Admitted to Harvard Business School

[creditcard]

Originally Posted by reggi

LOL pareto's!

Anyway, I wanted to say Wharton has too many internationals -- 42% of the class consists of foreign nationals.

The problem with Wharton is not that it has too many internationals, the problem is that students are programmed to think they are the cat's meow!

[window of opportunity]

Wharton gives you so many options after school, and the opportunity to completely reinvent yourself. I know a school teacher who is going to McKinsey. The school does an outstanding job of attracting students from a wide array of fields who do not take themselves too seriously. One tends to think of Wharton students as aggressive, arrogant and obnoxious. With few exceptions, they are not.

[®©,]

Originally Posted by hochfelder

[...]

On the other hand, it has been described by many authors in detail by now the drinking ritual in which students at Wharton visit 10 bars in one night. This is what happens in business schools, after all, most students simply get drunk. MBA students bond and network. At Stanford learning is not an explicit goal. Grade inflation is pervasive in top schools, thus almost no one fails out of these programs, which means the credential does not serve as a screen or an enforcement of minimum competency standards. [...]

Business schools have built a weird, almost unimaginable design for MBA-level education that distorts students into critters with lopsided brains, icy hearts, and shrunken souls. The management schools research is fuzzy, irrelevant, and pretentious, not to mention that business schools appeal to one another as scholarly communities through a plethora of academic journals that are utterly divorced from the challenges of everyday management. At the same time, unlike other professions such as medicine, law, architecture, and even business schools of the distant past (and a few today that employ more clinical faculty), many full-time faculty have not practiced the profession or craft of management. The shortage of faculty means more business schools are hiring from social science departments such as economics, psychology, or sociology. These faculty, who derive power from their scarcity, are able to focus importance on disciplinary-based research and publication in traditional scholarly journals, rather than emphasizing managerial concerns. Therefore, faculty who have been hired and promoted for their theoretical and analytical skills and for their ability to generate and, one might hope, impart knowledge are not as able to apply the knowledge that they teach.

What's worse is that we have a self-reinforcing system that will be difficult to change. The most prestigious schools attract the best students who have the best job opportunities and the highest salaries and attract the highest status recruiters. Because the status of the schools derives in part from the achievements of their graduates, those that obtain the best students retain their prestige. Schools that win in this status-based competition, and for that matter, their students, have little incentive to change. Schools that have an incentive to innovate, the ones that are newer or for other reasons are interested in experimenting with different models of MBA education, begin with the disadvantage of not necessarily being able to attract the most applicants or the best students, and therefore, are not as attractive to corporate recruiters.

For the most part, there is scant evidence that the MBA credential, particularly from non-elite schools, or the grades earned in business courses -- a measure of the mastery of the material -- are related to either salary or the attainment of higher level positions in organizations. These data, at a minimum, suggest that the training or education component of business education is only loosely coupled to the world of managing organizations.

[fuggedaboudit]

Originally Posted by ®©,

Business schools have built a weird, almost unimaginable design for MBA-level education that distorts students into critters with lopsided brains, icy hearts, and shrunken souls. The management schools research is fuzzy, irrelevant, and pretentious, not to mention that business schools appeal to one another as scholarly communities through a plethora of academic journals that are utterly divorced from the challenges of everyday management. At the same time, unlike other professions such as medicine, law, architecture, and even business schools of the distant past (and a few today that employ more clinical faculty), many full-time faculty have not practiced the profession or craft of management. The shortage of faculty means more business schools are hiring from social science departments such as economics, psychology, or sociology. These faculty, who derive power from their scarcity, are able to focus importance on disciplinary-based research and publication in traditional scholarly journals, rather than emphasizing managerial concerns. Therefore, faculty who have been hired and promoted for their theoretical and analytical skills and for their ability to generate and, one might hope, impart knowledge are not as able to apply the knowledge that they teach.

What's worse is that we have a self-reinforcing system that will be difficult to change. The most prestigious schools attract the best students who have the best job opportunities and the highest salaries and attract the highest status recruiters. Because the status of the schools derives in part from the achievements of their graduates, those that obtain the best students retain their prestige. Schools that win in this status-based competition, and for that matter, their students, have little incentive to change. Schools that have an incentive to innovate, the ones that are newer or for other reasons are interested in experimenting with different models of MBA education, begin with the disadvantage of not necessarily being able to attract the most applicants or the best students, and therefore, are not as attractive to corporate recruiters.

