HBS interview invitations are out?!

Can confirm it... buddy of mine got an invite.

Second. One of my good friends from college received her invite as well.

Thanks guys!

Good luck to those with interviews. You definitely need to prepare for them. Here's some advice written from an HBS alum and head of a program that has helped over a thousand applicants get into top MBA programs.

5 Keys To A Winning MBA Admissions Interview - http://bit.ly/3ENAdv

Gotta Mentor www.GottaMentor.com Connect to the Advice & People You Need to Achieve Your Career Goals

Anyone who got an interview right at the beginning probably is a shoe-in candidate anyway...lucky bastards.

I wouldn't be surprised... my friend has a pretty vanilla track. Top-tier school, MBB, top-tier PE; I had 2 other friends get interviews recently and they had a similar profile.

Yeah, I am a non-traditional background engineering/military so I really am second-guessing myself with each passing day I don't get an invite. If I do get an invite I will be shaking in my boots (literally) because there is so much riding on it.

Confirmed; friend got an invite.

Still no invite... I think I can pretty much call this one over. Oh well, I should have spent more weekends studying in college instead of fucking around with my friends.

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" I guess I should consider myself lucky if my life's greatest failure was attending Darden or Columbia istead of HBS or Wharton or Chicago."

Good call. Hey, you want to do IB long term, right? You'll get the same IB Associate job coming out of Columbia or Darden that an HBS grad gets.

Well, the more I learn about PE/VC the more I hope to transition to it in the long term. I know HBS is the place to go for that. I think I may try another Hail Mary with Stanford for R2 if I get my other apps done in time. The hardest part about doing a lot of apps is getting recommenders. Guy I knew got dinged without an interview at HBS and got in Stanford 2nd round.

You sacrificed that much, and you only ended up with a 3.6? How pathetic.

SirBankalot, Dude--STFU. Thanks for the words of encouragement--I got a Wharton interview today.

Congrats!!! Wharton placement holds up pretty well to HBS! I will apply to Wharton in 2 years.

What are the chances in applicant with 3.7 GPA (econ major, math minor) from top 10 undergrad, 2 years in S&T at BB, 750 GMAT gets admitted to HBS?

Gordy, congrats. Perhaps you and I will be classmates.

SirBanks -- I've never claimed to be the kind of genius that makes straight As without sacrifice. Particularly since my undergrad school was a competitive BBA program with a curve. Only 15% of students were allowed to make As or A-minuses in core classes. I did sacrifice a lot to maintain a 3.9+ in that environment until my final year. I went into summer internship recruiting with a 4.0 and I went into full-time recruiting with something above a 3.95 (I forget exactly what it was, but one teacher had given me a B+ that previous spring).

However, as you clearly saw by my GPA, that final year was my "I'm going to take risks and be a real college student before I go be a BB IBD analyst" year. That year was... let's just say that it wasn't a sacrifice. My GPA went from 3.95+ to 3.64 real fast. I took some crazy classes, had a little bit of fun. And it was good.

Mactrader: nobody but an adcom person can really tell you your "chances". We can play with numbers but at the end of the day it's just a finger in the wind. That said, here's how I figure it. Harvard admits 12% of total applicants. We want to know what our chances are of being in that 12%, which means we're trying to guess how we look in comparison to the rest of the population. In other words, are we in the top 12% from the point of view of admissions? And, of course, a lot more goes into that than just what your numbers are and where you worked.

Either there is something wrong with your application (in which your chances will be quite slim) or there isn't (in other words, you are in the realm of high GPA/GMAT and good work experience). In your case it sounds like you fall into the latter category. However, we all know that Harvard receives far more applications from 3.7 bulge bracket 750's than they can admit, and the final choice depends on little stuff like demographics, how much the adcom liked you in person, and the desired final class blend. Each school's got their recipe for special sauce, after all.

It's anybody's guess how many of HBS's applicants fall into the "no obvious dings" category, but I'd guess as many as 40%. I think I fall into that category myself, with a 3.6/770 and some good work experience. If I were a white male I'd probably call my own chances close to 30%; I figure I'm more like 35% as a woman (particularly since women tend to score 30-40 points lower on the GMAT than men). According to an adcom friend of mine, schools particularly like it when, in admitting a single person, they can increase both their female/male ratio and their average GMAT.

you got a 770 on your GMAT? that's awesome!

you got a 770 on your GMAT? that's awesome!

congrats!

Yeah, well, good luck. Dinged after interview. Its funny how you don't know me in the slightest outside of my gpa and gmat yet you call me average.

Your comments say more about your maturity than I ever could.

There's a pretty big difference between at 2.9 GPA in engineering at, say, Georgia Tech and a 3.7 in political science at, say, Amherst. One may be more liked by adcoms, but what is more impressive in practice? I think the answer goes without saying.

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You should show more respect for the people who fight for you in the armed forces, futurebanker.

IMO, fighting in Iraq should be a bigger positive for b school admissions than megafunds (and I am going into banking myself).

FutureBanker09, not only do you come across as someone with little tact, you also exhibit little awareness of how the business school application process works. I'm surprised you don't demonstrate more respect for people that put themselves in danger to serve our nation while you hide behind your computer screen in your humble dorm room.

Furthermore, the fact that you think you're a shoo-in at any of the top business schools after an analyst stint reflects a potential lack of leadership on your end. What value do you think you will add to your business school class, as someone that's moderately competent at crunching numbers on Excel? Because that's really all you'll be doing as an analyst unless you have some way to demonstrate leadership that goes significantly above and beyond your call of duty.

As someone that will be matriculating at one such business school that you've referenced in your posts, I would hope not to have someone that's so eager to make misinformed and narrow-minded statements as part of my same alumni network. And I mean this in the most sincere of ways.

Gordon, if nothing else, im definitely happy to see that atleast someone still has the maturity to not be dragged down to the crap futurebanker is saying...its best to ignore those kids. kid prolly gets freaked by a stress interview, forget if he ever went through basic or anything

hope bschool works out for u!

Future Banker09, for some perspective, I'm also a military guy, average GPA, slightly above average GMAT, not a "target" school as you say, and I'm going to a top three from round 1.

You have no idea what you're talking about if you think that the finance guys are competing against military officers for slots. 1) we are part of an entirely different demographic 2) we make our money off of 5+ years of real leadership experience, which I'd say analysts, finance guys in general, and consultants have....none?! (not a slight, just a fact)

So if you think the ibankers and the Indian IT engineers and the military officers and the Peace Corps volunteers are being looked at the same, you're kidding yourself. Best of luck with the school search.

Does HBS look at your overall College GPA or just last 2 years to get their average? I have like a 3.95 in my last two years but overall i have about a 3.6..

hmm was just wondering.

look at the whole thing obviously, but rising trend is better than falling.