Harvard Business School MBA News

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Published: August 7, 2013

GMAC Commissions New Book on Challenges Facing Business Education

The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), which owns and administers the GMAT exam, has commissioned a new book examining challenges confronting graduate management education, from technological advancements and globalization to how to measure program quality other than through rankings. Disrupt or Be Disrupted: A Blueprint for Change in Management Education, out this month, contains contributions from leading academics and thinkers such as Harvard Business School Professor Rakesh Khurana and Former INSEAD Dean Dipak Jain on how to reimagine curriculum content and delivery, student engagement, faculty development and more. Read more

Published: July 7, 2013

New $10 Million Alumni Donation Will Support Curriculum Innovation at Harvard Business School

The family of a late Harvard Business School (HBS) alumnus has donated $10 million to help support efforts already underway to innovativly redesign the second-year MBA curriculum, the school announced last week. The donation, from the family of the late William F. Connell, a 1963 MBA graduate of HBS, will establish the Margot and William F. Connell Family MBA Program Innovation Fund, which will help support the redesign of the HBS second-year curriculum to provide MBA students with more courses, new technology applications and platforms and expanded faculty development initiatives. Read more

Published: June 30, 2013

Some Master’s Degree Students Now Eligible for Harvard Business School’s 2+2 Program

Harvard Business School (HBS) today announced that it has expanded the eligibility requirements of its 2+2 Program to include not only college students but also candidates who have gone directly to a master’s degree program after their undergraduate study. The 2+2 Program at HBS is a deferred admissions process originally designed for college students who want to secure a future spot in the HBS MBA class. Candidates admitted to the 2+2 Program will have a place reserved for them at HBS, which they can assume after completing two years of work in the public, private or nonprofit sector. With today’s change, the program is now also open to current students in full-time master’s programs who proceeded directly from college to their current master's degree program, according to HBS Dean of Admissions Dee Leopold. Read more

Published: June 12, 2013

Top Business Schools Help Students Who Head into Lower Paying Fields

Taking on debt to finance an MBA program only to take a job at a low-paying nonprofit organization after business school doesn’t add up to graduates being able to repay their loans. Fortunately, many top business schools have created programs to help ease the financial burden for those who go into nonprofit or other low-paying fields, according to a recent report in Bloomberg BusinessWeek. In addition to Harvard Business School, which this year gave 19 students grants of $50,000 to supplement their first-year salaries, schools including Columbia Business School (CBS), Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, UMichigan’s Ross School of Business, Stanford Graduate School of Business and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School all also offer financial assistance in one form or another to help graduates repay student loans, Bloomberg BW reports. And while many business school students don’t seem to know about these programs, they should: The benefits can extend for multiple years adding up to as much as $100,000 for some, Bloomberg BW adds. Read more

Published: June 5, 2013

More Women than Ever to Attend Harvard Business School in the Fall

Harvard Business School (HBS) expects women to make up a record 41 percent of its incoming MBA class, according to preliminary data released earlier this week. Up from 40 percent last year and 35 percent ten years ago, it reflects continuing efforts the school has been making to bolster female enrollment. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School has been a leader among top business schools with regard to female enrollment, with women making up 42 percent of its incoming class last year. The Philadelphia school has not yet released its enrollment figures for the upcoming fall. Stanford Graduate School of Business, which enrolled 35 percent women last year, also has not yet released fall enrollment figures. Read more

Published: May 30, 2013

Clear Admit’s Graham Richmond Weighs in on Harvard Business School Application Changes

The business education media has been abuzz following the announcement yesterday that Harvard Business School (HBS) will change its application requirements in the year ahead. Bloomberg BusinessWeek, PoetsandQuants, the Financial Times and others all featured articles conveying the news and reactions to it. Both Bloomberg BW and P&Q consulted Clear Admit co-founder Graham Richmond to get his take on what the changes mean. Most notable, Richmond says, is HBS’s decision to make the essay an optional portion of the application, which sets it apart from virtually every other Read more

