HBS 2012 - Calling All Applicants

Hi Sandy!

I've been reading through the profiles on Poets and Quants and haven't seen one similar to mine, so I was curious to hear your feedback.

I'm a 33 year old white male, 1st generation college grad. I first attended college at a large state university with a so-so reputation in the late 90s, had a low GPA, and dropped out due to financial hardship. I went back to college at a low ranked Christian college in the South a year or so ago, and am about to graduate with a 4.0 in Business Administration. I did this while working full time and raising several children with my wife. I haven't taken the GMAT yet.

Professionally, I've been working as a manager in local/state government for the last 8 years. My work area is social services- helping food stamp recipients, refugees/low-English populations, low-income people in general. The area I am from, as well as currently live and work in, is very poor and disadvantaged.

I speak fluent Spanish and have traveled pretty extensively in Latin America, including a semester abroad in my first attempt at college.

Would I have a shot at a top tier program like HBS, given a high enough GMAT score? It seems as though my age and possibly my job would be potentially disqualifying negatives, although the job touches on some of the intangibles that are listed as favorable. My goal here is to go to a top school so I can come back and do something for the area. My family has been here for centuries(literally) and the place means a lot to me. I would be happy with a state/regional school, but want to shoot for something bigger, as I feel like it would help me accomplish more of my goals.

Sandy is a bit nicer here than on other sites, where the answer to a similar topic was:
"tough tittie, too old!", I think paraphrased from the adcom itself.

Does each year's GPA in online application mean

a) Cumulative GPA in college at the end of each year
or
b) GPA for coursework within the year?

thanks for help

PRETTY USELESS INTERVIEW W. HBS NOHRIA IN TODAY'S WALL ST J. https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904563904576588583893732362.html

He does say that 90 pct of HBS kids have jobs by Sept of their 2nd year and that HBS is doing great job teaching ethics (no one questioned him about Inside Job, and lack of disclosure req. for Harvard faculty themselves).

He actually makes a good pt about power being a greater threat to ethics than adversity.

but if you are rushing to finish your Round 1, app. you can skip this.

Hey Sandy,

How does HBS view candidates whose goal is to return to their current employer? Does that differ if their current employer isn't McK, Bain, BCG, Goldman, etc?

My take on it was that they wanted each individual year's GPA, hopefully to show an upward trend from year to year.

Sandy, quick question for you --

In one of your P&Q profile evaluations, you gave the advice to "pump up your extracurriculars." Do you mean to get more significant EC's, or do you mean to carefully position your current extracurriculars in your application (i.e. "spin" them into something significant)? Because I think for many people asking about their chances now, it's a little late to get more extracurricular activities without seeming too urgent about it. So maybe your suggestion to "pump up" EC's means to "spin" them well in the apps?

hi all, i dont want to fall into the word cutting game, so i want to know how important is it to be under the word limit for each of the essays. I am not overdoing it, as an example, a 600 word essay has 620 words, and 400 word essays have 410 or 420. will it look bad if I dont cut words out? I would like to focus on other things, rather than being worried about the word count.

I stuck to the 10% rule and had no issues at any school to which I applied. I typically had one or two essays that were a bit under, and a few that were a bit over. They aren't going to sit there and count words, but they will notice if you're WAY over.

Thanks matticusfinch!! I see that you are matriculating at Harvard. Can I see your essays just to get a better understanding of how many words you used ?? hehehe JK thanks for the advice, I am just a bit over on some but I am below on two others so it balances out.

Totally. I think in my section (including myself), we have 4 or 5 30+ folks. I'm CPG, another girl is banking (trader), and couple are military. I'm also friends with several other 30+ people who come from industry (engineering/manufacturing/whatever). It definitely doesn't feel like it's only military that's older.

Thanks! A ray of hope for some of us old geezers.

One of my recommenders is running late and it might be Tuesday before he submits it. How lenient are schools with recommenders? or does it have to be in by noon Boston time?



thanks?

LORs have been by far the most stressful part of my application - because I have no control over it! And in our business, most stuff is done right before deadline anyway. Ugh, just trying to keep calm now.

Not lenient at all, everything has to be in by the deadline or you're in round 2 pool.

I'm also waiting for LORs, everyone is busy so it comes down to the wire!

What kind of information is everyone putting into the "Additional Comments" section? At only 500 characters it seems like this is intended to only add clarification to points in the application as opposed to new material.

Thoughts?

I'm waiting for one more LOR and certainly worried that it won't get in on time.