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illuminator
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Allday028
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The application was explicit in asking for college activities. It may not make sense to us to highlight only extra curriculars during college, but those were the instructions. You should have been able to highlight more recent extra curriculars elsewhere and I'd wager that not following instructions is the far bigger issue if you put non college activities there.

yup, squeezed both college and post-college to demonstrate continuity, and all of the above in the CV and app, its all mashed up in there somewhere lol
I'm confused - Aren't you, several posts before this, advocating putting post college extra curriculars in the "college activities" section? I'm saying that section explicitly asks for college activities and that's all that should be put there regardless of age. For post college activities put them only on your resume/CV.
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i included a balanced mix, believing that since i am 6 years post college, it should be a mix of during and post college, as it is important to demonstrate continued community leadership and hence I included 2 post-college activities and 1 significant college activity that continued post-college, so i have my bases covered just nicely. i believe their question should be made clearer in all honesty!
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Peeps, curious, what was your essay word count? I was tempted to go into the 1000 range but instead kept it to 900 which was against my will!
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Allday028
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The application was explicit in asking for college activities. It may not make sense to us to highlight only extra curriculars during college, but those were the instructions. You should have been able to highlight more recent extra curriculars elsewhere and I'd wager that not following instructions is the far bigger issue if you put non college activities there.

yup, squeezed both college and post-college to demonstrate continuity, and all of the above in the CV and app, its all mashed up in there somewhere lol
I'm confused - Aren't you, several posts before this, advocating putting post college extra curriculars in the "college activities" section? I'm saying that section explicitly asks for college activities and that's all that should be put there regardless of age. For post college activities put them only on your resume/CV.
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Allday028 yeah I thought it was really strange that it asked only for extracurricular activities in college since all the other B School apps seemed to ask for both college and post-college, but I didn't want to take the risk so I just listed college extracurriculars on the HBS app. I did have some "community" extracurriculars post-college on my resume but it certainly was not as comprehensive. Well, we'll see... :|
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illuminator
Peeps, curious, what was your essay word count? I was tempted to go into the 1000 range but instead kept it to 900 which was against my will!
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Mine was a little over 1,000, but I thought it would be fine because there is just one essay. And for all the other schools, there were multiple essays that definitely added up to more than 1,000 words.

That said, I didn't really talk about my career at all in my essay. Just about the things and people I care about since that is how I typically introduce myself to people. Which I'm kind of afraid that they will think I repurposed the Stanford essay ... which I didn't!
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Allday028 yeah I thought it was really strange that it asked only for extracurricular activities in college since all the other B School apps seemed to ask for both college and post-college, but I didn't want to take the risk so I just listed college extracurriculars on the HBS app. I did have some "community" extracurriculars post-college on my resume but it certainly was not as comprehensive. Well, we'll see... :|[/quote]
in my humble opinion (and we all share different thoughts) this isn't going to be a deal-breaker so I am not at all worried... the essay, academics, career (pre and post-MBA realistic trajectory) is of more concern! And the reference letters that my referees had trouble condensing vs GSB. let's see!
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munkee2018
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Peeps, curious, what was your essay word count? I was tempted to go into the 1000 range but instead kept it to 900 which was against my will!


Mine was a little over 1,000, but I thought it would be fine because there is just one essay. And for all the other schools, there were multiple essays that definitely added up to more than 1,000 words.

That said, I didn't really talk about my career at all in my essay. Just about the things and people I care about since that is how I typically introduce myself to people. Which I'm kind of afraid that they will think I repurposed the Stanford essay ... which I didn't!
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haha ditto!! I basically cut out all of the career stuff, leaving GSB essay numero uno, twisted into a monologue! :p
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I wrote a combination of college and post-college extras. My post-college extras are much more impressive actually so I thought I would be hurting myself if I didn't list them specifically. College was a long time ago in my case anyway.
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I wrote a combination of college and post-college extras. My post-college extras are much more impressive actually so I thought I would be hurting myself if I didn't list them specifically. College was a long time ago in my case anyway.
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yah, those were my thoughts too...didn't want to hurt myself by sticking only to the passsssssssssssssssst. but everyone has diff circumstances so whatever fits best i say! good luck!
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I wrote a combination of college and post-college extras. My post-college extras are much more impressive actually so I thought I would be hurting myself if I didn't list them specifically. College was a long time ago in my case anyway.
yah, those were my thoughts too...didn't want to hurt myself by sticking only to the passsssssssssssssssst. but everyone has diff circumstances so whatever fits best i say! good luck!
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Yes, exactly. In the end it is about your story and sometimes your story is more interesting then application boxes...:)
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ignatova
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I wrote a combination of college and post-college extras. My post-college extras are much more impressive actually so I thought I would be hurting myself if I didn't list them specifically. College was a long time ago in my case anyway.
yah, those were my thoughts too...didn't want to hurt myself by sticking only to the passsssssssssssssssst. but everyone has diff circumstances so whatever fits best i say! good luck!


