Hello all,

I got very lucky during the app cycle and was offered spots at my two top choices. My background is non-traditional. I am a surgery resident and my eventual long term interests are part-time clinical... but I want most of my time to be spent towards hospital management. My ideal job would be to lead a large hospital system, a job in which I envision having an impact on hundreds of thousands of folks. That's the dream. BUT my other interest is in biotech and it is a space that I am learning more and more about.

Personality: relatively nerdy (not bro-y or anything like that) but despite that, I'm quite outgoing, friendly and not awkward at all, and can network moderately but after like two hours, I just get tired of doing it. Natural science background in terms of education.

Education: minimal formal business exposure, will have to learn essentially from scratch. I'm actually excited about this! Is either style (HBS case style vs MIT's teaching style) more suited for someone like me?

What's important to me: I actually want to attend classes and gain a lot of knowledge and skills from my MBA. I will make use of the networking and alumni network, but I would imagine slightly less so than the typical student. I plan on returning to finish my residency after mba. Things like prestige and name matter to me somewhat (I'm human right?) but less so because they're not AS important in medicine than in the business world. But I know its important in business.

HBS

Pros: will probably get some need based scholarship, ? best brand in the world, arguably the best business school in the world whatever that means, love the campus and facilities, enjoyed meeting everyone during the interview

Cons: less of a focus on biotech and innovation than MIT? It is in its own little campus area? less collab with parent university maybe because of this separation

MIT

Pros: top 5 school I think, biotech and innovation powerhouse from my understanding, lots of collab with other parts of MIT, especially engineering. MIT is more nerdy? May fit my personality more.

Cons: more quant heavy, this is a downside for me. very rusty in quant and studying for the GMAT quant was tough. Also, no scholarship.

Would appreciate everyone's thoughts. Note that I did post this on another forum and got a few replies, but wanted as many voices heard before I make a decision.

Congrats on your admits! Truly amazing job!

Another forum? Does that exist?

I assume your are familiar with the Harvard-MIT HST program? It definitely recognizes the medical school at Harvard and MIT’s engineering.

Harvard is the program e wry one chooses for any reason and almost any career. I only know a handful of people who opted for other programs. It does happen but rarely. Something about the leadership and diversity and selectivity. It won’t be a mistake for sure esp for hospital management and such, it would open up many doors and create a positive first impression.

MIT Sloan is nice. However it doesn’t sound like you’re ready to dedicate your life to biotech so that may be a choice driven by a short term career goal?

PS. In terms of being introverted, I found most HBS students to be fairly reserved and some of the nicest people I have ever met. They’re smart but you wouldn’t be able to tell unless you got to know them actually. They’re not in your face. I think you will find your classmates at both programs to be similarly motivated/accomplished/driven and respectful. I don’t see any issues with fitting in... you will have a few jerks. Every school seems to have a few orotund mostly to keep it real for the rest


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Yes. But it’s different when it’s your own life and you have to live with the decision. It’s too easy to give advice Make sure it’s your decision and you won’t have regrets about it.
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