Poets and Quants

Harvard Business School retains its No. 1 ranking in the new 2011 PoetsandQuants list of the best MBA programs in the U.S.

Harvard University

1. Harvard Business School

Dillon House
Soldiers Field Road
Boston, MA 02163
Admissions: 617-495-6128
Email: admissions@hbs.edu
Website: http://www.hbs.edu/mba
Apply Online: http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/apply.html

Admission Deadlines for Class of 2015:
Round One: 9/24/12
Round Two: 1/7/13
Round Three: 4/8/13

When people think about the MBA degree, the very first school that immediately springs to mind is Harvard. HBS is synonymous with the degree and literally sets the pace for the industry. It’s why everything it does instantly makes news–both good and bad. And Harvard’s new dean, Nitin Nohria, has immediately injected new energy and enthusiasm at the school.

Within 12 short months since assuming leadership of HBS last July 1, Nohria has racked up accomplishments that would have taken some B-school deans a decade or more. They include crafting and then communicating a new agenda for the school known as the five Is for innovation, intellectual ambition, internationalization, inclusion, and integration, pushing through significant changes to the MBA program against the concern by some that he was moving too fast, and raising millions of dollars in donations, including a $50 million gift from India’s Tata Group and its philanthropic interests.

All of these moves build on the formidable reputation and clout of the so-called “West Point of Capitalism,” a business school that frankly is a university onto itself, with 33 separate buildings on 40 acres of property along the Charles River. Harvard’s case method curriculum is designed to prepare students for the challenges of leadership in the real world. Though case studies maintain their dominant role at Harvard, the school has introduced several major changes that mix up the traditional HBS formula for training leaders. MBA students now take turns to lead a group engaged in specific, assigned products. They are also sent to work for a week with one of more than 140 firms in 11 countries, ranging from a Brazilian maker of soap to a Chinese real estate management company. And they also are given eight weeks, and seed money of $3,000 each, to launch a small company. The most successful, as judged by a vote of their fellow students, will receive more funding.

These very ambitious changes–especially for an MBA program of the size and scope of Harvard’s–build on what has long been an engaging and proactive learning environment, where students develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence to face a variety of difficult decisions that they’ll encounter throughout their careers.

Students spend their first two terms completing the required curriculum with a “section” of 90 students to which they are assigned. This group of students takes all first-year classes together and becomes an intellectual and social circle. During the second year, students choose up to five courses per semester from a list of course offerings to build their elective curriculum of choice. The new curriculum changes this up a bit, adding shorter courses into the course catalog.

For applicants in the 2012-2013 admissions season, Harvard has announced the most significant changes in the way it assesses MBA applicants since it began interviewing all admits in 2002. The school cut in half the number of required essay questions to two from four, but also added a novel 24-hour test for applicants who make the first cut and get an interview with admissions. Those candidates have to write a 400-word essay on what they wish they said but didn’t during the interview and put it on their online application within 24 hours of the interview.

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