http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/education/harvard-business-students-s…
Does anyone else thing this article is kind of stupid and non-news?
To summarize: There is a select group of international, very wealthy, ostentatious and cliche-y students at HBS.
Big fucking deal. That's the case in every single higher-education institution in this country. News flash, there is much more wealth disparity in the RoW than in the US, and the US... having the most developed, best regarded, and most fun higher education institutions tends to attract the well off international crowd. Its really has nothing to do with HBS. In fact, if this phenomena wasn't present at HBS, I would actually find that much more interesting and noteworthy.
My second issue is... the article cites student complaining to administrators about this financially elite group's extravagant social events... why is that something to complain about? If you can't afford to go on a 3 week guided safari to Africa, then don't fucking go. Whether there are people going or not, you still can't afford to go. And the fact that these people know that a large portion of their class can't financially swing this trip, and they opt to go anyway means they don't really value your company much. Pretty ridiculous. As was the comment about the girl who was ashamed to invite her friends over to her parents house because it wasn't lavish enough. That's less of a statement about how status-conscious/douchey her classmates are and more a statement about her own personality. Clearly she trying to present an image that is a facade and she's afraid to show any inconsistencies. What a complete fuckin loser. I went to school with so many kids like this.
Rant over.
Dude....same reason why I hate looking at Yahoo article comments
This and the other NY Times article on the gender "divide" at HBS are both mind numbingly stupid and pointless. Nothing to see here.
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/would-brady-be-accepted-into-the-…
I'm a bit confused. If you think it's stupid and not news, why are you posting it and highlighting it?
Shocking.
On another note... read this guy's previous posts. Very entertaining.
HBS alums fall into 2 categories. The ones who can't seem to get 2 breathes in without telling you they went to HBS in every single conversation.... and the ones who are fairly normal.
I wonder which camp this mega douche falls into.
Actually, from the few posts I've seen from you, you seem to have a chip on your shoulder about either b-school or HBS in particular. I initially simply wrote a post on startup stuff and actually the nice folks who run this site asked me to do a blog series on my experience at school which is why I wrote 2 blog posts on it. Sorry if talking about b-school on a site that caters to that crowd is offensive to you. Was just trying to be helpful. Regarding this particular topic (and the social experiment article), I'm by no means an HBS apologist. It's got plenty of things that aren't positive and I think it's worthwhile to talk about the good and bad things that exist at places like that.
I get it. You're obviously young, bitter, and trolling so I won't take it too personally.
Honestly, sounds like such a douche school.
The irony of HBS kids complaining about not being in the top 1% (of their class)...
I wonder how much of this story is myth and how much is really true. Hardly surprising by the way that the NYT uses this article so whine about income inequality in America. I hate that newspaper.
I know people there - sounds pretty accurate from what I heard. My friend said in his section they had "billionaires row", all the ultra wealthy kids sat together in the back.
I guess someone had to recycle an old topic to have something to hand in before deadline...
You're right - this is more to do with the media than the subject (HBS) itself. There's a fine line between reporting the news, and trying to manufacture news.
This is hardly specific to HBS nor is it anything new. And frankly, it's hardly specific to b-school. In any top tier university (undergrad or grad, but especially at the undergrad level), there are going to be a clique of students who come from privileged backgrounds. Some are douchey, some are not. So what? Some are resentful of their privilege, others could care less.
In fact, the class divide is arguably more stark at the undergrad level at these Ivies than it is within the b-schools (because frankly the most privileged within the developed world aren't even applying to MBA programs in the first place).
Alex, I agreed with most of this post except your last paragraph. I actually think the class divide is worse at the MBA level for the following reasons.
First, the top colleges offer very generous financial aid based on need. At Harvard, about 70% of the students are on financial aid. Second, most of the social scene at colleges are accessible to pretty much anyone. Yes, there is that group of rich kids who do extravaggant things, but even at the top ivies, much of our social life was limited to dorm parties, dinners, college bars, etc. And even for broke guys like myself, I was able to access most of what my school offered. Third, top b-schools in general will attract rich internationals and Americans who did very well in finance and consulting and thus have a decent amount saved up. So if you're say a former Teach for America fellow or military officer who is at HBS, you're going to stick out in terms of the class disparity. And because b-school social life takes it up several notches in terms of parties and travelling, FOMO become an all-pervasive consuming force.
I mean does every post on WSO have to turn into an argument.
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