How to Get Into Harvard Business School
Lessons Learned From Our Admissions Experts
“How can I get into Harvard Business School?” That’s the first question a majority of our prospective clients ask. Our SBC consultants have guided more HBS admits than any other program, mainly because the demand for the Harvard MBA is so high in our client pool.
The 2024-2025 application cycle looks equally competitive as last season. Despite inflation concerns, MBA demand has remained strong. As the most recent GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey found, “Consulting and finance and accounting sectors demonstrate increased projected demand for MBA graduates, and data and business analytics hiring is expected to expand the most in 2024.”
“Overall, 2024 is shaping up to be a year of robust growth and adaptation for GME programs, graduates, and their future employers. Increasing confidence in GME programs and the strategic alignment of business schools with industry needs suggests a positive outlook for graduates entering the workforce.”
We have several former HBS Admissions Officers on our SBC consulting team, so we’ve gathered HBS admit data across our client pool to define themes and strategies that can help future MBA applicants.
Curious about your chances of getting into a top B-school like HBS? Contact us to talk strategy with a free 15-minute advising session with an SBC Principal Consultant.
As you’ve undoubtedly read on the school’s website, the mission of Harvard Business School is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. After ten years with the same open-ended MBA essay prompt, HBS introduced three new essay questions in the Fall 2025 application.
“While it’s important to us that our students’ perspectives vary, they all share three characteristics. Our students are: business-minded, leadership-focused, and growth-oriented,” the school declared.
Thus, we present these lessons on how to execute this three-prong framework in the MBA application based on our review of the profiles of hundreds of successful HBS admits.
How to Get Into Harvard Business School
“Leadership can look a lot of different ways,” notes SBC consultant Andrea, who served on the HBS Admissions Board for five years. For instance, “Capital L” leadership is one form. These are the people in positions of authority professionally—those whose roles convey they are leading the parade.
But we also see HBS admits who are “small-L” leaders. Irrespective of their actual job titles, these professionals are strategic, innovative, and proactive. The small L leaders step up when needed and thrive when times are hard. Plus, they demonstrate leadership traits over time and can show that track record to HBS throughout their application.
Capital L leadership may include examples such as fraternity president, Eagle Scout, student council president, varsity soccer team captain, etc.
Small L examples include: starting a recycling program in your dorm or starting a community garden in your community to source local produce. Maybe you served as an effective role model and mentor in your firm or developed a new way to approach building a financial model at your bank. In a nutshell, Andrea says, “You saw a need, and you filled that need.”
To get into Harvard Business School, leadership examples must shine throughout the entire HBS application.
That includes your short responses on work experience entries, your list of extracurricular involvement and awards, your resume, and the essays. “Leadership is demonstrated not only in the roles and titles held, elections won, etc.. but also in how you interact with others and ways in which you’ve made an impact alone or with others, “ Andrea says.
Show Analytical Aptitude & Appetite
“Academic, analytical and quantitative prowess is crucial, as HBS Adcom will look at the applicant’s GPA and test score. HBS AdCom will also comb through transcripts and consider the skills the applicant exercised and built in his or her work experiences,” Andrea reveals.
For reference, we’ve assembled a sampling of test scores for SBC client admits from this past season. GRE scores ranged between a 630 converted to an 800 perfect test score. GPAs ranged from 3.4 to 3.9. GMAT scores ranged between 690 and 770.
Undergraduate Institutions
The school pedigree of HBS admits varies considerably. Here are some of the undergraduate colleges and universities attended by our SBC client pool of HBS admits.
| Duke | University of Minnesota |
| Vanderbilt | Brown |
| Princeton | Waseda (Tokyo) |
| UC Santa Barbara | Harvard |
| Williams | Yale |
| U Sao Paulo | UC Berkeley |
| Cornell | Boston University |
| Wesleyan | Middle East college |
| UVA | U Maryland |
| UTA | Cornell |
| Univ. Warwick (UK) | Michigan |
| U Penn | Dartmouth |
Regarding undergraduate majors, Harvard Business School is not looking solely for candidates with a business background. HBS welcomes applicants with humanities and STEM degrees, too. So, even if your college classes weren’t quant-heavy, there are other ways to demonstrate you can handle the intellectual rigor of the program.
“Strong work experience can compensate for lack of quant classes in college,” Andrea notes. “In addition to the stated criteria, intellectual curiosity and horsepower are buried in there. This can come across as dorky, but to HBS, dorky is good!”
