Finished 1st Year at HBS - Ask Me Anything (Q&A)

Approximately one year ago I did this Q&A about being accepted and attending HBS. A week ago I finished my last final exam of my RC year (1st year) at Harvard Business School. I have had some time to reflect on the experience (and some spare time before I start my internship this summer) and I thought it might be interesting to some in the community if I shared my experiences (I suppose you can call this "Part 2," if you will). I am happy to answer anything about the 1st year MBA experience at HBS (e.g. academics, career resources, social scene, etc.) No question (within reason...) is off-limits. This is the place to ask the questions you want to ask admissions people/alums at official info sessions, but can't because you are worried you will come off as boorish/insane/etc. (I won't judge you) I am going to mostly ignore questions about the admissions process, my pre-MBA background, etc. For those, you can refer to my previous Q&A (see link above) from one year ago. Fire away!

 

Hi Deo, congratulations on finishing your first year! Here are a few of my questions ...

1) After being there for a year, how does HBS compare to your initial impression of the place? 2) What will you be doing for your internship? 3) I know a recent business school grad who "avoided all school career resources" and used networking alone to get offers -- what approach did you take when it came to using HBS career resources and what is your opinion on those services? 4) What do you like most/least about the social scene?

 
dcrowoar:
Hi Deo, congratulations on finishing your first year! Here are a few of my questions ...

1) After being there for a year, how does HBS compare to your initial impression of the place? 2) What will you be doing for your internship? 3) I know a recent business school grad who "avoided all school career resources" and used networking alone to get offers -- what approach did you take when it came to using HBS career resources and what is your opinion on those services? 4) What do you like most/least about the social scene?

1) Slightly worse - primarily on the administrative front. I was expecting the MBA program to treat us with a level of respect appropriate for our age (adult professionals), but many times we felt like we were being treated like children. Worse yet, the MBA program has done a number of things for the Class of 2018 that are without precedent and of questionable value, e.g. going on FIELD trips - an approximately 2 week immersion which is supposed to complement the case method - at the end of the Spring semester after classes but BEFORE final exams, then forcing students to return to campus after their immersions for a "Capstone" event (or face penalty if they fail to do so), don't even get me started on an alumni fundraising scheme disguised as a student assignment... and many more...

2) Technology-focused venture capital

3) I took a similar approach to the "recent business school grad." There is no question that networked searches are a lot better than on campus recruiting. Would you rather be competing with 30 of your peers for interview slots or none? A lot of the firms I targeted did not even have formal summer associate programs and so I had zero competition (I was the only candidate who they were considering for a position)

For career changers looking into consulting or investment banking, school career resources are essential since firms in those industries do things through the traditional channels. I might be simplifying things a little bit, but it seems like any career path other than consulting or investment banking will require some amount of networking.

4) Like most - the section experience. Being forced into a group of 90 or so strangers with Type-A personalities and spending class 5 days a week with them might sound like a terrible experience, but it actually really worked (mileage may vary). Your section becomes a sort of support system and you end up doing a lot of social things within your section, and your involvement can be as a little or as much as you want it to be. You definitely end up making close relationships with a select few, but even the people who you barely talk to are approachable and they are always just an email or phone call away.

Like least - a significant proportion of people here who cultivate a persona or image of themselves that seems disingenuous to me. Even worse are the social climbers with psychopathic tendencies who are charming/nice on the surface but are manipulative and will do anything to get their way. There were a few times when the thought ran through my head "Is this person being nice to me because he genuinely likes me or does he only want to get to know me because of my family background or because I might be "useful" to him in the future?

 
Tycho Brahe:
Did you frequently wear your HBS class jacket to Boston bars whilst strutting around and acting like you own the joint? Did you spend your year oozing success, confidence, swagger, and basically all other attributes of alpha males?

The HBS class jacket (actually a Patagonia fleece) is not available to 1st year students until after Thanksgiving, but once they became available people were definitely wearing them a lot.

I'm more of a blazer or sportcoat kind of guy when I go out, so no, I did not frequently wear the HBS class fleece to Boston bars.

There certainly is an illusion of the "Mr. Perfect" Harvard alpha male, and some of my peers would do their best to maintain the charade, but inevitably there will be a moment when people will think "wait a minute, this guy is full of shit." As cliche as it sounds, my best advice would be to cut the charade and just be yourself.

 

Thanks for doing this! I'm a current VC Associate (top tier corporate VC) currently applying to b-school. HBS is obviously on my list.

Can you comment specifically on recruiting for a VC internship? How much of it was standard recruiting, and how much of it was leveraging your existing network? Also curious if you find more Boston-based VCs or if you're able to break into west coast networks.

 
little-monkey:
Thanks for doing this! I'm a current VC Associate (top tier corporate VC) currently applying to b-school. HBS is obviously on my list.

Can you comment specifically on recruiting for a VC internship? How much of it was standard recruiting, and how much of it was leveraging your existing network? Also curious if you find more Boston-based VCs or if you're able to break into west coast networks.

A few East Coast VCs (generally smaller shops) recruit on campus but the vast, vast majority of people who are working in VC for the summer have had to do networked searches outside of the standard on-campus recruiting. Also, the recruiting timeline for VC is much later than other industries. For example, I did not secure my internship until early May.

 

Thanks for taking questions! I'm going to be an RC this fall and I have received many different answers to this question: how much time did you spend prepping for the next day's cases each night? Did you feel like the workload impacted your ability to attend networking/social events? Any tips on prepping for cases?

Thanks!

