Lots of news out of Harvard Business School (HBS) today. For starters, today marks the first day that Round 1 applicants can expect to begin receiving invitations to interview, according to a blog post by Admissions Director Dee Leopold. And in other news, MBA website PoetsandQuants reports that HBS today announced a $50 million gift from India’s Tata Group to fund construction of a new academic and residential building and, separately, that a new HBS lab for innovation and entrepreneurship is scheduled to open in fall 2011.
In a post yesterday to her Director’s Blog, Leopold told Round 1 applicants that her office will begin sending interview invitations out by email today. The invitation will provide detailed instructions on how to sign up for interviews, she added.
Round 1 interview invitations will continue to go out until November 3rd, Leopold continued. “Really,” she added for emphasis. HBS plans to interview about 800 people in the course of Round 1, and invitations will go out on a rolling basis as applications are reviewed, she said. So expect a sizeable number right up until the November 3rd cutoff, she suggested. As to where interviews will take place, “We will continue to add slots in many locations as we send out more interviews, and there is ALWAYS the option to come to campus,” she wrote.
Don’t bother calling to ask if her team will expedite consideration of your application so that you can make travel plans, she advised. “The answer will be ‘Sorry, no,.’” she wrote. She also asked applicants to please refrain from sending additional materials at this point or having others send them on your behalf. “Even if we thought that was fair, we can’t be adding things to files at this point,” Leopold wrote.
Record International Gift, New Innovation Lab
Beyond application updates, HBS announced two other big pieces of news today, according to PoetsandQuants. First, India’s Tata Group and its philanthropic interests has donated an unprecedented $50 million, the largest ever gift from an international donor. The money will fund construction of a new academic and residential facility on the business school campus, the 34th separate building at HBS. The building will be called Tata Hall, and HBS plans to break ground in spring 2011, according to P&Q.
Perhaps most noteworthy about the Tata gift is that it comes from someone who didn’t even receive an MBA from Harvard. Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons Ltd. since 1991, attended the school’s Advanced Management Program in 1975, P&Q reports. “The Harvard Business School is the preeminent place to be exposed to the world’s best thinking on management and leadership, and we are pleased that this gift will support the school’s educational mission to mold the next generation of global business leaders,” Tata said.
In a separate announcement, HBS also shared plans for a new lab for innovation and entrepreneurship, according to the P&Q report. The Harvard Innovation Lab will be the first of its kind for Harvard and is designed to spur innovative ventures across the university, P&Q reports. It is scheduled to open in fall 2011 in a building on Western Avenue in Allston that was formerly home to public broadcasting’s WGBH.
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Read the full article: Round 1 Interview Invitations, Record International Gift, New Innovation Lab at Harvard Business School