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Why Doesn’t Cornell Johnson Get More Love?

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We’re pleased to announce that we finally got the Cornell Johnson SnarkStrategies Guide updated for 2018 — and when we say “finally” we mean “FINALLY!”

SnarkStrategies MBA Guide for Cornell - covers the 2018 essays!

 

It was the only guide that we didn’t update in 2017 and it was lame that we didn’t, but things get a little crazy at this time of year, and it’s not one that we’ve ever had too much demand for. So we punted on it, and even this year didn’t get to it as soon as we would’ve liked.

This is actually one of our more important strategy guides — because the Cornell MBA application is a) extensive and b) challenging! You BSers deserve to have a solid resource to help you!

And yet, we know that not terribly many Brave Supplicants will have Cornell on their short list this year.

Their admit rate is ticking up seemingly every season, and their average GMAT is ticking down.

If you’ve stopped to ponder such things, you may be wondering, “Why isn’t Cornell ranked better?”

We’re going to take a moment and offer some thoughts, and perhaps some encouragement to consider this school, if you’re a BSer of a certain type.

For starters: Did you know that Cornell is in the Ivy League?

If you’re appreciative of things like brand name and care about the quality of reputation for your school (and who doesn’t), then that’s a vote in their favor. Right?

But how come Johnson, the bschool on Cornell University’s campus, is not as well respected? If Cornell is Ivy League like, say, Columbia, how come the bschools aren’t seen as very comparable?

We fielded a question from a Brave Supplicant last year who was admitted to Cornell but was debating on whether to accept the offer or try again next season, and he asked us point blank for our opinion on brand and reputation, and whether it might affect his chances in the job search later on.

So here’s EssaySnark’s view as an industry watcher for many years:

We have mixed feelings on Cornell.

And we’re not the only ones. For many Wall Street types especially, Cornell is thought of as a second-tier school. The reasons are in our opinion due to the system of rankings. It’s a vicious cycle:

  1. Cornell gets fewer applications, at least in part due to their location and the climate. They’re just too far away, and it’s too cold there. More people want to go to sunnier places. Kids will put up with the snow for Harvard or Columbia or Wharton because they don’t care about anything else. Both Tuck and Johnson may never be able to break out of the respective tiers that they’re in because of these issues.
  2. Fewer apps obviously means that they’re not as popular, and this is a drag on their rankings.
  3. It also means that they often have trouble converting the best admits into students; their yield (% of accepted applicants who matriculate) is relatively low. This means that they have a relatively lower GMAT score for current students; the stronger candidates usually got in elsewhere and often end up declining the Cornell admit, which leaves a class with a relatively lower average GMAT. This lower GMAT also affects their rankings.
  4. Lower rankings sends a signal to the marketplace that they’re not “as good as” other schools, which then suppresses the number of apps they receive. And the cycle continues.

For the full-time program, the fact is that Cornell is one of the “easier” schools to get into. Cornell is definitely still a “top” school but they’re just not in the same class, as far as competitiveness in admissions, to Kellogg and Duke et al. They’re more like Ross and Darden – you still must have your act together and do a good job on all aspects of your app, but someone who does that will likely make it in.

Now, this also means that typically the students who end up at Cornell are very grateful they got into Cornell. They will work hard, and they’re motivated, and they are very connected to the school. One of our past clients at Cornell many years ago put forth tremendous effort in expanding relationships from Johnson to Wall Street, just as one example. The Johnson alumni tend to be quite engaged, from what we’ve seen.

Another anecdote: We’ve had students at Yale tell us that their career services sucked in terms of helping them land Wall Street/IB positions, and they lamented that the Johnson kids were running circles around them.
When you’re asking questions about whether a school is the right choice or not, then besides factors like culture which we do feel are very important, then the other priority should be, do you feel this school will enable you to land the job you want to get when you graduate? (This is especially important for the 1Y, by the way.) If you are confident that they have the right connections with employers, that Cornell grads are in the positions you are aiming for, that their placement stats for the type of role you want (in the geography you’re focusing on) are strong, then that’s what matters.

It’s dangerous to be spending too much time on the applicant forums; there are so many opinions there that are just ego-driven, focused on prestige – but honestly, that does NOT matter in the real world. The arguments such as we see in the comments section on bschool applicant sites about “your school sucks” are just ridiculous. So much of it is like sports fans who get rabid for their team. Just because someone got into one school does not mean that all other schools are crap, yet that perspective seems so pronounced so much of the time. If you’re basing your decision on what you’re reading on the forums, then just be careful.

