Harvard Kennedy School Admissions

[destine]

Did anyone see this?

 

http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=kennedy&t=a&pp=50

 

are some people going to be notified by phone? 

 

Hey anxiouslyanxious, don't be anxious. I guess it is a troll. If you check his/her statistics, you may agree with me.

[soaps]

Hey anxiouslyanxious, don't be anxious. I guess it is a troll. If you check his/her statistics, you may agree with me.

 

Yeah, financial aid hasn't been sorted out yet, and (as far as I know) finalists for fellowships haven't even been interviewed. I'm guessing it's another troll. You'll be notified by e-mail.

[destine]

Thanks for compiling these, although the numbers do seem a bit off/strange compared to previous years. For example, compared to an increase of 5% in applicants from 2009-2010 for the MPP, 2011 increased by only 13 people (or 0.75%) according to this. That doesn't seem quite right considering public policy programs have been attracting more and more applicants each year pretty consistently, but maybe they've reached an apex.

 

MPP used to ask for additional essays like MPA/ID Program before 2011. So, 5% increase in applicants might have stemmed from a decrease in the MPP application requirements.

[Revolution]

As a current HKS student, I am embarrassed by some of the stuff I have read on that admissions blog. Ignoring the slow pace of the Adcomm, some of the content does not paint a flattering picture of  HKS. From the overly dramatic post about being disappointed over not being updated by someone who he helped (he even writes he is unsure whether it is an appropriate topic to write about) to the cliche talk about getting rejected from the Peace Corp but getting to teach in Korea, I think it would be better if the blog focused more on current students instead of him trying to give contrite life lessons to fully grown adults. Also, it really makes me cringe when I read stuff like the process being an art. They need to understand that things like the admissions blog and their pace leaves a huge impression on potential applicants. I know personally that things like that swayed me when I had to decide between schools. 

 

 

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?

[Revolution]

Someone posted in the SAIS subforum interesting admissions stats.

Have gone through that website (Japanese) and found following admissions stats on HKS.

 

MPP: 21.05%

(http://www.ryugaku.com/graddb/home/data/id/38307)

 

MPA/ID: 25.88%

(http://www.ryugaku.com/graddb/home/data/id/128679)

 

MC/MPA: 46.77%

(http://www.ryugaku.com/graddb/home/data/id/30619)

 

MPA2: 61.64%

(http://www.ryugaku.com/graddb/home/data/id/38301)

 

Forgot to mention, the figures are for 2011.

 

 

I have a really hard time believing that MPA2's acceptance rate is a whopping 60%. NO way that can be right.

[soaps]

I have a really hard time believing that MPA2's acceptance rate is a whopping 60%. NO way that can be right.

 

There are far fewer applicants to the MPA2 given the specific requirements, so I'm sure it's more self-selective, but that does seem ridiculously high, and the yield (98%) is also confusing. I thought MC-MPA had the highest acceptance rate. I honestly never understood what type of applicant the MPA2 was aimed at, but it asks for substantial graduate-level coursework similar to the MPP curriculum. To me that implies people who already have a graduate degree, have a pretty solid quant. background, etc. Can anyone enlighten me?

Edited March 12, 2013 by soapwater

[adollarninetynine]

MPA2 is where most of the dual degree students attend. It has a lot of dual MBA and JD students. Last time I checked, slight more than half of the MPA2 students are dual students so it is more self-selective because of the the extra requirements. Most dual students who apply do so with the intent to attend since they are mostly already at the other school in attendance. The large acceptance rate reflects the self selective nature and the quality of the applicants. People who are already attending top 10 law or business schools are not going to be turned down by HKS easily. In response to you Soapwater, I do not think HKS is bad as I may have said on this board. I merely voice my opinions on what would make the school better as a whole and to state my frustrations with it. I am satisfied with my experience here to the extent that I am not taking out loans for HKS at least and I have met a lot of fine people. Also, you will learn if you come here next year, the courses are not that time consuming or rigorous (same with HBS) so that is why I have time to come here and post lol.

Edited March 12, 2013 by adollarninetynine

[Revolution]

There are far fewer applicants to the MPA2 given the specific requirements, so I'm sure it's more self-selective, but that does seem ridiculously high, and the yield (98%) is also confusing. I thought MC-MPA had the highest acceptance rate. I honestly never understood what type of applicant the MPA2 was aimed at, but it asks for substantial graduate-level coursework similar to the MPP curriculum. To me that implies people who already have a graduate degree, have a pretty solid quant. background, etc. Can anyone enlighten me?

 

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.

[soaps]

MPA2 is where most of the dual degree students attend. It has a lot of dual MBA and JD students. Last time I checked, slight more than half of the MPA2 students are dual students so it is more self-selective because of the the extra requirements. Most dual students who apply do so with the intent to attend since they are mostly already at the other school in attendance. In response to you Soapwater, I do not think HKS is bad as I may have said on this board. I merely voice my opinions on what would make the school better as a whole and to state my frustrations with it. I am satisfied with my experience here to the extent that I am not taking out loans for HKS at least and I have met a lot of fine people. Also, you will learn if you come here next year, the courses are not that time consuming or rigorous (same with HBS) so that is why I have time to come here and post lol.