 
Best Response
mj800:
Thanks for taking questions! I'm going to be an RC this fall and I have received many different answers to this question: how much time did you spend prepping for the next day's cases each night? Did you feel like the workload impacted your ability to attend networking/social events? Any tips on prepping for cases?

Thanks!

It depends. Generally, during the fall semester, people are more intense about preparing for classes. In the spring, people start to chill out a little bit and take class (somewhat) less seriously. For me, fall semester and spring semester was about 6 to 7 hours and 7 to 8 hours of prep outside of class, respectively. Yes, in my case, outside prep time actually increased... mainly due to a class called "BGIE" (See below). I read every single case (I think we had over 250) during RC year but there were a lot of my section mates who "winged it" on a lot of cases. In terms of performance, I don't think it made much of a difference. In fact, the people "winged it" might have benefited since their comments (if they chose to speak in class) turned out to be "memorable."

The only thing you want to avoid is being cold called at the start of class and not having anything to say. If you read the case, this should not be a problem. If you did not read the case, hopefully you have friends who gave you the "cliff notes" version of the case via notes, or discussion group (in the fall semester, all students are required to participate in morning discussion groups from 8:00 to 8:50, in which you discuss the cases for the day before class starts at 9:10) There is, understandably, a lot of anxiety about cold calls, and that brings me to my next point about preparing notes.

Some students prepare notes that they use for "talking points" in class. Other students never prepared notes and just sat back and allowed the discussion to develop and waited for their moment to jump in with a comment spontaneously thought up on the spot. Obviously, the students who are writing up notes for class are spending a lot more time outside of class for preparation.

My observation was that students who prepared notes seemed (on average) more bookish and quiet - perhaps less confident with their public speaking abilities. The ones who didn't prepare notes, in general, seemed more confident and were comfortable "thinking aloud" with whatever thought popped into their head and (hopefully) developing it into a coherent comment. It could be a coincidence, but female students tended to prepare notes for class... male students less so.

If you had to choose one strategy, the latter might be the better choice. Being able to raise your hand (even if you don't 100% know the answer), start thinking out loud, and formulating an answer that is halfway decent is much better than being the person who prepared comments in their notes, but never got a chance to speak because other students already "stole" their comments (by saying a similar comment first) or the discussion had already moved on to the point that making one of their prepared comments would have been inappropriate (HBS classroom norms is that a good comment that is made too-late is useless, e.g. not worth any points).

Fall semester:

Finance 1 (FIN1) - 30 minutes to read the case, 1 hour to do basic model in Excel (e.g. usually a DCF) 4 quizzes assigned throughout the semester which are 90 minutes in length (the number of quizzes and the length may change in subsequent years) Financial Reporting & Control (FRC) - 1 hour to read the case + supplementary readings (there are a lot of these in FRC) Leadership & Organizational Behavior (LEAD) - 30 minutes to skim the case, no additional preparation necessary (in my opinion) By far the easiest class to BS your way through a cold call. 5 written reflections required throughout the semester (150 to 200 words) that must be submitted online. Marketing (MKT) - 1 hour to read the case, 30 minutes to crunch a few numbers (optional). The key to getting high participation points in MKT is approaching cases from a quantitative angle, I spoke half as much as one of my female friends in Section but I still ended up doing better than her because my comments were quantitative in nature, whereas hers were mainly qualitative) Technology & Operations Management (TOM) - 2 hours to read case (these cases, at least for me, were harder to get through due to my lack of domain knowledge, I had to constantly stop reading and look up stuff or refer to previous handouts to understand the content). Two blog posts required throughout the semester (these take several hours in terms of upfront research, actual writing, editing, etc.) I would conservatively say expect to spend at least 5 hours for each (you are given about a week to complete them)

Spring semester:

Business, Government & International Economy (BGIE) - 2 hours to read case, 30 minutes preparing some talking points - BGIE is an intermediate macroeconomics class with long cases (twice as long as the typical HBS case) that are dense with a lot of data, it's good to have some talking points prepared beforehand (one of the few times I actually prepared notes) Finance 2 (FIN1) - About the same as FIN1, modeling work in Excel becomes a little bit more complicated (But nothing too hard, at least for the average person on WSO) Leadership & Corporate Accountability (LCA) - Similar to LEAD, 30 minutes to skim the case, also easy to BS your way through a cold call (except for a few of the fact-based readings, where there is an actual "correct" answer) Strategy (STRAT) - 1 hour to read case, 1 hour to crunch a few numbers (optional) STRAT is similar to MKT in the sense that you could choose to go quantitative or qualitative in your comments (quantitative comments are obviously higher valued, although good qualitative comments are still worthy of merit) The Entrepreneurial Manager (TEM) - 1 hour to read the case. Having a tech background and/or finance background is an advantage. Some spreadsheet tutorial assignments (take 1 to 2 hours max) are assigned throughout the semester which are a pain to do, but useful in terms of learning the material.

 
Sil:
Thanks for doing this. What are some of the more non-traditional backgrounds of your classmates? I am talking about former professional sports players, children of royalty, small business owners, etc., not your traditional finance or consulting professionals.

No former professional sports players in my Section (sadly, it would have helped us in intramural sports!). I know some people in other sections that were former Olympians or D1 athletes. I knew a couple guys who played D1 football and made an attempt at the NFL but it didn't work out.

There are certainly some children who fit the profile of "children of royalty" - both actual royalty and "modern-day royalty" including children who are heirs/heiresses of major businesses, students whose father own NFL teams, but they are in the minority.

I think the main "non-traditional" cohort of students are ex-military. They generally tend to be older and have families/children.

There are a handful of people who are already successful entrepreneurs in their own right who are treating business school as a "sabbatical."

