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Written by Malek Sunday, 6 November 2016 00:27

12 things decide 01

Written by Malek Thursday, 3 November 2016 21:28

BI_Graphics_Ivy league admissions 2016

Business Insider By

College admissions season is upon us, reinvigorating conversations about what it takes to get accepted into top schools around the nation. The impressive strength of the applicant pool has been apparent over the past few years. Business Insider, for example, profiled impressive students for the class of 2020, some of whom gained acceptance to all eight Ivy League schools.

The New York Times, too, puts out an annual call for college-admissions essays to the newest class of applicants, and then prints the most poignant essays, displaying the wit an eloquence of the teenage applicants. The strength of these credentials and impressive essays elicits the question of whether it's more difficult to get into elite schools today than ever before. Former Ivy League admissions directors have some potentially unsettling news for college applicants: yes, it is.

"Admissions have gotten more and more competitive in the past decade," Angela Dunnham, a college admissions counselor at InGenius Prep, told Business Insider via email. "In addition to the sheer number of applicants applying, the expectations for candidates have increased," Dunnham, a former assistant director of admissions at Dartmouth College, said.

The steady uptick of college applicants, especially at elite schools, is stark, driven in part by the emergence of Common App, which allows students to apply to many schools at once. Take, for example, an article in the Harvard Crimson about the acceptance rate for the class of 2000. "The class was chosen among a pool of 18,190 applicants, making Harvard's admission rate a paltry 10.9 percent — the lowest in College history," The Crimson wrote. Twenty years later, the authors of that story are likely to be aghast that the acceptance rate has spiraled ever lower. With more than double the applicants, about 95% of students who applied to Harvard were rejected.

Written by Malek Wednesday, 19 October 2016 18:51

Harvard students

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Harvard Business School is often pegged as one of the toughest business schools to get into. That may not be welcome information for applicants to the class of 2019 hoping to receive acceptance letters.

But at least this year, the only HBS admissions essay, one of the mandatory application components, seems pretty straightforward. The prompt reads:

"As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program?"

The simplicity may be an attempt to rectify an overly complicated prompt from last year, Stacy Blackman, founder of Stacy Blackman Consulting told Business Insider by email. Her firm helps clients earn admission to top MBA programs such as Harvard's.

Last year's essay question read:

"It's the first day of class at HBS. You are in Aldrich Hall meeting your 'section.' This is the group of 90 classmates who will become your close companions in the first-year MBA classroom. Our signature case method participant-based learning model ensures that you will get to know each other very well. The bonds you collectively create throughout this shared experience will be lasting. Introduce yourself."

Written by Malek Saturday, 8 October 2016 18:31

4x3 bi graphics snapchat secrecy 1 copy 7

When a group of Snapchat employees got locked out of their building one Monday morning, they quickly realized their predicament was no accident.

A top-secret Snapchat team had swooped in overnight and taken over the office, de-activating the keycards of the current tenants in the process. The secret newcomers eventually allowed their colleagues back into the building and partitioned the space, while a third group of Snapchat engineers that was scheduled to move into the same building that morning was left to keep working on plastic tables in a crowded, barely renovated house.

The incident was both jarring and typical of the chaotic life at the fast growing Los Angeles tech startup.

At Snapchat, which recently renamed itself Snap Inc, secrecy and upheaval come with the job. Evan Spiegel, the 26-year-old cofounder and CEO, moves across the company’s network of Venice Beach outposts in a black Range Rover, flanked by his security detail. New employee orientations begin with a Fight Club-like list of forbidden topics of discussion. And internal projects blossom out of nowhere — and vanish suddenly — without explanation.

Written by Malek Saturday, 24 September 2016 20:05

how logos evolve

Written by Malek Saturday, 10 September 2016 18:17

AirPods are displayed as Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook makes his closing remarks during an Apple media event in San Francisco, California, U.S. September 7, 2016.  REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach


I live in a four-iPhone family, with a fifth on the way, that is ruled by a consistent theme: Everyone is always losing and destroying their earbuds. Well, all except for me. I don't lose or destroy mine, I just give them to someone who has and replace them with inexpensive SkullCandy earbuds that I buy two or three at a time to have a reserve for when a family member comes to me with a tales of loss or destruction.

This experience leads me to be beyond skeptical of Apple's new EarPod design for the iPhone 7, with its elimination of the traditional headphone jack and connector, and the new Bluetooth AirPods, which have already been widely ridiculed for getting lost before they've even shipped.

We already know that the Apple Lightning charger design is awful. We're lucky to get a few months out of the Apple units before the cords fail. Over the past few years, I think we've spent at least a new iPhone on dozens of charger replacements. And that's after we squeeze a few extra weeks out by using electrical tape to make a temporary repair.

Written by Malek Saturday, 13 August 2016 19:06

by Business Insider - This weekend, as Olympian Usain Bolt attempts to win all three gold medals in sprinting, it's not just about what happens on the track — it's also about what he eats to fuel the finely tuned machine that is his body. In an interview with GQ, Bolt admitted that while his biggest craving is for hot wings, he usually ignores it and instead thinks very carefully about exactly what his body needs to perform.  "During the day I only eat just enough to have energy for training and to make sure I digest fast enough. But at nights, before I go to sleep, I consume a lot of food," he told Luke Darby, of GQ. "My coach wants me to eat a lot of vegetables, so I do eat more of that than anything else."

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Written by Malek Tuesday, 2 August 2016 22:10