Update: BusinessWeek forum readers, go read this.
Update 19-Dec-09: Even though this post, and my application, are three years old and I’ve learned enough during that time to look back in amazement at how poor my application was and I know enough to make the next one quite a bit better, I’m still quite open to feedback/criticism/etc., so please don’t hold back. The more frank the better. Even if it makes you feel like a mean, cruel person afterward, just know that I appreciate any feedback, even if it is cruel.
Before anything else, if you’re tempted to ask “Why do you want an MBA anyway?” or “Why Harvard?” go read the first post on How I Decided to Apply to HBS.
I’ve decided to post my full HBS application here for download and am soliciting the comment of anyone who is interested in reading it. I would welcome any comments as to why you believe I was rejected, no matter how critical. Trust me, you can’t offend me.
My own speculation as to reasons why I wasn’t granted an interview are as follows:
1. Too old – I’m currently 31 and would be 32 when I began classes. I’ve heard from multiple sources that HBS is seeking younger candidates, preferably in their mid-twenties.
2. Cheesy – Maybe something I said just came across as stupid, cheesy, immature, etc.
3. Competitively lacking – Perhaps my application compared well to those of others who are 24, but against other applicants in their 30s perhaps my achievements seem quite small and don’t represent me as someone with the kind of leadership potential HBS is looking for.
Or perhaps I’m lacking even when it comes to putting me up against 24-year olds.
4. Academic issues – My GPA was a 3.23, and if you look at details of my grades you’ll see an interesting, perhaps disturbing, trend of me failing classes, then getting straight As, and back to failing again.
If you have your own ideas I’d like to hear them.
Josh:
I am continually amazed by your openness. Thanks for sharing this with all of us. Here’s my take:
I think you got killed on GPA and you biffed it in some key classes. You have a great GMAT score (way better than me) but I think it was still on the low end for a Harvard app. Plus, I wouldn’t have told them that I had a girlfriend and that’s why my grades suffered.
I think your age and experience are big positives. Anymore MBA schools don’t like admitting punk kids if they don’t have too.
I think your track of education and work experience is different than what most people have who enter HBS. You ought to talk to JD Gardner at Monarch Ventures (formally with vSpring). He went to HBS and he may be able to provide some insight.
My GPA over the life of my undergrad was like a landslide. Freshman year, all rearing to go. Senior year: not so much. It was a downward spiral.
Josh,
You should consider whitewashing the personal information (like address)…
And SS#!
Not a bad idea…
OK….
Your quantitative score is *very* low and your GMAT, though at the average, isn’t remarkable.
Your transcript is unremarkable and yes, you failed classes.
There’s little evidence in your application of self-driven social impact outside of work (your mission doesn’t count as it’s typically regarded as required, especially at a place like BYU).
Your essays are incredibly unremarkable, are riddled with structural problems, don’t demonstrate any acts of leadership.
You’re already running a firm, the board is likely to continue to wonder why you want an MBA as this is not made clear *anywhere* on your application.
@anonymous
That’s the kind of feedback I’m looking for.
Anybody got any more of that stuff? Agree or disagree?
Perhaps they didn’t like the fact that you are a sailor and not a driver. A sailor has a predefined route but can change its course after leaving the docks whenever he feels like doing it. The sea gives you that kind of freedom. While being a driver you may change the course by selecting a different track/road, but then you will not get to your initial final destination. The roads and freeways are meant to be ways to get from one point to another through an already walked path. Hence people like roads because they are ’secure’ and the sea is ’spooky’ due to its hugeness.
I’m a sailor, and I think you are one too. They might be looking for drivers, ‘cuz sailors may sail away from them half the trip. It doesn’t mean it is bad, it may be the best for you, but it’s something they don’t want for sure.
I know it may sound cheesy or naive, but that’s my feedback.
Great to have people like you who like to share no matter what. Regards.
Sorry Josh, in the spirit of common sense. Having this kind of information available online in a non-secure environment is reckless. ( I am glad that sensitive family info has been removed) The fact that you got denied is not a big deal, it may hurt your ego but in the real world your business is still the same today as it was yesterday.
You have already gotten some great feedback on the application from some knowledgeable and bright guys. Use it wisely.
Here’s some stuff I’ve learned from talking to tons of recruiters. Many.
Why do you want an MBA?
What do you plan to do with it?
How will you be a contributor to the class?
What do you bring that’s unique?
