HKS 2015

[ajak568]

David, thank you indeed for the insight into the admissions process. I have to say I have enjoyed following the blog and the effort that Matt and the admissions team have put in to making the process as transparent as possible; it had made the wait far easier.

Best of luck everyone!

Cosign on that. You HKS admissions folks rock.

Edited March 9, 2015 by ajak568

[gradjm]

any idea what the yield of HKS is for MPP, how many are waitlisted?

 

are admits notified by phone call?

Edited March 10, 2015 by gradjm

[ohcoture]

For the couple people who were asking about concentration... don't worry about it. Except for IGA, most of the programs are pretty loose with their requirements, and you'll have plenty of opportunity in year two to take classes across concentrations. I really haven't even given much thought to my concentration yet, and potential employers are indifferent.

[JittersforAdmissions]

I am getting very anxious about admissions notifications! Knowing how unproductive I would be this week, I took the week off and decided to work on personal projects. It must be a heck of a process for the admissions committee to pick the *right* mixture of candidates (especially when candidates´s profiles can very competitive with one another) and conclude what differentiable attributes would *best* be served at HKS. I know from friends of friends at top business schools admissions committee, there might be multiple meetings to review and discuss these ítems and finally reach agreement.

 

No use stressing the final verdict and just wait 48 hours for that e-mail. The best of luck to those who gave it their all in the process!

[gradjm]

I am getting very anxious about admissions notifications! Knowing how unproductive I would be this week, I took the week off and decided to work on personal projects. It must be a heck of a process for the admissions committee to pick the *right* mixture of candidates (especially when candidates´s profiles can very competitive with one another) and conclude what differentiable attributes would *best* be served at HKS. I know from friends of friends at top business schools admissions committee, there might be multiple meetings to review and discuss these ítems and finally reach agreement.

 

No use stressing the final verdict and just wait 48 hours for that e-mail. The best of luck to those who gave it their all in the process!

 

you're not alone. hks is the only school i have applied to so I looked at the last year's HKS thread and the emails came in the morning. so tomorrow morning could be it.

 

anyone know how they weigh GRE scores into the overall assessment of a candidate for different programs? i have heard that most people are good in only one of verbal or quant and that the acceptance rate is around 20%. so if one does well in both V and Q to get say over 80% is that going to be a major advantage or would it really not matter much?

 

Edit: just checked the Timer on hks admissions blog and it looks like it broke since today morning. it was showing 99 days in the morning now showing 2 days less at 97 days !?

Edited March 11, 2015 by gradjm

[ReinventOneself]

you're not alone. hks is the only school i have applied to so I looked at the last year's HKS thread and the emails came in the morning. so tomorrow morning could be it.

 

anyone know how they weigh GRE scores into the overall assessment of a candidate for different programs? i have heard that most people are good in only one of verbal or quant and that the acceptance rate is around 20%. so if one does well in both V and Q to get say over 80% is that going to be a major advantage or would it really not matter much?

 

gradjm, I recommend reading by David C. King, who is involved in admissions at Kennedy. It will answer the questions you have about the impact of GRE scores one's application.

 

That being said, my interpretation of Mr. King's comments would be that the MPP seems to be the program for which GRE scores might matter the most, and MC/MPA the least. Yet, unlike other schools, Kennedy does not use an absolute cut off for test scores, so your application will be evaluated carefully in its entirety. The only hard cutoff appears to be for TOEFL scores, which must be above 100 in order for one's application to be considered.

 

All that's left for us now is to relax, find something else to occupy our minds (if possible), and wait until Thursday or Friday morning when That Email comes.

[lennoxRU]

you're not alone. hks is the only school i have applied to so I looked at the last year's HKS thread and the emails came in the morning. so tomorrow morning could be it.

 

 

I received my reject email from HKS at around 2.30 pm Boston time last year. What is ridiculous, I got it when I was at HKS waiting for a visit lecture to begin. I traveled from Russia specifically for it, so it was such a fail

[Thandiwine]

Cosign on that. You HKS admissions folks rock.

I second that too

 

HKS has one of the best - if not the best - admissions committee. They're quick in reaching back to you, when other committees don't even bother to answer your email. I attended an open house last year, and gosh, the atmosphere, the people! This is really a place we need to go.  Matt hold a short presentation, I heard him speak and thought "this man is the director of admissions of HKS and yet he is soooo humble". and funny I might say, when he told us not to worry too much about who we are, as he got hired with his long "hairdo".

[Thandiwine]

I applied for the MPP, but after submitting my application was emailed by the admissions director and asked to consider switching to the Mid-Career MPA due to my extensive work experience, which I agreed to do. It turns out this probably worked out in my favor, since admissions rates for MC/MPA are apparently higher than for the MPP.

I'm pretty sure you'll be admitted then. (Lucky you!)

