As many b-school applicants know, Harvard Business School utilizes the case method as it’s primary learning tool for classroom instruction. While most top MBA programs use business cases, they are generally combined with a mix of lecture, team projects and field-based (or experiential) learning.
The Wall Street Journal’s free College Journal site has just published an article about a real business case involving Citigroup and the European bond market. The article describes how HBS takes a real business event and turns it into a case for classroom exploration. This is a great read for any b-school applicant who is interested in the case method or looking to get a better sense for how it works.
Of course, for those of you applying to HBS, we’d recommend that you really get to know what the case method is, and how it works in the classroom. Gaining this sort of familiarity will do three things:
1) Allow you get a better idea of how the case method works as a tool, and potentially decide if it’s the sort of teaching method that is best suited to your own learning style. While many applicants are clearly drawn to the HBS brand (and with good reason), it’s important to gain familiarity with the school’s teaching method due to its unique nature.
2) Enable you to better discuss your interests in HBS’ unique approach when drafting your essays (particularly essays #4, #6 and #7).
3) Give you an advantage over many of your peer applicants if the topic comes up during your HBS interview.
For more information about the HBS essays or interview process, check out our prior blog entries on the subject.
