From now on, admissions at Harvard will only have two rounds. In hindsight, the decision appears to be only natural, as for years, the final round had the least number of candidates applying and brought in less than five percent of students in a given class.
On the other hand, the spring round will remain in place for delayed admissions. Harvard Business School seems to lose nothing in the process, while those whose application is rejected will probably move on to other schools.
Harvard’s Decision Benefits Students and Competitors
Chad Losee, the managing director for MBA admissions at HBS, describes the move as a well-thought-out decision that benefits applicants in a number of ways. The sooner they are admitted, the more time they have to arrange for accommodation, join preparation courses and obtain visas. Applying in the third round has always meant cutting it a little too close. Moreover, those who plan to enter HBS in 2021 will have more time to prepare their applications, visit the campus, meet the faculty and see whether HBS is the right school for them. According to Losee, this decision comes as a next step in Harvard’s perfecting its admission process to satisfy students’ requirements, P&Q reports.
HBS’s losing its final admission round will probably benefit competitor schools. For instance, as there won’t be a third round, applicants will be able to enroll in other programs earlier, which will be good for candidates and schools alike.
Round Three Was Useless Anyway
For admission consulting companies, nothing will change much. According to Matt Symonds of Fortuna Admissions, successful applicants have their resumes and essays ready long before the deadline, so the change will only make them do their best. Schools like Harvard are equally satisfied with applicants from the first and second round, but round three has almost no bearing on the admissions committee’s decisions.
According to HBS’s Chad Losee, this year, the first round’s deadline will be on September 5, and for the second round, the due date will be January 4, 2019. Losee assures that the candidates taking part in either round will be treated equally.
Sandy Kreisberg, HBSGuru.com founder, believes that Harvard has nothing to lose if they stop targeting late-in-the-year candidates who start making their applications just half a year before the last deadline, as the schools needs to pick out only the best and most diligent aspiring students.
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