ninjamba wrote:
Hi all,
Since my journey to HEC has been slightly different than the ones I have read on various forums, I think it will be helpful to share my experience. Off the bat I must give big kudos to the HEC admission team for how swift the whole process was. It was way more efficient than any other school I applied to. I applied on August 2014 deadline for January 2015 intake. In hindsight, being from the over represented Indian-male pool applying so late was not the greatest idea.
The application
The whole essay writing part of the application was not that cumbersome overall. However, smaller essay quantity was slightly misleading since HEC does ask some career related questions that are not part of essays but will require similar level of thinking. I finished the essays in 2 weeks. I know this part is entirely dependent on your individual stories, so I strongly recommend reviewing the essay topics and judge yourself how much time you will need.
Pre-selection
I received the pre-selection decision within 2 weeks of submitting the application. I submitted the application on August 14th and received the pre-selection email on August 26th. It took them about a week to get me information for both interviewers and took me two weeks to get the interviews scheduled and completed.
Interviews
Both the interviews were conducted by alumni based locally. I did spend 4-5 days to figure out the presentation topic and to make sure the presentation had good flow and looked professional. I practiced the presentation few times to make sure I don’t draw a blank on any slides during the interview. The topic I chose was very generic however during the presentation I put a lot emphasis on how it was relevant to me because of my professional experiences. During the presentation I also mentioned a lot of examples of my experiences relevant to the topic. The interviews were very casual (in fact one interviewer specifically asked me to not dress formally, thank god for that, it was a particularly warm day) and were in coffee shops. I presented the slides on my ipad and handed over printed handouts for them to take notes. This worked well in coffee shop environment and I highly recommend this approach if you have access to a tablet.
Interviewer no. 1 was actually not a full time HEC student. He did his MBA from a reputed US school and went to HEC as an exchange student only for one quarter and that too in EIGHTIES. He mentioned that he has been doing the interviews for HEC for 6-7 years but was little surprised that HEC has been asking him to interview. I guess because they didn’t have many HEC alumni in the region I live in. The overall interview was very friendly. It didn’t follow any standard format. The interviewer mixed the usual MBA interview questions with some questions regarding my personal life and work. He asked for the presentation in the middle of the interview and then went back to his questions after the presentation. He did time the presentation, so make sure you practice the timing of your presentation. It was little awkward to ask him questions regarding school since he went there such a long time ago and only for a short duration. But I did ask few questions any way just to show I was interested.
Interview no. 2 did go to HEC full time and went o LBS as exchange student. He went there in early 2000s so he had slightly more updated information and was enthusiastic about sharing some of his good and bad experiences. None of the questions were unusual. Interviewer did not take any notes during the interview so seemed like he was sort of just checking on me rather than doing thorough evaluation. He never asked for the presentation. In fact, when I asked if he was interested in seeing the presentation he reluctantly agreed (out of respect for the work I put in, I guess).
Overall make sure to have your stories straight and don’t try to be someone you are not. Try to create good personal connection with the interviewer and have a genuine appreciation for them spending 1 hour of their weekend with you. The interviewers are doing the interviews as a favor to both the school and you so you better be well prepared otherwise it is insulting to them.
Both my interviewers gave me a very favorable feedback after the interviews and indicated that they will be recommending my application. After the interviews I sent both thank you emails and got positive replies.
Final(??) Decision
I received the final decision exactly 5 weeks from the submission deadline – WAITLISTED. Not a good day. Having been through one waitlist-rejection cycle already once with a different school I was in no mood to go through it again. I thanked the admission coordinator and like any good MBA applicant started googling my acceptance chances. There is not much information out there for HEC so I also contacted few people from previous years’ forums. They were mostly encouraging and suggested me to keep in touch with the admission team and show them how interested you are.
Post final decision
I decided to look for ways to be more visible to the admission committee. Out of nowhere I stumbled upon HEC’s promotional tour, lo and behold somebody from HEC’s development team will be visiting the city I live in. I immediately signed up online for their information session. Within a day or so I got an email from the development team member about wanting to talk to me about my application on the phone. On the phone she explained to me that admission jury liked my application but to maintain diversity they put me on the waitlist. BUT, if I am willing to consider September 2015 intake I will have a very good chance of getting in. Plus I will have time to apply for scholarships and on-campus housing which were already getting full. After contemplating the delay in start time with my wife I finally met the development manager in person and told her that I will be willing to attend in September. I didn’t expect to hear anything for couple weeks thinking I will hear back after the admission jury meets to look at applications from next deadline.
I received an email three days after my meeting with the development manager that I was admitted!!
I hope the post helps other applicants who might be flexible with their term start time. I hope some of the insights regarding my interviews will also be of some use to few of you.
Your journey seems to be very similar to mine. Applied for Jan'15 intake in Aug'14. Waitlisted. Having realized that even if admitted from waitlist joining in Jan would be too tight for me, I asked for a deferral to Sept intake. Got an acceptance call 2 days later.
14 Oct 2014, 10:50
. Good luck with your other applications, is all I can say now.
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