Cornell is a solid brand. It’s true that the Man on the Street has probably not heard of Johnson, but they have definitely heard of Cornell. Cornell passes the Gramma Test with flying colors. What matters most is if the Cornell MBA has value in your target field, and/or with your employers of interest. You can definitely break into ANY employer from ANY school if you have the network and you play your cards right. We know of many Johnson grads who’ve gone to Deloitte, and yes, even some to MBB. Johnson is not seen as a “top” school at MBB but that does not mean there are never any Johnson alum at those places either. If you haven’t already, then be sure to hit up your career services people at Johnson to see how they handle these questions.

And, bottom line, the past clients who we’ve worked with who went to Cornell have been across the board NICE PEOPLE who are motivated.

There’s other things going on with Cornell that you certainly need to be aware of (shameless plug: we cover them in our Cornell Johnson MBA Application Guide) but this is a school that’s not on everybody’s radar — which in some cases actually can make it a good choice.

This is a solid Top 20 bschool — and if you get in, it’s something to be proud of! Their admit rate may be higher than Columbia’s or Yale’s but that doesn’t mean you can waltz straight into the place. They’ve also got some interesting programs going on with the Tech MBA in Manhattan and a gazillion flavors of Executive MBA, plus a residential accelerated MBA in Ithaca – so lots of options beyond the standard two-year format that most of you are trying for. And here’s a fun fact: Cornell ranked #20 on the Sierra Club’s list of Cool Schools — colleges and universities that are “green” and making sustainability a priority. So there are many, many angles to use in assessing whether a school lines up with your own priorities and values.

We very much dislike the term “safety school” but we know many put Johnson in this category. Still, it’s the right choice for a good number of applicants, and it may be worth investigating further as you move through this admissions cycle this season.

And oh yeah, if you do decide to try, you’re gonna wanna pick up that SnarkStrategies Guide for Cornell Johnson. The Johnson essay assignments are intense! There’s a lot to them, and they’ll be keeping you busy for awhile.

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Talk to current students… just not about how to get in.

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In the category of well-intentioned but potentially damaging:

We keep having BSers tell us what they’ve been told by the current students attending the schools they want to go to.

It’s awesome when they report to us about their experiences or what new changes are happening or some amazing popular course or professor.

It’s often cringe-inducing when they tell us what the students are claiming about admissions to their schools.

Current students just LOVE to tell you how to get in.

Problem is, mostly, they’re wrong.

Current students rarely have the perspective offered from seeing massive amounts of data on who is getting in – and not. They hear about ONE case or ONE applicant – or maybe a handful – and they make all sorts of interpretations about that.

As in, “If you’re a military candidate, you have to have more than 8 years of experience to get into a Top 10 school.” We’re paraphrasing, but that’s essentially what a BSer reported to us recently, that he gleaned from conversations with current vets at different schools.

That is untrue.

No school makes admit decisions like that.

Wait, no, we take that back. Many schools DO make admit decisions on LACK OF experience. But the implication with what was reported to us is that these military candidates believe that they need MORE experience than average to have a shot at a good school.

No.

There’s also huge danger in isolating ONE candidate profile who, for example, didn’t make it into H/S/W. This happens on the applicant discussion boards all the time. Someone has their stats posted in their profile – 750 / 3.8 / PE or whatever. And they have the little log of all the Top 10 schools they tried for, and as decisions come out, you start to see the Rejected flag show up on the best schools.

And then you’re like, “D@mn, even a 750 + 3.8 isn’t good enough for Harvard!”

No, Brave Supplicant, no. That is not the conclusion to draw from it.

Someone with a 750 + 3.8 should be exceptionally well positioned to have a go at H/S/W” and if they play their cards right, AND IF THEY HAVE SOMETHING NOTABLE TO PRESENT ABOUT WHO THEY ARE IN THE ESSAYS then this person should have NO TROUBLE getting into at least one of those schools. Or at MINIMUM getting the interview invite.

Yes you can quote us on that. With stats like that, there’s practically NO EXCUSE to not at least make it to the interview stage at one of those schools.

Now, we’re completely going against our own advice about how a good consultant would never predict someone’s chances based on these two core stats alone. In fact we call that borderline professional malpractice.

