At the most elite levels, admissions can be remarkablycruel and impersonal process. The talent pool for any top MBA program is sodeep and rich in outstanding candidates who at first glance seem like shoo-in.Yet, they get unceremoniously dinged, often without an admissions interview.
They come from Ivy League schools, boast near 4.0 gradepoint averages and GMATs that are in the top 5% of all test takers. They workfor gold-plated firms and have stellar extracurriculars demonstrating clearleadership potential.
Their carefully crafted applications are submitted. Theyget the typical auto-response thanking them for their interest in a school.They anxiously wait months for an answer. And then, in a brief, punishingemail, they are, in the euphemistic words of Harvard Business School’sadmissions director, “released.”
THE RAWSTATS AND PROFILES ARE SIMPLY REMARKABLE
Consider this 22-year-old young professional who was a2+2 applicant to HBS and just received his round two rejection. He is currentlyenrolled at Brown University where he majors in economics and politicalscience. He has a 3.96 GPA and a 760 GMAT score, which puts him in the 99thpercentile of test takers. He has interned during the summer at Goldman Sachs,working in both investment banking and debt capital markets. At Brown, hefounded a finance journal that now boasts more than 150 members. Hisrecommendation letters were written by a Goldman Sachs managing director and aBrown administrator who has worked with the candidate in student government.
Or how about this 28-yer-old Japanese American applicantwho went to a Southern Ivy (think Duke or Emory), scored a 760 on the GMAT, andoffset his 3.1 GPA with a 4.0 alternative transcript in five courses. For thepast four and one-half years, he has worked at a boutique economic consulting firm.He runs a Tsunami relief effort in Japan annually, and his essay focused on howentrepreneurship in Japan can bring great societal value to the country. Hisrecommendations were penned by a Harvard Business School professor and apartner at his firm who is an HBS alum.
Or consider a completely puzzled Teach for America alumwho scored 780 on the GMAT and has a 4.03 GPA from a top 20 university in ahighly demanding major–engineering. He plays a leadership role at his localchurch, devoting five to eight hours a week in volunteer work there. In hisHarvard admissions essay, he wrote about why he is so deeply passionate abouteducation and yearns to dedicate his professional life to erasing educationalinequality.
THE MEDIANGMAT SCORE FOR THESE DINGS WAS 750!
All three and more were turned down by Harvard BusinessSchool in its second round decisions that went out Feb. 4. They are allexceptional candidates, yet what they share in common is an HBS rejection.There may be some consolation in the fact that these round two applicants–andmany others you’ll read about here–are among thousands of people who weredinged by HBS this month.
Infact, some had GMAT scores as high as 780. Or GPAs as high as 4.0 from the verybest Ivy League schools. They work for Fortune 100 companies and major globalconsulting firms, investment banks, and startups (see below our table ofapplicants who were dinged by Harvard. We’re talking Goldman Sachs, Google,Procter & Gamble, and McKinsey, Bain or BCG. They generously shared theirraw stats and profiles with Poets&Quants inthe hopes of gaining some insight into why they didn’t make the cut.
Among the 32 dinged candidates who provided stats, themedian GMAT was an astonishing 750. It goes to show that high scores are noassurance of an admit at Harvard Business School.
WHYCOULDN’T THESE EXTRAORDINARY CANDIDATES GET INTO HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL?
For some candidates, it might be easy to isolate a factoror two that led to the ding. But for many of them, it’s very much a mystery–particularlywithout the ability to see the entire application submitted to HBS. Their briefprofiles and stats, however, demonstrate how random success can be when theapplicant pool is filled with so many exceptional candidates.
So how come these truly extraordinary applicants couldn’t get in?
Weasked Sandy Kreisberg, whomore typically does our MBA handicapping column, to take a look at thebackgrounds and stories of these candidates and tell them why they failed toget into Harvard.
Of course, it’s no small hurdle to get into HBS. Theaverage GMAT score for the latest class enrolled at HBS is 727, while theundergraduate grade point average is in nose bleed territory as well: 3.67. HBSrejects 88% of the people who apply to its full-time MBA program, and that’sfrom a pool where there is a lot of self-selection going on. Most applicantswho simply don’t have the basic stats won’t even bother to apply. And for therecord, some of these dings even stumped Kreisberg.
