I was just thinking about this the other day. Is HBS really influencing these cream of the crop type leaders? or just looking at their career trends, taking advantage of who they think has the greatest chance of becoming super successful in the near future and then writing HBS on their resumes?
The ability to cherry pick who attends to an extreme point (I think the attendance rate of accepted students is only second to S) gives them a clear advantage when it comes to having grads in leading positions all over the world.
So really, should you work that hard to get into B-school in the first place? besides the clear stamp of certification that comes with being admitted to a top school, there's not much of a reason for the quantum career jump you're supposed to experience after grad.
I think this may be partly a self fullfilling prophecy. i.e. HBS is great --> therefore a gazillion amazing ppl apply --> therefore their student pool is THAT much more qualified than at other schools --> therefore HBS is great. You get the idea.
domtri33 wrote:
First off, let me caveat this post by saying, I have never been to Harvard, only know a couple of people who have attended and DO NOT consider my self an expert of business education.
The first article brings up an interesting question. What constitutes a better business school? One that brings in the very best top performers from across the globe, puts them through the paces, brands HBS on their foreheads and them links them up with the very best companies. Or, one that brings in very capable students, puts them through an educational and transformational process teaching them how to think and be world leaders, then puts them in touch with many of the very same companies?
I think Harvard is a very good school, but how much of that is because they can cherry pick the people that they want (both professors and students). I've always heard, that the people that go to Harvard to get their MBAs don't really need to go to Harvard to be successful. If that's the case, one could argue that Harvard isn't really "doing" that much to make these people better business leaders.