How to apply to HBS as an Indian

Hari is an admissions expert at Ivy Admissions Group. He attended graduate school at Stanford, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School despite despite not coming from a well known school in India and advises clients on how to do the same.

Hari is an admissions expert at Ivy Admissions Group. He attended graduate school at Stanford, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School despite despite not coming from a well known school in India and advises clients on how to do the same.

Over 9,000 people typically apply to Harvard Business School ever year, but only about 10% matriculate resulting in a class size of about 900 students. For Indian candidates, the situation is much more challenging. While Harvard Business School does not publish detailed incoming class details – it is known that Indians are one of the largest groups on campus with about 50 students every year. The South Asian Business Association is the hub of Indian activity on campus and the annual Bollywood night is something that the entire campus looks forward to.

It is reasonable to assume that there at least a few thousand applicants from India every year resulting in an acceptance rate of 1-3%. So, what makes that 1-3% of student so special?  Based on our years of experience working with Indian candidates and several members of our team having gone to school there here are our thoughts.

Table Stakes to be Considered

It is clear from the HBS website and that there are some minimum table stakes you need to meet in order to gain admission 

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GPA/GMAT/GRE: How does the average GPA of 3.70 translate to an Indian context? There is no easy conversion mechanism and the admission committee understands an 80% from Mumbai University is much more challenging to achieve than an 80% from a less known university. IIT students that were admitted typically had a GPA of greater than 8.0 on a scale of 10. A large portion of the Indian students at Harvard went to college at prestigious institution such as IIT, BITS, NIT etc. However, there are also students who went to arts college and other not-so-well-known institutions. The median GMAT score for the class of 2021 is 730 and the median GRE verbal and quantitative scores are 163/163.  However, this belies the fact that Indian students typically achieve higher scores on these standardized tests. 750 or 760 is a standard score that we come across for successful candidates

Work Experience: The average years of work experience is 4.7. This is true also for Indian candidates. Most Indian candidates that we have worked with have at least 3 to 4 years of experience at a minimum. It is also pertinent to note that students in India matriculate and complete college at an earlier age than American counterparts. We often hear enquiries from students who would like to apply after 1 or 2 years of experience. We strongly encourage you to wait for a few years to have a stronger profile before applying.

Previous Industry: HBS does not care which industry you came from pre-MBA. A disproportionately large portion of the Indian students at Harvard have an engineering background – and this is likely driven by the pool of applicants and not any choice the school makes.  The previous employers of Indian students are from the usual well-known consulting, finance, banking and other leading blue-chip firms in India (ITC , Tata group etc.). Having said that the school does look for diversity and we see candidates who work in nontraditional industries also successful make it to Harvard.

But I was a gold-medalist at IIT, and I worked at BCG and Sequoia – why did I get rejected?

A quick perusal of MBA forums will reveal candidates from India posting their incredible stats and profiles – including their 800 GMAT score, along with their rejection results from Harvard.

What will put you over the top

Here is the truth – there are way more people who apply to schools like Harvard Business School and meet the minimum table stakes than there are spots. Especially for Indian candidates as we alluded to earlier the acceptance rates are likely 1-3%.  What sets apart those who get accepted and those who do not?

One factor is of course standing out from the pool of candidates with a unique set of achievements in your chosen field or Industry. We have also historically seen candidates with less impressive stats but meaningful leadership experiences in uncommon fields make it to Harvard. But there is one other key ingredient we have seen that helps candidate stand out in the pool.

Ivy Admissions Group originally started out by helping Waitlist clients, and over the years we have had the opportunity to see hundreds of profiles that clearly meet the minimum table stakes, but were missing something to push them into the accepted zone. What we’ve been able to figure out is that special ingredient that moves the application from Waitlist -> Accepted. What is that special ingredient? Narrative. It’s a simple word, and quite frankly, a simple concept. But it is often misused, forgotten, or implemented haphazardly. A narrative is a story arc that connects your personal inspirations and motivations to your career aspirations. In the case of an MBA application, a personal narrative will inform the admissions committee how you ended up on your current life story arc, show where this arc will take you by projecting it into future, and then argue why business school is the logical next step in your career because it is the perfect bridge to connect the two. Why are you better positioned to use an HBS MBA to solve the world’s important challenges and another Indian candidate whose resume and profile look remarkably similar to yours?

