HBS Mulls Criteria for Admits

Harvard Business School (HBS) is considering reviewing its current admissions criteria to ensure credibility in response to increased concern over the role of professional admissions consultants in the application process.

“We are...taking greater measures to verify application material,” wrote HBS Managing Director for MBA Admissions Brit K. Dewey in an e-mail.

Professional admissions consultants advise aspiring business school applicants in the application process in order to maximize their chances of acceptance. The consultants’ services range from essay revisions and interview preparation to providing admissions strategies.

The Business School’s student publication, Harbus, is conducting a poll this week gauging students’ feelings about consultants.

“Business school admissions officers are increasingly concerned about the use of so-called ‘admissions consultants’ by applicants to increase their chances of being accepted to upper echelon MBA programs,” the editorial staff of the publication wrote in an e-mail to the student body announcing the poll.

Sanford Kreisberg, founder of Cambridge Essay Service, is one such consultant who has been aiding students in their application essays since 1976.

Kreisberg maintains that he acts only as an outside adviser. “Harvard officials have said that you should show your essays to two people: someone who knows you, and someone who does not, to make sure you are being authentic,” he said.

Kreisberg—who taught “The Art of the Essay” in the Harvard Expository Writing program from 1980 to 1988—said that the same concepts used in Expos apply to business school admissions essays: writing “passionate, impactful, and reflective personal essays.”

However, some officials worry that consultants overstep the boundary between acceptable proof-reading and writing the admissions essays for the students.

“The fact of the matter is HBS has always discouraged people from using these services,” said James E. Aisner, the media relations director for HBS.

To counteract the possible trend of increasing reliance on such services, HBS is considering increasing the number of interviews, administering different essay questions for different applicants, and monitoring students as they write their essays to ensure authenticity, according to a recent Boston Globe article.

“In the spirit of continuous improvement, we’re always looking for ways to enhance the way we evaluate and select candidates for admission,” Dewey wrote. “At the end of the day, what’s important to us is to get a clear and accurate picture of each individual.”

Chad Troutwine, co-founder of the consulting company Veritas Prep, said he supports changes in the admissions process because his company teaches students how best to market themselves, he said.

But some HBS students still believe that consultants gave applicants an unfair advantage.

“I don’t think [professional consultants] create a level playing field, because there’s some people who can’t afford stuff like that,” said HBS student Gautam P. Nadella.

—Staff writer Joyce Y. Zhang can be reached at jyzhang@fas.harvard.edu.