ハーバード・ビジネス・スクール Dean Fights to Keep MBA Relevant

Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria admits the traditional elite U.S. MBA faces problems.  

1. MBAs are no longer essential for a career at Goldman Sachs or McKinsey & Co. 

2. $100,000 is seen as expensive.

3. The rise of Asian business schools poses another challenge. Many Asian students and successful entrepreneurs have opted to stay closer to home to hone their skills. Business schools have mushroomed in India and China, offering courses and networking opportunities that are more relevant to their home markets.

4. Top U.S. business schools have responded by introducing shorter and more specific business programs, and adding international business cases for study.

Harvard's Strategy: 

a) Expand in Asia. Harvard opened its first research center in Hong Kong 15 years ago. About 10% of our business cases then were international. Now it has eight research centers around the world, including Mumbai, Tokyo and Shanghai, and 60% of our cases are global cases. 

b) Attract Asian donors: aim to get 100 people who can give $1 million each to support the international activities of the school. I want to build a broad base. My dream will be 30%-40% of that group will be from Asia.

c) Tap into the explosive Asian market. Japanese students used to be 30 or 40, now down to to four to five. 

As for Greater China, our mix has shifted to mainland. Now a quarter of the students are from Hong Kong, and three quarters from China. It used to be the vast majority of Chinese students were from Hong Kong.

d) Increase financial aid. Tuition has been going up by 4%, and HBS is increasing financial aid, at a rate of almost 5%-7%. Almost 28% of HBS tuition is now given away as scholarship. Last year 50% of students receive some forms of financial aid. Twenty years ago it was almost impossible to imagine.

e) Demand for 2-year MBA programs has declined 20% from year 2000.

For the full article see WSJ

ハーバード・ビジネス・スクール 締め切、エッセイ2013-2014

Harvard Business School Essay Topic 2013-2014

The Harvard School of Business (HBS) has released its essay topic for the 2013-2014 admissions season. There is one question for the Class of 2016:

"You’re applying to Harvard Business School.  We can see your resume, school transcripts, extra-curricular activities, awards, post-MBA career goals, test scores and what your recommenders have to say about you.   What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?

There is no word limit for this question.  We think you know what guidance we’re going to give here. Don’t overthink, overcraft and overwrite. Just answer the question in clear language that those of us who don’t know your world can understand."

In addition to this essay, applicants must also respond to a brief career essay, posed in HBS’s 2013-2014 online application. After selecting a target post-MBA industry and function, candidates must answer the following question:

How does pursuing an MBA support your choices above? (500 characters)

For the second year running, applicants invited to interview at HBS will be expected to complete and submit a written reflection in the 24 hours following their interviews. The question will read, “You’ve just had your HBS interview. Tell us about it. How well did we get to know you?” and will have no word limit. Those candidates invited to interview will be provided with specific instructions concerning this final reflection. See HBS admissions website. 

 ハーバード・ビジネス・スクール 締め切 2013-2014

The 2013-2014 Harvard Business School (HBS) deadlines have been announced for the Class of 2016!

The deadlines are as follows:

Round 1

Deadline: September 16, 2013

Notification: December 11, 2013

Round 2

Deadline: January 6, 2014

Notification: March 26, 2014

Round 3

Deadline: April 7, 2014

Notification: May 14, 2014 

All applications are due at 12 noon EST on the day of the deadline. If submitted after 12 noon, applications will be considered in the following round. See HBS admissions website.

HBS Reveals Some R1 Details

Harvard Business School (HBS) Dean of Admissions Dee Leopold has given a preview of how Round 1 works.

Details: 

* R1 deadline is September 21

* No need to submit earlier

* Interview invitations on October 17 and 24

* Planned interview locations for Round 1include London, Paris, Dubai, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Palo Alto, New York City and on campus in Boston

* Some candidates will also be invited to join the waitlist on that date and may be invited to interview in Round 2.

*Interviews will then take place from the last week in October through mid-November

* Round 1 decisions – admit, deny or waitlist – will go out on December 12.

Source: Dean's Blog

Harvard Business School Class of 2014 Profile

Harvard Business School (HBS) Dean of Admissions Dee Leopold says the upcoming Class of 2014 will have the following characteristics:

1. Total MBA enrollment is expected to be 925 for the HBS Class of 2014, up from 905 for the Class of 2013 and 876 for the Class of 2012. 

2. Total application volume has fallen year over year, from 10,368 two years ago to 9,331 last year to 8,963 this year. The percent admitted has risen from 10% for the Class of 2012 to 13% for the Class of 2014.

3. Women will make up 40% of the class, up 1% on last time.

4. Minorities will make up 24% up from 23% last time. 

5. The percentage of International Students will fall to 32% from 34% for the class of 2013.  

Source: Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School Essays 

Harvard Business School has released their essay questions for the 2012-2013 application season. and they are very different from last year's.

Applicants previously had to answer four essays totaling 2,000 words, HBS now asks applicants to write only two essays of 400 words each, in addition to a 500-character statement explaining why they want to pursue an MBA.  

Applicants will also be asked to submit a reflection essay within 24 hours of completing their interview.