What you will note, though, is the very big disclaimer that we’ve put on this prediction: That the person has something worthwhile to present about themselves in the app.

Of course it’s not enough to simply have a 750 + 3.8.

And of course it’s always possible to get in with a 650 + 2.8.

In ALL CASES it comes down to how you actually pitch yourself.

Which really boils down to: What have you done in your life?

The danger of listening to current students offering advice on how to get into bschool is that they have only a tiny sample size from which they’re drawing their conclusions. And current students should KNOW BETTER. They took stats in their first term!

Even for those schools that have current students help with admissions interviews, it’s rare that those students are so intimately involved with the behind-the-scenes decision-making that they can give out meaningful insights about the actual factors that their admissions people are using to issue admits by. Sure, they may hear an anecdote here or there – but anecdotes cannot be used to draw your own strategy from. You have no idea what other factors may have played a part in one individual’s acceptance or rejection.

So just like our exhortation that friends don’t let friends read their essays…. this is important to understand.

Yes you want to be reaching out to the schools and talking to students. And sure, listen to everything that they have to say.

But treat it as gospel? Like they have some insider access or privileged information that can help you get in?

We say, be careful with that.

The only way for a non admissions person to tell you what happens in admissions is to have volumes of data to analyze about what different applicants have presented at that school, and how their candidacy turned out. And the only way to extrapolate full-system trends and insights from that is to have the appropriate volumes across the ecosystem of schools.

It’s also a reason why you want an admissions consultant who deals with lots of clients every year. That’s the only way for the consultant to be able to give valid advice.

Talk with lots of people. Then talk to some more.

Then carefully filter out the information that your different sources are offering and evaluate it based on what the source actually has access to.

There are so many myths and misconceptions in this industry. You don’t want to get thrown under the bus inadvertently by a well-meaning friend.

 
 
 

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“Rankings will not tell you what’s the best school for you.”

by EssaySnark - Discusses Leave a Comment

The first page of the Kellogg School MBA application has a very polished video that flashes images of the gorgeous new Global Hub building and plays one-second soundbites of students sharing the stress and anxiety (and self-reflection) that they experienced in their application.

It’s easy to tune out and not really absorb any of it. We’re hit with so many marketing messages every day that we become immune.

But we encourage you to spend time with this, and with every other production that every other school you’re trying for makes available. Sometimes their messaging is straightforward; sometimes it’s so overbranded that you can’t actually distill anything meaningful. But in many, there are real gems of wisdom that are not only important but also relevant, and can possibly be reflected on to find nuggets on the inside of you that you can leverage in presenting your message back in your apps.

One comment that somebody makes in the video is “Rankings will not tell you what’s the best school for you.”

This is the type of thing that can wash right over you, because yeah, you know it’s true.

But why not stop and think about it?

Many, many people are focused on rankings and often rankings alone in their choice of an MBA program. This makes total sense, since everyone wants to go to the best program they can. But rankings tell an exceedingly limited story.

The only legit way to choose schools solely on rankings is if you have spent the time yourself to dig into the methodology used by that publication that develops the rankings. If you cannot sit here and spout off the factors and weightings that Bloomberg BusinessWeek uses to identify Kellogg as a Top 10 school, or that USNews does, then it’s irrelevant that Kellogg is Top 10. (Their methodologies are quite different, BTW.) To go only by rankings is to completely outsource the entire selection process to some nameless corporation. Rankings are useful as a starting point, but that’s it. We’re not going to go so far as to say that rankings are fake news but in this day and age especially, you need to be an informed consumer of everything you take in.

After all, we’re talking about YOUR LIFE.

Remember that these promo videos by the schools are designed for a reason. Significant time and effort is put into them. They are the result of many deliberate choices to try and convey something about the school — something that the school thinks is important. While it’s easy to think that all schools are alike, and to review a bunch of websites makes all of them start to blur together, it’s also important to recognize that each school is desperately trying to convey what they’re about.

Sometimes all it takes is that you listen.

