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When I was picking my essays, it came down to a choice of undergrad experience vs cover letter. Conventional wisdom told me to go for the undergrad experience, but I went for cover letter instead and if nothing else it at least worked in getting me to the interview round 
I started with my actual cover letter as a base and heavily modified it from there, trying to replace some of the more direct "why you should hire me" with some more thoughtful things.
I started with my actual cover letter as a base and heavily modified it from there, trying to replace some of the more direct "why you should hire me" with some more thoughtful things.
Posts: 43
Here's the waitlist letter from HBS...looks like they are accepting 30 R1s from the waitlist:
Hello Everyone:
Eileen Chang from HBS - it is the beginning of April and time for another update from our office. This is a substantial update, so please read carefully.
As I indicated in my last email, we are making decisions on many of your applications and will be notifying most of you of your final decision next Tuesday, April 6 when we release decisions for Round 2 applicants.
There will be three types of decisions that will be communicated next week for Round 1 waitlist candidates: 1) If it doesn't appear likely that we will be considering you for place in the class at this point, you will be released from the waitlist so that you may pursue other opportunities. 2) A few of you who have not already been interviewed may receive an invitation to interview. 3) Finally, we anticipate making about 30 offers of admission to Round 1 waitlist candidates next Tuesday.
In addition, we will be asking a handful of you to continue to remain on the waitlist and will email you separately to confirm your willingness to do so. If that is the case, you will not receive a decision next Tuesday.
Please have the courtesy to be sincere in your response; if you have indeed made other plans, we would appreciate your letting us know so that we would consider only those who would seriously plan to matriculate if offered a place in the class.
Given that this will be the last time that many of you will be receiving my monthly waitlist update, I'd like to say a very sincere thank you for your patience. You have all demonstrated tremendous cooperation with our process, which I know is not easy given the inherent uncertainty of the waitlist. We are grateful for this and hope that our communication has been helpful in providing some guidance throughout these last few months.
Thank you for your interest in our program, and all the best.
Sincerely,
Eileen Chang
MBA Admissions
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field Road
Dillon House
Boston, MA 02163
Hello Everyone:
Eileen Chang from HBS - it is the beginning of April and time for another update from our office. This is a substantial update, so please read carefully.
As I indicated in my last email, we are making decisions on many of your applications and will be notifying most of you of your final decision next Tuesday, April 6 when we release decisions for Round 2 applicants.
There will be three types of decisions that will be communicated next week for Round 1 waitlist candidates: 1) If it doesn't appear likely that we will be considering you for place in the class at this point, you will be released from the waitlist so that you may pursue other opportunities. 2) A few of you who have not already been interviewed may receive an invitation to interview. 3) Finally, we anticipate making about 30 offers of admission to Round 1 waitlist candidates next Tuesday.
In addition, we will be asking a handful of you to continue to remain on the waitlist and will email you separately to confirm your willingness to do so. If that is the case, you will not receive a decision next Tuesday.
Please have the courtesy to be sincere in your response; if you have indeed made other plans, we would appreciate your letting us know so that we would consider only those who would seriously plan to matriculate if offered a place in the class.
Given that this will be the last time that many of you will be receiving my monthly waitlist update, I'd like to say a very sincere thank you for your patience. You have all demonstrated tremendous cooperation with our process, which I know is not easy given the inherent uncertainty of the waitlist. We are grateful for this and hope that our communication has been helpful in providing some guidance throughout these last few months.
Thank you for your interest in our program, and all the best.
Sincerely,
Eileen Chang
MBA Admissions
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field Road
Dillon House
Boston, MA 02163
justdid
hmmm, in most cases HKS is less selective but it could turn on your fit and story--I know lots of accepts at HKS/Dings HBS but not many flip side of that --e.g. YOU
(accept HBS/ding HKS) --not to say it could not happen. G'luck and keep us posted.
Posts: 7
I am a WL from R1.
From the email, since they're going to invite waitlisters to interview after R2 decisions I feel that they were not able to fill as many spots from the R2 applicant pool as they had expected. I say this because they would have already sent interview invites to waitlisted candidates who they had renewed interest in after initial screening of R2 applicants. I'm guessing some of these R2 applicants didn't perform as expected in interviews and left more spots to be filled.
Does anyone know whether 30 intakes from the WL is high or low? How many do you think were waitlisted in total?
From the email, since they're going to invite waitlisters to interview after R2 decisions I feel that they were not able to fill as many spots from the R2 applicant pool as they had expected. I say this because they would have already sent interview invites to waitlisted candidates who they had renewed interest in after initial screening of R2 applicants. I'm guessing some of these R2 applicants didn't perform as expected in interviews and left more spots to be filled.
Does anyone know whether 30 intakes from the WL is high or low? How many do you think were waitlisted in total?