Published: May 29, 2013

Harvard Business School Reduces Number of Application Essays, Recommendations

Prospective applicants to Harvard Business School (HBS), take note: Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Dee Leopold shared a lot of interesting information in her Director’s Blog today. Topline news: Applicants for fall 2014 will only answer one essay (with no word limit) and will only need to submit two letters of recommendation (down from three). The single essay question asks simply what else the Ad Com should consider about an applicant’s candidacy in addition to the other elements submitted as part of the application (resume, school transcripts, extra-curricular activities, awards, post-MBA career goals, test scores). Read more

Published: May 2, 2013

Harvard University Receives $50 Million to Increase Collaboration between Life Sciences and Harvard Business School

A family foundation headed by a Harvard Business School alumnus has donated $50 million to launch an initiative designed to speed the development of early-stage scientific discoveries into patient therapies and cures for diseases, Harvard announced earlier this week. The gift also will fund a new fellowship in life sciences entrepreneurship. The Blavatnik Family Foundation, headed by Len Blavatnik (HBS MBA ’89), provided the generous gift, which will establish the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator and the Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship Program at HBS. Read more

Published: April 18, 2013

Boston Manhunt Closes Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Cancels Sloan AdMIT Weekend

As a search for the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings continues, area business schools have closed and are urging students to “shelter in place” – that is, remain wherever they are – as instructed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick early this morning. Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management both have cancelled classes, and MIT Sloan has also cancelled its AdMIT weekend for accepted students, according to websites and Twitter accounts from each school. Read more

Published: April 14, 2013

Round 3 Interview Update from Harvard Business School Admissions

Decision day is approaching for Round 3 applicants to Harvard Business School (HBS), and Dean of Admissions Dee Leopold outlined what to expect in a recent post to her Director’s Blog. “On Monday, April 22nd, probably at noon Boston time, every Round 3 applicant will get an email from us," she wrote. The email will contain either an invitation to interview or a “Sorry, we can’t offer you a place in the class,” notification, she continued. Read more

Published: April 3, 2013

Harvard Business School Celebrates Fifty Years of Women with the W50 Summit

Today and tomorrow, April 4th and 5th, Harvard Business School (HBS) is hosting a summit designed to help accelerate the advancement of women leaders who make a difference in the world. Called the W50 Summit, the two-day event is part of a year-long celebration marking the 50th anniversary of women being admitted to the two-year MBA program. Read more

Published: March 31, 2013

Harvard MBA Admissions Interview Questions: R1 / Adcom / Off-Campus Hub

Interviewed in an off-campus hub with adcom. Interview was succinct, straight forward, and generally conversational. Overall, I don’t think I had any major points I didn’t get across and ultimately was admitted! 1) Let’s talk about (first company)- what do they do? What did you do there? 2) What’s your average day look like? 3) What’s the next big brand in your industry? 4) Let’s talk about (second company)- what do they do? Tell me about your job there? 5) What would you do differently if you were CEO? 6) What have you learned from Read more

Published: March 11, 2013

Admission into Harvard Business School with a 570 GMAT Score? Clear Admit’s Graham Richmond Shares How It Might Happen

Harvard Business School (HBS), which publicly discloses the range of GMAT scores by enrolled students every year, got folks in the MBA admissions world talking when it revealed that a student with a score of 570 will be part of next year’s class. How could someone who scored 160 points below the class median on a test considered by many to forecast business school success possibly still get in? To HBS, of all places, where only 13 percent of the close to 9,000 eager applicants this year secured a spot? PoetsandQuants (P&Q) posed the question to the HBS admissions staff, which declined to shed any light on the successful candidate. So P&Q then turned to MBA admissions consultants, Clear Admit’s Graham Richmond among them, to guess about just what might be going on in the offices of HBS MBA Dean of Admissions Dee Leopold. Read more

Published: February 27, 2013

Harvard MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / Skype

The interview started with the question “which was the last book you read?” as the first of many personal questions they asked me. They asked then “Why did you decide to apply to this business school? “, “What makes you stand out among other candidates?”, “How do you plan to use your degree?”, “Where do you see yourself in ten years?”, “Can you give me an example of a time that you demonstrated leadership?”. Then the very feared “Can you walk me through your resume?”, and concluding with “With all of your experience, why do you need an MBA?”. Read more