It is crucial that your personal narrative be authentic and reflected in every component of your application, something that takes a lot of deep personal introspection and reflection. For many people, this is a struggle, and it can help to have an objective third-party work with you to try and distill your personal narratives.  If this is something you might need help with, please feel free to reach out to discuss.

How to get into Harvard Business School

Over 9,228 people applied to Harvard Business School in 2019, but only 10.2% of applicants matriculated, resulting in 938 students for the HBS class of 2021. What is the difference between the applicants who were offered a spot and those who were rejected? What can you do to make sure you are one of the lucky people who gets into Harvard Business School?

Harvard Business School HBS

Table Stakes

It is clear from the HBS website that there are some minimum table stakes you need to meet in order to gain admission into Harvard Business School.

GPA/GMAT/GRE: With an average GPA of 3.70, you probably shouldn’t be too far under a 3.5 if you want a decent shot at admission. The median GMAT score for the class of 2021 is 730 and the median GRE verbal and quantitative scores are 163/163. We tell the candidates that we work with that once you have higher than a 710, you don’t need to worry about retaking the GMAT, although if you have a very low GPA, a higher test score will help you. We like to use this website to calculate the GMAT equivalent for the GRE.

There is no preference between submitting test scores for the GMAT vs. the GRE – take whichever test you feel you will score best in. People who are stronger at math tend to excel in the GMAT, whereas people who are strong verbally tend to do better on the GRE, but this is a generalization. Our recommendation is to take a free practice test or answer some practice questions for both tests to see which one you gravitate toward.

Work Experience: The average years of work experience is 4.7. Now, this doesn’t mean that if you have fewer than 4 years you will not get in; rather, it means that you should have enough work experience to allow you to make a significant impact in your role, and for most people that seems to take about 4-5 years.

Previous Industry: HBS does not care which industry you came from pre-MBA. If it seems like they tend to favor consulting or tech, it is because that is where most of the applicants are coming from. Dee Leopold, the former head of admissions, used to say that HBS is trying to build a “salad” (her words), so they need to get a good mix of students from different backgrounds and industries to bring diversity to the class. However, keep in mind that if you’re applying from a common industry, you may need to have a stronger application to stand out.

But I have a 4.0 from Yale and I worked at McKinsey and Facebook – why did I get rejected?

A quick perusal of MBA forums will reveal numerous people posting their incredible stats and profiles, along with their rejection results from top schools. Why is this?

Here is the tough truth – there are way more people who apply to schools like Harvard Business School and meet the minimum table stakes than there are spots. Unlike college applicants, business school applicants to schools like HBS tend to be a more self-selecting group of people who feel like they at least have a remote shot at being accepted, i.e. meeting the minimum table stakes. So, it is clearly not enough to just meet the minimum table stakes. What sets apart those who get accepted and those who don’t?

Ivy Admissions Group originally started out by helping Waitlist clients, and over the years we have had the opportunity to see hundreds of profiles that clearly meet the minimum table stakes, but were missing something to push them into the accepted zone. What we’ve been able to figure out is that special ingredient that moves the application from Waitlist -> Accepted. What is that special ingredient? Narrative. It’s a simple word, and quite frankly, a simple concept. But it is often misused, forgotten, or implemented haphazardly. A narrative is a story arc that connects your personal inspirations and motivations to your career aspirations. In the case of an MBA application, a personal narrative will inform the admissions committee how you ended up on your current life story arc, show where this arc will take you by projecting it into future, and then argue why business school is the logical next step in your career because it is the perfect bridge to connect the two. Why are you more deserving to attend HBS than the other candidates whose resumes and profiles look remarkably similar to yours?

It is crucial that your personal narrative be authentic and reflected in every component of your application, something that takes a lot of deep personal introspection and reflection. For many people, this is a struggle, and it can help to have an objective third-party work with you to try and distill your personal narrative. If this is something you might need help with, please feel free to get in touch for a free consultation, or check out our Complete School Package and Narrative Bootcamp services.

How Does Coronavirus (COVID-19) Affect My Round 3 Business School Application?

The global Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has upended nearly every aspect of life as we know it. For those of you who are still wrapping up your business school applications for the class of 2022, what does this mean for you?

Business School Applications

Many top business schools have extended deadlines for Round 3 and deferred MBA applicants. Additionally, business schools realize that many people who had no intention of applying to business school this year may now suddenly find themselves out of a job, causing them to re-evaluate their career plans and making applying to business school seem like a good option. These extended deadlines and relaxed testing deadlines give them a chance to apply. Read on for school-specific information and helpful links.

