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.

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.

Questions from prospective MBA applicants

It has been quite some time since I published my last post. The amount of work that I am doing in my college and the time I am spending to prepare my applications was keeping me away from blogging. Anyways, I thought I will publish one more post before I break off for semester exams.
Yesterday, we had an event conducted by our professor of entrepreneurship class. In that event, we were paired up with a random partner and told to come up with a viable business for one day. I chose the idea of mentoring but at the end of the day we shifted to food as it was much more demanding and we earned the same amount of money in 1 hour by selling food as the amount we had earned in 6 hours of mentoring.
Anyways during mentoring I came across some important questions which I thought I would put in this blog so that people are more aware at least of the basic things (though some of the things I might have already covered in my previous posts). All the statistical data are taken from the blog by the director of the admissions and financial aid (http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/blog-all.html)
I must also say that the opinions that I give here are entirely my own and opinions may vary among people. All the information that I give in this blog are based on my experience and my interaction with different kinds of people.


Q) I am very interested in this HBS 2+2 program. Do you recommend me to write the GRE exam or the GMAT?
A) The admission committee for the HBS 2+2 program as well as the director of admissions tell that they accept both the tests and they don't give any preference to any of the tests. The average GMAT score for HBS 2+2 class of 2014 admitted applicants is slightly below 730 and the GRE score is a shade below 1450. But the range of GMAT score is from 510 to 790. So whichever test you take, ultimately you being selected or dinged (rejected) depends upon your overall application including your essays, recommendation letter, GPA, extra curricular activities etc... If you are very interested in doing an MBA, I would recommend you to take the GMAT exam as its score can be used for other b schools too. Some top colleges like Harvard and Stanford does accept GRE scores but not all b schools.



Q) When is the latest that I can take my GMAT / GRE to apply for the HBS 2+2 program?

A) I booked for my test dates quite late and this turned out to be a mistake for me. I booked my test dates earlier this February to write my exams in June with the dates being as follows
June 21 -TOEFL
June 24 - GRE
June 25 - GMAT 
This turned out to be a mistake as the last date for submitting a score was July 1st. So, I didn't have my AWA scores to report, also I didn't have my percentile scores so I just rounded off my percentile scores to an approximate figure as I couldn't submit my application without entering my percentile scores.
I will highly recommend a candidate to write the GMAT / GRE sometime in February, so that you will get everything in hand before submitting an application. Also, if you happen to score lesser than what you were expecting you can always write the exam once more in the month of April / May. 



Q) I have a low GPA. Will it affect my chances of getting admitted?
A) The average GPA of the HBS 2+2 class of 2014 students is around 3.75. So one has to be really exceptional to get admitted into the program. The grading system is different in different parts of the world and what is 3.75 in the US may be a slightly lower score in some other part of the world. So you need to see how you have performed with respect to your peers and how you have best utilized the chances that are around you. Most of the students who have been accepted to the 2+2 program did their under graduation in colleges like Harvard, Stanford etc. So you will be competing with those students. Therefore, I will say the GPA does matter and you will have to try to be the best or at least in the top few students of your class if you are not from colleges like Harvard or Stanford. However, if you have a very good reason to say why you didn't do very well in your under graduation then you probably have a slight chance to get called for an interview.


Q) I am going to apply for the HBS 2+2 program next year. What can I do in the next 8 months to get admitted?
A) This is a question which most students asked me and I never give a direct reply to this.
The students must do whatever they are passionate about and see that what they do matches with their career vision. You should not do anything just because you think that will help you to get an admit. I am very sure that the admission committee will be able to see right through your essays or at least it will be evident in the interview if you did some things just for the sake of doing it without showing any real interest.
The things you can do to improve your chances are study well for the GMAT and get a high GMAT score, research well on the colleges and apply to those colleges which fits you, visit the campus if you can (you tend to learn a lot more than just browsing through websites)

HBS 2+2 Career vision essay question initially misunderstood

I had at first misunderstood the question that comes in the optional part of the essays where they ask about, "what is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?" At first (sometime last October), I was thinking why choosing HBS or in particular the 2+2 program was meaningful to me. But, after browsing a lot, I had found out that it is not why the HBS or the the 2+2 program in particular but your career vision is meaningful to you. This was a tricky question. For the 2+2 applicants, I would advise that unless they are very focussed on what their career vision is they should not answer this question. The other two questions, in the optional about how one has engaged with the community or which part of the world are you most curious about and why, should be answered by the students who do not have sufficient focus on their career vision.

