HBS official blog complains about taking advice fr. geezer adcom vets
HRH LEOPOLD, the HBS adcom dean, IS BLOGGING AGAIN: THIS FROM HER MAJESTY’S LATEST ENTRY:
Here’s some more advice. As you explore websites, chatrooms, books and information sessions held by MBA consulting services, be mindful of claims of “inside information” from former members of admissions boards. I’ve been on the HBS Board for a (very!) long time and I can’t begin to tell you how much has changed . Applicants are certainly smart to explore the admissions processes at different schools but, speaking for HBS, be careful about very specific advice that may not reflect current practices. This includes application advice from our own loyal and well-meaning alumni/ae!
Yes, indeedee!!! I have no idea what precipitated her side trip into consultant town, but let the record show that yours truly, is 1. NOT a former adcom member; 1A. Never claimed to be; 2. Never pretended to have inside information fr. adcoms; 4. Agrees with her that a good deal of advice from alums is off the mark (altho some alums do get it).
For the record: my knowledge of HBS process is based on over 10 years of helping 1000′s [not a figure of speech, I have talked to over 1000 -2000 applicants in various ways, including full application help [a very high number right there], interview prep [also a high number], post-mortems, ding reports, free advice on the phone, and conversations w. current students, alums, leakers, gossips, nutcases,and camp followers –some of whom have useful tidbits of info which are noted and appraised. I also have useful statistics based on my own files, of successful and dinged apps, and spend a good deal of time following publically available info. The proof is in the pudding, I called the 80 percent Round 1 interview invites vs. 50 percent being reported by HBS itself, AND I WAS CORRECT. I called the Youth Jihad, and provided powerful data support. I make ‘shoot from the hip’ predictions to kids on this board and over the phone about their chances at HBS, and MY RECORD IS PRETTY DARN GOOD. Beyond that, it aint exactly rocket science to begin with, and I am really good at this naturally.
I actually feel for Dee Dee on this one, she is running a very professional organization of smart and hard working staff members who take their jobs seriously and take great pride in being associated with a world class institution. But as they say at the clerical union over there at Harvard, “You cannot eat prestige” [well, for too long anyway]. HBS itself, and every other b school, has to make a decison about how many resources to put into admissions versus faculty hiring, new dorms, etc., etc. and admissions usually is not a large priority, esp. the nuts and bolts of staffing an adcom. That is why Stanford and Wharton do it on the ‘cheap’ so to speak, using students (at Wharton, who are paid some nominal amount) and alums [who do almost all interviewing at S] while for the most part HBS has a large, fully professional staff, who read ALL the files and do 90 percent of the interviewing. But it is impossible to maintain a staff like that, given salaries and limited room at the top, and normal geo movements of young-ish and successful people, many w. mbas, sooooooooooo, you do get a bunch of staff members, esp. staff members fr. years ago, thinking that becoming a admissions consultant and playing off the old connection, is an easy new career. Nothing is going to change that, and it is WAY worse at other schools. As noted, Wharton should think about having Admissions Consulting as part of its regular MBA course offerings. 
http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/blog.html
About the Class of 2011…
| By: | Dee Leopold, Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid |
|---|---|
| Date: | April 22, 2008 |
| Topic: | Class of 2011 |
I know, I know… we haven’t even wrapped up the Class of 2010. There’s still the Round 3 notification on May 14 and we have a wait list to manage. On that subject, the response deadline for Round 2 admits is May 8; this is a critical date since we then have a better idea of where we stand in wrapping up the class entering in September. Please don’t take this too literally — we won’t have perfect clarity on May 9 — but I want to share with you how the timeline works.
So, about the Class of 2011. We hope to have our new essay questions posted by mid-May and we’ll certainly alert you through the blog about the actual date. We are also planning on doing an outreach event in NYC in May to start the season. Again, stay tuned for actual date and venue.
For those of you hoping to visit HBS classes — our last day of class visits this year is May 9. We will hold information sessions throughout the summer but class visits in the Fall of 2008 don’t begin until early October. Detailed information about visiting campus is available on our website.
Here’s some more advice. As you explore websites, chatrooms, books and information sessions held by MBA consulting services, be mindful of claims of “inside information” from former members of admissions boards. I’ve been on the HBS Board for a (very!) long time and I can’t begin to tell you how much has changed . Applicants are certainly smart to explore the admissions processes at different schools but, speaking for HBS, be careful about very specific advice that may not reflect current practices. This includes application advice from our own loyal and well-meaning alumni/ae!
