What does a Swedish world rope-skipping champion, Obama Foundation chief of staff and reality TV star from CBS’s Survivor: Ghost Island have in common?
They’re all MBA candidates in the Harvard Business School Class of 2020, where 9,886 applicants vied for one of 930 spots. The rope-skipping champion is also an entrepreneur who worked at Deutsche Bank. The Obama Foundation staffer was also a senior business analyst at McKinsey. And the reality TV star is also a Harvard-trained lawyer and BCG financial analyst. (Aside: He’s not the only classmate with the reality TV distinction; another competed on the Discovery Channel’s Girl Starter.)
As reported in my related article for Forbes, it’s not surprising that some 21% of admits to the HBS Class of 2020 worked for a top three consulting firm and 26% had a finance profile. But you’d be wrong to presume that only MBB or a top investment bank position will help you make the cut for HBS.
You can major in geography at the University of Georgia before winning a peacebuilding award as Generation US Fellow. Then there’s the Chinese biologist and product innovation researcher for a global candy brand who is also the mother of a five-year-old.
Our deep dive into the HBS Class of 2020 provides a wealth of previously unpublished insights into what the HBS is looking for, which I summarize in Forbes. Similar to our Deep Dive Analysis of the Stanford GSB Class of 2020, my Fortuna colleagues executed a feat of labor-intensive research to canvass the LinkedIn profiles of last year’s incoming class. In doing so, they identified the educational and professional backgrounds of 893 of the 930 candidates – a 96% sample size that represents the most extensive analysis ever published.
Request a copy of the full deep dive summary report
If you’ve already explored our topline analysis in Forbes, we invite you to request a copy of our full deep dive summary report, which includes a scrupulous level of detail, such as:
- Educational and professional backgrounds of 893 candidates (names omitted)
- Roster of all 254 universities represented with number of admits, plus breakdowns by country
- Breakdown by sector and firm of admits across over 70 financial, consulting and tech firms
View more HBS admissions advice
For admissions advice and informed strategy on how to get into HBS, check out our team’s most popular articles and video blogs related to Harvard Business School:
- What HBS Really Wants (includes essential essay writing tips)
- 5 Top Tips: Reapply to Harvard Business School
- Ace the HBS Interview: An Insider’s Advice
- Playlist of 7 HBS video strategy sessions on the topics of acing the HBS interview, reapplication strategy, essay advice, working with recommenders for HBS and more
Check out our deep dive on the Stanford GSB Class of 2020
If you haven’t yet seen it, check out our deep dive on the Stanford GSB Class of 2020 in Forbes and related article on the Fortuna blog. Or, request a copy of the full report on the GSB.