HBS 2012 - Calling All Applicants

HMMM, some tips for your HBS 'setback' answers fr. news anchor Ann Curry, who owns up to

1. doing her first ever TV interview as a reporter without loading film in the camera (small station and she was also camera crew) and

2. recently giving a commencement speech at Wheaton College (Mass) where she did some late nite research after dinner and Googled famous alums fr. other Wheaton College (IL) whom she put in speech. Lesson: dont Google while tipsy (she claims, but I think she was just careless).
(she also apologized big time, post speech).

For app purposes first one is better, since she went back and begged subject to redo the interview, which was real message and lesson. Of course, as noted in my app. writing tips, the setting is what really counts, and being a young, "early" woman, TV reporter for small station IS a good setting for a setback. 2nd one is really an anecdote, altho funny, since it is no big whoop that famous, current, Ann Curryis getting honorary degree, school was prob. drooling that she attended.

https://is.gd/WdabdW

dunno, but my guess would be taking older non-traditional kids (manufacturing???) or this is just some kind of "static", anothe thing to watch is the "years out of college," they usually publish a chart with that in bar form and you can see a real sweet spot of admits for kids who graduated 4, 5 and 6 years prior to year of admit, e.g. for the class entering in 2010, last September , the sweet spot graduation years were 2005, 2006, 2007
viz:

GRAD YEAR --NUMBER OF ADMITS
2003--30
2004-66
2005-177
2006288
2007-242
2008--85
[with small numbers prior and after]
HBS has not published this data for class entering in 2011 yet, so let's keep our eyes out for that.
Maybe that distribution remains sorta the same and kids who graduate college are getting a bit older, or maybe HBS has gone 'older' so some degree.
Also average age, dunno, could be rounding issue, they might have published 26, 8 months as "26" and 27 one month as "27" or sumpthin like that.....I would not make too much out of that gross stat?
The orginal age jihad was recruiter driven and also a sense of faculty that younger kids were cuter and more easily 'molded' while geezers were too set in their ways and cynical.

Sandy, I get the thing on profs, but why did recruiters want them younger? Do they release gender specific age information? I can forsee how recruiters might be interested in women being a year younger when they get out so that they can have women work a year longer than they might otherwise if they were planning on having families...as a sort of way to not only get more out of that hire, but also get the women potentially more invested in their careers to the point that they might be less inclined to leave or have fewer kids. Any thoughts?

The distribution of graduation years does not tell us how many people in those years applied. It could be that older candidates actually have better acceptance rates than the younger ones. Something to think about.

well, technically correct, but based on my own database of older applicants, it is real hard to get in, esp. if you are standard type (consulting, finance, etc) if 28+, and real hard to get in if you are 30+ if you anyone except medical doc or military pilot (who are req in cases to give 8-10 yrs to armed forces as condition of getting those gigs which invovle long training).

1, they can pay them less, 2. recruiters also like them cuter and more malleable, esp. in jobs w. training programs, e.g. consulting and IB. etc.

Hi Sandy,

Appreciate if you could give me some preliminary inputs ref HBS application.

-27 yo
-male
-european
-m.sc. engineering (105/110 in one country, 12/12 in another, since I took a period abroad) -> not sure how to translate it in gpa
-3 years work exp (4 end 2012) in a fortune 500 company, position as general manager (2 promotions in 2 years), leading projects 100+ mill usd investment
-prior working, 6 months research at university with publications on international journals
-extracurricula: currently developing business for a u.s. based company in italy and brasil with a team of 4, mix of entrepreneurship and sales activity together
-gmat: 740 (awa: 6)

Thanks!

I am going to apply to 2+2 in the future. can you share some of your background please?

computer engineering major
indian
what other background info do you need? pm me for info. are you applying this year in a different round?

https://poetsandquants.com/2011/06/13/wh ... -of-women/

Wharton POPS percent of women admits fr. 40-45!
Will HBS play catch up???????
Mildly mixed metaphor quote by me in that story (garters and high heels), says maybe.

HBSGuru thank you a lot, I have dropped you a personal mail.

Yield is 90% - absolutely fantastic achievement
_________________

I think that the average GMAT is lower than 730. If I was the head of a prestigous business school, I would want to always get the best statistic for my school. If last year, she chose to give out the average, its because it was higher than the median. If this she chose to publish the median, then it is because it is higher than the average.

