Ask HN: MIT or Harvard (MS and MBA) | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: MIT or Harvard (MS and MBA)

7 pointskdumont5 comments

I'm in the fortunate position to have been admitted to both Harvard MS/MBA and MIT LGO (MSEECS + MBA). Now that my initial excitement has passed I have to soon make a difficult decision: which school?

I haven't felt entirely comfortable asking acquaintances and colleagues for their opinions for fear of sounding conceited, so I decided to turn to HN to crowd-source some help. Hoping to get an aggregate opinion and/or maybe find some specific points I haven't considered from folks here.

- The case for Harvard - Pros - The program is entirely case-method and discussion based. I'll learn how to speak/think under pressure. The students are from extremely diverse backgrounds. I can bring a unique perspective coming from a technical background. There is a lot of emphasis on "big-picture" thinking (ie. "Reimagining Capitalism"), though I'm not sure how practical this is. Access to VC funding. Strong bio/healthcare activity (which will be a HUGE opportunity in the coming years).

Cons - The program is almost entirely skewed to business - 17 business classes / 4 engineering. Many of the students come off as very elitist. The culture is somewhat... aggressive... I find a lot of type-A personalities. I'm fine in social situations, but I don't particularly enjoy it. I listen to Bluegrass music and usually spend my weekends rock-climbing in NH. I don't get that feel at HBS, but hey, maybe that's an opportunity.

- The case for MIT - Pros - I know I will be more comfortable at MIT. However, I don't know if that is a good thing. The classes are taught with an analytical foundation and most people come from a technical background. I'll be at the ground-floor for a lot of new tech that could be ready for commercialization.

Cons - I feel like I will be a techie among techies. Of course, the program will be hard, but very similar to how am used to operating. I have to do an internship with one of their partner companies summer yr 2, which could be a bit restricting.

Congratulations!

There really is no bad answer here. Regardless of which you choose, you can always cross register at the other institution. MIT/Harvard students are allowed to enroll in classes at the other institution, space permitting (Tufts, too if that is of interest). The schedules for classes do not line up perfectly, but if there are specific classes you really want to take at the other institution, you can make it work.

I was a student at Sloan and took three classes at HBS. In my experience, the Harvard students were very welcoming and the elitist stereotype did not prove true. When HBS students enrolled in my Sloan courses, they also proved to be friendly teammates.

I enjoyed my experiences at both institutions and don't feel you can go wrong here. If the network is the main thing you are after, HBS has a larger network as the class size is more than 2x the size at Sloan. Good luck with your decision, it seems like a great problem to have.

- My reasoning for higher education - I left my mid-sized tech company a couple years ago to join a hardware startup. I started as an EE, but as leadership positions became necessary I started filling those roles and building a really solid (however small) EE/FW team and helping with more business strategy. We ended up making some really tragic business decisions, many of which were set in place long before I started and I didn't exactly have the credibility to argue. I left the company several months ago. I started to realize how important business strategy (incorporated with engineering) was to success or failure of a product. I learned a TON about leadership/culture/strategy/funding, but it made me realize how much I didn't know. I read books/blogs, scoured HN/Stratechery, etc, but I felt under-educated. Though it might just be insecurity, I felt every other individual I worked with had more experience or pedigree (still, there are tangible effects this has - fundraising for one).

I also just like learning. I grew up in a small town, and these schools just weren't on our radar. Whether it's technical or business, I want to learn how things work. I don't think I'll ever regret taking two years out of my professional career to go back to school.

I want to network.

It seems you want to use the time to go back to school to learn and explore different opportunities that you may not be aware of.

While both of these programs will offer a world class curriculum and network - I believe HBS has the edge in terms of keeping your options more open outside of tech.

Congratulations! Take a long term view, what is it that you wish to do eventually - 10, 15 years down the road. Will it require more of "Reimagining Capitalism" or Analytical and technical things. Think of the school choice as a shortcut to where you are headed - reduce 15 down to 7 for eg. Let us know what you decide.

Thanks! That's a good perspective.

I want to stay highly integrated with tech, but I realize that I want to be in a leadership position to be able to have the greatest impact. I find myself less interested in how to "build things" and more interested in "what things to build" and how to organize it all. I want to get back into the early-stage startup space, but I also see opportunity to take startup thinking and apply it to medium/large companies (ie. David and Goliath). Project management, product development, and product strategy are all areas of interest. I have a current obsession with technical design management flow tools.

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