Harvard Business School

Instead of April 2, 2020, the 2+2 new application deadline is June 1, 2020 at noon ET. Decisions will be released on July 28, 2020 at noon ET. In a blog post published by Chad Losee, Managing Director of HBS Admissions, HBS reaffirmed its commitment to international students. “Today I want to reaffirm that HBS MBA Admissions will continue to admit the most talented international and domestic applicants, irrespective of citizenship, as we strive to build a class of leaders who will make a difference in the world…Any international admitted student who is unable to start the program due to a visa issue despite their best efforts will be deferred to next year’s MBA class."

Stanford GSB

Round 3 deadline remains April 8th, 2020 at 2pm PT. Applicants are allowed to submit required exam scores after the Round 3 deadline. If you cannot submit your scores before they post decisions on May 21st, 2020 and you are considered to be a competitive applicant, they may invite you to join the waitpool until they receive your scores and can further consider your candidacy. Test scores are accepted up until August 1st, 2020. You may be invited to interview without test scores but you will not be admitted without a test score.

Wharton

The deadline Round 3 has been extended to April 15th and for Advance Access to May 27th. Round 3 and Advance Access applicants can submit their applications without having sat for a standardized test. Please see the admissions website for instructions on how to enter your scores into the application. If admitted to Wharton, you will be admitted with the condition that official testing will be submitted before arriving on campus on August 10th, 2020 for Round 3 applicants and before December 31st, 2020 for Advance Access Applicants.

Tuck

We will maintain our Round 3 deadline of March 30, and we will also allow applications on a rolling basis thereafter in a one-time Round 4 for those who need additional time. You can submit a Round 4 application on a rolling basis from April 1 to June 1. We’ll return decisions on a rolling basis -- as soon as possible from May 11 to July 1. You will still need all required materials to apply, including test scores. International applicants, especially those currently residing outside the U.S., are strongly encouraged to apply as soon as possible to account for expected visa delays at international embassies. Applicant-initiated interviews have been suspended for the remainder of the application cycle, while committee-initiated interviews will be conducted virtually for this cycle.

Chicago Booth

The Round 3 deadline has been extended from April 2nd, 2020 to May 31st, 2020. Applications submitted after April 2nd will receive decisions on a rolling basis. Due to global GMAT/GRE test center closures, for applications submitted by the deadlines noted above, we will accept test scores through an extended deadline of July 1, 2020.

MIT Sloan

Round 3: The timeline for MBA Round 3 remains the same. All applications must be submitted by 3:00pm EST on April 9, 2020.

Early Admission: The timeline for MBA Early Admission applications has been extended, the new deadline is June 2, 2020. All applications must be submitted by 3:00pm EST on June 2, 2020. Applicants invited to interview will be notified in mid-June and all interviews will be conducted via Skype. Final decisions for MBA Early Admission will be released on July 15, 2020.

Standardized Tests: MBA Early Admissions applicants who are unable to take and/or secure official test scores due to limited access to test facilities should email us at earlymbaadmissions.mitsloan@mit.edu to request a temporary waiver to complete the exam. If admitted, your offer will be conditional upon a minimum score set forth in your offer letter.

Takeaways from HBS's first year without Round 3, and what is to come

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HBS’s admissions director Chad Losee announced HBS’s 2019-2020 application due dates, keeping the same essay prompt: “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?”. He also announced that HBS would continue to only have two admissions rounds, instead of the usual three - the last one it dropped this past year.

Many applicants have asked us what the loss of Round 3 would mean for their applications. Now that we have seen what Year 1 looked like, we feel that we are able to provide the following answers:

1. If you can, apply early!

If you are a traditional applicant (consulting, finance, fortune 500), the unspoken rule is that you need to apply in Round 1. That is when HBS is expecting you to apply and so that is when it is going to give away almost all of the admissions spots for your industry.

Even if you are not a traditional candidate, it is always a good idea to apply early. While HBS offers only need-based financial aid, other schools use merit-based aid to woo desirable candidates (check out our testimonials section to see just how much money some of these schools shell out). Almost all of that money is issued to those admitted in Round 1, so if you feel like saving upwards of $100,000 on your MBA, apply early so you can get it.

