HBS Admissions Decision Criticized

Days after the Harvard Business School (HBS) announced it would stop admitting Master of Business Administration (MBA) candidates in January, graduating students told administrators they were angered by the decision, and frustrated that students weren't properly consulted.

On May 11, HBS officials said they would admit students only in September of each school year, breaking with their years-long practice of admitting students in two separate cohorts. Students who began school in January would study for four consecutive terms--including a three-month summer semester--and graduate a year and a half later. Students admitted in September would take a summer break, finishing in two years.

In an e-mail message to program chair and Williston Professor of Business Administration W. Carl Kester, MBA student Gregory M. Stuppler wrote, "You have the resources and time to make the right decisions. I suggest you use them."

Another MBA student, William J. Olson, sent to a public e-mail discussion group a list of "Top Ten Ways for HBS to increase its bottom line," which included items like, "Cut the Landscaping budget in half from $400 million to $200 million."

The number one way, Olson wrote, was "Cut the January Cohort program without any input from its members!"

Kester said in an interview that he has received between 12 and 15 e-mail messages from students. Though he acknowledged that some current January cohort members were disappointed by the change, he said HBS's decision was based in part on the preferences of business school applicants, who tend to prefer matriculating in September.

Kester said the faculty had hired an outside consultant, Vista Consulting, to study the decision. "We did quite a lot of sampling of student opinion," he said.

The consultants interviewed 48 students from both cohorts, and looked at admission and exit data.

Their report concluded that the January cohort was smaller and more close-knit.

"January cohort students report a very high level of identification and cohesion with their cohort, more so than did September cohort students," Kester said.

But although many January cohort members liked their program, applicants still overwhelmingly prefer to start in September, the study found.

Though students' opinions were a prominent part of the study, other January cohort members stressed that they did not participate in the decisionmaking process itself.

Students also said the announcement came at an inappropriate time.

Another January cohort member, Benjamin F. Cary, wrote to "thank" Kester for announcing that "my whole program was being abolished," on the same day as his final exams.

"It really made the moment special," Cary wrote.

But Kester said announcing the decision during exams and near graduation was coincidental.

"The timing was in no way planned," Kester said. "The decision was made once we completed the study….It was not in any way designed to surprise anyone."

Kester said that the decision was made at the first faculty meeting after the study had been completed.

He said criticisms of the decision need to be put in perspective. "There's almost 1,800 students at the Business School," he said. "The response has been quite varied."

Kester said he will continue to hold informational meetings to discuss the school's decision.