I also wouldn’t have spelled out the girlfriend thing so much. That was the very first thing you told them, and it was even on my mind as I read through the other paragraphs. Put the good stuff at the beginning and the best at the end. Bury weaknesses in the middle where they will be forgotten but address how you overcome them and are strong now because of it.
For a guy who did so well on the verbal of the GMAT, there were some spelling/grammar errors.
A lot of the details on your descriptions of jobs/extra stuff seemed sparse, which gave me the feeling that the application was rushed (even if it wasn’t).
Honeslty, I think the whole salary thing probably makes them take a second look and wonder what’s up as well. They keep stats on pre-MBA salaries, and the numbers you put down seem like they would be a big outlier in their data.
Last, I was suprised you left so much personal info on the app for all to see . . .
@Steve
This isn’t about ego, it’s about accomplishing something, namely getting into Harvard.
As for this being reckless, yes, it was when before I removed my SS#, but otherwise I don’t see what’s reckless about it. In truth all I’m putting at risk by making this information public is my ego, and hopefully I don’t have much of an ego to lose.
@Russ
Dang it, that ex-girlfriend is still haunting me and causing trouble after all these years…
The personal information was removed quickly after it was posted, so unless you download it within the first hour or so you didn’t get it.
As for the descriptions being short, they restrict the number of characters you can use, which is incredibly frustrating. I had to rewrite those things over and over to try and say what I wanted to say without using too many words.
Hi Josh,
Here are some thoughts. Apologize if they are too direct… but I remember going through the same process and afterwards appreciating the hard feedback more than the soft. Happy to talk by phone with you if you want – am off work all next week.
Overall, your application doesn’t do you justice. I think your intrinsics and experiences are awesome (helps that I know you), but the app itself comes across as complainy and reactive rather than assertive and driven. After reading it, I have to say I felt really disappointed, because the person in this app is not the Josh that I know.
1. Letters of recommendation – having one college professor rec is ok if you did a PhD, but otherwise using academics as references for MBA admission is like saying you couldn’t find quality professionals (clients, employees, mentors, etc.) who (a) know you well and (b) have good things to say. Your list of recommenders alone would be a deal breaker for me.
2. Top MBA programs do look more closely at the quant GMAT score. So your overall is great, but the individual scores are so lopsided, reviewers would question whether you could handle the analytical rigors of an MBA program. That combined with some failing grades in quantitative classes is also tough, but not impossible, to overcome. Your essay comment about struggling with math since jr high would be the last nail in the coffin for me. To get past the GMAT & grades, you’ll need to either (a) retake the GMAT and crush the quant section, or (b) demonstrate that you are serious about overcoming the issue, such as taking a hard math class during the summer this year and acing it.
3. For such a high verbal GMAT, essays had a lot of structural and grammatical issues. I think these things in combination hurt your credibility.
4. Essays emphaized trite points, while glossing over the meat. Josh, you have run multiple businesses and sold one to a NASDAQ listed company. You are one of the top entrepreneurs in Utah. You have managed people for several years now. Your experiences are very rare at top MBA programs and you would be a valued contributor in the classroom there, but first you need to do a better job of telling your story. This app comes across like you did not manage your life or career very well along the way. (In one of my MBA interviews, the interviewer said the single theme they look for is “active management of life and career.”) Strongly suggest essay coaching next time. (I had 3 trusted people review my essays, and spent over 100 hours personally on them – happy to talk with you live on the essay process)
5. Top life accomplishments. The high-school standards thing is nice, but values are “table stakes” and you did not score any points for this as a top accomplishment. Also, the high school story comes through with an introverted feel, which is the opposite of what reviewers are looking for. Also, I was hoping to see “selling my company” as a top accomplishment.
6. Surprised that none of your essays talked about the meaningful relationships you developed with your clients, or the ways in which your work impacted the state of Utah. I think by leaving those things out, the app comes through as being very focused on yourself rather than on how you are making a difference in the world. This brings up an important point – since your background is a bit lumpy (some stellar things, some not so great), you need to think of 2 or 3 themes and drill those themes into every aspect of your application, from the 25-word headlines for each work experience, to essays, to how you coach recommenders to highlight their experiences with you. Entrepreneurship can certainly be one of those themes. Other ones could include service to community, people leadership, passion for technology, etc. It doesn’t really matter what they are, as long as your app is completely consistent with them, and they don’t misalign with the mission of the MBA program to which you are applying.
7. Too much emphasis on business failures/struggles (money mainly). Getting through struggles is important, but you need to get the reviewer excited about the results of your hard work and sacrifices. Saying that you “barely made it” or “got through it” is not sufficient. The story should begin and end with a statement equivalent to “I conquered the world”.
