HBS Waitlist has 178 applicants on it, they tell Round 1 WLers

March 29th, 2012
  

 

BELOW IS LETTER TO SENT TO THOSE HARDY SURVIVORS OF THE HBS WAITLIST, THE ONES WHO WERE THERE SINCE  ROUND ONE–IT REVEALS THAT WL HAS 178 PEEPS AND THEY PLAN TO TAKE 25-50.

SK SAYS: MORE LIKE 25 BUT A LOT DEPENDS ON WHAT HAPPENS W. YIELD IN ROUND 2, AS DEE NOTES.

ONCE AGAIN, GOTTA GIVE DEE CREDIT, IF THERE IS ANY OTHER SCHOOL THAT TELLS WLERS HOW MANY ARE ON THE WL, I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT IT.

MBA Program
March 29, 2012
Dear ______:
It’s March 29, the date we are notifying all Round 2 applicants of their status. You have every reason to expect a “final” decision today. After all, you applied in Round 1 and have been on the waitlist since mid-December.
Instead, I am asking if you will remain on the waitlist until mid-May. I can say with certainty that we will be making more offers to Round 1 waitlist candidates, but not until after our Round 2 response date of May 3.
You are a “qualified” candidate for HBS…no doubts. This is about the challenge of shaping a class, which is more complicated than evaluating the capabilities of individuals.
I can’t assess your individual chances of being offered a place. If it helps, you are among 178 candidates on the waitlist; this includes both Rounds 1 and 2 applicants. I predict that we will be able to offer admission to between 25 and 50 waitlisters – but this is just my prediction.
Dana Scalisi will continue to be your contact person. Please let her know via email if you’d like to remain on the waitlist or remove yourself from consideration.
We sincerely appreciate your patience and will do our best to keep you informed.
Sincerely,
Dee Leopold
MBA Admissions
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field Road
Dillon House
Boston, MA 02163

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DEE BLOG ON HBS R2 NOTICE, WL, AND DING REPORTS

March 26th, 2012

BELOW IS MY ANNOTATED VERSION OF DEE’S MOST RECENT BLOG ABOUT HBS ROUND 2 WAITLIST AND SOME OTHER MATTERS

http://www.hbs.edu/mba/m/admissions/blog.html#2012-03-26_2

Date: March 26, 2012

Finally.

Plan is to send emails out at noon on Thursday. Congratulatory calls will follow, but we don’t do admissions notification via phone.

A few things:

HBS doesn’t make any financial aid awards at the time of admission. So don’t feel slighted that you don’t see any $$ mentioned. We have (very) generous financial aid available to our students – both US and international citizens – but it’s all need-based. One more thing about financial aid: it’s not a “rolling” process – as in, we don’t run out of need-based money. Round 3 admits have access to exactly the same resources as Round 1.

The waitlist. Yes, there will be waitlist invitations going out on Thursday.
[YES, BUT WILL THOSE BE FOR ROUND 2 APPLICANTS, OR CONTINUING WL FOR ROUND 1 APPLICANTS WHO DID NOT GET CALLED THIS PAST WEEK, E.G. THE LUCKY 50, SEE BELOW--SK ]
I know for sure we are going to use the waitlist [DUH!] – probably beginning in early May and trying to wrap it up by early June. My guess is we’ll be able to make somewhere between 25 and 50 offers to waitlisters – some from Round 1 [OK, SO SOME ROUND ONE WLers WHO WERE NOT LUCKY 50 WILL BE RE-WL] and some from Round 2 [DUH2] – in addition to the 50 or so we made earlier this month. [WHICH YOU WOULD HAVE NO FREAKING WAY OF EVER KNOWING ABOUT UNLESS YOU HAD BEEN READING SANDY'S BLOG ETC. BUT SINCE I ASSUME YOU ALL DO, NO NEED TO EXPLAIN THIS ]At this point, this is a guess – Dana Scalisi will keep waitlisters updated. [DUH13] Feedback for denied candidates post-interview. I carve out time to respond to calls from candidates who have been through the interview process. These calls are rarely dramatic – and I am resolved to not be prescriptive [THAT MEANS SHE WON'T TELL YOU WHETHER TO REAPPLY OR NOT] about the future. The vast majority are reassurance that it wasn’t anything that is or went wrong…but simply the challenge of comprising a class rich in diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. [THAT IS ACTUALLY ONLY PARTIALLY TRUE, TO HER GREAT CREDIT SOME OF THOSE DING CALLS HAVE SMALL GEMS OF USEFUL INFO --SHE CANNOT HELP HERSELF, TO HER GREAT CREDIT] Details about phone hours will be in the decision letter.