Still, I would say that 90% of students are ex-consultants and ex-investment bankers. The "official" statistics paint a different picture because HBS only considers the "last job" that a student held before matriculating... so a student who did 3 years at Goldman Sachs and then went to work for a non-profit would be classified as coming from a "non-profit" background/industry.

 

Thanks for doing this!

  1. What are some ways you can differentiate yourself in the application process given how high the competition is to get in? (essays, interviews, recommendations, GMAT etc..?). Trying to drill down on a few strategies to best get in as I will likely be applying this fall.

  2. Did you hire a consultant to help with applications, interviews etc.? Is it worth it?

3.. Can you comment on what recruiting is like for your classmates who were seeking Hedge Fund opportunities? (Long/short equity, activist investing etc..)

 
ValueInvestor888:
Thanks for doing this!
  1. What are some ways you can differentiate yourself in the application process given how high the competition is to get in? (essays, interviews, recommendations, GMAT etc..?). Trying to drill down on a few strategies to best get in as I will likely be applying this fall.
  2. Did you hire a consultant to help with applications, interviews etc.? Is it worth it?

3.. Can you comment on what recruiting is like for your classmates who were seeking Hedge Fund opportunities? (Long/short equity, activist investing etc..)

RT: I am going to mostly ignore questions about the admissions process, my pre-MBA background, etc. For those, you can refer to my previous AMA (see link above) from one year ago.

 

Didn't catch that and reading through that thread now. But my 3rd question still stands.

3.. Can you comment on what recruiting is like for your classmates who were seeking Hedge Fund opportunities? (Long/short equity, activist investing etc..)

 

Deo et Patriae thanks for the AMA...my questions to you are as follows:

1.) Did you meet or have classmates with unusual or different backgrounds (i.e. Former Dance major, musician, engineer, etc.)? What was your impression of them (just curious)?

2.) What's the academic rigor like at HBS? I've heard so long as you have a pulse and you do the work you'll get a B+ or better but I've heard at some schools the classes are actually challenging.

3.) Do professors interact with students much outside of class or no? Is there a general sense of getting to know your professors outside of class?

Thanks in advance!

 
RedRage:
@Deo et Patriae thanks for the AMA...my questions to you are as follows:

1.) Did you meet or have classmates with unusual or different backgrounds (i.e. Former Dance major, musician, engineer, etc.)? What was your impression of them (just curious)?

2.) What's the academic rigor like at HBS? I've heard so long as you have a pulse and you do the work you'll get a B+ or better but I've heard at some schools the classes are actually challenging.

3.) Do professors interact with students much outside of class or no? Is there a general sense of getting to know your professors outside of class?

Thanks in advance!

1) Yes. Plenty of classmates with unusual/different backgrounds. Former NAVY Seal. Former aerospace engineer who worked at SpaceX. Classmates who worked directly for Obama in the White House. Former professional musician (classical) Art history PhD who opened an art gallery in Paris and London. I could go on...

I actually enjoyed meeting and getting to know people from non-traditional backgrounds better. Why spend time with people who are similar to yourself?

2) Three categories of grades at HBS. I, II, and III (there is a 4th, rarely used category IV which indicates failure to achieve minimum standards) Category I = Top 20%, Category II = Middle 70%, Category III (and IV) = Bottom 10%

The key is to avoid getting too many Category III grades during the first year. I think the rule is 5 or more Category III grades (out of 10 classes) and your performance will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by a committee (composed of administration and faculty) that will vote on whether you should be allowed to continue in the MBA program.

3) This varies a lot. Some professors love spending time with their students outside of class, while others will do the absolute minimum. Generally, there will be "coffee chats" and/or "lunches" organized in each class for groups of students and the professor throughout the semester. There is also standard office hours (usually by appointment) throughout the semester.

 
smartmonkey111:
AMAZING! Congratulations brother! How hard was the course? Do grades matter in MBA?

It really depends. If you are outgoing and a naturally strong public speaker, you will thrive at HBS. If you are shy and uncomfortable with public speaking, it will be a challenge. For me, the hardest thing about my 1st year was balancing priorities and time management. Grades don't really matter in the MBA program... (although see my response to RedRage above)

 
Predilection:
Two questions:

(1) Are there many dual degree candidates?

(2) Do most have top undergrad and no grad school before going?

1) Yes, quite a few. The most popular dual degree candidate (by far) is with the Kennedy School of Government. Not unusual to see 3 or 5 HBS/HKS per section.

Additionally, every section (there are 10 in total) will have at least one dual degree candidate at the Medical School and one from the Law School. This is done by the administration on purpose.

2) For American students, yes. For international students, a significant number have Master's degrees. Students from the UK, for example, typically receive a Master's degree when they complete 4 years of college (3 years is the Bachelor's degree portion, and 1 year is the Master's degree portion)

 
BillyAckman:
How much hair gel do you use, and what brand (serious question)!?

"In the shower I use a water-activated gel cleanser... then a honey-almond body scrub... and on the face, an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an herb mint facial mask which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine..."

 

You mentioned that there are about 3/5 HBS HKS, one Medical, and one Law dual degree students per section one. I was wondering what the typical size of each section is to better understand the percentage of dual degree students.

 
BuschWackers:
  1. How real is the feeling of FOMO on campus? I keep hearing that from current MBA students?
  2. What trips have you been on? Favorite trip? Lease favorite?
  3. What is the current consensus about the debt load?

