Saturday, July 7, 2007

A story of a recent Harvard admit

A story of a recent Harvard Business School admit :

Harvard - Admitted
INSEAD - Admitted
London Business School - Dinged
Stanford - Accepted
Columbia - Dinged
Chicago - Dinged
Kellogg - Admitted

He applied for all 7 schools at one go... just the thought of writing 7 sets of customized essay can blow my mind...
( should admire his recommenders too...)

Conclusion from him:
You could never know what the schools are really looking for.
You could never know what plan God has for you.

3 comments:

AGirlsMBA said...

I second this post! And although 7 sets of essays seem really daunting you can put your nose to the grindstone in get them done in a few weeks ... you can do it!

e.catharsis said...

Actually, the meaning I would derive from your story is the opposite of what you did.

I would hypothesize that this applicant was extremely strong, so much so that the schools that the most selective schools (Stanford, Harvard, Kellogg, INSEAD) admitted him without much concern. On the other hand, schools like LBS, Columbia and Chicago, which attract good applicants (but not the very top ones) knew he was too good for them, and dinged him to save themselves the indignity of further reducing their yield.

The reason this trend isn't common is because the average admitted applicants is good but not spectacular: she may be good enough to squeeze into the Harvards and Stanfords, but also not so good that the Chicagos and Columbias would be sure that she would get into the better schools.

bluey said...

Not sure if he is one of those super achievers eagerly sought after by all top schools.

How about a possible inconsistency in his interview performances?
Or perhaps, individual B-school simply values different qualities of a candidate.