A Revealing Interview With Harvard Business School’s Dee Leopold

Any change on 2+2 in terms of what you are looking for?

2+2 is just a strategic opportunity for us to get in front of people on college campuses. Before we had 2+2 if we went to a college campus, we wouldn’t get a good turnout because people knew that business school was something you did later. So students might ask themselves, what am I doing sitting through a presentation now? But we have a vehicle now if they are interested in business school. And we can go in with the engineering clubs or women in science people and get some visibility. it also helps us to broaden the number of schools that people come from. Yes, we go to friends-and-family schools but we also go to regional engineering schools that we think are really cool. Most people are waiting three years after being accepted in the 2+2 program and it’s hard to wrench the entrepreneurs away from their businesses. Some have started some really amazing businesses already.

I also think that maybe it’s time to think about the liberal arts majors. History majors know how to think analytically really well and they have context. If they have the quantitative chops, that is a cool group.

Does it help if an applicant has taken a few MOOCs in business? 

This is the first time we are giving them the opportunity to call out online courses and MOOCs.  What we want them to do is build a case for themselves that tells us how they will do in analytical work.

HBS recently launched the first of its online learning courses for liberal arts students and recent graduates. Is there any plan to look at graduates of that program as a recruitment tool for the full-time MBA program?

It’s still too early to tell. Is it something that we require of our pre-matriculants or is it something to build a case for admissions? We are waiting and watching to see.

This year, the only surprise was the early deadline. What do you have in store for next year?

We haven’t yet cooked up next year’s surprises yet. I don’t know. My theme for this year internally in Dillon is sense and sensitivity. I don’t want to innovate for the purpose of being cute or gimmicky or drawing attention. It has to make sense. And the sensitivity to how we are perceived by the marketplace. I don’t want to set up this gauntlet of odd hurdles simply for the sake of building hurdles.

DON’T MISS: SNEAK PEAK AT HBS’ CLASS OF 2016 or HBS KICKS OFF 2014-2015 ADMISSIONS SEASON or SANDY’S VIEW OF DEE’S REVEALING INTERVIEW ABOUT HBS ADMISSIONS