Let's go.
So guys, I have left my hostel.
And it was... you know, at least 100 to 200 years old
in the oldest city.
It was fun.
The vibes of Harvard hostels.. I mean,
they are off-campus. But, like-Harvard is amazing!
And let me tell you what's my idea of visiting colleges..
Before you, I want to learn myself.
Because, if I learn something, then only I can teach you, right?
So my idea is, I want to visit all the neat blind business schools
because their idea is.. You come here, study and do your MBA.
You don't have to worry about your expenses.
That's so awesome.
Whatever amount you are earning,
whether it's less than 30 lakh in India or more than
You don't even have to think about money.
So in short, you come here for two years,
forget about anything else,
just study here,
forget about expenses,
and change the world!
That's what I want to do as well.
That's why I want to go to a business school for my MBA in then next..
3 years.. because I have 2 years of experience already.
I think it's an idea after 5 years.
That's why I'm gonna learn and share my journey
along with it.
Let's go!
Oh, that's Harvard Business School!
Finally.
Wow! The HBS is so big!
I thought it will be just one building.
- Right? What the heck? - Yeah, it's so so big.
So first of all meet Arpit from HBS.
- Hi Harnoor! - Nice to meet you.
So which year are you in?
I am in my second year.
The first years are called RC year and the second years are called EC year.
So I am in my EC year.
I started in 2020.
And yeah, going strong in the second year.
And which school are you from?
I am from IIT Bombay.
Awesome! Computer Science?
Uh, no.. Uh, mechanical engineering.
This is the orientation hall
where we also have our orientation as well as
convocations.
So how many buildings has HBS got?
- 5 major ones... - 5 major buildings?
Yeah.. - And all are connected, right?
All are connected.
Oh wow!
Uhh.. There are 10 sections at HBS.
A section comprises of around 90 students.
So we plan together to basically..
go on a retreat.
Covid conscious retreat... So
should definitely make that statement.. But
but we guys are going to vermont
activities there.
Oh wow!
So it's part of like, socializing.
It's part of socializing.
Awesome. - And networking of course.
Networking? Yeah.
So you get to network with your classmates
or like, other people who are in top companies
or something?
Uh, so this is majorly with my classmates only...
This is so epic!
It's like a mansion, yeah..
Yeah, fancy mansion..
Nice.
So let's do a roundtable with HBS students.
So please introduce yourselves.
Sure. Hey, my name is Abhishek. I am a second year student at HBS.
Hi, my name is Nishant. I am also a second year student at HBS.
Hi, I am Prachir Gupta. Also second year student at HBS.
I'm Vivek, also second year at HBS.
Hi everyone! I hope you know me. I am Arpit
Second year student at HBS.
So which schools are you from? So that students get to know
there is a ton of diversity. Not all students come from IITs...
You chose the wrong table...
(LAUGHS)
Actually I am not from IIT.
- What school are you from? - VIT.
VIT? Okay..
And which IITs are you all from?
IIT Kharagpur 2015.
Awesome!
I am from IIT Bombay 2015.
IIT Bombay 2014.
Oh wow.. And
IIT Bombay 2016..
Amazing!!
Very less diversity.
That's a lot of diversity.. Kharagpur, Bombay
different years.. You know, this is like...
This is yeah, definitely epic diversity.
And all different hostels...
Different departments..
Different CGPAs, like very very diverse.
Now, can you share like your best experiences..
Why students should work really hard to get into HBS?
What makes HBS so best?
One of the best schools..
You can actually talk about your start-up, like..
you are getting the motivation..
Tell me anything..
Yeah, I think community is the best part and if you come with a clear goal,
then you basically have..
You can create a community for all of your personal and professional goals.
In my case I came in to start-up.
And I basically found the entire ecosystem very helpful in that regard.
But international students can easily or with some difficulty do a start-up, right?
I mean- I don't think that- Yeah, now I think
from a immigration perspective, it's a less
sort of a complicated matter.
If you can find a problem, it's meant to go after.
Awesome!
Awesome! You please...
Yeah, I think I keep talking about it a lot.
The reason of why HBS is so interesting is
most of us has worked before for 4-5 years before coming here
and... in your job life, people don't really
say things against you.
Or they don't disagree with you.
But in a HBS classroom of 80-70 people,
almost half the class will always disagree with you.
And that makes you question a lot about how you think
about business problems.. how you think about life problems.
I think that's the most valuable aspect for me.
It makes me question myself
500 times in two years.
- Wow! - That's the best moment I have experienced.
That is so amazing! I can tell you that
whenever I conduct interviews as a software engineer
I always ask the student
always investigate 5 W and 1 H, right?
You have to think that for every question.
This tells me about that, right?
Yep!
Awesome! Please go ahead..
I mean it's more like a follow-up to that.
The case-based method.. I think it's
It can be challenging but it can be pretty liberating as well.
