out and see what everyone has to say.

GMAT: 630
GPA: 3.0

...I realize that immediately many of you will say NO! because my numbers are far off the beaten path of previous admits. I don't know if I'll ever be able to get these numbers up. I've struggled all my life to be a better test-taker but to no avail (GPA is also a reflection of test-taking ability since all my classes are based on a couple of exams during the semester).

Rest of my app:

I've been doing research in molecular biology since I was 14. I'm now 22. I've got a published article in an international, peer reviewed journal that is respected in it's field. I'll have 2 more 1st authorships before I graduate in May. I'm really REALLLY passionate about science and think an MBA would be preferable to do some big things in the field (separate discussion).

I've taken several undergraduate courses in business and even interned with a multinational. My major, however, is in science.

Any thoughts, anyone? I didn't get an invite last Tuesday and I'm just waiting and hoping for something in the next wave....

Quite a few reapplicants I know got interviewed in R1. From what I heard, you need to explain:
- What you've done since your last application
- Why your application is stronger

I think you need to be familiar with your old app just so you can be very concrete about how you've grown and addressed gaps from the last app.

Good luck!