More than meets the eye

A word that is strangely absent from the HBS recruiting materials but that crops up with some regularity here is "transformational." The MBA experience is designed to foster this transformation by setting up all the conditions and interactions needed to help make it happen. For some people the way these things are done may not make sense initially: fixed courses for a year, assigned seats, assigned study groups that meet early every morning, classes five days a week. I love the structured aspect of it all. There's something about the environment, this particular life stage, the constant thoughts of careers and visions and other deeper questions that add to the general ferment this environment creates. I suspect experiences like this aren't unique to HBS. You can probably "transform" wherever you are, if you want to, but this is a particularly exciting place to do so.