The Advantages Of Harvard Business School

Why talk about a school’s reputation?

The funny thing about business schools is they’ll spend a lot of time and effort convincing you that whatever stereotype people associate with them isn’t true.

However, when you actually go out and talk to the students at these schools, most of what they say confirms their school’s stereotype.

A school’s reputation isn’t a catch-all indicator of what education you’ll get there, but reputations at the very least give a good glimpse of what a school has to offer.

Here are some things I’ve learned about the reputations of different top business schools.

Harvard Business School

What can I say about Harvard? Well, Harvard is Harvard. Everyone knows about Harvard. It’s most applicants’ dream school. However, when you look closely at the characteristics of Harvard’s program, it might not be the right school for you.

The top 1%

When you go to Harvard, you go there to meet the top 1%. If you take the average business student at Harvard and compare them to the average students at other top 5 business schools, you won’t see much of a difference in terms of the quality of their education.

If instead you look at the top 1% of business students at Harvard, you’re looking at the founders of Providence Equity, partners at firms, future CEOs, and presidents of the United States. At Harvard, you’ll meet a lot of all-stars like that, and that’s the main reason you should go there.

The case method

Another thing Harvard is known for is it’s dedication to a case-method curriculum. The case method is where you basically learn about business concepts by reading real-life examples of business situations. You’ll pretend that you are the decision maker in a scenario and you’ll think about what you should do.

In a case-method school, there’s less emphasis on textbooks and lectures. I personally don’t learn very well that way, so I’m not a fan of Harvard in terms of its academics.

For certain topics, a case-based approach is pretty effective. But for other topics, like accounting or economics, it’s probably not the optimal way.

Something else to consider regarding the case method is how much it relies on the people in your classroom. Your fellow students will have different backgrounds and levels of understanding.

You might be in a great class with lots of cool people who have a wealth of information to offer. Or you might be in a class with people who don’t know much about anything, and the conversations you have won’t be as high quality.

This issue is compounded by the fact that Harvard students tend to be younger. Some of my friends from Harvard Business School have told me about being in class where most people have just 2 years of experience from an internship at companies like Goldman Sachs or McKinsey. In their experience, these younger students didn’t have anything really significant to add to the conversation.

For potential applicants, keep in mind that Harvard absolutely loves prestige, more than any other school. They value people with experience at McKinsey or Bain. Even among those people, successful applicants tend to have something else to set them apart, whether it be starting your own company or working in a prestigious industry like private equity.