According to Harvard Business School’s Admissions Director’s Blog, HBS is experimenting with a change in the process by which the school invites applicants to interview. Using Round 1 as a trial, HBS will employ the following timeline:
- October 1: Deadline for receiving online applications
- October 15 to November 3: Interview invitations issued via email
- November 3: All candidates not invited to interview will receive either a decision indicating “we are unable to offer you a place in the Class of 2013” or an invitation to join the school’s waitlist
- November 1 to 21: Interview weeks, both on and off campus
- December 14: Decision notification (admit, deny or waitlist) for all interviewed candidates
The admissions committee hopes that this updated timeline will take the uncertainty out of the typical October through mid-December waiting game for applicants, and will allow denied candidates to focus sooner on Round 2 applications for other schools. The committee assures applicants that it will make decisions more quickly but will continue to be as thorough as it has always been, reviewing all applications at least twice before making any decisions. We at mbaMission think that this is quite a logical change in the application timeline and expect that other schools will follow suit.