HBS TO INCREASE MBA CLASS ‘SLIGHTLY’ –DUH, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN ????

AMPLIFICATION TO THIS POST:

SOME ALUMS WHO READ THE POSTS ABOUT INCREASED HBS CLASS SIZE  HAVE NOTED THAT INCREASING THE  SECTION SIZE BY FIVE KIDS PER 90 KID SECTION [OF WHICH THERE ARE 10 AT HBS EACH CLASS] COULD PROB. BE DIGESTED PRETTY EASILY FROM THEIR EXPERIENCE, SO CLASS BUMP COULD GO FROM 900 [THIS YEAR] TO ~950 NEXT YEAR [5 KIDS PER SECTION] BUT THAT HAS GOTTA BE NEAR OUTSIDE –SO CURRENT THINKING IS 930-950 FOR NEXT YEAR’S CLASS SIZE.

WHAT WE WILL NOW CALL, IN LIGHT OF DEAN LIGHT’S LETTER, THE 2010 CHARGE OF THE SLIGHT BRIGADE  

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IN A FEB 19TH LETTER TO HBS ALUMS, DEAN LIGHT SAID THAT HBS PLANNED TO INCREASE INCREASE THE MBA CLASS ‘SLIGHTLY’ WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???? TO WIT, IN THIS PARAGRAPH [FULL TEXT OF DEAN LIGHT LETTER IS BELOW]

 ”We are exploring revenue opportunities, too. We plan to increase the size of the MBA program slightly this fall, and we are developing new Executive Education programs we anticipate will do well.”

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 First of all, I assume it means they will take slightly more kids for entry this fall, and not that they will announce an increase of more kids this fall for year after that. You can construe the grammar and context all you want, but the fact is, HBS and Dean Light (in particular) are always iffy and fuzzy about such projections, and the letter itself is one of those thumb-sucking jive sheets w. a mix or real bad news, sprinkled with projects and projections, and no doubt outright lies, typical for this genre. And what genre is that????? Dean’s Letter to Alums, showing bogus transparency as a way of fishing for more donations. Translation, dont bet the ranch on any stat therein. Moving right along. What it cert. does not sound like they are doing is ADDING A SECTION [~90 kids] b.c. 1. that strikes me as a super big deal; and 2. 90 on top of current enrollment of ~910 is not exactly slightly. But if they do not add a section, how many kids are they going to add. hmmm check this out????

HBS class of	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
enrollment	898	898	895	895	914	907	901	900

 what strikes me about above is that enrollment can jump 6 or 7 kids (in 2008 and 2009) and a whopping 19 kids (2007) WITHOUT ANYONE SAYING ANYTHING. And those are numbers I consider to be ‘slightly’ –so of course, like any good dean, Dean Light may have been informed that due to app. increases, etc. class of last year class (2010, e.g. first year class NOW) of 900 would go to say 914 (as it was for class of 2007) a sort of normal fluctuation, and he opportunistically puts this fact in his bogus transparency letter to make it seem like it was all planned.

Assuming that inter. is too snarly for you, what would slightly be in the above context?  925, 940, 950???? Adding 40- 50 more kids is like adding 5 kids per section, and that does begin to bang on the bars a bit, e.g. diff. between 90 vs. 95 kids per section. Esp. since all those kids are cutthroat hand raisers for airtime, since it is an impt grade component.

An interesting question is if they added a section between 2006-7 when enrollment popped by 19–probably not. they just dispersed those 19 kids and each section went up by 2-3 kids, sorta neglible.

Sooooooooooo, my guess as to what will happen next year? They add 3 kids per section, for an enrollment of 930 which is both manageable and also ‘slight’.

BUT: which 30 kids. Given that Deano has said that one driver of adding kids is raising $$$$$, they are going to add kids who dont need fin. aid. esp. of the grant kind. Not sure about loans. HBS often gives cert number of kids free tuition, and in some cases, actual $$$ to come. That may still happen but dont expect any of those dudes to be part of the Light-30???

 In light of Dean Light’s letter, what is the status of need blind admissions??? Expect a long and baloney filled affirmation of need blind admissions as soon as someone tweaks them about contradiction just noted above. (And who would that tweaker be??) 

SOOOOOO, in summary, Dean’s letter is good news for 1. Waitlisters 2. Rich kids (read bankers who have stockpiled two years worth of bonuses, or other rich kids who do not need any kind of fin. aid.) We are in tuff times my friends, and HBS, and Harvard U itself, has, in one quick year, gone fr. princely to prudent and possibly prickly in so many ways.

Sad and scary.

FOR FULL TEXT OF DEAN LIGHT LETTER TO HBS ALUMS, SEE BELOW

From: “Dean Jay Light” <DeanLight@hbs.edu Date: Thu, February 19, 2009 10:30 am To:                 

Harvard

Business

School. 100 Years: 1908-2008.

