The MBA Reality Check

Mastering the Master’s

So you want an MBA, but you don’t want to get it from just anywhere; it’s got to be from Harvard Business School (HBS) and nowhere else. Well, that’s “a suicide mission.” Pinning all your hopes on a single school, when so much of the admissions process is out of your control, is crazy. Instead, make your school selection part of a larger process of realistic self-examination. Investigate the programs at a number of universities, and apply to the ones that best fit you and your goals. This will make it much more likely that you’ll get into a good MBA program (maybe even at HBS) and that you’ll be happier along the way.

Once you’ve committed to earning an MBA from a first-rate degree program, recognize that you have to be the sort of person that program wants. That doesn’t mean changing who you are or pretending to be someone else, but it does mean you have to find the “visionary leader in you.” You can’t game the process or thoughtlessly knock out an application; rather, you’ll need to search deep within to define your goal of “doing something greater than yourself with the intent to make a difference.” Then direct the application process as you...