How He Decided Among HBS, Stanford, Wharton & Booth

Betsy: In our last conversation I had said I thought this would be a heart and soul decision rather than a head decision. Do you agree with that? Or do you think the head played some role?

Justin: I would say it played some role; for me that was actually most of the role over the first few months. Over the past three weeks or so it was much more of a visceral decision, as I know you said over and over in the past. I think that’s the way you’ve got to make your decision, because you can run the numbers any way you want to, you can talk to students who can say pro and con, but until you envision yourself on both campuses and talk to people in both cities, it’s tough to make a decision off anything else.

Betsy: Can you tell us a little bit about the financial aid situation, how one school was a little bit more generous or more flexible than the other.  How did that work out for you?

Justin: Both schools are need-based. I received my financial aid package from Stanford first, and that was fantastic. I spoke with their financial aid team and they were all great, Jack [Edwards] and his team do a fantastic job over there.  I did get the sense that the HBS financial aid team and the admissions staff was more willing to work with me to make the numbers work.  They were a bit more flexible, and in the end I think that was an important factor in my decision.

Betsy: Many students ask whether you can negotiate, to go to admissions and financial aid people and talk to them about your money situation; can you tell them that it is part of your decision—it honestly is part of the decision—so how did that conversation go down?

Justin: You definitely can, if you do it the right way. For me it absolutely was part of my decision, and I definitely let both schools know that. But at the same time I think you have to do it in the right way.  I don’t think it should be called a negotiation; it should be more of a discussion with each school. You should set up time during admit weekend or sometime on the phone and you should discuss your personal situation, where you stand financially, and also where you stand with other schools. It’s just best to be honest. I was just very up front and I talked about my situation and what I was expecting. I felt that HBS did a fantastic job personalizing that toward me. That was important.  But I will say, and stress that you can talk to the financial aid team, and be honest and open with them. As long as you are not negotiating too forcefully, it should turn out in your favor most of the time.

Betsy: Was either of the two schools worried about any other school except its rival?

Justin: I spent most of the time speaking with Stanford and HBS and it seemed that they were most focused on each other. They did bring up a few other schools that I was admitted to, but mostly they were most focused on their main rival.

Betsy:  Understandably so.  By the way, did you bump into others who were dual admits, or did you find that you were a bit of a rare bird there?

Justin:  There were actually many more dual admits than I had expected. At both admit weekends I probably met 30 or so dual admits. And I can honestly say at both weekends there were probably 15 leaning toward Stanford and 15 leaning toward HBS. It was very evenly split. There were a select few who were very much undecided, as I was, but everybody was very open and honest about what they were thinking.  I did notice that most of the ones leaning toward Stanford were either from the west coast or based on the west coast right now, and there was more geographic diversity in the folks leaning toward HBS.

Betsy: One final series of questions: For many of our listeners, many students are thinking about applying for the next cycle.  We’re in February now, so what would you recommend to students who are starting their application journey for the next cycle?  You’re the one who has been the successful one, so they want to hear it from you.

Justin:  I’ll say three things.  Number one: start now, start early. I would advise applying in Round 1 if at all possible. I think it is the most competitive round, but it is also the one where the most serious candidates apply. If you start early enough, it’s not a problem.  Give yourself at least three or four months for application work.  There’s no reason to rush an essay at the very end a week before the deadline if you don’t need to. So get the GMAT out of the way now, and then do the essay work and the other stuff maybe in May and at the very latest June if you want to in Round 1.

Second, if you’ve not already done so, do your research.  I applied to four skills in Round 1 and I almost killed myself. I cannot imagine doing any more than that. Tailor your search and personalize it as much as possible; pick three or four schools that you really see yourself at. Talk to students and go visit campus if you can.  And then try to narrow that down to three or four schools for each round.

Third, and most important, don’t be afraid to ask for assistance from friends and family. Find three or four people who you are closest to, whom you trust, whom you’ve known for a long time to read your essays and to mock interview you. That will take a lot of stress off you, but at the same time remember that too many cooks in the kitchen is a bad thing.

Betsy: One question about researching school choice—I’m getting questions now from students who can’t afford time-wise or money-wise to go look at every single school, and the schools aren’t doing their visits until the summer, how did you do most of your research, especially when you started around now?

Justin: I actually did not go visit these four campuses before the application work. The first time I was seeing all the campuses was during the interviews and admit weekend. But I would say, first and foremost, talk to students, talk to alumni from those schools. Talk to people at your company and your alma maters who have gone to these business schools, and get their feelings and advice.  I will say that I read a lot of Poets & Quants, which helped a lot. Finding articles, finding other research about each school, what their student body’s like, what post-MBA job prospects are like, and spending as much time as you can in front of a laptop researching these things. The more you do that the more you’ll be able to narrow it down to a small list of schools.

John: One question that I think a lot of people would love to know: On the facts, on the raw numbers, you’re right in the pocket, 740 GMAT, 3.8 GPA, you’ve got a job with a great global company, one of the greatest brands in history, and you’ve got a good job in capital markets for them as a senior analyst…beyond all that, what do you think made you so successful? What made you four-for-four, because let’s face it, you get up to bat—how many people can be four-for-four? If you’re two-for-four you’re a hero. Why do you think you were four-for-four?