1) FOMO is real, but I got over it pretty quickly. I was okay with skipping parties and not being at every social event. I've heard from 2nd years that it's actually worse in the 2nd year due to the quality of events available (supposedly better) and in the 2nd year you start realizing that you are running out of time and the attitude of "no big deal, I'll just go to the next one" will not fly since there will no longer be a "next one"

2) Cape Cod, Colorado (Class-wide Ski-trip), Colombia, Ibiza, Las Vegas, Morocco

Most Favorite: Las Vegas Least Favorite: Colombia

3) Generous financial aid is available for those who need it

 

Hi. Thanks so much for doing this AMA and congrats!

I was curious about how financial aid was calculated for HBS (or MBA programs in general). Do they consider your family background/parental income? Is it just based on your income from your 3-5 years of work experience post undergrad? Part of my motivation for getting a high paying out of college job was to be able to save for an MBA, it would be kind of discouraging to find out that TFA kids (who in my experience didn't and don't work as hard) were cut a break regardless of family contribution.

 
little-monkey:
Another question -

Can you talk at all about what it's like for students with partners (spouses or fiances)? Is it typical that people will have their partner live on campus with them? Do those who chose to live off campus with a partner suffer socially?

From what I can tell, partners are well integrated into the HBS community. The vast majority of people in my Section had partners (you were in the minority if you were single) at the beginning of the Fall term. Of course, the definition of partners is stretched to also include "boyfriends/girlfriends"... Partners are almost always welcome to all informal student-organized events (including section retreats, section charity auction, and various trips/treks organized by clubs or groups of students). There are also a good number of school-organized events in which partners are welcome/encouraged to come, including things like the winter formal ("Holidazzle"), spring formal (Newport Ball)...

I would say it was an even split between partners who lived on campus with their student counterpart and those who lived off-campus. Students who have kids tend to prefer off-campus, although there were certainly plenty of little children roaming around campus...

As far as I can tell, living off campus with a partner will not cause you to suffer socially. If anything, it's probably good to get out of the "HBS bubble" from time to time. All social events (within your section) are usually posted on GroupMe/Slack and they are very inclusive. As long as your partner is okay with you spending evenings together with your classmates, it should be fine.

One thing I noticed with people who were married/had kids, especially if there was a big HBS student club sponsored party happening at a club in Boston, is that they would usually go to only the "pre-game" (held at someone's apartment or house) for a few drinks and would fade out as people started ordering ubers to the night club. That way, they still get to hang out with their section mates and get to know them, but they don't have to commit to staying out until 2:00 am at a club/bar/whatever and potentially getting into trouble with their wife/husband/partner/whatever.

 
  1. Is it worth it you think to sacrifice extracurriculars and non academic parts of the MBA program to aim to have this on your bio one day "Benjamin Goldstein received a B.A. from "target school" and an M.B.A from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar."

the baker scholar part. think it's wort it to put in the over time to graduate in the top 5%?

  1. Are the private equity guys secretly condescending and elitist towards the rest of the crowd. I can't imagine the competition for post MBA PE slots, and more specifically once these guys actually know they have these roles landed, how great they must feel about themselves.
We're not lawyers. We're investment bankers. We didn't go to Harvard. We Went to Wharton!
 
gridironceo:
  1. Is it worth it you think to sacrifice extracurriculars and non academic parts of the MBA program to aim to have this on your bio one day "Benjamin Goldstein received a B.A. from "target school" and an M.B.A from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar."

the baker scholar part. think it's wort it to put in the over time to graduate in the top 5%?

  1. Are the private equity guys secretly condescending and elitist towards the rest of the crowd. I can't imagine the competition for post MBA PE slots, and more specifically once these guys actually know they have these roles landed, how great they must feel about themselves.

1) Not worth it, because even if you sacrifice extra-curricular/non-academic parts of the MBA program, the odds are against you of making Baker Scholar. This past year's class (Class of 2017) had only 48 students make Baker Scholar. I can only imagine how student No. 49 (who just missed it) must feel if they were seriously going for Baker Scholar. Sacrificing the non-academic (Read: fun) parts of the MBA experience and then still not getting it... not worth it, in my opinion...

2) The private equity guys at HBS are collectively known as "private equity bros" and are detested by a lot of the student body (especially female students) who think they create a hostile environment in the classroom. I think it's a little bit unfair, and its more of a case of a handful of "bad apples" spoiling the entire barrel. Yes, there are certainly some condescending and elitist male students (always male) who worked in private equity who are arrogant/cocky, but most people I know who worked in private equity pre-MBA are decent people. One of my close private equity buddies in another Section provided his section mates with all his technical interview guides (close to 50 pages worth of material) and generously organized Finance Final Exam Review study sessions and Excel Modeling sessions.

 
okmijn22:
What would you say are the unique advantages that you get from HBS over the other MBA business schools ">M7 schools? For traditional careers such as banking/consulting are they almost identical?

The case method.

There are no lectures at HBS. Even courses like Finance are taught using the case method. Moreover, there is only "one level" for Finance at HBS - everyone takes the same class. This is different from a school like Wharton in which students have to take a placement test and will be put into different tracks based on their previous experience/knowledge.

Teaching Finance using the case method is challenging because students have such varying levels of familiarity and knowledge (e.g. the guy who did 2 years of banking and 2 years of private equity is competing against the liberal arts non-profit girl who thinks derivatives are something you learned back in AP Calculus)

How is this an advantage? You get experience teaching people in a field in which you are an "expert." It's a cliche, but being able to teach something is a sign that you have truly mastered it. Teaching is also an underrated skill that is important in many careers (e.g. being able to coach and mentor employees/people working under you)

In terms of advantages you get for your future career... well, all MBA business schools ">M7 schools will position you well for banking/consulting. Harvard might have a slight advantage with its brand name and the value of its alumni network, but I think those are advantages that only come into play in your career over the long term. In the short term (e.g. your very first job out of business school), I don't think the advantages make that much of a difference. In fact, for jobs in finance, I have heard more than one recruiter say they prefer Wharton students over HBS students...

