How Harvard’s interview invitations work (2017 edition)

It’s Monday, October 2nd.

Crazily enough, that means that HBS is going to start issuing invitations for Round 1 today.

We say it’s crazy because HBS has not even had your app for a month, and yours is just one of a gobzillion others that they’re looking at for Round 1. How did they get through all of them so fast?!

We also say ‘crazy’ since that’s how you may be feeling today.

The interviewing section of our Harvard MBA application page covers this but we thought we’d post about it separately today, mostly to inject some reality into the process, and also with a few updates to reflect exactly how it will work right now, this week, in Round 1 2017.

Harvard has tweaked their process even further this year, where the entire sequence of events for Round 1 invites will happen in under a week. You are probably well aware that that means first invitations go out today, October 2nd, around noon Eastern time, and then the second and final batch will hit at noon on Thursday.

HBS typically invites somewhere around 1,000 applicants to interview in Round 1, and in past years at least, the bulk of those invites have hit on the first day.

So here’s what you can expect:

1. Monday, October 2nd at noon Eastern time: First Wave Interview Invites via email (go here to convert to your local time ):
   • Boston (U.S.A. – Massachusetts) Tuesday, October 6, 2015 at 12:05:00 PM EDT UTC-4 hours
   • San Francisco (U.S.A. – California) Monday, October 2, 2017 at 9:05:00 am PDT UTC-7 hours
   • Delhi (India) Monday, October 2, 2017 at 9:35:00 pm IST UTC+5:30 hours
   • Paris (France) Monday, October 2, 2017 at 6:05:00 pm CEST UTC+2 hours
   • Moscow (Russia) Monday, October 2, 2017 at 7:05:00 pm MSK UTC+3 hours
   • São Paulo (Brazil) Monday, October 2, 2017 at 1:05:00 pm BRT UTC-3 hours
   • UTC (GMT) Monday, October 2, 2017 at 16:05:00

   If you don’t get an email by 12:05pm or so, then unless your email provider is messing with you, it ain’t coming today. (We have heard of emails getting stuck in a queue and not being delivered until like 12:22 or something but that’s not typical.)

2. Thursday, October 5th at noon Eastern time: Second Wave Interview Invites/’Further Consideration’ Invites/Release

“Further Consideration” is a holding bin they place you on that’s like Columbia’s “deferred” status for their Early Decision candidates – kind of a waitlist, but not really, since you haven’t even been interviewed yet (see our HBS guide for more on this.

“Released” sounds like you’re a fish that they caught and threw back because you’re too small. 🙁 🙁 🙁

You’ll basically get no work done at all on those days. If you’re based on the West Coast of the U.S. then at least you don’t have long to wait; you’ll wake up, get your coffee, get your butt to work, and then hope you don’t have a 9am meeting scheduled since you’ll be so completely distracted that you’ll be useless. But at least you’ll have the full day ahead of you to (possibly) regain some productivity (maybe less possibly if you do in fact score the invite since you’ll be so gosh darned excited; more possibly if it’s just some disappointment to get over).

Then three days later, you’ll do it all again.

We hate to be so blunt but most people reading this will have a morning of high expectations and a letdown today, and then a repeat of that with a worse letdown on Thursday, when the depressing news fully sinks in. It’s just how things work at Harvard. Yeah, a rollercoaster. If we have personally told you that we think you have a chance at HBS (through one of our Essay Decimator critiques or the Sanity Check), then obviously we do think you will. We’ve been able to say that for quite a few BSers this season:

Our analysis of our client list tells us that 29% of our @HarvardHBS Rd1 clients have a viable shot. Always wish it could be 100%! #realism

— Essay Snark (@EssaySnark) September 14, 2017

But the sad fact is that there’s lots of blahg lurkers who, while they may be exceptionally qualified for a top business school, may have underestimated the difficulty that is Harvard, and of course there’s the 71% of BSers that we worked with this round who we had to tell in essay reviews or whatever that we were not very confident. Basically, for most people, it’s not gonna be a happy week.

It probably doesn’t help to be rattling our doom-and-gloom drum this much, since those who get unrealistically optimistic won’t be swayed by a silly ol’ Snark trying to warn them, but we feel it’s our duty to remind you. This is Harvard.

Also, there is NO logic or intelligence to be gleaned from trying to compare profiles or circumstances of those who receive an invite on the first day versus the second. It has nothing to do with when you submitted your app or your geography or your career. It does NOT work that way. You can spin your head trying to ferret out a reason why you did not get an invite when you thought you should have, but you’re just making yourself crazy if you do (more than is already part of this crazy-making process).

Our best advice for what to do starting at, say, 12:23pm Eastern time today?

GET A HOBBY.

 
 

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Of course, if you DO score the interview…. CONGRATULATIONS!! The best way to prepare for the HBS interview is through our Custom Interview Questions which are developed specific to you based on a detailed review of your app, just like the Admissions Board will be doing. We have other interview prep resources available on our Interviewing Page.