HBS Vs Our BSchool

The title may be a bit provocative, but if you believe what the students of Harvard Business School say, we are not that different from them. Here, some comments of HBS students are presented on their academics and life (taken from PaGalGuy’s Buzz book). Also, there is a brave attempt to compare those with our life @ Our B School. Please bear with me, you will find many an eye opener: “First year, all students take the same classes in a section of 90 people. Each section spends the entire year in one classroom with professors coming to them. It may sound a little bit like elementary school, but it creates an amazing experience.” Yes, we understand what is meant by amazing; we are going through the same. “You’ll probably only hang with HBS students, a majority of whom will be from your section (90 people). Events, dating, social everything seems to revolve around HBS… Sounds a bit cultish but, by the end of the year, you’ll be fully brainwashed and happy.” OK, so we should stop complaining about our divisional divides! “Each section of 90 students creates familial bonds, and each section takes on a personality of its own.” We too are witnessing it here. “Typically, study groups form in the first week or two of first year consisting of three or four students, optimally from different sections.” We don’t have any study groups from different sections. Therefore, we are almost isolated from what is happening in other sections. “The three cases a night are divvied up so that each member just has to “crack” only one case and prepare one executive summary for the study group members; this prepares each of them for the “cold-call” where the professor comes into the classroom and randomly calls on a student to present his/her analysis.” From second trimester onwards, many of us have adopted this method. Nice to see that HBS guys also do this. “Second year gets much easier.” Yes, brothers; same here. “On average, in the first year, three out of five professors in each semester are excellent, and two out of five are more junior, and therefore more variable.” We understand your condition dudes. “As an international student, I had some reservations about class participation but it went really well. HBS is not competitive in classes! Shark comments are appropriately chastised (!) right away to make sure they won’t happen again.” Many a times, even we tried to silent the shark comments! And that too by clapping! “All classes are taught using the case method. It’s hard to understand until you’ve experienced it, but it’s a fantastic way to learn.” OK. We are a bit more inclusive to adopt best of the all worlds J “The accessibility of faculty at HBS is also fantastic. Most faculty host lunches to get to know everyone outside of the classroom.” OK, hope some faculty reads this. We all love free lunches J “Grade nondisclosure is great. If you receive honors, you can put that on your résumé, but other than that, you can’t disclose grades. The grading system is the following: top [10 to 20] percent receive a one, middle 80 percent receive a two, and the bottom 10 percent receive a three.” Nice idea! Let us have it here also! “About two-thirds of students live on campus in dorms or apartments. I enjoy the residential aspect of the campus. It does sometimes create a little bit of a bubble from the real world, but the interaction between students is great.” So they also have some resident and some day scholars; though % may vary. “Dorm rooms can be painfully small and outdated but on-campus apartments are a good (if pricey) alternative.” OK, you too! “HBS is run as a business and students are informed that the MBA program is a loss-leader for the separately run executive management programs.” I think HBS learnt this from here! “Shad, the HBS gym, is like a country club facility. It’s only $60 per semester for a student and is well worth the price of admission.” HBS gym is cheaper than ours! “On average, every week there is one CEO from a Fortune 500 who speaks on campus.” We are following up, just remove the F500 criteria.