Harvard Business School | Wall Street Oasis

Illini, as much as I like and respect you, your post is insane.

Regarding the OP's post, i think redninja pretty much hit the nail on the coffin. First, grad prestige is much more important than undergrad prestige. Second, for an MBA, pedigree matters much moreso than med, phd, or even law. Those other degrees are required to practice one's chosen field, whereas you don't need and MBA to "practice" business or make tons of money. The prestige of one's mba, then, acts as a powerful signaling mechanism for employers when they decide who to interview and extend offers to. The top firms are packed with alums from the elite schools, so they intrinsically trust that adcom is accepting the "right" people who have proven themselves in the real world.

In terms of opportunities, a few anecdotes to bear this out. As redninja said, MBB hires tons from HBS. I think McKinsey alone hired around 90 from HBS last year (roughly 10% of the entire class). And a lot of the top PE, HF, and IM, only hire from HBS/Stanford and Wharton to a lesser extent. Examples of this that I can think of are soros, paulson, viking, KKR, Blackstone, carlyle, Bain Capital, davidson kempner, baupost, york, och-ziff, capital group, Ziff Brothers, etc.

My best friend just finished his first year at a M7 (booth/kellogg/sloan/columbia). He will be interning at MBB in NYC, and during the sell weekend, he told me that the vast majority were from the other M7. There were a few from places like darden, ross, fuqua, stern. When asked, these students replied that they were one of the very few in their class to get a MBB internship. Contrast this to my friend's class, where roughly 70-80 got at least one of MBB. The difference is quite staggering. This confirms my view that even in strategy consulting, which hires a lot of MBAs, there's a big drop between M7 and the rest. And in buyside finance, there's a huge drop between HSW and the rest.

So yes, pedigree matters a ton in business school. And HBS is totally worth the debt and opportunity costs. Turning down HBS for a state mba, so you can save several hundred grand, which in the long-term doesn't mean that much, is a completely foolish move.

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