Guest Post: Harvard Lives Up to its Name

Hi everyone!  My name is MktgBadger. I’m a 2008 graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (GO BADGERS!!!). Upon graduation, I pursued a career working for a large conglomerate doing corporate finance. After 3 yrs, I’ve realized it’s time to get my MBA in Fall 2012 to jumpstart a career switch to marketing.  I am loving Fortune800's posts… I find them insightful, helpful, and motivational!  So I was excited when Motown asked me to write about my recent visit to HBS.

With the GMAT out of the way, I’ve started to really hone in on school selection and making sure I go ‘preview’ the 6 figure investment that is my future. With that said, I recently took advantage of my locale and visited the Harvard Business School with a friend who attends (after leaving the same company as me lol).

First let me start off by saying…WOW. From the perfectly manicured gardens, to the amazing buildings, Harvard’s campus is nothing short of immaculate. The weather was perfect, the birds were singing (or was that in my head?) and I felt like I was in la-la land.

And this was just my walk to the class.

I had the opportunity to meet some of my friend’s peers and they were refreshingly down to earth & welcoming. They told me the class I was about to visit was a treat and that I had picked a great lecture to visit. It probably also helped that they were all very excited to go to Rhode Island for the weekend for their ‘prom’.
I visited a class called BGIE (Business, Government & the International Economy) and the topic was Brazil & the WTO. The lecture was enthralling, the professor was phenomenal...and the students were engaged the entire 80 min lecture.

Key takeaways:

1) Age/Diversity: The class was relatively young…this wasn’t a surprise to me, HBS is known for having a relatively younger class than some of the competing top schools. The class (80 students) was relatively diverse and had about a 60:40 male/female split.

2) Participation: Aside from the professor singling out one student to kick off the class, each student was eager to participate (part of their grade depends on this) and HAD SOMETHING INSIGHTFUL TO SAY. Now I understand what admissions advice means that you need to be able to convince the school how you will contribute!

3) Case method: Bottom line…blew me away. The class was a debate, but yet, I learned so much from one study. My friend said the first two weeks of b-school is ungraded so that students can learn the case method of learning in a (relatively) risk-free environment

All in all, the trip to HBS was definitely worthwhile… it was really great to see the student life firsthand…I left eager to start the process! Check out the website and see if HBS is worth a visit for you!
Hope you found this informative & helpful. Thanks!

-MktgBadger