Calling all Harvard MBA Applicants: (2017 Intake) Class of 2019!

My take on interviewing at HBS and elsewhere (which has been reinforced by my clients' results) is that the main upside to interviewing on campus is that it gives you the ability to add some first-hand observations to your answers....i.e. "I sat in Prof A's class and was impressed by how the case discussion kept everyone involved and engaged" or "I had lunch with students B and C who told me such and such about their experiences which reinforced my beliefs about this school being a good fit for me because XYZ..."

It also has a signaling value of "this person cared enough to take some vacation days to fly out to Boston and interview in person" which may or may not carry weight with a particular school or specific interviewer at that school.

Guys, for these who are dinged - I invoke you to not let yourself be down by that fact.

As for me - I believe I can be your champion.

Dinged without interview with the following:

1) Degree in physics and engineering in top national university, GPA 3.9
2) GMAT 780 with one try (and 5 days of preparation), got some V mistakes - non-native English speaker
3) Winner of gazillion of national contests in maths / physics
4) Background: BCG + McKinsey, had one of the fastest promotions and top performance quartile at both firms
5) Essays checked by several HBS students and alums
6) References from BCG / McK alum and current senior partner
7) Bunch of extracurricular awards / etc (e.g. boardgame national champion, international management conferences and etc.)

Well, what can I do... Guess was not my day : ) Either today or when I was born white male in eastern europe : D

Guys, for these who are dinged - I invoke you to not let yourself be down by that fact.

As for me - I believe I can be your champion.

Dinged without interview with the following:

1) Degree in physics and engineering in top national university, GPA 3.9
2) GMAT 780 with one try (and 5 days of preparation), got some V mistakes - non-native English speaker
3) Winner of gazillion of national contests in maths / physics
4) Background: BCG + McKinsey, had one of the fastest promotions and top performance quartile at both firms
5) Essays checked by several HBS students and alums
6) References from BCG / McK alum and current senior partner
7) Bunch of extracurricular awards / etc (e.g. boardgame national champion, international management conferences and etc.)

Well, what can I do... Guess was not my day : ) Either today or when I was born white male in eastern europe : D

"Either today or when I was born white male in eastern europe"

Joking or not. Do you see an issue in that statement?

No, and if you do then you need to lighten up.

I've done mock interviews with several applicants this year for R1 and their interviews seem to be between the end of this week and Nov. 20th or so.

As for what to expect, HBS will know your application very, very well. They will ask questions that are very specific to you -- wanting to understand why you made the choices you did for both your undergraduate education and your career. They may ask you about any potential red flags in your application (I was asked about the only C I ever received (in Accounting) and why I struggled with that class, for example). There may be some SWOT analysis types of questions for either your current company/industry or the company/industry you want to be in after graduation. Since the questions will be so specific based on your materials, it's hard to make generalities beyond that because they ask one person will be totally different from what they ask another.

If you interview on campus with the adcom, there could be two people in the room and they will likely be scribbling notes the entire time you talk, so don't be unnerved by that. They run the interviews like a machine and will keep you moving along when they need to get to the next question.

Hope that helps...

Good luck!

I don't want to sound like complaining (because I'm not in position to complain after all - consider myself born rather lucky), but I think it is. There are two groups of reasons:

1) It's generally harder to pass tests, write essays and etc. (don't want to speculate, but quite sure could shoot 800 if GMAT was in my native language. And I still got more or less decent English. Imagine how many people got 100+ less on GMAT because of language barrier. Essay could be pushed to be way more poetic and crisp as well).
2) You still got quotas everywhere. Acceptation rate is quite different for different regions.

That being said, it's not a reason to be not admitted.
If they take at least 1 person from your country, it means that all you have to do is to be number one.
We should all try to aim for this.

From the applicant's perspective, I thnk that coming as a minority (even in terms of nationality) erases barriers that are associated with foreign languages. I don't think that many Russians are targeting MBA degrees in the US, especially at top business schools, so you are kind of a rare case here. Also, it is easier for Russians to have non-standard backgrounds, considering our unpredictable economy, which in many cases doesn't allow most Russians to make the desired career path if they are not from either Moscow or Saint-Petersburg, or have a family with a high-income level. We have to overcome much more obstacles than do an average american or european citizen. Therefore, for a Russian citizen himself applying to a business school in the US is already an achievment. I think that adcoms are pretty aware of the living standards of the countries and they evaluate applicants' achivements and profile, taking this knowledge into account. I see my nationality as an advantage, rather than a drawback.