($) Post-MBA career trends at Kellogg

by EssaySnark - Discusses

Or likely at most top American MBA programs over the past five years. This post focuses on Kellogg mainly because their employment reports are detailed enough on this particular dimension to do the analysis. They’re also a solid general management program which attracts employers of all stripes. They continue to send graduates into the traditional…

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($) Pro Tip: How to pronounce business school names

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Fuqua? McDonough? Kenan-Flagler? INSEAD? Haas? Ever wondered how in heck to say these words? You might want to figure it out before you talk to anybody about them. Like, in an interview perhaps? These are not official phonetic spellings (we’re not sure the rules of all that), they’re just our attempt to help you not…

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The secret to how to get into HBS

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[WARNING: This is a looooong post! May want to jump to the bottom and hit that little Favorite button to save it for later! (Favorite feature available to blahg members)]

Anybody who first starts thinking they want to get an MBA is immediately going to be thinking about Harvard.

And why not?

Harvard is a world renowned brand.

EVERYBODY has heard of Harvard.

Even if you have only a vague notion of what an MBA is or why you might want one, you have still heard of Harvard Business School, and you probably wouldn’t mind going there.

An application to the MBA program at Harvard in many ways is going to look like an application to an MBA program anywhere.

They want a GMAT score, or a GRE is fine.

You’ll upload your resume and enter your work history.

They need an essay, and some letters of recommendation.

Pretty standard stuff.

However, that’s where the similarities end.

The approach that you take with your Harvard application should not necessarily be the same as what you might take with, say, Columbia.

Both these schools offer the MBA degree. Both have semi-similar profiles that show average GMAT and grades and they’re not terribly different from one to the next. You can expect that a high GMAT score will be beneficial to you in getting into Harvard, as it would be for Columbia, or Kellogg, or anywhere else.

If you want to get into Harvard, though, you can’t be just another cookie-cutter candidate.

The secret to getting into Harvard is to show how you’re different.

BUT!! There is risk here!!!

Being “different” for the sake of being different is not going to help you.

Wearing different-colored socks to your interview will not demonstrate that you’re unique.

All that will do is demonstrate that you want to stand out and attract attention. That might get people talking, but it’s not necessarily going to land you an offer at this school.

The most important thing to keep in mind with Harvard is that they are trying to construct a class.

That’s true at any school in the world, but Harvard gets first pick.

They’re like the Cleveland Browns but for opposite reasons.

(For any non-US-football-fans out there: The Cleveland Browns were the football team with the worst record in 2017, so they earn the privilege of picking their players from the college draft first in 2018.)

In the bschool market economy, since EV-ER-Y-BO-DY wants to go to Harvard, then Harvard has an abundance of riches. They can cherrypick the ones that they like most. They get first dibs. The best of the best.

Or, in this case, the most unique and differentiated who will fill out their class.

What this means is, if your profile is stereotypical — the Princeton grad who went to McKinsey and now wants to go for an MBA — then HBS will need to see superlative grades and an exceptional GMAT and particularly wonderful recs.

You need to be the best out of a crowded category of very good players.

BUT!

That’s not the only way to impress them.

 
 

What if you…

Work at Deloitte (not the most prestigious firm) and went to BC (Boston College; good but also not considered “the best”). You have a 3.6 GPA and a 730 GMAT.

When faced with the profile of the Princeton-McKinsey person, you may assume you have no chance at all. You’re obviously qualified but being qualified and being accepted are two different things.

Or, what if you…

Are an international applicant, like the Indian engineer, or you are coming from finance? Or applying from Singapore or Hong Kong or China?

For all of you, finding ways to stand out will be crucial. It’s not going to be only the basics of your profile. The adcom will need to know who you are — best revealed by what you have done — for you to have a true chance. This is where the advantages of an MBA admissions consultant can pay off. (A very good one, that is. A merely competent consultant is not necessarily going to add much value for Harvard.)

We saw some stat somewhere once that something like 90% of applicants to Harvard are qualified — meaning, they fit within the parameters of acceptance that the school has mapped out. Not sure if that’s saying that 80% of applicants fit within the class profile (the range of GMAT or GRE scores and college academics) or if it was against some internal measure of acceptability that the Admissions Board has.

Regardless, almost anyone applying shows evidence that they could succeed in the curriculum, and that they are capable of completing the program.

That is hardly enough to guarantee admission. It’s kind of like going with a competent admissions consultant. If you’re going for the gold and you’re going to pony up the dollars for help, then make sure you’re going with one that actually can add value in the game that you’re in.

If being qualified is not enough to get in to Harvard, what then does matter? What will tip the scales and convince the HBS adcom to want you?

There is not a specific profile or a specific collection of app stats that will ensure you get in. However, over the years, we have identified what we now call the “Harvard type.” It’s someone who is obviously a go-getter, an overachiever who’s done something interesting in life.

