The answer, in short, is no, according to Harvard Business School (HBS) Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Dee Leopold. Leopold blogged about the topic in a post on her Director’s Blog earlier this week, explaining that while prospective applicants are welcome and encouraged to visit the HBS campus, whether you do so or not will have absolutely no bearing on your admission.
“Applying to business school(s) is expensive enough – the application fees, GMAT fee, cost to travel to an interview, etc.,” Leopold wrote. “We have no desire to add to the expense,” she continued, which a campus visit would involve. HBS does asks its visitors to give their names when visiting, but only for the purposes of tracking trends over time and making sure they have sufficient staff on hand, she added.
That said, Leopold certainly doesn’t dissuade a visit if your schedule and budget allow for one. “When your only exposure to schools is via websites, they can seem more physically similar than they really are,” she said.
According to Leopold, visitors to the HBS campus are often surprised to discover how extensive it is – the many buildings and gathering areas, the abundant green space and wildlife. (That is, if you count bunnies and squirrels.) And a campus visit also can help underscore just how close the campus is to Boston, which Leopold humbly calls “the best city in the U.S.”
If you are planning a visit, you might want to think a little bit about when to come, Leopold advises. In the summer, you’re likely to find much shorter lines for sushi at lunch – but you’ll be missing “the heart of who we are and what we do,” she writes. Without students and faculty on campus, it’s harder to get a sense of the energy of the HBS classroom and the distinctive case method, she points out.
Beginning in October, prospective applicants can arrange class visits through the Admissions Office website, and current students will be available to eat lunch with visitors and provide afternoon tours.
But if it’s a summer visit that works best for you, don’t fret. Members of the admissions board are available year-round to conduct information sessions for visitors, and the school now features an iPod walking tour of campus that you can take on your own.
And if a campus visit just isn’t in the cards, you can still get a glimpse of the case method in action through a video available on the HBS site called Inside the Case Method. “I think it offers a great peek inside a real case method discussion and lets you hear how our faculty thinks about this very special kind of teaching and learning,” Leopold said. As many of our readers know, the Clear Admit School Guide to HBS is another valuable resource when it comes to offering candidates an in-depth view of the program.
In other HBS news this week, the school announced that all interview invitations for its 2+2 Program have now been extended, and applicants who are not receiving an invitation also have been notified. Further 2+2 Program application updates will be posted here.