As always, I hope this is helpful. To all of you who are waiting, please know that we appreciate your enthusiasm and patience.

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hbs calling WLers today and maybe more all week.

March 20th, 2012

HBS WAITLIST
RELIABLE SOURCE NOTES THAT HBS ADMITTED SOME ROUND 1 KIDS OFF WL TODAY.
YOU RECALL THAT HBS SAID THEY WOULD TAKE 50 OR SO OFF ROUND 1 WL,
SEE HERE–
http://hbsguru.com/blog/2012/03/08/hbs-to-take-50-off-round-one-waitlist/

The WL gal, Dana, who is calling admits, is telling them that they have to reconfirm their desire to attend by Monday 26th, so one theory is, they will tell all 50 kids they planned to take this week, to meet that deadline, but that is just speculation. They can admit kids whenever they want,including on D-day 3/29 or even after. ON 3/29, WLers could get Ding, Admit, or invite to join May-July WL. All that said, if you don’t get a call fr. Dana in next 3-4 days, I’d say your odds just went down, but you could be put on some later WL. My guess is, they will flush a lot of WLer’s on 3/29.
 
NOTE: DIFFERENT RULES MAY APPLY FOR WAIT LISTERS WHO WL WITHOUT INTERVIEW IN ROUND ONE, AND THEN INTERVIEWED AS PART OF ROUND TWO INTERVIEW CYCLE, THOSE KIDS MAY HEAR ON 3/29, AS IF THEY WERE ROUND TWO CANDIDATES.
 

 

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HBS to take 50 off Round One Waitlist

March 8th, 2012

one must salute their transparency compared to WL news from other schools, once again HBS shines in this anxious-making process

March 8, 2012

Hello Everyone,

We have been busy interviewing our Round 2 applicants these past few weeks and this will continue until next Tuesday, March 13. I know you’ve been patiently waiting for something to happen, and the time is now – we will begin the process of re-reviewing our Round 1 waitlist candidates, and hope to begin making final decisions on as many of you as possible.

We expect that right now, we have room in the class for about 50 candidates from the Round 1 waitlist.

To facilitate our ability to make decisions, I ask that you confirm with me via email by Monday, March 12 your desire to be considered for admission. Please have the courtesy to be sincere in your response; if you have indeed made other plans, I would appreciate your letting me know so that we would seriously consider only those who would plan to matriculate if offered a place in the class.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Dana Scalisi
Assistant Director, MBA Admissions
Harvard Business School
Dillon House
Soldiers Field Road
Boston, MA 02163

——————————————————————————–

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HBS Waitlist slight news–

January 31st, 2012
MBA Program

January 31, 2012

Hello Everyone,

Even though the first of the month isn’t until tomorrow, I thought an “early edition” of the monthly waitlist update might be helpful.

