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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 09 Jan 2011, 23:06
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jk12

mainhoon, are you sure they do not truncate (i am hearing conflicting info on this - a blog mentioned in this forum says they do not; on some webpages i heard they do)
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I see this at https://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/blog-all.html (emphasis mine):
Quote:

Question: How rigid is the word-limit restriction? What happens if I go over?

This is the language we used last time about this; it's still true, and I can't think of a better way of saying it:

"Your essays do not get cut off if you go over the word limit. That being said, after reading many, many essays, we have a good feel for whether an essay is going over the limit. I think it's fair to say that we expect a candidate to be able to edit effectively, but don't stress over a few extra words.

We're getting a lot of similar questions from recommenders wondering if their remarks are being cut short. They aren't. We have suggested word limits for recommenders that amount to roughly a page of text; we do this to give those not familiar with writing recommendations a sense of an appropriate length of response. If your recommenders have more to say, that's fine. Their file upload doesn't get cut off after a single page or after a certain number of words."
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 00:13
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My transcripts are too big to fit in 500K upload requirement. How is everyone else doing it?

The only way i am able to do it is break transcript from 1 UG institution in 3 groups and upload 3 documents.
Has HBS any direction about what to do when transcript is too big?
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 00:23
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jk12
My transcripts are too big to fit in 500K upload requirement. How is everyone else doing it?

The only way i am able to do it is break transcript from 1 UG institution in 3 groups and upload 3 documents.
Has HBS any direction about what to do when transcript is too big?
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Try scanning at a lower resolution, then using some of the tools in acrobat to reduce the file size. If you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat (not sure if it's available in Reader), under the Document menu, run the Reduce File Size command, then run the Optimize Scanned PDF command. The two of those should significantly decrease the file size. Good luck.
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 00:33
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jk12
My transcripts are too big to fit in 500K upload requirement. How is everyone else doing it?

The only way i am able to do it is break transcript from 1 UG institution in 3 groups and upload 3 documents.
Has HBS any direction about what to do when transcript is too big?


Try scanning at a lower resolution, then using some of the tools in acrobat to reduce the file size. If you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat (not sure if it's available in Reader), under the Document menu, run the Reduce File Size command, then run the Optimize Scanned PDF command. The two of those should significantly decrease the file size. Good luck.
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I used reduced File size, it reduces size by up to 10KB for a file of 100K (one page/semester of my trascript). Resolution that I am scanning at is quite low 72dpi. Are you doing color or bw? Will optimized scanned reduce size dratically?
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 00:50
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jk12
My transcripts are too big to fit in 500K upload requirement. How is everyone else doing it?

The only way i am able to do it is break transcript from 1 UG institution in 3 groups and upload 3 documents.
Has HBS any direction about what to do when transcript is too big?


Try scanning at a lower resolution, then using some of the tools in acrobat to reduce the file size. If you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat (not sure if it's available in Reader), under the Document menu, run the Reduce File Size command, then run the Optimize Scanned PDF command. The two of those should significantly decrease the file size. Good luck.

I used reduced File size, it reduces size by up to 10KB for a file of 100K (one page/semester of my trascript). Resolution that I am scanning at is quite low 72dpi. Are you doing color or bw? Will optimized scanned reduce size dratically?
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I scanned B/W (and would recommend doing so if you're not already). 72dpi is quite low -- I think mine was ~100 dpi.

The optimize scan is actually much more substantial than the reduce file size. I think reduce file size is mostly a dpi adjustment and yours is pretty low. My file went from ~800kb -> ~750kb after reduce file size. Then when I ran optimize scanned pdf, it went down to ~350kb (a 3 pg transcript)
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 00:51
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Where the application form asks "Please calculate the number of months since you graduated from this college or university", is that counting from graduation through today or through matriculation? I would assume through today.
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 01:24
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Did you guys include your GMAT score on your resume? I used to have my SAT score on there so I just instinctively replaced it with my GMAT but one could argue that it just takes up space while they're obviously going to see your score elsewhere in the application. Thanks.
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 01:50
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I did not include my GMAT score on my resume.

Is anyone else feeling last day stress? It's 4am where I am, and I can't sleep. And I feel frustrated that I did not give the essays the best shot I could have. I'm trying to do my best now but I regret not finishing earlier so I could give it my best shot.

I figured if anyone could understand it would be the people on this forum.
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 02:13
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"most significant challenge" questions in online app seems odd. I did not see that in other schools' apps.
Does one have to describe a challenging experience (personal/professional) at work here?

Should one be really careful about filling these things in online app (wonder if anyone looks at them), or is it ok to cut-paste from resume
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 02:30
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"most significant challenge" questions in online app seems odd. I did not see that in other schools' apps.
Does one have to describe a challenging experience (personal/professional) at work here?

