MBA Admissions Makeover at Harvard Business School: MBA News

‘Read this first!’ That’s an example of the snappy and informal millennial tone being applied to Harvard Business School’s MBA admissions instructions this year – where you would previously have found simply the word ‘overview’.

“Why be stuffy and formal if we don’t have to?” Harvard Business School’s Dee Leopold, managing director of MBA admissions and financial aid, told the Wall Street Journal. This seems to be taken to heart; there are no less than six exclamation marks in the first section.

It seems the prestigious institution is starting to have a little fun with the ‘OMG!’ generation, albeit with a serious goal in mind.  

The idea is to better engage with applicants who might be intimidated at the prospect of filling in MBA admissions forms for such a historic and reputable school. Case in point; in the space provided for entering extracurricular activities, the instructions are accompanied by the reassuring, if slightly twee: ‘If you don’t have any, that’s fine, too. We know you’re busy,’ and now there is only a single, non-compulsory MBA essay.

Conversational doesn’t mean less professional says Harvard Business School

Is this a sensible approach, given recent trends for business culture to take on a more casual and open-minded persona in a move towards democratization, or does it amount to dumbing down in an overzealous attempt to make the MBA admissions process easier?

“I don’t think conversational means less professional. I would be happy if they [applicants] were more conversational, and I don’t think that would come at the expense of professional,” is Leopold’s rationale, before pointing out that the new tone is also intended to stop the MBA admissions office receiving queries that were already addressed in the form itself.

The straightforward style therefore has a clear benefit for Harvard Business School, which received in excess of 9,000 applications for its class of 2015, and ultimately admitted just 12% of these.

Continuing creativity in MBA admissions

Demystifying the MBA admissions procedure for applicants seems to be a trend among leading business schools. Harvard Business School’s latest move, for instance, is not the first step the school has taken in this direction; 10 years ago, the school required six essays with a strict combined word limit. Last year there was just one essay, no word limit…plus it wasn’t even compulsory.

Elsewhere, both Wharton and Berkeley’s Haas School of Business are asking for fewer essays this year. Others are employing a more creative approach, akin to Harvard Business School’s change of tone. A couple of notable examples come from Columbia, which requests a 75 characters-or-fewer summary of post-MBA goals, and MIT Sloan, which asks candidates to write their own letter of recommendation which should begin by addressing the question, ‘How long and in what capacity have you known the applicant?’