Getting into Harvard with Gaps in Your Resume
Network Capital's approach to college and graduate school admissions
Here are some insightful pieces of content for your weekend:
Sahil Bloom’s Career Principles: We hosted him on Network Capital way before he became an internet sensation. Worth listening to.
Blume VC published its 2024 Indus Valley Report to share insights on the Indian startup ecosystem
Quote worth pondering: "The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know." - Harry S. Truman
The Imperfect Resume for Harvard
Remember a few things:
You can’t change your past experience. It is what it is. You need to work with what you have.
Don’t try to sound like the ideal candidate. It is boring and will backfire.
Your goal is to be interesting and interested but that’s not enough.
You need to demonstrate that you have a vision for the world/your industry/a dream worth chasing. Even that’s not enough.
You need to show that you have the skills, networks, and potential to achieve it. If your work experience lacks focus, look at your side hustles and passion projects. There needs to be something captivating somewhere, especially if your CV is not sprinkled with prestigious brands.
One of our candidates with a few gaps in her resume just made it to Harvard. We get quite a few messages sharing such news but this one is worth sharing because the candidate was fairly skeptical of her chances. She did most of the work but we were there to nudge her in the right direction.
Our approach is fairly straightforward:
We help you pick the right set of schools. Typically we target the top 10 programs.
We focus on identifying aspects of your career that can collectively present a compelling story that has a bold vision and a realistic plan to achieve it.
We keep refining your drafts until they do justice to your past accomplishments and future potential.
If there are gaps in your resume, we help you work on new projects to highlight skills and experiences. On a case-by-case basis, we recommend people to schools based on project performance.
Our set of coaches includes the top 1% of professionals who studied at the best educational institutes around the world. Their mentorship will not only help you crack your dream school but also help you for the rest of your career.
We also help with interview preparation and pre-MBA/grad school internships.
Lastly, we help you chart out your long-term career plan.
We are selective about who we take on. Please fill out this form and we will get in touch with the interview date to figure out if you can benefit from our approach.
9/10 candidates make it to their top 3 choices. If you follow our plan and are ready to work hard, you are fairly likely to get in.
Are we building homogenous universities?
Henry Kissinger — 'The reason that university politics is so vicious is because stakes are so small'
You could agree with Kissinger but if you are former Harvard President Claudine Gay, you probably wouldn’t. She resigned after what her critics called a dismal performance in front of Congress where she neglected to clearly articulate that calls for the genocide of Jewish people are abhorrent and unacceptable.
Gay’s critics say that she is a champion of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) as long as it suits her agenda. Evidently she cancelled Harvard’s most brilliant black professor Roland Fryer who published data-backed but inconvenient facts about police violence in America.
The broader question here isn’t about Harvard or Jews or African Americans but broadly about the intellectual capture of universities where many fear that until they toe the party line, they will be canceled or sidelined.
Some consider reverse discrimination to be just. As Ibram Kendi says, “The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”
Others find it morally problematic and repulsive. Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is not Kant or Hegel but he is fairly successful and commands a large audience. People like him are beginning to voice serious concerns over what they call racism of the modern left.
What you can be assured of in the times to come is that the move to build homogenous universities where having extreme left or right views could fly is sure to backfire.
Capital, votes, status, and moral legitimacy rest on the institutional ability to manage disagreement with grace and reason. Both sides are waking up to the new social and political normal. Let’s see what the future holds.
Your Network Capital Team