The Best & Worst Things Harvard MBA Students Say About Their Experience

The Harbus also made available a wide range of written comments from the third of the sample who took the time to amplify their positive or negative opinions of the school.

On the plus side:

“The caliber of people at HBS sets it apart. Aside from being intelligent and well-accomplished, I find HBS students are on the whole to be thoughtful, warm, and humble. It makes every day here a true pleasure.”

“The case method works beyond my highest expectation in involving students and bring their enthusiasm into class that could, otherwise, be perceived as quite basic content-wise. The real value of the classes are the discussions, the different point of views, the opportunity to challenge each other.”

“I think the decision to come to a school like HBS isn’t a given. I used to think it was. But now I think it takes a certain personality with certain career aspirations to really get the most out of this place. Then again, time will tell how much of a positive force HBS will have on my career and life.”

“I think HBS provides a challenging setting where you can really start honing in on what makes businesses tick and why business leaders make the decisions they make. It has started making me more self-aware to the skills that I need to develop and that can only be a good thing. Plus the traveling and the long-term networking doesn’t hurt!”

“Is an incredible opportunity to learn from great classmates/professors and grow and also grow personally. Is VERY expensive though. Must be self starter to get the most out of it.”

“it’s an absolutely incredible and unique experience. I’ll never again be surrounded daily by such highly intelligent, kind, and diverse people. I learn something everyday, both inside and outside of class.”

“I would absolutely reccomend HBS to a friend. Not only is it valuable professionally, but it is one of the most personally rewarding periods in your life. Making so many new friends like the ones I’ve made at HBS has been life changing.”

And the downside:

“Needs to work on the culture of every social event being a drinking party. I have been thourouhly disappointed by the emphasis on alcohol at HBS. I would have enjoyed my social experience at HBS more if people would do more coffee chats than drinks!”

“There are people who become incredibly insensitive due to the atmosphere here and lose touch with reality and get high headed. More feedback would be helpful, especially for international students.”

“Increase inclusiveness and ability to participate in all events (fewer extravagant parties and events). Provide more transparency with Career & Professional Development – actually recommend realistic opportunities versus saying any one can do any thing.”

“I’m not sure if this will change in the EC year or not, but the exclusive use of the case method had made it very difficult to identify what I have learned so far. i can now calculate a beta, but outside of that, what specific skill do I now possess that I didn’t prior to business school. I’m sure the ability to talk a certain way will be extremely important going forward, it’s just very difficult to identify/quantify.”

“HBS needs to be more innovative. It needs to not be afraid to fail. It has become the giants that Clayton Christensen describes in his books. It is just a matter of time before it falls to an actually innovative company.”

“Some of the social scene can get isolating at times but I’m not sure that’s for the administration to improve. What I can say is that perhaps more of an effort needs to be made to add people from non-traditional backgrounds (esp. non-profit).”

“It’s like high school. A lot of people are fake and arrogant. I feel like HBS has turned me into a person that I don’t recognize and don’t like.”

“I’m not sure how much HBS can change this, but I think the values of psychological safety and inclusion have really fallen by the wayside since the first semester I was here. Also the intensity of the experience makes life difficult for introverts like me. HBS has been a bigger load for me emotionally and psychologically than my job or even college ever was. This has made the experience particularly unpleasant for me.”

“HBS has to become more global, and not in terms of more international students. Instead, it has to reduce the legacy to the US common practices, the US corporations, the US way of doing business, and understand that US is only part of the world. Indeed, as an international student myself, I still found that US people are in general more qualified to be here. However, given that the business is more and more globalized, they won’t be able to conduct business elsewhere. In my opinion the FIELD 2 experience has started to address the problem, but those were the occasions when I noticed that many US people really had no idea on how to behave abroad.”

“(HBS needs to improve) the level of empathy exhibited by students. HBS isn’t representative of the real world and its problems. We need to be more cognizant and compassionate about the problems in the world we live in, and use our privilege to improve the world we live in. “Think outside the bubble.”

DON’T MISS: THE BEST & WORST THINGS MBAS SAY ABOUT THEIR SCHOOLS