Published: January 28, 2013

Harvard MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / Off-Campus Hub / Admitted

I interviewed in November in a hub city. My interview was conducted by two Adcom members, although only one of them was an active speaker, the other one being an active listener. Both were quite active writers! At first, I thought having to deal with two people would add some more stress to the whole process, but it was actually quite the opposite, as having almost continuous eye contact helped me build some confidence. After the usual greeting, I was told that the interview would last 30 min (which it did), that there would be no time left for Read more

Published: December 17, 2012

Harvard MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / On-Campus

I arrived on campus at 9 am and participated in the different activities they offered for interviewees. The day in general was very impressive and enjoyable, with an interesting lunch speaker, tour of the campus, and class observation. My interview was early afternoon, and was with an adcom. Started off with basic questions like tell me about yourself, what do you do in your job, and some follow up questions asking me to provide detail on certain things I said. I’d suggest knowing your application inside and out and know exactly what you want to do when you graduate and Read more

Published: December 12, 2012

Harvard MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom/ On-campus

I interviewed at Harvard in November 2012. The interview was exactly 30 minutes and in the room was a man asking questions, a woman silently taking notes, and myself. It was a little awkward. Below are the questions I was asked, though they are not in order. They weren’t any of the questions I saw in past years, and it was a pretty tense interview. The interviewers were very hard to read. • What’s a piece of constructive criticism that you’ve been given that you didn’t agree with? • What do you know now that you wish you’d known Read more

Published: September 24, 2012

Clear Admit’s Stacey Oyler Featured in Article on Harvard Business School’s Application Changes

Marking yesterday’s round one application deadline at Harvard Business School (HBS), Poets&Quants today ran an article asking admissions consultants how the applicants they worked with on this year’s application to HBS felt about the school’s move to reduce its required essays from four to two. According to the P&Q report, between 30 and 50 percent of candidates to Harvard are estimated to work with a consultant during their application process, making consultants a good gauge of market reaction to the changes. The majority of admissions consultants polled by P&Q reported frustration on the part of their clients about the new application format, in which applicants have a total of just 800 words to answer two direct questions, namely, “tell us something you’ve done well” and “tell us something you wish you had done better.” According to several consultants, applicants felt like the change didn’t allow them the opportunity to fully tell their story or “fan out all their feathers” as one put it. Clear Admit Senior Admissions Counselor Stacey Oyler had a different view. “I think that the clients took the changes in stride,” she told P&Q. “After the initial surprise, they focused on sharpening their message and telling their stories with the two essays and their resume. It took some fine tuning, but I think most are happy with the applications they crafted.” Read more

Published: July 29, 2012

Clear Admit Featured in Financial Times Article on Changing MBA Admissions

Clear Admit’s own Graham Richmond was featured as part of an article this week in the Financial Times about changes taking place this admissions season at several top business schools. The article, entitled “The Creative Route to an MBA,” highlighted the shift at several top MBA programs toward requiring fewer essays from applicants, among other changes. Several top schools, including Harvard Business School (HBS), Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, will require applicants to submit fewer essays as part of the application process than in years past. Clear Admit’s Richmond told the FT that he believes this is part of a trend by top programs to shift emphasis away from the essays and toward the interview portion of the application process. Read more

Published: March 13, 2012

Harvard MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / Off-Campus Hub / Admitted

Very friendly and down to earth interview with an admissions committee member. The interview started off with some small talk and then she explained that she would ask me a series of questions and would be looking at her watch frequently and might have to cut me off, she never ended up cutting me off and was taking notes but also looked at me and had good eye contact as I spoke. Below are the questions I received: What did you think of the Harvard application process? Anything that we should change? What was your rationale for choosing X undergrad Read more

Published: June 6, 2011

Harvard Business School, U Penn’s Wharton School Travel the Globe to Meet Prospective Applicants

