To what lengths would you go to boost your MBA admission chances? (i.e. pretend to be gay)

Yes, this is technically unethical. Yes, this is bizarre and desperate. But I'm wondering how effective the following strategy could be:

  1. Start getting actively involved in a gay professionals organization; try to assume a leadership role.

  2. Write a compelling essay about coming out of the closet last year and having to tell your conservative christian parents about it and learning to become comfortable with one's identity.

Given how obsessed top b-schools are with "diversity" and filling the various "niche" groups in their incoming class, I'm wondering if this strategy can have any merit. Obviously it's unethical, and I feel bad even having to resort to this, but given how badly I want to get in and my next app is my last chance, seems like it could be worth a shot.

 

As fucked up as it is that schools have applied affirmative action to gays...I'd say do it, technically speaking you shouldnt even feel bad about it. If you have two identical candidates but one happens to be gay. If the gay kid gets chosen to uphold some sort of school motive then thats fucked up.

I prefer merit to be the judge.

 

I think this is the difference between living within the confines of a system of rules, and living to a higher set of standards. As a person who endorses morals, I can't endorse lying. However, there is something to be said about showing people the unintended consequences of silly policies.

“...all truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” - Schopenhauer
 
seabird:
I think this is the difference between living within the confines of a system of rules, and living to a higher set of standards. As a person who endorses morals, I can't endorse lying. However, there is something to be said about showing people the unintended consequences of silly policies.

This. Once you get in and are in class point out the idiocy of the policy and how you gamed the system. If you get kicked out you'll be all over the news and able to write a book about your experience. It'll definitely shine a spotlight on the hippie liberal f*cking d-bags who subsist in academics.

Array
 
Virginia Tech 4ever:
seabird:
I think this is the difference between living within the confines of a system of rules, and living to a higher set of standards. As a person who endorses morals, I can't endorse lying. However, there is something to be said about showing people the unintended consequences of silly policies.

This. Once you get in and are in class point out the idiocy of the policy and how you gamed the system. If you get kicked out you'll be all over the news and able to write a book about your experience. It'll definitely shine a spotlight on the hippie liberal f*cking d-bags who subsist in academics.

Cutting off the nose to spite the face?
Get busy living
 

Just stick to the second option...it really is the lesser of the two evils.

If you try to go for the first option, just know the LGBT community tends to be small and tight-knit much like the finance community, and if the truth came to light, it could pose some problems for your application process.

 
sofib09:
Just stick to the second option...it really is the lesser of the two evils.

If you try to go for the first option, just know the LGBT community tends to be small and tight-knit much like the finance community, and if the truth came to light, it could pose some problems for your application process.

What happens if you're BI? This way, when you get accepted and "aren't attracted to anyone in class" no one can give you a hard time, yes? Just because you join the club, you don't have to be an active member?

Or are they looking for people that are all about their gayness? Not all gays are flamboyent.

This is actually a serious question: Is the same bias shown towards those who are bisexual?

Get busy living
 
Best Response
UFOinsider:
sofib09:
Just stick to the second option...it really is the lesser of the two evils.

If you try to go for the first option, just know the LGBT community tends to be small and tight-knit much like the finance community, and if the truth came to light, it could pose some problems for your application process.

What happens if you're BI? This way, when you get accepted and "aren't attracted to anyone in class" no one can give you a hard time, yes? Just because you join the club, you don't have to be an active member?

Or are they looking for people that are all about their gayness? Not all gays are flamboyent.

This is actually a serious question: Is the same bias shown towards those who are bisexual?

That's actually a good question. Bis get it from both sides (no pun intended): straights may think of bisexuality as a sad detour to Gaytown, and gays may see bisexuality as an annoying complication in their quest for recognition of same-sex marriage and other goals in the gay rights movement.

Just because the letters LGBT appear together doesn't mean they all understand or like each other.

Simply put, if he says he's bi, the adcom may simply not care or think "whatever" unless he has a compelling story to back his claim.

 

It shows initiative to get what you want. Albeit, in a completely unethical way, but i agree with all those above who said the system set it up that way. If you're a deadpan, normal white guy you are at a competitive disadvantage with all these programs for every other category of person, so to speak.

Go for it!

Just for shits and giggles tell them you are an autistic, jewish, black, gay women who is physically disabled. THAT should stir the pot of diversity a bit!