Today we are sending out the first wave of interview invitations to Round 2 candidates. Here’s how this affects the waitlist:

For candidates who have NOT been interviewed yet:

  • Some of you may be invited to interview today
  • Some of you may be invited to interview in one of the next two waves: February 7 or 14
  • Some of you may be “released” on February 14
  • Some of you (a small handful) may be asked to stay on the waitlist beyond February 14

 

For candidates who have ALREADY BEEN INTERVIEWED:

You should not expect any activity on your application this month. We will revisit your application again in March as we make decisions on the Round 2 candidates. Many of you should expect a final decision on your application on March 29, the decision notification date for Round 2. I will send another update in mid-March as to how we’ll be communicating decisions.

Since we do not plan to make decisions any earlier than what I have outlined above, we understand that some of you may require a different timeline; if so, and you would like to remove yourself from our waitlist, please email me at dana_scalisi@hbs.edu.

I hope this is helpful! Thank you for your patience, and please contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Dana Scalisi
Assistant Director, MBA Admissions
Harvard Business School
Dillon House
Soldiers Field Road
Boston, MA 02163

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HBS will admit 480 round one, our guess. Dee’s blog says 120 on WL fer sure.

December 12th, 2011

Her Royal Highness, and HBS adcom Dee Leopold, in a blog message  has noted that HBS will put 120 applicants on the WL on Round One Decision Day (December 19th, 2011).

Some back-of-the envelope nubmers based on her blog entry (there is a link to it above and it is reprinted at the end of this entry).

~850 total round one interviews 

(source: historical data, personal sources, data from sign up sheets)
120 on Waitlist (source Dee’s blog)
730 left (source Euclid)

in the past, HBS has had a  59pct post-interview admit nubmer, which is historical, and has been confirmed by HBS on occassion, but do not sue me if that number has changed, altho I think it is +/-5 valid
If you apply that 59 pct to the 730, you get 430 admits, but you really need to apply it to the 850
to get 501, but 501 admits will not be sent out on D-Day,  because some of those ultimate admits will be  on the WL.
But WL admit is not 59 pct (by a long shot). Sooo, have fun and good luck figuring out how many admits go out on D-Day

 I say, 480 or so. Based on what?

 the above and some hunches.
thus

850 kids Waiting Right Now Who Have Been Interviewed

Genius Boy, me predicts, of those 850
480 Admits
120 WL
250 Dings

see below for Her Majesty’s Blog Entry.

 

———————————————-


Round 1 Notification
Date: December 12, 2011
It’s a week away…so I thought some details might be in order.

This is our plan: On Monday, December 19 – hopefully at noon Boston time – all Round 1 interviewees will receive an email saying their decision is available online. We don’t make any phone calls ahead of time…none. And that’s a promise. Whatever the news is for you, we want to make sure you at least have control over the timing.

In addition to admit and deny notifcations, we will also be inviting about 120 or so candidates who have been interviewed to join our waitlist. All waitlisters will receive additional information from Dana Scalisi, who manages this process.

For candidates who are denied admission after an interview, there will also be information about call-in hours in January if anyone would like to have a conversation with me. I wouldn’t call these “feedback” calls since they aren’t very detailed…but sometimes it can be reassuring to hear that there were not specific weaknesses in an application, but rather just the reality of a highly selective process with the goal of maximizing the mix of voices and perspectives in the classroom.

For those of you in waiting mode, I send you all good wishes for distraction.

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Is HBS interviewing more people for same number of slots?

November 10th, 2011

HAHA, IGNORE THIS–I HAVE OTHER AND MORE RELIABLE INFO THAT HBS INTERVIEW PATTERNS WILL BE AT HISTORICAL LEVELS, E.G. ~850 INVITES FOR ROUND ONE.

I AM LEAVING IT UP TO SHOW THAT EVEN HOMER NODS.

DID HBS SEND OUT MORE ROUND ONE INTERVIEW INVITES THAN IN THE PAST?