 

Will the committee bother to ask you to switch, and then send you to dingville?

[Thandiwine]

I received my reject email from HKS at around 2.30 pm Boston time last year. What is ridiculous, I got it when I was at HKS waiting for a visit lecture to begin. I traveled from Russia specifically for it, so it was such a fail

I almost had an heart attack when I read the first line of your message ... I was like "what??? HKS decisions are out??"

 

Should have started the sentence with "last year..." 

 

The wait is almost over, hope we'll get the decision today or tomorrow, have been so unproductive and releasing decisions on a friday 13th would be cruel, wouldn't it??? 

 

If you guys make it, will you attend new admit day? I have such a long flight from Africa, but - should I be admitted - I think I would.

[lennoxRU]

I almost had an heart attack when I read the first line of your message ... I was like "what??? HKS decisions are out??"

 

Should have started the sentence with "last year..." 

 

The wait is almost over, hope we'll get the decision today or tomorrow, have been so unproductive and releasing decisions on a friday 13th would be cruel, wouldn't it??? 

 

If you guys make it, will you attend new admit day? I have such a long flight from Africa, but - should I be admitted - I think I would.

 

 

Admit days are useful only if you choose among several options and can't decide without it or if you doubt you would spend time and money on HKS at all. If you are certain you will matriculate - I can't see the point spending time and money. You soon will spend 700+ days at HKS, why bother about one?

 

I too can't work properly this week. But for yeasterday's yearly bonus announcement the waiting would be even more painful.

Edited March 11, 2015 by lennoxRU

[economixed_policy]

I am in a very similar situation. Pretty much the most unproductive week at work ever. At least it's the last such week!

Good luck all!

[Thandiwine]

I am in a very similar situation. Pretty much the most unproductive week at work ever. At least it's the last such week!

Good luck all!

waaaouw 4/6 admits so far, you're already in a pretty comfortable situation 

 

Congrats!

[David_King]

Hi everyone.  Today’s the 11^th, and our internal target has been to get decisions (all of them) out tomorrow, the 12^th.  We’re aiming for today, though, because we want to get these to everyone as soon as possible.  That’s especially important for  international students, because they have to begin getting the paperwork in order to move here for a year or two.  Please know that staff (and faculty) have been working extra-long hours to get things done right. 

 

Responding to the thread above: as for admission rates, yield rates, and so on, I don’t think anyone from any school is going to give you specific numbers.  And as I said the other day,  speculations about our admission rates are way off.  It’s difficult to get into Harvard, period, but we don’t want some applicants thinking, “Oh, I’ll never have a shot there,” just because their test scores and GPA weren’t stellar.  Especially in the MC/MPA program, we’re looking for someone who has been doing good work – work in the publc interest – and who’ll work to make the world a better place. 

 

You-all should take a look at Matt’s blog at HKS admissions.  We want our process to be transparent so that we get the “right” people applying – and so that folks whom we admit *will* come once we’ve said “yes.”   

 

On admission rates and yields – again without specific numbers – you need to see things from the school’s perspective.  Every school – including HKS – has a budget projection based on enrollment.  Putting our PhD program aside, we have a budgeted number of students in our four programs.  Look here: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/history/hks-facts

 

In rough numbers (though not the real, unpublished numbers) the programs are expected to bring to campus this fall, about 210 first year MPP students, about 210 MCMPA students (about 85 of these might be Mason Fellows), about 75 first year MPA students, and about 70 first year MPA/ID students.  The number of applicants to each program differs, and the admissions rates in each category are different.  Is it “harder” to get into one program over another?  No, not from our point of view.  From our perspective, each program is looking for a different kind of student.  Each program has a separate culture, too.

 

Admitted students can petition to defer their acceptance for a year.  As Matt will tell you, deferrals are not guaranteed, and they may not be extended beyond one year.  In considering our yield rates, then, we have to make several calculations.  There’s the yield of admittted students from this year, and there’s a yield rate for the deferrals from last year.  Each program has separate calculations for yield rates in both categories. 

 

Then there’s the “melt” rate.  There will be some students who tell us they’re coming and who send in a deposit, but then don’t come.  There aregood reasons for backing out, including finances, family circumstances, work and visa concerns, etc.  Each program has an estimated melt rate, and each one is different.

 

Take the MCMPA Mason program as an example.  The numbers I’m going to show you are MADE UP (because we don’t release the real numbers), but it’ll give you a sense of things. 

