Harvard 2+2

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Harvard 2+2

by ladeornmc » Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:11 pm
Hey everyone,

I've been planning on going to law school (applying to HSY and Columbia) and had posted on Top Law Schools and had a few people ask why I wasn't interested in the 2+2 program at Harvard.

... Since I have time to consider my options I thought I'd see what you all thought and if it would be a viable option (please forgive my ignorance on all things MBA related, have never really looked into it before).

GPA: 3.8 (3.85 by the time I graduate).
GMAT: Haven't done it yet but did get 176 on my LSAT and did perfectly outside of logic games so with some hard work I think I'll do quite well.
UI: A small Canadian university. Very middle of the road.
WE: summer after freshman year I moved to NYC and worked at Lazard (large asset management firm), summer after second year again I moved to NYC for the summer and worked at a small hedge fund (billions in AUM but only 20+- employees, so much closer experience to the action). This summer I'm trying for Goldman and if not will be back at the smaller hedge fund.
Other stuff: I'm non-URM, a dual citizen (Bermudian-Canadian), fluent in Mandarin conversationally (writing and reading is coming, but my goal was always to be conversational not to know how to write and read it). Now a few months into Arabic. No big claim to fame in terms of sports, national/international achievements, etc. Member of habitat for humanity, SPCA, etc.

I've looked into the 2+2 program a bit. I'm a business admin major so it seems that's a point against me although there's still quite a few folks who get admitted that come form that background.

Given the above stats (I know it's hard without actual GMAT scores) do I stand a reasonable chance? Any feedback or more info is very much appreciated.

Cheers
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by Jon@Admissionado » Fri Nov 25, 2011 12:23 am
Harvard!
A good school.
:)

Well, like you said, it's hard without the GMAT. Basically for 2+2, it helps to have been the top in everything. valedictorian, student gov leader, church leader,model UN chief, college newspaper editor, sports hero, etc. besides the GMAT... got any of that?
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by ladeornmc » Fri Nov 25, 2011 8:11 am
PrecisionEssay wrote:Harvard!
A good school.
:)

Well, like you said, it's hard without the GMAT. Basically for 2+2, it helps to have been the top in everything. valedictorian, student gov leader, church leader,model UN chief, college newspaper editor, sports hero, etc. besides the GMAT... got any of that?
Thanks for the reply.

I've never had a great deal of "leadership activities". I suppose what I think is my largest achievement in that area is starting a company at 16 that's made me quite a bit of money every year (more than I'd make going out to work with just an undergraduate degree) and has allowed me the freedom every summer to move abroad to work, go to China after I became comfortable with Mandarin, etc. and allowed me a freedom to pursue my interests that I don't think many people, especially during their undergrad, ever get to experience.

To be honest between business, trying to keep a high GPA (especially when I made the mistake of taking courses in Physics), doing the LSATs and now the GMAT, and keeping a social life where I enjoy my undergrad since I'm at a 'party school' has made most ECs seem like nothing more than fillers, perhaps beneficial ones, on my application.

I've gone to a few meetings of different investing/business clubs where they meet once a month to talk about nothing in particular. I'm sure it's much different at Yale or Harvard but being in quite a small city with small clubs (same with all the political ones and student government) like that I don't feel there's much to derive from them other than a point or two on my application.

Perhaps that's a downfall and I should push myself just so I can say I'm president of xyz club or create my own and con a few friends into signing up. But like I said before with being so busy I can't bring myself to do things that are of no benefit to me or anyone else just to make my application a little more interesting.

I'm a member of a few different things, again not really "leadership" because I don't want to dedicate huge amounts of time due to other priorities, like the Clinton foundation, SPCA locally, soup kitchen locally (where I've actually put in a few hundred hours over the years), Habitat for Humanity, have two sponsor children in Bolivia and am also a donor and contributor to a few organizations in the States that advocate civil liberties including the ACLU. My last 'project' was being involved in partially funding and paying a graphic designer I use to create the mock up for billboards to be used to raise awareness surrounding a certain bill that was ultimately brought down.

So there's a bunch of little things like that. Not sure I'd put them all on an application or not. They're all more little hobbies/interests and I much prefer to fund things I think are good causes than to spend my time being the face of certain causes or trying to gain control when other people are much more suitable for the job. Which I'd think would be more congruent with what many MBAs ultimately go into, but maybe not.

So I don't know how strong any of that really is. To me that's more "leadership" than being president of a few clubs or being in student government, at least around here, where you don't do anything. But I've talked to enough admissions folks to know that's usually not the case. :D