HBS may have sent out more than the traditional 800-1000 Round One interview invites, some say, WAY more, which will change the generic post-interview accept rate from its historical 60 pct to possibly under 50pct or even less.
Sources are year-to-year stats from freq. interview magnets like IB firms and Consulting shops, and just free-floating rumors. My own data supports this rumor -year-to-year the percent of my clients who got invites was up, a significant chunk, and while I’d like to think it is my own genius, well, it could be just a new policy at HBS to interview more kids.
Traditionally, HBS has interviewed 1800 kids over 3 rounds for 1000 admits, so the post interivew accept rate was ~60 pct. This year HBS may interview WAY more kids, driving the rate down below 50 or even 40 pct.
Developing . . . .IF TRUE, bad news all around . . .since if you got an invite, your chances are not 60 pct, they are less, and if you did not get an invite, well, you were not even close.

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Nobel Prize advice for HBS interview: sched after lunch

October 21st, 2011
NOBEL PRIZE ADVICE FOR YOUR HBS INTERVIEW
1. GO FOR PAR, NOT A BIRDIE
2. SCHEDULE IT RIGHT AFTER LUNCH
A recent article in the New York Times summarizes some research from Nobel Prize winning economists Kahneman and Tversky about so-called ‘rational behavior’ and findings might be helpful to those facing an HBS interview.
I am less sure about the timing (after lunch)  issue, but their work supports my advice about the interview, that you should focus on not blowing it, rather than trying to score a birdie (by bragging, taking risks, etc. ). 

Who You Are

DAVID BROOKS

http://is.gd/oBh1NK
Kahneman and Tversky  . . . proved that  people rely on unconscious biases and rules of thumb to navigate the world, for good and ill. Many of these biases have become famous: priming, framing, loss-aversion.
Kahneman reports on some delightful recent illustrations from other researchers.
1. Pro golfers putt more accurately from all distances when putting for par than when putting for birdie because they fear the bogie more than they desire the birdie.
2. Israeli parole boards grant parole to about 35 percent of the prisoners they see, except when they hear a case in the hour just after mealtime. In those cases, they grant parole 65 percent of the time.

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HBS round one interview invites go out Oct26th-and stop on Nov. 9th

October 10th, 2011

HER MAJESTY ANNOUNCES ROUND ONE INTERVIEW SCHEDULES FOR HBS –FYI, LAST YEAR, WITH SIMILAR COUGHING AND DUMURRING ABOUT NOW ALGORITHM–A GOOD DEAL OF THE INVITES WENT OUT IN THE FIRST WEEK OR SO OF THE WINDOW.  

 ——————————————————————————————

Round 1 Interviews

Date: October 04, 2011

I know that the feeling of triumph from submitting an application can be short-lived – and gives way to Phase 2, the “Anxiety of Waiting about an Interview.” Please be assured that we are in full-scale reading mode as of this morning – all hands are on deck. Let me walk you through Round 1:

  • October 3: Deadline for receiving applications has just passed.
  • October 26 – November 9: Interview invitations will be issued via email. Please read this part carefully – We don’t have some complicated and/or malevolent algorithm that determines which interview invitations go out first or last or even how many go out on any given day. If you’d like to suggest one, give me a call.
  • November 9: All candidates not invited to interview will receive one of two communications – “We are unable to offer you a place in the Class of 2014″ or an invitation to join our waitlist.
  • November 7 – approximately November 29: Interview weeks, both on and off campus. Off campus locations in Round 1 include New York City, Palo Alto, London, Paris, Dubai, Sao Paulo, and Shanghai.
  • December 19: Decision notification (admit, deny, or waitlist) for all interviewed candidates.

 

Now, I need to repeat language I used last year because I can’t think of a better way to say it. While no one applies hoping for a “deny” decision, we have heard you say that the worst case is extended uncertainty. We think that getting news out on November 9 is helpful so that denied candidates can re-direct energy toward Round 2 applications to other schools. Yes, we have the resources to ensure a thorough review of all applications before rendering any decisions. All applications are reviewed at least twice. Our Admissions Board is fully staffed and able to make this work.

