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kickinback
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Concentration: Finance, Accounting
Schools: Kellogg '14 (D) Booth '14 (A) LBS '14 (A) Oxford '14 (A) Stern '14 (M$)
GMAT 1: 760 Q43 V50
GPA: 3.54
WE:Accounting (Finance: Investment Banking)
Schools: Kellogg '14 (D) Booth '14 (A) LBS '14 (A) Oxford '14 (A) Stern '14 (M$)
GMAT 1: 760 Q43 V50
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Top Schools Admission Criteria 08 Jul 2011, 08:25
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Given that everyone on here has different strengths and weaknesses to their profile and as each school applies differing weights to the various criteria, I thought it might be useful to put together a thread discussing people's perceptions of what is most important to the top schools. For example one school might look at advancement in an applicants career as most important, another the GMAT score or the industry worked in prior to the application.

So I would be interested to know what people think each of the "top" schools look for in an applicant. It might help people identify which schools their profile is a good fit for and which they might be less competitive in.

So to start with does anyone have any insights on what the Top 10 (from BusinessWeek) look for? Currently that is:
Chicago (Booth)
Harvard
Wharton
Northwestern (Kellogg)
Stanford
Duke
Michigan (Ross)
Berkley (Haas)
Columbia
MIT
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eskimoroll
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Schools: Harvard Business School - Class of 2013
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Top Schools Admission Criteria 08 Jul 2011, 08:59
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Interesting question. While all schools look for a complete candidate with many characteristics, I'll take a stab at what the perceived priority is for the schools that I'm familiar with.

Chicago (Booth) - intellectual curiosity
Harvard - leadership
Northwestern (Kellogg) - teamwork
Stanford - impact
MIT - fit
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kickinback
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Joined: 29 Jun 2011
Last visit: 27 Mar 2012
Posts: 40
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Location: United Kingdom
Concentration: Finance, Accounting
Schools: Kellogg '14 (D) Booth '14 (A) LBS '14 (A) Oxford '14 (A) Stern '14 (M$)
GMAT 1: 760 Q43 V50
GPA: 3.54
WE:Accounting (Finance: Investment Banking)
Schools: Kellogg '14 (D) Booth '14 (A) LBS '14 (A) Oxford '14 (A) Stern '14 (M$)
GMAT 1: 760 Q43 V50
Posts: 40
Kudos: 11
Top Schools Admission Criteria 08 Jul 2011, 09:02
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Very useful, thank you. From my research it seems that Wharton and Columbia are more interested in stats than other places but what do others think?
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Izvos
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Top Schools Admission Criteria 11 Jul 2011, 01:22
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eskimoroll
Interesting question. While all schools look for a complete candidate with many characteristics, I'll take a stab at what the perceived priority is for the schools that I'm familiar with.

Chicago (Booth) - intellectual curiosity
Harvard - leadership
Northwestern (Kellogg) - teamwork
Stanford - impact
MIT - fit
Show more

agree.

+ Harvard - CHANGE
+ Stanford - Business
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whiplash2411
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Top Schools Admission Criteria 11 Jul 2011, 04:23
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Quoting Harvard's website on this, they want people who have a habit of leadership, demonstrate capacity for intellectual growth and are engaged in community citizenship. So Izvos's summary seems pretty accurate. :)
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Narenn
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Top Schools Admission Criteria 21 Oct 2015, 10:42
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Bump!! Curious what current applicants say on this.