2. HBS waitlist decisions are made quickly, so engage early

Normally we see HBS accumulate candidates with great stats but only okay narratives on its waitlist, culling them in Round 3 and keeping a small, chosen few on through the “summer melt” phase where they admit students only to replace another admit who had to decline for one reason or another. This year, we saw HBS give definitive yes-or-no decisions earlier in the process, coinciding with the Round 2 notification date. Whereas in the past, a significant number of our clients would be kept on the waitlist until June, this year only a couple were. Everyone else was either admitted (most of them) or rejected.

What this means for you is that if you apply in Round 1 and are placed on the waitlist, you cannot afford to wait or be silent. You need to engage with the admissions committee right away as you have a much shorter timeline to plead your case. Put another way, as soon as you see that you’re on the waitlist, get in touch with us.

3. Other schools will wait-and-see (ride the waitlist!)

HBS enjoys something of a prime mover advantage. Because it and GSB are pretty much every applicant’s top 1 and 2 choice (not necessarily in that order), they can be reasonably sure that whoever they admit will accept their place and therefore the only students who drop from the class are the ones that are forced to for reasons beyond their control (military deployment, death in the family, illness, etc). That gives those two schools much more certainty in shaping their class and allows them to carry far fewer students on their waitlist.

In contrast, the rest of the M7 can never been too sure of their class composition because they are constantly losing admits to HBS and GSB when they get in off the waitlist or apply in subsequent rounds. This forces those other M7 schools to carry many more students on their waitlists, as well as admit many students from those waitlists.

The net effect is that if you are waitlisted at such a school, it is much more important for you to grit your teeth and ride the waitlist as there is a better chance of success than in years past.

4. Expect other schools to follow

HBS sets a lot of trends in MBA admissions, from making application dates earlier to streamlining the applications. While there are no immediate indications that other schools are going to follow HBS’s lead this year, it would be a safe assumption that some others will follow in the years to come. After all, Round 3 is traditionally a very small round at any school, comprising only around 10% of the admits in a given class.

If you are a few years away from applying, count on not having the Round 3 option available to you. Instead, reexamine your timeline and account for the fact that you will likely need to accelerate your applications to apply in Round 2 or delay them to apply in Round 1 of the following year.

How many schools should I apply to – and which ones?

One of the most frequent questions we get from our clients and those who ask us for their odds of MBA admission is “How many schools should I apply to?” School selection – both the quantity and tier – is an incredibly important part of one’s application strategy and one that all applicants should invest a good amount of time considering early in the process.

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Categories of Schools

We recommend that you think of school selection like building a portfolio of personal investments. By investing your time in a number of different schools across different categories, you can decrease the esoteric risk of being denied at any individual school, pit financial aid offers against one another, and ultimately make a more informed final selection. For this reason, we recommend applying to no fewer than six schools, two from each of the following categories:

Stretch

Your stretch schools are your dream schools. These are the kinds of schools that you would drop everything and pay double price to go to if you could simply because their prestige, network, resources, and education would have an absolutely transformative effect on your career trajectory. The trouble is that these schools are normally difficult to get to for anybody and your admissions profile puts you in a rather uncompetitive camp. You should still apply to these schools! The admissions committee will still read your application. They are people too, and if you have a personal narrative that moves them or stops them cold, they may fight to make space in the class for you depending on the depth of the rest of the applicant pool.

Adding these schools to your portfolio is like buying the stock of risky tech companies. If things go well, the payoff is unbelievable. Plus, if you didn’t apply but later found out that you would have been admitted, wouldn’t you kick yourself about it? Personally, I would always rather the school say no to me, than for me to say no to myself. You can apply to these schools as a Hail Mary on your own at the end of the cycle, or if you want better odds you can engage with a consultant who has specific expertise at that school (much like how we do for HBS).

Reach

These are schools that you would be delighted to attend and where your profile is a little more competitive (e.g. two or more of the following is true: your undergraduate institution is better represented in the student body, your GPA is at or above average, your GMAT is at or above average, or your current employer is a major recruiter at the school). These are the schools that you are realistically targeting and which you will spend the majority of your time (either on your own or with a consultant) working on.

Grab

A grab school is not a safety school. It is a school where you would want to do, where your profile is competitive in most or all of the categories previously mentioned, but where your odds are still less than 50%. They are there for you to grab, if you can. Adding Grab schools to your portfolio does two things. First, if you’re sure that now is the right time to go to business school, helps give you the certainty that you will get in somewhere. Second, because you are a more desirable candidate to Grab schools, they will likely be more generous to you in financial aid. Suddenly if the cost of tuition for a grab school is 50-75% less than a Reach school, you’ll be a lot more excited about them. Also, getting money from one Grab school can help you in negotiating financial aid offers from other schools, but more on that at another time.