From the Director...
What to Expect on April 6
Date: April 01, 2010
While I hesitate to post on April Fool's Day, next week is the Round 2 notification date. Here's how it works:
We expect to release all decisions around noon on April 6. You'll receive an email from HBS MBA Admissions saying that your decision is now available online.
There will be no phone calls with decision news beforehand. Absolutely none.
Decisions will include some invitations to join the waitlist. I am very confident that we will be making admissions offers in May to some Round 2 waitlisters. Eileen Chang of our office communicates regularly with the waitlisters, so I will not do that here.
If for some reason we are unable to release decisions at noon as planned, I will post an update here.
I know the waiting is hard...not much longer.
What to Expect on April 6
Date: April 01, 2010
While I hesitate to post on April Fool's Day, next week is the Round 2 notification date. Here's how it works:
We expect to release all decisions around noon on April 6. You'll receive an email from HBS MBA Admissions saying that your decision is now available online.
There will be no phone calls with decision news beforehand. Absolutely none.
Decisions will include some invitations to join the waitlist. I am very confident that we will be making admissions offers in May to some Round 2 waitlisters. Eileen Chang of our office communicates regularly with the waitlisters, so I will not do that here.
If for some reason we are unable to release decisions at noon as planned, I will post an update here.
I know the waiting is hard...not much longer.
Posts: 63
hankpunk
Seeing April on the calendar really hit me today
Good luck everyone mbarunner1
Hmmmm, don't think so. Especially as to theory that they were somehow let down by R2 interviews (if that is your point in bold above) , and thus decided they NEEDED to go to R1 WLers for more interview fodder. It just dont work that that way--in past 2 -4 years, WL's have gotten huge and accepts off WL have risen as a trend. Adcom discovered that working off WL just made life easier-- easier than trying to come right to the edge of filling class with pure admits, or even overfilling it (4-5 or so years ago WL offers were ZERO, THEY TOOK NO ONE OFF WL, which pissed off ALL WLers, who felt they were being suckered, and resulted in some tight moments as adcom scrambled to find seats for class which might have been oversubscribed. In the past 2 years, it has become a 'tradition' to settle Round 2 and then create new combined WL of R1+2 and use that comined list to fill out class along with Round 3. They are just underadmitting in both R 1+2 because they discovered it is worth the hassles of dealing w. WL compared with the hassles of admitting too many kids. They also discovered WL is a good way to get Bigfeet to give up chits, etc. and gain favors, so price of the hassle for everyone but Eileen Chang and CO. is not that high. Dont have numbers at hand (and I will try to dig out) but this year's practice seems identical to last years in terms of numbers taken off WL, and blend of R1 and R2 timing for post R2 D-Day interviews.
2008 HBS WL letter from April, after R2 admits–showing 40 WLadmits from Round 1, current WL of 295, and number of R2 WL=??
Given that they took 40 kids off WL, it was at least as big as 335, but what we dont know is how many of those 335 kids were Round 2 ad-ons, the very ones being welcomed below. My guess is that new number of kids is sorta 70-100, which meant that original Round 1 WL that year was 235-265 (of which 40 made it off in first blast of post R2 D-day admits),
Beyond that, I believe Round 1 WL was bigger this year, for several reasons, Round 1 itself has gotten bigger over the past two years, and also HBS practice of using WL to manage tight parking, Bigfoot chits, and etc. has just become more engrained. Hello Everyone:
THIS IS AN OLD CHANG LETTER FROM APRIL 2008
It’s Eileen Chang from the MBA Admissions Board at HBS with another monthly update on our Admissions process.
I’d like to welcome those candidates receiving this correspondence for the first time. This is a regular update I send out at the beginning of each month to give all of you an update on our Admissions process.
Round 2 decision notifications were released last Wednesday. Since my March email, we admitted approximately 40 first-round wait list candidates. With the addition of wait list candidates from Round 2, our wait list is currently at 295 candidates.
THIS IS AN OLD CHANG LETTER FROM APRIL 2008
Our final Round 3 submission deadline has also passed and we have begun reviewing Round 3 applications.
At this point, we have received all applications that will be considered for the Class of 2010. Over the next few weeks, we will begin actively reviewing our wait list candidates and will likely make decisions on many of these wait list applications. We anticipate that these decisions will occur on a rolling basis, rather than batches of decisions at specific set points in time. We will contact you if there is any change to your status–if you do not hear from us, you can assume that you remain on our wait list.
Although we do not want to make guarantees as to the exact date when you will likely hear a decision from us on your application, we do want to emphasize that we will keep a wait list as long as there is a reasonable expectation that space may be available in the class. We realize that many of you are considering other options at this time and we continue to be very sensitive to the feeling of uncertainty you are experiencing of being on the wait list. We will make every effort to have a decision on your application as soon as we are able.
