HBS 2+2's New Look

Today, on her "Director's Blog", Dee Leopold of HBS explained some of the new ins and outs of the HBS 2+2 program. 

Her explanation centered on the way all college seniors are being folded into the 2+2 pool of applicants and she stressed that it did not signal a sea change for 2+2 as much as it did reinforce that no college seniors will be going straight to Harvard Business School after graduation.  In other words, HBS has always offered deferred admission spots to college seniors applying in the regular rounds one, two, and three, so now they will just be formally moved into the 2+2 pool. The part that Dee (one of my favorite admissions professionals, by the way - incredibly smart, loves her school, plays chess while others are often playing checkers) didn't get into was the removal of the "business major restriction" - in the past, business majors were not allowed to apply to 2+2, as the program was designed to pull people from disciplines such as engineering, humanities, and the arts. Obviously, now that all college seniors are being pushed out of the regular pool and into 2+2, that restriction had to be removed. 

So what does any of it mean, exactly?

For starters - and we will stress that this is has a minor impact - it possibly makes the 2+2 pool a little tougher and it definitely makes the regular pool a little easier. 

• Say there were 15 amazing college seniors to apply in a year that HBS decided to offer deferred admission to.  In the past, those 15 spots were coming out of the 900 full-time seats, two years down the road.  Now, either those spots will come out of those earmarked for traditional 2+2 students, or, since college seniors will be applying AFTER their more traditional "junior summer" counterparts, the size of that year's cohort will just swell a bit.

As for business majors, our instinct is that it will still be harder to earn a spot in the 2+2 program if you are coming from a business background. 

• This is in part because the road is now paved for you to go do all the things a great HBS applicant should do in the business sector, but also because we believe the program was originally conceived in order to draw would-be law students, public policy students, med students, and PhDs into the b-school orbit.  If that is a core philosophy - to capture incredibly bright young leaders and give them business training - then it stands to reason that there won't be massive changes in "typing."

Who should apply to 2+2?

• We actually haven't changed our stance on this much.  We believe that anyone - yes, even a business major - who has strong academic chops, has displayed great leadership, and has the passion to apply SHOULD DO SO. 
• Why?  A couple of reasons: first, worst case scenario, this is a dry run that will transform the way you approach the next 2 - 6 years.  Being asked to sit down and map out your strengths, articulate your goals, analyze who you are ... that's intense stuff and if you do it for real, with actual stakes, you will become a better employee and eventual b-school applicant.  Even if you didn't get into HBS 2+2, if you take a real run at it and take the process seriously, you will absolutely accelerate your career and grad school time line. 
• Second, there still seems to be a *slightly* easier chance at getting in.  There simply aren't as many 20 and 21 year olds who have academic excellence, great leadership, and self awareness as there are 24, 25, and 26 year olds who have those same attributes.  The field tends to crowd the more you hit the HBS sweet spot of 3 or 4 years out of school.  You are up against not only the elite juniors and seniors from your year, but also the people who had the light bulb go off post-college.  In other words, if you enjoy an advantage - ANY advantage - now, you should try to press it before people who currently aren't on your radar wind up passing you.  Conversely, if you are not competitive now, take heart that you can lap a lot of superior candidates in a few years.

All told, whatever the reasons it was created and whatever small changes are being made administratively, 2+2 is a really cool program that gives college students a unique opportunity to walk the walk and see what they are made of. 

A lot of truly exceptional people have been "found" this way already, and HBS is confident they will find many more.  So are we.

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Applying to HBS 2+2? Be sure to check out our free guide on How to Apply to HBS.

Since 2008, we've worked with more than 1000 applicants to top MBA programs. To find out more about your options and how we can help you with your business school application, email us at mba@amerasiaconsulting.com or contact us via http://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/contact.

For an overview of our MBA admissions consulting services, visit http://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/mba-admissions-consultants-client-commitment/.

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Why I Created the Business School Selector

As an MBA admissions consultant, I have worked with a number of clients over the past 5 years.  Invariably, the most common question I receive is "What are my chances of getting in?" Answering this question qualitatively requires years of admissions consulting experience with dozens and dozens of clients.  Doing the question justice and providing the client with meaning insight requires several hours of examination.  Even then, as the applicant matures and the application process begins, the applicant's "chances" can change remarkably.

However, there has to be some way of getting into the analytics of how MBA admissions committees view their applicant pool.  I mean, Wharton is not going to take an applicant with a 480 GMAT, there is just no way.  There has to be a range, cut-offs and some way to statistically examine applicant pools.

I searched high and low on the WWW for such a tool.  I could find none in the GMAT/MBA space.  What I found were mostly models that analyzed a few criteria from an applicant's POV.   That is, these models looked at things like:

1. In what type of setting should the school reside?  Urban, Suburban, Rural?
2. What time of female or international representation should be present?
3. What climate should the school reside in?

While these factors are important in the decision-making process, they do not necessarily view things from the admissions committee perspective.

With this in mind, I when out and created a model that analyzes an applicant's prospects of entering the top 25 U.S. business school programs from an admissions committee view.  I developed this tool for Veritas Prep as part of my MBA admissions consulting responsibilities.

The explanation from the Veritas Prep website does a great job of explaining what function the tool serves:

"This tool was created to generate an optimal range of business schools for you. By "optimal," we mean that these are the highest-ranked schools to which you have a reasonable chance of getting accepted. While no model is perfect, especially in beta, you can use the range of schools at the bottom of this page as a way to start narrowing your choice of MBA programs."

"Please don’t take the model too seriously. Since it only utilizes a subset of data, it cannot be considered a comprehensive tool for all situations and applicant profiles. The admissions process is highly subjective, and no one model can serve as an "oracle" or "magic eight ball.""

Click here to access the Veritas Prep Business School Selector.

