I have been looking at the curriculums for Harvard Business School's Master of Business Administration and Harvard Extension School's ALM in Management. They both have the same requirements (generally speaking) including a capstone course that serves as a field immersion course with the Master's in Management, which is fairly new. If I am not able to gain admission to Harvard Business School, but wanted a similar educational experience to become a consultant, should I attend Harvard Extension?

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No, student quality is vastly lower and much of a top MBA learning experience comes from your peers.

Then there’s the brand & network difference.

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HES alums can join clubs but they are never be truly accepted.

Is an HES degree worth it if everyone who knows it considers it nonsense? I say it isn’t.

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HES is good education and still has the Harvard name but it isn’t HBS.

HBS is a finishing school for the elite of capitalism. HES is an academic proving ground for folks who didn’t get the chance to hit Ivies as undergrads.

There’s no reason you can’t get a consulting job with that ALM — but it’s not going to open the same doors as an HBS MBA, which is what you’re really paying for with that.

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My impression (which, let’s be clear, should be worth less than a hiring manager’s or a Harvard employee’s):

HES offers solid education to a much wider audience — I disagree with the dude who said it’s necessarily a lower-quality audience.

But it isn’t the cozy collection of Romneys and Welches and Waltons et al.

Even if the curricula and student experiences and services offered and even if the university changed its policy and custom to have all Harvard grads use “Harvard University” rather than College/GSAS/HBS/HLS as a CV stamp…

I would say it’s still dishonest to suggest to folks that they’re going to get the same outcomes going to classes open to the general public and going to classes largely reserved for people who would be “successful” by any measure with or without the degree.

What OP needs to understand is they aren’t looking at a shiny Apple and a wormy Apple — the two schools serve completely different purposes is all.

Either can lead to consulting — neither is a *bad* option… plenty of MS Mgmt grads working all over the place, and many are more capable than mediocre MBAs. There’s nothing special about an MBA curriculum (European curricula are much stronger than North American ones in any case — as they have higher academic entry standards; you can’t even get into INSEAD if you aren’t already multilingual).

There are lots of paths to a solid business education — but that isn’t the unique value proposition of these capitalist finishing schools — and I call them that because *that* is the value add.

You’re potentially making friends and joining circles your family was born several castes below — and if you aren’t, you’re getting an education you could’ve paid a fraction for elsewhere.

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I’m finishing at HES in a semester or so if you have any questions. Not in management/business program though.

HBS posts a detailed job report for each years graduating class.

Does HES? If so, compare that and see if the outcomes are similar (they almost certainly will not be). If not, there’s a reason they don’t because the results are not that great.

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