For the most part, there is scant evidence that the MBA credential, particularly from non-elite schools, or the grades earned in business courses -- a measure of the mastery of the material -- are related to either salary or the attainment of higher level positions in organizations. These data, at a minimum, suggest that the training or education component of business education is only loosely coupled to the world of managing organizations.

At Harvard there is not the degree of rigorous classroom discussion that entering students envision. They near graduation especially cognuzant of the school's pedigree as they navigate the frigid waters of the job market. The school has a strong alumni network and its name has currency in the real world. But an MBA holder cannot — and should not — write his own ticket these days.

There is grade inflation at Harvard and other top schools. Hey, if it can happen at Harvard, this should come as no surprise that it happens elsewhere. According to the typical student's transcript, he has an GPA worthy of magna cum laude honors. While students study extremely hard, there are some techniques and concepts they have simply not mastered. They remember times — be it in their corporate finance or statistics classes — when they were clearly baffled by exam questions, but they get an A for the semester nonetheless. In real terms, after they subtract out (grade) inflation, they know they probably earned a B+. I know there are other hardworking MBA candidates across the country getting the similar kid glove treatment from their professors, and that sends the wrong message.

In February 2002, an op-ed by University of California-Irvine professor Peter Navarro rallied for a standards exam for MBAs, akin to the bar exam for lawyers or a CPA for accountants. While business can often be more art than science, subjects like finance and business law do have industry-accepted principles that can be tested. MBAs could certainly benefit from an all-encompassing certification exam before setting out to conquer a boardroom. As it is now, so few MBAs share the same body of knowledge that employers place a premium on school prestige.

Before a standards movement can gain momentum, business schools have to give some power back to professors, who right now are scared to death of receiving negative reviews from students. B-schools also have to get out from under a trade press ranking system that evaluates them more like competing college football teams than sure-footed institutions producing the nation's next managerial class.

In the meantime, here is a handy formula for employers looking to hire an MBA this season. Consider it a discount rate for obtaining the net present value of the degree. It goes like this: Take a graduate's GPA and discount it by 15%. Take his elite school tag and discount it by a further 10%, then make him an offer based as much on his pre-MBA work experience than his coursework. If the graduate rejects your company's offer, his decision may have had more to do with hefty loan repayments than his believing he is overqualified.

[clockwise]

Originally Posted by indentured

International students at top business schools are an extraordinary addition to any U.S. organization. They:

- have a strong work ethic
- are adaptable and team-oriented
- have fluency in multiple languages

Visa Issues

Nearly all international students are eligible for U.S. work authorization after their first year through Curricular Practical Training (F-1 students) or Academic Training (J-1 students) and do not require employer sponsorship to take part in a US-based internship. Hiring international students for the summer is easy.


Upon graduation, these same international students will have full U.S. employment authorization for 12 to 18 months as part of Optional Practical Training or Academic Training. They are able to work in any professional business function for that period and employers will not need to interact with the U.S. government. There is:

• no cost to employers;
• no need to involve immigration attorneys; and
• students are generally exempt from Social Security tax withholdings, adding a cost-benefit to the company.

Securing longer-term employment for new international employees is not difficult. The H1-B category is the most common work status, but it is just one of a number of options available to MBA graduates. Although the annual H1-B quota was an issue for employers in the past, the increase in the annual number by 20,000 has made hiring an international graduate significantly easier than before. As a result of this special exemption for US advanced degree holders — which includes MBA graduates — employers should be able to secure H1-B status for their employees for at least 6 years without worrying about visa numbers being available.

In 1998, Mohan Kutty, a Malaysian-born doctor who has practiced medicine in Hudson, Fla., since he immigrated to the U.S. more than 20 years ago, decided to open five clinics in rural Tennessee. To find physicians to take such hard-to-fill posts, he sponsored work visas for 17 doctors from a variety of countries, including India, Pakistan, and Romania. But when they showed up for work, Kutty paid them just half the $80,000 a year he had promised -- and fired several after they hired a lawyer to help them out.

Last fall, a Labor Dept. judge ordered Kutty to pay the doctors a total of $1.04 million in unpaid wages. The clinics have since closed, and some of the doctors have found work at other Tennessee health-care providers. "The violations were serious and pervasive, and there is little evidence of good-faith efforts to comply with the law on the part of Dr. Kutty," the judge said in her ruling. Kutty has appealed the decision, saying the law was unclear, but was unavailable for comment. Through their lawyer, the doctors declined comment.

