MBA

If you are a college senior who wants to go to HBS - but not right away - then applying in Round 3 could be a smart choice.

Why?

1. The positive outcome is going to be "deferred admission" - a guaranteed spot in the class of 2014 with the stipulation that you work for two years before matriculation.
2. No target or cap on the number of deferred admit spots we will offer. Last year 43 college seniors were offered deferred admission.
3. No downside: If you aren't admitted, apply again in a couple of years - lots of denied college seniors are successful in the future.
4. The application fee is only $100.
5. GMAT/GRE scores are good for 5 years - why not take the test in college while you are still in test-taking mode?

This is a special message to college students who have been waiting to see the essay questions for the upcoming 2+2 application season. Surprise: They are the same as last year's!! Before we get to being creative and tinkering with them, we decided to have three years of the same questions so we can do a little bit of longitudinal analysis about the responses. Please visit the 2+2 Program website so you can learn more details about the program and the application dates.

As planned, today we are sending out roughly 800 interview invitations to round 2 applicants and some round 1 waitlisters. Invitations will arrive by email from HBS MBA Admissions and will be sent out before 5:00pm EST today. We will make sure every invited candidate is contacted so don't worry about missing our email.

More interview invitations will follow, up to decision notification on April 6. How many? I don't know for sure at this point - perhaps 50 or so. The majority of invitations will indeed be sent today. We continue to review - and re-review - applications and are also making some preliminary round 2 waitlist decisions. Candidates who do not receive interview invitations in round 2 will be considered for spots on the waitlist. I expect there will be approximately 100 round 2 candidates who will be invited to join the waitlist.

In response to many helpful suggestions, we are changing what you see after you have submitted your application. Instead of just the message that the application has been submitted, you will see an additional note indicating that your application is "under review." Hopefully this will give more reassurance that we are indeed moving applications through the process - something we've been doing all along, but the messaging was confusing.