Hi,

I've applied to my top choice schools (Wharton, Chicago, HBS) in R1, and no interviews so far. I'm not really expecting HBS, but I've had good interaction with Chicago professors who said that they would go to bat for me. My company also has pretty good connections at Chicago. My app at Chicago went complete almost right away.

I'm getting really concerned because invitations started going out, and so far nothing. Is it time to press the panic button, and begin cranking on R2 apps?

About me:
26, female, immigrated to US as a teen, but am US citizen now, so a little different from the usual finance crowd in that respect.
Experience: 4 years (3 yrs at bulge bracket investment bank/1 yr at a middle market private equity firm with significant amount of responsibility and senior exposure)
Ex-curriculars: involved with leadership positions in college and since
Undergrad: 3.5 from a top ten private university, econ and international relations
gmat: 690 (88% math/69% verbal) on second try; had a 92% verbal on 1st attempt but lower math. Did not retake to focus on apps
Essays: worked with a consultant

You said it yourself - the invitations have *started* to go out. They haven't finished going out yet!

Relax if you can (I can appreciate the anxiety of uncertainty), but it's still relatively early. You should be concerned if you don't hear anything by the Thanksgiving (but then again, HBS has been known to give out interview invites as late as mid- to late-Dec). Also, whether you get the invite early or late is no indication of where you stand - keep in mind that admissions offices are bureaucracies having to sort through a ton of paperwork, and they're just churning out decisions as best as they can.

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com