Fall 2022 Business Ph.D. Applicants

[JeffQ]

On 12/9/2021 at 12:05 AM, Vyndian said:

^ you don’t know the associates or higher are going to stick around, either.

I guess you're right. I decided to go with my initial choice. 

[Vyndian]

2 hours ago, JeffQ said:

I guess you're right. I decided to go with my initial choice. 

I should’ve elaborated further. I was given the advice of tenure tends to be granted at other institutions as part of a moving package when professors choose to change schools. It’s seen as the badge of lateral freedom. So, “look at a department, not a person. If the department likes you, you’ll know.”

[OBapplicant22]

On 12/16/2021 at 9:57 AM, JPrun said:

Yes, I do. I think your application is the bridge between your connection with him and the intention to be at the specific school so without mentioning that I feel your message would be incomplete, except you are asking for a collaboration outside of the PhD. This is at least how I perceive it. I could be wrong.

 

Yeah I see! Thank you @JPrun! I guess I will mention that in my emails. Best of luck with all your applications!

[SteelBite]

Hey everyone!

I'm applying to 14 stats programmes this year, and three of them are under business schools (Wharton, Stern and Marshall). I'm particularly worried about Stern's personal statement. What does an international white heterosexual male who does not lean left have to contribute to diversity? I could go on about teaching underprivileged high schoolers and soldiers at various points in life, but that seems to somewhat miss the point, and I don't want to come off as a white saviour.

[Vyndian]

6 hours ago, SteelBite said:

Hey everyone!

I'm applying to 14 stats programmes this year, and three of them are under business schools (Wharton, Stern and Marshall). I'm particularly worried about Stern's personal statement. What does an international white heterosexual male who does not lean left have to contribute to diversity? I could go on about teaching underprivileged high schoolers and soldiers at various points in life, but that seems to somewhat miss the point, and I don't want to come off as a white saviour.

Stern doesn’t have a required personal statement according to my folders document— is it optional? I usually submitted one if it was. Kinda surprised I missed it.

[SteelBite]

11 hours ago, Vyndian said:

Stern doesn’t have a required personal statement according to my folders document— is it optional? I usually submitted one if it was. Kinda surprised I missed it.

It is indeed optional, but nothing "optional" on the applications truly feels that way to me.

[JPrun]

8 hours ago, SteelBite said:

It is indeed optional, but nothing "optional" on the applications truly feels that way to me.

Well, I did not submit one. What I would say is that your experience (teaching highs-schoolers, soldiers) appears great  as that does not represent the "typical" profile of an applicant (corporate work or direct from undergraduate). I think the underlying assumption behind the need to diversify is that all things being equal a more diversified pool should have an edge, and this advantage might be related to perceptual processing (problems have to be cognitively represented appropriately and using multiple instances before the actual execution). I feel we misread the emphasis on diversity.

So if you could write how those experiences (long enough) might make you different in the way you perceive things and show good instances, then that might be a good way to go. Diversity is just what it is, diversity. It does not have to be in terms of race, socio-economic status, religion, gender etc. (though these also might influence cognitive framing).

Not sure if this helps but just tossing around some ideas.

[Mr. Jameson]

On 12/25/2021 at 6:03 AM, SteelBite said:

Hey everyone!

I'm applying to 14 stats programmes this year, and three of them are under business schools (Wharton, Stern and Marshall). I'm particularly worried about Stern's personal statement. What does an international white heterosexual male who does not lean left have to contribute to diversity? I could go on about teaching underprivileged high schoolers and soldiers at various points in life, but that seems to somewhat miss the point, and I don't want to come off as a white saviour.

If you don't add to diversity then you don't add to diversity. These sections of the applications primarily exist for people from under represented and under served backgrounds to explain that without using precious lines in their research statement to do so. These are not necessarily sections for you to create an argument about how you as a white guy add diversity. Diversity also comes in many forms, for example I did not submit anything for most of my apps for optional statements, but for Yale I did because I actually taught middle school in New Haven for several years and am very attached to the community. That to me is diversity because there are not many Yale students that feel strongly attached to the community of New Haven and involve themselves with the public schools and volunteering scene. Also not totally sure what you mean about the leaning left comment... these *optional* essays are not gotchas for white dudes. Don't force something thats not there at the end of the day essays matter less than everything else 

[JPrun]

2 hours ago, Mr. Jameson said:

If you don't add to diversity then you don't add to diversity. These sections of the applications primarily exist for people from under represented and under served backgrounds to explain that without using precious lines in their research statement to do so. These are not necessarily sections for you to create an argument about how you as a white guy add diversity. Diversity also comes in many forms, for example I did not submit anything for most of my apps for optional statements, but for Yale I did because I actually taught middle school in New Haven for several years and am very attached to the community. That to me is diversity because there are not many Yale students that feel strongly attached to the community of New Haven and involve themselves with the public schools and volunteering scene. Also not totally sure what you mean about the leaning left comment... these *optional* essays are not gotchas for white dudes. Don't force something thats not there at the end of the day essays matter less than everything else 

Even if you were from an underrepresented group, just mentioning that does not do you any advantage; you still have to show what that essentially means. And really what it implies is that you are not like the "majority", but that this difference improves rather than removing from the pool. And this is why many schools specifically mention that they define diversity in the broadest sense (experience being one dimension). @SteelBitehas a good experience to write on as part of the diversity statement; the real limitation here is the extent to which the connection can be made, in the same way that  @Jamesonmentions such a similar experience (for Yale app) for the reason that other applicants may not have had that experience. 

