Calling all HBS Fall 2010 Candidates

hey! for all those who have received invites so far - please share your profiles?thanks!

hey all,

just got back from a day and a half up in cambridge for prospective students day. bear with me while i write a hopefully quick debrief.

thursday afternoon - drove up from the NYC area. hit random spots of traffic, and wound up reaching boston around 4pm. my hair was in need of some minor fixing, so i yelped a decent/cheap barber shop in the area, and i got my hair fixed for $7. Got back to the hotel and read through the case study (as part of the event, HBS gave you a case study to read over and bring with you to class the next day).

later in the evening was an informal session with the Latino and African American student groups. They talked about the app process and gave tips on what to include and what to fix. additionally they had 3 volunteers (prospective students) 'pitch' their app stories in front of everyone (a crowd of about 100 or so.. pretty nerve wracking). the sad part is the 3 people who volunteered, IMO, had very solid stories, but the HBS students picked weaknesses in all of their stories. this was beneficial to everyone who still hadnt applied, but unfortunately i already submitted R1. not much i could do to improve.

next day (friday) i was up bright and early. the day at HBS started with registration and breakfast at 7am. the morning was filled with presentations by adcom (including a welcome address by dean leopold). later, they split us up into 2 groups; the first group got to sit in on a first year accounting class. it was pretty fast paced - a lot of lightning quick discussion, and 95% of the class was students talking - the prof barely did more than moderate the discussion. it was a really cool way to see HBS' case study method up close and personal.

later, more presentations followed (financial aid and career development), and then lunch was served. we were split into small groups of 8-9 prospective students and each group had 1 current student to answer any questions we may have about anything. i appreciated his candor and honesty, as did everyone in my group.

all during the morning, you could see the R1 applicants checking their phones/blackberries over and over with each new mail message they received, hoping to receive an invite. lunch came and passed, and it was already 1pm, which made me lose a ton of hope. a few mins later i finally got the email invite... i couldnt stop grinning (i probably looked like a damn fool). During the admissions portion of one of the meetings, adcom talked about the same #'s that Sandy (hbsguru) refers to - namely 9000+ applicants, 1800 invites, 1000 acceptances. i think they're pretty accurate numbers, so if you didn't get an invite today - dont lose hope, as the next couple of weeks will have more and more invites being sent out.

afterward, we went on a quick campus tour, followed by a meeting with either the latino or the african american associations. i picked the latino one, and they gave us an overview of what they did around campus and what resources they offered not only current students, but also alumni and prospective students. everyone seemed really intent on helping, which was cool.

an alumni panel was next, with 4 very interesting alumni giving us their insights into their post -HBS lives. again, i appreciated the honesty and directness with which they fielded questions.

finally, the day concluded with a quick wrap up session, and a complimentary happy hour at the HBS campus grille. all in all, a great day. they have another one in the spring, and if anyone is thinking of applying next fall, i'd definitely recommend attending, as they gave some useful general tips, but also were willing to give you specific tips on your story and pitch if you asked for it. this prospective students day was primarily targeted towards minorities; i'm not sure if they all are, or just the fall ones. definitely sign up to be on HBS' mailing list if you're not already on it, as that's how i found out about this event.

@david, why are you losing hope? the interview invites only began getting sent out today... there will be a lot more sent out over the next few weeks.

@aditi: i just updated and added my profile to my sig. hopefully others can do something similar (or create a new profile in the 2010 profiles thread if you havent done so already) - 2010-profiles-w-admit-dings-results-no-discussion-78475.html

(remember, only the profiles go in that thread - keep any discussion out of that thread).

Congratulations all those who received interview invites. Good luck with scheduling and acing the interviews!
Great post shadowsjc! The day sounds very similar to the Booth live event I attended. (+1)
BTW, my paranoia has officially kicked into gear.

Those of you who got interview invites, where do you plan on interviewing? I'm closer to NYC than Boston, but I'm thinking of just heading up to Boston for the interview. Does anyone know if they have tours and class visits with the interviews?

Any interview calls today?

Nothing here yet.

Any sub 700 GMATers got an interview?

the interview notifications will come by email, not phone call

i think it would be beneficial if you took a tour of the school beforehand.. that way it can give you a talking point and make your interest in the school seem greater. i think you can schedule the class/campus visits separately... maybe you can go sometime in october in anticipation of the interview in nov.

i live near NYC, and i think i'm just going to interview here rather than go back up to boston a second time. adcom stressed many times during the prospective students day that interviewing in a hub city or interviewing on campus is exactly the same in their eyes.

I'm just trying to figure out how they determine the order that they send out the interview invitations. On their website, they state that the order that you receive the invite doesn't mean anything. So is it based on something else or is it totally random?

My complete app with letters of rec were submitted 9/25, and I got an interview invite on Friday.

When did everyone else submit and get invites?

Also, for those that get invites after Monday, they will just have last pick on times for interviews?

i would take them at their word that they are sent out at random. i submitted 9/30, final LOR submitted 10/1 (2 hrs before R1 deadline), and got the invite friday as well.

anyone who gets an interview invite from here on out will most likely have to make the trip up to boston, assuming the ones at the hub cities get filled up first.

Any internationals got interview invites yet?

unbelievable.. i blinked and all the NYC spots were filled up already in like 30 seconds

spots for all 5 days ? then they must have sent most of the 750-850 R1 invitations out already on friday ?

Yeah, it looks like WELL more than half of the spots are gone already, which doesn't bode well for there being a lot more invites still to be sent.

I'm interviewing on campus, even though I live in a hub city. Kind of a pain, but I think it will be nice to be on campus again and most people I know have done this in the past.

Did anybody get an interview invite today?

well all the NYC spots for all the days are filled up. a good chunk of the boston ones are filled up... but there's still a ton more slots available for boston. also, there's still some spots available in the other hub cities. if you didn't get an invite already, i wouldnt lose all hope yet.