These Harvard MBA Applicants Were Dinged In Round Two
简单分析几种典型背景申请人被拒的原因：
1.Mr. 2+2 Childhood Dream
·740 GMAT ·3.21 GPA ·Undergraduate degree inbiotechnology from IIT Guwahati
·Work experience includes atwo-month internship at Futures First, a multinational finance firm, developingalgorithmic trading strategies despite no prior background in finance; twomonths at Phoenix Comtrade, a multinational agri-commodity firm, devising marketingstrategies for a new rice brand
·Extracurricular involvement as aconvener of the annual cultural festival in college, the third largest inIndia, leading a team of more than 250 students; member of the entrepreneurialdevelopment cell; also did a startup in college that broke even in a fewmonths; a debater who has won parliamentary debates; also play tennis and drums
·Post-career MBA goal: To developa startup ecosystem in India “as I strongly believe that entrepreneurs are keyto development”
·“Getting into Harvard has been mychildhood dream and thus applied to just HBS”
·22-year-old Indian male
Sandy’sAnalysis: Well, your dreams may stillcome true about HBS admission, but as noted, 2+2 is hard and lottery like,possibly more so for Internationals. Your financial engineering, trading,algorithm- creating internships did not help because trading and algorithmmaking are not favored jobs at HBS. No doubt, you could find some dudes therewith that background, but they are not favored. That is more so for 2+2.
Your goals and internships did not align. You have OK butmarquee extracurriculars and a STAND OUT focused leadership story. Goals aresorta OK, but anyone could have patched in those same goals to their story. Youdid not come by those goals via experience. All of that, on top of 2+2 is hardand equals a ding because there is nothing really compelling that is drivingyou in.
2.Mr. 2+2 Brown University
§760GMAT (47%V/48%Q) §3.96GPA §Seniorat Brown University majoring in Economics and Political Science §Internedat Goldman Sachs, investment banking, debt capital markets. §Recommendationwas from my summer MD and a Brown administrator who I had worked with becauseof student government. §Wroteessay on my founding of a finance journal at Brown that now has over 150members. My recommender also talked about this accomplishment in his letter. §2+2applicant white male
Sandy’sAnalysis: Dunno, dude. This is solid all around. Theyprobably just got tired of ultra high-performing finance types by the time theygot to you, assuming execution was serviceable. It’s not a big issue, butprofiles like this in 2+2 should apply ASAP, not Round 2. Still, the realreason is either bad luck, bad execution, or what Dee ate for lunch beforelooking at your application. Your essay topic is impressive but if it turnedinto a brag sheet or was odd, that could be an issue, too. But again, this is areal head scratcher. You still have a shot, though. Peeps like you get admittedas regular applicants in two to four years.
3.Mr. Non-IIT Analytics
§740GMAT §3.2GPA §Undergraduatedegree in engineering from a non-IIT but top ten engineering school in India §Workexperience includes two years at ZS Associates, a niche analytics firm; thenleft the company for a nine-month stint at a startup that failed; and two yearsat another analytics firm (not very well known) where I work with senior vicepresidents of a Fortune 500 firm. Have worked with clients across eightcountries on a change management project involving about 1,000 employees. §Alsoco-founded a mobile app company with a user base of 25,000 and a turnover of$75,000 in the social welfare and mobile governance space §Extracurricularinvolvement in Indian traditions such as yoga, vedas, ayurveda (Think SteveJobs in his earlier life), avid reader of business books, marathon runner,organized fests in college and have done extensive social work, includingteaching under privileged children, giving presentations to college juniors onhow to land a job §Goal:To create a firm and run it back in India, this time better prepared with arelevant skillset §Otherfactors: No promotions, low GPA, and in the “non-IIT wannabe lot” §Alsodinged by Stanford §MaleIndian
Sandy’sAnalysis: You’ve had too many second-tier jobs, a low GPAfrom a non-elite school, and as for entrepreneurship experience, your ace inthe hole, the ONLY thing that schools like Harvard and Stanford respect in thatregard are:
1.Venture capital-backed companies and some proof that a third party thinks youare ok.
2. Sale of your company for big money (sorta same as 1 able), or in rare cases,HUGE numbers of users, revenue, and press coverage. Otherthan that, all startups are hobbies in the mind of Harvard and Stanford adcoms.
