“I’m thinking of applying to an MBA program at an American University, most notably at Harvard.
I am keen to get a rounded experience of university in the US. What I want to know is what is the social life like at Harvard in particular?
Ancilliary question: Do you know if postgraduate students can join the so called “final clubs” such as Porcellian or AD at Harvard. Or can postgrad students even join fraternities?
A million thanks in advance!”
The Harvard MBA Says:
Now here’s a question after my own heart. After all, if networking is one of the most important aspects of business school, the social life of the school is probably more important than the number of Nobel prizewinners on the faculty (though those help too!).
HBS offers a very rich social life, but it is very different from the experience of being an undergrad at an American university. A quick look at demographics helps illustrate this:
- The average age of first-year HBS students is somewhere around 27, versus 18 for college freshmen.
- Women make up a little over 1/3 of the student body, which is very different from the typical college, where women make up the majority of students.
- 1/3 of the students are from countries other than the United States, a figure that is far higher than the typical college.
Rather than young adults trying to find their identities and figure out what they want to do with their lives, MBA programs features cosmopolitan men and women who are focused on accelerating their careers.
Both millieus feature plenty of partying, but that’s where the resemblance ends. You’re not going to be spending late nights debating the meaning of life or trudging your way to the local frat party to score some illegal booze. Instead, you’ll be hitting bars and clubs with your friends during schools, and planning posh treks to Bali and other global hot spots for your vacations.
Of course, not every HBS student opts for the party circuit. There are plenty of married students who (like me) prefer a quiet dinner with other couples. Though even us old married types try to make time to attend a few functions like Vegas road trips to act as steady wingmen for our single brethren.
Social activities tend to center around four different groups: Section, Study Group, Clubs, and Friends.
HBS’s 900 person class is divided into 11 sections, each designated with a number. In HBS terms, I was in Section D, Class of 2000. Because you spend your entire first year taking all your classes with the same 80 people, you tend to develop very strong bonds. Your section is the equivalent of your freshman dorm…if your freshman dorm consisted of nothing but overachievers who were bent on global domination.
Study Groups are another tradition, though less formal. Students self-organize into groups of 4-8 students that help each other prepare for classes. Since HBS classes are graded primarily on class participation, being prepared is critical, especially if you receive the dreaded “cold call” from the professor to “open” the class by presenting your analysis of the case study. It gets pretty quiet pretty quickly when the professor cold calls an unprepared, possibly hung-over student. With an average of 13 cases per week, no one has time to prepare a full analysis of each (a full analysis including a recommended course of action with financial model as supporting evidence), hence the rise of the study groups.
Study groups meet every day, generally before the first morning class. Again, because the group members see each other every day for an entire year, strong bonds develop. I’ve heard of study groups who still do yearly reunions.
HBS is also full of clubs and activities, including the annual HBS musical. While at HBS, I was the Co-President of the High Tech club, and one of the writers for the musical. Unlike sections or study groups, clubs and activities generally bring together people with similar interests. I’m still in close touch today with my fellow High Tech club officers, as well as my fellow writers.
Beyond these three structured social activities, HBS students also simply make friends. There are folks like my friend Tony whom I simply enjoy spending time with, even though we never took a class together, studied together, or were in a club together. Even at HBS, friendship without ulterior motive flourishes.
One thing that HBS does have in common with college is the fierce search for romantic companionship.
Thanks to the 2:1 gender ratio, female MBA students (the heterosexual ones at least) find themselves in a near-ideal dating environment, surrounded by accomplished, socially successful, high-earning-potential men. A large number of my female classmates, far larger in proportion than my college contemporaries, end up marrying classmates.
But don’t feel bad for the poor male MBA students. In the Boston area, Harvard MBAs are considered the best possible catch for young women, and the so-called Harvard effect holds sway over the rest of the world as well. Trading on the HBS aura is known as “dropping the H-bomb,” and the HBSer on the prowl will find it an effective weapon on anyone from cocktail waitresses to Wellesley students to MBAs of lesser schools.
For example, early in the school year, the Wellesley girls actually put invitations to parties in the mailboxes of EVERY male HBS first-year. The invitations include complimentary limo service to bring you to the campus in case you don’t have a car. I kid you not.
I could also tell you stories about certain classmates of mine cutting a Kevin Rose-esque swath through the ranks of Columbia MBA students, but that I’ll save for another time.
The one drawback of the social whirl at HBS is the fact that the good life does end up being pretty expensive (Wellesley women nonwithstanding). Someone has to pony up the bucks to pay for airfare and 4-star resorts, and that someone is generally Citibank’s loan department, which will be happy to loan you practically unlimited funds (they know you’ll be good for it someday).
As for your ancillary question, I’m pretty sure that Finals Clubs like the Porc are limited solely to undergrads. I can tell you any HBS student who took it upon himself to do the equivalent of rushing an undergrad frat would be in for some serious abuse from the rest of us. Not to worry. While these secret societies encourage conspiracy theorists to prove that they rule the world through covert connections, HBSers are content to wield their power out in the open.

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