We cover it in many posts here on the blahg:

What is “the Harvard type”? is a good place to start.

We also discuss it at length in our MBA essay and application guide to Harvard Business School.

Heck, we have a whole category of posts here on the blahg on HBS and what they are looking for.

What we would boil all of this down to is one simple word:

The secret of getting into Harvard is that you have to show evidence of drive.

This fact is the main reason we’re able to with complete confidence predict people’s chances of interest from Harvard in our Comprehensive Profile Review. Through that service, you lay out the details of your background, your career, your school targets and core stats, and we go through it all and assess your chances to see if you are presenting enough evidence that will give Harvard reason to say yes. We are very very rarely off base with these and when we are it is only marginal misses. Usually we have BSers come back to us at the end of the season saying some variation of, “Wow, you were right! You said I wouldn’t get into X but that Y would admit me, and they did! That’s exactly how it went with my apps!”

For almost every single business school in the world, we are firmly convinced that getting help on the app is beneficial.

For Harvard? Yes also beneficial, very much so — but only to one certain extent.

The people that Harvard is likely to admit are very likely to get into Harvard anyway. Even without outside help.

Will outside help be useful? Sure, in giving an assist to the process. In making sure that you don’t step in it, and mess things up in an avoidable way. (See also: A Stanford applicant case study: Avoidable Mistakes)

But very often we see Harvard give interviews even for applicants whose essays truly sucked. Where they did not take advantage of what the essay could do.

But based on the other aspects of their profile — or more often, based on how they are coming from a less-crowded pool and so it was easier to stand out against the crowd — this person earned an invite to interview even in the face of a pisspoor job on the essay.

For whom then is getting help on the app the most helpful? In what situation would an MBA admissions consultant (an exceptional one, if you are serious about Harvard) add the most value?

Either for the applicant who is overwhelmed by the steps of applying, or who does not know where to start, or who lacks confidence in her own writing ability, and especially for someone who finds value in the ability to bounce ideas off of someone. Or all of the above. A very good admissions consultant can help that person create a very good essay for Harvard.

You do not “need” an admissions consultant to get in though.

We remain unmoved by any admissions consultant who brags about how many applicants they got into Harvard. It’s like a coach at the Olympics. The coach cannot take credit for the athlete’s success. Yes, a coach can be supremely helpful. But it’s not the coach who earned the medal. It’s the hard work and dedication and the willingness to persevere and the sacrifices made by the athlete that earned that person the spot on the podium.

When Harvard admits people, many times they would admit that person whether or not the essays were incredible. It’s because they are admitting the whole package; the entire set of facts. Not just granting a Best Essay award. That’s not always how it works elsewhere. Sometimes, an exceptionally mediocre applicant can put together an amazing set of essays that totally wins him or her the admit at another school. An incredible essay alone won’t do it for Harvard.

Of course, an MBA essay can keep you out of Harvard, too.

Very often, BSers make foolish mistakes in their essays. They say silly things. They focus on the wrong elements. They don’t maximize the opportunity at hand. For these people, a (highly qualified) admissions consultant can do wonders.

But the secret of getting into Harvard Business School does not come down to the essay. It’s the entirety of who you are and what you are presenting, and it’s at least as much about Harvard as it is about you.

That’s why when you’re rejected from Harvard, it’s not actually that big of a deal. So many incredible people are rejected each year that you cannot read anything into it.

Harvard is the one school that’s least served by the admissions consulting industry.

We’re not saying not to get help on your HBS MBA application. We do believe we can help you! We have dedicated services exactly for that.

But someone who is the Harvard Type is likely to get into Harvard anyway. Not because they paid the big bucks to a consultant to assist them.

It’s one reason we strongly recommend against reading other people’s essays in your quest for the HBS admit. Seeing what someone else said is not going to let your best essay come through — and frequently, an essay did NOTHING for an applicant’s chance of success. All you can extrapolate from reading a Harvard student’s essay is that the essay did not PREVENT them from getting in. You cannot know that the essay itself helped them at all.

ESPECIALLY not when the essay was written in a different admissions cycle for a different entering class in a different era of MBA admissions, such as we’re entering now.

Someone who got into the Harvard Class of 2009 was operating on a totally different playing field as an applicant, compared to someone who got in for the Class of 2019, and most definitely there are major differences from what the ’19 applicant faced compared to what the Class of 2021 will be facing this year. It’s a different school. It’s a different admissions landscape. Almost definitely it will be a different application for Harvard this year. You cannot make inferences from one person’s essay to your own.