Yes, exactly. In the end it is about your story and sometimes your story is more interesting then application boxes...:)
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100% agree!!! :)
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On the activities section, I included only college activities given that's what was explicitly asked for. If nothing else it shows I read the instructions fully and followed them, something other schools have stressed in their various video instructions on applying. I don't think you'd be materially impacted by including more recent activities (I'm 6 years out of school and can sympathize), but I think at best they'll get ignored in favor of collegiate activities to put all applicants on a level playing field.

What's everyone's guess on the distribution of invites between the various days? I want to say it was something like 75-25 last year between the 2 days when I applied R2, but that's just from memory and didn't include the 3rd day they've added this year.
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I read somewhere they expect the firsts day to be the largest amount but no figures were provided.. No idea. The advise was: if you are not getting a response in the beginning don't stress!:)
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Hoopaloops
On the activities section, I included only college activities given that's what was explicitly asked for. If nothing else it shows I read the instructions fully and followed them, something other schools have stressed in their various video instructions on applying. I don't think you'd be materially impacted by including more recent activities (I'm 6 years out of school and can sympathize), but I think at best they'll get ignored in favor of collegiate activities to put all applicants on a level playing field.

What's everyone's guess on the distribution of invites between the various days? I want to say it was something like 75-25 last year between the 2 days when I applied R2, but that's just from memory and didn't include the 3rd day they've added this year.
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i'd say even split so as not to overload their interview sign-up server.
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illuminator
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I wrote a combination of college and post-college extras. My post-college extras are much more impressive actually so I thought I would be hurting myself if I didn't list them specifically. College was a long time ago in my case anyway.
yah, those were my thoughts too...didn't want to hurt myself by sticking only to the passsssssssssssssssst. but everyone has diff circumstances so whatever fits best i say! good luck!
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Yeah, I don't think it's a big issue. My assumption is that they want to see participation while in school, and that is why they explicitly stated that in the prompt. However..... a friend of mine last year included 2 in college and 1 post college, and he's in, so I don't think it's going to make or break an application.

Everyone relax.....
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aeropower
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I wrote a combination of college and post-college extras. My post-college extras are much more impressive actually so I thought I would be hurting myself if I didn't list them specifically. College was a long time ago in my case anyway.
yah, those were my thoughts too...didn't want to hurt myself by sticking only to the passsssssssssssssssst. but everyone has diff circumstances so whatever fits best i say! good luck!

Yeah, I don't think it's a big issue. My assumption is that they want to see participation while in school, and that is why they explicitly stated that in the prompt. However..... a friend of mine last year included 2 in college and 1 post college, and he's in, so I don't think it's going to make or break an application.

Everyone relax.....
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thanks for your opinion. woohooo pretty much same then. i just looked, and in my CV i also noted date/year ranges of activities so they can put 2 and 2 together for more 'college'/'post-college' insights! good good. time to live up the weekend! enjoy everyone!
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illuminator
Peeps, curious, what was your essay word count? I was tempted to go into the 1000 range but instead kept it to 900 which was against my will!
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Mine was about 800 words.
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Peeps, curious, what was your essay word count? I was tempted to go into the 1000 range but instead kept it to 900 which was against my will!

Mine was about 800 words.
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Mine was around 670. To decide an optimal word count, I tried speaking what I wrote. And when I got bored, I noted the word count and set it as my word limit :)
I think one shouldn't speak for more than 5 minutes at a comprehensible pace.
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Peeps, curious, what was your essay word count? I was tempted to go into the 1000 range but instead kept it to 900 which was against my will!

Mine was about 800 words.
Mine was around 670. To decide an optimal word count, I tried speaking what I wrote. And when I got bored, I noted the word count and set it as my word limit :)
I think one shouldn't speak for more than 5 minutes at a comprehensible pace.
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Double checked and mine is actually around 650. I started my process by recording myself speaking mine and then transcribed it.
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Posting for the first time after ages of lurking.

My essay was a bit under 800 words. I also figured that a speech should not be too long. At the end, however, I do not think length matters nearly as much as the story each person has to tell.

Best of luck for all!
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good stuff guys! thanks for chipping in
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