1) The document provides advice to MBA applicants on how to respond after receiving their decision from Harvard Business School (HBS) for Round 1. It discusses strategies for those who received an interview, were deferred a decision, or were denied admission. 2) For those receiving an interview, it recommends feeling proud but continuing plans and prepping within 7-10 days of the interview. It also stresses knowing personal goals and HBS well. 3) For those deferred, it suggests staying calm and cool as HBS measures how applicants handle ambiguity. It provides guidance on asking references to call on their behalf respectfully. 4) For those denied, it reminds them that HBS has harsh statistics and not

1. Responding to Your HBS Decision
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MBA Admissions Consultant - Amerasia Consulting Group

2. Responding to Your HBS Decision
Today is one of those days on the calendar that tend to stop everyone
in their tracks and dominate the headlines. Nevermind that the Kellogg
Round 1 deadline is tomorrow or that some people found out today
that they were admitted to MIT - no, it's all about the HBS Round 1
notification deadline. Interview or ding? Rather, interview or ding or
deferral, as that appears to be a popular option this year as well. Let's
make sense of things and offer some advice on how to respond from
here. We'll group it result-by-result.
INTERVIEW
If you got an interview, congratulations. You probably found this out
last week, as for the second year in a row the "two notification dates"
was a bit of a misnomer. My best guess is that 80-90% of the interview
invites went out last Wednesday, just as they did on the first date last
year. I don't know why HBS is going through the charade of doing it this
way, but by next year, everyone will basically know that if they didn't
get an interview on the first notification date, they are just waiting to
see if it's a deny or a deferral. Now, if you DID get an interview,
obviously I don't need to tell you to feel good about it because you
already do. You are halfway (or better) home to an admit from HBS
and you got some validation very early in the process. That said, there
are a few things I find myself telling many clients, so they are worth
posting here.
1. Don't change your plans. It's one thing to lock up an admit to
Sloan or Columbia and let that change your plans (get more
aggressive with top schools and so forth), because it's an admit it's a bird in hand. An interview is obviously not an admit. Even if
you are amazing in interviews, even if you have the charisma of
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3. Brad Pitt, don't change a thing about what you are doing. Stick to
whatever plan you laid out for yourself at the beginning.
2. Bunch your prep. What I mean by this is first set your interview
date and then set up your prep to take place within a window
fairly near that date. You may be excited about getting an
interview, but it does no good to race off and practice and do
mock interviews 3-4 weeks before the actual interview. Any
refinement will be lost at that point. You want to set up your prep
work about 7-10 days before the real thing - close enough to keep
it fresh, but far enough out that you can incorporate any
feedback.
3. Own your goals; get to know HBS. If you were a client of mine,
you probably do own your goals and you know exactly why you
want to go to HBS. However, due to the open-ended nature of
the essay this year, many applicants might not have done those
things. If you walk into an HBS interview and don't know exactly
what you want to do with your life (and why) and if you don't
have a really deep and detailed understanding of HBS and what
makes it special, you are at a severe disadvantage. In many ways,
if you did not build up to this point with a good consultant or at
least good advice, you are kind of starting from scratch.
4. Start thinking about the post-interview writing assignment. This
is not something that you want to be too polished (HBS has gone
to great lengths to make sure you know this, to the point where I
joke that you should make an intentional grammar error just to
make it look nice and scruffy), but you do want to it to be well
thought out. Think about what you might cover in the interview
and what you have said so far in your app, and what might be left
for you to say. Consider the talking points you want to bring with
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4. you to HBS and then, when the interview is over, you will be able
to see which ones are left and you can build upon something
unsaid to bring real depth and meaning to a tricky assignment.
DEFERRAL
If you got a deferral, well, I hope you like limbo, because you are now
going to be just hanging out for about 3-4 months as you wait for HBS
to collect its Round 2 wave and see what it has. The pragmatist looks at
what HBS is doing and thinks "they must have had a huge Round 1
application haul; they clearly want to see what they have before they
commit too many spots, while also making sure they don't punt away
some great candidates." The cynic looks at what HBS is doing and says,
"Boy, they really think they are something; they have no respect for
their applicants." The strategist looks at this and says, "Okay, how does
this fit with what HBS is doing more generally?"
On that front, I would say do this: convert the word "limbo" to
"ambiguity" and then read literally anything I have written about HBS in
the past two years and you will see where I am going with this. HBS
wants to see how you deal with ambiguity! That's the name of the
game. They have added post-interview assignments, they have made
the essay open-ended, and now they have used an aggressive
deferment strategy. All of those things create massive amounts of
ambiguity for the applicants and I honestly believe the are taking note
of who handles it well.
So … what should you do?
1. Keep your spurs from jangling. See above - they are trying to
measure how well you deal with all of this, so the best thing to do
is stay low and stay cool. If they deferred you, they clearly like
you and were very interested. They just either don't want to
overcommit too many spots too early or they want to see how
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5. you handle things. If you leap at them like a cougar, you are
toast. If you hang back and play it confident, your chances seem
pretty good. (Note: I have said the same thing to waitlisted HBS
clients in the past, to great effect.)
2. Call in those favors, so long as the favor is handled
correctly. This is for the "should I have so-and-so call and put in a
word?" question. The answer is almost always "yes … as long as it
is done right." What does "right" mean? It means
respectfully. "Hi there, Adam Hoff here, CEO extraordinaire. I
wanted to give you a call on behalf of John Doe, who is currently
deferred. Look, I don't want to presume anything and I would
never in a million years pretend to know who should or should
not get in to HBS, nor am I trying to influence the way you do your
job. This call js for me. I just know that I feel so strongly about
John that I'd be kicking myself if I didn't pick up the phone." That
is how to do it, basically. It's all about proper deference and deep
passion. If someone can't say they words "I'd be kicking myself if I
didn't put in a word for him/her" - meaning they don't feel that
strongly about it - then don't ask them. "Hey there, I'm calling on
behalf of … let's see here … oh, right, John Doe, who is one my
cousin's top associates at blah-blah-blah private equity…" is not
the right way to do it. If it feels like that person is just doing
someone a favor and peddling influence, it will either not work or
it will harm your chances (because it offends the person on the
other end of the phone). To summarize: only have someone place
a call if they really are so passionate about it that thy would hate
themselves for not doing it, and then make sure that they call in a
really respectful way.
MBA Admissions Consultant - Amerasia Consulting Group

