Hi Sandy,

I had a question RE my HBS interview. I applied in R1 this year, and did my interview a couple weeks ago with an AdCom on campus. I had read almost everywhere that the HBS interviews are very strict as far as time constraints i.e. the adcom essentially kicks you out when the 30 minutes are up. My interview, however, went over by about ten minutes, as we were chatting about the auto bailout, the credit crisis, etc. This was after we had already spent the first 30 minutes handling the typical HBS interview questions.

My question is: is my interview going over the typical 30 minutes a good or bad sign? or does it just mean nothing much?

thanks in advance! I am impatiently awaiting my HBS result on Jan 21
HAHA, IT MOSTLY MEANS INTERVIEWER DID NOT HAVE ANYONE SCHEDULED AFTER YOU.

ALTHO, SURE, IT MEANS INTERVIEWER DID NOT REALLY HATE YOU EITHER. ALTHO I SOMETIMES WIND UP TALKING TO KIDS I HATE DURING MOCK INTERVIEWS IF THE TOPIC INTERESTS ME, OR KID KNOWS SOMETHING ABOUT IT, OR IF THE DYNAMICS OF THE INTERACTION  JUST FLATTEN OUT AT THAT POINT, FOR EASIER SAILING. 

I WAS ONCE REALLY HUNGRY AND EATING A HOT DOG, WHICH HAD A PIECE OF BONE IN IT, AND CRACKED MY TOOTH. MAJOR BUMMER, BUT I KEPT EATING. SOMETHING LIKE THAT GOES ON IN INTERVIEWS. ALTHO I WILDLY DIGRESS. [DENTIST THE NEXT DAY ASKED ME IF I KEPT THE BONE, WHICH I DID NOT,  AND THERE WENT MY LAWSUIT].

ANYWAY, DONT BOTHER FULLY UNDERSTANDING THE ABOVE, ALTHO IT IS COMPREHENSIBLE. BOTTOM LINE FOR YOU: IT MEANS NOTHING . MOST INTERVIEWS, IF NOT STACKED UP, SORTA BACK TO BACK,  WILL LAST 10 MINUTES EXTRA, BECAUSE IT TAKES UNBELIEVALBE DISCIPLINE FOR INTERVIEWER TO GO INTO FINAL LANDING GLIDE PATH 5-10 MINUTES BEFORE REAL ENDING TIME, SO THAT WHAT HAPPENS IS  10 MIN WRAP UP B.S.  PROCESS BEGINS AT END OF 30 MINUTES, AND IT DRIBBLES OVER. BUT IF INTERVIEWER DOES HAVE ANOTHER INTER. SCHED. WHAT HAPPENS IS MORE LIKE COITUS INTERUPTUS [SORRY BUT PERFECT ANALOGY] AS INTERVIEWER JUST NEVER GOES INTO GOOD-DYE BLAH, BLAH BUT  JUST FEELS THE UPSWELLING ALARM/THRILL OF THE HALF-HOUR POINT COMING ON,  AND ZAP, JUST  PULLS OUT, SAYS SORRY, BUT WE JUST GOTTA STOP,  AND OFF YOU GO. FEELING RUSHED, CUT OFF, LET DOWN, BEMUSED, ANNOYED, DISORIENTED,  AND UNCONSUMATED. SECURITY CAMERA AT DILLON WHICH CAPTURES KIDS WITH EXACTLY THAT  POST INTERVIEW CONFUSION  CLD  MAKE QUITE A MONTAGE OF ODD FACES. LIKE A FISH-EYE LENS,BUT YOU WOULDNT NEED THE LENS.

The fact that did not happen to you, well,  it dont mean zip.

Happy to be corrected by Sandy but thought I’d chime in.

From my experience in banking the borderline candidates get interviewed by the more experienced interviewers/senior people. I would imagine the same would happen with ad comm.

The why is easy: for a borderline candidate two things need to happen. One, you need to make sure that the senior ad comm members would sign off. Two, you need to make sure the interviewer is confident enough to say yes if they are indeed good.

Easiest way to get senior ad comm to sign off is to get them to do the interview. If the candidate is great the interviewer will have enough experience to see it and clout to get them through. This protects the school - making sure top class people get through.

There is also a risk with giving borderline candidates to less experienced ad comm members. Simple fact is that they need to go in to bat for people. If you are inexperienced you will be less confident in arguing your case against more seasoned members. This means that candidates who interview with less senior members inherently have a less powerful advocate at the table. Making borderline candidates go to senior members protects them too. Meanwhile “slam dunk” candidates are easy training for less experienced ad comm members - bar a major screw up in  the interview you should be fine.

Exception (and I’ve seen this professionally) if Daddy is a very important person then the candidate is more likely to get a senior interviewer - just so the admit / ding rests on senior shoulders.

