From a back and forth on BW.com dis. board
http://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=22516&nav=messages&webtag=bw-bschools&tid=10180

    Sandy, your last paragraph on the social dynamics at HBS is intriguing. I thought the people from the section all hang out with each other and become pretty good friends. I had no idea that the rich kids separate into their own cliques. Is this based on what your former clients told you? Are there a lot of “stuck up” and “diva” female students at HBS?

Are there a lot of “stuck up” and “diva” female students at HBS?

WELL A LOT OF DIVAS, BUT NOT NECESSARILY STUCK UP, AND NOT NECESSARILY RICH, JUST HI-FUNCTIONING, HI-MAINTENANCE, AND HI-TEST TYPES WITH A CERT ATTITUDE THAT MANY FIND, AHEM, ATTRACTIVE.

As to diversity, dunno, take a stroll thru cafeteria in Spangler and let me know if what you see comports more w. what you imagined beforehand or with what you remember  from  your own caf. in  High School, w. all the jocks, frat guys, asians, clique chicks, geeks, 3rd worlders, funny Jewish guys, and etc. sitting at their own tables.

Want a see, this photo was sent to me by an HBS student during her trek to Africa, with classmates, notice anything diverse about the group, that’s right, some are wearing Nikes and some Pumas and some Adidas.

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FROM POETS & QUANTS, WITH YOURS TRULY CHIMING IN.

PE vs. PC at Harvard Business School

http://poetsandquants.com/2010/12/17/pe-vs-pc-at-harvard-business-school/

by John A. Byrne

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HBS UPDATE –NEW FROM HER MAJESTY

1. This is bad news for current WLers, w. 100 MORE kids being added to the WL in additon to the alleged 100 non-interviewed kids  they put on there in November first cut mailing.

2. Dee is giving feedback of sorts, NO CRANK CALLS PLEASE, and this is somewhat odd, since she wont have your file, altho she can get a profile of you on her i-Pad, I’ve been told (which curiously lacks a gmat score but does include gpa, college, and some other key stats, like shoe size).

3. As if she had read our last post about the new PC diversity sweeping the school, she notes here, “Our promise to students each year is to comprise a diverse and balanced class – and our metrics for diversity are more complex than those which can be easily reported in a class profile on the website.” Duh, someone tell me what that means, do they also filter for eye color, lefthandness and sense of humor.

4. What is up w. Eileen Chang’s new title, Director of MBA Admissions Operations, and is that a step up, down, sideways, or just a spin around the block. She used to be WL Manager. Usually Director is promo, and we hope so, SK ♥ EC,

December 13, 2010

Greetings,

Tomorrow, December 14, we will release decisions.most likely around noon EST. You will receive an email from MBA Admissions directing you to log in to your online application to view your decision.

About 100 people will be invited to join the waitlist after having been interviewed. Eileen Chang, Director of MBA Admissions Operations, and Dana Scalisi, Waitlist Manager, manage this process and will be in touch with this group before the end of the week.

A note in advance about how we make decisions. Everyone invited to interview is a highly qualified candidate for Harvard Business School. As I tried to make clear in all the interviews I personally conducted, once the hurdle of being invited to interview is cleared, the candidate moves from the realm of being “evaluated” to the world of “selection,” which is more complicated. Our promise to students each year is to comprise a diverse and balanced class – and our metrics for diversity are more complex than those which can be easily reported in a class profile on the website. If my job were to rank order candidates from high to low in order of individual strength, whatever that might mean, different decisions might be made.

Some of you will be disappointed tomorrow and wish to know “what went wrong.” In most cases, the answer is “nothing, it’s about composing a class.” If we had the resources to do individual feedback calls, this is the message that you would most likely hear. We would be reckless if we tried to communicate otherwise. Nonetheless, if a conversation in general terms about our process would be helpful, I’ll be available from 8 am – 9 am every day during the week of January 3 at 617-495-6128. I won’t have your file in front of me, but I’ll try my best to answer general questions.

I thank all of you who engaged in the application process, especially the interview. We sincerely enjoyed meeting you and appreciate the considerable time and effort you invested. Our admissions process is not perfect – our ability to get to know the “real you” is limited – but we do work very hard to make sure it is thoughtful and fair.

With all best wishes,

Dee Leopold
MBA Admissions
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field Road
Dillon House
Boston, MA 02163

——————————————————————————–

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Doesn’t seem like HBS will change that as it will fundamentally change the section experience and a key aspect of collaboration they actually have at HBS (more experienced ppl in a field helping the less experienced).

However, I do think that the HBS curriculum will change within the next 1-3 years. Dean Nohria has a very strong philosophy on leadership and ethics; I believe this will translate to a fundamental change in how these two aspects of b-school are emebedded in the curriculum and taught at HBS.

haha, I agree, that HBS first year lock-step “RC” is Rock Of Gibralter for now, and deeply embedded in the school’s case method mythos abot learning leadership from diverse views, blah, blah, but even rocks can be chipped away at.

One of these days, when I get around to it, I will publish Nohria’s ‘stump speech’ e.g. what he saying to small groups of faculty, alums, students, blah, blah gleaned fr. reports back to me, and what it really means. He is setting the table, in a slow-moving and shrewd way, for initiating case method changes 2nd year, and changing, in small but impt ways, the “demo” of the class to make it more female, international, and PC. HRH already on the case.