All those invited to join our waitlist are candidates whom we would like to “further consider.” Our plan is for waitlisted candidates to receive further consideration in Round 2. Our intent is for all to receive a final decision by the time we make Round 2 notifications in late March. We completely understand if such a candidate might elect to withdraw his/her application.

I promise that all letters will clearly communicate a candidate’s status.

Most of all, we thank all Round 1 applicants for all the hard work and high aspirations that go into these applications. We are humbled and committed to doing our very best to give all candidates full and careful consideration

http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/blog.html

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What are my chances, my analysis of over 50 MBA profiles

August 19th, 2011

I do these as a weekly feature on Poets & Quants, so check it out,

FEEDBACK ON PROFILES:

I DO A LOT OF THESE (OVER 50) ON POETS & QUANTS, CHECK THESE OUT

Handicapping Your MBA Odds–The Entire Series:

 Part I: Handicapping Your Shot At a Top Business School

Part II: Your Chances of Getting In

Part III: Your Chances of Getting In

Part IV: Handicapping Your Odds of Getting In

Part V: Can You Get Into HBS, Stanford or Wharton?

Part VI: Handicapping Your Dream School Odds

Part VII: Handicapping Your MBA Odds

Part VIII: Getting Through The Elite B-School Screen

Part IX: Handicapping Your B-School Chances

 FOR A TYPICAL CASE, SEE THIS:

Ms. Magazine Journalist

  • 690 GMAT
  • 3.8 GPA
  • Undergraduate degree in journalism from a top public J-School
  • Work experience includes year and one-half as assistant editor at a national magazine
  • Extracurricular involvement as chapter leader of local alumni association, sorority house chair, co-founder of field hockey club, and member of the Society of Professional Journalists
  • 23-years-old

Odds of Success:

Harvard Business School: -30%
Tuck: 40%
Darden: 40% to 60%
Duke: 40% to 60%
Kellogg: 40+%
Berkeley: 40+%
Yale: 40+%

Sandy’s Analysis: Well, I like journalists, and I am sure John does to, but a sad fact is that people I personally like (Romantics, Day Care teachers, stunt men and stand-up comics) are often not the types that appeal to B-schools. That National Magazine you work for better be more close to The Atlantic than to Sassy or Coupon News. That can really make a difference, especially in essay execution, because writing about working with Paul Volcker on a story about The Fed is a lot more powerful than writing about working with Snooki on a story about being fed. (Once again, more interesting to B- schools, but you can give me Snooki.)

Also, it is a bit unclear what Assistant Editor means, that is often a catchall that could describe many different things, but we wonder how senior the job can be since you have only been there 18 months. The kind of woman with your background who gets into HBS is often Ivy, real high GPA, AND real high GMAT and works at The Wall Street Journal or New Yorker (jobs only Ivy kids get anyway) and then puts together some classy, name- dropping essays, and has recommendations from a big shot publishing honcho.

You may almost be that, since you got the GPA, but the GMAT becomes important because you don’t have Ivy education, and most people, rightly or wrongly, don’t think a 3.8 at journo school is like a, oh for instance, a 9.5 at IIT, New Delhi, or 4.8 at MIT. Your extras are so-so, there is not a lot of what HBS likes to call “impact beyond yourself” by which they mean helping victims in inner cities versus what you do have, which is helping your field hockey teammates or your fellow journos at the Society of Professional Journalists.

Once we take HBS out of the picture, if you can leverage your journo stories, drop some names, and come up with some legit reason why you need an MBA (that could be hard, don’t say to save magazines, but probably okay to say to manage new media projects blah, blah) well, who knows, someone like you can round out the class. So chances at Tuck, Darden, Fuqua, Kellogg, Haas and Yale could be in 40% to 60% range, although your story, your reasons, your likeability (to them not me) is what is going to push you through.

Each of those schools takes and dings kids like you, so execution, showing them the love, and luck really count.

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