Will I still have time to network or [participate in] other business activities if I were in a top MBA program such as Harvard?

The Harvard MBA says:

Absolutely, though exactly how much time you’ll have depends on a number of important factors:

1) How quickly can you read and process information?

The average HBS student has to read and prepare 11 case studies per week.  Since each case is somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-50 typed, double-spaced pages of information and exhibits, speed readers have a definite advantage.

2) How much importance do you place on academic achievement?

Top schools like HBS and Stanford actually forbid you to reveal your grades to future employers.  This means that there are only three possible academic outcomes: Distinction (Top 5% of the class), Passing (90% of the class), and Failing (Bottom 5% of the class).  If you’re content with a Pass, and you are reasonable good at school, you can get by with much less effort.  There are certain places where attaining distinction will be a major plus (McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, etc.), but there generally aren’t enough Baker Scholars (HBS) or Arjay Miller Scholars (Stanford) to go around, so people do get hired there without distinction.

3) Do you know what field you want to pursue?

Networking tends to be very specific.  If you want to work for Goldman Sachs, you should be spending your time on the Finance Club.  If you want to start a company, you should be volunteering for the Entrepreneurship Club.  If you don’t know what you want to do, you’ll be hard pressed to devote enough time and energy to networking in all the possible fields you might want to pursue.

In my own case, 1) I’ve always been an extremely fast reader and thinker, 2) I decided that I was willing to accept a Pass (though I ended up becoming a Baker Scholar anyways), and 3) I knew I wanted to go back to Silicon Valley and work in the startup field, so I could really focus my efforts.

As a result, I was able to minimize the amount of time I spent on basic academics, and focus the bulk of my energies on things I chose to do.  Some of these had a clear professional purpose (getting elected one of the Co-Presidents of the High Tech and New Media Club…and by the way, despite all the good things in my career, I am probably the *least* successful of the three Co-Presidents my year!), but most did not (captaining and coaching a basketball team; helping write the school musical; continuing to carry on a social life with my other Boston friends [I’d lived in Boston for three years before business school] in addition to my social life within HBS).  I also started and raised money for my first startup while I was in school.

Bottom line, not only will you have time to network during b-school, I strongly urge you to make it one of your top priorities.

If you want help on improving your study habits to free up even more time, I recommend reading about Cal Newport’s concept of the Zen Valedictorian.