HBS 2012 - Calling All Applicants

My suggestion is to apply in R2. You have the slightest statistical advantage applying in R1 - emphasis on 'statistical' because too many other factors come into play to make this statistic meaningful.

Advantages to applying in R2:
1) You can 'practice' applying - apply to a strong safety school in R1, like MIT or Chicago. Practice getting your application together.
2) You can give your recommenders practice, too. Their first recommendation is never going to be their best; they need time to practice, too. Let them work out the kinks on another school's application so you can put your best foot forward for HBS. R2 will also give them more time to put some thought into their recommendation.
3) You have more time to be reflective and introspective. This doesn't come easy for most people. It takes time, effort, feedback, and many iterations to get it right!
4) Yes, your new manager would have a few more months to get to know you BUT a recommendation from a current manager isn't necessary (you can always say that it's 'sensitive' to be applying to b-school at your firm and you don't want your current manager knowing). In fact, I would advise not getting a rec from your current manager if he can't tell a vivid story of seeing you work and managing you! It will be totally counterproductive and detrimental to your application!

Best of luck.

HBS Admissions Consultant
hbs.consultant@gmail.com
https://www.hbsadmissionsconsulting.com

Many of my section mates were 30+ years old. One was 34 when he started...and he had a great story of why he wanted to get his MBA 13 years after graduating from undergrad. If I were the AdCom, I would have admitted him if he were 40.

Work on your story: why do you need an MBA at this very moment in time?! Paint a picture of how everything you've done up to now has convinced you that you need an MBA right now!!

HBS Admissions Consultant
hbs.consultant@gmail.com
www.hbsadmissionsconsulting.com

I have a question about the essay Answer a question you wish we'd asked.

Do we want to write in the beginning say, " i wish you'd asked me this, that..."?

Any insights?

Nobody knows what they are talking about. Last year they said HBS loved younger kids and KKR, BX, Private equity types, untill HBS gave a kick in the rears of these specific types and went for Manufacturing & older guys.

So dont go beleiving this information about what adcom may/ may not want and apply if you feel you need an MBA specifically at this juncture in your life to turbo-charge your career, :D

Hi Sandy,

Would appreciate your inputs on my chances at hbs

Age: 30
Gender: Male
Race: Asian
GPA: 3.8 (engineering school)
GMAT: 710
WE: 2 yrs at top 3 consulting firms working in Marketing-strategty (current), 4 years at well known consulting firm in US

Worried about my age...any schools you think might be less concerned about the age?

Thank you for all your help!

Nath

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While there may be some people over 30 at HBS, and while they bend a little on International cases (if that applies here), I would say that number of people with 6 years of consulting experience is VERY FEW and that is hardest to make a case. The fact that some other person is older and got in is inspiring, and adcoms are always pointing to stories like that--of course, there is no rebuttal to the argument that if you dont apply, your chances are zero. But you asked for a data-based and qualitative answer (or maybe not, but that is what you are getting) and the answer is w. that profile, age will be a big drawback at HBS, esp. the six years in consulting and the job changes. As other poster above notes, do not believe what adcoms say about age b.c. they are constantly changing it, well, that is true, and HBS has moved off the youth jihad a bit, and now, as per their style, deny it ever existed, despite their own data contra and official and unofficial statements.
Sure, if you have an otherwise powerful story about identidy politics, being a victim, helping victims, etc. saving the world or you corner of it, they will wink at anything.
All that said, just speaking as an odds-maker, not many kids w. 6 yrs of MC get into HBS, and if anyone knows of anyone, pls post.

whelllllllllllllllll, not critical, and what comes after that is more impt but you knew that.
You can start by assuming the question, viz.
"My beer bottle collection is the first thing I would save if my house was on fire because . . . ."
or you can,

"I'd wish you'd asked me what the first thing I would save if my house were on fire was becasue I am an avid beer bottle collector, and some of those bottles are OVER 100 YEARS OLD, and some of the newer ones still have beer in them, soooooo, gotta save those. Of course, as you know, I do have two toddlers, but that is the point, they are toddlers, and can just toddle out of that fire all by themselves, or maybe the little woman can pick them up . . . for me, it's the bottles. . . ."

Get it???

