Harvard 2013 (HBS) - Calling All Applicants

hi,

Now that we are nearing round 1 deadline most of the round1 warriors would have already finished off their essays and my guess is a substantial number would be on short answers and applications.

for benefit of the whole my fellow applicants ( and of course for seeking comments:-) ) I would outline two approaches to the question that I came across during my research. Experts please point which approach would be suitable.

APPROACH 1: write specific job function, specific geographical location, specific company you want to work. then write why MBA and for internationals why MBA in US? problem with this approach: word count- I wrote this approach and I could squeeze just 77 words for 500 characters. plus if you address all these each point is not addressed to the extent one would like.

APPROACH 2 : Write why MBA- how it is a bridge between your past job and future choice that you have indicated. if possible push in why HBS into this. Problem with this approach: one does not indicate specific task, location and appointment choice that actually show clarity of goals of the applicant.

HBSGURU and HBSGrad any comments that you might be able to offer will be highly appreciated!!!

Sandy this is more of a general question rather than a specific HBS one but I havent found info anywhere and was hoping you could help. If I went to an undergrad school that gave out the rare A+s which were 4.3/4.0, do I need to recalculate my GPA such that A+s are equivalent to a 4.0? Thanks for your help.

JEEPERS buddy, you way overthinking this, a result of the lack of essay space in this app making all other aspects of the app seem crucial, which is NOT the case. You really cannot make much gain in this section, but you can screw up by saying things that are odd, off point, stating a goal which does not req. an MBA or exhibiting ignorance about HBS. But even so, even if you wrote, "A Stanford MBA could thus help me reach my goals by
1
2
3
--if they otherwise liked you, they would admit you and laff about it. Things like that have actually happened.

My advice for this section is to state an impactful goal --the best version of industry you choose, e.g. "I want to be an innovative leader in PE and Technolgoy, I admire companies like x and y, or leaders like 1 and 2, and hope to do 1 2 3 . HBS can help me by blah, blah. THE END. Ways you can damage yourself is to say you want to do something for which you do not need an MBA, e.g. run for office (altho that is OK as one aspect of future goals, after establishing yourself, esp if you want to be CEO then Senator, etc), be a rock star, be an author, or in some cases, continue your day trading career at a higher level (real bad!!), or even trading in general (they may let that slide, IF they otherwise like you) -- faux pas like those, combined with other elements of your app, could add up to clear pic of someone who does not know what B school/HBS is all about.

Not sure, quite frankly. What does your registrar do?? I would not count those A+ as 4.3 and pretend the school was operating on a 4.0 scale however, b.c. that is really distorting things (esp. if you had five or so A+'s) Counting the A+ as 4.0 is not a distortion, so it has that going for it.
You can do that and explain in some optional essay, also official transcripts (and unofficial ones) have some mumbo jumbo on them explaining this, you might read that.
You can also call HBS, they answer Q's like this, altho not sure what they will say. Prob. write a note in Additional Info . . . their default answer.
If you do call and find out, let me know.

[EDIT - Best of luck everyone!]

Hi sandy, is 150-200 employees considered BIG for MBA purposes?
Also, i explained my declining GPA's in my "what i didnt do well" part. I had a very shallow personal issue in college which i felt i didnt handle well at all (not related to something sensitive like relationships etc), which made me very insecure and is mainly the reason for drop in 4th year, affected friendships, etc. Its along the lines of "i wish i handled this istuation better". Would that be okay?

Generally speaking, this touchy feely stuff is better suited for Stanford's What Matters Most to You or What Do You Really Want to Do, assuming it has deeply affected you (which might not be the case). Not for HBS.

Here's my general advice, send me your profile so I can get a better sense of your entire candidacy: this year, you only have 800 words to tell your story and to make a COMPELLING case for why you should be admitted ahead of 9000 other applicants. Don't waste space making up for past mistakes. At best, your candidacy will go from being WEAK to neutral. That's not going to win you any support from the AdCom, no one is going to stick their neck out for your candidacy.

