Met Ben in the Happy Hour about a month ago. Ben's the person responsible for getting back to the CBS thread on BW-forum, big, talkative, and very funny. He raised some interesting points about the admission process. 1. They DON'T read applications during the day. There are only around 10 people in the Ad-com and everybody has tons of stuff to do during the day. They usually print the application out, bring them back after work and read them at home. (So make it interesting - just imagine reading dull essays after dinner. Feel dozy right?) 2. In peak seasons (yes they have peak seasons too), everybody reads around 4-5 application every WEEK. (So they do give a lot of attention to every application) 3. They travel around a lot, during which the application will be left unattended. People will not cover each other's task. Considering the tremedous amount of time they have to spend on presentations all over the world, don't worry if you get response later than other people do. Your timeline largely depends on the person who reads your application - not the quality of your application. 4. They feel frustrated about what people here say about their China policy. "We don't understand Chinese so we can't do anything about what they say in your Chinese forums ", Ben complained to me. "Otherwise we will do a much better job clarifying our China policies! China is really very important to us." And that is true. The year before last, around 7 people (including HK) were admitted. Last year, 14 people (including HK) were admitted. You see the trend. CBS fans - I'm sorry that we have not started a "CBS 2006 taking questions" thread so far. To be honest, it's very intense here and all first years are overwhelmed by all the academics, social activities, and recruiting (yes recruiting starts at end of September). Suncola and I will try our best to answer your questions. Good luck everybody. | 