8. Grades. Grades at C or below are a red flag. Lots of them means deal breaker. I mentioned grades before, but to be clear, you need to tell this story in a way that communicates that you (a) made a conscious decision to de-prioritize school during the times when your grades suffered, and (b) you regret your grades but feel the decision was the right one given your vision for your life, and (c) you have made extra effort since then to re-take the cources and ace them, or have done something else to demonstrate academic ability.
9. Don’t put any extracurricular activities that don’t suggest leadership. Putting down “road trip” sounds like you are joking around. On the other hand, assuming you did have a leadership experience for this, rephrasing it as “student trek leader” can turn this into a winner in terms of showing your extroverted nature and leadership initiative. Again, every little thing on your app should be consistent with a theme that you want the reviewer to absolutely know when he/she is done reading your app.
10. Final thought – salaries. If you chose not to pay yourself very much, but don’t explain that decision, it looks like you don’t value your time very much. (e.g., you can say that you had plenty of money from selling your company, you chose to make a short-term sacrifice to build your company, etc.) Whatever the reason, needs to be explained or else your entrepreneurial activities seem less meaningful and important.
Josh, would love to see you get the story cleaned up and try again. I really do believe that with your experiences, entrepreneurial initiative, and impact on the state of Utah, you have some extremely unique and valuable things to add to a top MBA program.
Thanks Bill, that’s certainly some of the most valuable feedback so far, and I appreciate it. I think it’s safe to say the biggest mistake I made during the application process was not getting this kind of feedback prior to submission.
Here’s a question about grades. There are two reasons why I’ve gotten bad grades. One was because of starting/running/selling a business. The other only had a one semester impact, and that was the “girlfriend” part. Explaining the business part seems easier to me, but as for the other, rather than talking details should I refer to that semester and just say “I had a personal event that diverted my attention from school that semester, but I retook the classes and got As” or something along those lines?
WOW! Your accomplishments are quite admirable. I’m also in the process of applying for a masters program except at Westminster. In high school, my GPA was awful. All I cared about was my skateboard. In my undergrad, I currently hold a 3.85 and this is s my last semester. I never wanted to go to grad school until recently, but my grades were always a sense of confidence for me to keep them high. I do think that’s was what really caught their eye.
You’ve been an addict for entrepreneurship since high school with no justified reasoning on your application for wanting to get an additional masters degree. If I were them I would not be convinced for one second that you would be able to keep your mind off business and focus all of your attention on school. Especially since your past grades reflect distractions i.e. the girlfriend.
On that note, you found yourself a great gal to support you through your business ventures, negative earnings, long hours, and working weekends and holidays. Will that last forever? What would be your plans if you did attend Harvard? Sell MWI? Hand down leadership?
My advice…forget Harvard. There’s plenty more Ivy League schools out there. Is Harvard the only place you applied to? Knowledge and education is addicting for people like us. Ever thought of a PhD program locally and co-operating MWI simutaneously?
Next time be sure you highlight that Time magazine named you person of the year based on your accomplishments…
Prior to graduate school, I had ~8 people that I respected review my application. This is an interesting post and will surely get some love from SERP’s, but you should have received feedback prior to submitting your application.
All in all, your application is underwhelming.
1) Your essays didn’t shiine like they could have — you didn’t discuss meaningful client relationships; building a business and the challenges of doing that, etc. For example, you could’ve been very candid about your weaknesses as a business owner and then showed how an HBS education might help to improve your weak areas. Show, don’t tell, is the key here. You didn’t focus on a key theme, develop it, and then bring it to conclusion. Instead, you took the shotgun approach to communication. Moreover, the tone in your essays seem fabricated or rhetorical — that is, they don’t feel sincere to me.
2) GMAT is lopsided, but not a big deal — people think that you need to be a mathematician to go to business school — that’s bull. Learn how to add, subtract, and basic logic and you’re good to go. But, in light of your poor math performance in college, a higher GMAT quantitative score could’ve helped.
3) College performance — pretty underwhelming. Undergraduate business education at BYU should have been a piece of cake. If you had a 3.0 or lower in physics major or an engineering major, then that would have been understandable and competitive. But, a business major — that’s most likely below the radar for most top-tier schools. Disclosure: I am faculty at BYU’s Marriott School of Management.
