The Application Process

Starting a thread for the class of 2011 Applicants. Talk about anything you like including why this schools, the application process, essay question tips, etc.

Mayo,
Since you mentioned Entrepreneurship - just wondering why you didn't apply to Stanford. Any particular reasons .. other than the one that their acceptance rate is so low ?

Yes Stanford has a great Entrepreneurial program, but in a world of constraints and limited amounts of time, I decided not to apply. It came down to a decision on what I believed were my chances of getting into the school. I chose to apply to 4 or 5 schools each with various probabilities of getting in. I figured UCLA would be a safety, USC would be a safety, Haas/LBS would be difficult, and Columbia would be reach.

Stanford was an absolute dream school. If I have 5 schools to apply to, somewhere between 15 - 20 essays to write, nearly $1000 in fees, and 10 French recommendations to translate then I'd hope those 5 are at least reachable. Sure you could apply to 8 schools, but consider the time commitment and number of letters your recommenders would need to write. And don't forget the chances of you actually getting accepted into one of the lowest admit schools.

In the end, I cropped USC off my list once I received an admit from UCLA since I'd choose Anderson over USC any day.

Anyone apply in R1? The notification day is tomorrow?

Good luck!

mayonnai5e wrote:Yes Stanford has a great Entrepreneurial program, but in a world of constraints and limited amounts of time, I decided not to apply. It came down to a decision on what I believed were my chances of getting into the school. I chose to apply to 4 or 5 schools each with various probabilities of getting in. I figured UCLA would be a safety, USC would be a safety, Haas/LBS would be difficult, and Columbia would be reach.

Stanford was an absolute dream school. If I have 5 schools to apply to, somewhere between 15 - 20 essays to write, nearly $1000 in fees, and 10 French recommendations to translate then I'd hope those 5 are at least reachable. Sure you could apply to 8 schools, but consider the time commitment and number of letters your recommenders would need to write. And don't forget the chances of you actually getting accepted into one of the lowest admit schools.

In the end, I cropped USC off my list once I received an admit from UCLA since I'd choose Anderson over USC any day.

That's a great strategy I feel. I'm too hung up on the top 3-4 schools especially for Entrepreneurial programs. If you didn't make it into the difficult schools (I seriously hope you do make it).. would you choose the safety schools (UCLA) ? OR would you re-apply to those difficult schools again ?

Thanks,
Pradeep

One piece of advice I got was actually a question: Lee, if you got into these safety schools would you actually attend?

That's what you should ask yourself when choosing safety schools. UCLA I will definitely go to even if I do not get into the other schools. If the school you chose as a safety is one you wouldn't go to even if you got in then why in the world would you apply?

According to all the buzz on the BW forums, the acceptance calls are going out to the R1 admits.

Good luck! Please share your good news + profile.

mayonnai5e wrote:One piece of advice I got was actually a question: Lee, if you got into these safety schools would you actually attend?

That's what you should ask yourself when choosing safety schools. UCLA I will definitely go to even if I do not get into the other schools. If the school you chose as a safety is one you wouldn't go to even if you got in then why in the world would you apply?

Yeah makes sense.

hey mayonnai5e,

There was some discussion about the amount of work applications are, i.e. the # of letter of recommendations. Can't you use the same letter of recs for most schools, as long as they detail what you want, to complete your story, i.e. leadership?

anb wrote:hey mayonnai5e,

There was some discussion about the amount of work applications are, i.e. the # of letter of recommendations. Can't you use the same letter of recs for most schools, as long as they detail what you want, to complete your story, i.e. leadership?

I don't think so because each school has a different format for the recommendations and different questions - if your recommenders copy/paste from one school to the next even if one response does not apply it will look bad on you. Why, if this guy is so great, couldn't he find recommenders who would put in the time to write each recommendation instead of copying them?

For example, LBS asked a question this year along the lines of: what do you believe this candidate will be doing in 10 years? None of the other recommendations asked that. Also, Haas and UCLA had a grid where characteristics (not the same characteristics in each) are ranked (top 1%, top 5%, etc) while LBS did not have that grid.

In the end though, there are a lot of similar questions so a lot of material can be copied - just not 100% of it.

thanks for the response! very much appreciated.