Sandy,

If I am applying to matriculate in 2014, do you think it will matter if I take my GMAT next year before the changes? Will adcoms look down upon applicants that took the old version of the test? Thanks

Hello Everyone,

This is a kind of a shot in the dark, but:

I am planning a visit to HBS next Monday (6/20/11), and I will be in town until Tues evening (6/21/11).

I'd love for the chance to treat you to coffee and/or beer and chat with you about HBS during my visit. Don't matter if you are just admitted, currently enrolled, or an alum - I have plenty of questions for any category.

PM me if you are interested in helping this poor soul.

haha! Thanks!

hmmmm, not all Fort 500 companies are created equal in the eyes of HBS adcom.
Europeans fr. 'pure' Fort 500 background (versus Euro bankers, consultants, PE VC guys, I dont care if those firms are somehow in Fort 500, which used to be limited to manufacturing companies, but hey Goldman manufacturs CDO's etc) usually come fr. Recognized Brands: GE, Clorox, Coke, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble, Colgate, Pfizer, Merck, Disney, GOOG, MSFT, WalMart, J&J, Kimberly Clark etc. Those companies are supplier companies to HBS --so the first question you should ask, AND EVERYONE APPLYING TO HBS SHOULD ASK, is "how many kids fr. my company, or my division, have gotten into HBS in past 3 years? Figure out what their stats are, duh, by asking them, and that is best metric.
Let's assume you check out on that score, e.g., your Fort 500 is brand name as well: well, I'd say you are in the running given what appear to be solid grades, solid gmat, and excellent international exp. You might be one year on old side in terms of 5yrs exp at matriculation, but Euros are often older.
Your outcome will depend on;
1. app execution--both serviceably (not brilliantly, just OK) capturing your work accomplishments and also how you execute on non-work,and what in fact you have to say.
2. recs and backing fr. big shots
3. luck
4. NOT BLOWING INTERVIEW
5. luck
If you do not work for brand name Fort 500: viz Ball, Smurfit -Stone Container, Seal Air (ok, just looked those up, I'm not that smart) well, you still got a chance but you need to prove to them the size and UMPHH of those companies and focus on how working for e.g. Seal Air showed up the importance of low-cost container technology in getting badly needed foods and medicines to underserved groups in conflict areas and flood zones, blah,blah. NOT KIDDING.
good luck and post back letting me know if company is brand name or WHAA??? that is a Fort 500 company??

Are there any pros and cons of applying in R1 versus R2? If I am ready to apply, do I stand a better chance in R1?

This will not square well for laid of finance types.

Unlike 2007-2008 layoffs, this upcoming round of layoffs will be less widespread and will generally be limited to underperformers (bottom 25% of a group). Layoffs during the peak of the financial crisis often included large portions of groups (or divisions in the case of Bear, Lehman, etc.) The bank I was at laid of more than 50% of a 70 person group between 2007-2009, so you could always spin the layoff as part of a mass restructuring.

Savvy adcoms (and I assume most are) will recognize this dynamic and it will likely make it tougher for some finance types.

The one interesting twist will be timing. If layoffs don't occur until after R1 deadlines, then you may end up with some kids being laid off between application deadlines and notification.

AGREE IN PART. Certainly the larger the lay-offs, the more easy it is to say, "Everyone got fired!" But--
1. it appears fr. story, that lay offs may be massive in cert wall st sectors, e.g. those on front lines of cascading impacts of Euro bailouts etc. In those sectors, layoffs may indeed be near 50-70 pct and you can say, everyone is doing it.
2. There is a sense in which adcoms are not savvy, by design, they know there are large spread lay-offs, they know that lay-offs are a crude tool to measure worth, and they
will look behind a lay-off to see what you are otherwise presenting, in terms of adcom value points like gpa/gmat/extras, and performance at work pre lay-off. I could easily see an unemployed kid beating out an employed kid, fer sure, and even at the same firm. Possibly in the same unit, as well, b.c. reasons for keeping person X vs. person Y are often only partially related to things B schools look for, and often turn on elements of the micro environment of the firm, e.g. what specific deals kid worked on, or micro expertise as a result. blah,blah. Altho I'm sure we both agree this is real speculative.

WHITE HOUSE AIDES HEAD FOR HARVARD LAW AND BUSINESS SCHOOL.
MOSTLY LAW SCHOOL, FOR THE BUISNESS SCHOOL KIDS, POLITICO REPORTS

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/stories/06 ... z1PY5Uj4gV