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I don’t understand the Wharton thing. More buzzwords? More stats, micro? More international, more social impact? More electives? More free exec ed? Is there less of anything?

less required lock-step first year courses, which is now the entire HBS curriculum, at a school where first year kids are known as RC’s  (Required Curric) and second years known as EC’s  (Elective Curic). –and sets HBS up for being odd man out.

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PoetsAndQuants– Wharton Promises Free Life-Long Learning to MBAs in New Program. http://bit.ly/i3ojJi http://fb.me/FjxPDYuP

BusinessWeek: Wharton overhauls its MBA curriculum to offer students greater flexibility and a more global experience: http://bit.ly/gOJhiF

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Her Royal Highness

Pumped Up About December 14th

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No, we are not publishing the attached embargoed press release, even tho it was sent to us by seven students and even leakers in the admin itself. We have read it, however, and well, in addition to using the word ‘stakeholder’ about 2-10 times, it is the usual academic hash. Anyone interested in what actual substance might be lurking here should tune in to Wharton Official announcements. Believe me. there is no hurry.

Date: Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 5:17 PM
Subject: A Message from Dean Tom Robertson
To: wharton students
Dear MBA Students,

I am delighted to announce that by an overwhelming majority, the Wharton faculty today voted to pass a new MBA program architecture emphasizing flexibility for students, academic rigor, and continuous innovation of content development.

Attached is a press release, which is embargoed until Monday, December 6, at 1 p.m. to allow BusinessWeek an exclusive feature on the new curriculum design.

We will be speaking to the media in the days and weeks ahead, but we wanted you, our students, to be among the first to hear about this exciting new program design, which we will begin to roll out in 2011, with full implementation scheduled for the fall of 2012. The implementation committee will include student representation.

As we expect that you will have some questions, we will be reaching out to the student leadership next week to hear and respond to your queries. Please feel free to share them with the WGA Leadership and the MBA Program Office as we want to do everything we can to ensure the success of this new curriculum design for all current and future students.

This is a great day for Wharton, the culmination of a multiyear program review, led most recently by an outstanding faculty committee and involving the feedback of thousands of key stakeholders, including students, alumni, faculty, staff, business leaders, recruiters, and Wharton board members.

I want to take a moment now to acknowledge and applaud the exemplary work of that committee:

Noah Gans

Ed George

Wes Hutchinson

Chris Ittner

Olivia Mitchell

Richard Shell, Chair

Nicolaj Siggelkow

Rob Stambaugh

For the past eighteen months, these eight faculty members have worked tirelessly on behalf of the School and its current and future generations of students. I hope you will join me in thanking them for their efforts.

Best regards,

Dean Robertson

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HBS life science winners, or how to get into HBS with a Ph.D., masters in science, or just powerful science stats.

http://www.hbs.edu/news/releases/kaplanfellows2010.html

The 2010 Kaplan Fellows are:
Jane Casey joins HBS from OmniGuide, Inc., designer and manufacturer of optical laser scalpels that enable precision minimally invasive surgery. She served as product manager of OmniGuide’s Laryngology and Pediatric ENT line of business, which she helped grow 40%. She graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of science in biomedical engineering from Brown University, where she also received her master’s in biomedical engineering.
Martin Grasse comes from medical device startup Bridgepoint Medical, where he managed a development program for the CrossBoss catheter device. Prior to this he was a design engineer at St. Jude Medical, where he led the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic catheter devices to treat atrial fibrillation. He received his bachelor of science in biomedical engineering and certificate in business from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Peter Jurczynski has spent the last four years working with Johnson & Johnson, where he completed the Johnson & Johnson Global Operations Leadership Development (GOLD) Program. His most recent position was as a project engineer for Viskaton, a division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. He graduated with a BS in mechanical engineering from Tufts University and a master’s in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.
Melissa Matarese is the co-founder of BeFree! LLC and co-inventor of a mucosal drug delivery system that recently received funding from President Obama’s Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Program. She was also recently a regulatory affairs associate for Stryker Orthopedics, where she provided strategic and regulatory input on the design and development of orthopedic implants and instrumentation. She has a BA in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s in bioscience enterprise from the University of Cambridge.
Mariana Mihalusova has spent the past six years at the Harvard University Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology as a graduate research assistant and teaching fellow. She received a bachelor of science in biochemistry from Brown University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Harvard University.
Avaleigh Milne was most recently employed as a life sciences analyst at Atlas Venture, an early stage venture capital firm. She previously served as a senior associate consultant at Bain & Company, where she focused on pharmaceutical companies. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a concentration in environmental science and public policy and received her master’s in bioscience enterprise from the University of Cambridge.
Frida Polli recently worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences at MIT. She received a BA in English from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in clinical neuropsychology from Suffolk University, and did her dissertation work in the Psychiatric Neuroimaging Group at Massachusetts General Hospital studying cognitive functioning in health, schizophrenia and autism.
Emmanuel Simons currently serves as an Entrepreneurial Fellow with Flagship Ventures, a life science venture capital firm. He also conducts research at MIT’s Langer Research Laboratory, where he initiated a research program to improve the delivery of antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and local anesthetics for enhanced treatment of outer, middle, and inner ear disease. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an AB in neuroscience and music and received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from MIT.
Jadelind Wong comes to HBS from biotech start-up Primegen Biotech, LLC, where she researched adult stem cell therapy technologies for applications in the field of regenerative medicine and fertility. She was instrumental in developing a patent for one of the company’s core technologies in cellular preservation, as well as managing business development and marketing projects. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a BS in microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics.

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