6. DINGED
If you've been dinged, I am honestly very sorry. HBS was a lot of work
this year and if you did the essay right, there was a lot of "you" on the
page. It's difficult enough to be rejected, but when you've really put
yourself out there, it's even harder. That said, there is a game plan for
this as well:
1. Remind yourself of what you knew when you started. Which is
that HBS is the second-hardest school to get into by the numbers
and maybe the hardest in reality (when you account for who
makes up these applicant pools). HBS is often the dream, but it's
rarely the reality. I have been blessed to see a lot of client get the
admit from Harvard over the past three years (and got some great
interview news this year as well, by and large), but there are still
lots of dings in that mix - and I'm only taking on top-flight people I
truly believe in. It's just the nature of the beast. You can't let
yourself feel uniquely victimized by this result, nor should you
ever take it personally. (Also don't play the "I can't believe I
didn't at least get an interview" game. They only interview about
18% of the applicant pool; ie, the acceptance rate at
Wharton. Besides, moral victories are pointless - they mean
nothing.)
2. Do not waste any time trying to diagnose a "reason." Maybe
you were too old, maybe your GPA was too low, maybe your work
experience did not indicate enough leadership, maybe, maybe,
maybe. Honestly? Who cares. It doesn't matter. There is a very
low chance you will reapply to HBS and if you do, that won't be
for about 11 months. There is no use trying to figure out a "why"
because there is nothing to do with that information.
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7. 3. Keep your head up. Most of all, do not let this impact your
overall strategy or how you feel about the road ahead. A few
years ago, I honestly considered ceasing the practice of taking on
multi-school clients who had either Columbia ED or HBS as one of
their schools. Why? Because those schools notify early and so if
someone gets bad news, it can threaten future work. There's no
time in a breakneck process to stop and give someone 10 pep
talks to get them to finish the race. Luckily, I didn't have to make
that call because my clients have proven to be mature, resilient,
and resourceful. That said, I still often to tell them to keep their
head up. Each school is its own thing, so your chances at Booth or
Kellogg or Wharton or INSEAD or even Stanford have zero to do
with a decision rendered by HBS. Stick to your plan, stick to your
guns, and see the whole thing to completion.
Hopefully the above advice will prove helpful regardless of what camp
you find yourself in. Good luck the rest of the way!
MBA Admissions Consultant - Amerasia Consulting Group