Sandy, what do you expect applications to top Bschools to look like NEXT YEAR? I assume they will be even higher than this year because of subprime fallout, but just wanted to get your take. I think we’re on an up-trend the next few years.

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ALWAYS hard to predict, but sure that guess is a good starting point. There are always demographic and international trends to consider, both US VISA issues for Internationals,and now the beginnings of new B schools in Russia, India, and sister programs in China etc. Those new schools  can impact US application numbers. If the dollar remains cheap, that may be US B schools biggest draw over the next several years.  Subprime mess is double edged sword, while it wrings out IB types who now look at 2yrs at B school as a GREAT idea, it also tarnishes the enterprise, and Business just becomes less attractive as a career. Also, IB may hire less, at both college and B school level, and that has domino impact b.c. banks often use consultants, etc. so THEY hire less, and POOF, you start hearing stories about how hard it is to get a job, esp. at non Tier 1 schools (however defined) yadda, yadda, and that aint good. One is surprised at how accelerated all this becomes, impacts which used to take 1- 2 years to develop now happen in 6 months, etc. etc.

Wharton WL –see story WL story from Biz Week below whch STRONGLY SUGGESTS NOT BUGGING Wharton adcom  DIRECTLY. Might be ok, but risky, to have current kids lobby on your behalf or  alums etc. write or pull any available strings, all that said, most kids who get in off WL, just Wait and then POOF they get in.

Not sure about stats, but I’d say chances of getting in off WL are grim-ish, sorta 10-15 percent (and that is my call late at nite w. a few drinks, ask me in the morning, it could be lower); depends on r2 and yield blah blah. One prob. is that a lot of sub-prime washouts will be applying R2, and boy, if you want to sum up the Klassic Wharton Applicant, it is some fired, or, ahem, ‘exit oriented”  wise guy from Morgan Stanley et al.,  so pool in R2 could be real strong–those Aholes look good on paper. Just  a maccabre guess. The attitude of IBankers/PE tigers etc.  towards applying to b school has taken an amazing 180 in an AMAZING short time. Remember that NY TIMES story about only Wall St losers go to B school???? Son, that story had a “use by” sticker of about 10 days. (more…)

WL suck, altho lots of folks get in off CHi WL, I dont really have stats, and to some degree it depends on what happens 2nd round, both absolutely (total apps) and how many solid apps fr. guys like you, to the degree the school uses WL to round out class.  As to what else to do, well, you need to figure out why you got on WL in first place. Given that you are < m/26/720/ 3.85 from a state school/ 3 years as a trader on wall street.> it was not a matter of stats or work etc. but prob. interview, lack of extras, bad execution of goals, or boring PP.  After that, their WL letter is sorta an invitation to wag your tail, get others to write on your behalf, and even visit, despite them saying it dont make a dif, it can, I suppose, only human nature. Sorry, but WL are sordid at times, and TRICKS, OUTSIDE SHOTS, AND ODD EVENTS  SOMETIME WORK. No one at school cares who gets off WL, they just want process to END, so if you make a personal visit, and get someone on your side, or have some bigfoot write in, sure, admit you, and make a human connection vs. just admitting the next shmuck on the list. THis is part. true at Chi, where there is big WL and it moves somewhat (sorry dont have stats).

IN terms of writng a letter for yourself, you need to address what is new and try to figure out what weakness was, etc. etc.

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I just got waitlisted at Chicago.  From your past knowledge, can you tell me how likely it is that I can get in off of the waitlist (i.e. how many people Chicago puts on the waitlist, what their yield is like, etc)?  They also mention that we can send in additional information.  Is this something I should do, and if so, what types of things should I send (an additional recommendation, etc)?

Here are my stats: m/26/720/ 3.85 from a state school/ 3 years as a trader on wall street.