Run the analysis

Let’s run the numbers. If we believe that a person’s profile gives them a conservative baseline chance of admissions of 15% for Stretch schools, 25% for Reach Schools, and 40% for Grab schools (and for the sake of argument that there is negligible covariance between the applications), then the odds of being admitted to at least one school are the following:

Portfolio of 4 Schools: 1 Stretch, 2 Reach, 1 Grab – 70%

Portfolio of 6 Schools: 2 Stretch, 2 Reach, 2 Grab – 84%

Portfolio of 8 Schools: 2 Stretch, 3 Reach, 3 Grab – 93%

Conclusion

Which schools fit into each of these categories will depend on the unique admissions profile of the individual student. If you want our help in sorting, feel free to get your odds here.

The Eisenhower Matrix: A Five-Star General’s Application Strategy

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Want to apply to business school like a master strategist? How about like a five-star general?

General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States, led the allies to victory in World War II not necessarily through the innovative tactics of Omar Bradley nor the personal ferocity of George Patton, but rather through superior planning. By staying focused on the most important tasks on his plate, keeping track of other tasks on the back burner, and removing unnecessary distractions, he developed what we know today as the Eisenhower Matrix.

On one axis, the question is asked whether a task is important – as in "how essential is this task to mission victory?" On the other axis, the question is asked if the task is urgent – "is this task time sensitive and does it have a deadline coming up soon?" Tasks are arrayed on this matrix according to the answers to these two questions.

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Eisenhower would start with tasks in the top left box and accomplish them immediately. His goal was always to keep his top left box as clear as possible. He would then move to the bottom left box and quickly delegate those tasks to his subordinates. These were tasks that needed to be done, just not necessarily by the General. His key contribution here is picking the right person to accomplish the task, and following up to make sure it is completed. He then moved onto the top right box and decided when in his schedule he would get to these important, non-urgent tasks. If he didn’t plan them correctly, these tasks could quickly become urgent and fill up his “Do” box. Finally, if any tasks fell into the bottom right, he would simply cut them out of his calendar completely. His time was simply too important to be spent on things that did not add value.

We recommend building two Eisenhower Matrices during your application process. The first is for your GMAT study regimen. While your GMAT score is just a single data point in the over-all application, it is a necessary component and in part determines the strata of schools where your application will be competitive.

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The second is for your MBA application process itself. Applying for your MBA is a marathon, and if you don’t sequence your priorities correctly it is highly likely that you will not sequence your work correctly. For example, filling out your application forms and asking for letters of recommendation before developing a narrative almost guarantees that whatever you produce will lack the thematic clarity and focus of a good application. It’s the equivalent of filming a movie without first writing the script. Another pitfall is to do the same before you decide whether to hire an admissions consultant and which one. Starting on applications before finalizing both decisions can lead to a lot of wasted effort before the consultant can find and fix the flaws in your story, and refocus you on higher-value parts of the story.

Does it help to network with current students? If so, what should I ask?

When I first started researching MBA programs, I reached out to everyone in my network who was at that school to chat about their experiences. I’m not sure why I did it – perhaps I thought that the admissions committee would somehow find out all the effort I was making and take it as a sign of my commitment. Boy was that wrong. Now that I’m a student at Harvard Business School who is constantly bombarded by requests from strangers to “pick my brain” about MBA programs, I understand just how annoying and pointless such conversations can be.

School research is a critical step on your admissions path and students can be great resources. But recognize that arranging phone calls with MBA students and alumni will not in and of itself improve your odds of admission or reveal to you what you should put in your application. Instead you should have specific goals that you want to accomplish by reaching out, which I outline below.

Okay to reach out:

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To get a feel for the school culture

Admissions websites are full of hard information about the school: graduation requirements, curricular opportunities, and admissions criteria. What they often can’t capture is the soft information of the school – those elusive hard-to-define experiential aspects we call culture. Culture is an incredibly important part of any matriculation decision and it is something that current students feel constantly. Not only are current students most attuned to the school’s culture, they are often the ones most interested in talking about it.