 

Do you know of any colleagues you met so far that are in undergrad business schools that fall outside H/Y/P like Wharton/NYU/Baruch/Fordham (place any other undergrad b-school northeast school here)?

 
cashfl0w:
Do you know of any colleagues you met so far that are in undergrad business schools that fall outside H/Y/P like Wharton/NYU/Baruch/Fordham (place any other undergrad b-school northeast school here)?

I think HBS publishes a list of UG schools represented every year. The fact that you are asking this question here rather than googling it makes you look stupid. I'd rather you use the OP's valuable time in asking a question that you can't easily find out or his opinion on something.

Here you go -

http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/class-profile/Pages/undergraduate-ins…

 
snakeoil:
Thanks for doing this. My question is around Dean Nitin Nohria.

From what I casually observed on social media, is Nohria trying to turn HBS into the Harvard School of Social Work?

Not sure if that is an accurate assessment. Some haters may say that HBS has provided the impetus for the development of various modern business practices that have led to dubious results (e.g. junk bonds and corporate raiding/takeovers in the 1980s, corporate scandals in 2000s (e.g. Enron, who was run by an HBS grad Jeff Skilling) and other consequences like increasing inequality (e.g. astronomical CEO compensation packages that continue to dwarf what rank-and-file employees take home). Some even blame HBS for indirectly causing the most recent real estate mortgage bubble/financial crisis. The critics may have a point, but HBS is still unapologetically one of the world's foremost bastions of capitalism. A few moves by Dean Nohria to change HBS's image into one that is more "socially responsible" is not incompatible with what HBS ultimately stands for.

 
CanadianEnergyBanker:
How much matchmaking would you say occurs during the assembly of the Class of 2018's chosen ones?

In one word: A LOT. Nothing is random about the process. You would think its an art form, but I would argue they have it down to an exact science. In fact, I found it a little bit eerie how they assembled my particular Section. Every person who was accepted and put into my section was done so with a specific purpose in mind.

 

Hey man just wanted to drop by and let you know that I am not jealous that you are at HBS. I'm not jealous AT ALL despite the fact that I will probably never even be allowed near HBS. In fact, you are probably jealous of me!

Just thought I would let you know.

 

During your first year, did you noticed if there people in HBS accepted based on "diversity" quota?

How important is it to keep good contact with professor?

Do people mostly do this MBA part-time or full-time?

Are you planning on taking any internships during the summer vacation? Do companies accept you easily since you've "made it" to HBS?

 
smartmonkey111:
During your first year, did you noticed if there people in HBS accepted based on "diversity" quota?

How important is it to keep good contact with professor?

Do people mostly do this MBA part-time or full-time?

Are you planning on taking any internships during the summer vacation? Do companies accept you easily since you've "made it" to HBS?

Definitely, there were definitely more than a few URM who had decent backgrounds/CVs, but you still had the nagging sense that they were slightly below HBS standards.

Keeping contact with a professor could be useful if you need a letter of recommendation.

HBS only offers a full-time MBA.

Yes, I already answered this in a previous post. Companies don't necessarily accept you easily simply because you come from HBS. It's all about having the right cultural fit. Your background/interests/passions/etc. have to connect with a company's culture/mission/vision.

 
<span class=keyword_link><a href=/resources/skills/finance/going-concern>Going Concern</a></span>:
Assuming you're straight, how many girls have you hooked up with during your first year at HBS?

I am straight.

I was already in a committed long-term relationship when I started school (and the relationship survived the 1st year), so no hook ups for me.

 
Deo et Patriae:
Going Concern:
Assuming you're straight, how many girls have you hooked up with during your first year at HBS?
I am straight.

I was already in a committed long-term relationship when I started school (and the relationship survived the 1st year), so no hook ups for me.

That's truly eye opening. Based on famous users that have educated the WSO community on HBS in the past (Brady4MVP, mbavsmfin, etc), I was under the impression that previous relationships don't last past October and HBS students are hooking up like rabbits. Basically a non-stop orgy.

Town of Disillusionment Population: Yours Truly

 

You mentioned the "private equity bro" label, but more generally, are there people who you would classify as fitting the notorious Section X label?

Did you try moving out of your current banking role without an MBA and get no traction, or did you wait until HBS to start recruiting for your new career? Are there many people who switched careers before HBS that you know of (for example moving from consulting to finance or engineering to consulting)?

Do many people go the search fund route after HBS (maybe something you'll know about more next year)? It's an interesting model but I'd be curious to know how popular it is.

Gimme the loot
 
Gratisfaction:
You mentioned the "private equity bro" label, but more generally, are there people who you would classify as fitting the notorious Section X label?

Did you try moving out of your current banking role without an MBA and get no traction, or did you wait until HBS to start recruiting for your new career? Are there many people who switched careers before HBS that you know of (for example moving from consulting to finance or engineering to consulting)?

Do many people go the search fund route after HBS (maybe something you'll know about more next year)? It's an interesting model but I'd be curious to know how popular it is.

