ANYBODY IN AT HBS?

What do u mean by 'no app fee'? Why are u waiting for 4 years?

I'm a graduating senior from college. I'm 22. They waive the app fee for seniors.

Ah ok... Thats for the clarifications...! You still have a lot of time... Just chill and enjoy the ride.

All the best..

Haha thanks! I'm trying to. What's the best way to get in? besides being the son of a CEO of a fortune 500 company, under represented minority or woman?

maybe try to become a UFC fighter...

People on here put too much stock in the GMAT. I would need to see some data that shows the GMAT correlates with anything done in b-school before I would take it that seriously. To me, its more a way of weeding out people than an actual metric of performance in b-school. Thats the feel I've also gotten from the admissions officers I've talked to.

People seem to put a lot of stock in it because it is one of the better guides during the applications process. If you don't have a high score, you realize the rest of your application needs to be stronger. If you have a lower GPA than a schooles average a high GMAT can compensate for that. Also beyond the top schools it does appear that schools like to take people with exceptional scores to help boost their average GMAT. If you look at the GMAT scores for schools these days most top programs are over 700 and the ones 15-50 all want to bring theirs up as much as they can in hopes that it will increase their rankings and profile.

A high GMAT doesnt mean you can get in to wherever you want but it makes it easier. If all things were equal on two peoples profile, one with a 750 and one with a 670. Having a 740+ isn't going to get you into every school you want if your profile isn't strong overall but it can help at a lot of schools not named Harvard or Stanford.

However once in a GMAT doesn't mean a whole lot in regards to how you will perform but there are rumors of it mattering when it comes to applying to internships and jobs at schools with grade nondisclosures if you are out of the top 10% of your class.

I definitely agree with what you said. I was just trying to say that from what I've heard straight from adcomms is that your GMAT score is a lot less important than your essays. If your essays don't communicate who you are and why you feel you need an MBA, then your GMAT score (even at 800) is irrelevant.

Someone wrote a post making fun of someone who got into HBS with only a 640. That person with the 640 was able to write essays that showed the adcomms his/her true self and communicated effectively why he/she needed a GMAT. I'm sure there is someone with a 750 who feels cheated. I've talked to some ppl with really high scores, and the first feeling I get from them is that they feel a sense of entitlement to go to a top school. It doesn't work like that.

Just purely out of curiosity...for all those HBS admits...can you post the dings you've gotten at other schools, if any?

Let's just say the few I've met have been turned down (in several cases) by Stanford (and of course some Stanford admits have been turned down by HBS) and, to a lesser extent, by at least one other of the Ultra Elites.

My theory on the subject: the applicants' execution is not uniform across schools, some schools may have yield concerns, some schools value more some attributes than others, and the process variability cause the differences.

Cheers. L.

Dinged at Wharton. Waitlisted at Kellogg, but withdrew.

Hey agsfaltex, did you go to A&M for your MBA?

hosam, lipium and brown,

What was the single most important factor in your application that got you in harvard when other very strong profiles didn't even get an interview call?

I think it's because we're way cooler than average... ...just kidding.

Speaking from my experience only (I haven't met hosam and brown, yet), I don't think there's a most important factor. I think the whole package was solid, made sense and must have been better (in some subjective criteria that only HBS knows) than most of the other applicants' packages.

For further advice, go to the following post:

https://www.gmatclub.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=46341

Hope it helps. L.

I second what lepium said: we are way cooler than most people...

Seriously though, as much as as I'd love to give you a simple formula, that's not the way it works. They really do look at the package as a whole. Personally, I can tell you for sure that I did not get in based alone on my GMAT and/or GPA because neither of them was stellar. Whereas, I was able to tell my story while shedding light on my character very vividly in the essays. I'm sure there were other areas of my profile that were weaker than average and others that were stronger, but they must have liked the package as a whole...

Luck

I agree with lepium and hosam that "whole package" is important, but even with that in mind, there are still more qualified people than they can accept. I think, for me at least, it probably came down to little things in my profile that may have set me apart from other engineers or added something extra to round out the class. For this, I feel very lucky.

Wow. What an ...

This is the kind of person I really don't want to see in b-schools. GMAT only tests your intelligence in GMAT. I don't think it's accurate in gaging a student's intellectual capacity. Also, from what I heard, top schools accept students, not numbers.

Somebody tell me, that this is not the type of person I would encounter in b-schools. Brown, lipium? Anybody? If yes, I won't even bother applying. Like other people, one of the reasons why I want to go to a business school is to learn from my other classmates. Not just from teachers, but from classmates. I think the interaction will bring another learning dimension. It's the experience I am really looking forward to. If I am only after statistics and accounting grades, I'd just stay home and memorize books.

I'm scoring around 610.. at least according to GMATprep.
My quantitative and verbal skills in GMAT may be way behind you.
But I think in terms of maturity, I am light years ahead of you.

If most Harvard students are like MBA_app32, then I'd rather enroll myself back to kindergarden. That way, I won't even have to study for the GMAT.

Sorry for the harsh post, I just feel that I need to stand up for people here in the forum.