On the grassy banks of the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard Business School (HBS) offers arguably the most prestigious MBA program in the world. A testament to the strength of the school, its alumni hold 22 CEO posts in FT500 companies, more than any other school and nearly triple the next school in line. HBS also has the largest endowment of all business schools with a whopping $3.3B, more than double that of the school following it. Harvard’s leadership is not restricted to business, of course; the university consistently ranks top among the Shanghai Ratings of leading universities worldwide.
HBS consistently ranks among the top three business schools in the world, coming first or second on the Financial Times ranking seven times in the last ten years. Every year, it attracts nearly 10,000 applicants to its MBA program, competing for just 1,000 seats or so – both numbers are among the highest in the world. Applicants’ credentials illustrate the school’s selectivity as well; the median GMAT score of HBS class of 2023 was 730, and the median aggregate GRE score was 327.
In terms of academics, the HBS MBA is best known for general management. The program has consistently been ranked first in management by U.S. News & World Report, and second in non-profit and international programs. As for curriculum, the program falls on the more structured side of the spectrum; the first year is entirely devoted to core courses, with electives available only in the second year. Invented and popularized by HBS faculty, the case method is a hallmark of many of the courses. Also available is experiential learning, primarily represented by FIELD, a group of immersive courses and team-based projects that take place on campus and across the globe. Budding entrepreneurs should take note of the broad offerings under HBS’s Rock Center for Entrepreneurship as well as the university-wide i-Labs.
In terms of employment, the most popular sectors among the HBS class of 2021 were finance, consulting, and TMT, with respectively 35%, 23%, and 22% of graduates employed in these fields. Approximately half of the graduating class was located in the Northeast of the United States, and a little over 20% in the West. With 85,000 alumni members, the school has one of the largest alumni communities of any business school in the world. Notable HBS alumni include Michael Bloomberg (Founder and CEO of Bloomberg, MBA 1966), George W. Bush (43rd President of the USA, MBA 1975), Sheryl Sandberg (Author and Former COO of Meta, MBA 1995), , and Andy Jassy (CEO of Amazon, MBA 1997).
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100
1,000
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Structured
30%
90%
10,000
110,000
680
740
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Top 5
$100,000
$175,000