To plug into an affinity group

Affinity groups for veterans and ethnic minorities are often plugged into the admissions department. They help with outreach in the community to broaden the applicant base, and they host special events for prospective students on campus. Using official channels to connect with these clubs and their “admissions ambassadors” can be a great way to get on the club’s email distribution list for admission events, access to any official club admission advice, and see what support resources exist at the school of someone in your community.

To make sure your application “speaks the school’s language”

MBA programs have unique vocabularies. Admissions committees and students alike can easily identify outsiders by the odd and foreign way they talk. For example, no one at HBS call it the “first year curriculum” – it’s the “required curriculum” or “RC”. Being able to talk about a school using its own language is essential to presenting yourself as a credible candidate.

To know what you get out of specific classes

Many applicants try to show off their knowledge of a school by talking about what unique benefit they seek to get out of specific required and elective coursework. I thought about it when I was applying, but there was only so much I could tell about what I would learn from a class by its title. Looking back, my intuition was WAY off and I’m glad I didn’t say anything about those classes. Anyone who has taken them would have immediately seen just how little I knew. Conversations with current students can help close this knowledge gap.

To verify likelihood of career transitions

Everyone goes to business school to make some change in their career. But is the transition you seek to make common or likely at the school in question? For example, if you want to work at an elite Venture Capital firm and are thinking of applying to a less competitive school, does that firm even recruit there? If you want to pursue a really non-traditional job, is that even one that an MBA will help you get? Having realistic career goals is an absolutely essential part of any application and current students (usually second-year students) will know best what career transitions are feasible – and at that school in particular.

To find compelling ways of giving back to the school

The best applications will argue why the candidate will actually improve the school. What clubs will you seek leadership positions in? Which positions are even available? Current students can be very useful in helping you find the best place for you to leave your mark.

 

Don’t reach out:

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To have them lobby the admissions department on your behalf

Individual students do not carry much sway with the admission committee. Unless they know you extremely well, they also would find it extremely awkward to vouch to the committee on your behalf. Paradoxically, the admissions committees will see such endorsements of close friends as biased anyway and discount what they say. Either way, it is a lose-lose except that by asking them to lobby, you spend up any social capital you may have.

To get them to read your essays

MBAs are busy and reading someone’s essay is a huge favor. If you box them into reading yours, they will likely give you short shrift without much actionable improvements. Furthermore, they may have made it through the process, but they are probably not experts at the admissions essay writing process. Finally, a stranger may be able to tell that an essay is bad or even why they dislike it, but unless they work with you closely and understand your narrative intimately, they won’t know what the range of options are for you to improve your story.

To chit chat / “pick their brain”

Again, MBAs are busy. They barely have enough time to hang-out with their friends at school let alone random people who want something from them. If you are going to ask for their time, make sure you respect them enough to have a definite purpose in mind. Send good questions in advance to show the MBA that you have done your research and are asking questions that only someone like them could answer

To collect names to drop in the application

This is probably the biggest abuse of informational chats. First of all, if this is your motivation you are using someone as a means to an end and will likely not even listen to what they say. Second, Elite MBA programs do not care how many people you spoke with before applying. Talk is cheap and there are better ways to show commitment. Third, if namedropping in conversation gets annoying, the same is true for your essays. Keep the focus on you and your story.

What To Do the Year Before You Apply for an MBA

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
— Abraham Lincoln
LincolnIvyAdmissionsGroup

Say you're someone who knows they want an MBA but are not yet ready to apply. You might be a junior with a year to go before you're eligible for Harvard's 2+2 Program, Stanford's Deferred Enrollment, or Yale's Silver Scholars Program. You may have recently started on a new career and feel that you have not yet built up the work experience or credibility with potential recommenders to be successful in the regular application cycle. Older classmates and colleagues are sending in their applications and you may feel nervous sitting on the sidelines. Should you panic?

No. The only thing you need to do is recognize that the year ahead of you is a golden opportunity, which you can use to dramatically increase your chances of admission.