The only constant that remains?

The Harvard Type.

It’s something that we recognize when we see it (the Comprehensive Profile Review being the best way for us to assess this). It does not come down to any static descriptor or a set of stats on a profile. It’s the sum total of who you are based on how you present yourself — in the resume, in the college experience, in your profession today. Yes, in the essay itself too, but that’s rarely the differentiator that it can be at other schools.

There are many ways to get your message across in your HBS MBA essay, and we’re not saying that the essay is inconsequential. The essay matters — for some candidates even more than others. But the adcom is going to overlook a subpar essay if the profile itself shows as differentiated against the pool of others with whom you’re competing.

If you’re wondering right now whether or not you’re the “Harvard type” then that’s a fair question. We can help you with some objective advice on whether you might be perceived that way today.

And what else you can do is work on being that even more in your day-to-day efforts at work.

Nobody can predict with certainty if you’re going to be accepted into Harvard. But stepping it up and doing all that you can to be a better person every single day is the best way to find out.

 
 

Oh hey LOOK!
We wrote a whole book on how to get into Harvard Business School!!
SnarkStrategies Guide for Harvard Business School 2018 MBA essays and app

 
 

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Radcom of the Year Award

by EssaySnark - Discusses , Leave a Comment

And…. it’s a wrap!

With the MIT Sloan deadline today, Round 2 has finished up, and it’s a very appropriate time for us to announce our 2017-2018 Radcom of the Year!

This is a tradition we just started in 2016 when we recognized which MBA admissions team at a top school is the most applicant-friendly in its processes, policies and procedures.

Last year, MIT Sloan won it.

We cited at the time things like their latest Round 2 deadline, which we’re celebrating again today, and also the fact that they do not require a TOEFL for any applicants.

Well guess what?

This year, MIT Sloan wins it again!

We were determined to wipe the slate clean and evaluate all schools from a fresh perspective this year, looking for evidence of applicant-friendliness coming in hopefully new ways. While we are seeing an assortment of positives and some new(ish) developments from other schools, we have to again tout the late Round 2 deadline from Sloan that was truly a godsend for many stressed-out BSers who were cramming to get multiple apps done over the past few weeks. In addition, MIT fixed one of the biggest problems with its app requirements by going to the standardized letter of recommendation this season.

Which school gets close runner-up?

NYU Stern!

NYU also has maintained a later Round 2 deadline for practically ever, which most definitely has endeared them to the ‘Snark’s heart.

In addition, this year NYU innovated with program offerings through the introduction of accelerated specialty MBAs in tech and fashion, and a very cool option of allowing concurrent apps to two or more through one set of essays. We also dig their new EQ Endorsement requirement, though it did create some stress for some BSers and some confusion at first when some people asked a recommender to also submit the EQ endorsement (the adcom wants it from a new person). Since NYU also has a later deadline, for both Round 2 and for Round 1, we did consider giving them the big Radcom Award trophy this year instead of MIT. However, we couldn’t do it since their second essay question proved REALLY challenging for applicants who are only applying to the full-time program. Hopefully they’ll change it for the next-season app.

We also saw another small thing at MIT that bumped them solidly into the lead:


That was when the 140-char limit was in effect at Twitter! Funny how we had 2 abbrev8 stuff B4

 
In case that wasn’t self-explanatory: The hurricanes that went through Texas and Florida last year hit right during Round 1 deadlines. MIT Sloan was the only school we saw actively communicating through social media that they would extend deadlines for anyone directly impacted. Other schools certainly were flexible with applicants too but it was MIT that seemed most visibly proactive on it, just from what we observed.

In addition, MIT continues to host monthly chats — the most frequent of any other school that we know of. They’ve also done video info sessions and lots of online sessions with students; again, other schools do these, but we don’t see they happening as often elsewhere. MIT has a new mandatory video essay in their app this year, which may seem like an onerous requirement for the applicant but it’s honestly the BEST way for you BSers to share who you are with them — way better than the real-time video questions that get recorded as part of the Kellogg and Yale apps (and counting; we expect the number of schools using that option to surely grow in the coming seasons). The real time questions are also a positive innovation, but giving BSers the opportunity to record a full uninterrupted minute on whatever they like, the way that MIT does — and re-record a couple times to make sure that they’re coming across as intended (!) — this is a kinder, gentler option that can let BSers feel more confident overall in what they have captured.

