EBM wrote:
I wouldn't form any opinions based on this article or the follow-up released yesterday.
Maybe I was just lucky with my section experience and with the people I chose to hang out with, but I never experienced a whiff of elitist behavior from my classmates--and that's with me coming from a decidedly middle-class upbringing in the southern US and blue-collar work experience. I almost didn't apply to HBS in the first place based on the stereotypes I'd heard about Ivy League MBAs, but during my time there I found that the stereotypes weren't rooted in much reality.
Yeah, it was obvious that some people had more money than others just based on how some chose to spend their long weekends and breaks--but I knew plenty of non-wealthy people who financed their extravagant lifestyles with private loans based on the rationalization that they'd be able to pay them off with the salaries they'd earn over the next 5 years. I also knew plenty of people who came from money (or who earned a lot in their pre-HBS lives) but were down to earth homebodies. And until I read this article, I'd never heard of "Section X."
It's especially odd that they released this article in the wake of all the statistics that show HBS is admitting far fewer applicants from the traditional "rich people" backgrounds of IB, PE, and hedge funds, and far more from manufacturing, social enterprise, and non-profits. More grads are going into tech, startups, or non-profit work these days compared to the past decade, and those numbers are coming at the expense of grads going into banking and consulting and PE.
I have to agree here. When I was applying I visited different schools and I was overwhelmed by the level of pretentiousness at other schools while, conversely, I was honestly refreshed by how welcoming the HBS crowd was. I expected the experience to be the exact opposite. Since being accepted and starting classes, I have been continuously thrilled with my classmates.
To be clear, I graduated from a state school with an engineering degree and was raised in a middle-class family in an extremely rural southern town. Personally, I tend to be sensitive to elitism and inequality, but I can honestly say those articles infuriated me due to their inaccuracy. One of my female professors also spoke to the class specifically about the gender article last week. She expressed how offended she was about the article, and how poorly it represented the views of her and her coworkers.
Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and every will have different experiences. I would just ask that you don't draw to deep a conclusion based on this article alone, because it really was quite lacking in factual depth.