"Private equity bro" are a different crowd from "Section X." To illustrate this, I will write down some things that have been actually said in actual conversations with persons from each group:

Private equity bro (Imagine a gorilla-shaped guy with ADD who probably auditioned for "Jersey shore" back in the day but got rejected for IQ being too high)

"Yo Deo, what's up? You coming tonight? It's gonna be awesome! You know, at Goldman Sachs, we partied the Goldman Sachs way. Then at Carlyle, we partied the Carlyle way. Now we are at HBS, so we are gonna party the HBS way. It's gonna be so sick, bro! By the way, did you know I like to go to the gym 2 times a day?"

Section X-person: (Imagine a thin, well dressed European with an exotic accent)

"Hello Deo, how are you? I'm going to fly (on a private jet) to my family's villa in the Caribbean for the long weekend with my girlfriend and a couple of friends, would you care to join us?"

Pretty much waited until HBS to start recruiting for new career. Plenty of people who switched careers before HBS (e.g. consulting/banking into tech or a start-up were fairly common)

I think a handful of people go the search fund route. We did a case study in Entrepreneurial Management called "Jim Sharpe: Extrusion Technology" which got a number of people interested in potentially going the entrepreneurship through acquisition route.

 

Understand everyone comes from different backgrounds, but how much money would you say would be an ideal amount to have saved up (at least baseline) if you want to take full advantage of the "MBA experience", i.e. events / activities / trips?

 
turk1:
Understand everyone comes from different backgrounds, but how much money would you say would be an ideal amount to have saved up (at least baseline) if you want to take full advantage of the "MBA experience", i.e. events / activities / trips?

Bare Minimum (approximately $2000): Section dues (optional): $400 for the entire year. These are essentially funds used to organize activities throughout the year. Sometimes this is split up into alcohol drinkers (higher amount) and non-alcohol drinkers (lower amount). Although it is optional, to my knowledge, everyone in my Section contributed. HBS fleece (optional): Overpriced at around $150, but virtually everyone gets at least one Fall section retreat (95% of my Section attended): $300 to $500 which pays for everything including transportation, accommodation, food and miscellaneous Spring section retreat (only about 50% of my Section attended): $300 to $500 (same as above) Winter formal (Holidazzle): Tickets approximately $100 per person Spring formal (Newport ball): Tickets approximately $100 per person, Hotel accommodation: variable, if you book yours early enough, could be under $200, gas money to drive to Newport Rhode Island (or carpool with section mates)

Extras (highly variable, probably $5000 minimum, depending on how cheaply you can get airfare and accommodations: Parties and events hosted by student clubs (Lat Am club, Euro club, Wine & Cuisine Society, etc.) - Tickets on EventBrite cost about $50, some of the more expensive events cost upwards of $200+ Trips on long weekends and spring break (variable, some people fly to destinations overseas (Iceland, Colombia, Peru, Morocco...), others do local trips that are in New England)

 
funnyhow:
From what you've seen, do most people get the types of internships / jobs (top 3-5 choices) they truly want, or have you seen a devaluation of an HBS degree among your section and peers?

I think a good percentage get the types of internships they want. With respects to consulting and i-banking, 100% of the people in my Section who wanted an internship in those industries are going to Bain/BCG/McKinsey or bulge bracket/elite boutique.

With very competitive industries (e.g. private equity), there were people who had to settle for something less than their top choice but still in the same "ball park" (e.g. gunning for a summer associate role at a mega PE fund in New York, settling for a middle market PE role in Chicago)

 

Wow - really 100% conversion for MBB? I know HBS has an edge vs other top schools for these types of jobs but didn't think it was so dramatic. I'm at Kellogg and feel like it is probably about 30-40% conversion for MBB and 50-70% conversion for a consulting offer overall (depending on how you slice things). FWIW, we had 90%+ conversion to BB/EB banks for the self-selecting group that went for that, but consulting recruiting was a bit of a bloodbath this year.

Also I know from experience that there at HBS people at some of the Tier 2 consulting firms, where do they come from? Is it people who re-recruit full time?

 
bballer4life999:
Although you were strictly focused on VC opportunities, would you be able to shed any light on recruiting for corporate strategy roles at HBS? (or any other non-consulting, IBD, VC, opportunities)

I'm afraid I can't comment much... I know a few people doing corporate strategy-type roles at established companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Salesforce, to name a few... These companies DID come to campus and they got these jobs through the on-campus recruiting process, so there are positions available... sorry I don't have more information than that.

 
kenneth635:
Are you in "Section X" and or have info on it? Is it really all hype?

"Section X" is simply a label people put on the students who come from family wealth and exhibit certain behaviors (e.g. eating at expensive restaurants, going on expensive holidays, wearing expensive clothing, etc.) People with similar backgrounds and interest tend to like spending time with other people who are like them. I have had the label jokingly put on me, occasionally, for example, when I went somewhere nice for winter break and posted a photo on facebook/instagram someone commented "Section X vacation?" or when I was wearing some of my nicer clothes someone said as a joke "wearing your Section-X garbs today?" It's not a big deal and is pretty much all hype.

 

Hey, congrats on completing your first year. I am sure you might be getting overwhelmed with the amount of questions, but wanted to add couple of my own questions in the pile:

1) Do you have many ex-CPA's in your section? If so, mind sharing what kind of internships they were able to secure for this summer? Any surprising outcomes in their employality?

2) Was anyone from your section able to break into any super elite internship programs for the summer (compared with general MBB or BB internships)? Anyone from your section sticks out in terms of his/her employment opportunities post MBA?

Thank you!

 
CPAtoMBA:
Hey, congrats on completing your first year. I am sure you might be getting overwhelmed with the amount of questions, but wanted to add couple of my own questions in the pile:

1) Do you have many ex-CPA's in your section? If so, mind sharing what kind of internships they were able to secure for this summer? Any surprising outcomes in their employality?

