Kaelyn Griffin (MS/MBA 2021) - Intro & Why HBS

The following is an computer-generated summary of the video transcript.

My name is Carolyn Griffin, and I'm a second year m s n b a student here at Harvard Business School just to give you a little background. I then decided to go to a small engineering school in Terra Haute, Indiana, where I got my bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. After graduating with that degree, I decided to go and work as a process engineer, a steel mill for two years that men took me here to HBs on why I'm talking to you now just to give you a little bit of background on HBs, where in Boston, Massachusetts and there's about 900 students in each cohort. There's two MBA cohorts here, since it's a two year program. Which brings you to about 1800 MBA students here at campus at any one time in a long year, the 900 students are split into 10 different sections on the sections. Become your home during your first year here at a GS. I was in Section I, and I can say that several of the students in my section are some of my best friends here on campus. The HBs is maybe a little different than other ones you hurt. So I wanted to explain in a bit more detail how I heard about the school and why I ended up here. I was in my junior year of undergrad when I was told about a presentation at Harvard Business School is going to be putting on for the members of the junior and senior class. My friend was interested, so I decided to go with her. At this presentations, they were talking about a program called Two Plus Two. The two plus two program is basically early admittance where you are expected to go and work in the real world for 2 to 4 years. Then you come T H B s and you have a spot waiting for you in this program was really interesting to me for a couple of reasons. One, I knew I didn't want to be an engineer forever. I knew I wanted to switch into management or career shift. I wasn't sure exactly how it when I wanted to do that. Secondly, the way that they were targeting this two plus two program at the time. They were really trying Thio Drive home that they were looking for engineers and they were looking for people with different backgrounds to help diversify the school and diversify the different sections. There was really a place your HBs for me after I've been admitted. I had two years out in the workforce before I started deciding if if and when I wanted to trick you late. So I decided to come on campus, take a tour incident during one of the classes. Now, if you don't know, HBs is known for the HBs case method. The case method is where for each class, the night before, the students already case and then come in and basically debated in class. You're graded on class participation and you're expected to bring in your real world experiences, help educate the class and also bring more color to the case. This is one of the reasons why HBs is hoping to diversify to bring different voices into the classroom and show these different experiences. I thought this would be a challenge for me as Maybe I'm not the most comfortable speaking out in a large group of people are speaking out when I'm not confident what I want to say. So the case method was appealing to me because it was a way to challenge myself and really teach myself how to get out of my comfort zone, how to speak when I'm not 100% certain how to be able to contribute in a larger situation. If you're considering applying to Harvard Business School, I just have one piece of advice for you. It was something that I incorporated into my essay, and it was something that I think really helped me in my interview as well. It sounds a bit cheesy, but it's honestly just being yourself. I also believe that they can tell if you're just putting on a show, thinking that that is what they want to see. I remember when I was applying I was looking at videos on the Internet, and there was just one video about how to ace your interview and how to get into Harvard Business School. They can tell if you're lying or if you're putting on a face that you think they want to see to just impress them, and it won't make them want to admit you. If you tell them if you're really passionate about making a difference in health care or if you really just want to change the world, or if you want to improve people's lives describing how you want to do that or just telling them, then that's your passion and why you wanna become a manager and being able to make those greater decisions with those bigger impact. That's the kind of stuff that they want to hear, and they want to hear why you specifically want to business school. So as cheesy as it may sound, I really do think that just being yourself. Showing your true colors gives you the best chance of getting in the business school. It also gives them the best opportunity to get to know you to figure out if you really do fit into the Cold War. So I hope my video introduction gives you a little case of Harvard Business School and helps with your decision on whether or not to apply. If you do decide to apply, I wish you the best of luck.