 

Calling Egypt born and raised African American is like calling a guy who got drunk with a frat bro and sucked a dick gay. Is it true, sure, but you don't claim it.

"It is better to have a friendship based on business, than a business based on friendship." - Rockefeller. "Live fast, die hard. Leave a good looking body." - Navy SEAL
 

every top mba program in admissions has every admitted applicant LGBT forwarded to teh LGBT student grp. If it later comes out during the year you lied and you're str8, i meanhow hard is it to keep playing a wierd lie like that are you planning to make out with guys during mba to prove your queerness? Anyway, if it comes out you lied you're expelled from the program immediately..I was on the student admissions board at Kellogg. It's been tried before.

BTW most schools have lGBT targets, and they are very small. mebbe 5/6 spots, and there are plenty of gay applicants, real and fake. So you'll be competing for a small # of spots with other gay dudes..your relatie % of admit may not be as advantageous as you suspect.

 
socola2003:
every top mba program in admissions has every admitted applicant LGBT forwarded to teh LGBT student grp. If it later comes out during the year you lied and you're str8, i meanhow hard is it to keep playing a wierd lie like that are you planning to make out with guys during mba to prove your queerness? Anyway, if it comes out you lied you're expelled from the program immediately..I was on the student admissions board at Kellogg. It's been tried before.

BTW most schools have lGBT targets, and they are very small. mebbe 5/6 spots, and there are plenty of gay applicants, real and fake. So you'll be competing for a small # of spots with other gay dudes..your relatie % of admit may not be as advantageous as you suspect.

Good call. You may also turn off other people who could help and end up alienating yourself: Just because the law says you can't discriminate openly, doesn't mean that people don't do it without talking about it.

Plenty of times, even at work, the unwritten, unspoken understanding is that certain 'people' aren't to be included....it's wrong, but it happens. A lot.

Get busy living
 

Not a bad idea. They have it made. The "diversity manager" in our office has no formal responsibilities as far as I can tell, aside from doing speeches / conferences / etc. and he is on the same level as the managing partner. Im sure he isn't paid as much, but I imagine he is paid very well for what he does.

 
Edmundo Braverman:
You guys will probably think this is funny.

I thought this was an interesting thread, so I tweeted it out a couple hours ago. Since then, I've had no less than a dozen heavy hitters in the gay community follow me on Twitter. I've got gay resorts in Thailand following me now.

Fuck my life.

Pissed or think its quasi-funny/sad

 
MistaBooks:
Edmundo Braverman:
You guys will probably think this is funny.

I thought this was an interesting thread, so I tweeted it out a couple hours ago. Since then, I've had no less than a dozen heavy hitters in the gay community follow me on Twitter. I've got gay resorts in Thailand following me now.

Fuck my life.

Pissed or think its quasi-funny/sad

More funny than anything else. Twitter is a strange beast sometimes.

 
Edmundo Braverman:
You guys will probably think this is funny.

I thought this was an interesting thread, so I tweeted it out a couple hours ago. Since then, I've had no less than a dozen heavy hitters in the gay community follow me on Twitter. I've got gay resorts in Thailand following me now.

Fuck my life.

This is what happens to people who have twitters. Fuck adcoms, see if you can work an angle for free accommodations at those resorts.

Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art - Andy Warhol
 

I'd say to do it if you're down to being a lie for 2 years... It's a stupid rule... it may be "unethical", but who are you hurting? You're just putting yourself on the same level as a gay guy with the same exact stats as you.

It's rules like these that make me wish I was a gay black dude... of course a gay black dude born into money, cause they don't really look at how poor you are during admissions

k I'm gonna have to stop before I start bitching about affirmative action...

If your dreams don't scare you, then they are not big enough. "There are two types of people in this world: People who say they pee in the shower, and dirty fucking liars."-Louis C.K.
 

Oh, a black girl wrote that? hmmm... of course we know that the minority applicants also need to be exceptional to get into those schools, it doesn't make it right.

It's kinda weird how people think that just because you're a minority, you don't get the same opportunities as whites and asians (kind of a passive racist way of thinking)... If you really wanted to make admissions an even playing field, you could look at how poor applicants are... I'm sure there are tons of minorities who have had waaaay more resources to help them in high school because of money than me... yet they still get the edge.

