{"id":266,"date":"2024-09-27T08:03:14","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T12:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gatehouseadmissions.com\/resources\/?p=266"},"modified":"2025-09-29T08:05:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:05:36","slug":"preparing-for-your-hbs-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gatehouseadmissions.com\/resources\/preparing-for-your-hbs-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for Your HBS Interview 2025-2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

With expert commentary from former members of HBS admissions committee, Brooke Wheelan<\/a> and Laura MacLean<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

HBS reports that the school interviews approximately 20% of applicants. This means that with just shy of 10,000 applicants per year, HBS interviews fewer than 2,000 candidates\u2014and dings roughly 8,000 without ever even having spoken to them. If this number of rejected HBS applicants sounds staggering, that is because it is! HBS sees an incredibly rich pool of candidates each year and has the unenviable task of saying \u201cno\u201d to people who are more than qualified to attend.<\/p>\n

If you are one of the lucky few to receive an invitation to interview at HBS, congratulations! As Brooke Wheelan, former associate director of admissions at HBS<\/strong><\/a>, has said: \u201cStatistically, your odds of being admitted to HBS\u2019s MBA program just became a coin toss!\u201d Harvard accepts approximately 50% of the candidates it interviews.<\/p>\n

How do I prepare for an HBS interview?<\/h2>\n

Preparation is critical for the HBS MBA interview, especially if you want to influence that coin toss in your favor. But given how unique its interview format is, HBS demands a different kind of preparation. Brooke and Laura MacLean, former admissions board member at HBS<\/strong><\/a>, suggests breaking your HBS interview prep down into a few phases.<\/p>\n

Get into the right mind-set.<\/h3>\n
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  • Understand the HBS interviewer\u2019s goals. Both Brooke and Laura will tell you that HBS interviewers are focused on answering two questions throughout the interview:\n
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    • Will this candidate\u2019s voice add something distinct to the HBS classroom?<\/li>\n
    • Will this candidate have a positive impact on the broader HBS community as a student and as an alum?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
    • As you think about how you can inspire your HBS interviewer to respond “yes” to both these questions, consider the program\u2019s evaluation criteria, which it is very open about: Habit of Leadership, Analytical Aptitude and Appetite, and Engaged Community Citizenship.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Study, practice, know it, and then forget it.<\/h3>\n
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      • Start with the basics: Reread your entire HBS application. This might strike you as unnecessary (you already know your application, right?), but think about the reason behind our advice: Your Harvard interviewer will base your entire interview on the information you presented in your application and will have identified areas they want to probe. So revisit and reflect on everything you submitted, and be ready to answer any possible question about any aspect of it.<\/li>\n
      • Practice for your HBS interview\u2014out loud. Have you ever thought through something you wanted to say but then heard yourself go down a very different path than you had intended once you started speaking? Or found yourself droning on? Practicing out loud will not only help you build fluency and familiarity with the details of your experiences, but also train you to become more precise, thoughtful, and intentional in your answers.<\/li>\n
      • Know it, and then forget it. The sweet spot of readiness for your HBS interview is when you have the confidence and ability to effectively convey who you are while being fully present\u2014in the moment, authentic, and unrehearsed. Achieving this state requires practicing your talking points until you know them deeply so you can simply speak genuinely and from the heart in your interview rather than reciting preplanned answers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Clients of our HBS mock interview services receive additional \u201cbehind the curtain\u201d advice garnered during the years Brooke and Laura spent preparing for and conducting interviews with thousands of HBS candidates.<\/p>\n