The Questions are:

1. Tell us about something you did well. (400 words)

2. Tell us about something you wish you had done better. (400 words)
3. Short Answer: How does pursuing an MBA support your choices above? (500 characters)
4.  Post-Interview Reflection Essay

Harvard Business School Deadlines and Essay Topics 2012-2013

The 2012-2013 HBS deadlines are as follows:

Round 1:

Deadline: September 24, 2012

Notification: December 12, 2012

Round 2:

Deadline: January 7, 2013

Notification: March 27, 2013

Round 3:

 Deadline: April 8, 2013

Notification: May 15, 2013

All applications are due at 12 noon EST on the day of the deadline. If submitted after 12 noon, applications will be considered in the following round.

The 2012-2013 HBS essays:

1. Tell us about something you did well. (400 words)

2. Tell us about something you wish you had done better. (400 words)

Applicants must also respond to a brief career essay, posed in HBS’s 2012-2013 online application. 

After selecting a target post-MBA industry and function, candidates must answer the following question:

How does pursuing an MBA support your choices above? (500 characters)

Applicants invited to interview at HBS will be expected to complete and submit a reflection essay in the 24 hours following their interviews. Those candidates invited to interview will be provided with specific instructions concerning this final reflection essay.

For more information, visit HBS’s admissions website.

Source: HBS

Harvard MBAs to Sell Admissions Essays

A startup  by six Harvard Business School (HBS) MBAs will start a service MBA Bee to sell HBS application essays written by candidates recently admitted to the school, and is targeting international, military or other nontraditional backgrounds the same kind of access to information that counterparts from more traditional backgrounds like finance and consulting more typically have, say its founders. 

MBA Bee will build a database of successful essay sets which potential applicants can then buy according to key criteria that matches their own, such as career experience, age, and whether they are an international or domestic applicant. Initially fellow classmates willl surrender their own actual application’s essays for free, though they would consider a revenue-share agreement if it allowed them to build out the business and expand to other top schools, they told P&Q.
 

MBA Bee last month launched its first website, ArmedForcesMBA.com, where it will target military applicants, selling separate sets of essays from successful HBS applicants from each the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marines Corps and Navy. The selling price will be $100 per set, though they are available now for a special introductory offer of $50.

Though not officially endorsed by the school, the new essay-selling startup is an outgrowth of HBS’s recently revised MBA curriculum, in which student teams receive seed money from the school to create and launch a new product or service development project, P&Q reports.

Source: CNN

HBS Admissions Director to Offer Feedback for Denied Candidates

In her Director’s Blog, Harvard Business School (HBS) Dean of Admissions Dee Leopold said she would provide feedback regarding Round 2 decision notifications following notice given to successful candidates on March 29. Her office will be able to make offers to between 25 and 50 candidates on the waitlist, some from each Rounds 1 and 2.

HBS doesn’t make financial aid awards at the time of admission. The school provides generous financial aid to both U.S. and international students based on demonstrated financial need regardless of the round in which candidates are admitted.

Source: HBS Director’s Blog

Do We Need an MBA Oath?

The Harbus has just published a very interesting pro and counterpoint the MBA Oath issue, that originated in 2009 in HBS.

Cconfronted with the global financial crisis a group  of HBS students  developed a “Hippocratic Oath for Managers” to “transform the field of  management into a true profession.” The oath defined a social contract between business leaders and society as a whole to effectively behave in an ethical fashion.  

Years later students are still discussing whether the oath is needed. Please read the Harbus article for

Source: The Harbus

Business Majors Face an Uphill Battle

The fastest-growing segment of bachelor’s degree holders applying to MBA programs is former business majors who reached 54% percent in 2010. Former business majors taking the GMAT increased an average of 5.3 percent each year, a rate at least twice as fast as any other major. GMAT test takers are seen as a gauge of who is applying to graduate business school.

But schools don't like business majors in many cases.  The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business as well as Harvard Business School and Oxford’s Saïd Business School, report that they have accepted more engineers in recent years.

Engineering graduates are, and have been, the second-largest group of undergraduate majors interested in applying to MBA programs. But as a portion of GMAT test takers, they’ve become increasingly scarce. Engineers taking the test grew an average of 0.6 percent each year from 2006 to 2010—more than four times slower than test takers overall.

Source: Bloomberg Businesweek

NYU Opens Center for Global Economy and Business

Center for Global Economy and Business

For more than a quarter of a century, the NYU Stern Center for Japan-U.S. Business and Economic Studies served as a valuable academic bridge between Japan and the United States. With the evolution of the global economy over this period and the refocusing of economic growth to the emerging economies, both countries have had to adapt. Accordingly, the Center’s mandate has been widened to encompass broad themes in international business, growth and economic policy that played a key role in the original Japan – U.S. focus, and accordingly, starting in academic year 2011, the Center is renamed to the Center for Global Economy and Business.

The Center supports substance-driven, cohesive faculty research groups and development initiatives, as well as programs that leverage NYU’s global sites.

Source: NYU Stern  

Harvard Business School Opens New Classroom in Mumbai

Harvard Business School (HBS) has announced the launch of a new, permanent classroom in Mumbai.

The new classroom, which offers seating for 82 students and provides state-of-the-art multimedia facilities to improve the learning experience, is virtually indistinguishable from the school's MBA classrooms in Boston.

According to an HBS press release, the new classroom represents a permanent foothold in India, and will facilitiate an expansion of teaching and research activities in the country to meet its quickly-developing business education needs.

Source: Harvard Business School