Harvard Business School

Founded in 1908, Harvard Business School is nearly as old as the concept of management education itself-and in less than a century, the School has produced leaders and ideas that have shaped the practice of management in vital organizations of every kind around the globe.

Harvard Business School currently offers a two-year full time MBA program, which consists of one year of mandatory courses (Required Curriculum) and one year of unrestricted course selection (Elective Curriculum). Admission to the MBA program is one of the most selective graduate programs in the world, with an admission rate of 15% for the class of 2008. The student body is highly international and diverse, coming from a variety of different backgrounds. Women comprise 35% of the class of 2008.

The Required Curriculum consists of two semesters. The first semester focuses primarily on the internal aspects of the company and includes the courses Technology and Operations Management, Marketing, Financial Reporting and Control, Leadership and Organizational Behaviour, and Finance I. The second semester focuses on the external aspects and includes the courses Business, Government, and the International Economy, Strategy, The Entrepreneurial Manager, Negotiations, Finance II, and Leadership and Corporate Accountability.

The Elective Curriculum can be chosen from more than 50 courses. The students assign each course a priority and the courses are filled through a lottery system based on student priority and class availability. Elective curriculum students can also complete a field study in lieu of a class.

Current MBA classes have a size of approximately 900 students, divided into ten sections (A-J) of 90 students. Each section takes classes together the first year, with the intention of forming deep social bonds. Graduation rates are approximately 98%. Teaching is almost exclusively (95%) done through case teaching (also referred to as the Socratic method), where the students prepare teaching cases and discuss them in class, with a professor as moderator and facilitator.

MBA students at Harvard are graded on a relative curve. The top 15-20% of the class receive "1's" (instead of A's), the middle 70-75% receive "2's", and the bottom 10% receive "3's". If a student receives more than a certain number of "3's" in the first semester of the Required Curriculum, they receive an academic warning. The student is offered help, in the form of academic counseling and tutors to improve their academic performance. The fact that most MBA students at Harvard have been at the top of their classes in undergraduate schools and high schools makes it more competitive. However, it is said that the relationships between students are not as cutthroat as rumored and that it is quite a friendly and collaborative learning environment.

Harvard is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world. It is currently ranked #4 by BusinessWeek magazine, #3 by the Financial Times, #7 by Forbes Magazine, #8 by Princeton Review, #1 by U.S. News and World Report, and #14 by the Wall Street Journal. Different publications use highly varying MBA ranking methodologies. The school does not provide assistance, other than publicly available data, to publications that rank MBA programs.

To be considered for admission, a candidate must have successfully completed the following: A degree program at an accredited U.S. four-year undergraduate college/university or its equivalent; and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) exam, The application for the MBA class entering consists of responses to the application essay questions, a resume, recommendations, academic history, GMAT scores, TOEFL or IELTS score, if applicable, and nonrefundable U.S. $235 application fee.