Rejected By HBS? These Extraordinary Applicants Couldn’t Even Get An Interview

If you were rejected today (Oct. 1) by Harvard Business School, you’re are probably perplexed by the turndown. Often times, prospective students who have great stats and careers are tossed aside for subtle and not easily understood reasons. Last year, for example, several dinged candidates boasted GMAT scores as high as 780 or GPAs as high as 4.0 from the very best Ivy League schools. They worked for Fortune 100 companies and major global consulting firms, investment banks, and startups. We’re talking Goldman Sachs, Google, Procter & Gamble, and McKinsey, Bain or BCG.

Sandy Kreisberg, founder of HBSGuru.com

So, as we have in the past, we’ve asked Sandy Kreisberg, founder of HBSGuru.com, a leading MBA admissions consultant and an astute reader of all HBS tea leaves, to take a look at the profiles of “released” applicants and explain why they didn’t make the first cut. Look at it this way: You have plenty of company. If last year’s application volume holds up this year, you are probably among more than 2,400 candidates who were rejected by HBS today.

If you would like Sandy to explain your HBS ding, just post below in the comment section your profile, your GPA, GMAT, company information, and any other facts you think made your application different. The more detail you provide, including what you wrote in your essay to HBS, the easier it will be for Sandy to determine why HBS turned you down.

To give you an idea of how this plays out, here is our of round one ding report from last year:

You’d Never Believe These MBA Applicants Were Just Rejected By Harvard Business School