Probably just reflective of GMAT Club losing a bit of "market-share" or people aren't signing up / updating. In good economic times (i.e. now), there is sometimes slower growth in MBA applications. Also growing trend of consulting firms / banks / private equity firms waiving the requirement for an MBA ... doubt you can pick this out in 1 year's numbers though.

FROM HBS Admissions Blog: Two Updates

Two updates for you today: First: The HBS MBA Class of 2018 has officially started classes! It's an outstanding group, and as promised here is their final Class of 2018 profile. Second: For the many of you who submitted your application yesterday for R1 - thank you. We received your applications and have been reading all morning. I just took a break for lunch and sat back for a few minutes to reflect on the amazing people I feel I've already met in the prospective Class of 2019. Wow. You inspire in ways big and small, and we are grateful for your interest in HBS. Don't worry about interview invitations just yet; I will provide more details on that later. In the meantime, relish in the knowledge that your hard work is over (for now) and ours has begun. Now back to reading...

How do you know that about Booth? Is it just GMAT Club profile updates?

Yeah, if you just look at the first pages of all the forums it tells you the total amount of people that are applying in each round.

why do the stats show ppl already interviewed and accepted in all rounds?

Bad data. People randomly (or carelessly) entering inputs. It's symptomatic of GMATClub data in general. Always take it with a pinch of salt.

Submitted for R1!

Good luck everyone! Does anyone remember when exactly the interviews were sent out last year?
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Oct 6, 8, and 14 according to this article: http://poetsandquants.com/2015/10/05/hi ... pplicants/

Thanks!

Let's see when it'll be this year
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FROM HBS Admissions Blog: The Scoop on Interviews/Next Steps

For someone new to Dillon House, I’ve noticed it’s been oddly quiet around here since Round One applications came in. I don’t mean we haven’t been busy—there is actually no busier time for us—but it has been audibly quiet as we’ve all been heads down, reading your (very thoughtful) applications. The next step is interviews. We will be sending out interview invitations on the following three days: October 4, 6, and 12. Try not to read into which date you hear from us—being invited to interview on October 4 vs. October 12 does not mean you are more likely to be accepted. We spread out interview invitations to avoid congestion on the interview sign-up pages. If you haven’t heard from us on October 4 or 6, you will hear one of three things from us on October 12: 1) Invitation to Interview 2) Release or 3) Further Consideration. Let me explain. By releasing those of you who will not move forward with our process on October 12—rather than waiting until December to let you know—we hope to give you time to explore other potential options. For group 3), we would like to Further Consider your applications in Round Two. Interviews will occur between October 23 and November 18. In addition to on-campus interviews, we also conduct interviews in Shanghai, Tokyo, Dubai, Mumbai, São Paulo, New York City, Palo Alto, London, and Paris. Where you interview does NOT affect your likelihood to be accepted (all interviews globally are conducted only by members of Admissions Board), but if you come to Boston to interview, you’ll also have the chance to sit in on class and interact with current students and faculty. Candidates who are not able to travel may be accommodated via Skype. So, that’s the scoop on interviews! Now back to the best (and quietest) part of my day…reading your applications.

Good luck to all, less than a week until invites.

All the best everyone.

Just a thought passing through. I know Harvard has ~10% acceptance rate. Does anyone know what percentage of applicants end up getting interview requests?

In the recent poets & quants interview with the new HBS admissions MD, he said that your chances of acceptance at the interview stage are 50%-60%... So, assuming 50% chances and working backwards, that would be 20% of applicants get interviewed?

It's probably right around 20% - maybe a tad lower

Late to the GC party...but in for round 1!

Interested to see what everyone's approach was to the essay. Creeping on last year's boards it seems the whole "I overcame all this adversity" isn't a good strategy.

I think it's just a very popular topic, so you're more likely to see more people be denied with such a topic as well. Because it's a popular topic, it may also mean that some people try to use adversity in their essays when it's not truly relevant for them, making them seem disingenuous and as such, more likely to be dinged Just my 2 cents on that!

Some pretty amazing profiles seemed to do it last year with a zero % success rate (clearly only anecdotal). Just seems they have more than enough people that overcome crazy stuff and really want to see leadership, etc. Who knows though.

I'm guessing it really depends on what you do with the topic. Overcoming adversity for the sake of overcoming adversity probably isn't compelling to them. If you used personal adversity as a springboard for demonstrating leadership potential, I think they would pay more attention. I don't think it's fair to say that writing about overcoming adversity is a bad strategy across the board though, especially based on limited anecdotal evidence.

At the end, we have to consider that given the very large number of applicants and the subjective process that leads to selecting a class, it becomes random at some point.
I bet that among the 10 000 applicants, at least half have incredible profiles and stories but only 900 spots are available. I remember several people with 4.0 GPA, 750+ GMAT, grown up in countries at war, sucessful companies founders etc... who did not even get an interview :/

Don't ge me wrong. At the same time someone who looks "average" can get in. It all boils down to making the person reading your app want to get you in