below is an account of HBS adcom head Dee Dee (Deirdre Leopold) talk in Paris a couple of years ago to prospective HBS applicants. This blog tracks HBS Forum reports, and you can gain $100 off any HBSGURU product by sending me a Forum report similar to this one, we will aslo offer comments.

HER GREAT TAKE-AWAT  Advice:  get someone who knows you well and someone who doesn’t to read your essays

Harvard came to Paris on September 26th, 2005.  The forum was very
well attended:  standing room only for latecomers.  There were
probably about 100 attendees.  Almost all were European.

The adcom rep who led the forum was the same rep who led an info
session in August in Boston that I attended.  Compared to Boston, I
think there was an emphasis on not only demonstrating the value of HBS
but the value of a U.S. two-year MBA in general.  In France, once
people start working, they seldom go back to school.  Also, tuition
here is about $500 a year, so the cost of an American MBA seems
staggering to French people.  There was a lot of talk about the return
on investment from an MBA in general and an HBS MBA specifically.
Financing an MBA was a huge topic, they actually handed all of us
sheets when we walked detailing the loan packages French students
could get from French banks.  Incidentally, these were all arranged by
the HBS Club of France, which is supposedly the most cohesive one in
Europe.  Adcom rep also said they don’t see as many applicants from
France as they would like.

There was also an alumni panel at the end.  Alums talked a lot about
the HBS network and how accessible other alums were, and how it helped
their careers (this is a pretty foreign concept in France).  Also a
discussion about how going to HBS taught them to break away from the
French mentality that working for a mega corporation is the way to
succeed and showed them value of entrepreneurship and encouraged them
to take intelligent risks.  There was also a lot of chat about
visas/difficulty of working in the U.S., but apparently the economy
here is so bad right now that it’s easier for a French HBS grad to get
a job in the States than in France right now.

So here goes:
?       Introduction
o       HBS is different from other schools
o       Focus is on developing young leaders
o       Made distinction that HBS wants to develop leaders, not create them,
hence the focus on finding individuals who have already demonstrated
leadership potential
o       The general management focus is a key part of the HBS experience and
creates business leaders who are trained for a broad variety of roles
and situations

?       Curriculum
o       Everyone takes required curriculum first year, electives second year
o       Explained concept of the Section at HBS and how it helps “ease”
students into the environment
o       Case method allows students to debate approaches
o       Trains leaders to make decisions
o       Cases are over a wide range of disciplines
o       Faculty has “passion for teaching”/ profs are accessible, and
focused on students

?       Demographics
o       38% women
o       22% minority
o       33% international
o       Business undergrads are only 23% of entrants
o       Student body is diverse, and brought closer by residential campus
o       Classes, dining, gym:  all are on campus
o       High degree of student involvement/school very responsive to students

?       Alumni network
o       70,000 alums worldwide
o       Alumni-based career coaching is common, helpful
o       ? of alums are Alumni Advisors, meaning they have designated
themselves as available to answer questions from students

?       Job placement
o       Class of 2004 by industry
?       Finance:  38%
?       Consulting:  23%
?       Tech/Telecom:  9%
o       By geography:
?       U.S. Northeast:  46%
?       Europe:  8% (This stat caused a lot of concern here.  HBS said they
realize int’l job placement is a problem and they are working on it by
sending career placement officials abroad to lobby companies to hire
HBS grads)
?       Admissions
o       Evaluating academic ability, leadership, and personal qualities
o       Leadership most important.  Want to see evidence of it in college,
extracurricular activities, and at work
o       Also assessing whether applicant’s personality is suited to the case method
o       Essays are most important aspect of application
o       GMAT:  not “terribly important”.  Advice was “focus on other areas
of the application that are much more important”
o       Spend lots of time and energy on the essays.  “Tell us who you are”
o       After reading a set of essays, reader should say “I know who this
person is and I should meet him”
o       Advice:  get someone who knows you well and someone who doesn’t to
read your essays
?       There should be no “missing pieces” of your story/personality
o       Get someone who will work really hard on your rec and knows you
well.  Not important if rec comes from alum or not, job title of
recommender also not important
o       ”Do not apply in Round 3″ if you are an international applicant
o       Interviews:
?       Must be interviewed to get admitted
?       Interview types
?       Campus
?       Phone
?       City
?       Alum
?       Can switch type of interview, but will delay your decision date a couple weeks

?       Financial Aid
o       Huge concern for Europeans
o       70% of students get financial aid
o       Even int’ls can get Citibank loan without a U.S. co-signer
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