How many military go to HBS?

I've recently collected some data very closely approximating the level of veterans at HBS... basically membership numbers for the Armed Forces Alumni Association (the veteran club on campus) over the past decade or so. It shows that the average number per year (this includes a few non-US veterans) to be 40, with a range of 27-50. It's probably fair to assume about 4-6 of the veterans are from non-US militaries, often from conscripted services but not always.

Below is a chart of the AFAA strength since 2000:



If one was to look for meaning in the patterns though, it can be deceiving. For one thing, one has to look at the year of application (assuming the Fall of the year counts for round 1 and round 2, and thus the bulk of the applicants). If one therefore subtracts 3 years from the graduation year to look at the application year, the following is observed:


The fewest number of veterans were admitted in late 2002 (and early 2003). But what does this mean? Does this mean that fewer military people applied that year? Does that mean it was more competitive that year? Or perhaps it was less competitive because so few applied? Is the reverse true in 2003-2004 when the most were admitted? I don't think one can conclude any such position given just this information.

The data shows a mean of 40 with a standard deviation of 9. Most likely, the minor changes year to year are mostly random, and reinforces the fact that HBS does not have "hard" quotas.

Please also note that I don't have data on HBS class sizes going back all those years, so that could have a consequence if military numbers change with class size. To the best of my knowledge, HBS class sizes don't change very often.

This data may be interesting to provide historical context, but shouldn't be interpreted to mean much more than that.

MBA Admissions Consulting for Non-Traditional Applicants

I never intended to monetize anything when I set this blog up, but by the shear volume of emails I receive, it's obvious that there are a lot of military and non-traditional candidates who are hungry for information about the business world, and Harvard Business School in particular. If you fall in these categories, and are still interested in help, shoot me an email and we'll try to work something out that is appropriate to your situation.

My strengths:

• Helping junior military officers and non-traditional candidates
• Particularly helping people figure out when is the best time to apply, which schools to apply to, and how to handle the career transition
  
• How to position yourself (essays, letters of rec, academics, resume, etc.)
  
• Perhaps most importantly, how to translate your non-business experience in a way that admissions committees can understand and appreciate
• I've also helped many discuss career decisions beyond Harvard Business School. If you think I can help, just write in with some details of what you need...

militarytobusiness@gmail.com

If you're not looking for admissions advice but just want to chat about military careers or something in general, feel free to drop me a line as well, though I can't guarantee to reply to everyone. I also suggest reading the previous advice I've put on this blog regarding admissions:

1. Defeating the GMAT
2. Application Resources
3. Deciding on which schools to apply to
4. Application strategy
5. Letters of Rec
6. B-School Essays
7. Interview Prep

Good luck to everyone out there! We all make our own luck.

The Harvard Age Curve - Part II

Last year I published an article about the age of matriculating students for the Class of 2010 at HBS versus other schools. Dee Leopold recently published new data on the HBS admissions blog for the Class of 2012 as follows:

Since I got a lot of positive feedback after my last article, I decided to briefly revisit the topic given this new information.

I'll make the same assumption I made last time, which is that students on average graduate from undergrad at age 22; the numbers who graduate later probably roughly balance those that graduate earlier. I then subtracted a year to calculate the approximate age at time of application (average time from application to matriculation is around 9 months). Comparing the two data sets show little change:

The data compares class sizes of 900 and 909, so I normalized the data and made the followng observations in the difference between the two years:

• Age group 23 and under: Down 23 students
• Age group 24-26: Up 29 students
• Age group 27-29: Up 17 students
• Age group 30 and over: Down 5 students
• Overall mean age change: from 24.9 up to 25.1

Don't forget this is age at time of application. It means that the average HBS grad is 28 years old. While the age average technically went up slightly, it's not a very significant difference. More significant is the slight drop in students with under 2 years of work experience, which looks like it got absorbed by those with 3-5 years of experience. Although I would emphasize that these are very small percentages changes and it's very likely that none of the slight differences are intentional.

For those wondering about the best time to apply, let's look at percentage of students matriculating by age groups at time of application:

• Age 23 and younger: 10%
• Age 24-26: 78%
• Age 27-29: 12%
  
• Age 30+: 1%

The numbers definitely speak for themselves and probably don't need any added insight. I will say that over my year at HBS I have come to form an extreme respect for the institution and its methods. There are certainly those that question the age skew at Harvard, and I think it's always worth discussing, but I will say that after a year at HBS, I have come to give them a high degree of trust. They've been the best at what they do for a long time!

HBS Military Class of 2012

While I'm on the subject of discussing admit demographics, I'll also follow up on the post I made last year regarding the military Class of 2011 at HBS.

HBS has made a very genuine effort to provide active duty military personnel the opportunity to attend and succeed at HBS. The new HBS Class Co-President is former military, and military personnel continue to be regarded in very high regard on campus. It's definitely our responsibility not to take that for granted and to continue to earn that respect by contributing to the Harvard community and upholding its long tradition of excellence.

In addition to increasing the GI Bill Yellow Ribbon package to $10k/year (matched by the VA for a total of $20k), the Class of 2012 also shows a 19% increase in former active duty US military personnel.

At 4-5% of the total class, HBS has taken a leading position among the top MBA programs as a school that places a premium on military experience.

I'll note that there were also three foreign military personnel from non-compulsory service nations to be admitted as well (2x Britain, 1x Greece). There are also at least three women matriculating from the military, compared to none in Class of 2011 and two in the Class of 2010.

So it looks like soldiers and sailors really increased their game this year, and unfortunately I won't be around HBS next year to report on the Class of 2013, so this will have to be the best information out there for a while.

Note: As usual, I'll clarify that my data is not from admissions and is therefore not necessarily perfect and is definitely not official. It is however very close.