I know I’m late on giving you guys the run-down about the HBS Prospective Student Day, but I was away on vacation for the past week. Anyways, here’s the summary of what i saw:
To put it simply, HBS did it up really big for all of us. I wasn’t a big fan of the 7:00am start time for the event, but, given all that they crammed into that day, I now see that the early start was necessary. The tone was set early, when over 25 current students got up at the crack of dawn to be there to welcome us to their school and try to convince us that it was the place for us. From the first presentation, the folks there hammered it into our heads that they were a place that built leaders and the the people you’d be in class with would help add to the knowledge that would help you reach your goals.
They gave us a chance to sit in on a real class so we’d see what to expect if we matriculate and I never thought that a Marketing class could be so exciting. I’d seen the case method in grad school at UVA, but it was a totally different experience to see it at the school that originated it. They also assigned us a case of our own to discuss in a mock class and it was cool to see how excited the other prospectives got about the topic.
I think the best part for me was the Student Panel that I attended toward the end of the day. Each of the students gave great reasons as to why they chose HBS and provided insight into the experience. But, one of the 2nd years (a Dominican young lady) really made a huge impression on me when she told a story about how she had to choose between a fullride at Wharton or $120K+ in loans to go to HBS. She brought the issue up to her mother (who was totally debt averse and didn’t even speak English) and was fully expecting her to say that Wharton was the move to make. Instead, he mother simply said “But it’s Harvard”…and the rest is history. That story helped me see how much that school really means to the students there. I had to duck out on the closing reception early to catch a flight, but the people there had made their impresssion on me by then.
Honestly, going into the day, I had heard that the people at HBS were cutthroat and stuck on themselves, so I honestly didn’t want to like it, but I couldn’t help leaving there being amped up about the chance of being a student there. Now, i can’t help but be all kinds of stressed about my HBS interview this coming Thursday. I don’t know where I’ll ultimately end up going to pursue my MBA, but one thing I do know is Harvard has a good thing going up there and anyone who gets in is in a enviable position.
To put it simply, HBS did it up really big for all of us. I wasn’t a big fan of the 7:00am start time for the event, but, given all that they crammed into that day, I now see that the early start was necessary. The tone was set early, when over 25 current students got up at the crack of dawn to be there to welcome us to their school and try to convince us that it was the place for us. From the first presentation, the folks there hammered it into our heads that they were a place that built leaders and the the people you’d be in class with would help add to the knowledge that would help you reach your goals.
They gave us a chance to sit in on a real class so we’d see what to expect if we matriculate and I never thought that a Marketing class could be so exciting. I’d seen the case method in grad school at UVA, but it was a totally different experience to see it at the school that originated it. They also assigned us a case of our own to discuss in a mock class and it was cool to see how excited the other prospectives got about the topic.
I think the best part for me was the Student Panel that I attended toward the end of the day. Each of the students gave great reasons as to why they chose HBS and provided insight into the experience. But, one of the 2nd years (a Dominican young lady) really made a huge impression on me when she told a story about how she had to choose between a fullride at Wharton or $120K+ in loans to go to HBS. She brought the issue up to her mother (who was totally debt averse and didn’t even speak English) and was fully expecting her to say that Wharton was the move to make. Instead, he mother simply said “But it’s Harvard”…and the rest is history. That story helped me see how much that school really means to the students there. I had to duck out on the closing reception early to catch a flight, but the people there had made their impresssion on me by then.
Honestly, going into the day, I had heard that the people at HBS were cutthroat and stuck on themselves, so I honestly didn’t want to like it, but I couldn’t help leaving there being amped up about the chance of being a student there. Now, i can’t help but be all kinds of stressed about my HBS interview this coming Thursday. I don’t know where I’ll ultimately end up going to pursue my MBA, but one thing I do know is Harvard has a good thing going up there and anyone who gets in is in a enviable position.
