Harvard MBA Class of 2018: Now What?

3. Create a to-do calendar. Make sure you list the key dates for all the schools that have accepted you for Admit Weekends, enrollment deadlines, and finally the deadline to make up your mind and send in your deposit to your future alma mater. Harvard hosts prospective student lunches with current MBA students each month on April 6th and 20th and May 4th on campus in the Grille Game Room of Spangler Center (you can register here). The school’s Admitted Student Welcome event will take place in April.

4. Taking care of business. Send thank you notes to everyone who helped you get into our target schools, decline your offers from other schools, tell your boss you’re leaving and lay the groundwork for a possible return (you never know if you’ll want to go back), let your network know where and when you’re going, and assess your housing preferences and investigate options. At HBS, over 80% of MBA students live in HBS dorms or Harvard affiliated housing. These residence halls range from dorm rooms to three-bedroom apartments. Because of the high demand for residence halls, on-campus housing is assigned through a lottery.

A case study professor in action at Harvard Business School

5. Prepare for class. What do you think is the best time to learn the basics of finance? When you’re buried in case studies and projects or have the free time to study at your pace? The answer is obvious. It could be helpful to take an accounting, finance, or MBA math course before the start of school. The best way to do that is by signing up for a free Wharton MOOC or, if you are especially ambitious, apply to Harvard Business School’s online business basics course, HBX. That program has been offered to HBS’ own admits as a way to get a head start on an MBA program–and will, no doubt, be offered to you as an HBS admit this year.

The question to ask yourself: How much of the material you are about to encounter as a first-year MBA will be brand new to you rather than subject matter that you’ve studied in the past or mastered in a previous work context? Can you acquire syllabi for MBA core courses and purchase text books to read in advance (if anything, to make the process of absorption and learning that much smoother once you are in the thick of business school life)? If there are obvious knowledge gaps – such as a lack of exposure to financial modeling via Excel, you can take a few video courses on the Internet to get you up to speed.

DON’T MISS: ACCEPTED TO BUSINESS SCHOOL? NOW WHAT? or TEN THINGS I WISH I’D KNOWN BEFORE GETTING MY MBA