Author Archives: Kyle Watkins

Inside the Harvard Business School Case Method

By Kyle Watkins (last updated: December 17, 2013)

When deciding between MBA programs, applicants should understand that different schools may use different teaching methods. While most B-Schools rely on a mix of lectures, cases, and projects, a few elite schools rely almost exclusively on cases to teach business skills, including for classes such as accounting or finance.

Because case discussions require active participation from students, people uncomfortable with that method may struggle academically at schools with a case heavy teaching style.

At Harvard Business Schools more than 80 percent of classes are built using the case method. A few years ago, the school released a fascinating video (below) that accurately describes what the case method looks like.

Do you think that a school’s teaching style should indeed be a decisive factor when deciding whether to apply to a specific program? Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a reply below!

Liked what you just saw? Asses your odds of success at some of the top U.S. and international business schools.

Poets&Quants’ Top 100 U.S. MBA Programs of 2012

By Kyle Watkins (last updated: June 7, 2013)

In a recent article Poets & Quants released its own ranking of the top US MBA programs.

Although several established rankings are available (e.g. from The Financial Times, Forbes, US News, Business Weeks), we consider Poets and Quants’s ranking valuable because it is built as a composite of the 5 major rankings. As most rankings’ methodology can be criticized (often because of the emphasis that they arbitrarily put on a given criteria), “combining the five most influential rankings doesn’t eliminate the flaws in each system, but it does significantly diminish them. When an anomaly pops on one list due to either faulty survey technique or biased methodology, bringing all the data together tends to suppress it” according to the ranking’s author.

If you’re unfamiliar with P&Q’s ranking, their site is worth having a look at.

HBS Releases Class of 2015 Profile

By Kyle Watkins (last updated: December 17, 2013)

Harvard Business School just released a preliminary profile of the class of 2015. Acceptance rate decreased to 12% (from 13% last year), and with 940 enrolling students as of June 3 (out of 9,315 applicants), the yield reached an impressive 90% (although surprisingly HBS may not be the #1 school in the U.S. in terms of yield according to John Byrne).

The percentage of international students is up from last year (35% vs. 34%), as is the proportion of female students (reaching an all-time high of 41%), which should not come as a surprise on the 50th anniversary of women at HBS. STEM* majors are up 5 percentage points vs. last year, reaching 39% of incoming students.

On the GMAT side, the range remains quite broad (550 – 780 vs. 570 – 790 last year), and the median is unchanged at 730. This means that even at HBS a low GMAT is not necessarily an application killer, although an MBA applicant needs to shine in other area of her application in order to compensate for a significantly below average score.

Finally, the average age of admitted students is 27. Keep in mind however that HBS does admit a significant number of students in their 30’s, and that people well above that age do stand a chance if their story is compelling. Do not let anyone tell you that you are too old for HBS (a trap I almost fell into as a 32 year old applicant… but that’s a different story)!

Wanting to measure your chances of admission at Harvard Business School: why not give our algorithm a try? We’re also happy to offer you a free consultation. In any case, make sure to read Kyle’s posts about the HBS application.

* STEM: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

HBS Application Down to One Essay (Class of 2016)

By Kyle Watkins (last updated: December 17, 2013)

Dee Leopold – the admissions director at HBS – announced this week that Harvard Business School will only require one essay from applicants to its MBA class of 2016, down from 2 last year, and 4 just 2 years ago.

Here is this year’s question:
“You’re applying to Harvard Business School. We can see your resume, school transcripts, extra-curricular activities, awards, post-MBA career goals, test scores and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?”

Applicants who feel that their application is strong enough will even be able to skip the essay, although this is probably a risky thing to do.

Mrs. Leopold also revealed that only two letters of recommendation will have to be submitted this year (vs. 3 in previous years).

These changes should allow applicants to focus on aspects of their profile and experience that they want to emphasize, while making it easier to apply (finding 3 recommenders was sometimes a challenge for less experienced applicants). However, cutting the number of essays may turn out to create new challenges for HBS hopefuls. Our co-founder Kyle Watkins will soon be writing about possible strategies to successfully answer this question.