HBS APPLICATION NUMBERS–WE SPEC ABOUT  ROUND ONE AND TWO.

 ~500 ACCEPTS ROUND ONE.

   hmmmmmmmmmm, one of our special agents planted a transmitter in the right heel of HRH’S (AKA Dee Leopold)  Ferragamo loafers a while back, which turned out to be a small mistake, since unbeknownst to us, she leans on right  heel whenever she says something important, sorta like a sniper leaning back getting ready to fire,  which alas,  interferes w. transmission.

over the past coupla weeks,  HRH has been telling lots of peeps, including admitted students, current students, and even, if we can hear between the static correctly, VISITING STUDENTS, and alums some basic data about admissions this year.

The upshot of which is, 

1. APPS FIRST ROUND WERE UP 20-25 PERCENT [WE HEAR THAT IN LOTS OF BROADCASTS]

2.  APPS 2ND ROUND WERE EITHER FLAT, OR UP 5-10 PERCENT (OR MAYBE DOWN). WE ARE BETTING UP 5-10 PERCENT.

3. NUMBER OF KIDS ADMITTED ROUND ONE = 500 (+ OR minus 10, more shoe problems). THAT number is impt. b.c. it seems higher than usual (~450) and could mean  bad news for WLers.  The 500 admit number for r1 confirms that r1 apps were up 20-25 percent and r2 was flat or up a bit. R1 one app. quality is usually higher than r2 (altho more apps usually received in r2, acceptance rate is higher in r1, fr. a stronger pool).

NOTE: By the time hbs makes final round one decisions, they already know a good deal about round two (number of apps, fr. where, average gmat, gpa, blah, blah) and cert. take that into consideration in figuring out where the bar is for r1. If that is the case, and they only plan on taking 400 kids fr. r2, well, then, things are even fr. WL angle. SOooooooooo, go figure.

fyi, HBS usually admits 1000 kids to get a final class of ~900. round 3 admits (including some number,usually ~20, of college seniors admitted TWO YEARD ago who deferred) is ~100.

BELOW IS TODAY’S ENTRY FROM HBS ADCOM BLOG ANNOUNCING THAT SECOND  ROUND HBS  INTERVIEW INVITES WILL START  GOING  OUT ON FEBRUARY 9TH. 

WHILE IT IS UNCLEAR HOW MANY INVITES WILL BE SENT THAT DAY, IF THE PATTERN FOLLOWS ROUND ONE [SEE THAT BLOG ENTRY UNDER IT] THAT  WOULD MEAN THAT A BIG CHUNK OF INVITES WILL GO OUT ON FEBRUARY 9TH, WITH SOME DRIBBLE AFTER THAT, AND A SMALL GROUP OF WL KIDS BEING NOTIFED OF WAIT LIST [WITHOUT INTERVIEW] ON DECISION DAY.

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

Round 2 Interview Invitations

Date: January 26, 2009

Greetings…

Here’s the plan:

On February 9 we will send out invitations to interview. The invitation will come in an email from HBS MBA Admissions and will contain detailed instuctions about how to sign up for interviews both on campus and in hub cities. Please be assured that if we see you haven’t signed up for an intervew by the end of the week, we will contact you by phone…thus there’s no reason to be anxious about lost emails, etc.

Shortly afterward, I’ll update you here as to how many invitations have been issued and how many we expect will go out between February 10 and the April 2 notification date.

Round One Interview Invitations

Date: November 11, 2008

Today we sent out about 750 invitations to interview. I think we will ultimately send around 850 by the notification date, January 21.

I can’t predict when this additional 100 invitations will go out nor to whom. It is possible that candidates invited in the next few weeks will not have extensive options to interview in hub cities; we will make every effort to work with them to schedule an interview which is convenient.

The Admissions Board continues to review written applications and discuss cases until the January notification date.

I also anticipate that around 100 Round One candidates who have not been interviewed will be invited to accept a place on the wait list in January. As their cases are further considered, they may be invited to interview.

We are trying to be as transparent as possible about this anxiety-producing process. I hope I am clear in my continued message that this is a “selection” process designed to bring a talented and diverse mix of students into the classroom. There are no hard and fast rules and there are many more qualified candidates than we have capacity to admit.

