Harvard Kennedy School Admissions

[pete-mc]

Has anyone received an email yet about MPA admissions?

 

Got dinged !! Good luck to the rest. HKS admissions is a mystery to me. From some of the profiles I have seen on their website, I would not have thought that some of them stood a chance to get in, but I had a really great app and didn't even get waitlisted.

 

> Our Admissions Committee has completed its review of your application to

> the MPAM program at Harvard Kennedy School.  We regret that we are unable to

> offer you admission.  The high caliber of this year's applicant pool made

> the Admissions Committee's task an extremely difficult one, and we were

> unable to accommodate many fine candidates.

>

> Although we cannot offer you a place in next year's class, we appreciate

> your interest in Harvard Kennedy School.  The world needs individuals

> dedicated to the public interest and your commitment is sure to make a

> difference.

>

> Sincerely,

>

> Matt Clemons

> Director of Admissions

[pete-mc]

Has anyone received an email yet about MPA admissions?

 

Where are all the Mason's here?

[Revolution]

Got dinged !! Good luck to the rest. HKS admissions is a mystery to me. From some of the profiles I have seen on their website, I would not have thought that some of them stood a chance to get in, but I had a really great app and didn't even get waitlisted.

 

> Our Admissions Committee has completed its review of your application to

> the MPAM program at Harvard Kennedy School.  We regret that we are unable to

> offer you admission.  The high caliber of this year's applicant pool made

> the Admissions Committee's task an extremely difficult one, and we were

> unable to accommodate many fine candidates.

>

> Although we cannot offer you a place in next year's class, we appreciate

> your interest in Harvard Kennedy School.  The world needs individuals

> dedicated to the public interest and your commitment is sure to make a

> difference.

>

> Sincerely,

>

> Matt Clemons

> Director of Admissions

 

 

 

Did you apply to the MPA2 program? I thought e-mails go out at around 5 PM eastern time.

 

EDIT: oops. I see that you applied to MC-MASON.

Edited March 15, 2013 by Revolution

[destine]

Got dinged !! Good luck to the rest. HKS admissions is a mystery to me. From some of the profiles I have seen on their website, I would not have thought that some of them stood a chance to get in, but I had a really great app and didn't even get waitlisted.

 

Well said. I think it really depends on the class profile they would like to build for the relevant year.

[onk]

Anyone think MPA2 decisions will be released today? I'm thinking that maybe today is the day for Mason and MC/MPA decisions only - lets hope not!

[Bezerklian]

Are any MC/MPA candidates hearing anything yet (not including Mason)?

[canadianhksapplicant]

I've heard nothing either, Bezerklian.

 

However it looks like MPA-ID's are starting to hear from HKS:

http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=harvard+kennedy&t=a&o=&pp=25

Edited March 15, 2013 by canadianhksapplicant

[pete-mc]

All quiet on the MPA2 front. Just me and that "my pages" tab that I can't seem to figure out. No one else knows what this is about?

 

I've noticed the same tab appears (then disappears) if I click from the "home" to the "applicants" tab, even on other browsers.

 

Sorry to disappoint you, but that tab doesnt mean anything, its just that way in their system. If you're admitted, it will show a permanent "New Admit" tab. By the way, if you want to calm you nerves when you see the admissions email in your inbox, but you're slightly worried to open it right away, go to Sparks and see if the New Admit tab is appearing. If its not there after maybe 15-30mins of receiving the admissions email, you probably got dinged. Makes it easier to then go read the message with more realistic expectation.

Edited March 15, 2013 by PJM

[EnricoPallazo]

Are any MC/MPA candidates hearing anything yet (not including Mason)?

Negative.

[pete-mc]

Where are all the Mason's here?

 

I cant believe I'm the only Mason here reporting his result..

[canadianhksapplicant]

Well it looks like MPA2 and MCMPA's will have to wait until next week

 

http://hksadmissionblog.tumblr.com/

 

Not sure if this will impact Dubin Fellowship decisions which were due by EOD today?

[pete-mc]

Well it looks like MPA2 and MCMPA's will have to wait until next week

 

http://hksadmissionblog.tumblr.com/

 

Not sure if this will impact Dubin Fellowship decisions which were due by EOD today?

 

Yes, the remaining decisons will be out Monday & Tuesday; the CPL fellowships you mentioned will also be announced (to finalists) Monday & Tuesday.

[Noway82]

Hey Got dinged! Mason Mpa. Well moving on. Congrats to all those in and good luck to the rest

[pete-mc]

Hey Got dinged! Mason Mpa. Well moving on. Congrats to all those in and good luck to the rest

 

Can you share your background/stats with me? Am curious as to why you got dinged also. I'm still puzzled..