2) Was anyone from your section able to break into any super elite internship programs for the summer (compared with general MBB or BB internships)? Anyone from your section sticks out in terms of his/her employment opportunities post MBA?

Thank you!

1) Not many, but I think we have a few (2 or 3) To my knowledge, all of them are doing finance, one is doing investment banking and another is doing a corporate development-type role at a F500

2) Not sure what your definition of super elite internship program is? Something highly selective? I know there was one kid (not in my section) who is interning at Baupost over the summer. Apparently, he was the only intern they hired for the summer... Can't really comment on my own section (nothing really stands out)

 

More of a personal q, but given that you've done a year of B-school now, did you feel that it was "worth it"? I'm talking the opportunity cost to your time and and the people that you have met so far in your journey.

Looking back, would you have tried to grind it out on your own to get the VC opportunity without going to HBS?

Perhaps a dumb question, but one that I think about often.

 
Donny_Axelrod:
More of a personal q, but given that you've done a year of B-school now, did you feel that it was "worth it"? I'm talking the opportunity cost to your time and and the people that you have met so far in your journey.

Looking back, would you have tried to grind it out on your own to get the VC opportunity without going to HBS?

Perhaps a dumb question, but one that I think about often.

If you asked me this question at the half-way mark of my first year, I would have said "no." I was questioning what I was doing in business school during the fall semester... I wasn't having as much fun as I thought and the academics felt pretty "blah" to me. Things improved dramatically during the spring semester. Things picked up socially and the classes became more interesting/enjoyable. With a full-year under my belt, I can now say "Yes," even with factoring int he opportunity cost, it was worth it.

 
rugbyladdy:
For those with prior buy-side experience, how tough is the process of recruiting for investment management roles (AM/HF)?

Tough but doable seems to be my impression. Nearly all those with public markets investing experience pre-MBA were able to lands roles in HF or AM. Interestingly, a significant proportion of students with buy-side experience are sponsored (their firm is paying for their MBA). This is especially true for those coming from the large, mega PE firms. None of these people really "needed" a summer internship (since they have a job waiting for them after graduation) but they were also able to get summer jobs in AM/HF (try out public investing to see how they like it)

 

do you think you would get the same quality of career opportunities if you went to a b-school at a much less prestigious university...say...an arbitrary state school? Is the top tier brand "worth it"?

If you couldn't get accepted into a top tier school...is it even worth getting a low tier MBA?

 
ironnchef:
do you think you would get the same quality of career opportunities if you went to a b-school at a much less prestigious university...say...an arbitrary state school? Is the top tier brand "worth it"?

If you couldn't get accepted into a top tier school...is it even worth getting a low tier MBA?

Unfortunately, brand (and the alumni network and the access to companies/recruiters associated with it) are much more important than the actual education you receive. I would strongly advise against attending an "arbitrary state school."

 

Thanks for doing the AMA! 1) In general, were the academics useful (for you/classmates) in intended future career paths? 2) Overall, how much internal competition did you feel with your classmates regarding academics/recruiting/bragging rights? 3) I know most people go to business school for the network/career switch, but for the PE guys, do they intend to go back to PE or did they recruit for other things? Asking because I hear there is a natural "path" for IB -> PE -> MBA -> ? 4) Comparing HBS to the MBA business schools ">M7, is there a notable difference in recruiting advantages?

 
VMC16:
Thanks for doing the AMA! 1) In general, were the academics useful (for you/classmates) in intended future career paths? 2) Overall, how much internal competition did you feel with your classmates regarding academics/recruiting/bragging rights? 3) I know most people go to business school for the network/career switch, but for the PE guys, do they intend to go back to PE or did they recruit for other things? Asking because I hear there is a natural "path" for IB -> PE -> MBA -> ? 4) Comparing HBS to the MBA business schools ">M7, is there a notable difference in recruiting advantages?

1) Somewhat useful. Certain classes were more useful than others. Finance, for example, was essential for career-switchers hoping to land jobs in investment banking

2) I felt a decent amount of internal competition with regards to academics. Grading is on a forced curve, and you don't want to be on the wrong side of it. Every class the professor brings in an updated seating chart which has information about students' participation. A student whose photo is normal did not speak in the previous class or two classes (normal odds of getting cold called). A student whose photo is faded spoke in the previous class (less chance of getting cold called) Finally, a student whose photo is shaded yellow means they haven't spoken in three classes, which ups the odds of getting cold called considerably. Before class began, I would glance at the seating chart (the professors would usually leave it on their desk out in the open) to check what my status was. The key was to never turn "yellow" because you want to be able to pick the right moment to make a value-added/insightful comment and not be put on the spot involuntarily.

Did not feel any competition in terms of recruiting or bragging rights.

3) A decent number of PE guys are sponsored, so they usually return to their firms after graduation. Some of them do experiment with other areas of finance (hedge funds are pretty common) over the summer. Anecdotally, a lot of them seem to dislike public markets investing...

4) I do not know what recruiting is like at other schools but I'm guessing it's pretty comparable.

 
okmijn22:
How many Canadians were there this year at HBS and what were their backgrounds?

I can't believe I did this for you but I went into the student directory and looked this up for you.

23 students listed their "home region" as Canada

A significant number of people had experience in both consulting and "finance" or "others." I categorized them based on whichever they worked in longer (e.g. 3 years in consulting, followed by 2 years in private equity would be counted as "consulting")

Consulting (8) Finance (10) Others* (5)

*Others included Energy, Metals & Mining and Technology

 
Frank the Tank:
I was just hoping you might give me some insight into the evolution of the market economy in the southern colonies. My contention is that prior to the Revolutionary War, the economic modalities, especially in the southern colonies, could most aptly be characterized as agrarian precapitalism.