BACKGROUND ON HBS 2+2 PROGRAM from Harvard Crimson story done last September.  The 2+2 program will now accept GRE’s and the next year’s questions are out. See post directly after this one.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=524066

News
Seniors Get HBS “2+2″ Decisions
Published On 9/17/2008 12:51:04 AM
By PRATEEK KUMAR
Crimson Staff Writer

Sanford Kreisberg, an admissions consultant who runs the consulting blog hbsguru.com and gave mock interviews to a number of 2+2 candidates, praised the effort by the MBA admissions office to appeal to younger students who might otherwise have considered different academic paths.

“Leopold deserves an oak cluster on her 25-year service pin for dreaming up 2+2,”  Kreisberg said. “This campaign has probably pre-empted 20 kids from going to Yale Law School and 40 or more from going to Stanford Business School, HBS’s biggest competitor.”

“It?s like HBS was taking babies from the candy,” he added.

Twenty-two Harvard seniors started the new school year on a good note this week, receiving admissions letters from Harvard Business School?s new 2+2 Program.

Approximately 630 college juniors from around the world applied to the program, which requires accepted students to enter the workforce for two years, guaranteeing them a spot at the Business School afterward.

Sixty-six Harvard juniors applied to the 2+2 program, which is in its inaugural year, according to MBA admissions director Deirdre C. Leopold, and the 22 Harvard seniors who were accepted were part of an admitted cohort of 106. Almost half of the admits were from engineering or natural science backgrounds, with a large proportion of these students involved in the life sciences.

The 2+2 program yielded an acceptance rate of approximately 17 percent, slightly higher than the regular admissions rate of 14 percent for the MBA class of 2009. The acceptance rate for Harvard undergraduates into the 2+2 program was well above both averages at about 33 percent.

?I think that we?re trying to be clear in our messaging that we want different applicants that wouldn?t have found us without the 2+2 program,? Leopold said. ?There are plenty of other ways to get into HBS besides the 2+2 program, and we want to find students who wouldn?t have necessarily found us otherwise.?

?But of course, there are no hard and fast rules in the admissions program,? Leopold added. ?Just like the regular admissions pool, we are looking for people with strong academic credentials, a real pattern of curiosity and engagement, and excitement about what an MBA can do for their future.?

Leopold also noted her belief that HBS would continue to see an increase in the number of undergraduate applicants because of the Early Career Initiative, which focuses on attracting students within three years of graduating college. Thanks to recruitment efforts for 2+2 by the Business School, Leopold said that undergraduates became more aware about the possibility of applying while still in college, and this increased awareness would lead to higher numbers of applications.

Sanford Kreisberg, an admissions consultant who runs the consulting blog hbsguru.com and gave mock interviews to a number of 2+2 candidates, praised the effort by the MBA admissions office to appeal to younger students who might otherwise have considered different academic paths.

?Leopold deserves an oak cluster on her 25-year service pin for dreaming up 2+2,? Kreisberg said. ?This campaign has probably pre-empted 20 kids from going to Yale Law School and 40 or more from going to Stanford Business School, HBS?s biggest competitor.?

?It?s like HBS was taking babies from the candy,? he added.

One of the ?babies? who received a 2+2 acceptance last week is Michael Segal ?09, a biochemistry concentrator.

?In the end, applying to 2+2 seemed like a fairly obvious decision because the program not only guarantees a spot at HBS and guarantees time to develop your own worldview,? Segal said, ?but it allows you to find the best experience to have for two years. This program is a win-win on all accounts.?

2+2 also allows students to take an optional third year in the workforce before returning to Cambridge.

As a freshman, Segal was considering attending medical school after college. However, when he founded the Harvard College Entrepreneurship Forum during his sophomore year, his direction shifted.

?I had always had a philosophical interest in business and entrepreneurship.? Segal said. ?I wanted to learn more about these people who disrupt how we think about the world, and in the process, I became enamored with the entrepreneurial world and decided that I wanted to be a part of it.?

The Business School will still be in touch with students who were offered interviews but not admittance. Leopold said that her office would talk with them about their future plans and whether they would like to enter the regular admissions pool in the future. Students who did not receive an interview can also still apply later for regular admissions.

?This pool of candidates was amazing, beyond our wildest expectations,? Leopold said. ?These people are so different, so passionate, and will certainly change the world.?

