Calling all HBS Fall 2010 Candidates

I agree. I didn't get an invite today, but have not given up all hope. Even if I never get that invite, at least I know I put everything I had into it. I'm sure everyone busted their ass to pull together the best application they could and should reflect on how fortunate they are to be in the position to apply as a competitive applicant in the first place. You wouldn't have applied without significant past accomplishments, outstanding UG grades and test scores, an impressive and highly sought-after career path, and a deep bench of supporters writing your letters of rec and cheering you on throughout the entire process. Everyone who applied, accepted or not, should be stoked about that. Congrats to all of those who got the nod today! And, congrats to everyone who had a fighting chance!

Congratulations to all who received invitations!

jankynonmae, if you don't mind, what is your profile like?

In reference to the guy above saying "Don't cry, you didn't lose your wang" - please show a little respect for some of the people here. The fact that you are 23 and have 3 years of experience already, and given HBS was your reach school, you may not feel too bad, but try to understand it from other peoples' perspectives.

Yes we are all trying to keep a positive attitude, but I have met some truly amazing candidates with stellar stats, recs, essays, and currics that did not get invited for an interview. It frankly BOGGLES my mind that some of these people did not get invited for an interview. I didn't get one, that's fine, but when some of the people that I KNOW deserve one, did not get one, I actually feel SAD, because I have no way to make some of these people feel better.

To give you an example: a female Ivy leaguer on this forum with a close-to-perfect GPA that worked 5 years in PE with a 760 GMAT, founded a women's networking program overseas and works in homeless shelters 10 hours a week despite her crazy schedule. She personally turned a company around preserving the primarily female-employment, and used her position of strength to implement programs that would help them work productively while getting cost-effective child care. Probably one of the nicest and brightest people I know. She has personally raised close to 18 million dollars for charities. Comes from a lower class family and worked her way up in a highly male-dominated field. Her essays were filled with the courage it took for her to get in her current position. No invite.

Moreover, some of these people are 27-28-29, and this will the last opportunity they have to apply before they will be over the hump and no longer be within the target age range for HBS or GSB. There are some people who are applying for their second, or maybe even third times or fourth times as well. For some of the women on here who are already trying to condense highly competitive careers with a top-tier MBA in their 20s, and now need to move on because it will conflict with their other goals in life: I am truly sorry.

Example: I look at engy and I think, wow, what an incredible candidate, and second-time around he goes from being waitlisted to not even getting an interview.

So anyone who cries please do so. We are here to listen to your sob stories about HBS or any other top tier school and their random admission process. You have spent hundreds of hours trying to explain in a very limited application, what sets you apart. You have spent hundreds of dollars on GMAT, b-school application fees, etc. Is it all fair? No, life is never fair. In the mean time please keep trying for other Round 3 schools and know that even if America values HBS as the pre-eminent b-school - if you end up at another school that is Tier 2 for example - you will be the big fish in the small pond and can shine.

HBS is not necessary for success. The CEO of PepsiCo went to Yale after all, and Warren Buffett went to Columbia for an MS.

We should never deny our internal emotions lest be labeled as sore losers who weren't good enough to make the cut. We are human, not robots. Our emotions are just as important to us as our capability to innovate - they define our civilization and species.

Bottom line: seeing some of the incredible applicants that did not get an interview, there was no shortage of extremely qualified people that were dinged - clearly the 800 people invited must have distinguished themselves in a way that got the attention of the AdCom, and for that I congratulate them, and hope they do exceptionally well in the interviews.

I also hope the people admitted, aware of astounding nature of the applicant pool this year, truly take advantage of their time at HBS to network and build relationships. I believe when it is all said and done, this coming Fall will represent the best MBA class HBS has ever had.

My 2 cents.

the debate about what business schools look for in an applicant comes up time and time again. remember, just because 'we' think someone is a sure bet at HBS doesn't mean that adcom agrees. in short, there is no such thing as a sure bet. tons of capable people apply, and tons don't even make it to the interview phase. no one person is more deserving than another; even if this weren't true, we certainly wouldn't be able to determine who these 'more deserving' people were because we don't sit on the adcom board.

i do agree there is definitely an emotional part of getting a ding or not receiving an interview invite. different people handle it different ways, so if one feels the need to vent, we definitely don't want to stop him or her from doing that.

one final thing, warren buffet went to columbia for business school, not wharton.

Hi Guys,

Got the interview invite - I'm from Mumbai, India. Stats are Male/26 yrs/GMAT 760/Undergrad in Economics and Engineering from Top 5 Ivy League, GPA 3.82/Work Ex: I-Banking in NYC and presently in Media-Entertainment studio in Bollywood

Congratulations to all those who got invites. And for those who didn't, I can fully understand your disappointment - wish you the best with all the other apps.

Thanks to everyone for making this such a great resource.

Cheers.

I don't think you understood my post. You are pointing to me as the person getting emotional or venting - in this entire message I never personally contested their decision to not hand me an interview. So please be careful in saying "You" because you are confusing the universalist nature of my post.

Personally, I don't think I wanted it enough so I am not shocked I was not asked to interview... But what do you tell a paraplegic friend that changed the lives of nearly 10,000 people and saved 200 small businesses after he was forced to abandon a career advising prime ministers?

Surprisingly, he is mature enough to get past it - he's overcome this much in life, what's not getting validated by some stupid AdCom? He laughed it off, and said "That's Life" and smiled - but I know inside he feels hurt - his laughing is the way he handles his sadness - that sting of rejection. He is holding back his emotions, trying to look past it and beyond to bigger and better things in life.

