HBS Interview Invites Start Rolling Out

Harvard Business School interview invites began rolling out today (Oct. 4) for round one applicants. It’s the first of three days in which candidates in the first application round will be notified of an interview. This is the first batch of invites sent by Chad Losee, new managing director of admissions and financial aid, who is on the road outside the country for HBS today.

The lucky applicants who passed the first admissions hurdle to gain an in-person interview with an HBS staffer got this letter today:

Warm greetings from Harvard Business School!

After careful consideration of your application materials, we would like to get to know you better. This is our invitation to interview.

Take a moment and exhale. Then keep reading.

Now, on to the details. Here’s what you need to know.

NEW PILOT PROGRAM MEANT TO INCREASE YIELD 

The email went on to explain that the business school’s online scheduling system will go live tomorrow, October 5, at noon EST. At that time, invited applicants will be able to register for a specific interview slot. All interview slots are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Also, in an apparent attempt to win over more applicants who may get an admit from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business or other rival schools, HBS told applicants invited to interview that it was conducting a new pilot program. “Admissions is running a pilot this fall to connect interviewees and alumni, and we invite you to participate so you can learn more about HBS from one of our recent graduates,” according to email invites. “Participating in this pilot is completely optional and will not impact your admissions decision; this is not part of the admissions evaluation process. To opt-in to this pilot, please click here. The deadline to opt-in is noon EDT on Thursday, October 13. We hope you will take advantage of this – our alums are eager to talk to you.”

Though Harvard boasts the highest yield–90% of admits enroll at the school –HBS apparently wants to make sure it loses fewer of its admits to its West Coast competitor which has been winning the dual-admit contest in recent years. Stanford’s latest yield number for this year’s admitted class is just two percentage points lower than Harvard’s at 88% (see Stanford Bumps Class GMATs Up Four Points).

ONE IN FOUR ROUND ONE APPLICANTS TYPICALLY GET INVITED TO INTERVIEW

In a typical year, nearly 4,000 candidates will apply to HBS in the first round, roughly 40% of the total applicant pool in the year. Roughly 1,000 of them will get an invite to an interview and then 50% to 60% will ultimately be admitted to Harvard’s MBA program. The bulk of the round one interview invites, as many as 75%, usually go out on the first day. The remaining 25% are sent on the following two days: Oct. 6, and finally Oct. 12. Applicants who fail to get an invite or get placed on the waitlist by Oct. 12 will be “released,” the official HBS lanugage for a rejection.

Interviews by the school’s admissions staffers would then occur between Oct. 23 and Nov. 18. n addition to on-campus interviews, HBS said it also would conduct interviews in Shanghai, Tokyo, Dubai, Mumbai, São Paulo, New York City, Palo Alto, London, and Paris. “Where you interview does not affect your likelihood to be accepted (all interviews globally are conducted only by members of the Admissions Board), but if you come to Boston to interview, you’ll also have the chance to sit in on a class and interact with current students and faculty,” wrote Chad Losee, managing director of HBS admissions and financial aid in a blog post. “Candidates who are not able to travel may be accommodated via Skype.”

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