Harbus

Issue date: 9/8/08 Section: News

Unfortunately, it is time to reveal another dirty little secret: there are actually a lot of us out there who feel the way the author does about his HBS experience. We are completely valuing our time here and wouldn't wish to be doing anything different, but particularly for those of us who are older, maybe have a significant other that we live with, and potentially are international students, the HBS experience isn't everything that it is hyped up to be by the website / survival guide / section chairs.

Like the author we are learning a huge amount, making some great friends, and aren't regretting our decision to come to HBS in the slightest, but we aren't being transformed, haven't figured out the master plan for a happy life in the years ahead, and are still basically the same people who walked through the doors at the start of our RC year. When that is the case, and the expectations of the HBS experience are set as high as they are, it is inevitable that there will be some feeling of disillusionment, and any report of life here isn't going to be only singing the place's praises.

Even if the above doesn't represent your feelings about HBS, some of his observations are undeniably accurate. His description of a section discussion about bathroom breaks was the EXACT same conversation that my section had, and I suspect most of us share his mixture of admiration at the efforts of the administration and frustration at their tendency to treat the students as kids. Even some of his more opinionated statements ring very true; his view of HBS as having "two modes, deadly serious and frat boy, with little in between" is as nice a summary of the HBS atmosphere as I have heard.

However, when it comes down to it, this isn't a particularly good book. The author has tried to accomplish a number of things at once with the book, but in the process has achieved none. As should be clear from above it really isn't an HBS hatchet job, and at most could be seen as a mild critique of business education in general and HBS in particular, which is something with a presumably relatively limited audience.

Continued...

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