Official HKS Thread

[IdealThinker]

Harvard Admissions?

[greendiplomat]

Harvard Admissions?

Oh I thought you meant you were waiting to hear back from Vogue Magazine because the thread title made it SO unclear.

[laureate]

Hi guys,

I am so excited about the result. I keep thinking about it all day and night. When should we expect the results to be out? Last year, the deadline of application was first week of January. This year, it was one month earlier, the beginning of December. So, I actually expect results to come out sooner than last year. Also, did you all receive an email about financial aid this morning, on 22nd February? I am wondering if that means anything. The e-mail states that it means nothing, but you know people love to have hopes....

Good luck to every one.

Hopefully we'll all get in.

Fingers crossed.

Best

[UrbanWonk]

Anyone know if the folks reviewing fellowship/aid apps have access to our full application packet? Some of my essays might seem a bit redundant but the topics required by the prompts are rather similar...

The fact that they asked for another copy of the CV makes me hope not?

[SubjectNotebook]

Hi guys,

I am so excited about the result. I keep thinking about it all day and night. When should we expect the results to be out? Last year, the deadline of application was first week of January. This year, it was one month earlier, the beginning of December. So, I actually expect results to come out sooner than last year. Also, did you all receive an email about financial aid this morning, on 22nd February? I am wondering if that means anything. The e-mail states that it means nothing, but you know people love to have hopes....

Good luck to every one.

Hopefully we'll all get in.

Fingers crossed.

Best

Hey I got this e-mail this morning too.I was mighty excited, but sawthis: Review of your financial aid status is done independent of the review of your application for admission and therefore receipt of this email should not be construed as suggesting the likelihood of any particular admission decision.

I guess it is just a reminder :-)

I don't think the results will come out any earlier this year - I feel like HKS expected more applicants (or received many more than usual last year), and just set aside extra time.

[SubjectNotebook]

Hey I got this e-mail this morning too.I was mighty excited, but sawthis: Review of your financial aid status is done independent of the review of your application for admission and therefore receipt of this email should not be construed as suggesting the likelihood of any particular admission decision.

I guess it is just a reminder :-)

I don't think the results will come out any earlier this year - I feel like HKS expected more applicants (or received many more than usual last year), and just set aside extra time.

Anyone out there applying for multiple fellowships? Are your essays identical/similar?

[fso2k11]

I applied for two. My essays were very similar (and also similar with my statement of purpose, where I took a lot of the language). I spent about 2 hours total on 2 fellowship essays....maybe it showed, I have no idea. With well less than a 20% acceptance rate, it's not worth my time to pour myself into my fellowships if I don't even get in to the school. If I stressed about this, I would go crazy.

Anyone out there applying for multiple fellowships? Are your essays identical/similar?

[IdealThinker]

Hey all,

Yeah I got the same financial aid letter too. I called Harvard about three weeks ago just to make sure that they had received my financial aid statement, because that email got me slightly worried. Anyhow, the person I spoke too said that they had received everything and that the emails sent out is purely administrative - it goes out to everyone whose applied. So unfortunately, it really doesn't say anything about us receiving a place or not. As for the fellowships, my application was exactly the same to all the ones I applied too. I thought there was no point of making different ones, so I don't think its much too stress about as most of us have pretty much done the same. I assume former students did that too as it seems to make more sense. Anyhow, fingers crossed for everyone. I'd be so happy if at least one of us gets in!!! Good luck everyone. The deadline is drawing nearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. You can actually feel it!

[greendiplomat]

Also, question about the fellowship applications.

Did people generally re-use the materials that they submitted in their original applications?

In particular, I just noticed that they ask for a resume (as opposed to a CV as they do in the admissions application). Did people reuse the same CV that they submitted, or do people think that they make the resume/CV distinction on purpose so that we submit more condensed ones for the fellowships?

Also, along similar lines, I used a relatively narrative style (at least in the beginning and end) in my statement in my admissions application, but did people retain the same general structures in their statements or did people write the shorter 1-page essays more in the style of a to-the-point no-frills cover letter?

[DCA-John]

I drew from the same base of materials but changed focus slightly, adjusted for length, etc...

I wouldn't overthink it at this point. Given the volume of applicants, I doubt they are extensively cross-referencing the applications against one another.

[smerd]

I'd also be surprised if they cross checked. I did a couple fellowship essays that were essentially the same. One of the prompts was specific and the other was broader but well-answered by the essay from the other prompt. My resume was a slightly updated version of what I sent in with my app. If I could offer one piece of solid advice to others, I'd recommend using a lot of awesome fonts like comic sans and wing dings, just to spice things up. (Not like I'm trying to weed out competition or anything...)

Edited February 24, 2011 by smerd

[SubjectNotebook]

My essays for fellowship apps are almost identical - like many of you I figured it wouldn't make any sense to write new things (I think it actually isn't right!). I only nuanced the ideas in the fellowship essays a bit to highlight the aspects relevant to each fellowship.

I didn't do much to my cv/resume - I updated it with some major changes and a new project I've started since Dec and removed some unnecessary elements. I saw the request for re-submission as something that comes from administrative convenience - I guessed it would be a pain for 2-3 fellowships to share the same CV copy with AdCom, and it is probably easier if separately submitted :-)

[Crumpets]

Does anyone know what time the fellowship applications are due?