10180.17659

Both H & S are murky about the timings of admit / deny decision releases. The party line seems to be: “Only on the published deadline will you hear from us. No exceptions”. Based on previous years, is this really the case? Or do both / either actually start releasing decisions earlier? HBS releases all decisions on D-day by email, at ~noon (I think) EST: you log into MisApply Yourself, see a status change,  and find out. The process is exactly how they desribe it. Stanford is more Bolton-centric, he starts calling people day before D-Day, sometimes 36 hours prior,  often Asia first, with accepts,  then if you tune into Stanford R1 thread, you can follow the phone calls, as happy accepted kids post I JUST GOT THE CALL, and other silly blather about how they were in the shower, when in fact, all anyone else wants to know is. WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED AND WHAT ARE YOUR STATS. Which they happy doofuses sometimes post and sometimes do not. Friend, you will find these boards a lot different after you get in, reading them post accept  is sorta like sleeping on a fraternity couch. OF course, I am doomed to stay here forever, but everyone has a burden to bear. Now how Bolton defends his 36 hour phone-a-thon, which is really nerve wracking, and sorta like some tortured game of musical chairs, dunno. All the Stanford applicants are on to the ‘game’ and following Stan Round One thread that day is sadistic fun, starting w. first I GOT IN dope, who giggles on and does not tell you stats and location. Then other kids who live near Stanford sorta lurk by his office and  report when he is eating lunch, when lights go out, what time he goes to bed, while the usual dying enders on Stan thread calculate how long it takes to make a call, how many calls an hour, blah blah, someone posts a spreadsheet, a la Col ED thread,  and then, as you may have noted w. HBS Round One invites thread, at some point, the calls stop.  No more calls, then kids get sick and barf, and demand their money back, then other clowns come up increasingly wild theories about why calls will start again. ETC. Real fun.  Sure it is nice to get a call, but he could notify everyone on D-Day by email,instead of protracting the stress etc. and then call in next 2 days for personal hello, but of course, then he would not be playing GOD, just some schlub adcom sorta rolling out the Welcome Wagon. If you have not gotten the call fr. Bolton by D-Day you are [99 percent] not getting in. Opening your official announcment is like taking the tie off a doggie drop  bag. Surprise!!! it’s dog doo!!!!

Sandy

They do not have specific essay instructions for reapplicants…what do you think of that? Where can reapplicants talk about what improvements they’re made to their candidacy? Anything other particular advice you’d give to reapplicants for HBS?

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You can use essay 3.6 what do you want board to understand about you to address How You Are New and Improved since last app–but that only works if you got real stuff to say about accmplmnts, etc. they dont want no more focused jive, or now I am ready, blah blah –a lot of reapps get in w.out address reapp issue. If you got something impt to say, say it. But better practice is just to make NEW app better by including more, including new stuff, and executing better. As w. so many burning issues w. other schools,

• WHY NOW
• WHY US
• CAREER ROADMAP
• WHY MBA
• WHAT’S NEW SINCE YOU APPLIED AND HOW ARE BETTER LOOKING AND NICER?

HBS DONT CARE!!!!!  That is to say, they dont spec. ask. They sorta expect new app will have recent material and whole story of HOW SPECIAL you are in total vs. Specific Improvements is what they care about.

Sandy–in regards to the undergrad experience essay, when explaining the reasons why GPA is low, is it ok to further discuss a post-grad class taken recently to boost profile, or do I have to stick to 100% undergrad only? I feel the essay will be much more powerful if I can put all the arguments (of why my low GPA is not representative of my capabilities) all together in one essay.  

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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

I ve said it many times, at HBS, THERE IS NO WRONG ANSWER. You can  be quite liberal in answering questions, and most of the better apps are, to wit, including important identidy politics issues (origins, family, obstacles, race, sex, gender, diseases, sexual orientation) into every kind of answer. You can often use the Undergrad essay to give your whole bio, in quick form, and explain how college influenced you.  They dont care if you stay between the lines of the question, they care about WHAT you actually say.  Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for Global Warming warnings–duh, what’s that got to do w. PEACE?? At HBS, they get the connection, and will give you even more rooom, they’d give Al Nobel Prize for Physics if they had to.

The SINGLE biggest mistake that smart kids make, especially techies and some finance people, on HBS app. is just generic answers: I worked on Generic Project, it had outcomes x y z, I was able to support my unnamed team, and do some great models, I also worked w. QA team and product had results x yz.   Five essays like that, and welcome to 760gmat, 8.9 IIT/3.7 Engineering at Ivy  and dingsville.

