A few tips for a college senior to get admitted into the Ivy League Universities

Here is an email that I got from a student pursing his senior year and my response to it. I hope some of you will find the information useful.

"I just came across your blog. Like those thousands of students here in India, i am also wanting to pursue an MBA from abroad. I am just going to enter my final year in engineering here in India. Unlike the many people(read colleges as well), I would want to make the choice of pursuing an MBA early in my career, probably before wrodking. Hence I needed to apply for schools that can do even without a work experience.

My concern is that , my parents are in a govt. service and that probably they can only support me till a limit in the costs involved. Hence i was looking for options that would let me finance the entire education program, so that i put very less financial burden on my parents.

I just came across Yale Silver scholar program, and HBS 2+2( i missed the deadline), but found them to costly.

Do you have any advice for me, so that I could also get admitted into one of the Ivy-League universities, and make a head start in my preferred career direction ?

I would be really grateful, if I could have a handy advice or two from you ."

I hope this message finds you doing well and all geared up for the admission process. Some schools like Yale take college seniors right out of college whereas others like HBS give deferred admits. For financing your program and getting into a top ranked university, I would suggest Stanford GSB. It has Dhirubhai Ambani scholarship for Indian students. Also, I recommend you to apply to management consulting firms as the experience that you get would be valued. You can also read the wall street journal, economist which would help you in the long run.

Applying to the deferred program is a self-realizing process and even if one is not accepted to the deferred program, there is always the option of working for a couple of years to develop a strong set of professional experiences and extracurricular activities on the side to strengthen your overall application package. Having spoken with a lot of MBA students from Harvard, Stanford, MIT ,and Yale, I would say their common advise is work for a couple of years before doing an MBA as the larger consulting firms that recruit on MBA campuses look specifically for people with pre-MBA strategy or finance experience.

I hope the tips are helpful to you as you plot out your path over the next couple of years.

Stanford GSB (Optional Deferred Program for College Seniors)

For Stanford GSB there is no exclusive program for college seniors such as HBS 2+2. However, they encourage seniors to consider applying to the MBA program. Harvard usually takes in around 110 college seniors through its 2+2 program. The number of students who get in through optional deferred program are quite less according to me. I think the number is less than 10, but it's just my guess. But, I still encourage college seniors to apply as you learn a lot about yourself. It is a self-realizing process and the satisfaction is immense. You also get to know which areas you can improve in. And, you get that extra few crucial years to improve yourself than you would have got if you had started applying after working for a few years.

Few of the qualities they seek in an undergraduate applicants are
1) Intellectual Vitality: This can be demonstrated through many ways but not only by grades and test scores. GSB considers our attitude to learning to be as important as our aptitude. Stanford wants to shape the future and they want to see our passion, dedication and genuine interest in expanding our intellectual horizon. They would also like to know whether we mastered any concepts that are not immediately relevant to our immediate career, to carve a path in ambiguous environment. This helps GSB to know whether we will be able to support the school's goal of developing knowledge that deepens and advances the practice of management.

2) Demonstrated Leadership Potential: By this, they would like to know about our character. This leadership activities can be demonstrated through activities, research or internships. They want to know more about our personal motivations and convictions, and our ability to confront complex, unfamiliar issues with good judgement through our essays.

3) Personal Qualities and Contributions: They want to know about our experiences that significantly influenced how we work with others, beliefs, passions, dreams, goals which would help them evaluate how we can not only contribute to, but also, how we can benefit from GSB. College seniors who get in normally have high maturity and self-confidence.


Also we should be able to articulate why we need to attend business school. Ultimately remember, Stanford wants to change lives, change organizations, change the world.

An email received from a Prospective HBS 2+2 applicant

   

After Marquis Parker (MBA Stanford) published my question and his responses to it, the visits to my page have increased tremendously. As a result, I got an email from a prospective applicant to HBS 2+2 program asking me  for some advise. The main part of his question goes as follows,

" ... i've been involved in a startup since april 2007, n me and another guy both started it, the fact is, there is no proof on paper tht i started along with him or that i hav a partnership in the company.. But, i've been involved in the company's work largely n made very good progress in the expansion of the company... do the admission committee ask for specific proof as i don't have any...  how'd u recommend me to continue???"


It is good that you are applying to an MBA early on in your career. Applying to HBS 2+2 program which is meant for college seniors gives you a better chance of getting accepted into the MBA program as opposed to applying while you are a normal applicant. Even if you don't get the result as you might have expected from HBS you will be pleased that you took the time to apply from which you would have learnt about whether you really want to do an MBA and why do you want to do it soon. Also in the process you will learn about yourself and the opportunities surrounding you which you could have utilized/ or will utilize later on and a lot more.