Andrea continues, “Research projects, thesis projects, reading and interests you develop on your own all qualify under horsepower. One’s quest to satiate his/her intellectual curiosity needs to shine through for the HBS application. This comes across in extracurriculars, awards, on the resume, and certainly in the HBS essay.”
Examples of “dorky-is-good” across our SBC client pool include:
- Discussing research projects you pursued that weren’t required
- Taking on TA positions
- Working in a lab and writing a paper with a professor
- Opting to do original research for a thesis
- Developing a new curriculum with a faculty member
“This can be on display throughout the application. But the essay is a great place to really get a sense that a candidate thinks about the issues deeply and is on a quest to satisfy intellectual curiosity,” Andrea explains.
Listen to B-Schooled Podcast Episode #97: HBS FAQs (and Life Advice) with Dawn
Show Engaged Community Citizenship
“Personal qualities encompass ethics, morals, values, judgment, and ego,” Andrea notes. That is a significant element should you advance to the in-person interview. She simplifies this as: “How you will play in the sandbox that is the HBS classroom.”
Andrea also says that citizenship is less about what you say and more about the overall tone of how you say it: how you generally come across in the application.
HBS doesn’t want egotistical or arrogant types in the program, and the reading of the application is the first place they have their antenna up looking for it.
For example, take the applicant who is from a common demographic (investment banker), comes from Darien, Connecticut, studied at an elite undergrad, and has traveled the world. That applicant must be very careful with the tone of his application and essay. HBS AdCom will be looking out for arrogance based on privileged life circumstances and choices.
“Talking in a braggy manner and discussing an over-the-top lifestyle would take the applicant out of the running. Instead, I recommend trying to present an unexpected application that shows real depth around how he makes a positive impact in the communities in which he’s spent time,” Andrea says.
It takes a lot to rise to the top of oversubscribed applicant populations. Therefore, if you are in an overpopulated pool, you must do things that set you apart from that herd.
Applying the Framework to the HBS Essays
Andrea reveals that the essays are make-or-break for HBS. So many applications have acceptable credentials up to that point of the application. But the essays set the overall application apart and earn it the interview.
“Go deep. Get personal. Make sure the reader feels genuineness and authenticity. Make them get goosebumps while they are reading,” Andrea suggests. “At the end of the essay, the reader should feel so moved that they want to meet you immediately. They can’t wait to get to know you better, hear more of the story, ask you specific questions to learn more, be inspired, etc.”
Read SBC’s collection of successful Harvard Business School essays.
Andrea cautions that the HBS essays cannot just be a story of successes and accomplishments. “It has to leverage some creative theme or thread that is big and deep and acts as a mechanism to pull the story together. Open with that theme, then bring it to life with experiences, and then end on that theme—come full circle.”
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Stacy Blackman Consulting offers multiple services to meet your MBA application needs, from our All-In Partnership to hourly help reviewing your MBA resume. Contact us today for a free 15-minute advising session to talk strategy with a Principal SBC consultant.
Here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team.
Ashley
Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure. Ashley holds an MBA from HBS. During her HBS years, Ashley was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...
×Pauline
A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally. Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...
×Laura
Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years. Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...
×Andrea
Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years. In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee. In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School. Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...
×Jennifer
Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...
×Erin K.
Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...
×Susie
Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics. Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...
×Dione
Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford. Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...
×Anthony
Anthony served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise. During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year. Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...
×Meghan
Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies. In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...
×Amy
Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team. During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students. She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...
×Ally
Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS). During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...
×Erin B.
Erin has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU's Stern School of Business. At Columbia Business School, Erin was an Assistant Director of Admissions where she evaluated applications for both the full time and executive MBA programs, sat on the admissions and merit scholarship committees and advised applicants on which program might be the best fit for them based on their work experience and pro ...
×Emma
Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director. Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants.
×Kate
Kate served in the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School for over five years. In her capacity as an Associate Director, Kate advised applicants daily and reviewed hundreds of applications per cycle. She was also an applicant interviewer, a liaison to other offices within the School, and a CBS representative at events around the world. Kate managed several recruiting and operational projects for the Admissions Committee. After Columbia Business School, Kate transitioned into cam ...
×Holly
Holly worked as a member of the NYU Stern MBA Admissions team for seven years and holds an MBA from NYU Stern. In her tenure as Director of NYU MBA Admissions, Holly worked closely with admissions teams from Columbia, Michigan Ross, UVA Darden, Cornell Johnson, Berkeley Haas, Yale SOM, and Duke Fuqua on recruiting events domestically and internationally. On the NYU Stern admissions committee, Holly conducted interviews, planned and hosted events, and trained staff on reading and interviewi ...
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