2+2 Admits Seven Harvard Seniors

Harvard Business School accepted 25 applicants to its 2+2 Program during the first of its four admissions cycles this year. Seven of the students accepted to the program, which selects college seniors who work for two years and then matriculate at the Business School, are Harvard College students.

Deirdre C. Leopold, managing director of MBA admissions and financial aid, declined to specify the total number of applicants or whether any students were deferred for further consideration in the three remaining rounds of the application process this year.

Economics concentrator Ali E. Evans ’13 received his acceptance email on Wednesday while sitting in class next to his roommates. He said he celebrated silently and texted his parents.

Evans said he has visited classes at the Business School with his tutors at Kirkland House since sophomore year.

“Leading my own company one day is definitely a goal of mine, and so business school definitely fits in with that plan,” he said.

The 2+2 Program, which accepted its first applicants in 2008, lets students apply in their senior year of college. Admitted students are asked to spend two years in the workforce before arriving at the Business School, but some choose to work for additional years.

“2+2 gives you this sense of security to go out and do whatever you want without the fear of failure,” said Tom Dan ’13, another admitted student. He said he plans to pursue work in the media industry before he returns to Harvard.

These are the first decisions released since HBS announced a change to its application in May which cut down the number of required essays from four to two. Students are now asked to submit an additional post-interview reflection.

Dan said he found the new application to be “amazingly straightforward.”Harvard College has been well represented in the first three admitted classes to the 2+2 program. Twenty-two out of 106 students in the 2+2 Class of 2013, 27 out of 115 in the Class of 2014, and about 20 of 100 in the Class of 2015 were Harvard undergraduates.

The students accepted in this round submitted their 2+2 applications by July 10, according to the admissions website. The three remaining application rounds, which are open to both 2+2 and regular MBA applicants, have deadlines on September 24, January 7, and April 8.

—Staff writer Brian C. Zhang can be reached at brianzhang@college.harvard.edu.