CAUGHT IN THE CRUNCH. Such stories have become increasingly commonplace these days. Immigrants have long complained about employers who cheat or abuse them and threaten to have them deported if they protest. Generally, the problem has been confined to the lowest rungs of the workforce, such as Mexican farm hands who enter the country illegally. Nowadays, however, the weak economy has sparked an outbreak of abusive treatment among the legions of white-collar employees who flocked to the U.S. on perfectly valid visas during the late-1990s boom. Usually, theirs are cases of employers who don't pay full salary or benefits. Often, like Kutty, the employers are immigrants, too, so they know how the system works.

Indeed, labor law violations involving workers on H1-B visas, which are designed for skilled employees, have jumped more than fivefold since 1998, according to the Labor Dept. Back-pay awards for such employees have soared by more than 10 times.

LESS WILLING TO QUIT. In response, agency officials have stepped up H1-B investigations. They agree there could be thousands of H1-B workers who don't file complaints because they fear the loss of their visa. "We take very seriously this fear about coming to the government to complain," says D. Mark Wilson, deputy head of the Labor Dept.'s Employment Standards Administration, which enforces labor laws.

The spreading problems stem from the stagnant economy, officials say, which is driving some companies to cut costs by unscrupulous means. At the same time, the scarcity of jobs has left many skilled immigrants more dependent on their employers and less willing to quit if trouble starts. The abuses have been particularly widespread in high tech, which used H1-Bs to bring in tens of thousands of programmers and other professionals when companies were desperate for help during the boom. But with the jobless rate among computer scientists and mathematicians at 6%, vs. a mere 0.7% in early 1998, many workers are more vulnerable.

SEARCHING FOR SPONSORS. Experts point out that the U.S. work-visa system gives employers tremendous power over immigrants. More than a million people are employed in the U.S. under visas for skilled workers. While the rules for each visa type differ, all require immigrants to get a U.S. employer to sponsor them. So if employers yank their sponsorship -- which they can do for almost any reason imaginable -- the immigrant often must return home and try to find another sponsor -- an arduous task. "They don't have the usual rights that U.S. workers have," says Eileen Appelbaum, a professor of labor economics at Rutgers University. "You're essentially an indentured servant."

That's pretty much how Ekambar Rao Kodali felt when he ran into problems with his job as a systems analyst. The Hyderabad (India) native felt lucky to score an H1-B visa in 1997 that allowed him to move to the U.S. and work for Atlanta-based Softpros Inc. The high-tech consulting firm paid him $4,400 a month, but by the time the economy soured in 2001, his paychecks had already started to come in late, and Softpros didn't keep up its payments on his health insurance, Kodali says. He finally quit in frustration late that year but was forced to move back to India with his wife and three-year-old when the job he had been offered at another company fell through.

"YOU'RE GOING BACK." In February, Kodali returned to the U.S. after finding work with yet another high-tech consultancy. But the new position -- and his H1-B visa -- expire at the end of the year. He left his family in India, where he will have to return unless something else turns up. "I worked for [Softpros CEO Chand Akkineni] as hard as possible, but he took advantage of me," says Kodali. Akkineni, also a Hyderabad native, concedes that he sent out paychecks late, but he denies that he failed to keep up insurance payments. An H1-B worker's options are few. For example, federal law prohibits employers from forcing H1-B workers to take unpaid leave, yet experts say the practice has become widespread. "You're told, 'If you don't want to do it, fine. You're going back,'" says John W. Steadman, president-elect of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers. Vigorous law enforcement would help, but until the job market improves, skilled immigrants will remain at the mercy of their sponsors.

[going4it]

Anyone here applied RD1 or RD2 this fall? Share your results!

[p001]

Congrats

[Gpoppey]

Originally Posted by portfolio

Where are you from buddy?
Also,did you apply in Europe or in some other business schools in USA?

Have a good one.

Hello, can any european student help me please....?

I hold a bachelors degree from Universiteit Van Amsterdam, which is a well recognized university in Europe. It takes three years to do the bachelors degree here.

Now in the admissions info on the Harvard website it says that for european countries they'll need a 4 years based bachelor degree in order to be accepted in the GSAS Graduate School of Arts and Sciences..

Does this mean that most european students (coming from a University like mine) are banned from Graduate schools in the United States?

Can anyone please tell me if they about european students accepted at Harvard Graduate Schools....



THANKS