4) You could’ve spun your low salary in a way that makes sense for the admissions committee; you could’ve shown how that is a fudiciary act toward your employees and clients. You didn’t. Low salaries are more common that people think. Many military and not-for-profit candidates apply to business school with very low salaries. This is expected and common, but you could’ve explained more.
5) The girlfiriend comment shows immaturity then and now.
In general, you didn’t explain 3 critical things very well:
A) Why you *need* an MBA?
B) Why you *need* an MBA education at HBS?
C) What experiences have you had that will add value to your cohort at HBS?
As I said before, you would have probably gotten very bored anyway, if you had been accepted.
In all seriousness, have you truly, honestly, and thoughfully asked yourself why you need an MBA now? I really don’t think you have. Your application doesn’t show that you have; neither do your blog posts, if that’s any indication of what is going on in your head. In fact, I’d argue that you don’t quite know what you want right now. Response?
If you still feel you need an MBA, you could start here:
(Josh, thinking out loudly) I am the founder and CEO of a firm with $.5MM in 2006. I manage x people. I want to eventually reach profitability for my firm and provide a better service to my customers and make the workplace a better place for my employees. In order to do those things, I need to acquire some specific skills and knowledge in leading people, managing a business, and in x, y, z and I believe that an MBA education can help me do that. An HBS MBA can uniquely provide these (x things) because of (y items)…
The approach above might help you to have more focused approach and build a theme, with many supporting facts and experiences to drive home the main theme. The many facts and experiences can further highlight other dimensions of your life — dimensions that make sense to share.
I submitted my Harvard app on Jan 3rd, so I know the troublesome process of applying to a top-B-school.
I have to say, I am not surprised at all that you did not get an interview, basically for all of the reasons the Bill M mentioned. Your application looked to me like a first draft that no one had proof read. Despite this, I see a lot of potential in you, and given a little more time and a few GOOD proof readers, you would have had a good chance of admission.
My advice: Buy a book that teaches how to write the MBA essays and abide by the advice found within. Forget about Harvard and focus on other schools, as Harvard does not admit very many re-applicants. Don’t give up. You definitely could do it, but it will require hard work. Are you up to it?
I worked REALLY hard on my essays(especially my MIT essays) and went through probably 10-15 revisions. That is the work required. And it has already payed off with an MIT interview in week. Still waiting on Harvard.
Best of luck to you!
@ Dan G
If you or anyone else has recommendations on books to buy I’d appreciate the tip. I did purchase one but I wouldn’t mind looking at a few others.
If getting into Harvard were a function of hard work I think I’d be there, but hard work isn’t all you need if you’re working in the wrong direction, as I believe I was based on the feedback I’ve received. I completely rewrote each of my essays several times and easily went through 10-20 major revisions. But as I mentioned before, I think the major mistake I made was to not get other HBS grads/students to read my essays before I submitted my application.
Your achievements listed on your resume are all thoroughly impressive. Maybe you could have said a little more about them than two lines each under the full-time employment section. Since they are the strongest parts of your application (90% growth is an impressive-sounding number) draw attention to them and discuss them at length, both in the app and on your resume. You should probably fill as much of the space/word limit you are given as you can because otherwise it seems like you had nothing more to say. GPA dinged you and scores dinged you but overall I think it was the somewhat easygoing spirit conveyed in your application which turned them off–you probably appeared less driven and motivated than most of their top applicants, who I guarantee, filled each page from top to bottom with detailed discussions of how each of their experiences was relevant to admission into HBS. Just some food for thought, I hope that’s useful. I myself just got turned down for a position with a top management consulting firm and I am feeling your pain. It’s all in the image you project.
P.S. Your essays are very thoughtful and reflect many good insights about yourself and your life. I was moved in reading them.
@Anonymous
“Maybe you could have said a little more about them than two lines each under the full-time employment section.”
The application limits the number of characters you can use for these descriptions. I generally came to within a few characters of the maximum, so if they seem short it’s not because I didn’t have more to say but because I wasn’t allowed to say any more.
Joshua –
Just wanted to thank you for posting your entire application package on your blog. I’ve been stressing about my application for HBS, and our profiles are very similar. Your candor about the experience and transparency with your application have been extraordinarily helpful.
If I can be of help with your application, feel free to drop me an e-mail. Best of luck in all your future endeavors!
– James
If you get in let me know what you did differently on your application from mine. I plan on reapplying at some future date.
Application is not downloadable..I had love to comment if I can see what went wrong…
is this for real? This is a joke right. Your curios why you got rejected. For starters, your essays are nothing short of hilarious, bordering on the ridiculous.