A real tip for this question:

1. dont save the "best" for last, get the best in questions one and two. If you won an Olympic medal or worked in a leper colony, dont save that for here, AND CERT. DO NOT DELAY ANY IMPORTANT IDENTIDY POLITICS ISSUES FOR LAST, e.g. do not wait til Q4 to tell them you are an American Indian, have that as element of many answers.
2. Dont huff and puff and try to sell yourself here, by this pt. your race is run, and if app has been executed strategically, they should already know all the good stuff. Good way to use this question, assuming you do not need to explain away jail time, etc. is to make them like you.
"Wish you'd ask about my dinner parties . . . ." assuming you can create some gumbo of an essay about receipes fr. mom, your cooking style, notable experiments which failed in front of diff guests, diverse bunch you have over, how you had a great one on a card table nite you moved into your first apt in NYC with old roommate fr. college and you both felt so grown up, and some great anecdotes all of which leave us saying, "Hey, I'd like to have dinner with this person, too."

hmmmm, he might not have counted on the NO landslide fr. Waitlisters!!!!!!!!!!!

Founder and CEO of CollegeBudget.com allows world to vote on whether he attends Harvard Business School or remains at CollegeBudget.com.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Mike Moradian, the founder and CEO of CollegeBudget.com is faced with an incredibly difficult decision - whether to attend Harvard Business School, a top-ranked MBA program at one the most prestigious universities in the world, or forge ahead with his newly launched startup, which seeks to revolutionize student discounts and finances. "They are both opportunities of a lifetime, but in order to make an impact, I can really only choose one," says Moradian, who was ranked America's Best Young Entrepreneur in 2010 by Bloomberg Businessweek. In a totally unprecedented move, Mike has opened up his decision to attend Harvard to public vote at ShouldIgotoHarvard.com.
https://is.gd/2aTFJ1

I have a question about the essays. As Sandy has mentioned to use powerful stories from different aspect of your life (professional, personal, extracurricular). While writing these stories I see them as part of my profile, the only problem is how to connect one story to another or do I even need to connect them?

Should I put a lead line before each story? I just want to make it easier for the reader to jump from one story to another.

In for Round 1.

Sandy,

I am a re-applicant from last. I've gotten some great advice from you last year during my interview prep, but unfortunately did not make the final cut. I am at it again.

I am outline my response for the essays and have a question regarding the fourth question (Answer a question you wished we asked). How do you feel about using that question to answer "how has my candidacy change/improve?" Would that be too boring?

Re-app in for round one.

I was wondering if the loss of a loved one constitutes a personal setback? Is that really a setback or a misfortune?? If the setback was beyond your control, is it worth writing about? What if it allowed you to discover something new about yourself that has shaped your values and life?

It can absolutely be a setback. BUT, and let me be brutally honest:

You need to write with true honesty, unquestionable genuineness, and move quickly into how this changed your life / your outlook, and what you learned from this tragedy. Otherwise, it's just a story of self-pity.

Good luck.

HBS Admissions Consultant
hbs.consultant@gmail.com
https://www.hbsadmissionsconsulting.com

Titles are ineffective and they waste precious word count. The AdCom understands that the essays will be disjointed to some degree because you are trying to cover a lot of ground in very little room.

Be sure though that your essays paint a consistent picture of you (just from a multitude of angles). If you have contradictions in your essays, because you're writing so many different stories, then you've got a problem.

Make sure you know the 3-4 messages you want to communicate (leadership, empathy, social concern, for example) and stick with those messages. It doesn't matter that the stories are disjointed because the themes will be consistent.

Good luck!

HBS Admissions Consultant
hbs.consultant@gmail.com
https://www.hbsadmissionsconsulting.com

My essays are done, I have talked to my recommenders, everything is in order...except that I was laid off a month or so ago. I wanted to be in Rd1 but I will wait till I get a job.

Great forum guys, and lots of useful posts.
Many thanks to Sandy specifically... Candid as usual, cuts the cr@p and straight to the point....

Sandy,
A couple of my best friends used your services last year, and found the insights beneficial... I like your insights in here too because they represent the exact stuff ad coms look for...

Going through your views at https://hbsguru.com/media_pq.html#pq2

I was really surprised to see that Admissions committees dont like students focussed on entrepreneurial tracks straight from school.

Ofcourse, there is always the risk of failure of a startup, and this doesnt look good on the percentage of students with jobs 3 months from graduation... This apart from the practical implications (student loan, visa for internationals etc.) But still I thought Harvard given its lofty status looks beyond these statistics...

Anyways it would be great if you could share your experience with the Gmatclub community here:

1. How do your students with Entrepreneurial ambitions "dress themselves"??

2. Do adcoms at other schools, say Booth, Kellogg, Sloan, Tuck or say the european LBS, think the same? Do they trash applicants with such goals as being impractical?

hi all, i had a question about the online app: does hbs not give a a self-report option for the undergraduate transcripts. wharton and stanford attach a template excel that we can fill in with our transcript - but i can't find this for hbs? am i missing it somewhere? thanks for your help