Calling all HBS Fall 2010 Candidates

I am based in Shanghai so it makes it easier for me!

geogman, may I ask which hotel are you staying at? I'm interviewing in Shanghai as well and still looking around for hotels.

you and me both. Let's hope that you and I make the percentage for everyone else 49-59%

Seriously though. Good luck to everyone in your interviews. I hope GMAT-Clubbers can outperform the 50-60% by about 40-50%.

Hi everyone,

I have a question I'm hoping some of you might have some guidance on: I've got an interview with HBS on Monday. I've been accepted to another (european) school which wants my acceptance by March 22nd! Should I mention this in the HBS interview and is there ANY chance I would hear from from HBS by then or is the decision date of April 6th completely fixed with no exceptions?

Thanks in advance for any wisdom on this tough situation that I assume a few others will face as well!

Is the deposit prohibitively expensive? Put down the deposit and consider it an "option" or "future". If you get in to HBS then you have to lose 1-2K....

That'd be my approach.

I would say that, in general, you have no choice but to burn the deposit at the European School. Many people is pretty much on the same boat as you are. Schools schedule acceptance deadlines so they make you burn the deposit if you want to wait for a R2 response.

If I were you, I wouldn't mention that during the interview. You can say, if asked, that you were accepted at another school. But I would recommend against asking for that kind of exceptions.

Yikes! I wish I could have such a dilemma

try to ask the european school if you can extend the deposit deadline for 2 weeks, they might say no, but it doesn't hurt. I heard Wharton has granted extension to people this year. Otherwise, just put int the deposit. It's probably a little risky to mention it in HBS interview.

DreamChaser, just curious as to why to think it would be a little risky to mention that you got accepted to another school in an HBS interview? I got admitted to Wharton with a significant fellowship in r1. Still deciding whether mentioning that would make it a plus.

p.s wharton does grant extension, but only till early March (from the previous Feb 17 deadline). I think that is to coincide with Chicago's admit weekend.

It's risky because it can rub the interviewer the wrong way. obviously, if the interviewer asked, you should answer it, but if you want to bring it up yourself, then you really have to be careful with how you bring it up.

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Okay, so basically sounds like most American MBAs wouldn't speed up their decision for anyone? I guess I should have realized that before but I really thought that decision date was 'at the latest' as opposed to 'you will hear on this date and not before' --do they really make their decisions all in one day? Frustrating to think they have their response ready two weeks before but just wait for this date to send them out...

Anyway, sounds like the best bet then is to ask the european program for an extension ---yikes, I have no idea how to phrase that so that they don't just tell me to go fly a kite --has anyone ever asked any program for an extension on the decision/deposit date?? The deposit is HUGE so if I send it in, there's no turning back...

Thanks again for all the advice!

I only heard a couple of cases of advanced notification in some star profiles where Stanford notified their acceptance before HBS notification day to gain "Psychological" leverage on over HBS for those candidates. other than that, nothing. It is what it is...

Anyways, in the big scheme of things, in 200k investment, how massive could the deposit be? I bet is below CBS' 5k...

okay thanks... It's 8,000 USD!

that IS huge! I am sorry mate...try to negotiate a extension will be the best bet...

I would not expect HBS to release decision to anyone before hand, they don't even call admits before releasing everything online for everyone at the same time...

damn it...it's massive. You'll have to negotiate the extension or either call HBS admissions AFTER the interview.

haha, ok, glad I'm not the only one who thinks that's a crazy deposit...

Anyone ever 'negotiated' an extension on deposit date before? I'll go with a phone call as opposed to email but do you think I should just keep it general and say "I need more time..." ?

Thanks again, REALLY appreciate it!

Sandy, just curious how one should answer a question like "how would you contribute to the HBS case method?" how specific should you be?




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you need to show awareness of what case method is, and how it works, e.g. diff kids fr. dff backgrounds looking at same facts to create decision template w. many factors, and then do a better than banal job on leveraging both your expertise (which let's face it, will not help w. majority of cases, since they are so varied) and your background and identidy politics (where you come from, international exp, upbringing values, etc. ) to show you are sensitive to issues such as 1 2 3 4 (labor, community impact) and cld be both shrewd and wise and value-aware decision maker. Question rarely comes up in that form, oddly, but same analysis relev. to more freq Q. " what will you contribute to HBS" -or how will classmates remember you, two real common questions in last coupla years, so good answer is guy who kept yapping about Bhopal or Valdez as part of decision making, and also was solid w. metrics, and offered metric approaches to unexpected settings, and started the HBS rap contest, assuming you are from Bhopal, are quant-oriented consultant and have hobby of performing Rap. Anyway, that is the formula. It gets tricky to execute if where you come from, etc. and what you do is more banal, but man, I AM GREAT AT CREATING THIS PROFILE FOR KIDS, JUST ASK ANYONE WHO EVER HAD A MOCK INTERVIEW W. ME. Alas, most interviews don't fully turn on this, but rather on execution and attitude which is harder to intergrate thru mock interview, b.c. it is performative and not just verbalizing, but I also help here too.