Friday, January 21, 2005
Atmosphere
I posted the following comment on Megami's blog after reading her review of HBS and received an e-mail from Marissa requesting that I post it here as well. It was in response to Megami's comment that she had previously been dissatisfied by "the 'quality' of people at HBS (in terms of sincerity, openness to build REAL friendships rather than superficial acquaintances, etc.)" Here is my response (with a few additions):
Depending on who you talk to, superficiality can be a big problem at HBS. Personally, the atmosphere is just about right for me, since I prefer a few very good friends to a lot of good friends. I feel comfortable saying that Jie and I have definitely met people that we will stay in touch with for a long time.
It does irk some people that in general there can be a networking feel to the school at large, rather than a true friendly atmosphere. I've never really felt the networking vibe, so I don't know. Part of that may be that your experience is highly section dependent, and the section vibe is usually set by a dominant minority. My section's dominant minority is very inclusive and friendly, and so I don't see the issues that others do. I would also say that in a school of 900, you have many extremely nice and genuine people, and some not-so-nice and not-so-genuine people. Your experience kind of depends on how many of each that are in your section, and how much you let their attitude influence your own experience.
Depending on who you talk to, superficiality can be a big problem at HBS. Personally, the atmosphere is just about right for me, since I prefer a few very good friends to a lot of good friends. I feel comfortable saying that Jie and I have definitely met people that we will stay in touch with for a long time.
It does irk some people that in general there can be a networking feel to the school at large, rather than a true friendly atmosphere. I've never really felt the networking vibe, so I don't know. Part of that may be that your experience is highly section dependent, and the section vibe is usually set by a dominant minority. My section's dominant minority is very inclusive and friendly, and so I don't see the issues that others do. I would also say that in a school of 900, you have many extremely nice and genuine people, and some not-so-nice and not-so-genuine people. Your experience kind of depends on how many of each that are in your section, and how much you let their attitude influence your own experience.