4.Mr. Digital Marketer
§750GMAT §Undergraduatedegree in economics, first class degree, from a respectable college in Mumbai §Workexperience includes four years at Procter & Gamble in product marketing,currently leading a team that works in digital marketing where we run campaignson Facebook, Twitter as well as banner ads on YouTube. “I have also conductedworkshops for the field sales guys on how they can leverage the digital mediumto boost their sales. §“Atmy first year at the company, I was a field sales guy; had the best salesrecord in the country.” §Goal:To transition into a leadership role at a global FMCG company (Such as P&G)that would combine facets such as marketing, operations and finance, which inturn would drive the company’s growth §Extracurricularinvolvement as a mountaineer who has climbed Mt. Everest and Kanchenjunga (Twoof the three highest peaks in the world) §Recommendationsfrom a VP and the head of sales for India West and North. §Alsodinged by Wharton and will probably matriculate to Kellogg §26-year-oldIndian Male
Sandy’sAnalysis: Wow, the Wharton ding on these facts is deeply odd,given 750 and first class GPA, along with blue chip P&G work history. TheIndian male cohort is competitive but still.
Yourcollege also could be one issue. HBS takes Desi’s from mostly IIT and threeother places (in India). if you are outside that orbit, it becomes a littlemore difficult. Other than that, you either screwed up the application, gotunlucky, or got beaten out, at HBS, by cohort of other kids in FMCG etc. Notsure exactly what happened, but your schooling did not help, but was notdeal-breaker per se. A lot might depend on what they thought of your gigs atP&G, although digital product marketing ‘sounds like’ a hot area, it mightalso depend on what you actually do.
Again, do you know anyone in your unit who applied to B school and what are the outcomes?
HBSmay have under-valued that role in their own hierarchy of which jobs count. Yougot a job which in the U.S. might be given, by HBS’s figuring, to mediocrecollege grad who grinds out FB posts, or maybe that and some ‘strategy’ –justmy guess, it might have been they do not understand what you, or that what youdo is not selective for real, or that they just prefer Desi’s who are capableof busting out of India and getting elite investment banking or managementconsulting gigs or a more traditional gig with a Fortune 500 company thanyours.
Also,as noted many times, “SALES” is a poor relation at HBS to finance, operations,strategy etc. so that could be an overhang as well. Basically, your fate wassealed in college, which led to this good but not great (to them) job and onlyway you were getting in was by getting a more selective gig at P&G or theblah, blah IB/MC gigs they really like.
5.Mr. Canadian Banker
§700GMAT (38V, 48Q, 5.5 AWA, 8 IR; 1st time) §3.7GPA §Undergraduatedegree in business from a top Canadian university (think Toronto, Ivey orQueens) §Workexperience includes one year in audit with a Big 4 accounting firm, three yearsin investment banking with a top Canadian firm, and one year in a corporatestrategy role for a bank §“Currentgig is in a strategy role with one of the Big 5 Canadian banks, essentiallyhelping the executives on a wide range of questions including resource allocation,sales force optimization, digital disruption, and marketing strategy”
Extracurricular involvement as an alumnus and as a student developed schoolclubs, volunteer consulting for local charities through an organization (ledteam) §“Myessay focused on my experiences within the bank and the need to restorecustomer trust and address digital disruption within the industry.” §Goal:To take a more active operational management role §26-year-oldAsian male §Dingedby both Columbia and HBS
Sandy’sAnalysis: Your Columbia ding is a mild surprise. They mayhave stumbled over your below average GMAT score (for them in finance forsomeone who is not an under-represented minority). It’s also hard to read thebook ends of your career, e.g. audit which is disfavored and what exactly isyour current gig, at what bank? Same as IB. They may have a “hard-ish” timeunderstanding the Canadian banking totem pole. The rest of your profile ispretty bland, although I like you. Your HBS outcome was that only more sobecause you fall within a super competitive IB/PE cohort.
6.Mr. Goldman Sachs
§710GMAT §3.55GPA §Undergraduatedegree in finance from a top undergraduate business program (think UC- §BerkeleyHaas or University of Michigan Ross School) §Workexperience includes two and one-half years in structured finance within theinvestment bank at Goldman Sachs, recently promoted to associate; also havefour years of sales & trading internship experience within Goldman prior toworking full-time §Extracurricularinvolvement as an English teacher in two Asian countries and currently tutorothers through a non-profit on a weekly basis §Currentlywait listed at Haas after an interview §24-year-oldAsian American
Sandy’sAnalysis: Your Haas outcome is a jaw-dropper of sorts. Theymight be wondering if they are your first choice. Was that an issue? If you gotdinged at HBS, well this could be just so-so stats and pedigree in what isordinarily a gold-plated cohort group in investment banking and private equity.