You consider one your biggest accomplishments not smoking weed as a teenager?
I went to HBS and graduated in 1997. Attending HBS does not make me an expert as to why one person gets in versus another. From my perspective the information in your application is average at best. HBS is not known for accepting average candidates. Your GMAT scores were more than respectable, so that was probably not your issue. I just think your background and experiences are average.
Congratulations on running multiple small businesses and don’t lose sleep on not getting into HBS. It’s not the end of the world. Here is a funny, but true, story: when I was looking at grad schools I talked to a recruiter from Indiana (top 10 program I think at the time), I explained my background, grades, work experience, GMAT scores (not accepted at HBS when I attended), etc. You know what he told me: “even with magna cum laude undergrad and significant work experience I would probably not be accepted to Indiana. I had no intention of applying to Indiana, but I was slightly pissed at his arrogant comments. I guess I got the last laugh
I don’t know about it not being the end of the world, I mean, look how things have gone downhill worldwide since I was rejected
From my point of view: Your grades are ok, your GMAT is fine. Obviously both could be better, but I feel your essays killed you. You start of essay one and immediately put yourself on the back foot. Approach the application with more positivity – focusing on your leadership in starting multiple businesses. Have a strategy for your application overall i.e. use each question to bring out a couple of positive points about you and reinforce those points with real results i.e. my company lost this much because I/we refused to act unethically, but was better off in this manner. Your career vision is grand and a little tough to bite off especially as you don’t talk about how you will achieve it. You mention lots of interests – but no clear path – which is why it comes across as something you haven’t thought through and to a certain degree, childish. Sure, it’s great that you want to be the CEO of multiple companies in multiple industries, though it’s a tad unrealistic, if the crux of what you really want to do is encourage entrepreneurial spirit, why don’t you become a career counselor?
You do have a good background, but you didn’t package it too well. Rewrite essays from scratch if you reapply.
I wanted to add also that it’s considered a “joke” that you want to be a CEO to the Adcom. Dont you think it’s a bit cliche to tell people you want to be a CEO? And also to treat the CEO position as a way to gain experience so that you can make a difference in the world? CEO is the position that you get in when you are finally ready to make the ultimate difference in the world, in my opinion.
Honestly, I also have to say that I dont think any of your essay responses really answered the questions fully. The first essay asks what you want them to know about your undergraduate experience, yet you talk about what your interests are now and what you did in high school sandwiched around a small piece of information of your undergraduate experience. Also, there are a number of sentences which I am not convinced are complete. Reading your resume-type listing, I thought you and I were the exact same (although reverse the quant and qual scores of the GMAT), but after reading your essays I have to admit I was unimpressed with your experiences. It could have been the bad foot on which you started us out, or it could be the grammar of ending sentences with prepositions. A mantra that I used while writing my essays was “What does this sentence tell the adcom about me?” And telling them that you enjoyed your undergraduate experiences doesn’t really tell them anything. I am no expert, for sure. I hope that I get an invitation to interview (I applied round 2 this year), but I dont think there is much to these essays that makes me want to meet you.
I think selling your company is a huge accomplishment, i know it’s one of mine, but I dont even really know what your company does, which tells me that you value not doing drugs (which millions and millions of students across the country do) over selling a corporation you created to a publicly traded company (which very few have done). See where morality isn’t really an accomplishment?
I swore I wouldn’t write a long post, but simply stating that you raised money (although it’s a large amount), isn’t enough for me to really understand or believe what you did, particularly because you told us that you had no money after a huge profitable streak. Giving detail on HOW you raised this money and what hoops you had to jump through in order to obtain the funding is more valuable than saying you did it.
There are other things that I would personally think are not very smart to put in your essays (a negative example of leadership experience, I would talk about helping an employee develop professionally somehow instead), but I think this is enough.
Good luck if you decide to apply again, but I would suggest that you figure out why you would want an MBA. You seem to know how to raise money already, you seem to know how to run a business, and you seem to understand how to find good help, what’s left?
A little bit about my CEO comment, as well – everyone going to harvard wants to be a CEO. So, explaining that you want to drive innovation in a certain sector is different than saying you want to be a CEO at a company in an almost ridiculous range of industries and locations (you mention entertainment, real estate, news, retail, and a bunch others that I can’t remember), which are 100% unfocused and unrelated.
Again, I dont mean to upset you but in my opinion I dont see much here that would make me want to meet you if I was in the Adcom’s shoes.