[Vyndian]

I think the simpler argument is:

From @SteelBite’s original quote, it’s pretty clear he believes diversity is a buzzword that correlates to gender/identity.

As you two have explained, from two different perspectives, it’s not that.

But I doubt either of you will substantially change @SteelBite’s opinion about such essays.

For what it’s worth, I framed my essays around the bias I’ve experienced— and critically — how I’ve fought bias on behalf of others to promote diversity throughout my career.

 

Edited December 28, 2021 by Vyndian

[JPrun]

On 12/17/2021 at 3:00 AM, S.L. said:

Yeah I see! Thank you @JPrun! I guess I will mention that in my emails. Best of luck with all your applications!

Thank you @S.L.Best wishes for your applications as well. Cheers!

[Vyndian]

Kudos to the lucky Harvard OB person out there. Guess this season is going to be hot and front loaded based on activity so far.

[JPrun]

24 minutes ago, Vyndian said:

Kudos to the lucky Harvard OB person out there. Guess this season is going to be hot and front loaded based on activity so far.

congratulations!

[OBapplicant22]

On 1/4/2022 at 6:00 PM, Vyndian said:

Kudos to the lucky Harvard OB person out there. Guess this season is going to be hot and front loaded based on activity so far.

Congrats!

[OBapplicant22]

10 minutes ago, Vyndian said:

I hope y’all aren’t grats’ing me, @S.L. and @JPrun.

 

my comment was based on someone posted on the results page that interview invites went out.

 

edit: same with Notre Dame and U Florida.

Thought it was you who posted on the results pages haha. Hope we all hear back soon!

[OBapplicant22]

It seems to be extremely competitive this year... my recommender from UK told me that they have already received more than 400 apps for ob and strategy combined (the number is still increasing as they have not yet closed the application). However this is a UK school and situations in the US could be different...What do you guys think?

[xxxxxx]

6 hours ago, S.L. said:

It seems to be extremely competitive this year... my recommender from UK told me that they have already received more than 400 apps for ob and strategy combined (the number is still increasing as they have not yet closed the application). However this is a UK school and situations in the US could be different...What do you guys think?

Can u share which UK school? Is it one from LBS, LSE, and Oxbridge? 

[OBapplicant22]

4 hours ago, xxxxxx said:

Can u share which UK school? Is it one from LBS, LSE, and Oxbridge? 

Yes it's one of them

[Vyndian]

14 hours ago, S.L. said:

It seems to be extremely competitive this year... my recommender from UK told me that they have already received more than 400 apps for ob and strategy combined (the number is still increasing as they have not yet closed the application). However this is a UK school and situations in the US could be different...What do you guys think?

“Similar to last year but lower quality”— closely paraphrased.

[xxxxxx]

10 hours ago, S.L. said:

Yes it's one of them

Upon reflection, 400 is not that much. I think big name school like Haas, Sloan, Stanford got 400 every year. I wouldn't be surprised that LBS get the same amount of applications (as it is the near-equivalent of those over the US) 

[OBapplicant22]

1 hour ago, xxxxxx said:

Upon reflection, 400 is not that much. I think big name school like Haas, Sloan, Stanford got 400 every year. I wouldn't be surprised that LBS get the same amount of applications (as it is the near-equivalent of those over the US) 

Well it's not LBS. It appears to be a large increase for my recommender's school, and just for comparison, admission officer from insead said that they usually get 50-60 apps for ob, which is why I felt that this year is more competitive. Anyway, as most of our apps are submitted, we can do our best with the rest of the application process and hope that what occurs for my recommender's school does not generalize to other schools haha.

[xxxxxx]

9 minutes ago, S.L. said:

Well it's not LBS. It appears to be a large increase for my recommender's school, and just for comparison, admission officer from insead said that they usually get 50-60 apps for ob, which is why I felt that this year is more competitive. Anyway, as most of our apps are submitted, we can do our best with the rest of the application process and hope that what occurs for my recommender's school does not generalize to other schools haha.

Hopefully, it is not the same in the US. I am only applying to LSE and INSEAD in the Europe. 

[vyndian2]

It’s that time of year! How is everyone doing? I noticed two HBS OB interviews on the results page and an NUS interview. I’ve personally applied to 6 schools, 3 in Europe and 3 in the US and haven’t heard from any so far... the guessing game is the most frustrating part of the process! 

[Mr. Jameson]

1 hour ago, TooOldforPhD said:

It’s that time of year! How is everyone doing? I noticed two HBS OB interviews on the results page and an NUS interview. I’ve personally applied to 6 schools, 3 in Europe and 3 in the US and haven’t heard from any so far... the guessing game is the most frustrating part of the process! 

Yup-- still waiting! I saw Wharton Operations, Information, Decisions went out too (the only Biz school where I didnt apply to Ops) so hoping to hear about interviews soon!

[Vyndian]

Wanted to let you all know that Omicron is significantly impacting B-school admissions right now. Some events will also be moved virtual or canceled depending on the school’s governance.