Ourtwocents1

Does anyone have a sense for what kind of profiles usually end up receiving funding?

I got in! On cloud 9 right now. I guess financial aid decisions to be released in a couple of weeks?

Admitted students, does the new tab in sparks read "newly admitted"? Something odd happens when I click "refresh" from an iPad -- a tab called "my pages" appears for a fraction of a second, but then disappears and only the "home" and "applicant" tabs are left once the page has loaded. Not sure whether that's just a placeholder that somehow reroutes the page regardless of admission status.

Harvard. That's it, just Harvard. Didn't apply anywhere else as I really want to attend HKS. That says something about the value I place on it, but also the anxiety of the waiting process. I don't expect it would alter my earning potential per se (I've already left a very lucrative career in the private sector to join the public sector), but it would certainly alter how far my public sector trajectory will advance in the long term. It's very much a qualitative, long-run investment, and merely putting a salary number on it wouldn't quite capture the value I place on the degree fitting in with my career vision. For that reason, debt or no debt, I would go in a heartbeat if accepted.

Haha, I like that. Here's the optimist's take on the absurd: let's make the next 24, or 48, or 72 hours count because they might be the last "calm" before the storm -- a strech of sadness (not getting in) or the flurry of activity that admissions would bring.

alf10087 is correct; there is more than one way to approach this puzzle. Moreover, from the moment Tom-MPP informed us that decisions have already been made, the phenomenology approach is no longer inconsistent with decisions having been made from the perspective of those who were around to listen to the proverbial tree falling in the forest. In other words, we now know decisions have been made, thus rendering moot the question of whether we can know that decisions have been reached. We know it (or believe it, from hearsay). It's somewhat analogous to the concept of Being-toward-death (Heidegger); we know something is coming, and just because we are not yet there in time does not mean we do not have to order ourselves accordingly.

Has anyone received an invitation for a Zuckerman fellowship interview? I was not eligible and therefore did not apply; however, if you have and would be willing to share your stats, we would all be very grateful while we wait for official HKS decisions.

I completely agree with Ethical Realist. I have many friends who graduated from HBS, and in my experience it is true that there is something of a perceived "hierarchy" among the schools. That said, I would attend HKS over HBS any day. First, I WANT to be in the public sector. I left a highly prestigious job in private practice to join the public sector for a reason. I am ambitious and I want to be among the best in my field, but I will not relentlessly pursue achievements that do not mesh with what I ultimately want to accomplish in life. HKS is the best fit for what I want to do, and I would be thrilled to go there for the opportunities it would open up in the area where I want to be. Second, I want the public sector oriented network that HKS offers. The people likely to look down on me for attending HKS are precisely the people who would look down on me for choosing a lower paying public sector job over a higher grossing job in finance, or the people who might have looked down on me for entering the public sector from a successful private practice career. I am fairly open to many ways of thinking, and this in itself does not phase me. Ironically, I am friends with many people who are likely to make such casual judgments; however, I find that any tendency they may have to condescend is quickly cast aside once they realize they are speaking with their intellectual equals. Being at HBS would help me meet many more people interested in the private sector; I am sure I would quite like them and make many friends, but the networks at HKS would simply be a better fit. Being at HKS would help me meet like-minded people who share similar goals and who are more likely to be in the types of professional circles that my future positions will involve. HBS is a wonderful school, and I have no doubt I would want to go there if I had wanted to return to the private sector. However, for those of us who are certain of our desire to work in the public sector, HKS is the logical choice.