Trust me, I can’t be too upset by anything anyone says. I’m quite appreciative of people taking the time to give lengthy comments like yours, and the harsher the criticism the better. I don’t see any of the feedback I’m getting as criticism of who I am as a person other than to say that my HBS application essay writing skills leave something to be desired. You may be interested in reading my thoughts from my current perspective, now that two years have passed since my application was rejected.
Hey Joshua,
I also think that the main problems of your application are your essays. To be honest it sounds like they are written by a high school student rather than a harvard aspirant. English is not even my mother tongue but I can tell a huge difference to other applications I have read so far. “The girlfriend thing” at the beginning is just complete crap and when you talk about your strenghts and weaknesses you talk so much about your weaknesses that I forgot that you even have strenghts. You reall shouldnt make the whole hire/fire part so detailed and long. You always have to make your weaknesses sound like a strenght “at the end”. As an example:
The CEO of Nestlé did the following in an interview when the reporter mentioned that they made one of their chocolate bars shorter in order to hide a price raise:
He shortly agreed that they made it shorter, thus didn’t deny the criticism. BUT, right in the next sentence he said that Nestlé decided to do so in order to keep the calories per bar below 100cal. So now while you are in a Diet you can still have a chocolate snack once in a while since it is less than 100cal.
So what do you think? Do you think anyone seriously is still thinking about how Nestlé “raised the price without actually raising the price”? I don’t think so … people rather see something good in this shorter and more expensive bar. That is ridiculous I know … but that is Marketing. You have to market yourself better. Make Harvard think at the end “Wow, this guy has even plenty of weaknesses, but none of them are effecting his work in order to be less succesful!”
Hope I could give you a little impression of what I think about your app. Hope you get in! Maybe we will see each other … I am going to apply for the 2011 class!
Dom
Yes, you couldn’t be more right Dom. At the time I wrote my essays I was so worried about the weaknesses in my background that I felt I had to address them, but I addresses them to the point of removing space to focus on my strengths. Pretty weak, indeed, but I’m sure with all the feedback I’ve received, the research I’ve done and continue to do, and the changes I’ll have made in the 5-6 years between my first and second attempts, that I’ll be in a much better position the second time around.
I just wanted to say thank you for posting this. Harvard is definitely a hard school to get into and I’m encouraged by your aspiration to pursue things that are hard to do.
In case your are still interested in feedbacks, here are mine :
Apply to more than one school. Life (jobs, girls, opportunities) is so. You can’t just bet on only one horse.
Your GMAT quant is low. Target in both V and Q should be a least 80%
Your post MBA career is not clear. Emphasize down-to-earth commitments, not a title “CEO”
The girlfriend story : At least show immaturity. If a girlfriend can take you of course, what kind of leader will you be ? The same goes for lies. Don’t mention it.
In addition to a low GPA, Nothing shows you can handle maths.
The way you tell the story doesn’t show charisma.
Your entire application should convey one message, built around one powerful brand. In case of entrepreneurship, you may also want to consider Stanford.
Don’t use teacher/professor recommendations
If I were Adcom, I would think : “This guy doesn’t need an MBA. He is doing just fine”
Josh I know this is late but my $0.02
You DID NOT follow that dude’s advice at all! That post office package guy who wrote the $97 book I think he has some foundational info to build an application upon and, the myriad of other sources on amazon and the web, you did not do much of what he says as far as I can see.
I have already got a place onto a maybe #50 ranking international MBA program and your application would probably not even get into that.
Mostly all the comments that have been mentioned, and from my humble view point, lack of strategy and angle of attack on your application and absolutely no unique personal own story. You do not tell a compelling personal story of conquest on your essays and work history! And of course academic life.
Essay writing is an art! You say you wanted to be an artist growing up so can you write to bring out an emotive and moving response from the reader ? Can you write an essay and creatively imagine its composition from start to finish like an art!! Ahhh ok I’m rambling but yea. You need to research how to do this perfectly if you can. This should be your main area of focus for next time.
We all want to get into HBS and, excuse my aggressive stance but it’s a war out there!!! LOLOLOL You need a formidable strategy.
Best wishes to you dear
Hey Pretty (and anyone else who reads down this far), even though it’s been over three years since I submitted that application, and even though I’ve learned quite a bit since then and know how bad my application was, I’m sure there’s still more for me to learn, so keep the comments/criticism/feedback coming, even if you feel cruel doing it. The first few comments were tough, but after that my skin got thick and my mind got open.