Admissions staff from top schools like Harvard Business School (HBS) and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania are circling the globe in the weeks ahead to meet prospective applicants in the countries where they live. Next week, HBS will host MBA Admissions events in Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai* and Beijing. South American events, in Peru and Argentina, are scheduled for later in the summer, in July. These outreach events are designed to give prospective applicants an opportunity to meet representatives from the HBS community and learn more about the MBA program and the admissions process. Interested participants are asked to register online to attend upcoming events. For a full schedule, click here. Read more

Harvard Business School

CLASS SIZE: 930

Women: 45%

MEDIAN GMAT: 740

MEAN GPA: 3.69

Livewire Decisionwire Interview Reports Essay Topic Analysis MBA Admissions Deadlines View Full Profile

MBA Applywire

December 20, 2024 5:17pm ET

Applying: Columbia, Duke / Fuqua, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, Stanford GSB, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Healthcare

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting Companies: Bain , BCG

GRE: 332

GPA: 3.5

Years of Work Experience: 3

Location: Florida

Post MBA Location: Consulting

Notes:

25F, lgbtq, 3 years as a registered nurse. also have started working for an early stage VC in the past several months.

December 19, 2024 4:44pm ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Stanford GSB

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Insurance

Post-MBA Target Industry: Entrepreneurship

GRE: 318

GPA: 3.59

Years of Work Experience: 3.5

Location: Georgia

Post MBA Location: Southeast

Notes:

Looking to launch a tech startup post MBA, without any background in tech. Come from a quant heavy background and undergraduate coursework. I regularly attended admissions events, in person and online at my schools. I hope that focusing energy on my few top schools and spending a lot of time on essays will help me overcome the less than average test score (164 quant 154 verbal) and GPA.

Serial entrepreneur with a history of profitable small businesses. Was promoted twice in 3.5 years. Involved in many extracurricular activities in and outside of work. My background is very centered around financial services/insurance, is this a red flag for a pivot to Tech Entrepreneurship?

Transferred between two state schools in the southeast. School I graduated from is a top 25 undergrad business program. Obtained a few professionals designations post grad.

December 18, 2024 11:38am ET

Applying: Michigan / Ross, UNC Kenan-Flagler, Vanderbilt / Owen

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Held various positions in Finance and Accounting in a healthcare institution

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Other Companies: BCG , Deloitte , Other

GPA: 3.0

Years of Work Experience: 11

Location: International

Notes:

I am passionate about healthcare enhancing patient quality care. So exploring in that field is what I would love. Got a 72k scholarship from Vandy and named Forte Fellow. UNC 50k. I'm having a hard time deciding though my heart is leaning towards Owen

December 18, 2024 10:23am ET

Applying: Arizona State / W.P. Carey, Indiana / Kelley, Ohio State / Fisher

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Facility management

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting

GRE: 309

GPA: 2.8

Years of Work Experience: 3

Notes:

Graduate GPA -3.869

December 18, 2024 2:57am ET

Applying: IESE, INSEAD, MIT Sloan, U. Chicago Booth

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Engineering

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Technology, Undecided Companies: Amazon

GMAT: 690

GPA: 3.26

Years of Work Experience: 4

Location: Chile

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MBA LiveWire

December 21, 2024 2:38am ET

Waitlisted at Duke / Fuqua

Round: Round 1

Received via phone on December 10, 2024

GPA: 3.27

GMAT: 760

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Finance

Application Location: CA

December 20, 2024 11:16pm ET

Accepted to Babson / Olin

Round: Round 1

Received via email on December 17, 2024

GPA: 3.9

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: South Asia

December 20, 2024 7:50pm ET

Accepted to Columbia

Round: Round 1

Received via portal on December 10, 2024

GMAT: 750

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Application Location: India

Note:

$100k scholarship

December 20, 2024 3:21pm ET

Accepted to Yale SOM

Round: Round 1

Received via email December 20, 2024

GPA: 4.0

GMAT: 750

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Note:

100% scholarship

December 20, 2024 3:05pm ET

Accepted to Georgetown / McDonough

Round: Round 1

Received via phone on December 09, 2024

GMAT: 710

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Non Profit / Social Impact

Application Location: Argentina

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