so who is the lucky one?

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ANYBODY IN AT HBS?

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haddy74

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17 Jan 2007, 18:05

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brown

Dinged at wharton, waitlisted at kellogg... I was not feeling too good about things. It was a nice turn around.

awesome job my friend....congrats and have fun at HBS

haddy74

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17 Jan 2007, 18:07

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I am also dinged by HBS....but who cares (sour grapes :-D

)

lepium

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17 Jan 2007, 20:33

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Congrats brown and great review pelihu.

Cheers. L.

justincase49

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18 Jan 2007, 12:18

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No work experience!

I am a 22 year old college senior year with no full time work experience excluding internships at BIG 4 accounting firms and Warner Bros. Does harvard like younger applicants enough to admit a so so college senior!?

Stats:

Major: Accounting, emphasis in tax
Family history: Entreprenure father.
School: State school
GPA: 3.71 cum. 3.72 Major
Gmat: 650, retaking, goal 730-750
W/E: 1 internship at Big 4 accounting firm, 1 internship at Warner Bros., 2 years part time at local cpa firm.

Snowball's chance in hell? Feedback please.

pelihu

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18 Jan 2007, 12:35

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As I understand it, Harvard admits about 20 college seniors each year. They ask many of them to defer admissions for a year or two to get experience. It is their way of competing with the top law schools, which accept students directly from college. The types of people that the admit have impeccable stats, as well as distinguishing experiences and backgrounds.

I would say that your GMAT is at least 100 points too low to even have a snowball's chance. Even with a 750+, you'd probably need some record of starting a club or philanthropy and some unbelievable experiences form your internships. That's probably true even for experienced applicants, but even more so for those without formal work experience.

Also, you mention state school; my impression is that the types of people that they admit are from Ivy, near Ivy and elite public schools. You say GPA is cum, but you'd probably need to be within the top few in your class to be considered. You'll be fighting for a spot with top 5-10 types from Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Duke, Berkeley, etc.

justincase49

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18 Jan 2007, 12:49

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Yeah, I kind had the feeling that's how it would go. But i needed an outside opinion. The gmat is definitely too low. although druing my internship at warner, my i interned with an hbs student witha 640. he told me hbs differentiates itself by focusing on leadership accomplishment rather than only by statistics such as gpa, gmat, etc. keeping in mind most admits meet the minimum threshold.

state school? yeah i know the comp. i'm hoping i can put a diversity spin on it.

died4me

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18 Jan 2007, 20:17

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Brown, Congrat!!!

MunchenCalling

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19 Jan 2007, 05:10

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Excellent work Brown.

You dont care to elaborate your extracurriculars?

gmatmba

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19 Jan 2007, 09:03

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pelihu

neo276

Congratulations !

To Pelihu:

"That's awesome. I'd say that you're exactly the type that HBS is looking for. In fact, I would bet that Kellogg (and possibly Wharton) realized just that and didn't admit you for yield management reasons."

Can you please elaborate on the above? Do you have any insights on what HBS/Wharton/Stanford are looking for?

Here's a stat. Average months of work experience:
Wharton 71 (most of any school in the top 30)
Harvard 54 (2nd least of any school in the top 30)
Stanford 48 (least of any school in the top 30)

It have been widely observed that Harvard and Stanford really favor younger applicants, while Wharton still values more experience. If we apply a normal curve to these numbers, I would guess that 80% of Wharton's students have 4-8 years of experience. At Stanford, the middle range is probably 3-5. So in terms of experience, Brown (the poster in this thread) fits great with Harvard & Stanford, but actually comes up a bit short for Wharton.

Obviously, his stats are stellar for any school, which leads me to another point. Harvard has a yield of 90%, Stanford has a yield of 80%. Wharton's yield is a little lower, and Kellogg's is a lot lower. This means that Harvard and Stanford admit who they want, and can pretty much expect their admits to matriculate (other than the 100 or so that are admitted to both Harvard and Stanford of course). Kellogg for sure knows this. They are wary that admitting hyper-qualified folks will damage their yield even further (currently just 56%); so instead they waitlist. If the candidate remains interested in 2 months, Kellogg can admit them at that time. If the candidate is admitted to H/W/S, many will, as a courtesy, inform schools where they still have pending decisions and withdraw their apps. Kellogg then doesn't have to admit this person that won't show up anyways.

