Over the years, I've told colleagues and friends about things I have seen or experienced. Many times, people have said that I should write them down so that they won't be lost and forgotten, since some of them might be useful parts of our history. I've been writing them down, without being sure what I would do with them. I decided to gradually post them on this website, and see what reactions I get. I suggest reading from the bottom up (starting with the August 2017 post "The Meritocracy"). Thoughtful and kind feedback would be useful for me, and would help me to revise the exposition to make it as useful as possible. I hope that while you read my stories you will ask yourself "What can I learn from this?" I'm particularly interested in knowing what you see as the point of the story, or what you take away from it. Please send feedback to asilverb@gmail.com. Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully reflect on them!

I often run the stories past the people I mention, even when they are anonymized, to get their feedback and give them a chance to correct the record or ask for changes. When they tell me they're happy to be named, I sometimes do so. When I give letters as pseudonyms, there is no correlation between those letters and the names of the real people.

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

How to get admitted to the Harvard Business School

One year, while I was visiting the Harvard math department, I was a member of the Senior Common Room at one of the Harvard Houses (i.e., dorms). Another member was occasionally on the admissions committee of the Harvard Business School. She told the following story.

The Harvard Business School received an application from an undergrad, let's call her C, from a very prestigious university that I'll call CountryClub U. The application form asked the applicants to relate the achievement of which they were most proud.

C's achievement was that she seduced the President of CountryClub U.  This was no small feat. She explained the obstacles in her path and how she overcame them. For example, President D was married and didn't want to have an affair. He especially didn't want to have an affair with a student. C found a way to become part of a group that played tennis with President D, and she used that to escalate the relationship. The story went on.

Another visiting professor and I listened in horror. At the end, we said "So she wasn't accepted to the Business School, was she?"

"Of course they accepted her!" exclaimed the storyteller, surprised by our reaction. "She decided what she wanted, had a well-thought-out plan, and followed it through successfully. That's exactly what the Harvard Business School is looking for!"

Later, someone I knew who was well-connected at CountryClub U told me that CountryClub U's Board of Trustees gave President D an ultimatum---either resign or end the affair. I think that C got the better deal. I never learned C's name, so I can only guess what she did after she got into the Harvard Business School.