Re: Calling all Harvard MBA Applicants: 2022 Intake [Class of 2024]
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Updated on: 12 Jan 2022, 11:22
So each application is read in full by two different members of the admissions board; we don’t like split up parts of the application or anything like that. They work together to decide which applicants we can move forward to the interview stage in our process. We have a really intensive reading period, where we’re all pretty much heads-down and only focused on reading and getting to know you as an applicant. We use all of the pieces of the application to try to get to know you as well as we can, so we want an understanding of your job history, your resume, what your recommenders have said, your academic background, and what you shared in your essay.
Those who are invited into the interview stage, which typically comes about four to six weeks after the initial application is submitted, will receive an interview invitation. Shortly after we start reading, we’ll let people know, “here’s the date that you’ll hear from us on,” so it won’t be up in the air. We will give you an exact date and time when you’ll know whether you were invited to an interview or not. Once we send out interview invitations, there’s usually a little bit of time between when those invitations go out and when we actually start interviewing, so you have time to arrange your schedule and pick an interview slot that’s going to work for you.
For everyone who we invite to interview, we offer the chance to connect one on one with Harvard Business School alumna or alumnus. Most people who interview opt into that. It’s not part of the evaluation process at all, so it’s fine if you don’t want to opt into that. We introduced this a few years ago, and felt like this was a great opportunity for people to just get a personal experience and a personal conversation with an alum to learn about what the experience might be like for them if they come to HBS. We try to match people up who have similar career interests or paths, and those are usually pretty fun conversations that the alumni and candidates have on their own. It’s purely meant to be helpful to the candidate.
The interview itself, I confess, is my favorite part of the process. We finally get to meet the person who we’ve been excited about and learning about over the past several weeks through the application. And on our end, we actually do a lot of preparation. I sometimes think of this a little bit like how you would prepare for a case method class: you make sure you’ve read the case, you understand the business, you understand the questions that might come up, and you walk into the room trying to be ready. When I’m preparing for an interview, I read the whole application. If I’m going to be talking with someone from a company or an industry that I may not be as familiar with, I’ll try to read up on that and understand it more because I want to walk into that room, ready to be a good conversationalist with the person I’m going to be interviewing. I want to be able to ask good questions that can help us get beyond the surface level of what’s on your resume. The interviews typically last about 30 minutes, and the goals are to get to know the candidate better and to imagine that person in our community. We like to get into a dialogue and see where things go from there. Immediately after an interview, we’ll write up our notes and put them in your file.
The last thing that goes in an applicant’s file before the final decisions come out is this post-interview reflection. Reflection is really built into the whole experience at Harvard Business School. We want you to learn, not just a lot about business, but a lot about yourself and what brings you a sense of meaning or purpose. At the end of the admissions process, we want to give you the opportunity to include anything you’ve learned or to reflect on how you believe you did the interview. It’s explicitly not an extra essay, although I’ve heard from some that it can feel like that. We hope that people will take a really informal approach and be honest with us in the reflection. On our end, we’ll read those post-interview reflections and take that into consideration as we make final decisions. At this stage of the process, almost everyone that is “qualified” to be there has the academic preparation and the inclination of success at HBS. Our task at that point is one of crafting a really diverse class of students who bring different talents, perspectives, and ideas about how to move forward. And that really powers the case method and powers our community in just what we can learn from people who are different from us and have different experiences than us. The decisions go out after that.
This is an excerpt from an interview with Chad Losee, Managing Director, MBA Admissions and Financial Aid at HBS
Originally posted by
samsung1234 on 12 Jan 2022, 11:21.
Last edited by
samsung1234 on 12 Jan 2022, 11:22, edited 1 time in total.
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