Finally, it is very important that you keep your contact information updated through the Apply Yourself system. If at any time you would like to withdraw from the wait list, please email me and let me know.
THIS IS AN OLD CHANG LETTER FROM APRIL 2008
Again, thank you for your continued patience. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Eileen Chang
MBA Admissions
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field Road
Dillon House
Boston, MA 02163
Given that they took 40 kids off WL, it was at least as big as 335, but what we dont know is how many of those 335 kids were Round 2 ad-ons, the very ones being welcomed below. My guess is that new number of kids is sorta 70-100, which meant that original Round 1 WL that year was 235-265 (of which 40 made it off in first blast of post R2 D-day admits),
Beyond that, I believe Round 1 WL was bigger this year, for several reasons, Round 1 itself has gotten bigger over the past two years, and also HBS practice of using WL to manage tight parking, Bigfoot chits, and etc. has just become more engrained. Hello Everyone:
THIS IS AN OLD CHANG LETTER FROM APRIL 2008
It’s Eileen Chang from the MBA Admissions Board at HBS with another monthly update on our Admissions process.
I’d like to welcome those candidates receiving this correspondence for the first time. This is a regular update I send out at the beginning of each month to give all of you an update on our Admissions process.
Round 2 decision notifications were released last Wednesday. Since my March email, we admitted approximately 40 first-round wait list candidates. With the addition of wait list candidates from Round 2, our wait list is currently at 295 candidates.
THIS IS AN OLD CHANG LETTER FROM APRIL 2008
Our final Round 3 submission deadline has also passed and we have begun reviewing Round 3 applications.
At this point, we have received all applications that will be considered for the Class of 2010. Over the next few weeks, we will begin actively reviewing our wait list candidates and will likely make decisions on many of these wait list applications. We anticipate that these decisions will occur on a rolling basis, rather than batches of decisions at specific set points in time. We will contact you if there is any change to your status–if you do not hear from us, you can assume that you remain on our wait list.
Although we do not want to make guarantees as to the exact date when you will likely hear a decision from us on your application, we do want to emphasize that we will keep a wait list as long as there is a reasonable expectation that space may be available in the class. We realize that many of you are considering other options at this time and we continue to be very sensitive to the feeling of uncertainty you are experiencing of being on the wait list. We will make every effort to have a decision on your application as soon as we are able.
Finally, it is very important that you keep your contact information updated through the Apply Yourself system. If at any time you would like to withdraw from the wait list, please email me and let me know.
THIS IS AN OLD CHANG LETTER FROM APRIL 2008
Again, thank you for your continued patience. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Eileen Chang
MBA Admissions
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field Road
Dillon House
Boston, MA 02163
Quote:
as others have pointed out, WL at Wharton and accept at HBS is not uncommon. Nor is ding at Wharton WITHOUT Int and accept at HBS. You can toss Stan. into mix in same heads and tails ways: all outcomes happen. Sure, if you get interviews at H/S/W--chances sorta increase that you will get admit to one or more, and all the way down to opposite, no interviews, chances of one turning up on decision day fr. HBS not looking good, but between those predictive and outcome poles--lots of variance.
Anyone else being driven to madness by the wait? 
Posts: 63
Janus
+1
Schools: HBS '15 (S) Sloan '15 Stanford '15 (S) CBS '15
Posts: 36
i am sure i can't get in (coz didn't do well in interview)
so I am very relieved now haha......no expectation at all
but good luck to everyone!
so I am very relieved now haha......no expectation at all
but good luck to everyone!
I think I'm going crazy....
ARE ODDS BETTER OR WORSE IF YOU ARE ONE OF LAST 50 HBS INTERVIEW INVITES??
hmmm, not really either, you can speculate on this 12-ways to Sunday. About 20 of those last 50 invites are falling fruit from bigfoots shaking the tree (e.g. bigshots calling up and saying take a close look at this kid), the rest are more random than you think, and a bunch could just be logistical (someone was late handing in stuff). The adcom likes to nurse the delusion that they are reading folders night and day, right to the end, and going over every last folder 3, 6, 9 times to make sure that no poor soul has slipped thru the cracks, so you imagine that every folder gets an independent rejection from 4 different readers, and every day, some new, last, 'never-say-die' reader finds an interview-making piece of DNA in YOUR folder that every other of the 3, 4 5 prior readers has overlooked, like the innocence project on TV, and then the call goes to the governor to stop the execution at one-minute to midnight. The reality is, after first wave of invites went out, there may have been some reserve pile of 200-300 folders which they just put off, for one reason or another, and at that point, ALL THE OTHER NON-INVITES WERE BASICALLY SENT TO SIBERIA NEVER TO BE LOOKED AT AGAIN. Of those remaining 200-300 folders, HRH Leopold just keeps some running, macro mental track of how round 1 replies are shaping up, in terms of kids accepting etc., what emerging demographics are, etc. How Accepted Week-End for Round One Went, etc. After that, everyone likes to be mercurial a bit (calling Derrick Bolton!!), so over the next x weeks, when she wants to give herself some cheap thrills, she ( or some bunch of inner adcoms) just read over some bunch of folders, and keeping in mind the running tallies & the micro theme de jour/ de week, she/they find a few they like, and reach out and give quite an exciting email goose to some lucky, formerly doomed person. Another way it works is that HRH or some other Officer level adcom read a story in New York Times etc. about X (some new initiative, industry trend, organization), and say, "Dont we have some kid like that in the 300-limbo folders ?" And just to test their memory and office search capabilities, they locate the folder, re-read it, and all of a sudden, it is just a bit more interesting. Poof, another zombie brought back from the dead. Maybe.
