Jeng Yang Chia wants to help you get into Harvard

Jeng Yang Chia wants to help you get into Harvard

Jeng Yang Chia, senior operations manager at Antler offers free help to the MBA prospective students with his charitable venture.

“I got into Harvard Business School, and one thing I and others in the cohort realized is that you get flooded by students who are trying to apply,” Chia told CNBC Make It, referencing to the countless LinkedIn requests.

“Because we’ve been there, we never say no,” he continued. “But the kind of people applying to business school tends to have some funding, so I felt there was an opportunity to help others.”

Chia is not asking for the minimum donation in return for the advice, but he does share the suggested  rate of $50 per session — well below the “thousands to tens of thousands” professionals charge for the service, he said. Applicants can pick to donate to one of Chia’s five selected charities, including The Salvation Army (Singapore) and Beyond Social Services.

What kind of advice can you expect?

According to CNBC, Chia, who currently works as a senior operations manager at start-up generator Antler, said he intends to use his “200 to 300 hours” worth of application research, and his experience of the interview, to help others succeed in Harvard’s two-stage application process.

He said much of his advice is applicable to MBA submissions beyond Harvard, though.

For instance, “there’s this misconception that business schools are looking for a particular type of person, like a tech guy,” noted Chia.

Instead, business schools look for the top people across a variety of industries or “buckets,” he said. Chia’s own bucket was a niche combination of law, tech, business and public policy.

“You should think of business schools as venture capitalist firms,” he said. “They’re looking to fund the top 10 percent across all industries” rather than just one select group.

Chia recommended figuring out where your specialist strengths lie and how they can be of use, both in your MBA and in the future.

“It’s about being able to define the bucket you fit into and then showing how you’re in that top 10 percent of that bucket,” he said.

“That forces you to direct yourself in terms of your career trajectory.”

More details of Chia’s advice sessions can be found on his GIVE.asia page.

The article is originally published in CNBC.com