Services & Publications

Harvard Business School (HBS) Postmortem Ding Analysis and Reapplicant Strategy

Every year, Harvard Business School (HBS) receives nearly 10,000 applications for its class of 900 students—which means that every year, HBS rejects thousands and thousands of applicants. 

If you are one of these rejected applicants, take comfort in knowing you are not alone. More importantly, though, know that while the school’s decision was definitive this year, what happens next depends largely on what went wrong in your application. 

Drawing on thirteen years of reading over 10,000 HBS applications and interviewing more than 1,000 HBS interviewees and a decade of coaching hundreds of MBA applicants, Brooke Wheelan, Special Advisor at Gatehouse Admissions and former Associate Director of HBS Admissions, is uniquely positioned to provide you with expert insights into your HBS application’s strengths and weaknesses. She will first look backward, evaluating your application along four dimensions (performance, perspective, personality, and packaging). She will then look forward to help you devise your reapplication strategy, including brainstorming tactics to mitigate weaknesses, highlighting missed opportunities in your essays that you can take advantage of in your reapplication, evaluating your mix of recommenders and school list, and advising on the best reapplication timeline. 

As a client of our Harvard Business School (HBS) Postmortem Ding Analysis and Reapplicant Strategy with a Former HBS Admissions Director, you will receive the following:

• A written Postmortem Ding Analysis and Reapplicant Strategy based on your submitted HBS application—your HBS essays, resume, test scores and university/college transcript, and short answers to the online application questions—as well as your letters of recommendation (if available). Brooke will spend 2.5-3 hours both generating her analysis of what went wrong and crafting specific tactics and considerations to guide you in your reapplication strategy. 
  
  
• A 30-minute debrief and Q&A session (conducted via phone or Zoom) with Brooke. Oftentimes, Brooke will suggest areas for discussion based on her analysis, and you will have time to raise questions for further guidance. 

Through our Harvard Business School (HBS) Postmortem Ding Analysis and Reapplicant Strategy with a Former HBS Admissions Director, you will not only learn what went wrong but also gain a high-level blueprint to aid you if and when you reapply.

If you would like a full mock-up/edit of your submitted essays, a review of a second application, or more time with Brooke to discuss your ding analysis, you can purchase hours with Brooke (subject to her availability) through our Hourly Support service. 

HBS Postmortem Ding Analysis and Reapplicant Strategy clients who decide to purchase our Full Support service for the following application year will receive a $500 credit toward their purchase. 

Note that Brooke is not available to work with Full Support clients, but she can make suggestions of potential Gatehouse Admissions Consultants for you to partner with on that stage of the work.