You have one shot to get in (re-applying is tough). With a weak profile that is not HBS' bread and butter, you need to write about something that is NOT APOLOGETIC. You need to swing for the fences / throw a Hail Mary.

Hi Folks,

In the application, it asks to list 3 extracurricular activities. Is this limited to post-university extracurriculars?
Also for the Awards section, is it specific to post-university awards?

I created a ticket to get this answered. Anyone know of a webpage with the answer?

Thanks!

Hi str1der / folks,

I was wondering if anyone can share where on the HBS site it mentions the number of recommenders?

It's not mentioned on the FAQ page (https://www.hbs.edu/mba/faq/)

Thanks!

From the FAQ:

"Applications - Recommendations

Who should recommendations come from?
The Admissions Board suggests that of the three recommendations, two come from professional references."

Any way its definitely three. Register to apply and you will see it asks for three recommenders.

Also, ALL three recommendations can be from professional recommenders i.e. from the workplace. This was clarified by the Admissions Director on her blog earlier this year.

Our instructions have been clear, but possibly only to us. We ask for three recommendations and we've pushed out guidance that we'd like two to come from professional sources. Thus, we've often been asked the question, "so who should write my third recommendation?" We've said all the normal and sensible things, like "ask someone who knows you well enough to answer the questions we pose to recommenders." That's true. Really, truly, true. But I think we have unintentionally signaled that this mysterious "Third Recommender" should come from a place in your life which is not the workplace. So the questions we were being asked were really trying to puzzle out if we wanted them from a professor, from community service, from trusted family friends. Who knew?

So, in the hope that this will add clarity, let me re-phrase our guidance: we are fine if ALL the recommendations come from the workplace. Even from the same firm.


More Here
https://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/blog.html

Firstly i apologize for re-posting the same questions. I posted these in US military forum but I did not get any reply. Since this forum is frequesnted by experts quite a bit I hope to get responses.

The HBS application says to list each employer only once even if one has served multiple positions under the employer and explain the positions in resume.

So do we list Army as single employer and explain various positions in different units in resume or do we list employer as each unit I have served in and then explain various positions in each unit in the resume?? basic question is my employer army or my unit?? seems a bit silly but would be great if somebody could clear this up.

Secondly, after my graduation from a service academy , I went to training academy for officer training for one year. do we count the one year training in our experience?? We were paid stipend during the training and when we got commissioned we were paid the balance of pay in lump sum. So that should make it experience. But we were also awarded Post Graduate Diploma in defense management and strategic studies from a deemed university. So that makes it studies. I guess by now everybody has understood my dilemma. where to account for training period??

I am asking this because my classmates in corporate add training in their respective firm before starting work in their experience.

Thirdly, The column for Graduate and other coursework, there is a drop down menu which does not have the option of Post Graduate Diploma. Where should this degree be entered as HBS asks for all coursework done after graduation.

I know I have been asking a lot of silly questions but I guess i can blame it on not having to fill a form last 11 years and the pecularity of my military experience.

Thanks for the patience to read till here!!

Any comments will be sincerely appreciated.

Arun, my responses below

Just started up a couple of weeks ago here and am loving it. Already have met incredible people I know are going to impact my future. Good luck all! It will be worth it in the end!

12 days to go! Are people done with the essays?

If somebody could attempt to generalize, how much does an applicant's chances go down from applying from R1 to R2? Also, if anybody thinks those chances will be different this year (perhaps due to reports of increased volume or application submission patterns), please pass along your opinions?

Was planning on applying R1, but I am 90% sure I'm going to hold my work so far and submit next round. Feeling a little big uncertain though so some insight could be great.

Essays done... hopefully hitting submit a few days early! Just working on the short-answer questions at the moment.

How are your essays getting on?

Essays are done, just polishing/editing a few things. Need to start the short answers..

A question on the Employment section. For Job Responsibilities, are we just writing about the overall/generic things we do? E.g., if you are a consultant, what would you say (as your responsibilities vary by project).

Thoughts?

Question on the Extracurricular Section:

They ask for the number of members for each activity. Is that the total number of members in our specific role or in the entire organization?