Even if you already have great GMAT / GRE scores in hand, the year ahead of you is your chance to "sharpen the axe" of your resume before you use it to chop through the MBA application. From navigating your career so that it will be in the best possible position right before Round 1 deadlines, to amping up community involvements that will resonate with your narrative and stand-out to admissions committees, to choosing your ideal recommenders and planning out how you can best shine in front of them, there is a lot you can do. We've thought a lot about this ourselves and have crammed all the best services to help a candidate boost their admissions odds in the year before they apply into a package that we call the Early Bird. Through that package, we seek to accomplish four major goals:

  1. Achieve clarity and confidence on your career and personal goals
  2. Discover your authentic personal narrative, and which moves you can make to bolster it
  3. Determine what your resume needs to say when you apply, and work backwards to achieve it
  4. Identify which "portable achievements" are within your grasp, and how to obtain them
  5. Obtain the best recommendation letters by determining who in your orbit could be best positioned to write them, and how win them over
  6. Get personalized coaching and mentorship over the course of the year.

There are many ways to do that. I've included the game plan we use in the Early Bird below, which also comes with 10% off any future purchases of our already lowest-priced Complete School packages, making it quite the valuable investment.

 

VisionBuilding

PHASE I: VISION BUILDING

STEP 1: Vision Exercise

We start with one of the most popular career-visioning exercises at HBS and Stanford GSB. You complete two fun, creative tasks designed to illuminate the hidden themes and dynamic tensions in your personal and professional life. The results of these exercises will help clarify pre-MBA career options worth pursuing and will help us understand how to best advise you.

STEP 2: Introduction & School Selection

We then discuss your background, goals for business school, and career aspirations. We offer our insights on what early careers in each field would feel like, and how they would eventually lead to business school. We then suggest a list of MBA programs for you to target, and back into the milestones you would need to achieve in your early career to be competitive at each.

 

 

Pre-Application Game Plan
$1,750.00

Are you thinking of applying to business school in a few years? We can help you use that valuable time to significantly improve your candidacy and raise your chances of admission.

This service starts with us getting to know you and understanding your motivations for seeking an MBA. We then help you determine which programs would offer the best fit, where you need to be in your career and community activities to get admitted to those programs, and then work backwards to develop a game-plan for getting you there. We also run you through our personal narrative boot camp, helping you build a compelling story to tell schools and future employers. After our initial touch point, we keep in touch throughout the year to answer any questions and make sure you are on track.

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NarrativeBootCamp

PHASE II: NARRATIVE BOOT CAMP

STEP 1: Narrative Exercises

We send you a series of exercises based on the Harvard Kennedy School's latest research on personal narrative, political campaigning, and public speaking. These forms are designed to tease out the inspirations and motivations that will make for a compelling personal narrative and, and link them to your future aspirations.

STEP 2: Review and Ideation

We then take your completed exercises and existing resume, and construct a few possible narrative story arcs that we believe will tell your authentic story in the most compelling way. This is a highly personal and creative process. Each narrative is work-shopped one at a time, and is not the cookie-cutter result of some computer read-out. This gives you the confidence of knowing that your narrative will be totally original.

STEP 3: Instruction and Coaching

Over the phone, we walk you through our materials on personal narrative and political campaigning. Through this instruction, you will understand what separates a good narrative from a great one, as well as the psychology of how the admissions directors will read and interpret your application. We then apply these learnings to your particular business school application and future career aspirations, taking your questions along the way.

STEP 4: Narrative Selection and Honing

Together we create 2-3 compelling personal narratives for your unique application. We run through their relative merits, why each is compelling, how each will be interpreted by the admissions committee. We workshop the narratives together over the phone until we decide on the one that is the most compelling and authentic for your application.

CareerEnhancement

PHASE III: CAREER ENHANCEMENT

STEP 1: Employment Gameplan

We discuss career-enhancing moves and the way in which can weave your new compelling and authentic personal narrative into the applications for achieving them. By working this way, you will ensure you are walking down the most compelling and purposeful professional path before you send out a single job application, minimizing the amount of time wasted in the application process.

STEP 2: Resume Overhaul

We then use your new narrative to overhaul your resume. Where possible, we provide school templates for you to use to emphasize your commitment to your dream school. After initial formatting corrections, we suggest strategic edits that will enhance your ability to showcase your narrative in the most persuasive way. 

 

YearRoundMentorship

PHASE IV: YEAR-ROUND MENTORSHIP

STEP 1: Regular Check-ins

We schedule three follow-up calls in the next year to check-in, make sure that you’re on the right track, answer any questions, and offer advice for any issues in your career that may arise. 

STEP 2: Constant Contact

You will retain email access to both Nate and Anna for one year to ask quick questions related to the topics discussed in Early Bird.

STEP 3: Future Savings

When you're ready to apply to business school, we will take 10% off our already best-in-class prices for any future purchases of Packages.