HKS 2017

[MCMPA17]

We're all speculating

We'll never know until the fat lady sings. 

Tomorrow we'll know.

[MCMPA17]

7 minutes ago, poefan said:

Changed for me too.

But a ray of hope as I just checked my weekly horoscope and its says I would get lucky this week and high chances of some big news coming. I hope all the Geminis out there gets lucky this week. 

Betting on horoscope seems far more intelligent than betting on status page change

Hahaha. I'll take this horoscope thing every time  

Other Geminis out there?

 

(goes out to check horoscope ?)

Edited March 7, 2017 by MCMPA17

[ArellaV]

25 minutes ago, poefan said:

Changed for me too.

But a ray of hope as I just checked my weekly horoscope and its says I would get lucky this week and high chances of some big news coming. I hope all the Geminis out there gets lucky this week. 

Betting on horoscope seems far more intelligent than betting on status page change

Ha! I just went to read my horoscope as well, since the speculation and theories are killing me now. 

[DreamFor]

37 minutes ago, MCMPA17 said:

Hahaha. I'll take this horoscope thing every time  

Other Geminis out there?

 

(goes out to check horoscope ?)

Hi@MCMPA17, has your format changed, my format changed several hours ago?

[MCMPA17]

30 minutes ago, DreamFor said:

Hi@MCMPA17, has your format changed, my format changed several hours ago?

Hello @DreamFor, let's not worry about the page change. We'll have more @shrimp this year than last year.

[WiseLatinainPolicy]

Ugh ... I hate knowing that I could possibly be denied

[PublicServant]

3 hours ago, MCMPA17 said:

That's a change. If the results follow that of last year's, then this blog is not for nothing.

If there's one thing we're proving here is that it's possible to know if one gets admitted or not at least days before the actual results come out.

The odds are high. Only shrimps said otherwise, and that's 5:1.

 

If this was the null hypothesis, Shrimps would be the silver bullet to kill all the speculation.  I say people just chill, not too far until we know the definite outcome.

[DreamFor]

32 minutes ago, MCMPA17 said:

Hello @DreamFor, let's not worry about the page change. We'll have more @shrimp this year than last year.

So, that is to say your format has not changed..seems a good news for you.haha

[MCMPA17]

Here's a long quote from David King, 2015

 

Hi everyone.  Today’s the 11th, and our internal target has been to get decisions (all of them) out tomorrow, the 12th.  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.

---

indeed.

 

[HisGrace]

Seems like everyone's changed except @MCMPA17

Either way,  good luck everyone!  I'll be at work tomorrow hoping the decisions are released by 2p 

[MCMPA17]

27 minutes ago, HisGrace said:

Seems like everyone's changed except @MCMPA17

Either way,  good luck everyone!  I'll be at work tomorrow hoping the decisions are released by 2p 

It could mean the other way. Either, I'll be alright. Reading from David's post, I have other things to worry about.

Best of luck to us all. 

Edited March 7, 2017 by MCMPA17

[Palolem]

If previous years' patterns are any indication, we should get decisions March 7th - around 1 PM. Just about 7 hours away! 

[congoAppMCMPA]

13 minutes ago, Palolem said:

If previous years' patterns are any indication, we should get decisions March 7th - around 1 PM. Just about 7 hours away! 

 

... heart pounding!

[MCMPA17]

59 minutes ago, congoAppMCMPA said:

 

... heart pounding!

Ditto.. page changed even..

[devx]

2 minutes ago, MCMPA17 said:

Ditto.. page changed even..

What change?

[MCMPA17]

1 minute ago, devx said:

What change?

The layout and the text, less text.. like what was earlier described

[vananhdo]

Mine (MPP) doesn't change - what should I think for now? 

[MCMPA17]

13 minutes ago, vananhdo said:

Mine (MPP) doesn't change - what should I think for now? 

You may be one of the few here who'll get in and prove this tell

[carpe_diem_0618]

I can't believe Matt and his team are reading off names of accepted in a room...while we are fretting over screen changes, haha. Looks like they will surely release the decision by Wed, keeping up the pattern from last year. Good luck to us all! 

[MCMPA17]

I'm sure if we pass this one we will also be talking about finances, whether to take a loan, or how much financial aid is given or the lack of it

 

 

[PublicServant]

While we the applicants wait for the decision...

Any ideas how would you express your emotions and reaction if the decision is to be positive?

I would probably jump off my seat and raise a toast to my family and friends, and then go for a vacation to celebrate 

On the other hand if the admission decision is not positive, I think I still have gained a lot in terms of self-reflection,  strength in many relationships, and above all I now know what exactly needs to be done as the vision is more clear and focused.

 

Thoughts?

[ArellaV]

2 minutes ago, PublicServant said:

While we the applicants wait for the decision...

Any ideas how would you express your emotions and reaction if the decision is to be positive?

I would probably jump off my seat and raise a toast to my family and friends, and then go for a vacation to celebrate 

On the other hand if the admission decision is not positive, I think I still have gained a lot in terms of self-reflection,  strength in many relationships, and above all I now know what exactly needs to be done as the vision is more clear and focused.

 

Thoughts?

Ha! I am in a café and I think I would also give a toast to myself lol! I would probably jump on my chair and cheer and when everyone starts staring, I would tell them I just got accepted to Harvard!

I don't want to think on the negative just yet. 

 

 

 

[drumroll]

4 minutes ago, PublicServant said:

While we the applicants wait for the decision...

Any ideas how would you express your emotions and reaction if the decision is to be positive?

I would probably jump off my seat and raise a toast to my family and friends, and then go for a vacation to celebrate 

On the other hand if the admission decision is not positive, I think I still have gained a lot in terms of self-reflection,  strength in many relationships, and above all I now know what exactly needs to be done as the vision is more clear and focused.

 

Thoughts?

In my case, if it is positive, then my plan A for the next year, and the years after that, is set. First thing will be to tell those closest to me and who have put up with my anxiety...

If it is negative, onto to plan B which is to figure out a plan B. Move to a different city, find a new job. Whatever happens, my life is changing paths this month. First thing will be to cry on the shoulders of those closest to me and have put up with my emotional distress until now anyway....

[ASunnyDay]

I find myself reminded of high school. The teacher enters the room with this extra bulgy bag. She must have the tests in that bag. Will she announce the grades today? So far, she hasn't said anything about it. My belly tenses up a little. I can't help it.

[PublicServant]

25 minutes ago, ASunnyDay said:

I find myself reminded of high school. The teacher enters the room with this extra bulgy bag. She must have the tests in that bag. Will she announce the grades today? So far, she hasn't said anything about it. My belly tenses up a little. I can't help it.

I remember that feeling...