Report

Ah the Harvard reception, I went there with so many preconceived notions and ideas, it was staggering that I went at all since I expected it to be the same old thing. After having gone there, I was pretty glad I made the extra effort. It was very different from what I had expected, some highlights:

• Contrary to Classy's experience, there wasn't a SINGLE mention of other schools in a derogatory way. The content was very narrowly focused on Harvard and what it was about.
• There were 5 Harvard Alumni who had agreed to act as panelists (a surprisingly small number considering that they have over 8000 Alumni living in California). They hadn't called any of the big shot alumni to 'shock and awe' the prospective pool. Most of the alumni were fresh graduates.
• The average age of the panelists seemed ridiculously low. If I passed them on the streets I would think they were undergrads and not grads. On one of the questions towards the end was on the average age of the class, they mentioned that the oldest person in their batch was 34, youngest 22/23, mean age 26 median age 27. As you can see a pretty young lot.
• It was funny to see how young these people were because the average age of prospective students seemed pretty high. All the applicants seemed to be mature, experienced folks. There was a huge paucity of women though. Despite 40 % of the alumni being women they consisted only 5-10% of the audience.
• The largest theme at Harvard seemed to be Leadership! No surprise there, but while not disparaging team-work and consensus based leadership, they definitely stated that these weren't things that Harvard focused on. It was a unifocal, laser like attention on leadership and the development of leaders.
• Having said that, I must say the panelists *all* came across as very dynamic. It wasn't the intellect shining through and the laid back approach of Wharton, it wasn't the chummy, friendly approach at Kellogg, it was pure aggression. I would imagine that Harvard graduates who succeeds in life will be truly happy, but if they don't I am not sure how they live with failure with that kind of aggro/ego?
• The reception was run on a case study type situation with the alumni fielding most of the questions, the AdCom was just facilitating the conversation. I found this process pretty interesting. My key grouse was against the fact that none of the alumni seemed over enthusiastic about answering questions as was the case in Kellogg or Wharton, it was like pulling teeth. Which was kind of contrary to what they said when asked about, "what it was like to be in a class room filled with leaders". One of them answered that, "It always seemed like there were 120 hands raised for 90 people in the class". In this case the AdCom had to poke someone in the chest before they answered the question.
• Again having said that, I must say most of the alumni were very impressive speakers. They were very forceful in their convictions and thoughts.
• I picked up a whole lot of jargon that I want to use to spice up some of my essays. Some cool phrases that add some luster to an otherwise simple essay.

At the end of the Q & A, the alumni mingled freely and shared their personal experiences with the application process and Harvard. I found them to be really friendly, without the airs that Harvard graduates are perceived to have. I must make a special mention of Caroline Wade an alumnae who is working in the health sector. She was super helpful with tips and thoughts on the application process at Harvard and surprisingly other schools. She took all the time in the world to answer any question the little group surrounding her had. Despite efforts of the Intuit custodian at throwing us out. So thanks Caroline.

While walking out Dave did ask the AdCom on her thoughts about blogs and forums. No dice there, she hadn't even heard about it. Despite Harvard being completely paperless, they don't seem to have made much progress in extending their outreach to a wider audience. But then why need they? They are pretty secure in their business, with thousands of applicants willing to give their left arms to get in, they don't need to go out and recruit.

Which brings us to the post reception events, I got to meet Dave for the first time and Sorebrek. We hung around chatting for close to an hour after, discussing all things near and dear to applicants for BSchool and bloggers too. It was fun, so thanks for taking the time to speak guys.