Regarding your question my opinion goes as follows,
It is definitely advisable to carry all the proof with you. You should have got some proof especially if you started a company with a partner. Without proof you can apply but the adcom will find ways to test whether your claims are genuine by their questions. I would advise any candidate to be truthful in the MBA application process not only in mentioning your extra curricular activities, or unique things but also to questions such as why you want to do an MBA and so on. Answering these questions truthfully will help you realize your goals more accurately (since you are not yet a college senior your goals might be varying). I wish you all the the best with your application process and since the application deadline is July 1st, I think you will have sufficient time to get the proof that you have started the business along with your partner.

A Stanford MBA Alumni's Advice to me

I had written to a Stanford Alumni (Marquis Parker) a couple of months ago regarding applying to the Stanford Optional Deferred Program which was available to the college seniors.

My questions and his response are posted in his blog www.marquisparker.com http://www.marquisparker.com/2010/03/question-from-a-college-senior-applying-to-b-school/


A brief profile about Marquis Parker as written by himself

By way of introduction, here is a little background about myself:

• Alumnus of Princeton University; (undergrad degree in Computer Science), Stanford University (M.B.A.; and M.A. in Education), and the University of Virginia (M.S. in Management of IT)
• Former Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company and Accenture
• Former Java Software Engineer
• Long-time mentor, coach, and adviser to professionals and students
• All-around nice guy (at least, based on what people tell me  )

HBS 2+2

What is HBS 2+2?

Harvard Business School launched a deferred program which is meant for admitting exceptional college undergraduates who may not have considered business education. The first set of students were selected in fall of 2008. They will be enrolling in the year 2011 and would be completing their education by 2013.

For whom is HBS 2+2 ?

HBS 2+2 is meant for college students in their pre-final year. The students who want to enroll in the year 2013 will have to graduate by the year 2011 and they will have to submit their application in the year 2010. This program is not meant for graduates who have graduated by the year 2010. Those type of graduates will have to apply normally (i.e complete with people who have an average of about 4-5 years of experience)

Why was this program introduced by Harvard?

This program was introduced to mainly attract those type of students who typically wouldn't be thinking of a business education, for e.g., women may be more inclined to study law or medicine, very intelligent students in engineering field may go on for programs like PhD etc. Also contrary to popular saying of business schools rejecting early career applicants straight forwardly, some schools do accept them. Yale has a silver scholar program which takes in student just after they graduate. Stanford too takes in students who don't have work experience or have less work experience. So, with lot of quality students (read: future leaders) being lost to other business schools, Harvard has come up with this unique program to give students a confirmed admit though it is a deferred seat.

Difference between applying now and after 2 years>>

Whether a student gets admitted for the HBS 2+2 program or applies after having 2 years of work experience applies and gets admitted it doesn't make a lot of difference. The advantages of getting admitted for the HBS 2+2 program is  you get confirmed seat in Harvard which is a great thing. Also, the admitted students will have a dedicated career coach and access to strategic career coaching advise thorough the self-assessment tool developed by the HBS.

HBS 2+2 essays: 

1) What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600 words)

Through this question, HBS wants to know about the candidates definition of an accomplishment. It may or may not be successful.  HBS wants to know, how you as a person and how you made a positive impact on the people and the community. While mentioning your accomplishment don't forget the second part why do you view them as such.  HBS wants leaders and they want the students to have showcased some sort of leadership while they were doing their under graduation. It may be better to demonstrate your leadership activities or accomplishments in different fields like internship, academics (can be mentioned in the next question), community service, or any other leadership roles held.

2) What would you like us to know about your undergraduate academic experience?

One is not only expected to convey about their grades and their GPA to the admission officials through this question but also about why they chose the particular course? Did anything in their life lead them to choose it? What are the things that you have learnt? What are the things that you haven't learnt and hope to get it covered by an MBA program at HBS? How have you improved in the course of your study?

3) What have you learned from a mistake?

In this question one must say what was the mistake he committed and also how he learned from a mistake. You can provide an example where you have grown as a leader by learning from the previous mistake that you have committed.

Articles to read:

1) The Wall Street Journal

2) Harvard Business School Media Release

Remember that the admission officials want to know who you are as a person and what matter to you. If you try to modify your answers thinking that it would better your chances of getting an admit, you couldn't be more wrong.

Note:- Optional essay questions and a few other things related to HBS 2+2 program will be added soon.