Harvard 2013 (HBS) - Calling All Applicants

Hmmmm, they interview sorta 1800 people and admit 1000 which gets boiled down to an entering class of 910-25 or so (yield is 90 pct). So post interview odds are 1800/1000. People screw up interviews by talking too much and getting lost, not sounding lively or confident, rubbing the interveiwer the wrong way, or just not being a person they feel for a variety of subjective reasons would thrive in case method environment. You can leave interview feeling that it went well and still flunk for those reasons. Dee Leopold will accept, on a hit or miss basis, phone calls from kids who were interviewed and dinged, and sometimes hints at why you got dinged--I have spoken to over 20 of those kids AFTER they have spoken to Dee. Most common interview screw up is that interviewer thought you sounded 'scripted' that is Dee's word. What it means is that you were 1. actually over scripted. 2. Not sure of your answers, and trying to say what you thought they might like to hear. And many variants of that, where answers are not flowing, internalized, and honest sounding (they dont care if they are honest, this is business school, after all). Scripted is a catch-all phrase --it includes BS, lack of flowing speech (regardless of content), insincere sounding or just stupid answers. As noted, you can leave interview feeling that it went well and still flunk for those reasons.
Sometimes interview goes OK and you get dinged anyway--you basically lose out in a beauty contest to other kids in your cohort (e.g. other bankers, other consultants, other military, other engineers). "We just liked other applicants more than you . . ." is a famous adcom remark, and unlike many other adcom remarks, this remark is often true.