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Revolution

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Everything posted by Revolution

  1. Guys, SAIS decisions are now out via e-mail.
  2. I just read Matt Clemons' blog, and it's infuriating. A lot of gibberish about typing in numbers and how admissions is an "art." WTF? Last year, admissions was released this week, but now he's saying that decisions will come out sometime in the next two weeks? Unbelievable.
  3. It's nearly impossible to get an interview at a big 3 consulting firm (McKinsey/BCG/Bain) without going through formal on-campus recruiting. That's where the vast majority of hires come from, especially from the top 10 b-schools. I know HKS does decently well in consulting but not sure how many get MBB offers or what their starting salary is like. I do have a friend doing MPA-ID right now who got an offer from MBB, and I'm pretty sure he will be getting paid the same as MBAs. As for why an MPP/MPA rather than an MBA, good chance that the OP or others get into HKS but not a top 10 MBA program. HKS is difficult to get into by policy standards but nowhere as hard as top b-schools.
  4. Yeah, I'm pretty sure MC-MPA is the highest. I always thought that MPA2 was somewhere around 25-30% acceptance rate. As for the requirements it's a bit confusing. I had to e-mail the admissions staff with my transcript from a previous masters program to make sure that I met the course requirement. There is no list of actual courses you need to have taken; it's a rather broad criteria of having taken "graduate level courses that are similar to what HKS offers." Then again I know plenty of people who got into MPA2 without having gone to a previous graduate program so not quite sure what's going on there. About half of the MPA2 students are doing joint MBAs at top schools, so I think the pool is very qualified even though it's a lot smaller than MPP.
  5. I have a really hard time believing that MPA2's acceptance rate is a whopping 60%. NO way that can be right.
  6. Policy programs are so much more inefficient than b-schools that it's embarrassing. I really hope they get their act together in cambridge. On a related note, does HKS have a separate admissions committee that evaluates applications, or is it all done by the actual professors, similar to Phd programs?
  7. Good luck everyone! This week is huge for everyone on here. Whatever happens, don't let admission results dictate your self-worth or level of happiness.
  8. No, I'm not disparaging it per se. I'm just questioning how much value there is to HKS if i did HKS alone, without an MBA. That's all. And i'm not the only person who feels this way; plenty of joint mba/hks people said similar things to me. Now, most of them loved the HKS classes and the people there; they thought the hks students were more interesting than the MBAs. But they questioned whether HKS was worth the tuition, as well as its weak career services.
  9. I agree that HKS is more difficult to get into than it was in 2004. I disagree with your other conclusions, however. First, acceptance rate alone is not a good measure of a school's selectivity. You have to look at the quality of the applicant pool. Generally speaking, HKS's selectivity is NOT on par with top 10 mba or law schools (MPA-ID could be an exception due to its quantitative requirements). Second, I agree that the market in general is oversaturated with law and mba students. However, top MBA programs provide immense value to its graduates; there's been plenty of empirical studies done on this. Top policy programs such as HKS and WWS do not provide that sort of value. Third, the MBA is about the name brand, networking, and access to recruiting and visits with top firms from all industries. That in itself is immensely valuable, one that is worth paying the steep tuition for. I know tons of top b-school alums, and not a single one regrets attending. Fourth, you mentioned that some big companies were started by college graduates. Ok, that's great. But you're using rare people such as gates, zuckerberg, etc., to try to extrapolate on the value of an MBA. That's deeply flawed reasoning on your part. Moreover, lot of the big companies are run by MBAs. Heck, the second most powerful person at Facebook, COO Sheryl Sandberg, is a HBS alum. She brought business and operational acumen to Facebook that Zuckerberg simply did not have. My point is that companies HIGHLY covet MBAs from top programs. If they did not, they wouldn't visit these schools every year to recruit students for internships and full-time jobs. An MBA is a stamp of approval, a signal to these employers that you passed the gauntlet of admissions and are able to contribute to their firms. This does not mean of course that an MBA alone will make you successful; you still have to work your butt off and prove that you have the right stuff. But don't fool yourself; credentials are VERY important in today's highly competitive workforce. It is here that HKS falls remarkably short. Aside from low paying jobs in the public sector, I'm not quite sure what value HKS gives to its graduates.
