MIT's Sloan or Harvard Business School?

furo · Mar 14, 2011

My good friend just got accepted into Harvard Business School and MIT (Sloan) for MBA. The Sloan program offers a dual-degree jointly awarded by Sloan and the College of Engineering. Sloan offers limited financial assistance in the form of a fellowship, and Harvard does not offer scholarship.

He's only got a couple weeks to decide and can't make the choice. I told him Sloan because he gets a fellowship and a dual degree, but that's just one opinion.

Any solid advice from the SF field?

Artisan Fan · Mar 14, 2011

My advice:

1. If he wants to pursue general management then go with Harvard as it has a better alumni network and slightly better training on management.

2. If he wants to pursue a technology career or do a startup as either founder or early participant then MIT would probably be more valuable. I have had the pleasure of working with the Media Lab on my business model patent and the quality of work across the school and the ease of commercializing technology is unparalleled.

3. If he wants to go into consulting then HBS.

4. If money is an issue, then Sloan.

Cannot go too wrong either way.

Hombre Secreto · Mar 14, 2011

Sloan's Behavioral Economics would be too tempting for me.

newinny · Mar 14, 2011

I'm gonna put everything in terms of % because HBS is bigger than Sloan:

Sloan puts a higher % of people into MCC than HBS (anecdotal)
HBS puts a magnitude larger % of people into PE than Sloan
Sloan has a bigger focus on mathematics and traditional teaching versus the case method
HBS puts a bigger % of people into the higher echelon of IB's (GS, MS) than Sloan
HBS has a younger class than Sloan
HBS is better known than Sloan but the MIT brand and Harvard brands are probably equal
Sloan is a phenomenal place to start a company (100k competition, entrepreneurship center, etc.)

If I were him, I'd choose based on industry:
PE/IBD/MCC -> Harvard
Tech/Start Company -> MIT
No preference -> Harvard

dragon8 · Mar 14, 2011

Can't go wrong on either. You didn't say what he wanted to do career wise?

IMO, I'd pick Harvard-the name and prestige will open doors like never before.

furo · Mar 14, 2011

Originally Posted by dragon8

Can't go wrong on either. You didn't say what he wanted to do career wise?

IMO, I'd pick Harvard-the name and prestige will open doors like never before.

I'm not sure what he wants career-wise.

Connemara · Mar 14, 2011

Ivy League is always the right choice.

Artisan Fan · Mar 14, 2011

Originally Posted by newinny

Sloan is a phenomenal place to start a company (100k competition, entrepreneurship center, etc.)

They also have a great Media Lab and several local, well funded tech incubators.

Manton · Mar 14, 2011

Tell him to choose based on which city he likes better.

Artisan Fan · Mar 14, 2011

Originally Posted by Connemara

Ivy League is always the right choice.

Not really. If you want to work on the West Coast, Stanford is tough to beat.

Connemara · Mar 14, 2011

Originally Posted by Artisan Fan

Not really. If you want to work on the West Coast, Stanford is tough to beat.
HYP or bust.

Piobaire · Mar 14, 2011

Originally Posted by Artisan Fan

Not really. If you want to work on the West Coast, Stanford is tough to beat.

Conne was just making a Conne joke. We all know there is a host of regional schools that can be better choices for certain things.

yjeezle · Mar 14, 2011

REguy · Mar 14, 2011

If he wants to do something engineering related, it's a no-brainer...MIT. Having taken classes at both HBS and Sloan (and being a non-technology/quant person), I was always amazed walking the halls at MIT. The whole place is like a giant science experiment.

You're not guaranteed of getting into classes (HBS is fairly finicky in my opinion), but keep in mind you can also cross register.

Artisan Fan · Mar 14, 2011

Originally Posted by REguy

The whole place is like a giant science experiment.

Having seen some of the women at MIT I can totally agree!

MIT's Sloan or Harvard Business School?

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