commerce. It generally accepts only students who have worked for at least two years. That it is reducing the number of those with finance and consulting backgrounds and increasing those from tech and manufacturing says a bit about the past and the future.
This decision, to some degree, predicts future growth in those industries. Finance and consulting are still well-paid by any standard, but job growth is being reined in by reaction to the financial crisis and recession, both of which, fairly or not, have been publicly blamed on finance practitioners (with some assistance from strategy consultants). Meanwhile, tech and manufacturing appear to be enjoying a renaissance. For a school that prides itself as being on the cutting edge, HBS was always considered a wannabe compared to Stanford in the dotcom days (or India's IIT now) and remains, at best, a source of financial expertise, not innovation prescience.
One must not discount the reputation issues in all this. One of the poster boys for illegal self-dealing was Raj Gupta, an HBS grad and McKinsey partner who also sat on the board of Goldman Sachs. Talk about your nexus of evil...So, Harvard appears to have done some self-evaluation. They may have concluded that finance and consulting will continue to be exceptionally well-paid professions. But, in the wake of the financial bubble and the public disgust with those who engineered it, a reputation for turning out extremely intelligent and well-trained - but ethically challenged - graduates might not be a sustainable advantage. JL
Joe Light reports in the Wall Street Journal:
"Harvard Business School's incoming class will have a substantially smaller percentage of finance professionals than in previous years. Instead, a higher number of students will have manufacturing and technology backgrounds.
According to preliminary figures from Harvard's admissions department, about 25% of the 919 students in the class of 2013 are from finance industries— including private equity, banking and venture capital—compared with 32% last year
Harvard administrators say the change reflects a greater quantity of strong applicants from nonfinance industries. The number of applicants from the finance world decreased as recession woes eased, as well.
Students with manufacturing backgrounds make up 14% of the class of 2013, up from 9% the previous year. Technology rose three percentage points to 9%.
Though the school continually seeks to bring in a diverse mix of students, "We don't run with quotas or targets," says Deirdre Leopold, managing director of M.B.A. admissions and financial aid. "We drive towards what they can contribute to the overall learning."
But some M.B.A. admissions consultants say they've seen finance-industry clients rejected who would have been admitted in other years. Sanford Kreisberg, founder of admissions consulting company hbsguru.com and former communications director at the MIT Sloan School of Management, says he had several applicants rejected this year who would have been admitted in previous years.
When they sought reasons from Harvard, they were told it was because their backgrounds were in finance or consulting, rather manufacturing or technology, he says.
Ms. Leopold says she sometimes tells rejected applicants that they were turned down because they have similar experiences to other applicants, and that the school is seeking more strong candidates from areas like the auto industry.
Some applicants to Harvard likely will try to adjust their applications to fit what they see as Harvard's desires, says Jeremy Shinewald, founder of mbaMission Inc., an admissions consulting firm, and a former student member of the admissions team at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business Administration.
"You're going to see guys who worked on one private-equity deal with an auto manufacturer try to play up their auto experience and look ridiculous," he says. "Candidates buy into stereotypes for their target schools and become things they think the school wants."
About 39% of Harvard's class of 2013 will be female, its highest percentage ever, Ms. Leopold says.
Other schools also have changed their class mix. At the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, nearly 45% of next year's incoming class will be women, up from 40% last year, says Ankur Kumar, deputy director of MBA admissions.
She attributes the increase to the school's efforts to improve its pipeline of female applicants, including by holding visiting days for women and information sessions at all-female colleges. "There are always misperceptions about business school that women have, and these help bust those myths," Ms. Kumar says.
Although the statistics for this year's class haven't been finalized, she says she doesn't think the mix of industries will change significantly from last year.
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