===============

INTERVIEWING W. SENIOR VS. NEWBIES. RESPONSE TO PRIOR POSTS.

hmmmmm, I think you are over-complicating the process and under-estimating logistics problems of interviewing 1800 kids for H and W: they dont pre-sort borderliners and then assign them to adcoms in training  or senior people as you suggest, esp. not at HBS where applicant gets to pick date and time, and getting ANY adcom there is major logistical hassle. And what you do you say about HUB interviews or HBS Menlo Park interviews, where ALL candidates get filtered thru the same adcoms. I agree that in VERY RARE cases, e.g. Bush’s body guy a  couple of years ago, who did not have a college degree http://hbsguru.com/media_econ.html –that guy was interviewed at HBS outside the normal channels, but man, that is 1-3 case a year stuff.  IN most cases (99 percent), kids are linked up to adcoms sorta randomly, and the interview is just another piece of data (esp. impt at negative data, e.g. adcom says you would have hard time in case method), and interviewers do not “advocate” for kids, they often dont even know what outcomes are, til they get print out. I’m sure in some cases, Director might go back to interviewer for more info, but at that pt, it is pssble that interviewer has scant recollection of kid, quite frankly, beyond notes, which capture the big pieces. I interview A LOTTA LOTTA kids doing mock interviews ever year (100+) , and despite spending a very intense hour or so w. each, and going over files, 2 months later, exp. is way less distinct. The scheme you are proposing in your post makes some kinda abstract sense, but 1. the interviews are not that impt, 2. schools dont have the implementation ability to do it anyway, or dont think it is worth the hassle.  Also, to some extent, newbie adcoms are trained R3 where they often sit on interviews, and also in 2+2 interviews, over summer. At Stan, sometimes R3 kids are interviewed twice (by dif adcoms, also happens rarely at H), which I think is some kinda holistic benchmarking on part of adcoms. Then they kinda say, “this is nuts, what are we bothering w. this for………….just interview the flippers and be done w. it.”

Stanford Business School Launches New Fellowship for MBA Grads? Social Ventures

press release below is good summary of Stanford Do-Gooders, including

 Other Stanford MBA graduates who have launched social enterprises include
Jessica Flannery MBA ’07. She cofounded Kiva, a nonprofit microfinance group in
San Francisco that seeks to overcome poverty by linking lenders with
entrepreneurs operating very small businesses. And the social entrepreneurial
duo of Sam Goldman and Ned Tozun, both MBA ’07, together developed a low-cost,
solar-powered light emitting diode lamp to sell to the millions of people
worldwide who live in rural homes not supplied with electricity.

(more…)

STANFORD INVITES –NUMBER SO FAR

HMMMM, BOLTON SPEAKS. OVER THE YEARS, BOLTON HAS ALWAYS BEEN CAGEY ABOUT THE STANFORD INTERVIEW TOTAL INVITE  NUMBERS, ALWAYS SAYING IT VARIES FROM 800-1200, AND HE IS KEEPING TO FORM. ASSUMING THE 400 INVITES ALREADY OUT, AND SAY 200 MORE, THAT IS 600 FOR ROUND ONE, AND MAYBE 60O FOR ROUND TWO [WHICH GETS WAY MORE APPS, AS A RULE, BUT OF LESSER QUALITY]. SOOOOOOO, NUMBERS BELOW ARE KINDA BELIEVABLE. ROUND 3 DATA IS ROUNDING ERROR. MY OWN GRINCH THINKING IS THAT ~ 75-80 percent of  INVITES ARE ALREADY OUT. BASIS???? FOLKS WHO WRITE UPDATES LIKE THE ONES BELOW ARE USUALLY PACKING IN SOME HOPE STATS VERSUS REALITY STATS, JUST HUMAN NATURE.

First Round Interviews

http://www.stanford.edu/group/mba/blog/As of mid-week, we have extended around 400 interview invitations to first round candidates. We expect to invite an additional 150-200 applicants to interview in the next few weeks, as we read and evaluate first round applications before the notification deadline of 22 January 2009.

On the January 22 first round notification deadline, we also may ask 50-100 applicants to join the waitlist without having been interviewed, and may interview those candidates later.

I hope this is helpful. Best wishes for the holiday season.
Derrick

PHEW, TWO CHICKS YAKKIN’ ABOUT HBS –ONE OF WHOM IS HRH DEE DEE LEOPOLD (THE HEAD CHEESE) , WHO SAYS THEY ARE LOOKING FOR A SENSE OF HUMOR, AMID MUCH OTHER USELESS ADVICE, AND THE OTHER IS ANDREA KIMMEL, ONE OF THE HARDER-NOSED INTERVIEWERS THIS ROUND, ALTHO SHE IS GIGGLES AND FUN, FUN FUN IN THIS FORMAT.

WORTH SLOGGING THRU JUST TO GET THE 8 MINUTE MARK, WHERE AK ASKS HRH LEOPOLD ABOUT HBS TAKING YOUNGER AND YOUNGER KIDS, AND YOU CAN ACTUALLY HEAR LEOPOLD TAKE AN INVOLUNTARY PAUSE AND GULP BEFORE HEADING INTO A STRING OF FIBS. WELL, AT LEAST SHE IS STILL HUMAN. IT TAKES YEARS OF CIA TRAINING TO JUST FIB AND FIB AND FIB AND NOT SHOW ANY VOICE STRESS  WHATEVER.   KIMMEL’S LAST MINUTE MELT-DOWN (WHICH IS MOSTLY INCOMPREHENSIBLE BUT TO THE DEGREE IT SAYS ANYTHING CONTRADICTS WHAT DD SAID AT THE BEGINNING) IS WORTH LISTENING TO FOR ANYONE SHE INTERVIEWED THIS YEAR– IT WILL BE COLD COMFORT, BUT SHE TURNS INTO A RAMBLING, MELT-DOWN BABBLER JUST LIKE YOU DID.  SOMEONE SHOULD TEACH THESE CHICKS HOW TO EDIT THIS STUFF, BUT FOR THE TIME BEING, THIS IS PRICELESS.

http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/podcasts.html#post-2008-12-15

Dec 15, 2008 (3 days ago)

Interview with the MBA Admissions Director

from HBS MBA Program

Andrea Kimmel from MBA Admissions speaks with Dee Leopold, Managing Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid, about what the admissions board is looking for in applicants, when to consider business school and more.

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Original audio source