Calling all HBS Applicants - (2015 Intake) Class of 2017

Had my interview on Monday. 30 mins, about 15 questions. One interviewer who led the discussion, and one observer who was mostly silent taking notes, but asked me some probing questions. Both very friendly and kind, but very formal at the same time.

Their last question was "is there anything you wish we'd asked", so I assume that we managed to go through all the questions they had prepared. It was a very intellectually stimulating conversation, and I think it went well. I enjoyed it.

The whole application process is now finished and regardless of the outcome it has been a fantastic experience.

Good luck to all applicants who are still to do their interview!


EDIT - having read the latest posts, I completely agree with Webster and GavinE. They asked me lots of probing questions to test my mental agility and, I assume, my capacity to contribute to case discussions. A few questions related to my industry, and obviously I knew the topic very well. Some other questions related to other industries, and I had to remain calm, quickly put thoughts together, and go ahead with a crispy and concise answer that I definitely had not rehearsed. I agree that it was exhilarating and not relaxing at all - but definitely a terrific experience!

I was surprised I DIDN'T get the "anything you wished we'd asked?" question. I didn't feel I chatted long and we covered a lot of ground--I think I must have been hit with dozens of questions. We also had a second or two at the end where they could have popped that question. I guess either we were over time, or they had enough info on me as it was.

I am not patient enough for this wait. Every day that goes by I manage to convince myself that something I said was another mistake. Maybe I'll go study for the LSAT or something...(kidding, I am so done with tests...)

I interviewed last week in New York. Similar to what others have said the interviewer was friendly, but he definitely came at me from the beginning. We did not touch my resume, or any of the traditional leadership questions that I had anticipated, instead he asked mainly curve ball questions really from every direction. I feel like I did well, I made a point to be articulate and conversational in my responses. To echo what others have said though, it was very apparent that his purpose was to get me off of my script and then push me around to see how I reacted. I think I reacted well, and he definitely had me off of my script from the first to the last question.

My interview was 44 minutes long though, not sure if that is a good or bad sign! In the beginning he said there wouldn't be time for questions, and as we were wrapping up I knew we were already past time so I was very surprised when he said, "Do you have any questions?", and then after I asked one and he responded, he asked me, "What is another question?"!

Whether I get in or not I know I did my best and there is no way I could have been more prepared for the interview. I am grateful that I did plenty of mock interviews and personal preparation beforehand though, had I not there is no way I would not have been a deer in the headlights 5 minutes into the conversation.

That is awesome news! I didn't hear a number thrown out. Yay for being poor haah

Interview was a blur! Here are a few thinks I remember:

1. Know your resume well. You will be asked specific to your experience.
2. Know about how the recession affected your industry and your life. I know 2 other peeps who had the same exact question asked.
3. 1 other person and myself were asked about entrepreneurship and how often I thought about "getting rich quick" and what business ideas would allow that to happen. Keep in mind I am NOT an entrepreneur!
4. Would you still attend HBS if you won the lottery?
5. Where do you see yourself 30 years from now?
6. What do you think about the M&A market right now? I blanked out on this.
7. Is your job logical? Why or why not? I know of 2 other people who got this same question.

Overall a very intense but friendly process. No time for questions at the end. Good luck to everybody! I know I will remember some questions here and there, so I will post more when I have a long enough list but they were fairly farfetched and unrelated to my profession!

Hi folks,

I just gave my GMAT and got a 710 (q49 [79%]and v38[85%]), combined percentile 92. I also have a GRE score of 326 with 84 percentile in verbal and 93 percentile in math. I am now planning to apply to HBS in round 2, but I am confused which score to use?

Sorry, when you say $125K or $130K, is that average annual income over the past 3 years? Or total? I'm guessing the former?

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Average annual!

Oh wow, that is definitely surprising - would have expected it to be lower (but totally not complaining haha). Thanks for the info!

I apologize for this dumb question, but for Harvard's essay question, it says "You’re applying to Harvard Business School. We can see your resume, school transcripts, extra-curricular activities, awards, post-MBA career goals, test scores and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?" I'm confused with the part that says they know about my post MBA career goals. I feel that none of the other components of the application conveys my post MBA goals (Transcript, GMAT, GPA, recommendations, resume). If I don't write about my post-MBA goals in the essay, they won't know my goals then? Appreciate any perspective.

If you look in the app there is a short answer question related to your post MBA goals.



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Ah! Thanks!! I see it now. 500 character limit. That's a short paragraph! Oh boy. It would be tricky to distill my dreams down to that.

Doesn't mean you can't talk about your goals in the essay at all, just that you probably shouldn't have that be the primary focus. I told a few leadership stories and connected them to my goals at the end.

Thanks for your insight. Hope your application journey is going well!

Yes, it is tricky, but I think it speaks to the fact that they want you to decide what to tell them more about. That could be your goals and your story as to why they are what they are. Or you could write about something completely unrelated. I ended up writing my essay about something completely unrelated, but it was 100% me. I think it really just depends on what you think is important for them to know about you.

I also want to write something unrelated, that's why I was concerned I didn't have anywhere else to convey my goals, but it all makes sense now!

Hi guys,

any opinion on this...

I remember Dee mentioning at an admissions event that you could choose to write about a book that changed your life if you wanted to.

I think the HBS essay is deceptively simple, and tremendously hard to write at the same time. The post MBA career goal in the application is basically a 3 line summary of what you want to do, so it won't be a bad idea to talk about that in your essay if you choose to.

At the end of the day, I focused on the last part: what else do you want us to know? This could be about a personality trait that defines you as a person, a passion that has been a driving point for your professional or personal decisions in life, or your plans to create positive change in a field of choice. Just think about the "what else" part and tie it back to how you want to define yourself as a person to the admissions committee.

Hope this was helpful!

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My understanding is that they don't favor/prefer one test over the other. Looking at the percentiles you quoted, it seems you did better on the GRE. Your math score in particularly is quite a bit higher on the GRE, which will be important if you come from a non-quant background.