To all of you BSers who’ve just in the past 24 hours completed this process: GOOD LUCK! We’re sure you did a great job!!

To the adcom at MIT Sloan: Thanks for continuing to be The Radcom again for another year!!

From MIT Sloan:
Tweet from @MITSloanAdcom: We’re honored to be named “Radcom of the Year” for the 2nd year in a row by @EssaySnark! Keeping our processes, policies and procedures applicant-friendly remains a goal for us in #2018.

“completely lost on HBS essay and need help”

by EssaySnark - Discusses Leave a Comment

In spite of all our implicit and explicit HBS bashing lately, we should probably do a specific post on “What to do if you’re completely lost on the HBS essay” — since we know lots of you BSers are aiming to try for Harvard anywayz! 🙂

It’s not like some silly ol’ ‘Snark is gonna deter you wide-eyed whippersnappers from the school o’ your dreams!!!

So then.

How do you deal with that essay that they’ve got?

We heard from a BSer recently that he stumbled upon the ‘Snark through a google search that was phrased somehow like that, so let’s see if we can offer some starting points and ways to break into the analysis process for dealing with the Harvard MBA question this year.

Just in case you’re in the 0.0001% of BSer who’s never peeked at it before, the Harvard Business School MBA essay asks:

“As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA Program?”

Shameless plug: We do a much better job of laying out strategies and considerations in our Harvard essay guide!!!

But in an effort to be helpful, beyond what we’ve already covered on our dedicated Harvard MBA application info page, we’ll offer this snapshot of snarky advice to help you get a handle on your approach:

1. Start by doing another school’s essays.
Please don’t cut your teeth on your MBA application process with Harvard Business School. It’s one of the hardest essays of all. You will not be making your job easy if you do it that way. Get through at least the third full draft of some other school first. Then turn your attention to Harvard.

2. Start Harvard’s essay by filling out the actual HBS application.

You don’t know what else you need to convey to the adcom if you don’t know what else you’ve conveyed. Go through that puppy and study it. Fill out what you can, and make a list of the items you know you need to spend more time on. Those are typically in the Employment, Intended Post-MBA, Extracurriculars and Awards sections.

3. Start making lists.
You will likely cycle through dozens of ideas on what to write about before you come up with a solid plan — and that’s OK! That’s to be expected!! Start a running list, and keep adding to it. You’ll think of a new idea at random as you go through your day. Don’t judge or critique the ideas; just write them down. Once you have assembled a selection of possibilities, then you can start to examine them.

The next little nugget o’ HBS essay advice is reserved for full blahg members. If you’re already a member of the blahg, please log in to view the whole post! If you’re not yet a member, you can sign up here! $9.95 per month for six months, cancel anytime. [end member-only content on the HBS essay]

As you can see, the main message is GET STARTED!! Hopefully that helps you to do so!! The HBS essay is about thinking through who you are, and what makes you unique, and shows you are accomplished, and lets you demonstrate that you will bring a unique perspective to the case method experience of your fellow students at Harvard Business School.

Simple? Sure. Easy? Not at all!!!

 
 

Need more guidance on how to deal with the intimidating Harvard essay?
Pick up the SnarkStrategies MBA guide for HBS!
 
 
We’re also still accepting new clients for Round 2 – get that all-important Harvard essay decimated to make sure you are impressing the Admissions Board and not coming across the same way that dozens and dozens of other applicants will do!

($) Is Harvard good for entrepreneurship?

by EssaySnark - Discusses ,

Sure, if you want to pursue the most expensive way in the world to start a business. EssaySnark is just not a fan of using the MBA to launch a company. And we really don’t think Harvard is the best place to learn entrepreneurship specifically. They were fairly late to jump on the entrepreneurship bandwagon…

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The major problem with the way Harvard Business School manages admissions.

by EssaySnark - Discusses 13 Comments

We are reblahgging this from when we originally posted it three years ago because all of you current-crop of BSers need to hear this right about now.

 

We’ve frequently applauded HBS for improving the process for Brave Supplicants, and for being more transparent, such as with GRE and GMAT scores in applicants and students done in 2014. The changes that HBS made to admissions over the years, particularly with the “mid-cycle release”, really revolutionized how the process works for all of you, and several other schools followed their lead and implemented similar changes. This is super-applicant-friendly. Round 1 candidates benefit tremendously. You get to find out really early in the season if you’re moving to the next stage with them.

