How HBS Puts Together An Incoming Class

This week’s edition of P&Q Live explains what it is like to get an MBA from the leading business school in China, how Harvard Business School decides who to admit from an applicant pool of nearly 10,000 candidates, and what the odds of admission are for a 22-year-old female engineer who works in software product development at a top-five global tech company.

Poets&Quants' Founder John A. Byrne hosts P&Q Live, our weekly podcast

Poets&Quants Founder John A. Byrne hosts P&Q Live, our weekly podcast

In the first segment, Poets&Quants staff writer Nathan Allen, recently returned from a week in Shanghai, reports on what it was like to attend a boot camp for would-be MBAs at CEIBS, the top business school in China (see What It’s Like To Get Your MBA In Shanghai). The event, an annual marketing initiative that allows potential applicants to try out the school’s MBA program, features a series of lectures, company trips, and evening kung fu. On the trip, Allen discovered a new fad in China — and it’s not Pokemon GO.

Then, Poets&Quants Founder and Editor-in-Chief John A. Byrne interviews a former member of the Harvard Business School Admissions Board. In the week in which HBS released the preliminary profile of its Class of 2018, Byrne explores how the school sifts through nearly 10,000 applications to get to a class of little more than 900 students (see Dee’s Final Class At Harvard Business School). Chioma Isiadinso, founder and CEO of EXPARTUS, an MBA admissions consulting firm, recalls her experience as an admissions board member at Dillon House, the home of Harvard Business School’s admissions team.

And finally, HBSGuru.com Founder Sandy Kreisberg is back to assess the admission chances of an Asian-American woman who has been dinged from Harvard Business School’s 2+2 program but who now works for a top-five global tech company (see Handicapping Your Elite MBA Odds). She is both right-brained and left-brained. Besides graduating in the top 10% of her class from an Indian college considered among the best 20 in the country, she has performed in several dance shows, was the lead singer in a band during college, and loves trekking in the Himalayas, rafting, and painting. She wants to use an MBA to transition into a product management role at a top tech company.

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