An Uncommon Journey To HBS

PREPPING FOR FOUR ADMISSION INTERVIEWS IN SIX WEEKS

The first result: A quick rejection without an interview from Columbia Business SchooL–and then dings from Wharton and Yale. But then Fournier was surprised when invites arrived for interviews at Harvard, Stanford, Booth and Kellogg. She had already done a voluntary interview at Tuck. “It was obviously not becuase of my stats. It was because of my essays, work experience and the recommendation letters.”

She had four interviews to prep for in six weeks. They all seemed to go well with one exception: Stanford. “It was really bizarre and I immediately thought I would get a ding.When I got there, all he said was, ‘We are going to talk a little about you and your experience and what you’ve done.’ And then he said, ‘Okay, go ahead.’ I just talked for 45 minutes, and he never asked any questions. He was very friendly and I think it went okay but there was no structure to it and I felt I was rambling.”

In contrast, the Harvard interview was altogether different, though even more daunting because the school was her first choice. Instead of being done by an alum or a second-year student, as was the case at Stanford, Booth and Kellogg, the interview would be conducted by an admissions officer with full access to her entire admissions file. “I have heard good feedback and horrible feedback from those who have been interviewed by HBS,” she says. “The interview can make or break you, and I was really nervous about it.”

‘MY HBS INTERVIEW WAS A PERFECT TEST OF HOW I WOULD REACT IN A CASE ENVIRONMENT’

She flew to Boston in early March, met her husband there for the weekend, and then walked into the interview on campus with Eileen Chang, who has been in HBS admissions for many years as associate director, and a scribe. “We spent half an hour, with 25 minutes devoted to Walmart’s position in the market. They wanted to see how I think critically and approach problems. She asked what do you think Walmart’s weaknesses are in the market. What have you learned the most from leadership there and if you were at the top what would you do differently. All this was my bread and butter. I thought she would ease me into it and later ask tough personal questions, but we kept talking about Walmart and about things I think about all day long. We spent the last five minutes talking about my post-MBA goals and then it was over.”

Though Chang wore her poker face to the interview, the scribe gave her some positive feedback on the way out. “She asked me, ‘Why do you think Whole Foods sales are not growing?’ I gave a quick answer and then I remember her saying, ‘Wow it was such a pleasure meeting you. What an amazing conversation. Thank you for coming in.’”

Fournier was relieved and elated. “I didn’t realize it at the time but that was the perfct test of how I would react in a case environment,” she says. “They got a real good view of how I would contribute in class in a case discussion.”

Little more than two weeks later, on March 22th, she found out how well it really went. Harvard had accepted her.

‘DON’T SELL YOURSELF SHORT’

Her advice and the reason she agreed to share her story comes down to this: “Don’t sell yourself short,” she says. “I see a lot of people with great stats who don’t even apply to HBS and Stanford because they think those schools are way too good for them. So a lot of people count themselves out of the game before taking a chance. Those schools are building diverse classes and you don’t know what you are bringing which could be something very interesting to them. If I did it, anybody could do it.”

For anyone thinking about taking their own journey to business school, Fournier also advises that you need to get the GMAT done and over as soon as you can. “Once you have that in your back pocket, you are ready and nothing will be holding you back.”

And finally, she advises, be really smart about how you approach the application. “You have many ways of communicating information about yourself to the school. Your application can be very bland if you don’t use every tool you have to its maximum. People are attracted to that confidence and passion and the admissions committee will definitely see it.”

Indeed.

DON’T MISS: HE GOT INTO HBS, STANFORD, WHARTON & BOOTH. NOW HE HAD TO DECIDE or HOW I CHOSE AMONG HBS, STANFORD, WHARTON & BOOTH