How to Dress Properly for a Business School Interview.

As an MBA admissions consultant I often have to take a step back with my clients.  Over the years I have learned a lot from my clients and have come to realize that the definitions of proper interview dress or attire varies by region, country and even culture.

This is the deal, and I dissuade anyone from thinking anything to the contrary:

1. Wear a dark colored suit (Grey, Black, Charcoal) with a white or light blue shirt.
2. Wear a tie that has as little design or pattern in it at possible.  Solid colored ties are good.
3. Wear shoes that are polished with dark socks.  By shoes I mean dress shoes with dark laces, not “comfort” shoes, timberlands or Uggs.  By dark I mean dark blue or black.
4. Do not wear anything that is tight-fitting or shows body parts excessively.  This is an interview not a club.
5. Cut the tags off your clothing.  Nothing says Men’s Wearhouse $199 special than tags still sewn onto the sleeve of a jacket.  Don’t laugh too much, I have seen this as an MBA admissions interviewer.  It tells me the applicant is clueless at worst or knows a good sale when he sees one at best.
6. Get a shave and a haircut……shower.

How many hours should I prepare for the GMAT?

I used to be a Kaplan tutor and instructor. Now I occasionally tutor students individually. It’s been my experience that if your aptitude is “average+” and you want to score above a 700 you need about 30 hours of instruction and then about another 50-70 hours of studying on your own. This seems like a lot but to some of my students it has been a slam dunk way of scoring 700+ by studying close to 100+ hours.

Data from GMAT, the creators of the GMAT, bolster this positioning.  700+ scoring students study 114 hours according to GMAC themselves.

I would definitely start studying 3 months out. This means taking a class course or tutoring if you have the money. After the class is done I would recommend taking one practice CD test a week (Sunday Afternoons).

During the week, stay after work for 75 additional mins and take a verbal section or a math section on CD.

The class course should teach you how to approach each problem. The tests and CDs should teach you timing.

Getting into B-School: Know the Adcom

Another good resource for the b-school applicant, is to utilize is the businessweek.com b-school forum. You have to pay for full access, but a big-timing prospective MBA (like yourself) should have no problems fronting the cash. I especially think its beneficial to read the Admissions Q&A with the Admissions Directors from the schools you are applying to. For instance, this is the one for Linda Baldwin,UCLA’s Adcom big cheese: Businessweek Interview.

For me, it’s important to understand what these people are saying so you can get a good idea of the environment they are trying to promote at their business school. If you understand your Adcom’s psychology, then you can tailor your message (during the interview or essays) to say (for lack of a better term) what they “want to hear”.

Also, some people will say “Josie, don’t write what you think the Adcom wants to hear, write from the heart,write something gutsy….” Anyone who says that should have their head examined. You want to write something that they want to hear, not something they don’t. If you don’t, you’re gonna be riding the short bus over to CUNY. Human nature says we like hearing stuff we agree with, not necessarily thought provoking.

Also, it wouldn’t hurt to Google the name of the Adcom head as well as the person who is going to be interviewing you. You might be able to find out what they like and then that becomes your new hobby….or at least a possible talking point.

What I think about the Business School Rankings

Business school rankings are an attempt by different publications to apply a methodology to the various aspects of an MBA program. This methodology then allows for a fair (subjective) comparison between all the affected b-schools. Different publications place different weights on the varying aspects of each b-school program. Often these weights change from year to year within the same publication. With the same publication, this leads to the inability to accurately compare schools from year to year. Across numerous publications, this just leads to confusion. For instance, some publications will rank Harvard “number one”, while others won’t even have it in the “top ten”. Is it possible for a b-school to change so much in one year? Not likely. As stated above, it’s most likely the publication.

So who can you rely upon? The two most consistent b-school rankings have come from “US News and World Report” and from Business Week. Business Week issues their ranking every other year, while US News issues them every year. Every other year is probably a good policy as b-schools, containing a certain amount of institutional memory, really don’t change too much from year to year. The top ten schools have very little turnover in these two polls. You can argue with their methodology but at least you know what you are going to get. These two heavy-hitters are the ones that everyone refers to and the only ones that that the business world really seems to care about with respect to bragging rights.

Other publications offer their own shot at rankings the b-schools with mixed results. Forbes gives theirs, the WSJ, the Economist and the Financial Times all have their own. These should be considered the second tier of b-schools rankings. Although these publications’ rankings may be totally legitimate with respect to methodology, they are not paid as much attention to as US News and Business Week because they are not as consistent. When these publications drop a Harvard or University of Chicago from their “top ten”, the methodologies that produced these incredulous results tend to lose, well, credibility. Question any ranking publication that has a school in the top ten one year and then in the 20s the next year. No school changes that much.

All this being, why should you even pay attention to the rankings? Why should it affect your decision to go to b-school? Simply put, perception is reality. Think about it, when you go to get that big banking or consulting job out of b-school, the big banks or consulting firms want the prestige that is associated with the top schools. They want that prestige and they are willing to pay for it. This is why recruiters also love candidate from the top 15 schools in the world. These top schools produce, maybe not the best candidates, but the most prestigious candidates. Usually, the top school’s produce the best and the most prestigious candidates. These students get paid the top dollar and their employer now has bragging rights.

Thus, the bottom line is that, love them or hate them, rankings do matter.

What do I consider to be the critical b-school admission factors?

I taught the GMAT for about 3 years. In that time, I had the pleasure of teaching over 250 students. Along the way, I also had the privilege of helping a select few craft their admissions packages. Based on my experience and in order of importance, I present the following 8 factors I consider critical to getting into a top b-school:

1. GMAT Score
2. Application Essays
3. Work Experience
4. GPA
5. Extracurricular Activities
6. Recommendations
7. Interviews
8. Applicant Submission Round