Admissions and Financial Aid
Futures Start Here
Who's the "typical" MBA candidate for Harvard Business School? Perhaps the best answer is someone who isn't "typical" at all. Each fall, we welcome 900 students representing more than seventy countries and a wide range of interests and backgrounds. While our students' lives and experiences vary greatly, they all share a demonstrated capacity for leadership and a desire to effect positive change.
Our MBA selection process is thoughtful, thorough and need-blind. Once students are admitted, they may apply for financial aid; HBS is committed to making the MBA Program accessible to students with a demonstrated financial need.
If you have thoroughly explored our Web site and think that HBS may be right for you, we encourage you to carefully review the Admissions and Financial Aid section. Begin with our Admission Criteria page and be sure to complete the Introduce Yourself form so that we can send you additional information relevant to your interests, including invitations to MBA Admissions Events in your area.
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In college, teachers talked for an hour then you left to remember what you could. Here the case method pushes me to speak on topics I don't completely understand. I'm becoming more articulate, more thoughtful about major world issues.
My wife and I were accepted by seven other business schools. But Harvard was the only one we knew we'd regret if we didn't go. 
In the beginning of the first term there's more talking than listening. Then as we become more experienced, there's a shift to listening. A lot more listening.
In the beginning, I didn't always have the right answers. But that's not a bad thing—here I learned that there is no one right answer. HBS encourages different perspectives. Suddenly it clicked—I have more to offer than I thought.
Cases not only require students to understand and analyze content, but also to make decisions. You learn how to defend your position on your feet, even when that position is based on imperfect information. I've found the experience incredibly rewarding, beyond my expectations.
I want something more than just work, more than just numbers. It's about passion. I want to contribute to the growth of Latin America.
In class, there's a lot of role playing in difficult situations. It's our chance to practice our management styles with our section mates. Every day, I feel like I'm sitting in a board room making decisions with people who are equally capable. With each case, I become more confident in my arguments and in my ability to express myself.
The case method teaches you to develop better ways of approaching a business challenge, of how to think it through. With so many points of view being presented, you learn to separate the person from the argument, so that you're judging arguments, not people.
I've learned a number of practical skills here. Things like trimming operating processes. Working through time-management issues. Taking a structural approach to pricing. The program is very challenging, but I've learned more in the past eight months than in four years of college.
The discussion of race raised in an HBS case was so enlightening that our professor organized further conversation after class to talk about the history of race relations in the United States and what we could do to improve it. I came out of that class and thought, 'Today, my perspective is bigger than it used to be.'
Having access to Financial Aid played a huge role in my decision to come to HBS. Just knowing that all I needed to worry about was getting admitted was a huge relief! An MBA education is an expensive venture. With Financial Aid, HBS turned my dream into reality. 