CORe is an online program to teach the fundamentals of business thinking. It is aimed at undergraduate students or early-to mid career professionals, to the intricacies of a business career.

HBX says the program would benefit such people like engineering graduates, hoping to land a job in Silicon Valley, those looking to work in a non-profit after graduation or a law school graduate preparing for first job at a corporate law firm. Or even an art historian with a dream of someday opening an art gallery.

HBX also makes it clear that CORe is not outsourced. “We have created the content, we are delivering the teaching, and we have designed the platform. This is us, our thinking, our philosophy of learning, our approach to business education, digitally reimagined for those of you just getting started in the world of business.”

Launched in 2014, CORe comprises three courses–Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, and Financial Accounting. It has program start dates throughout the year and has enrolled more than 8,500 individuals to date.

The 8-week highly accelerated cohort program starts in July, a 12-week program from September and a 14-week program (with a 2-week break from December 23-January 5). The credential cost for all three is $1,800.

Collaborating colleges and universities would be able to expand student access to CORe through increased levels of institutional need-based scholarships from HBX to current undergraduate students.

Institutional need-based scholarships for HBX CORe are offered to qualifying students who are currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree program. Since the launch of HBX CORe, over $1 million in institutional need-based and military scholarships has been awarded.

In addition to the collaborating colleges and universities, five institutions had last year entered into agreements with HBX to offer HBX CORe as a component of other academic programs.

These are India’s Ashoka University, Mauritius-based African Leadership University, Boise State University, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School. Boise State University is the first public university to offer HBX CORe to its students through an integrated program.

The list of colleges and universities that have entered into collaboration agreements includes: Amherst College, Bates College, Berklee College of Music, Bowdoin College, Carleton College, Colby College, Colgate University, Colorado College, Grinnell College, Hamilton College, Hampden Sydney College, Harvard College, Harvard Extension School, Mount Holyoke, Pomona College, Rhode Island School of Design, South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, Spelman College, St. Lawrence University, St. Olaf College, St. Thomas University, Vassar College, Washington College, Wesleyan University, Wellesley College, and Williams College. (Image Courtesy : digital.hbs.edu)

Wayne Atwell, a second-year MBA student at New York University’s Stern School of Business analyzed data from GMAT Club forums, to come to the conclusion that those applying in later rounds stand little chance of getting selected.

“The round you apply in does have an impact on your chance of being accepted at HBS. Applying in a later round significantly reduces your chance of admission. The data for round 3 is not statistically significant due to the low sample size, but I wouldn’t risk applying in round 3 unless you have a godly application,” Atwell says.

For maximising changes of getting admission, he prescribes putting in the application in round 1 itself. Additional work experience increases the odds slightly, roughly .5% per year.

About the 2+2 program that allows undergraduates to apply to HBS and then go out to get two years of work experience before coming back for the MBA program, he said the analysis could not clearly identify candidates who applied through this program.

“The round you apply in does have an impact on your chance of being accepted at HBS. Applying in a later round significantly reduces your chance of admission. The data for round 3 is not statistically significant due to the low sample size, but I wouldn’t risk applying in round 3 unless you have a godly application,” Atwell says.

“However, I can tell you that of the 59 people in my sample who are 24 years old or younger, none were admitted. So although it is possible to get in if you are younger, it certainly is more challenging,” he says.

Then, there are some factors that may be out of control of the applicants in the short term, but could be planned for. Indians applying from their own country have lower chance of securing entry, only 1.5% are accepted. Applicants who majored in finance also have a significantly lower chance of being admitted, only 2%.

However, prospects are brighter for those who have worked in venture capital or the military, at 16% and 17% respectively.

Atwell also tried to see if he could predict acceptance rate accurately for people who were already selected for an interview. He found the only factors that had any predictive power were round, age and major.

“The average acceptance rate is 49%, with older candidates doing a little better with about a 7% higher acceptance rate for someone a year older than average. Round 2 applicants had a 37% acceptance rate, while round one had a 57% chance. And finally, applicants who majored in finance had a 16% chance of admittance.

“In the end, it is very difficult to predict admissions for candidates once they have been invited to interview, which suggests that at Harvard the interview actually matters,” he says.

(Analysis Graph Courtesy : MBADataGuru)

The survey covered 129 ranked business schools, exploring various details like tuition fees, class size, GMAT scores and the like.

Apart from two of the schools reporting full employment, 17 others, including Rutgers, University of Iowa (Tippie), Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge (Ourso), Temple University (Fox) and Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) stated 95% to 99% of graduates having found jobs. Among all ranked MBA programs, the average was 84%.

As far as salaries are concerned, with Harvard occupying the first rank, Dartmouth College (Tuck) came second with its graduates having got offers of $148,025, followed by University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) in the third spot with $146,761, Columbia University in the 4^th rank with $146,436 and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) in the fifth spot with $146,201.

Almost half of the 128 ​ranked schools​ that submitted salary data to U.S. News had an average starting salary and bonus of more than $90,000 for their 2015 graduates. The average for all schools was $91,940.

Harvard says it has enrolled 937 candidates for its MBA course so far. 

The percentage admitted stands at 11% from 9683 applications received with a yield of 91%.

The class has 389 women (42%) while US ethnic minorities constituted 260 (28%). The average age of students was 27. It also has 318 international students (34%) representing 64 countries.

For the class, the GMAT middle 80% range was 700-760, median GMAT 730 and average GPA was 3.66.

As far as citizenship is concerned, North Americans numbering 665 constituted 71%, with US at 619 (66%). Asians followed with 126(14%) and Europeans at 84(9%).

The class has 389 women (42%) while US ethnic minorities constituted 260 (28%). The average age of students was 27. It also has 318 international students (34%) representing 64 countries.

Regarding educational background, 421 (45%) students were from economics/business followed by STEM 339 (36%) and humanities/social sciences 177 (19%).

As far as their pre-MBA industry experience is concerned, 164 (18%) were from venture capital/private equity followed by Consulting 146(16%) and 129 (14%).

Meanwhile, the class of 2016 has internship statistics of an offer of base salary at $2,383-12,000 and median other guaranteed compensation of $6,000.

Financial Services topped the options with 30% of students choosing it followed by Technology at 19% and Consulting 15%.

Other options were Healthcare (9%), Manufacturing (6%), Consumer Products (6%), Entertainment media (5%), Retail/Trading (4%) and Non-profit/Government (2%).

For the class of 2015, the base salary was at $90,000-161,250 with a median signing bonus of $50,000 and median other guaranteed compensation of $82,500.

Financial services attracted 31% followed by Consulting 24% with technology 20% in the third spot. These were followed by Health Care (6%), manufacturing (5%), Non-profit/government (4%), retail/trading (3%), entertainment/media (2%) and services (2%).

MBA Class of 2017

Class Composition

Citizenship

Educational Background

Pre-MBA Industry