{"id":27555,"date":"2015-02-15T10:27:59","date_gmt":"2015-02-15T17:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=27555"},"modified":"2015-02-15T08:12:35","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T15:12:35","slug":"an-hbs-reapplicants-success-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/an-hbs-reapplicants-success-story\/","title":{"rendered":"An HBS Reapplicant’s Success Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Prerit-Jain-263x300\"<\/a>This interview is the latest in an Accepted.com blog series featuring <\/i>interviews with current MBA students<\/i><\/a>, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look at <\/i>top MBA programs<\/i><\/a>. And now for a chat with Prerit Jain, a future MBA student at <\/i>Harvard Business School<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Accepted: We'd like to get to know you! Where are you from? Where and what did you study as an undergrad? What is your current job?<\/b><\/p>\n

Prerit: <\/b>My parents moved to New Delhi when I was less than a year old. This is where I grew up, went to school, college and have worked. In fact, it\u2019s the only city I have ever lived in. (Well, you have to discount living out of a suitcase as a management consultant; more on that later.)<\/p>\n

I went to the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi to study mechanical engineering, and did quite well academically, graduating at the top of my class.<\/p>\n

Hoping to get diverse experiences, early in my career, I chose to start my career in consulting<\/a>. Booz & Company had just opened its office in India, and seemed like an exciting opportunity. I worked there for more than three and a half years, before moving to my current role in early-stage venture capital with the First Light Accelerator Fund. I have been in my new role for only about a year now.<\/p>\n

Accepted: Can you tell us about your application\/reapplication experience? Where did you apply the first time around? What was the outcome? Where did you apply the second time?<\/b><\/p>\n

Prerit: <\/b>I submitted my first set of applications in Sept.-Oct. \u201913 (R1 for the class matriculating in fall \u201814). I had worked at Booz for about three years, had been promoted twice, had a clear idea about my long-term goals and how an MBA would help. I was sure that I needed the MBA and the time was right. I applied to four schools: HBS, Wharton<\/a>, Booth <\/a>and Kellogg<\/a>. I was interviewed by all four schools and in my view they all went well. I felt confident of getting admitted to more than one school. However, when the decisions came out, HBS put me on a waitlist and the other three said \u201cthanks but no thanks.\u201d I thought the world had come to an end and spent the next 2 weeks sulking!<\/p>\n

Thankfully, I came out of that feeling in a couple of weeks, and began looking ahead. I decided to reapply. However, I realized that my learning curve at Booz had plateaued, and I needed to pursue something else. I was lucky to quickly find an exciting new opportunity (in venture capital), and by February, I had kick-started my new role.<\/p>\n

Six months later, I reapplied in Sep \u201814 (R1 for the class matriculating in fall \u201815) to three schools: HBS, Booth, and Columbia. I was interviewed at all three schools, and finally received admits from HBS and Booth. I will be heading to Boston in the fall!<\/p>\n

Accepted: What do you think went wrong the first time and what did you do when you reapplied to improve your candidacy?<\/b><\/p>\n

Prerit: <\/b>We can only speculate here! When I applied for the first time, I had only worked in one over-represented industry \u2013 consulting. Moreover, in hindsight, I perhaps did not practice my interviewing as much.<\/p>\n

When I reapplied, I had gained some diverse work experience, and had some more interesting stories to tell. Also, I put in hours of practice before the interviews<\/a>. I got several of my friends to interview me and I video recorded myself to observe softer elements such as body language and posture.<\/p>\n

Accepted: Can you share some tips about applying to b-school as an over-represented minority? <\/b><\/p>\n

Prerit: <\/b>Being an Indian-male-engineer-consultant, I knew I was indeed in a fiercely competitive pool. I knew I needed to show that I am both competent and interesting. I looked through the different parts of the application \u2013 the resume, application, essays etc. \u2013 and made choices about how I would use each of them.<\/p>\n

Hard facts and stats went into the CV and the application form. The more differentiated and interesting personal qualities and experiences went into the essays.<\/p>\n

Accepted: <\/b>I see you got a 760 on your GMAT \u2013 amazing! What are your top 3 GMAT tips?<\/p>\n

Prerit:<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2022 A few weeks of dedicated preparation go farther than months of insincere efforts<\/p>\n

\u2022 Practice those 4-hour full-tests. The GMAT<\/a> is also a test of stamina.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Right from day 1 of your preparation, get used to working under time constraint. Never attempt a GMAT question without having a timer in front of you.<\/p>\n

For one-on-one guidance on your b-school application, please see our <\/i><\/b>MBA Application Packages<\/i><\/b><\/a>. For specific advice on how to create the best application for Harvard see:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

You can read more about Prerit\u2019s journey by following him on Twitter at @preritjain1988.<\/i> Thank you Prerit for sharing your story with us \u2013 we wish you loads of luck!<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"MBA<\/a>
\n\"Accepted:<\/a>
\nRelated Resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Best MBA Programs: A Guide to Selecting the Right One<\/a>
\n\u2022 Get Accepted to Harvard Business School<\/i><\/a>, a free webinar
\n\u2022 Harvard Business School 2015 MBA Questions, Deadlines, Tips<\/a><\/p>\n

Accepted.com's experienced admissions consultants<\/span><\/a> can help you create the most impressive application possible with comprehensive packages<\/span><\/a>, <\/i><\/b>or provide targeted assistance from picking perfect programs<\/span><\/a> to designing a dazzling resume<\/span><\/a>, constructing engaging essays<\/span><\/a>, or preparing for intense interview<\/span><\/a>s<\/span><\/a>\u2026and more! Accepted.com has guided thousands of applicants to acceptances at top MBA programs since 1994 \u2013 we know what works and what doesn't, so contact us<\/span><\/a> to get started now!<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog<\/a>, the official blog of Accepted.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This interview is the latest in an Accepted.com blog series featuring interviews with current MBA students, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look at top MBA programs. And now for a chat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,939,775,113,10,243],"tags":[49,1896,39,528,12],"class_list":["post-27555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-accepted","category-admission-consultants","category-applications","category-interviews","category-blog","tag-harvard-hbs","tag-mba","tag-mba-admissions","tag-mba-student-interview","tag-the-mba-application-process","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27557,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27555\/revisions\/27557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}