Of course that's your contention. You're a first year grad student. You just finished reading some Marxian historian, Peter Garrison probably, and you'll be convinced of that until next month when you get to James Lemon and then you are going to talk about how the economies of Virginia and Pennsylvania were entrepreneurial and capitalist way back in 1740. That's gonna last until next year, you're gonna be in here regurgitating Gordon Wood talking about the pre-Revolutionary utopia and the capital-forming effects of military mobilization.

 

Hi. Thanks again for doing this.

My question is about women at HBS. Are there a good amount of women that come from PE backgrounds? Are there a good amount without PE backgrounds looking to go into PE? Is the "PE guys" gang all men? Do you notice a difference in the type of careers men vs. women pursue at HBS? Can you speak to the experience of women recruiting for PE roles with or without a PE background from HBS?

 
recentgradm:
Hi. Thanks again for doing this.

My question is about women at HBS. Are there a good amount of women that come from PE backgrounds? Are there a good amount without PE backgrounds looking to go into PE? Is the "PE guys" gang all men? Do you notice a difference in the type of careers men vs. women pursue at HBS? Can you speak to the experience of women recruiting for PE roles with or without a PE background from HBS?

Seems to be a decent amount of female presentation in PE. I counted 47 women (approximately 5% of the entire class and 30% of people with private equity experience) working in front office PE roles (the number would be a little higher if you include middle/support roles)

The "PE guys" gang is all men. My experience (anecdotally) is that women who worked in private equity downplay their experience. In general, I see less women pursuing jobs in careers that traditionally have poor work-life balances (basically anything in consulting and finance). Of course, these industries have always been male-dominated to begin with... Women are definitely higher represented in CPG and social enterprise-type roles (for the latter, virtually zero men pursue this).

 

Hi, appreciate the effort of doing this AMA.

Are there any classmates with a more quantitatively oriented background? This would be something like McKinsey Analytics/BB S&T/quant analysts at some HF or BB and so on.

I would argue that since the value of an MBA derives mostly from the network you receive (and to some extent from the brand value), the content you learn does not matter that much. Thus, people at quant positions (who already have extensive skillsets) looking for a career change/something would benefit even more from the network gained at HBS. To my knowledge though you rarely see people with such backgrounds getting an MBA. Does this hold in practice?

Also are there lot of "weird" undergrad backgrounds (physics/journalism/history of feminism etc.) or is it still mostly straightforward business degrees people have? Cheers

 
Sopuli:
Hi, appreciate the effort of doing this AMA.

Are there any classmates with a more quantitatively oriented background? This would be something like McKinsey Analytics/BB S&T/quant analysts at some HF or BB and so on.

I would argue that since the value of an MBA derives mostly from the network you receive (and to some extent from the brand value), the content you learn does not matter that much. Thus, people at quant positions (who already have extensive skillsets) looking for a career change/something would benefit even more from the network gained at HBS. To my knowledge though you rarely see people with such backgrounds getting an MBA. Does this hold in practice?

Also are there lot of "weird" undergrad backgrounds (physics/journalism/history of feminism etc.) or is it still mostly straightforward business degrees people have? Cheers

Yes, every section has a handful of exceptionally quantitative students (studied computer science, math, physics, etc. in undergrad) and then worked in quantitative roles pre-MBA.

I tend to agree with your assessment. People in quant positions would benefit from the network gained, not the mention the chance to develop "soft" skills and improve their confidence in public speaking.

No "weird" undergrad backgrounds, assuming my section is an accurate representation of the entire class of 900+ students, 30% had undergraduate degrees in Economics/Finance, 20% in liberal arts and non-Economics social sciences, 40% in STEM (mostly the "E" in STEM), and the remainder in degrees that don't fit into any of the above categories.

 

Thanks for following up. Out of curiosity, how many of your peers come from the military. I know they have stats, but does it feel like a lot, or very few? What type of military background did they have if you know? Now that they are in business school, what type of internship offers do they seem to be landing. Just curious for future reference, congrats on making it into Harvard. That's my dream school ( probably all of our dream school)

 
rj1443:
Thanks for following up. Out of curiosity, how many of your peers come from the military. I know they have stats, but does it feel like a lot, or very few? What type of military background did they have if you know? Now that they are in business school, what type of internship offers do they seem to be landing. Just curious for future reference, congrats on making it into Harvard. That's my dream school ( probably all of our dream school)

Approximately 7% of the class of 2018 is ex-military. If you remove the ex-military people who are from countries that have mandatory military service (e.g. Israel), the percentage drops to 6%.

Of those 6%: 33% came from the United States Army 48% United States Navy 9% United States Marine Corps 9% United States Air Force (No love for the United States Coast Guard...)

As a non-military person, by far the most "Bad ass" resume/CV I have come across:

Education: United States Naval Academy (Annapolis, MD)

Experience: Naval Special Warfare Basic Training Command (Student) SEAL Team 3 (Squad commander)

Most of the ex-military I know seem to be doing consulting (by far the most popular option) followed by finance (investment banking, with the goal of hopefully breaking into private equity)

 

Hooyah navy! all the aviators around me wana go fly for the airlines.... i'm trying to walk a different line. Glad to see we are well represented. My only fear is that most of those navy guys all came from the academy. I came from a good state school, but nothing amazing like an ivy league. One of my instructors was on his way out, got into some top programs, like NYU, but not sure about the ivys.

 

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