HBS MBA Program MBA News and Announcements en-us http://www.hbs.edu/mba/ Harvard Business School Harvard Business School MBA Podcasts Harvard Business School admission@hbs.edu no <![CDATA[Round 2 Interview Invitations - A Little More Information]]> Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -4000 Well, I dealt with the aftermath of the transparency about interview invitation numbers in Round 1 today. Someone called and asked directly why we couldn't send out all the invitations on one day. Good question. Here's the answer:

We could..but it would be February 13, not January 31. Maybe that would be better...a later date, but just one date. The way we've structured it now - 3 waves - is to accommodate the reality of a (human) Admissions Board trying to give thoughtful attention to a lot of applications. And each application needs to be reviewed twice. So we have to have a little bit of flex in terms of the notification dates. The senior team in Dillon does (a lot of) other things besides reading applications. Board member X may be pulled into an IT crisis. Board member Y needs to pull together the budget for the next fiscal year. I went to NYC last week to do an admit event for Round 1 admits. All these things can throw off an application-reading timetable, so we build in those extra two weeks (two waves) to make sure we've got bandwidth to make careful decisions. We're not doing this by machine. It's just us.

As always, hope this helps.

]]> http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/blog.html#post-2012-02-01 http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/blog.html#post-2012-02-01 <![CDATA[MBA Announcement: January 30, 2012]]> Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -4000 Join us for a webinar about SVMP on Tuesday, February 7 at 4pm EST. Register online]]> http://www.hbs.edu/mba/#post-2012-01-30 http://www.hbs.edu/mba/#post-2012-01-30 <![CDATA[MBA Announcement: January 20, 2012]]> Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -4000 HBS 2+2 Program, please check out the Events page for a list of information sessions being held at several universities this spring. ]]> http://www.hbs.edu/mba/#post-2012-01-20 http://www.hbs.edu/mba/#post-2012-01-20 <![CDATA[Round 2 Interviews]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -4000 I realized that I had promised some news about this on January 15 and didn't want you to have to wait over the long weekend to hear this (Note: We are closed on Monday, January 16 in observance of Martin Luther King Day).

Here's the story:

Round 2 interviews will be conducted between February 15 and March 9. We will be in London, Paris, Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai, San Francisco, Palo Alto, and New York in addition to the HBS campus. Skype interviews may also be an option for candidates located outside the United States who are unable to travel. Full details will be available in the interview invitations.

This is our plan for timing:

We will send out email invitations on the following 3 Tuesdays - January 31, February 7, and February 14. On February 14, all candidates not invited to interview will be notified of their "release."

Now, please pay attention - this is a new level of transparency that I hope is helpful, but I need you to understand that I am talking about what happened in Round 1 vs. telling you exactly what will happen in Round 2 (which we obviously DON'T KNOW now).

The pattern of interview invitation volume in Round 1 was:

  • Week 1 (first wave of invitations): 750 invitations sent
  • Week 2 (second wave): 80 invitations sent
  • Week 3 (third/final wave): 25 invitations sent

Round 2 won't be identical, but I think it will be directionally similar. Please hear me when I say that the timing of the interview invitation is NOT a signal of the strength of a candidate. The only thing that it maps to is the ability of our Admissions Board to move through their (large) reading allocations.

I hope this is clear and helpful - if it's not, call me at 617-496-6835 and tell me so.

]]> http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/blog.html#post-2012-01-13 http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/blog.html#post-2012-01-13