Did you know that I’ve applied to the MBA program at the Harvard Business School? Of course you didn’t. Other than my wife the only people who know are those who know because I let the cat out of the bag accidentally, and that’s a small group. My parents don’t even know, nor any of my siblings. Well, I applied, and tomorrow is the day when I will find out one of four things:
1. I’ve been rejected
2. They would like to interview me
3. I’ve been accepted
4. They haven’t decided yet
#3 is highly unlikely, because only in extremely rare cases is someone accepted to HBS without an interview, and I have not had an interview yet. Although they’ve set the 17th of January this year as the date to inform students of their acceptance/rejectance, it’s not an either/or situation. I may get an email telling me that no decision has been made regarding my application, and that they would like to interview me at a future date. They could also tell me that they’ve been really busy and they can’t meet their own deadline for informing everybody. No matter what I’m somewhat nervous at the moment.
Unbeknownst to all of you I’ve been cataloguing my experience applying to HBS, but I haven’t published those posts because I wanted to keep my application a private matter until the last moment. Well, it’s the last moment, so I will be publishing them in the next few minutes. If you’re interested, you can follow my posts and get a taste of what I’ve been going through the last few months.
I believe the first questions people are going to ask me are:
1. What about MWI?
2. Why do you care about getting an MBA? It’s not like your employer is going to give you a raise for it.
3. Where else did you apply?
4. Dude, Harvard’s overrated.
5. What if you don’t get in?
As for the first question, I may answer that in more detail later. Suffice it to say, I’ve been waiting for several years to apply to HBS, and I only applied at this time because there are certain factors in place that make it possible for me to leave MWI in very capable hands. That isn’t to say it would be easy or without worry, but it would be possible. Who knows, it could be the best thing to happen to MWI for it to be out of my experimental hands 
Why do I want an MBA? Partly the education, partly the brand, partly the networking, but even with all those elements combined that wasn’t enough to get me to go back to school. After all, I already have a master’s degree in information systems which is something like a tech-MBA. For the sake of brevity let me just say at this time that I feel that it is the right thing for me to do, and I’ve been feeling that way for ten years now. This isn’t a spur of the moment action, but the last step of a plan I put in motion in 1997.
I did not apply to any other school. It’s Harvard or bust. I’ve considered other schools but again, just as I feel that I’m supposed to get an MBA, I feel that Harvard is the place I’m supposed to get it. I can easily speculate why, but I’m not sure I know the reasons why myself.
Yeah, I know, plenty of people have told me that Harvard is overrated as are MBAs in general. Well, whatever, I’m not getting it because I think it will make me cool like having the fastest bike on the block or because I think I’ll make a lot of money. If that’s all I cared about I would have applied to several other schools, but those aren’t my reasons for wanting to attend.
If I don’t get in I will most likely reapply next year. I’ve been told that the process at HBS can be pretty random, and the same application that is rejected one year could get you in the next when it’s read by different admissions staff. And potentially I could be in an even better position to attend next year.
If I reapply and don’t get in, I suppose my attitude would be that there must have been some reason for going through the process. Then I’ll probably get depressed and eat an entire half gallon of ice cream and the next day I’ll go back to work and try to make a million dollars.
Well, I should have some sort of notice from HBS within 24 hours. My fingers are crossed.
Josh,
I’m going to be living vicariously through you for the next little while. I’d absolutly be a perpetual student If I could. Perhaps, if you get in, it’ll push me over the edge. Stanford might be a possibility for me… although I lived in Boston for two years and have friends there…. Dang.
Well, good luck. I’m rooting for you.
All the best to you Josh.
You should talk to Curtis Gasser at Politis about b school. He applied, got into some schools and got the “close, would you like to ask us why” from Dartmouth. So, he applied again and got in this year.
Josh:
Good luck. As one who has an MBA I can tell you that its not overrated and neither is Harvard. Only people who never went to Harvard or earned an MBA will ignorantly call it “overrated”. I once heard a guy say that all the education you can get in this life will help you in the next. So at that level – good on ya!
Still, I’d like to hear more about what you are going to do with MWI.
Good luck, Josh. I’ve always wanted to go to Harvard.
I went to Chicago, which is ranked #1 in Business Week in 2006.
I kinda disagree with Chris. B-school is great for contacts and networking; but, it’s kinda over-rated; wait, it’s really over-rated, actually.
It’s great for career transitioners, already-wealthy individuals who love to learn, or folks who really, really think they need the education to get along in life. From my experience, the most successful ($ as the metric) and influential folks don’t have an MBA.
My brother went to Haas and he agrees with me — contacts and networking, yes. Name equity if you went to a half-way decent B-school — yes. Other than that, I’m not bullish on the MBA.
Seth Godin doesn’t think you need an MBA.
Guy thinks that the downside of an MBA outweighs the upside..
@ Pete
Contact, name brand, equity, extending your education are all incredibly valuable things that you get out of MBA school. Don’t down play those things. They aren’t “over-rated”. Just like anything else in life you get out of it what you put into it or what you exploit out of it. I got an MBA which opened the door to teach which has opened a bunch of other doors that would have otherwise been closed to me.
In the grand scheme of things I’d take a guy who has an MBA that has been in the trenches (like me) over just an MBA or over a guy who only has experience. Getting an MBA says something about your ambition and drive. Experience says so much as well. Together they are more valuable than they would be without each other.