In a post on her blog on Wednesday, Harvard Business School (HBS) Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Dee Leopold provided a breakdown of when the HBS Class of 2010 graduated from college.
The simple but revealing bar graph showed that the vast majority of the class, 65 percent, graduated in 2004 and 2005, suggesting that they could only have gained between three and four years of work experience before enrolling at HBS. Indeed, the sweet spot now in terms of work experience, at least at Harvard, seems to be squarely between two and five years.
Whereas in the past, having more than five years of experience under your belt before heading to business school was the norm, it now seems to be the exception. Only 11 members of the class of 2010 graduated from college in 1999 or before.
In her post, Leopold did remind her audience that “all directly admitted college seniors have the option to postpone matriculation in order to gain work experience.” And only nine students in the class of 2010 entered immediately after graduating last spring. But the trend toward a younger HBS class is clear nonetheless.
This trend could be further influenced in coming years by the HBS 2+2 program, a deferred MBA admission program the school launched last year. The program accepted its first undergraduates, 106 seniors from 52 colleges, in mid-September.
Upon graduating from college, these students will complete two years of approved work experience at a range of participating companies and organizations before assuming their reserved spots in the HBS class of 2013.
In a statement about the program, Leopold stressed that the Harvard MBA offers a wide range of opportunities after graduation. “HBS 2+2 enables undergraduates to understand that flexibility early in their education,” she said.
“It also contradicts the conventional – and incorrect – notion that prospective students must have worked for five or six years before applying to the school,” Leopold continued. “As far as we’re concerned, there is no single profile for the successful applicant to HBS.”
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