While answering the career vision question, one should be able to mention how they have grown over time and should be able to connect what they have done previously to their career goal. Being a college senior, with little work experience, one might find it difficult to write about the career vision part. He however should not be tempted into answering this question thinking that this will impress the admission officials the most. If the candidate is not very strong in his career vision part, it could have an adverse effect on his application.

Harvard 2+2 Program

If you want information about the HBS 2+2 program, you will be interested in a specific post on HBS 2+2 by me. The following post is about my experience in applying to the HBS 2+2 program. 
The deadline for application was July 1st and I submitted my application for it on June 30th. Looking back, I think I should never have submitted my application because I didn't put a lot of effort in making a nice one. But at the same time, I learnt a lot from just applying to the college. The next application which I would be submitting to Stanford will be polished to the maximum. I am not going to have any slip-ups in the application. If I had been selected in HBS I would probably never have applied to Stanford. So I think this is God's way of telling me that I belong to Stanford, after all I have a strong passion for entrepreneurship and is there a better place to be than stanford?

I came across HBS 2+2 program around the same time last year. Ever since I saw the application essay, I would be literally dreaming of what to write about career vision, the three most substantial accomplishments, what have I learned from a mistake and so forth... So any candidate who is planning to apply for HBS should start preparing early for the applications. It is important for a candidate to have a good GMAT, GPA, leadership skills. Though this year an HBS 2+2 admitted student got 510 in GMAT. So thats where the essays and the recommendation letter comes into play. On the whole if you are able to market yourself very well then you will have a good chance of getting admitted.

Time Management

To those individuals who wanted to know how to manage their time here is an excellent article from Harvard Business Review

An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day

The author for the above article starts by saying that, Do you have too much time and not enough to do in it? If your answer to that above question is No then you'll have to read the article

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/07/an-18minute-plan-for-managing.html

Prior to application of HBS 2+2

My application to HBS 2+2 program meant for the college seniors started about a year back. Ever since I started it, I started going through a variety of websites, blog, contacting alumni etc. I started to draft my essays only around april this year. During the same time, my classmate and I co-founded "The Entrepreneurship Development Club" in our college. I am the President of that club and my friend/classmate Jeremiah (a.k.a Jerry) is the CEO.

Before assuming the post of the President of Entrepreneurship Development Club, I was the student executive member of SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) for a period of one year and one of the two college representatives to the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN). Entrepreneurship has always interested me and Im have a strong passion for it which led me to lead a 5 member team to participate in the Youth Business Development competition conducted by Oxford Said Business School. I have also done 4 internships in a few countries.

I thought I had a good shot at getting in HBS due to my high GPA around 3.7/4 (I am ranked first in my department) and my reasonable extra curricular activities. The reason why I got rejected to the HBS was probably because I didn't analyse myself thoroughly. However, the entire application to the HBS was a self realising process through which I learnt a lot about myself in terms of who I am, where do I want to go, what do I want to do in life and so forth. My internship in the US made me realise my strengths and weakness and also how much and why I wanted to do an MBA. My strong analytical skills combined with my desire to learn new things and my excitement to make substantial and lasting change to a business client makes me an ideal candidate for management consulting. Applying to HBS was the best decision of my life as I would have not known why and how strongly I wanted to be a management consultant. So to every candidate for an MBA program who happens to come across my blog my advise to you is to apply as early as possible to the MBA program so that you will know what you want to do in the future and be focussed in achieving that task.

Having said that, I am off to edit my essays for the stanford application.