How to make a successful application for Harvard Business School?

Harvard Business School is considered the best business school in the world and it strictly examines all its applications, enrolling only academically proficient candidates. A strong application corresponds to a greater chance of getting admission into any college. Therefore, in order to get a call for admission for any program at the Harvard Business School candidates should work hard and prepare an attractive and acceptable application.

Harvard Business School takes into account where you went to school, the courses that you took, and your performance. There is no minimum GPA to apply, although our students usually have strong undergraduate records.Apart from the application, candidates must also put focus on acing the GRE and GMAT for a better chance of admission allotment.

Examine Exterior Factors

You make a presentable application if you are good enough to examine the external factors affecting your application at HBS. Exploring the pros and cons of each parameter is the key to opening the doors of Harvard Business School. You can look forward to the following external factors:

Harvard Business School Website Research

Checking the official website of the college is a monotonous but highly important task if you wish to make your application successful. Checking the number of courses available on the Harvard Business School website, their specialisation, duration, tuition fees, and eligibility criteria make you well-versed with the admission requirements and the curriculum.

Searching for accommodations and funding options allows you to plan your trip to HBS carefully, especially if you are an international aspirant. All the information related to MBAs, Alumni Network, Placement cell, etc. is available on the official website. Thus, doing proper research is one essential way to safeguard your admission into HBS.

Research on Social Media

If you want to gain information about something, social media is one of the best weapons you can use. You can scroll down the social media applications and websites in order to search about life at HBS, their teaching style, the size of each classroom, the strength of students, etc. You can find a full college tour of the Harvard Business School on social media. This will make you mentally prepared for life at HBS and what to expect from their education system.

Another parameter that social media caters to is comparison. You can compare the statistics of other institutions with HBS only to find that HBS is the better one in each case. Moreover, you would be able to contact numerous people somehow linked to the institution. In this way, you can find a lot of facts about HBS that may not be mentioned on the internet.

Remember, if you want your application to attract the attention of an HBS official, do not hesitate from talking to the alumni. You should be confident about your application.

Having a deep knowledge about the college that you wish to pursue education at really helps a lot while making the application and certainly at the time of the interview.

How are the external factors benefiting the candidate?

Examining the external factors will help a candidate in building an attractive application for the HBS. A candidate who is well aware of the culture, tradition, education, and academic requirements for HBS can make his/her Statement of Purpose (SOP) accordingly. A well-constructed SOP ensures a better presentation of the candidate at the time of the document verification as well as the interview.

In addition to this, you can also prepare for the required examinations on the basis of the average required score. For example, appearing in GMAT/GRE and scoring at par would easily make your way into the HBS. However, with a strong academic application, you can get a call from Harvard Business School even with GMAT scores as low as 600.

Therefore, you should analyse as many exterior factors as you can prior to sending your application to the HBS.

Examine Interior Factors

After talking about the external factors, it is time for internal factors to make a move. Internal factors are nothing but the actual thoughts of the applicant. These include how the candidate cleared his exams, his/her approach towards life, his/her goals, hobbies, etc. Examining one’s own life is an internal factor.

It is not very easy to introspect and point out the success and failures in one’s own life. However, it should be done for the sake of choice of course, residential halls, etc. An applicant’s conscience is going to define his/her entire life at the HBS.

How are the internal factors benefiting the candidate?

You would think how finding my own likes and dislikes, rights and wrongs, etc. are going to help me in my application. Internal factors play a significant role while wrong the Personal Statement or essay. Knowing the correct length of the essay is an external factor but knowing what to write is entirely an internal factor. You only know what you are capable of doing and the essay is all about that.

The essay includes the applicant’s academic and co-curricular achievements along with his/her future plans, which can only be written by the candidate himself/herself.

In addition to this, the interviewers are going to ask a lot of personal questions related to your schooling, your choice of program, choice of college, your future plans, etc. Therefore, in order to answer these questions fluently and excel in the interviews, you must introspect.

What would the Harvard Business School Admission Committee want?

Being the top ivy league B-school in the world, the Harvard Business School Admission Committee would look for a candidate with excellent academic scores, co-curricular proficiency, a presentable essay, and the Perfect Resume. However, no one can be perfect so the committee would allow some deviation from that. The applicants should make sure that their application suits the following criteria:-

• The transcripts show a very high academic score
• All the test scores (GRE/GMAT) are at par
• The Letters of Reference (LORs) do not over-exaggerate your personality
• Your Personal Statement is thoroughly described in an efficient way

Moreover, the interviewers expect honesty from the candidate rather than accuracy. Therefore, do not lie in the Resume or while interviewing.

Filling any gaps in the Harvard MBA application

After checking the external and internal factors, there is still some room for updating in the application. If you think you can add some more relevant achievements to the applicants, you should not refrain from it. Moreover, there are some changeable and unchangeable factors in your application. Thus, you should improve the changeable parameters in your favour and honestly report the unchangeable factors.

Preparing for GMAT and acing it

The application requirement for HBS includes the submission of GMAT/GRE scores. It should be noted that the admission decision is more than based on the test scores but they still carry 22% weightage of the entire application. Therefore, candidates must thoroughly prepare for the tests. The following table shows the median test score range at Harvard Business School:-

Application for MBA at Harvard Business School

The application procedure for Harvard Business School commences in three steps:-

• Application: This step includes the submission of all the necessary documents such as official transcripts, LORs, SOP, GMAT/GRE Scores, Resume, Proof of English Proficiency, and proof of financial stability.
• Interview: This is the Q&A round between the applicants and the HBS admission committee.
• Post-interview: Candidates are required to submit written reflections to HBS within 24 hours of the interview.

The application is one of the most important things for studying abroad. In order to study at the best business schools, i.e., HBS, candidates must make an extraordinary application by examining all the internal and external factors.

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