  10. I'm in a similar boat. I mean I have no idea whether I will get into HKS MPA2, but if i get in there but not the mba programs and i don't get great funding, i will most likely turn it down and stick with the startup and other projects i'm working on. It's utterly insane that HKS can charge so much and give so little aid when the economic value for its graduates is simply not there. I talked to friends who are doing joint mba at hbs/wharton/sloan and hks, and they ALL told me to NOT do HKS alone.
  11. Your last point is definitely a concern. I mean at the MPA2 program at HKS, roughly half the students are doing a joint degree with an MBA. Not sure how that affects the experience of those who are doing just the MPA2, especially if they want to get a job in the private sector (finance/consulting), but I imagine that the impact is not negligible.
  12. Thanks for the link. Good stuff. I'm still waiting to hear back from b-schools (will know by early april).
  13. Great stuff. A joint mba/mpa at hks and a top b-school would be an intellectual and social feast, a truly mind blowing experience.
  14. Actually, that 18-20% is the % of applicants who end up enrolling at SAIS, so the actual acceptance rate is higher. I'm pretty sure it's somewhere around 30%; I would be stunned if it's below 25%. I think HKS MPP is around 18-20%, and MPA is around 25%.
  15. Is that number from a reliable source? Yowza. That's really low.
  16. I appreciate the blunt nature of that post as well, especially saying explicitly that people's reaction will range from rage to denial. What's the acceptance rate for SAIS M.A.? Is it still around 30%?
  17. Fair enough. Just not sure how policy programs can justify such a high tuition when the median salary coming out is so low. Since i have a lot of experience in financial trading, I'm hoping that i could come out of sais or hks with a much higher median salary. We'll see though; first I have to get in
  18. This is pretty informative. 47% did go into the private sector but very disturbing that the median salary is only $63,000. I'm hoping that is due to the fact that most SAIS students have only a few years of work experience, with very little in the private sector. http://www.jhubc.it/ADMISSIONSBLOGDOCUMENTS/SAIS_EOR_ClassOf2012%20(1).pdf
  19. Hmm. Not having access to on-campus recruiting is a huge liability. I hope they have resources for guys like me who're interested in finance and have prior experience. I know HKS is not that strong in international econ/finance, but i imagine that having access to the resources of the broader harvard community should be somewhat helpful. Nonetheless, my friends who did joint mba/policy told me to not do policy alone. Either do both or do the mba.
  20. Can you tell me more about SAIS and the private sector placement? Do firms actively recruit on-campus? I hear their career services is really bad, or has it gotten better?
  21. Yup. I applied to HKS and SAIS, along with top mba programs in hopes of doing a joint degree. I really like the HKS MPA program since it is geared towards older applicants with work experience, and the flexibility will allow me to take tons of courses that interest me and can help advance my career goals. However, I'm just not sure if HKS alone without an MBA would allow me to get the job I want coming out.
  22. I wonder if HKS students get access to university-wide on-campus recruiting, especially for the financial firms.
  23. About 90% of HBS grads get jobs within 6 months of graduating. A lot of hbs students are now going into startups and other smaller ventures rather than joining the corporate world. And for those looking for very specific opportunities, let's say buyside finance, they are willing to wait for the right opportunity rather than take a job just for the sake of a job. Because HBS grads have so many options, they can afford to wait things out rather than settling. The tuition reimbursement is 2-3 years, now it's more like 3 years. The big 3 consulting firms (mckinsey/bcg/bain) now pay first-year associates close to $200K all-in, including bonus. It boggles my mind that policy programs can get away with charging almost as much as top MBA programs. It's utterly ridiculous, akin to an auto dealer selling a honda accord for the same price as a porsche.
  24. What's your ideal private sector job coming out of grad school? I actually have no interest in like 95% of jobs that MBAs get, but since i want to do macro investment research/strategy, a joint mba/policy degree would have been quite powerful. Unfortunately, it looks like i won't get into the top mba programs.
  25. Kadisha, you have an impressive profile. I think you should apply to top business schools such as harvard, stanford, and wharton. They would love your military background!
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