My point is that it is ok to cry, it is ok to be sad, these are normal human emotions. Certainly don't need some self-righteous jerk making statements like "stop crying you didn't lose your dick."

BTW you are totally and utterly wrong about NO ONE being more deserving than another in a group of 12,000 applicants - that is quite possibly the most incorrect statement I have ever heard. We may not have transparency into AdCom, but logically we can understand that there are severe limitations to the process - that's just the nature of the beast. Hence, there is a huge level of inefficiency.

Simply knowing some of the people I have met at HBS and their level of intelligence, drive, and/or achievement, the application process is very flawed - because there are some absolute jokers sitting in that classroom today.

But ALL OF THIS IS IRRELEVANT.

Bottom-line points:

1. It's ok to be emotional about it, everyone has a right, and for good reason, it is an emotional process, and part of this forum exists for peoples' sob stories and sadness - none of our significant others, our colleagues, etc. know what this process entails - only the people who have gone through it - hence people don't need to be critical of any other person's reaction.

2. Life goes on, focus on R3 schools, and be a big fish in a small pond elsewhere. This is the best advice. There are still some really great schools out there - and you can apply to them and get in for next Fall. Then take the initiative and become a truly amazing stand-out student among your peers.

3. Keep doing what makes you great, HBS or GSB or anyone else in no way shape or form will affect the distinctive things that a truly amazing person will end up achieving. If you are a religious person, have faith and believe in fate.

4. The class of 2012 will likely go down as one of the most amazing classes of all time IMHO - if the quality of rejected applicants is any indication of the kind of people that get admitted. Hence, if you are admitted, know you are likely going to be part of a very special class of exceptional students.

BTW Buffett went to Wharton for 2 years undergrad - then Columbia for MBA. I was right about Wharton, wrong about where he got his MBA.

Re-app here. Was WL at Stanford & HBS last year. Just got my interview invite. Hopefully, will end up better this year

I am one of the lucky candidates who received an invite, and to be honest I feet somewhat humbled by the quality of people who report not having got one. I don't want to go into paternalistic mode, but I would encourage you all to move on and just forget about the whole HBS thing. Let it be an unexpected, positive surprise if the much awaited invite arrives at a later date, but do not get fixated on it now! I know it's easy for me to say that, but really, you don't want to live through another 2 months of hope and stress when odds, objectively, are against you.

Again, I might be speaking from a comfortable position and you'd be probably right to see cynicism in my post, but the life does not end on not getting an invitation. I learned on so many occasions that everything that happens happens for a reason, and even in advance of Feb 12 I told myself that 'bad news from HBS will be good news!'. I remember feeling miserable for being dinged last round at McK 4 years ago, but looking back I feel that going to one of the arguably 'less prestige' firms was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. Move on, life is to short to spend it on regrets!

Hi All,

Does someone have a good website address or websites that could help to prepare for in the HBS interview. (list of questions that have been asked, admits feedback etc...)

Thank you

I second that request. I'm feeling really intimidated right now!

Actually it's just as competitive this year as it has been the last few years. Many people with those stats and qualifications get rejected every year. For you, it might be an anomaly, but for adcom this is something they see every year.

P.S. Buffett never received an MBA but an M.S.

Qaum...really...stop with the drama...you don't get into HBS...move on...life's not over. The application process is so random that I was not even expecting an invite...I am in dead zone already and against all odds got an invite yesterday.

I saw McK superstars get dinged from schools without even getting interviewed and low profile guys getting into Wharton or Stanford...

HBS is just another school, it's tempting, it has the brand, it has the glamour, but just another top school. You sound like many of the trolls in the BW forum that post BS and say "it's HBS or bust!". Also people just misread stats about millionaires and billionaires. It's not that HBS made them...they were already rock stars before HBS and since HBS has a good eye to accept superstars, then there is a pretty solid correlation. On the other hand, the non superstars that got into HBS for random reasons have non superstars careers, period...

Please, drama is disrespectful for dinged candidates.

Life is very fair, unless you interpret life as full of negatives every time something doesn't go your way. How can anyone say life isn't fair because this person got rejected from school. Spare us the drama and take this to the businessweek boards. Life is full of tragedies so really an HBS interview invite is probably on the bottom of the list for people who are truly in touch with reality. We have all gone through bad moments in our life and to say life is unfair is just immature. I guarantee that even those who have faced severe hardships probably can still tell you that in the long run life is fair.

Bravo to HBS for rejecting drama. Also, there are plenty of CEOs without an MBA so big fish in a small pond is nothing more than demeaning to those "small fish" like us who have no desire to attend HBS.

Looks like no one who is currently in India got an interview invite..

Well I guess the JD/MBA is not in the cards for me. This is my second time around and no interview despite the fact that I'm currently at HLS. Best of luck to everyone going forward.

Guys, Can we please stop this madness, pretty please.

For those picking on Qaum: Guys let it be. He is pretty upset, as you can tell from his posts. Everyone has there own method of getting over things, and maybe this is his. Just let it be, and in due time he will get over it. If you guys keep going back and forth it will just make this even more ugly, for both the invitees and non-invitees.

Qaum: I feel for you, I got the no-invite ding myself yesterday and, trust me, it would not go down as one of the best days of my life, but that's just that, nothing more. You mentioned Warren Buffet, so I would request you to take his case as an inspiration. HBS or no HBS, our inherent capabilities would not go away by this decision. But what we do in life is up to us.