But whatever triggered your escape from the Limbo 300, it was not really some compelling, lost jewel of overlooked accomplishment, it was just some demographic or topical hook, or 2nd look, or even late look, and after your Interview, you are just in the Big Ol Interview Pile O'Kids. I'd be surprised if accept rate of the Last 50 was diff than first Wave.
Quote:
hmmm, not really either, you can speculate on this 12-ways to Sunday. About 20 of those last 50 invites are falling fruit from bigfoots shaking the tree (e.g. bigshots calling up and saying take a close look at this kid), the rest are more random than you think, and a bunch could just be logistical (someone was late handing in stuff). The adcom likes to nurse the delusion that they are reading folders night and day, right to the end, and going over every last folder 3, 6, 9 times to make sure that no poor soul has slipped thru the cracks, so you imagine that every folder gets an independent rejection from 4 different readers, and every day, some new, last, 'never-say-die' reader finds an interview-making piece of DNA in YOUR folder that every other of the 3, 4 5 prior readers has overlooked, like the innocence project on TV, and then the call goes to the governor to stop the execution at one-minute to midnight. The reality is, after first wave of invites went out, there may have been some reserve pile of 200-300 folders which they just put off, for one reason or another, and at that point, ALL THE OTHER NON-INVITES WERE BASICALLY SENT TO SIBERIA NEVER TO BE LOOKED AT AGAIN. Of those remaining 200-300 folders, HRH Leopold just keeps some running, macro mental track of how round 1 replies are shaping up, in terms of kids accepting etc., what emerging demographics are, etc. How Accepted Week-End for Round One Went, etc. After that, everyone likes to be mercurial a bit (calling Derrick Bolton!!), so over the next x weeks, when she wants to give herself some cheap thrills, she ( or some bunch of inner adcoms) just read over some bunch of folders, and keeping in mind the running tallies & the micro theme de jour/ de week, she/they find a few they like, and reach out and give quite an exciting email goose to some lucky, formerly doomed person. Another way it works is that HRH or some other Officer level adcom read a story in New York Times etc. about X (some new initiative, industry trend, organization), and say, "Dont we have some kid like that in the 300-limbo folders ?" And just to test their memory and office search capabilities, they locate the folder, re-read it, and all of a sudden, it is just a bit more interesting. Poof, another zombie brought back from the dead. Maybe.
But whatever triggered your escape from the Limbo 300, it was not really some compelling, lost jewel of overlooked accomplishment, it was just some demographic or topical hook, or 2nd look, or even late look, and after your Interview, you are just in the Big Ol Interview Pile O'Kids. I'd be surprised if accept rate of the Last 50 was diff than first Wave.
DecisionTime: You mentioned your Wharton + full tuiton vs HBS dilemma. Do you have considerable savings, or will inherit soon? If no, I'd say go for Wharton without giving it a second thought.
The longest 30-hour period is about to begin.
Anyone else want to not go to work tomorrow and just wallow in anxiety?
Posted from my mobile device
Posted from my mobile device
Janus
I was actually thinking of fixing back-to-back meetings in the evening that get me through till 9pm IST and leave just 30 more minutes of excruciating pain, over which I can enjoy what may be "My Last Supper"
Posts: 5
powerka
I'm not sure what qualifies as "considerable" savings. I have personally saved some since I started working but I do not have a trust fund or a large inheritance.
Appreciate the advice. If I get in, it will be a tough decision.
Posts: 93
DecisionTime
Very nice problem to have, probably couldn't go very wrong with either decision i.e. Wharton w/ $$ or HBS w/o $$. I am leaning towards Wharton because you still get a strong brand but you get it for free. But, it really depends on what you want to do post-MBA and whether you feel it will be easier to attain at Wharton or at HBS. If I you are going into finance, I say take Wharton.
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