Admitted to both Harvard MBA and Harvard M.S. in Computer Science..which would you take?

Everything else aside. forget everything and all assumptions now. forget investment banking or quants or whatever. just simply going by what you know, if you were admitted to both at the same time, which one would you pick? It's currently only practical to take one at the time.

i have my own opinion but i have no idea what road to take :P

15 Comments
 

I'd say HBS is something that will hold itself across many industries. If you look at all of the business titans that went to Harvard Business- they said they would do it again...only for the networking. Networking in the business world is tantamount, on the other hand in CS not as much. HBS will impress more than MS in CS. You can always go back to get your masters in comp sci.

Reality hits you hard, bro...
 

Considering your attention to detail and the whole ":P" thing, I'm assuming (and kinda hoping) you didn't get into Harvard. Anyway, the question got me thinking. Because computers are the future. Yes, that's totally cliche. But it is totally true as well. Trading is more about monitoring preordained algorithms and risk-management models today than it is about actually doing the time-sensitive analytics and trading.

But this is VERY much dependent on you're interests and past skill sets. If you love management and want to get to the C-something position someday, then do the MBA. If you're interested in being a quant for the foreseeable future, then do the comp sci.

Oddly enough though, there are probably more entrepreneurial opportunities for the comp sci than the MBA.

 

not even a question for someone who actually knows what they are talking about. HBS all the way

"Jesus, he's like a gremlin; comes with instructions and shit"
 
IlliniProgrammerIf you want to do business, HBS is a decent place to go. If you want to do CS, reapply at Cornell or Georgia Tech next year- you should be aiming for a stronger engineering program if you can make it into HBS. However, why are you asking this question in August? Isn't that a little late?

Completely agree on your last point. Troll..?

 
seedy underbellyI'm gonna be the outcast here. M.S. in Comp Sci --> top Tech Firm is a very real possibility.
yea and HBS -> almost anything you can think of is a real possibility as well
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
GiantsFan2011I'm not sure why you would post on this website expecting any response outside of HBS, think of the people reading this...

There are more jobs in finance that can be had with comp sci than with an MBA. Most MBAs are much more applicable to corporations than financial services firms. I think it is perfectly relevant.

 

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