?Staff writer Prateek Kumar can be reached at kumar@fas.harvard.edu.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=524066

HBS STARTS TAKING GRE’S FOR 2+2 PROGRAM. WILL REGULAR APPLICATIONS FOLLOW?

BYE-BYE FOR THE GMATS???? JUST TO PROJECT.  ALTHO ONE ADVANTAGE OF GMATS IS THERE ARE MORE TESTING SITES………AND EASIER TO SCHEDULE, ETC. SO I DONT EXPECT ANY COLLAPSE OF GMATS SOON, BUT I DO EXPECT THE PRICE TO GO DOWN

DUH, IT IS CALLED COMPETITION.  OF COURSE, I COULD BE DREAMING AND NAIVE, AND EFFECT WILLBE THAT GRE PRICE WILL GO UP.

ANYWAY, AS FAR AS WE KNOW, THIS IS JUST MORE OF HBS BECOMING BESOTTED W. ITS OWN 2+2 PROGRAM. AND MAKING IT EASIER, AS ONE BRILLIANT COMMENTATOR NOTED, TO STEAL THE BABIES FROM THE CANDY.   YES, YOUR MAJESTY, IT IS EASY TO FALL IN LOVE W. 21 YEAR OLDS WHO ARE FULL OF PROMISE ………………..

News about 2+2 Program

http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/blog.html#post-2009-01-12

I’m happy to announce that the essay questions for this year’s 2+2 applicants are up on the website.

This year we will be accepting results from both the GMAT and GRE for 2+2 applicants. More detailed information about this will be on the website soon.

If you’re a current college underclassman, please explore the 2+2 Program and consider whether it may be a good idea for you. All of us who read applications and interviewed candidates last summer believe that this was an eye-opening experience for us - the energy and talent had us all truly impressed. Last year’s admits will be gathering here on campus in late June . . . we’ll be doing some interviews and podcasts that I think you’ll find interesting.

Back to the Round 2 applications . . . .[AMAZING THAT THEY GOT THIS OUT IN THE WEEK HRH LEOPOLD HERSELF DESCRIBED AS THE BUSIEST OF THE YEAR…………..OH, LOVE CONQUERS ALL……….JUST HAD TO GET THIS VALENTINE OUT THE YOUNGINS.]

Dee

I enjoy reading your posts.  I have a question about a recent HBS interview.  The interview took place about two weeks ago - just before the holdays - and was over the phone (the phone had a delay b/c it was via satellite).  It was late in Cambridge and early the next morning where I am.  The interview lasted just over 30 minutes and was quite intense.

Bottom-line is that the interview felt very rushed.  It was difficult to develop a rapport with the interviewer which sort of threw me off base for the first five minutes of it.  Because of this, I came away from the call feeling like it was my worst one so far.  After reviewing the questions in my mind following the call, I feel like I did better than ok on substance.  However, given the rushed feeling of the interview, I did not really have the opportunity to express myself or even fully explain my answers. 

So, is this normal?  If you were me, what would you be thinking right now?  

hmmmmm, I would be feeling mostly OK, as a matter of mind, altho pissed emotionally as you seem to be, but that describes A LOT of post HBS interviews, even face-to-face jobs. The real issues w. HBS interview is,

1. did you DISQUAL yourself by dint of poor English language ability, or MIND FREEZE, or DRIVEL Attack.

THAT IS MOST IMPT, AND HAPPENS ABOUT 15 percent of the time. If that happens, YOU DO NOT GET IN.

2. Did you substantively answer any REAL questions –about goals, or how you did x or y. Not BS questions like “Tell me about dealing w. a conflict?” but real questions, like HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY DO WHAT YOU SAID, GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE OF SOMEONE WHO HAS DONE THAT?” OR “We get lotsa kids who say they want to go to Africa and start microfinance, why should we believe you?”

A LOT OF TIMES, YOUR APP DOES NOT REALLY HAVE ANY REAL QUESTIONS LIKE THAT–SO YOU CANNOT SCREW IT UP.

3. The Beauty Contest part–where you likeable, humane, “our type” in terms of presenting, self-awareness, etc. and did you not piss us off b.c. of being arrogant, etc.

Sounds like you were OK on critical issues 1 and 2 above. and may have had a less than stellar beauty contest part, altho lots of winning kids feel rushed, so hard to say.

good luck and drop me a line after D-Day.