50 More Interview Invitations Coming from HBS

Late last week Harvard Business School’s Director of Admissions, Dee Leopold, posted a brief update on the HBS admissions blog regarding the admissions office’s plans for Round 1 interview invitations. The main takeaway is that Harvard is not yet done sending out invitations, but there aren’t too many left:

I know I promised an update about interviews. They are in full swing on campus and elsewhere. We are still sending out interview invitations — maybe 50 or so more may go out before December 15 — plus waitlist invitations to some of those who have not received an interview invitation. In terms of “where” these interviews might be held, we anticipate they would likely take place on campus in Boston during December or via telephone.

We also want to share with you the list we just compiled of the undergraduate schools represented in the last three classes at HBS.

Note that if you don’t receive an invitation by December 15, you still have some hope. On October 22 Leopold posted that around 100 Round 1 applicants may go straight to the waitlist without an interview. That’s not an ideal outcome, but it means that you may still have a shot!

For more help in planning your Harvard Business School application, take a look at Veritas Prep’s HBS Annual Report for free. And, be sure to follow MBA Game Plan on Twitter!

Recession Hits Some MBA Programs Harder Than Others

Last week BusinessWeek ran an article titled “MBAs Confront a Savage Job Market,” which painted a pretty rough picture for graduates at many top business schools. At some top schools, as many as 20% of grads were still unemployed three months after graduation, a statistic that economists haven’t seen for decades.

Fortunately, the world of top-30 business schools is not universally gloomy. Some business schools’ career offices have been able to direct their students into more stable industries, such as government, health care, energy, and the non-profit sector. While working for the government may not quite be as appealing as being a six-figure-making banker, many grads have opened their eyes and realized that these sectors are where the jobs are right now, and are taking these jobs when they can.

In other cases, hiring did happen, although it happened later than it normally does. The Kellogg School of Management, for instance, reported that 85% of of its grads received at least one offer, although many students received offers late in the spring — months later than they normally would. Other top MBA programs have also been able to weather the storm pretty well. BusinessWeek ranked the schools in terms of how well they’ve held up job-wise in the recession, with Yale, Washington University, HBS, Stanford, and MIT Sloan coming out on top. At Yale, for example, only 8% of grads were without any job offers three months after graduation, just two percentage points higher than a year ago. While not all of these placed grads landed the exact jobs they envisioned when they first applied to business school, you can be sure that they’re glad to have jobs at all.

If you’re just now starting to research business schools, download our 15 free Veritas Prep Annual Reports. And, be sure to follow MBA Game Plan on Twitter!

HBS Dean Jay Light Says Class Size Won’t Increase Any Time Soon

Last Week The Harbus published an interview with HBS Dean Jay Light, covering a variety of important topics ranging from Harvard’s increasingly international flavor to the school’s reaction to the recent financial crisis. Most interesting for applicants, though, were Light’s answers to questions about whether or not HBS plans to increase its class size any time soon.

When asked if the school will soon add a section and increase its class size, Light responded:

So facts-so let’s talk some facts. Typically, we target 900 to 910 students. I don’t see the class size increasing to anywhere near 1,000. This year the target was 2% higher, and we have about 937, for a few reasons:

First of all, the number of applications we had was up, with great quality applicants. The first round last year was up 25%. So we said wow, our admit rate is going to be one of the lowest we’ve had; does that make sense?

Secondly, we needed to because of what was going on in the financial markets and the endowment, to cut back on expenditures in the budget. So the question is, how do you reduce the net expenses of the MBA program while still holding fellowships steady? And our solution was to admit a few more students, and that allows you to keep the fellowships. In fact, we increased fellowships by $1 million last year. It was not necessarily an easy thing to do.

We appreciate the fact that he acknowledged that increasing the class size (and bringing in more tuition-paying students) helped HBS cover some budget issues. This is something that was widely assumed, and even given Harvard’s financial might, there’s no shame in admitting that the school needed to make some moves to improve its financial situation, as long as the product doesn’t suffer.

He reasoned that a classroom with 80-100 students is in fact more ideal than one containing 60 students. While Harvard Business School certainly knows the case study method better than anyone, this argument does seem a bit self-serving… If Harvard ever decided to shrink its class size, it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear them argue that they’ve found that 60 students is in fact the ideal size for a case-oriented classroom.

It may take another year or two, but given the addition of the HBS 2+2 Program students and the continued growth in applicants to all top business schools, we expect that HBS will eventually add an additional section. 1,000 students is probably a mark that HBS will reach sooner rather than later.

For more advice on applying to Harvard Business School, download Veritas Prep’s free HBS Annual Report, which gives you in-depth information on life at HBS. And, be sure to follow MBA Game Plan on Twitter!