Should one be really careful about filling these things in online app (wonder if anyone looks at them), or is it ok to cut-paste from resume
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I think they definitely look at them because it makes it easier to compare candidates in a standardized format (people from different industries cover different aspects of work in their resume). At the same time, I think it's natural for there to be repetition between the two. Stanford also has a similar "challenge" question in their form. I discussed the professional challenges of my role(s).
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 02:59
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jk12
"most significant challenge" questions in online app seems odd. I did not see that in other schools' apps.
Does one have to describe a challenging experience (personal/professional) at work here?

Should one be really careful about filling these things in online app (wonder if anyone looks at them), or is it ok to cut-paste from resume


I think they definitely look at them because it makes it easier to compare candidates in a standardized format (people from different industries cover different aspects of work in their resume). At the same time, I think it's natural for there to be repetition between the two. Stanford also has a similar "challenge" question in their form. I discussed the professional challenges of my role(s).
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It is 200 char, so about 25 words. Not much of substance can be put in there it seems
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 03:31
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Is it the right practice - putting a period at the end of every bullet point in the resume or not?

I guess same question goes for all different 200 char questions that exist in online form - is one supposed to put a period at the end of explanations?
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 03:41
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Most schools have a CV/resume workshop. So I don't think they will be worried that you have poor resume writing skills.

Here is my suggestion:-
You could put the period if you wrote a complete sentence. If you just wrote a phrase/clause, avoid it.
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 06:11
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mainhoon
Bubba, I am glad that we have someone who go in with 5-10% over. Its just that I don't know if they actually dinged others because of that, unlikely yet who knows. Plus as someone posted, as long as the quality of essays is good, they may not care about over.. You mentioned in 651 words for essay1.. What about the others? did you go 40 over in those too?

Thanks much...
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I was over by an average of 20-30 words on most of my essays if not all and I got in. I don't think going over by a bit will get you a ding. But going over by like 100 words may :-) - who knows with these things.

The adcom prints the essays out, so they don't really know your exact word count - so i think the only way they can tell is if you are considerably over the word limit (like instead of filling up only two-thrids of the page, you filled up the whole page).

Imho, Trying to make sure you have precisely the word count is a waste of time because there are bigger things to worry about than that.
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 06:20
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oneofmany
On the accomplishments essay, how did you separate out the 3 accomplishments? Did you number them? Insert extra line spacing between them? I assume AdCom won't really care too much but wanted to see if there's a common convention.
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For mine, I just separated them by spaces i.e. each accomplishment had about one or two lines of empty space in between. . .I don't think it matters too much what path you take as long as it's readable and has some decent white space. . . .
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 06:38
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"most significant challenge" questions in online app seems odd. I did not see that in other schools' apps.
Does one have to describe a challenging experience (personal/professional) at work here?

Should one be really careful about filling these things in online app (wonder if anyone looks at them), or is it ok to cut-paste from resume
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Stanford asks pretty much the same thing in terms of challenges for each job.

I wouldn't overlook the online app--a lot of typos or bad grammar would probably make you look bad, especially if your essays are nice and polished. And copy and pasting from resume is probably a bad idea--you really only need about a sentence for each box, so make it something original. Guys I talked to at Stanford and Haas emphasized that I should print it all out and proofread it before I submitted it.
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Is it okay to write "volunteer" as role in activities section. Clearly it varies from person to person, but I am wondering what kind of hours would be average per week. I have membership of various specific clubs, but activeness has varied over the years. It is also hard to quantify exact hours.

Will they be contacting these with phone num/emails (they ask for it)? I do not have phone num/emails for all
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 09:29
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I have a question for those who got admitted in R1.
Is it OK to implicitly imply why those achievements are the most substantial in the 3 achievements essay?
Or do I have to explicitly say it?

For example, in one of them, I mentioned that it was one of the most challenging tasks I had to do and later on also mentioned what I was able to learn from the experience. I am hoping that these two points will imply why I consider the achievement as substantial.
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Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2) 10 Jan 2011, 10:19
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jk12
"most significant challenge" questions in online app seems odd. I did not see that in other schools' apps.
Does one have to describe a challenging experience (personal/professional) at work here?

Should one be really careful about filling these things in online app (wonder if anyone looks at them), or is it ok to cut-paste from resume
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The interview is not blind so I am paying attention to what I type into the online app
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jk12
"most significant challenge" questions in online app seems odd. I did not see that in other schools' apps.
Does one have to describe a challenging experience (personal/professional) at work here?

Should one be really careful about filling these things in online app (wonder if anyone looks at them), or is it ok to cut-paste from resume

Stanford asks pretty much the same thing in terms of challenges for each job.

I wouldn't overlook the online app--a lot of typos or bad grammar would probably make you look bad, especially if your essays are nice and polished. And copy and pasting from resume is probably a bad idea--you really only need about a sentence for each box, so make it something original. Guys I talked to at Stanford and Haas emphasized that I should print it all out and proofread it before I submitted it.
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I agree to an extent...but if you only have 200 characters to get your point across, you might have to take some shortcuts that wouldn't be accepted in an essay.
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