If your dreams don't scare you, then they are not big enough. "There are two types of people in this world: People who say they pee in the shower, and dirty fucking liars."-Louis C.K.
 
wolfy:
Jesus Christ, just start a non-profit.

ahaha this seems like it makes just as much sense

If your dreams don't scare you, then they are not big enough. "There are two types of people in this world: People who say they pee in the shower, and dirty fucking liars."-Louis C.K.
 
wolfy:
Jesus Christ, just start a non-profit.

...for gays!

Regards

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 

I was just gonna do my usual no homo and drop out but being that this discussion has evolved (sorta) let me tell you tikes a lil troof tale.

About ten years ago I knew this nerd from Long Island. Dude rolled into The City every Friday and Saturday. Spent dough. Kicked game. Got no ass. This went on for a few years. He was old money. It didn't help.

One day a bunch of us joked that he ought to pretend that he was gay and maybe it would help. He was very skinny and kind of awkward in his mannerisms.

Fast forward a few months of him wearing tight ass leopard shirts and bell bottoms. The kid was swimming in pussy and I don't just mean hot broads. Threesomes. Coke parties. Everything.

Last I saw him, he had a serious drug problem and he was following Eddie Braverman on Twitter.

Moral of the story: do what you gotta do, but unless you are ready to drive a stick shift to your B-school interview, while shifting with your colon...better to be yourself than to suffer unintended consequences.

This message has been brought to you by your local neighborhood Midas.

Get your brakes checked.

Faggot.

 

Yeah... I'm not sure how you could prove or disprove somebody being gay

If your dreams don't scare you, then they are not big enough. "There are two types of people in this world: People who say they pee in the shower, and dirty fucking liars."-Louis C.K.
 
scottj19x89:
Yeah... I'm not sure how you could prove or disprove somebody being gay
http://wtfcontent.com/img/130192622812.jpg

In all seriousness, there are actual brains scans that show reaction patterns. It's a little scary, but it's very real. I do think that subjecting someone to such tests would DEFINITELY be a violation that WOULD touch off a national debate, so for all practical purposes it's not possible to discriminate.

Get busy living
 

Related: Out of curiosity, how do they determine who is a minority and who isn't? For instances, what keeps me from putting African American as my race and then simply using the fact that somewhere, way back when, an AA is a great great grandmother/father or something along those lines? Is there a set bar say you have to be 1/16th? Seems like you could much more easily use some sort of obscure minority play here, Brady.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
happypantsmcgee:
Related: Out of curiosity, how do they determine who is a minority and who isn't? For instances, what keeps me from putting African American as my race and then simply using the fact that somewhere, way back when, an AA is a great great grandmother/father or something along those lines? Is there a set bar say you have to be 1/16th? Seems like you could much more easily use some sort of obscure minority play here, Brady.

There is a bar for Native Americans, but for other minority groups I'm not exactly sure.

The answer to your question is 1) network 2) get involved 3) beef up your resume 4) repeat -happypantsmcgee WSO is not your personal search function.
 

I think the ultimate issue would be that you would have no clue whether you got admitted because you were gay. It's an interesting concept because it isn't something anyone can prove or disprove and what few, inconclusive ways there are to prove, one way or the other, nobody or institution in their right mind would pursue (i.e. the brain scans mentioned before, because frankly that just isn't 100% verifiable evidence or setting up secret cameras to video tape your sex life or doing some single scope background check on you interviewing your neighbors and friends from the past.).

Now, the consequence that some have pointed out is that it is unethical and that may be grounds for dismissal from the school. Whether or not that particular school would even take on that potential legal liability remains to be seen. If they were, you would have to basically admit that you lied on your application, however, if you simply state that you thought you were but realized you aren't then it goes back to the ability to prove that you aren't or weren't and that just isn't likely to happen.

It's not something I would do, but if you have nothing to lose maybe you give it a shot. As another poster pointed out, you could always get press from the fall out, right a book and make some money that way.

Regards

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 
cphbravo96:
I think the ultimate issue would be that you would have no clue whether you got admitted because you were gay. It's an interesting concept because it isn't something anyone can prove or disprove and what few, inconclusive ways there are to prove, one way or the other, nobody or institution in their right mind would pursue (i.e. the brain scans mentioned before, because frankly that just isn't 100% verifiable evidence or setting up secret cameras to video tape your sex life or doing some single scope background check on you interviewing your neighbors and friends from the past.).

