Good New for HBS applicant, WL... HBS increase Class Size

Question

Harvard Business School to Increase Class Size in Response to Continuing Financial Crisis

In a post yesterday we addressed the endowment income losses that many colleges and universities are currently facing as a result of the continuing global economic crisis. Today we’ll provide a closer look at Harvard Business School’s approach during this uncertain time, as outlined in a recent letter to the HBS community by Dean Jay Light.

Perhaps most noteworthy was Light’s mention that HBS intends to increase its class size slightly beginning this fall. This, coupled with the development of new executive education programs, is part of an effort to broaden the school’s revenue sources.

In keeping with university-wide efforts to cut costs, HBS also will limit salary increases, offer early retirement incentives and be very prudent in its new hires, Light said.

According to Light, HBS is actually well-positioned to navigate the continuing economic hardships it faces, thanks to strategic investment policies, reliance on a range of revenue sources in addition to the endowment and short-term flexibility within the budget process. In fact, Light explained, the HBS business model does not depend on endowment income as its main revenue source but instead relies on a mix of that income combined with MBA tuition, executive education programs, the school’s publishing division and alumni giving. (For a closer look at the HBS business model, consult the Financial Review section of the school’s annual report for 2008.)....

https://blog.clearadmit.com/

I believe this will cause a ripple effect, and more people will ditch schools like Wharton, MIT, Kellogg, Booth opening up spots and WL spots. (Isa your spot is coming), which will further open up spots at Ross, Cornell, Yale.

Maybe it's wishful thinking. What do you think? 60-75 people would be pretty significant.

Rubashov1 · Answer

Hopefully great news. Thanks for the post, GB.

bostonsparky · Answer

This is excellent news for a lot of us. I suppose the Kellogg vs Yale question could become a bit moot for you rca?

Rubashov1 · Answer

I sure hope so!

BigBad · Answer

Very interesting! I think they will be limited by the resources available (physical classroom size, faculty). When I visited a the class I think there were 6-7 open seats, so your estimate of 60-75 might be within the range of possibility. Although, once they're talking about adding that many more people, maybe they'll just add an additional section of 90.

I'll root for you RCA!

bball · Answer

Sandy over on BW talked about this a bit here: https://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/fo ... &tid=10180

He thinks the class increase size will be ~30 kids... later in the thread he revises to 30-50.

I agree, when I sat i the class, it felt like there were ~6-7 empty seats. However, I'd think its kind of weird to build a classroom with space for such an odd number. I bet max seating capacity is more like 100.

Regardless, good news for waitlisters. Hope you get to join us in the fall RCA!

Rubashov1 · Answer

Thanks guys! I hope this does bode well for myself, the other R1 WLers and the R2 people still waiting to hear! It would be great to have a big GMATClub contingent at HBS this year.

Good New for HBS applicant, WL... HBS increase Class Size

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