Rejected By Harvard Business School. Can You Believe It?

Mr. Investment Analyst

• 330 (165Q, 165V) GRE
• 3.87 GPA
• Undergraduate degree in economics from a Top 5 liberal arts college
• Work experience includes three years in the front office of a private investment firm (Prestige should be on par with top banks/PE shops). in an investing role, focusing on fixed income.
• Letters of Recommendation written by two supervisors (strong recommendations)
• Essay didn’t address goals but was very personal. “I talked about my relationship with a mentor who taught me how to think, led me to create my ethos & frames how I view the world today.”
• Extracurriculars include club sports and student investment club in college; started working with an affordable housing provider when COVID hit to help residents with resumes/jobs.
• Post-MBA Goal: To enter the real estate investments/development industry, gain industry experience, and ultimately build out a development arm for the family construction business
• “Maybe this was too specific? Adcoms possibly thinking this person better off going to Wharton where they have real estate major MBAs”

Sandy’s Analysis: If your as goal is to join YOUR family construction business, you need to know that a lot of family business apps at HBS turn on the size and the impact of the family business.
 Assuming not, guys like you get in and dinged, depending on execution, luck, and not blowing the interview which you obviously didn’t get.

You say that in your essay you “talked about relationship with a mentor who taught me how to think, led
me to create my ethos & frames how I view the world today.”

That is often a theme that inspires cliches (although the experience was real). Not kidding. They don’t care about mentors per se,
or ethos or frames or values or ethics in general. They care about your accomplishments, lessons, overcoming adversities of all kinds. etc. How well did you execute on real stories with personal lessons.?