7.Mr. U.S. Army
§720GMAT (49Q,39V) §3.4GPA §Undergraduatedegree in economics from an Ivy League college §Workexperience includes three years in business banking at a regional bank, thenfour years in the U.S. Army with a deployment in Afghanistan; awarded bronzestar and had two leadership jobs with people and one job in project management §Extracurricularinvolvement building a family racing team as well as driving, lots duringcollege & part-time job, created mentoring program for high school studentscareer/college prep through race team, created apprenticeship program forsoldiers, and tutoring program while deployed §Wroteessay about tying first generation college and lack of guidance into a desireto give back and help others in my position by creating programs to guidestudents/soldiers §Goal:To transition into management consulting §29-year-oldwhite male, first generation college
Sandy’sAnalysis: Hey buddy, I’m rooting for you but file this underHBS focus on form not substance. You have powerful experiences at Silver notGold jobs (e.g. commercial banking), a so-so GPA (~3.4) and what might be agreat Army career, but as often noted here, HBS is not able to evaluate Armyexperiences (aside from pilots and Special Ops, both of which they like).
Youalso have powerful extras as you describe them, in reality, but not in MarqueeOrganizations they know and like. So while a plus, it’s just not enough to movethe needle. Lots of little things are positive in this story, but actualleadership and granular do-gooder stuff and first generation white guy do notadd up, The military cohort, the box you were competing in, has a lot ofpowerful stories, so the 30-50 first military dings are often quite compelling,as here.
You should get into someplace OK and after that, your consulting career will beback on track.
8.Mr. Ed Tech
§161V(87%), 159Q (74%) GRE §3.5GPA §Undergraduatedegree from a public Ivy §Workexperience includes six years as the the technical co-founder of a companyafter undergrad, one year in my current position as the CTO of an EdTechstartup. §Extracurricularinvolvement as a college athlete on the rowing tea, fluent in five languages,founded a non-profit to promote financial literacy to high school students §Short-termGoal: To transition into product management at a large tech company working onan educational product §Long-termGoal: To found a company that leverages technology to help American studentsbolster their quantitative skills from an early age (look at the GMAT – we needit!). §Alsoapplied to Stanford GSB, MIT Sloan, Dartmouth Tuck, and Yale School ofManagement §30-year-oldHispanic (American citizen) male in EdTech
Sandy’sAnalysis: I’m a bit surprised. Maybe, but just to speculate,your ding probably turns on your work history and your need for an MBA, giventhat you spent six years with your own start up and then moved to anothercompany. That sounds solid but a lot will turn on facts and the growth recordof your own company, and what happened to it. If it was a big success, somemight wonder why you need an MBA degree. If it wasn’t, then you had an excuseto look for a job which took you six years to find.
Orperhaps it is something in the middle. I don’t mean to diss your six years ofeffort, but this is just an odd profile, and a lot will turn on reality and howyou presented that experience, and also what your current company is like.There is nothing in your work history that gives schools any anchor incredibility. A lot might have turned on how you presented your work history andneed for MBA because Hispanics with your GPA and GREs are wanted by schools tosome degree but that won’t overcome an iffy work history (after seven years!).So that could be it.
9.Ms. Sustainable Energy
§730GMAT §3.6GPA §Undergraduatestudent in mechanical engineering at Ivy League school (H/Y/P), with minors insustainable energy and materials science §WorkExperience includes research and senior thesis focused on battery storagematerials; was project manager for a class project in which led a team of 40 topresent to NASA-JPL; also led a team of 120 to organize a Model UN conferenceas SecGen for 1000 participating high school students, and started a socialentrepreneurship venture after winning a pitch competition and am currently inan incubator program on campus §Wroteessay on my desire to write my own story and my love for renewable energy §Goal:To do project management and development in the RE industry with the aim ofgoing into rural electrification in the future §Femalestudent from India §Appliedto HBS under 2+2 program; gained interview for Yale Silver Scholars program
Sandy’sAnalysis: Well, lots to like obviously, especially that factthat you are a female STEM. The only guess I can make is your lack of prestigeinternships at blue chip companies over the summer. That can count a lot and isan easy way for HBS to see how you compare with other kids. If you had workedfor a leading alternative energy (or just energy) company or NASA or M/B/B oversummers that might have given some weight to this.