 

Fair enough, but we're all applicants here and none of us are poised to start an HKS reformation before we even know if we're admitted. I just think we need more positive vibes on this board from current students, and if you want to interject with your own subjective appraisal of HKS with whatever prestige-driven, MBA-slanted calculus, I think the best time is after results have been sent out and not during the most anxiety ridden period of the application process. A couple people here clearly think an MPP/MPA can accomplish the same thing as an MBA, and I suppose it's good for you to disabuse them of that notion, but deconstructing a rather innocent, informal admissions blog and painting broad strokes about HKS from it is a stretch. Most of the content, aside from Matt Clemons' anecdotes that I personally find interesting and amusing, are similar to the HBS blog. He is just trying to help ease anxieties... it doesn't signal the decay of HKS.

 

Thanks for clarifying re: the MPA2. 

Edited March 12, 2013 by soapwater

[alf10087]

I actually think that the HKS Blog is the best tool used by any program I applied to.

 

It is very nice to always know that on the morning you'll receive some info, useless or not, about the process. It helps to deal with anxiety. The fact that sometimes the posts are informal, is correspondent to the fact that a blog is per se an informal channel.

[Revolution]

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.

[Sonic Youth]

Wow, some of you should chill out. The website said applicants would be notified by late March. It's not as if it's past the deadline. Perhaps spend less time obsessing over last year's notification date compared to this year's.

[Kadisha]

Wow, some of you should chill out. The website said applicants would be notified by late March. It's not as if it's past the deadline. Perhaps spend less time obsessing over last year's notification date compared to this year's.

 

Application Season: Already Attending

 

Thanks for the wisdom.

[soaps]

I agree that the 2 weeks thing was too vague and definitely frustrating, but infuriating? Being infuriated implies that you're entitled to something. Imagine what PhD applicants have to go through... they don't get admissions blogs or near constant feedback from admissions offices, and sometimes they're not even told about their status at all.

Anyway, I hate the waiting game as much as anyone and it's almost killing me, but I have confidence that the adcomm is exercising due diligence and that this waiting game isn't (as some have claimed) a product of incompetence. Part of me feels I'm one of those numbers on the margins that Matt Clemons is adding and removing, so no matter how long it takes, I appreciate the amount of consideration they're giving each applicant.

 

That's just my own (perhaps worthless) two cents, but it'll allow me to sleep better tonight. Good luck to everyone and I hope we'll get news starting tomorrow.

[Tom-MPP]

Just read on the admitted/rejected page that admissions will tell you that decisions are still being "processed", but reality is that admits are sent out first, then rejects. That could be the indicated time lag "in the next 2 weeks" in the blog.

 

http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=harvard&t=a&o=&p=1

Edited March 13, 2013 by Tom-MPP

[mrpapagorgio]

There's also someone there claiming to have been admitted to the MPP

[intlrlns]

Fletcher's blog is way better than HKS' in my opinion. 

[soaps]

There's also someone there claiming to have been admitted to the MPP

 

We've already established there's a troll on these forums. Now there's an MPP on the results database claiming to have seen the "new admits" tab in Sparks, which is exactly what Tom-MPP told us to look for in this thread Monday. Whoever the troll is, s/he is using this thread as a source. 

[alf10087]

I think we'll find out as soon as they start notifying as there will be massive updates on this thread and on the Results Search engine. You can count on me that it will be one of the first things I'll do.

[mrpapagorgio]

I think we'll find out as soon as they start notifying as there will be massive updates on this thread and on the Results Search engine. You can count on me that it will be one of the first things I'll do.

Yep

[pete-mc]

@ Revolution: The post from Reasonablyterrified may interest you as (s)he is a joint MBA/MPP applicant at Stanford.

 

[pete-mc]

There is a remote possibility that some HKS applicants actually already know whether they're admitted or not.

 

Zuckerman Fellows were notified by 8th March (last Friday) whether they're in the run or not for a fellowship.

 

http://www.centerforpublicleadership.org/ZuckermanFellowship/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=631&Itemid=308

 

And applicants are only considered (for review/interview) if they're admitted at HKS.

 

Too bad that none of them is either following this forum or willing to share the news with us.

Edited March 13, 2013 by PJM

[campussartorialist]

There is a remote possibility that some HKS applicants actually already know whether they're admitted or not.

 

Zuckerman Fellows were notified by 8th March (last Friday) whether they're in the run or not for a fellowship.

 

http://www.centerforpublicleadership.org/ZuckermanFellowship/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=631&Itemid=308

 

And applicants are only considered (for review/interview) if they're admitted at HKS.

 

Too bad that none of them is either following this forum or willing to share the news with us.

 

Also, Dublin and Gleitsman Fellowship Finalists will be notified this Friday. Based on past cohorts, they select pretty large groups...  we should see some movement then. 

Edited March 13, 2013 by campussartorialist

[EnricoPallazo]

FYI, it historically appears that the notifications start rolling out later in the day.

[alf10087]

But they usually send a blog post saying that notifications will start rolling. They haven't posted anything for today.