Like you literally are
theoretically or hypothetically put in a situation where
you are in the middle of a situation,
a decision that you have to make
and it's kind of a training ground.
Across two years, we will be doing 5 minute case studies on average.
So which means, 500 reaps of trying to make some
interesting consequential decisions.
So that's a pretty good..
like, way to train yourself for..
for future.
Awesome!!
Yeah, awesome.. Thank you so much. It's your turn now.
Bro.. for me it's
somewhat similar to what these guys are talking about
but I'll put it in a different way.
So for me...
at least the one- one and a half year we've been here it's
been about perspective.
Right?
So where I came from before this,
I worked in non-profits for three years.
Um.. and then coming to a school, firstly coming to the US,
and then a school like HBS...
It's like, in some way the zenith of capitalism, right?
So that shift for me was very interesting.
However it's also the type of people you meet here.
People who come from different types of backgrounds..
Um, you know,
Of course the standard ones just consulting private equity, finance- whatever.
But also people like me, from non profit or from industry
or people who've had their own startups,
Um, so I think that perspective is really important.
Having those conversations from people with different countries
What is the macro-economic context of where people grew up in..
There's people from Venezuela for example.
There's people from Columbia, there's people from...
Germany.
There's someone from Nigeria.. And like,
understanding what situations they come from
and sort of relating that back to your own experience
and then having those conversations in that setting is pretty cool.
- Plus 100.
Amazing!!
Thank you so so much! It was a pleasure talking to all of you.
And I'm sure, this knowledge will like- you know
boost the morale and boost the energy of students to work harder for HBS.
Thank you so much!
- Thank you man. - Thank you.
That's Arabic?
Oh wow! You can tell easily.
But how do you know it's Urdu or Arabic?
So it's important to know that it's not like 50% Indian students in HBS.
30%.. can you repeat?
It's around 30-35% students are international.
Which is outside of US.
And around 65 to 70% are from US.
Out of those 30-35% folks
you can say that...
that.. how much it is? That is like
240, 230 students?
.. international in our batch of 700.
Uh.. around
25-30 folks are from India.
..Who have come from India.
And there would be around similar around 30-35 folk who are
American born Indians.
Every classroom has this tag for every student?
Yes.
Every student sits in the same place?
Like, this is Daniel's desk. So only Daniel can sit here?
Yeah..
Oh wow!
This classroom is so epic!
So much diversity!
And specially.. the Indian flag..
It's a moral-thing or it's like a normal classroom?
It's a normal classroom.
But basically we all cherish the diversity in the class.
And so every year we have a particular day called the flag day.
And we celebrate the
different kind of cultures, people
with whom we are in the class.
At that time we unfold all these flags..
Oh wow!
This is really epic!
Which one is this? (I'm just kidding)
I don't get- Which one is this? I don't know..
Yeah, feels proud to have Indian flag here.
Feels amazing.
And everyone.. even in general every classroom
In every classroom pretty much every students sits in the same desk?
Seat arrangement is fixed for students in every class.
Every class? That is so epic. But-
how do you make new friends then? You know, it's all about socializing
in MBA
Then how do you socialize if everyone is
Suppose you are in a class with 90 other students
and they are sitting at different locations and
and you know that hey, like-
My friend sits three rows ahead of me and
and two columns on the right.
I can.. uh.. I actually look forward to
their comments. I actually look forward for their perspectives
and.. it's
if you attend 250 cases with the same set of folks,
you will eventually become friends
and this bonding becomes like for life.
So for example, if one of the student raises a hand, you remember that student
that.. oh, I can see..
And after class we also let's say compliment each other.
We also discuss about the comments because
everyone puts in different perspectives.
As my friends earlier were telling about the
about different perspectives.
You get to learn about their perspectives. You get to hear from them and you get to
understand and whenever there is a contrasting opinion to you,
that's when the thing becomes very interesting.
Because now you want to have a deeper conversation, deeper discussion
and that lets to
and that lets to a learning which is
unparalleled.
And that's what makes HBS such a great school.
Oh wow! Awesome.
So this is one of the major corridor and this is the basement to the library.
Basement to the library? Okay..
And here you will be able to see the complete
history of Harvard, of HBS in particular.
When like.. In this particular painting we can see that..
Uh.. and this was from 1926.
When Harvard was.. when some of the buildings of Harvard was under-making.
So did you get into Harvard, Stanford and UPenn?
Like Wharton is so popular...
Sundar Pichai graduated from Wharton, right?
Why you chose Harvard over all three?
I chose Harvard because
when I thought about what I want to do next,
I wanted to be in a
school which is more generalist in nature.
Which can provide you with great management experience
and at the same time which has.. uhh
great reputation across the world.
Because I planned to go back to India
somewhere in the future.
And.. having a
HBS tag
... HBS may give me an edge in India
when I plan to go back.
Awesome!
Yes, because.. For Indian education system,
HBS is more recognized as compared to other schools, right?
Awesome! Thank you so much!