CS @ HBS

This week was International Week @ HBS - more details below. Saturday was Cyberposium, the technology conference I helped organizing, more on that next time. It went very well.

Last week we finished our midterms, so that’s a good opportunity to talk about the (somewhat bizarre) grading system at HBS.

Grades @ HBS

There are 3 possible grades for a course: 1 (best), 2 (middle) and 3 (worst). Grades for each course are distributed on a forced curve, where in a section of 90 students 15-20% receive 1 (13-18 students), 70-75% receive 2 (63-68 students) and 10% receive 3 (9 students). Getting a 3 in one or two courses in the first year is ok, but more than that might be a problem. However, the forced curve says that only the worst 9 students in every course will get 3, so chances are pretty good not to get it…

Apart from that, grades don’t really matter, let alone the midterm grades, that count only as 10% of the final grade. The final exam counts for 40-50%, and the rest is Class Participation.

International Week

HBS Class of 2008 has students from 75 countries, making HBS one of the most diverse, international business schools worldwide. My international experience here so far has been amazing - I met people from all continents and learned so much about their countries, as well as shared a lot with them about Israel.

This week was the International Week, that featured international performances (dancing, singing, etc.), cultural fair and food fair. We, the Israelis, had a stand in the cultural fair with brochures and “merchandise” about Israel (stickers, pins) and a fun activity of writing your name in Hebrew. In the food fair we served about 600 servings of Pita, Hummus and Falafel, along with Bamba and Mekupelet. Was tons of fun!

Cultural Fair. Write Your Name in Hebrew:

Food Fair!

You can see more photos here: http://computersexy.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1344

HBS Interviews

It’s now interviews season at HBS for Round 1 applicants of the class of 2010. Here are a few tips from my experience last year:

• Know your application well - go over it a few times, know your stories and personal experience. Chances are you’ll be asked follow up questions about them.
• Speak coherently and confidently - my personal feeling is that in HBS interviews, to some extent, the presentation (=how you speak) is more important than the content (=what you say). Of course the content is very important as well, but I think the one of the interview’s main goals is to find out whether you’ll be a good contributor in the HBS classroom (=case discussion) and will be able to express your opinions convincingly. I don’t have particular advice on how to achieve this confidence, just try to relax and talk about things you believe are true.
• I didn’t have any “weird” or “nasty” questions. All of them were pretty straight forward. Since most of my application revolved around my work experience, most questions were about that topic.
• Asking questions yourself - My interviewer actually told me that unless I have really pressing questions, she doesn’t expect me to ask anything. She said she was aware of the fact the a lot of candidates come up with questions just to show they have some questions, but that’s not necessary and actually discouraged as our time is very limited - so I didn’t ask anything. If you still want to prepare something, I would ask about something that might happen in the future (and therefore isn’t on the website) or something specific to your country.
• HBS Admissions Director Blog offers advice and info regarding the interview process.
• Don’t panic! An interview invitation is a very good sign that you’re already on the right track.
• Good luck!