Before this innovation with the mid-cycle release, you had to wait till December if you were going to be rejected — or actually, January, since at the time, that’s when Round 1 decisions came in. Yup, you had to submit Round 2 apps at other schools without even knowing if your Round 1 apps were successful or not. Don’t have to tell you how much THAT sucked. Can’t recall which school was the one that started pulling decision releases into December but we’re thinking that was Harvard too.

Harvard has also been the school to move Round 1 app deadlines into September; they did so tentatively at first, moving it from the beginning of October which had been everyone’s standard, up to September 24 in 2012, and then to September 16 in 2013, and then in 2014 a full month earlier than many other schools’ deadlines. (In 2017 the Round 1 deadline was September 6.) This we also feel is to the benefit of EVERYONE in MBA admissions, because it lights a fire under the BSers’ butts much much earlier than ever before. Several other schools now have apparently felt empowered by Harvard’s bravery to also place their Round 1 deadlines in September, which provides further benefit since it means more of those deadlines are spread out over a longer timeframe – which in our experience, results in better apps to every school, since all the workeffort isn’t all lumped together in one two-week period for all of your apps. We noticed this specifically this year with the increase in quality we saw in BSers’ Rd 1 apps. So again, “Thank you, Harvard Business School.”

But the biggest innovation came in 2010 with this mid-cycle release thing. Before Harvard implemented that, you’d just submit the app in October and wonder. And wonder. And wonder. You’d finally get the “no” in December confirming what you would by-then know was inevitable – you’d basically resign yourself to being rejected if you didn’t get an interview invite by the end of November, but that’s a very long sequence of grueling undefined and doubt-filled days to go through before you get the actual word “No” on your app. This is still how a few schools do it, which is pretty lousy, as many of you will be experiencing in the weeks to come. For Harvard and several others, the process is now different.

We are of course referring to the vast majority of Harvard applicants here – not the ones who are getting the interview invitations this week, but the ones who did not, and will not. For that second group, the mid-cycle “release” seems very kind. You’re hearing really really early in the cycle that you’re a no-go for Harvard. Blat. OK well, shoot, that hurts. But at least you can regroup and move on. You can start your Round 2 planning early enough to actually fix the issues and create a competitive application.

So why is the title of this post referring to some “major problem” with how HBS does it?

It is this:

On the “release” day – which for any of you hiding under a rock, will be tomorrow – scores of people will get the news that they’re not moving forward at Harvard. In fact, just based on numbers, a vast majority of those applying to Harvard will have a bad-news email come in at noon Eastern time on Thursday.

The “major problem” is, a very large percentage of those people are actually TOTALLY QUALIFIED and will UNDOUBTEDLY (if they play their cards right) MAKE IT IN TO ANOTHER REALLY GOOD SCHOOL. One without the word “Harvard” in its name, but a good school nonetheless.

Yet on the “release” day, all these well-qualified and capable Brave Supplicants turn into the most self-doubting and dejected group of people on the planet.

In fact, if you got all of them together in one room on that release day, you’d probably see the world tilt off its axis due to the weight of the depression and despair.

Despite all of our warnings and cautions and the work we do in trying to help set expectations among the lot of you, we know it doesn’t help. You get rejected – when you thought you’d be The One – and it is downright awful. (This is particularly sharp given that those who are rejected from Harvard, despite being so qualified, have typically been success stories in life, so this is sometimes an unusual set of circumstances, and emotions, to be dealing with.)

Those more-reasonable schools have barely begun releasing any interview invitations, though. It’s very possible that hot on the heels of a Harvard rejection, you are going to get news that a different adcom is interested and wants to meet you. And yeah, that can help. However, it’s unlikely that that happen news has hit your inbox quite yet.

So this week, on the second day of HBS interview invites, things are often quite awful for many applicants. We appreciate how early HBS gives this news, but we do sort of wish that it happened a tiny bit later in the cycle, so that people would already have a few invites from other schools racked up, and they wouldn’t go off the emotional deep end quite so much.

All we want to do is remind you that all decisions are independent events, and most people are rejected from Harvard, and lots and lots of that group make it into Very. Good. Schools after that rejection.

If Harvard doesn’t happen, there will still be lots of opportunities out there!