Calling all HBS 2011 Applicants!! (Including 2+2)

Are you guys in for HBS round 1 or planning to defer to round 2? I have completed all my essays and recos - yet my career vision essay is not panning out properly. Now I don't want to give it an admissions consulting twist here but I would like to just take feedback on how many of you have struggled with the vision part? Especially people who have 7+ years of experience. I am open for a PM chat with anyone who so desires.

From various feedback I've gotten on HBS apps, they suggest you shy away from the career vision essay unless your career vision is particularly unique or interesting. If you're on the older side, the undergraduate essay might be a good way of giving you some "youth credentials." Just a thought!

Where have you seen this? everything I've seen has suggested doing the career vision essay or at least has not discouraged it.

Strategically it does make sense to answer questions that adds the most value to ones application. However, the actual choice of essay would differ from person to person. Don't you guys think that logically, it wouldn't be fair for the HBS admissions to give us a choice and then favor one option over the other?

Therefore, i dont think any one essay is preferred/not preferred.

My LOR writer is reviewing their HBS submission, but what is says is a bit confusing. It says to limit "answer all three questions in 1 document and on one page." All three questions have a 250-word limit, and if my LOR writer gets close to that limit on all three questions they're going to be well over 1-page for all three answers. It also says that "letters over 1 page in length are strongly discouraged."

I haven't heard of the 1 page limit before -- have you guys heard of this situation before? Am I interpreting this correctly?

Every year we hear comments (OK, "complaints" would be more accurate) about the anxiety our invite-to-interview process causes. So, we're going to do it differently this year. Let me walk you through Round One:

October 1 - deadline for receiving online applications
October 15 - November 3 - interview invitations will be issued via email
November 3 - all candidates not invited to interview will receive either a decision indicating that "we are unable to offer you a place in the Class of 2013" or an invitation to join our waitlist
November 1 - 21 - interview weeks, both on and off campus
December 14 - decision notification (admit, deny, or waitlist) for all interviewed candidates
While no one applies hoping for a "deny" decision, we have heard you say that the worst case is the uncertainty which can extend from October through mid-December. So we're trying this to see if it helps. Yes, it means that we will be making decisions faster. Yes, we have the resources to ensure a thorough review of all written applications before rendering any decisions. All applications will be reviewed at least twice before any decision is made. Our Admissions Board is fully staffed and able to implement this new model. We hope this new approach will allow denied candidates to re-direct energy toward Round Two applications to other schools.

All those invited to join our waitlist are candidates whom we would like to "further consider." Our plan is for waitlisted candidates to receive further consideration in Round Two. We expect all to receive a final decision with the Round Two notification date in late March. We completely understand if such a candidate would elect to withdraw his/her application.

I promise that all letters will clearly communicate a candidate's status!

If this new system works well, we will replicate it in Round Two.

My LOR writer is reviewing their HBS submission, but what is says is a bit confusing. It says to limit "answer all three questions in 1 document and on one page." All three questions have a 250-word limit, and if my LOR writer gets close to that limit on all three questions they're going to be well over 1-page for all three answers. It also says that "letters over 1 page in length are strongly discouraged."

I haven't heard of the 1 page limit before -- have you guys heard of this situation before? Am I interpreting this correctly?

My recommenders each submitted 3 pages reco with each question having 250-300 words answer (so each page was ~50% full). I don't see how you can fit 3 answers and 250 words limit on one page anyway.

Don't stress on that

I asked my recommenders about the length of their letters after reading this and one pf them wrote 2+1/2 pages, and the others 2 pages each.... no one paid attention to the 1 page length nor considered the 250 words as strict limit

Another follow-up on probably frivolous page length questions (whose answers nonetheless help me sleep easy at night knowing I didn't torpedo myself on some simple issue):

So my essays are in Calibri size 11 with a big header at the top indicating which question and the title of the question. This combined with the generous size of Calibri 11 bump every essay to two pages (but only about a paragraph onto page 2 for the 400-word essays).

Should I condense the 400-word essays to be all on one page? Does it matter? Help a neurotic GMATClubber to not freak out on day t-1!

Yes but from a paper use and aesthetics perspective, having it all on one concise page may be preferred.