[IdealThinker]

24 th feb is the deadline I think.

[fso2k11]

Did people exactly re-use their resume from the application? The MPP application required a salary history on your resume....did you include a salary history on your resume copy for fellowship applications too? I did not.

[DCA-John]

Did people exactly re-use their resume from the application? The MPP application required a salary history on your resume....did you include a salary history on your resume copy for fellowship applications too? I did not.

No - I left that out (although, maybe they would have taken pity on me for making international development money if they had seen my salary...)

[intlpolicy10]

Does anyone know how many applications HKS received this year? I'm a bit curious! I'm also wondering how many people applied for the IGA concentration.

[fso2k11]

Last year they received around 1800, and accepted I think 340. I would LOVE to hear numbers for this year.....

Does anyone know how many applications HKS received this year? I'm a bit curious! I'm also wondering how many people applied for the IGA concentration.

[fso2k11]

I just wrote my statement as an African child who has a master's degree in Agricultural Economics with specialization in applied econometrics from the U.S, worked in development in an African country for 3years, worked with Jeffrey Sach's team at the earth institute over last summer,and who wants to have a career in international development...simple..no style but I am going to get into the MPA/ID.

LOL....so humble...now THAT attitude is going to get you places! Keep up the hard work, kaka!

[IdealThinker]

ok people... let's take a minute to breathe..

I read what Kaka wrote and I too did think it was slightly pretentious but sometimes when someone is really passionate about something it can come across as aggressive, when they may not be. I think we should give KaKa a break. If he gets in, it should be based on his skills and nothing else. Whether we like people or not, achievement should not be defined by personality but by hard work. So peace to you all. I hope we all get in

[Maidinindya2]

Hi all, I have a question regarding the MPA/ID program.

I currently work at a small, but very reputable (closely affiliated with a major organization) start-up NGO in India. We have a few people applying to the MPA/ID program. However, I'm an American citizen while the other are natives of India. I just wanted to get everyone's sense of how people are 'grouped' so to speak, when Adcoms are creating their incoming class. Do you think the Adcoms look at people by where they worked or are grouped by citizenship? I'm wondering if being from a small NGO with several qualified applicants (good quantitative backgrounds, accomplished results in our roles, etc) will make things more difficult - at the same time, I have a different nationality status than the others. Any thoughts on this? Would love to hear everyone's opinions.

[CC139]

I have not even applied for the program yet and it might interest you to know that not everybody on this forum applied to the program,

some of us just want your honest opinion on how we can strengthen our applications for the subsequent years.

Yet on another thread you made you said: "Did anybody apply for the MPA/ID at KSG? I applied with quant GRE of 710, Master's training in applied econometrics from the U.S. 3years of working experience with the ministry of agriculture in an african country,Internship with the Jeff Sach's team at the earth institute, Columbia"...

Anyways, best of luck to you and all others with your applications.

[theguru]

To Elsa and CC139, kaka did not say anything bad.. he/she just told us how he/she wrote his/her statement without any particular style.

He/she might be kidding or inflating his/her credentials to scare you. Just let be fair to him/her and let him/her have his or her peace.

Even if he/she applied , how can what he/she wrote go against him/her with respect a decision on his/her application.

Don't you rely so much on what people put up here because not all of them apply to the programs they talk about.I know someone who

did that on a CS forum so let kaka rest and lets talk about something more important..after all he/she did not apply this year.

Edited February 27, 2011 by theguru

[Elsa]

Did I offend anybody by saying I am from Africa??? are Africans not welcome on this forum??? Why all this attack??? I wanted to get your attention and feedback.

Well.. I don't understand what your problems are. I have that background and I was thinking retaking my GRE so I wanted

to get comments from you guys.

Even if I had applied, I don't know why the adcom would not admit someone because they posted their credentials on this forum.

Are you saying I would not get into the program if I applied for the reason that I posted my credentials here??

By the way, I retook the GRE and 780 on the quant so I will apply next year and that will make me more competitive.

My God lives so you do not have to worry about me.

Racism? Are you serious :-D? Thta's the only lame excuse you could come up with to explain the people reactions to your bragging? Here is a Godwin point for you. Frame it. Posting credentials is fine, bragging about them and pretending you're soooo getting in while discouraging others proves a bad mentality and that might annoy Adcoms indeed.

On this forum, we all try to help and support each other. If you can't do that, you're not someone I'd like to be classmate with.

Whatever, good luck to everyone and try all to keep a positive spirit.

[theguru]

Elsa or whatever you call yourself, you are beginning to make me feel that you are jealous and you are not the kinda person the HKS is looking for.Thats not how you should behave if you think we are on this forum to encourage one another.Even if Kaka applied, you could not influence the Adcom's decision.How can what happens on this unofficial forum annoy adcom like you claim? do they make decisions based on what goes on here? I think you should worry about something else.

Kaka was just expressing his/her confidence.You sound like you are intimidated by the credentials s/he posted.

Everybody feels they will get into their respective programs and thats why they applied.

But kaka, I would advice you to know that there are hypocrites on this forum so just know what you post in order not to hurt someone like Elsa's feeling.Elsa's reaction to kaka's post is making me sick.

Goodluck to you all.

Edited February 27, 2011 by theguru