Also, stellar stats and scores can be enough to get into Wharton (solid work experience too). For Harvard and Stanford, you need a boost from extracurriculars. Brown didn't identify his, but said that they were good. Combined with the other things, he looks perfect for Harvard. Given Wharton's record, they probably would have preferred another year of experience. I'm just observing based on known stats. As mentioned before, if Kellogg gets this candidate, they are probably thinking "we're the back-up school"; which they hate.

I was just checking stats and killing time and ran into this bit of info that shows exactly what pelihu is talking about. Most likely Kellogg handed out the Waitlist to increase their yield - otherwise there is no reason why this dude wont get into Kellogg

https://www.admissions411.com/members.asp?user=Wondercat

brown

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19 Jan 2007, 09:51

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MunchenCalling

Excellent work Brown.

You dont care to elaborate your extracurriculars?

College:
2-year executive member of the largest fraternity on campus
captain of intramural basketball team for 4 years
3 year captain of ACM programming competition team
Was pretty involved with the computer science department, helped reform the curriculum at my uni, was sent to australia for a conference on the topic

Since college:
Captain of local men's league basketball team
Habitat for humanity
Member of a program sponsored by my company where we work with high school students and teach them how to make video games
Member of a mandarin language learning group
Took classes at local community college for mandarin

I think my work performance was my stronger point. I work at one of the three largest software companies, and was instrumental in launching a new product group. The process included working nights and weekends to build prototypes for demos to the company's top dogs. This led to a bunch of awards that make my resume look nice.

Paul

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19 Jan 2007, 09:57

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Very impressive extra-curricular brown and congratulation for getting in HBS!

rhyme

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19 Jan 2007, 11:29

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Quote:

https://www.admissions411.com/members.asp?user=Wondercat

Yea that Kellogg waitlist looks like a classic yield management trick to me.

justincase49

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09 Mar 2007, 14:53

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Submitted Application to HBS last day of round 3. It was free so might as well.

sm176811

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09 Mar 2007, 15:26

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justincase49

Submitted Application to HBS last day of round 3. It was free so might as well.

Round 3 at Harvard! Wow!

sm176811

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09 Mar 2007, 15:47

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Is HBS still sending out interview invites? Any updates?

lepium

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10 Mar 2007, 20:06

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sm176811

Is HBS still sending out interview invites? Any updates?

sm, I dunno, but since I will be visiting on Monday, I'll try and ask.

Cheers. L.

GMATT73

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10 Mar 2007, 20:15

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lepium

sm176811

Is HBS still sending out interview invites? Any updates?

sm, I dunno, but since I will be visiting on Monday, I'll try and ask.

Cheers. L.

Good luck Lepium. Post a few picks of the campus for us if you get a chance. Looking forward to your debriefing.

justincase49

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12 Mar 2007, 13:05

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sm176811

justincase49

Submitted Application to HBS last day of round 3. It was free so might as well.

Round 3 at Harvard! Wow!

Haha, the WOW will be if I ever get an invite. I suspect I wont even get that far, but the app. didn't cost me anything so might as well.

sm176811

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13 Mar 2007, 02:59

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lepium

sm176811

Is HBS still sending out interview invites? Any updates?

sm, I dunno, but since I will be visiting on Monday, I'll try and ask.

Cheers. L.

Thanks Lepium.... keep me posted!

MBA_app32

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13 Mar 2007, 10:25

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justincase49, you know someone who got into HBS with a 640 GMAT? What a joke. The GMAT isn't that hard - I wonder how well that student performed in a complex quantitative class. (Maybe it's a non-issue with all of the grade inflation at HBS.)

It's no wonder why many employers want to see GMAT scores from MBA candidates. As I understand it, medical schools and law schools set the bar high and routinely deny applicants failing to meet certain thresholds. That is obviously not the case for business schools.

The GMAT one of the few objective criteria used in evaluating candidates. It's unfortunate that some schools disregard the GMAT.