Calling all Harvard Applicants: (2016 Intake) Class of 2018!!

Mine was a little over 1,000, but I thought it would be fine because there is just one essay. And for all the other schools, there were multiple essays that definitely added up to more than 1,000 words.

That said, I didn't really talk about my career at all in my essay. Just about the things and people I care about since that is how I typically introduce myself to people. Which I'm kind of afraid that they will think I repurposed the Stanford essay ... which I didn't!

Allday028 yeah I thought it was really strange that it asked only for extracurricular activities in college since all the other B School apps seemed to ask for both college and post-college, but I didn't want to take the risk so I just listed college extracurriculars on the HBS app. I did have some "community" extracurriculars post-college on my resume but it certainly was not as comprehensive. Well, we'll see... [/quote]
in my humble opinion (and we all share different thoughts) this isn't going to be a deal-breaker so I am not at all worried... the essay, academics, career (pre and post-MBA realistic trajectory) is of more concern! And the reference letters that my referees had trouble condensing vs GSB. let's see!

haha ditto!! I basically cut out all of the career stuff, leaving GSB essay numero uno, twisted into a monologue! :p

I wrote a combination of college and post-college extras. My post-college extras are much more impressive actually so I thought I would be hurting myself if I didn't list them specifically. College was a long time ago in my case anyway.

yah, those were my thoughts too...didn't want to hurt myself by sticking only to the passsssssssssssssssst. but everyone has diff circumstances so whatever fits best i say! good luck!

Yes, exactly. In the end it is about your story and sometimes your story is more interesting then application boxes...

100% agree!!!

On the activities section, I included only college activities given that's what was explicitly asked for. If nothing else it shows I read the instructions fully and followed them, something other schools have stressed in their various video instructions on applying. I don't think you'd be materially impacted by including more recent activities (I'm 6 years out of school and can sympathize), but I think at best they'll get ignored in favor of collegiate activities to put all applicants on a level playing field.

What's everyone's guess on the distribution of invites between the various days? I want to say it was something like 75-25 last year between the 2 days when I applied R2, but that's just from memory and didn't include the 3rd day they've added this year.

I read somewhere they expect the firsts day to be the largest amount but no figures were provided.. No idea. The advise was: if you are not getting a response in the beginning don't stress!:)

i'd say even split so as not to overload their interview sign-up server.

Yeah, I don't think it's a big issue. My assumption is that they want to see participation while in school, and that is why they explicitly stated that in the prompt. However..... a friend of mine last year included 2 in college and 1 post college, and he's in, so I don't think it's going to make or break an application.

Everyone relax.....

thanks for your opinion. woohooo pretty much same then. i just looked, and in my CV i also noted date/year ranges of activities so they can put 2 and 2 together for more 'college'/'post-college' insights! good good. time to live up the weekend! enjoy everyone!

Mine was about 800 words.

Mine was around 670. To decide an optimal word count, I tried speaking what I wrote. And when I got bored, I noted the word count and set it as my word limit
I think one shouldn't speak for more than 5 minutes at a comprehensible pace.

Double checked and mine is actually around 650. I started my process by recording myself speaking mine and then transcribed it.

Posting for the first time after ages of lurking.

My essay was a bit under 800 words. I also figured that a speech should not be too long. At the end, however, I do not think length matters nearly as much as the story each person has to tell.

Best of luck for all!

good stuff guys! thanks for chipping in