Now, the consequence that some have pointed out is that it is unethical and that may be grounds for dismissal from the school. Whether or not that particular school would even take on that potential legal liability remains to be seen. If they were, you would have to basically admit that you lied on your application, however, if you simply state that you thought you were but realized you aren't then it goes back to the ability to prove that you aren't or weren't and that just isn't likely to happen.

It's not something I would do, but if you have nothing to lose maybe you give it a shot. As another poster pointed out, you could always get press from the fall out, right a book and make some money that way.

Regards

well we can assume anyone who would pull this scam wouldn't stay up nights pondering over the ethics and the what-ifs. he'd be too happy with his HBS precious to care. as for getting caught: all he has to do is check in with marcus bachmann's de-gayification institute and voila, he is an instant poster boy for right wing homo-deprogramming. "i was a gayboy at HBS who saw the light." imagine the speakers' fees. it's a super-win.

 
ivoteforthatguy:
cphbravo96:
I think the ultimate issue would be that you would have no clue whether you got admitted because you were gay. It's an interesting concept because it isn't something anyone can prove or disprove and what few, inconclusive ways there are to prove, one way or the other, nobody or institution in their right mind would pursue (i.e. the brain scans mentioned before, because frankly that just isn't 100% verifiable evidence or setting up secret cameras to video tape your sex life or doing some single scope background check on you interviewing your neighbors and friends from the past.).

Now, the consequence that some have pointed out is that it is unethical and that may be grounds for dismissal from the school. Whether or not that particular school would even take on that potential legal liability remains to be seen. If they were, you would have to basically admit that you lied on your application, however, if you simply state that you thought you were but realized you aren't then it goes back to the ability to prove that you aren't or weren't and that just isn't likely to happen.

It's not something I would do, but if you have nothing to lose maybe you give it a shot. As another poster pointed out, you could always get press from the fall out, right a book and make some money that way.

Regards

well we can assume anyone who would pull this scam wouldn't stay up nights pondering over the ethics and the what-ifs. he'd be too happy with his HBS precious to care. as for getting caught: all he has to do is check in with marcus bachmann's de-gayification institute and voila, he is an instant poster boy for right wing homo-deprogramming. "i was a gayboy at HBS who saw the light." imagine the speakers' fees. it's a super-win.

Begrudgingly he would still have to admit his love for anal, but at least he can say it's a chicks ass now and not some dude who just portrays himself as a chick, lol.

Regards

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 

if you are gonna go to the extremes of lying and making shit up to get a better chance at a grad school program pretending to be gay is not gonna help. There's plenty of real gay guys/gals that will have actual experiences that will be more believable and relatable to the people on the selection board that are gay or bi or tranny.

Now the real extreme would be to play the victims card. Go claim that you were sexually abused by your uncle and somehow cause you to become a fucking druggy and by the grace of god you found yourself and battled your way to where you are. You might as well throw in some more crazy shit like witnessing your best friend take their own life and you had severe survivor guilt.

if you are risking it all, you either go to the very extremes or don't do it at all.

 
MrJetSet:
Dude, If you can't get into business school without telling the truth, then you don't deserve to go.

I would argue that if you can't get into business school without using the fact that you're gay to your advantage, you don't deserve to go... he'd just be putting himself on the same level as a gay guy who has the same profile.

If your dreams don't scare you, then they are not big enough. "There are two types of people in this world: People who say they pee in the shower, and dirty fucking liars."-Louis C.K.
 
leveredarb:
MrJetSet:
Dude, If you can't get into business school without telling the truth, then you don't deserve to go.
seeing that lying and bullshitting is the only skillset you will actually pick up in b school, surely you may start during admissions already

If the op would have asked for advice on changing grades on his transcript, he would have monkey shit all over him. But it's okay for him to lie about being gay. One user even suggested that the op should claim he is part black. This thread is a disgrace.

 

Fuck all the noise. The real question is, "If you could get admission into the school of your choice, would you blow a dude?"

Regards

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 

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If your dreams don't scare you, then they are not big enough. "There are two types of people in this world: People who say they pee in the shower, and dirty fucking liars."-Louis C.K.
 

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If your dreams don't scare you, then they are not big enough. "There are two types of people in this world: People who say they pee in the shower, and dirty fucking liars."-Louis C.K.
 

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