KENNEDY SCHOOL TO REBRAND ITSELF: SOMETHING HBS GOT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME:

STILL UNANSWERED, WILL IT NOW BE KSG OR HKS????????

new slogan quite funny, “Ask what you can do?” Didn’t the original remark tilt towards, “what you can do for your country?” while this version seems ego and self-actualization driven, as if Tony Robbins has replaced JFK as the patron saint of the place.

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News

KSG Dean Unveils New Name, Slogan

Published On 12/11/2007 12:57:10 AM

By JUNE Q. WU

Contributing Writer

Joining the ranks of Cingular and the CUE Guide, the John F. Kennedy School of Government will rebrand itself as the Harvard Kennedy School starting next semester, the school’s dean has announced.

The exercise will also include a revamped Web site, a standardized logo, and a new slogan: “Ask what you can do.”

In an e-mail to students, faculty and alumni announcing the change on Friday, Dean David T. Ellwood ’75 wrote that the lack of a consistent shorthand  means that students, academics, and the media give the school a multiplicity of confusing nicknames.

He added that many sources had advised coming up with a definitive shorthand name.

The school’s associate dean for communication and public affairs, Melodie L. Jackson, said her department conducted a series of one-on-one interviews with faculty, students, alumni, and prospective employers last year.

“One of our key findings was that we were not leveraging our affiliation with Harvard as effectively as we could be,” she said, adding that the school shares the Kennedy name with more than 900,000 other institutions around the world.

Jackson said the rebranding is a response to poor name recognition of the school beyond Harvard.

“There’s a lot of confusion out there as to who we even are,” she said.

Stephen C. Chan, a second-year joint degree student at the Kennedy School and the Business School said, “I think it’s strange that the school is focusing on something superficial.”

Chan also expressed surprise at the removal of the term “government” from the school’s new name as it falls in line with Harvard’s other professional schools.

“But I can understand why they think this is necessary,” he added.

Executive Dean John A. Haigh said that the emphasis on Kennedy’s name—as well as the famous speech recalled in the slogan—was a reminder of the school’s commitment to public service.

“We are very proud of our heritage, of our linkage to the Kennedy name,” Haigh said. “And we also want to maintain the connection to the Harvard name so people will know who we are, where we are, and what we do.”

Jackson said that the official name of the school will remain the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Since the changes will mostly affect the Web site rather than buildings or plaques, they will not come at particularly high costs, she added.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=521254

Sandy–If HBS currently has less than 10% of the allotted slots available for interviews, would you say that the remaining interview invites go to underrepresented minorities, legacy applicants or other unique applicants to help even out the class based on the make up of round 2 applicants?

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Wednesday, December 05, 2007You’d think, but it does not work out that way, lots of times kids invited to late interviews [and taken off WL in late spring] are just overlooked stars of the very normal type, altho, looking back on THE SORTA  FEW (but not rare, just way less than first weeks) invites I’ve heard about since my 80 percent call, the mix was high side of normal tilting  towards groups you ID. So maybe if oddball mix [however defined, e.g. your categories above]  of whole pool is X, Oddball  cohort of late Round 1 interview pool could be X+25 percent. The issue of what the impact on Round 1 is of arrival of R2 applications, which my guess is, gets statistically broken out immediately (e..g total numbers, numbers of  Ints, numbers of M and W, numbers by Industry etc. Average gmat and gpa, blah blah blah, someone does this a sorta full time job, and that someone does that job beyond ways anyone cares about, just like at your firm], hmmmmmmm, usually result is not surprising, e.g. it can almost always  be predicted fr. Round 1 itself, and to the extent that there are UNPREDICTED spikes in any category, that can easily be dealt w. by beefing up WL, not interviewing new people after Jan 3 [that almost NEVER happens, sorry, dead enders], soooooooooooooooo, to some degree, kids who are WL without Int, may be the result of micro tuning Round 1 post arrival or R2, but even that is less likely than it sounds, basically, the process is sound, professional and rational but not machine tooled, my guess is there are always 25-50 folders on Dee Dee’s desk each round  that she kinda keeps looking at, and may move around fr. Ding to WL to Int, just like you have bills and issues on your desk you keep putting off. What happens to those folders is not scientific but just as ‘fair’ as if it were.