Harvard Business School

Hey All. I went to the HBS Information event last week in London! Although it is getting very close to the first deadline (1st of October) I thought it would be good to go down and check it out. So let me tell you about it........

I finished work and headed to the event at the Goldman Sachs building in London @ 7pm. I got there and to my surprise I see a friend from school that I haven't seen for 6 years. Small world! We are at different stages of the app process, he is just starting, but it was great to catch up.

Two people from the admissions board start with general information about HBS and the admissions procedure. Last year 10,000 people applied and 900 or so got accepted. 1800 got accepted for interview. So chances overall of getting accepted are under 10% but if you are lucky to get an interview that gets bumped up to 50%. I think to myself "wow extremely competitive". The other app information I am familiar with surrounding essays and the GMAT, since I have done a lot of research already :P

Next up is a short video which shows the experience of 2 students at HBS. I won't spoil it for those who are planning to go to an event but needless to say its very inspiring. Really makes you feel privileged to be part of the HBS community. This is followed by a Q&A session with 5 HBS alumni. I counted that there were 4 Oxbridge Alumni and one LSE Alumni amongst the panel of five. Top Tier again. I fancy giving the Oxford Alumni some stick, since I went to Cambridge (the best uni in the UK no matter what anyone tells you!) but figure its probably not appropriate! They now work at places like Google, Ocado, Morgan Stanley, Bain Consultancy, you get the picture!

Comparing this with the LBS event, the main differentiator was certainly the Q&A panel. The LBS one felt shorter and not as thorough. All the HBS Alumni were very impressive people - articulate and intelligent. I quickly get the sense of the type of people they are looking for. To use their slogans, habit of leadership and intellectual curiosity are certainly on show here. Overall, the event is less interactive than LBS, but the panel is better and of course it has that slick American presentation with the video. I miss drinks at the end of the event as I have a shocking flu, but I still got a lot out of the event despite being near the end of my application.

The event really brought home what a prestigious standing HBS has and how competitive it is. I've pretty much done the best I can with my application so fingers crossed!