Calling all HBS Applicants - (2015 Intake) Class of 2017

Tough on this one but to be honest, HBS sounds like a major stretch. GMAT is a major low plus no gold plated job, which HBS seems to be obsessed about unless one can prove an extraordinary story/connections. Happy to be proven wrong.

Hey HBS Applicants,

I did the dumb thing of submitting my HBS application in R2 knowing very well that my GRE score is not anywhere near great...

I wanted to find out if it's possible to contact admissions asking them to withdraw my application from R2 and move it to R3 (possibly paying another application fee??? has this been done before)? I know right...another dumb move!!

Kindly need advice..THANKS

whats your gre score?

I just found out this post. I am a round 2 applicant for 2+2 program.

Does anyone know if the interview invitations for 2+2 will be coming on the last day (a.k.a 4 February) like in last round?

Thanks and good luck to you all guys.

AW=4.0
Quant= 164
Verbal= 152

I am in the same boat. Is it even possible to defer your application to round 3?

I am not sure...anybody out there with some good advice??

Has anyone's heart rate gone up this week? in advance of the 28th....?

Think they'll post it by noon, Boston time? Would people also be notified of rejections on that date?

Heart rate definitely up.

I've been doing some reading. Historically, they tend to send out the invites at or just around noon, Boston time.

You won't be notified of a rejection on that date (again, based on what I have read). You will be notified of that on February 4, when the second round of invites go out.

I know it's a really hard week. I about lost my mind the few days before the invite and final decision.

Here's how it went for Round 1:

Nobody found out anything early. Of course, I checked my email and app status all the time for no reason.

Interview invites "went live" at 1200 Boston time on Wednesday. Don't freak out if you don't get one right away. They take sometime to all go out and fly through the giant tubes of the internet. Do NOT freak about if you are Barry Berstein and Cassandra Callaway gets an invite. It's not alphabetical, sorted by height, or national status. Somebody with a higher Quant score than me can figure it out, I gave up.

I got my invite at 1204. It was a long 4 minutes. Some folks got theirs at 1220 or later. I don't know when the last one went out. Don't give up right away. There were a lot of people saying "it's over" right before they got an invite.

I did not see my application status page update before I got the email. That happens for the decision, but the invite for an interview is all email.

Aside from the 2+2 folks, I don't know many people who got good news on the second round of invites. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Good luck to everyone!

A huge blizzard is coming to Boston- tonight through Wednesday. 2-3 feet of snow expected. I wonder if this will impact interview invites...

pray that it does not... the wait will otherwise kill us

FROM HBS Admissions Blog: SNOW!!

Greetings from Boston. Definitely the topic of the day is SNOW and everyone here is busy making Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, etc. depending on the strength and length of the storm. Yes, we know that we are scheduled to send out Round 2 interview invitations on Wednesday. We have every reason to believe that will happen on schedule. If we need to delay, we will let you know via this blog, a general announcement on the admissions website, and also with a voicemail recording on our general phone line. Here is some GENERAL (non-storm related) information about Round 2 interview invitations: Our planned timing is noon, Boston time on Wednesday. Lots of detail in the invitation about scheduling, dates, etc. The online interview scheduler goes live the day AFTER interview invitations go out (that gives you time to think about dates/times/locations). Two waves of invitations: The first one is Wednesday, January 28; the other is Wednesday, February 4. On February 4, we will also send release notifications to all Round 2 candidates not being invited to interview. How many in each wave? We really don't know yet and that's because we're not actually finished with reading the written applications. So best guess might be 600 in the first wave and 200 in the second. I've said this before, but please don't speculate or develop theories or algorithms about first vs. second. It doesn't work that way. And it has nothing to do with when you submitted, where you live, or the first letter of your last name. ALL 2+2 INVITATIONS WILL BE SENT ON FEBRUARY 4!!! That means none on January 28. Back to the snow. Still too early to tell, but the Admissions Office may need to be closed tomorrow, January 27 if the snow is severe and travel to and from work is prohibitive. We plan to manage the general email box - admissions@hbs.edu - remotely. And watch the admissions website and this page for updates. Most important...if you're in the reach of this snowstorm, stay safe and warm and take care of those around you. And say thanks to all the workers out there who will be doing so much.

Thanks guys. Glad to know I'm not the only anxious one around - I have to admit I've resorted to the futile action of actually logging into my application status page three times today, knowing fully well it won't change. All the best to everyone around.

GavinE - thanks for that info as well - that's very helpful. I'm putting the cart before the horse here, but did you resort to prepping in detail for your interview before you got the Harvard invite? Or did you feel like you had enough time once you got the invite to plan for the interviews? What do you suggest as the best approach - leave it till we know something?

Don't sweat it. The last few days were rough! Don't worry about prepping now, you'll have plenty of time. I interviewed towards the end of the window, which was great. I had plenty of time to prep and didn't have to wait too long after the interview to hear back.

There are a million ways to prep. A lot of people recommended consultants and mock interviews. I stuck with prepping the base line questions, reading a lot of potential questions, and doing enough reading and thinking so that I had a stock of ideas ready for any question. Don't over prepare or else you'll sound scripted. Just know your life, your decisions (KEY!), and your why.

I found HBS to be much more intense an interview than MIT, but a heck of a lot of fun. Best of luck and don't feel bad about hitting refresh on your application status page!

Cheers Gavin - that's pretty comforting news - I might manage to steal a few more days of post-application relaxation!

Have to agree on your point of view of consultants - I also think the key thing will be just knowing the base line questions. I've taken to do some ordinary fiction reading as well (Saul Bellow et al) so I just get back to my normal frame of mind after the last 6 months of application/GMAT torture!

I think consultants can be great, don't get me wrong. I had a buddy recommend a guy who charges $500 for 1 HBS style interview, though. That just struck me as excessive. On the other hand, if you don't have much experience with interviewing or public speaking I could see the benefit.

As a military applicant, I focused more on shoring up my knowledge of, well, business.