    Dear Alumni,    In November, I wrote to you about the broadening financial crisis and   

Harvard

Business

School’s response. This week, Harvard alumni received

    a letter from President Drew Faust discussing the impact of the crisis    on activities at the University. I am sure many of you have questions    about how the economy continues to affect HBS. Let me share with you    our approach to managing the School during this time of significant    economic uncertainty and highlight briefly new and ongoing research    and course development activities.    In a variety of ways, HBS is well-positioned to navigate difficult    times. Over the past few decades we have invested strategically in our    educational programs, in the faculty’s research, in our campus and    services, and in areas such as our information technology    infrastructure and the library. Additionally, our business model    relies on a variety of revenue sources – not just (or even mainly) the    endowment, but also MBA tuition, Executive Education programs, our    Publishing division, and alumni giving. While several of these areas    may be sensitive to downturns in the economy, we have a wide range of    options we can and will pursue as we seek to cut expenses and increase    revenues. (The School’s Annual Report for 2008 -    www.hbs.edu/about/annualreport/2008 – provides an in-depth look at our    business model in the Financial Review section if you want to learn    more.) Our budget process incorporates not only long-term planning    guidelines, but also a quarterly reforecasting process that enables us    to adapt flexibly and quickly to changing conditions.    With this as background, let me update you on where we are today. Last    spring we began monitoring a number of performance metrics to assess    the impact of the downturn on the School. On the positive side,    applications to the MBA and Doctoral programs are up, and the    applicant pools are exceptionally strong. News from Executive    Education is mixed; postponements and cancellations are becoming more    common, although overall enrollments have remained stable, and we’ve    engaged a small number of new custom program partners. More sobering    is what we’re seeing in MBA recruiting: as a wider range of companies    encounter financial constraints, fewer are able to hire our students,    and job postings for both first and second year students are down    significantly – particularly in finance and manufacturing.    Additionally, the number of alumni making gifts to the School has    declined (no surprise given the personal impact of the downturn in the    economy on many, as well as the increasing array of organizations and    charities seeking support from private sources). All of these factors    taken together, combined with a significant decline in the endowment,    and in the context of global economic indicators predicting a    prolonged downturn, make clear that we can’t expect the coming few    years to be business as usual.    The same is true elsewhere in the University, though the pressures are    different (and in some cases more significant) in each school    depending on its financial model. At HBS, therefore, as we look to    next year we have identified roughly 5 percent as the target for our    initial expense reductions, and we are identifying an additional 5    percent of reductions that could be made should the need arise.    We’ll achieve this initial reduction through a variety of cost-saving    mechanisms, including limits on salary increases, a University-wide    early retirement incentive, and careful scrutiny of new hires. We are    exploring revenue opportunities, too. We plan to increase the size of    the MBA program slightly this fall, and we are developing new    Executive Education programs we anticipate will do well.    In everything we do, we are working hard to ensure we maintain the    excellence of our core programs and the elements that make Harvard   

Business

School distinctive. The School’s greatest strength is its    people – the faculty, staff, students, and alumni who individually and    collectively bring their enthusiasm and talent to accomplish great    things. During my decades here, in moments of both celebration and    crisis, I have been struck by the spirit people bring to their work    and to each other. This is why I am confident

Harvard

Business

School    will come through the financial crisis even better prepared to deliver    on its mission.    I encourage you to stay in touch with our efforts. I’ll update you    periodically through emails and letters, and the HBS Web site “On the    Global Economic Crisis” (www.hbs.edu/economic-crisis) remains a    comprehensive resource on the research and activities of our faculty.    This week, for example, we’re featuring a new working paper by David    Moss, an economic historian who has been advising the Congressional    Oversight Panel on TARP, where he argues that effective public risk    management is necessary in both crisis and normal times. You’ll also    find new cases, papers, and op eds on topics ranging from executive    compensation to surviving a recession. Many of these materials are    being taught this semester in the MBA Program, where faculty are    introducing new materials, modules, and courses.    I hope and expect that when people look back at this period of time in    the School’s history ten, twenty, or fifty years from now, they’ll    characterize it as a defining moment. And it should be. In ways few    could have predicted, this crisis is fundamentally about who we are,    what we do, and how we do it. We need to be engaged academically and    intellectually, and we need to be engaged personally and individually.    For ourselves, for other parts of the University, and for other    business schools, this is when we must demonstrate through our actions    and our work what I have long believed distinguishes HBS: that we    embody, and indeed are and should be, a living model of the principles    and practices of leadership and management we teach.    Thank you for everything you do. Your support is very important, and    I’m deeply grateful for it.    Jay Light   

Harvard

Business

School, Soldiers Field,

Boston, MA

02163 

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