 

Assume that our target number for admissions is 85.  Assume that there were 30 deferrals from last year’s group of admitted students.  Assume that we expect a melt rate equal to 5 admitted students.  How do we get to 85? Figuring in the melt, we’d  aim for 90. If our models suggest a 50% yield on deferrals, then 15 (of the 30) students would come from there.  And if our models suggest a 75% yield on the fresh admits, we need to admit just enough students to get up to the remaining 75 (90-15).  We’d be looking to admit 100 fresh applicants, because 75% of 100 is 75.  And if we happened to have had 400 fresh Mason applications, then we’d be admiting 25%.  Remember, THESE NUMBERS ARE MADE UP, and our admission, yield, and melt percentages vary year by year and program by program.  In this example, though, given a budgeted target of 85 students, we’d expect 15 to come from the 30 deferrals (a yield of 50%), we’d expect 75 to come from fresh applicants (a yield of  75 percent of 100 new admits), and we’d expect a melt of 5.  So, 15+75-5=85.

 

Some of you will find out, presumably today, that you’re on a waitlist.  As with every other school doing admissions right now, a waitlist is an insurance policy against poor “yield” and “melt” estimates.  If Matt’s team has read the tea leaves correctly, we won’t go to the waitlists at all.  Each program, of course, has separate waitlists, and it could be that we end up drawing on one waitlist (MPA/ID, for example) but not another (MCMPA).  As a faculty member, I can appreciate the pressure that Matt’s team is under, because I want his yield and melt projections to be exactly right.  The school doesn’t want to be “under” on students, but faculty absolutely don’t want to admit too many.  All things equal, our faculty would rather have smaller, not larger, classes.  All things equal, we’d rather spend more quality time mentoring fewer students than spreading our time across too many superficial partnerships.  So Matt’s team is caught between the budgeted needs of the school (“Hit your targets, Matt.”) and pressure from faculty like me (“Hey, Matt, get me the very best students, but not too many of them.”)  I’ll admit right now that, as the chair of the MPA and MCMPA admissions committee, I’m sometimes put too much pressure on Matt and his team to get me the very best applicants – but not too many of them.  I suppose Matt has a constituency with you-all, too, the prospective students.  He has to encourage the “right” students to apply while being realistic with everyone else.   It’s a tough job.

 

Which brings us to today.  You’ll get an email.  For the overwhelming majority of applicants, the email will not be good news.  And to you-all, I’m really sorry.  You tried, and we tried, and we took your applications very seriously, and if you’re in one of my programs, please know that you can email me on my harvard account and I’ll walk you though how the committee read your file.  For some of you, you’ll learn today that you’re on a waiting list, and you might be tempted to lobby to get your name “moved up” on the list, but as Matt has explained in the blog, that’s not how things work.   And for some of you, you’ll get great news… and we do hope you’ll come.  Indeed, we’re *expecting* you to come. (Ok, we’re expecting N*YIELD%-MELT to come.)

 

Thank you-all for your patience throughout all this.  HKS gets a tremendous number of applications.  I don’t think any policy school in the world comes close to the volume of applications that we handle.  And unlike most other policy schools, Harvard faculty are exceptionally involved in reading these files, weighing backgrounds, puzzling over letters and essays, and Googling applicants, checking for plaigarism, and so on.  I’ve been on the admissions committee for 20+ years, and I think our facultyserve on the committee because we really love the process.  The volume is overwhelming.  It’s exhausting.  And on days like today… the outcome is also kinda thrilling.

 

Good luck to you-all.

[PolicyGrad92]

Thank you David! This was brilliant. I think it is great that HKS is attempting to reach out to applicants in different ways! Gradcafe is a refuge for many of us, and this is the absolute best kind of communication we can ever expect from our potential schools. 

 

Can we please get these posts pinned? I don't know how this works though.

 

The only issue is my evening (international applicant) will be spent refreshing my inbox and checking the portal. Today? Yikes. 

[Cristianvb]

Thanks David. Probably I´m not moving from this topic anymore...

[Thandiwine]

Thank you so much for your very appreciated insight 

I hope I'll get the email today, because I'm really closed to a breakdown 

 

Good luck to you all, fellow applicants!

 

Prayers for us all

[economixed_policy]

David, just to echo the candidates before me: your comments and Matt's blog have been invaluable in getting us through this. I'm sure I speak for us all when I say regardless of other acceptances or rejects, the decision from HKS is special on a whole different level.

Good luck all! And thanks to the admissions team at HKS (regardless of how we fare).

[lennoxRU]

HKS AdCom really does a great job. Even if they turn down me againt tonight.

[Thandiwine]

dinged!

Good luck to you all

[handiya]

Rejected...

Good luck to you all

[outofspace]

Also rejected. Good luck everyone.

[dudeinspace]

Rejected

Still, I appreciate all the effort of the HKS admissions team. Thanks for the opportunity and good luck to everyone else!!

[hamster88]

Rejected. A little surprised but obviously the chances are just so small no matter how good your profile is. Good luck to everyone else!

[hikarizx]

Also rejected. I wasn't expecting to get in but I thought I'd share with you all anyway!