[Noway82]

Well I believe my work experience was the reason The average is 14 years and I am around 8 in the private sector with heavy part time ngo exp since 6 years. + maybe under grad GPA around 3.0. Grad school gpa: 4.0, gre V164 Q162 awa 4.5.

I imagine they have tons of applications and maybe are looking into Public service experience. It would have nice to go but not mandatory to get great Public admin teachings, other good programs out there. Good luck for the rest

[Noway82]

Got in Oxford mpp and hoping now financial aid to get confirmed in urgence as I got a very good job offer which should be responded to on Monday...Odds are I will not get any update by then... Kind of a tedious situation though as without fin aid i can't attend. What will u be doing? Kindly share ur stats

[canadianhksapplicant]

Thanks, PJM - did you call in and ask for this information?

 

It's been somewhat nervewracking in terms of the wait for the fellowship, as the website clearly stated quite some time ago that emails would be sent March 15 and interviews would be March 18. Without your information I would have already assumed I should forget any chance of a fellowship.

[LeadTheTurn]

Can you share your background/stats with me? Am curious as to why you got dinged also. I'm still puzzled..

 

I share your sense of mystery regarding the admissions process. I know it has been said to be an "art rather than a science," and I do realize that in building a class an individual ends up more or less competing for slots assigned to his specific profile (i.e. international affairs, non-profits, campaign experience, etc). However, it does seem strange to go to the admissions results page and see several perfect or near perfect GPAs/GRE scores rejected while another candidate is accepted with a line of 3.17 GPA, 157 V 157 Q. It makes me wonder how low the cutoff is placed for hard stats before the soft factors come into play, and how largely they weigh those soft factors when completing their big picture/holistic approach. Is this a case where 40-60% of applicants have the numbers to be considered "qualified" or "competitive" and they simply take a third of those people based on how inspired they feel after reading their SOP and considering their work experience? How much can a candidate be hurt if they use a turn of phrase in their SOP that happens to be a pet peeve of the admissions officer? Would it be better to schedule interviews to more accurately account for these considerations? 

 

And I don't limit this just to HKS. I've seen this on other results pages as well. Even beyond MPP/MPA schools there have been curious examples of this; Poetsandquants emphasized the story of the 570 GMAT who found his way into HBS, and people speculated whether he or his parents were key donors to the school (I'm not implying that this is the case for any one of the HKS admits, just saying that funny things can happen whenever you have sub 20% acceptance rates and 50% or more who could be considered technically qualified).

 

For me, the big takeaway from all of this is that no one should be too hard on themselves or lower their sense of self-worth after being rejected. If the school was looking for a very specific type of experience/career projection/skill, then one really shouldn't feel bad if they put forth their best possible application and didn't match those desires. It reminds me a little bit of physical attraction; if a woman is interested in men with body art at a particular moment, it doesn't make sense for the guy with no tats to feel bad about that rejection.

[Worthashot]

Well said LTT.  I have come to the same conclusion over the past couple of months as well.  Although I wonder how much of our profile is defined by factors outside of our control such as race, gender, and nationality.  There's just no way to know exactly what they're looking for when trying to build a class other than aptitude and motivation, obviously.

[Revolution]

The Mason program does seem to cater to people with LOTS of experience, so perhaps that hurt you guys? Not an expert on this but basing it upon a mason guy i met last summer. He did stanford business, worked at goldman and IFC in hong kong before doing the program. He told me that there were a lot of high-profile internationals who held very important positions in their programs, along with Americans with tons of experience. He described the mason program as a goldmine for networking.

 

Hope MPA2 comes out on monday. Just want to get it over with.

Edited March 17, 2013 by Revolution

[Revolution]

The Mason program does seem to cater to people with LOTS of experience, so perhaps that hurt you guys? Not an expert on this but basing it upon a mason guy i met last summer. He did stanford business, worked at goldman and IFC in hong kong before doing the program. He told me that there were a lot of high-profile internationals who held very important positions in their programs, along with Americans with tons of experience. He described the mason program as a goldmine for networking.

 

Hope MPA2 comes out on monday. Just want to get it over with.

[anxiouslyanxious]

Did anyone get a call on friday regarding the dublin or gleitsman fellowship?

[ohcoture]

Did anyone get a call on friday regarding the dublin or gleitsman fellowship?

 

Nope, doesn't seem like anyone here has, hoping that means notification was delayed until next week and not that we all just didn't get it... : )

[canadianhksapplicant]

Good morning everyone..

 

Back to the agony of awaiting fellowship and admissions decisions..inbox, HKS admissions blog and Gradcafe all open on my 2nd monitor at work..

 

Any updates on fellowships would be greatly appreciated since we are all (optimistically?) proceeding with the hope that admissions decisions delays for MPA2/MCMPA resulted in a sbusequent delay for fellowship decisions.

Edited March 18, 2013 by canadianhksapplicant

[AUSAJAG]

In at HKS MPA2.