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MBA Admissions Transparency: Harvard Business School’s Email to R1 Applicants

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Graham Richmond in News 4 Comments

One of the themes that Southwark repeatedly stresses with our clients is the importance of transparency in the admissions process.  By transparency, we mean open engagement with the applicant pool such that the selection process doesn’t feel like a complete mystery to the nervous applicant who is awaiting a decision.  Admissions transparency can be achieved in a number of different ways – ranging from the broadcasting of facts, figures and precise timelines on a school blog or email newsletter to simply engaging directly and frequently with the applicant pool in discussion forums, Twitter conversation or via a Facebook page.

It’s no secret that today’s applicants to business school can be quite demanding.  They want information about the process and they want it immediately – via your school’s tweets, texts, Facebook statuses, blog posts and more.  What’s worse is that in the absence of official information from the school itself, applicants will go elsewhere – community sites, discussion forums, blogs, admissions consultants, water cooler talk, etc. – often resulting in incorrect information.  In fact, more often than not, a lack of transparency in your admissions process leads to a greater degree of speculation  and misinformation in unofficial channels….and thereby results in increased ‘customer service’ for the admissions team (as the phone begins ringing and emails start overloading your admissions office inbox).  A lack of transparency can also lead to a good deal of bitterness among applicants – especially those you reject.

The specific level of transparency that your admissions office chooses to provide is clearly something that merits internal discussion and will likely be tailored to the nuances of your process.  For example, should you tell candidates exactly how many interview invitations you will issue, or how many people you have on the wait list – or should you merely do a good job of outlining the ‘life of an application’ and keeping in constant contact with applicants?  Regardless, it’s safe to say that having at least a basic degree of transparency is vital in today’s admissions climate.

So what does transparency look like?  Let’s take a peek at an email that Harvard Business School recently send to all of their Round One applicants (the school’s R1 deadline was this past Monday).  It is a nearly perfect example of transparency in MBA admissions.  I have included the email below for your reference, but it strikes the perfect balance of being informative and authoritative while also remaining low-key about the process and acknowledging the nerves that often go along with anxiously awaiting an admissions decision.  This email and its tone strikes me as being perfectly suited to today’s generation of applicants.  I should also mention that the HBS admissions director – Dee Leopold – typically blogs over the course of the application round and provides more details, facts and figures as the review process gets moving – so you should think of this email as more of an introduction/opening statement.

Also, on a historical level, this is an important email for one other reason.  As recently 10 years ago, HBS was mostly noted for having one of – if not the most – opaque admissions processes in the MBA universe.  In fact, the idea that an email with this level of transparency could come out of the HBS admissions office would have been unfathomable back then.  In short, the lesson here is that any school can shift its stance on transparency over time!

Please review the email below and feel free to reach out to Southwark if you have questions about the degree of transparency in your own admissions process.

——

From: “Harvard Business School” <[email protected]>
Subject: Welcome to HBS Round 1!

Date: September 16, 2013 12:31:00 PM EDT
To: 
Reply-To: <[email protected]>

 

Dear X,This message confirms that you’re a Round 1 HBS applicant.All of us here on the Admissions team are pleased that you’d like to be a student here.

Let me tell you what will happen next.

Within a day or so of our Round 1 deadline, we begin to review all submitted applications.  We have a senior team who reads and makes decisions as to who moves forward and who doesn’t.

“Moving forward” means being invited to interview.  We expect that interview invitations will be issued in early October.  Interviews will be conducted from mid-October through November.  All of the necessary details will be in the invitation.

“Not moving forward” means that we are unable to admit you.  We want you to be able to move ahead with other plans so we will send these decisions out in October.

Some Round 1 applicants will be asked to remain under consideration and be reviewed again with Round 2 applicants.  We call that “further consideration” and the details will be communicated to this group in mid-October.

Please don’t submit any more materials.  If we’re missing something, which is unlikely, we’ll contact you via email.  The exception to this is that you need to send us official GMAT or GRE score reports but we will begin to review your application with the self-reported scores.

You may wish to check on the From the Admissions Director blog every so often.  I’ll keep you informed as to what we’re doing, what you can expect, etc.

That’s all I have to say for now.  I know waiting is hard but try not to make worrying about business school an extracurricular activity!

Regards,

 

Dee Leopold
Managing Director, MBA Admissions and Financial Aid

Harvard Business School | Soldiers Field | Boston, MA 02163

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4 comments on “MBA Admissions Transparency: Harvard Business School’s Email to R1 Applicants”

  1. Southwark In The News: Wharton Application Volume - Southwark Consulting says:
    September 30, 2013 at 9:55 am

    […] MBA Admissions Transparency: Harvard Business School’s Email to R1 Applicants […]

    Reply
  2. Wharton Admissions Director to Step Down - Southwark Consulting says:
    October 2, 2013 at 11:16 am

    […] MBA Admissions Transparency: Harvard Business School’s Email to R1 Applicants […]

    Reply
  3. Web Marketing Wednesdays: R2 Communiations, Blogging, Ben & Jerry's Big Win, Michael Bay Exits Stage Right - Southwark Consulting says:
    January 8, 2014 at 9:50 am

    […] Before we dive into a few key digital marketing stories from last week, we want to remind our readers that it is vital to regularly communicate to the applicant pool during the busiest time of the admissions season – and that social media is a great outlet for this sort of communication.  This could mean tweeting out simple reminders of your process/deadline timing or tidbits of data that can help you be as transparent as possible. […]

    Reply
  4. MBA Admissions Transparency: Harvard Business School Interview Invitation Email | Southwark Consulting says:
    February 14, 2014 at 12:21 pm

    […] this admissions season, we posted about the importance of transparency in MBA admissions – especially with today’s ‘always on, always chatting/texting/posting’ […]

    Reply

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