Allthat said, had you gotten in on this record, I would not have been surprised.Is it the case that you never had a ‘real’ job, even for summer?
10.Mr. 2+2 Investment Banker
§750GMAT (49 Q, 44 V, 8 IR, 6.0 AWA) §3.92GPA §Undergraduatesenior majoring in economics at Ivy League (Columbia/Dartmouth) §WorkExperience includes internships at multiple top investment banks (Goldman,Morgan Stanley, Blackstone, JP Morgan); Full-time offer from Investment Bankinggroup at one of them after summer internship §Extracurriculars:Four-year varsity athlete (think heavyweight crew, track, soccer); President ofschool student-athlete group; founded an LGBT organization that has establishedmentoring programs and charity events; President of school Finance Society; workon team for renewable energy work/research at school §Goal:Hope to be CEO of a renewable energy company after MBA (consistent with groupI’m joining at top bank) §Essay:Wrote about my experience coming out as gay and its impact on my values/goalsin life; was well-written, concise, and powerful §21-year-oldwhite male, 2+2 applicant
Sandy’sAnalysis: This is a really solid profile. I believe the 2+2program is more targeted toward STEM applicants. With such a profile and two tofour years of solid experience in IB, I believe you will be able to get intoany school
Oneannoying reason might be that cohort of white, male IB/PE types was alreadyfull–you are supposed to apply Round 1. If not that, or if only partially that,2+2 is often, after a certain point, random. You should be a very strongapplicant in two to four years, lots of 2+2 dings like you wind up getting in.
11.Mr. Mobile App
§760GMAT §85/100average §Undergraduatedegree in psychology from a top Canadian university §Workexperience primarily at startups. Most notably, two years in marketing at amobile app startup which was recently acquired §Extracurricularinvolvement in various communications roles with community orgs, includinglocal LGBT group, strong student leadership experience as RA/executive onstudent union §Goal:To move into VC focused on investing in minority entrepreneurs §25-year-oldmale, Chinese ancestry from SE Asia
Sandy’sAnalysis: Well, I would not have been surprised if you wereinterviewed, given solid stats and what seems like solid experience in mobile,a big interest area for business schools.
If your work experience was scattered over several start-ups, as you suggest, andyou appeared to get lucky in last one (acquired but by whom), well that might have jinxed you. It’s possible that they just saw a kid drifting from smallapplication start-up to small application start-up. THAT is not a favorite HBS profile. Your goal to become a “VC for minority community,” seems unsettled and a bit historical as well.
12.Mr. Ultimate Frisbee
§760GMAT §3.8GPA §Undergraduatedegree in economics and mechanical engineering from a top 15 U.S. university §Workexperience includes two years at McKinsey & Co. and one and one-half yearsin business strategy/development for a large gaming company focused onexpansion opportunities §Extracurricularinvolvement as a “huge ultimate frisbee player in my spare time (takes up mostof it) with a long-term goal of using my passion for the sport and businessstrengths to expand the sport internationally and earn the sports entrance intothe summer olympics §“Thoughtson if I should be overly worried about my other two apps, Stanford andKellogg?” §25-year-oldwhite American
Sandy’sAnalysis: You’re a slight mystery and my guess is, either badluck or bad luck compounded a bit by HBS latent disfavor of gaming companiesand your SOMEWHAT odd goal “of using my passion for the sport and businessstrengths to expand the sport internationally and earn the sports entrance intothe summer olympics.”
Thatis a business plan and not a goal, and an odd one. Hey, it’s okay with OK me,just telling you what might have happened. If they otherwise like you theyoverlook oddball goals like that, if not, and if they also don’t like youcurrent employer, and found the rest of your application a bit odd, and make iteasy to say NO to you.
Man,you should get into Kellogg. Stats and story are up their alley, even the oddparts. Stanford is always a roll of the dice, and you don’t sound veryStanford-y. They sometimes admit kids like you with mega stats, but often fromfavored companies, such as Facebook and Google. | 
