When reasoning why the Harvard man is so sought after, there is one factor that the merits of the school's educational program should not be allowed to overshadow: the student is supposedly an able man even before he begins his two years on the Charles. For one thing the Admissions Office often prefers older men, who have already had actual work experience. Statistics show that the Class of 1952 averaged between 23 to 24 years of age and included 62% veterans. Although the veteran percentages are fast dipping, the entering Class of 1953 which numbers over 620 students, still has 234 veterans in it.

Scrutiny at Admissions Time

There aren't any formal standards that help the Admissions Office spot the "well equipped" man. Since the idea business man is no introvert, the school is definitely not hunting just for grinds with good marks. (The chief college grad area represented in the Class of 1952 is "B minus.") Instead the school pains takingly studies a man's entire past performance, and, with four applicants for every available place, the Admissions Office has a wide selection to pick from.

All this care in admissions leads to a school whose students suffer remarkable few academic failures, considering the heavy work load. Moreover, the "gregarious, extovert" label pinned on Business School men shows itself in the lively activity program maintained by the Student Association. Attracting University-wide attention have been the fall football intramurals, which some sections have taken so seriously as to organize two-platoon systems.

Hardly Like 1908

All these things, from the case method to the two-platoon system, have gone toward making today's Business School far cry from 1908, the year of the opening.

The whole idea of business at Harvard originated at the turn of the century when the University started taking sharp notice of the rapid expansion of business in the country. First came an experimental course in accounting, and then, in 1907, President Eliot announced that the Corporation had voted to set up a School for Public Service and Commerce.

The "panic of 1907" made the Corporation promptly decide that "public servants" might prove too hard to place. So on October, 1908, the Business School alone opened its doors, and 33 student started courses as candidates for the newly-minted degree of Master of Business Administration.

From the beginning the school emphasized "learning to do by doing" rather than memorizing of facts and routines. But at the start, this was no case system; it was, at best, a modest problem method.

Under its first dean, Edwin F. Gay, the fledging School heard lectures by outside business men and grew from 33 man class in 1910 to a 156-man class in 1917. But the first world war dispersed both faculty and students, and in 1919 only 68 men were around to receive M.B.A.'s.

That year Dean Gay resigned to become president of the New York Evening Post, and Wallace B. Donham left his Old Colony Trust Company vice-presidency to become the Business School's second dean. In his first report Dean Donham hailed his predecessor's ten years of work in launching the school, but he lashed out:

'Conditions Intolerable'

"The present condition of the Business School is intolerable except as a temporary makeshift. We need funds at once for the construction of buildings to house a school of 1,000 and to develop laboratory facilities."

Since its birth the School had been located entirely north of the Charles, sharing "every nook and cranny"--as Dean David puts it today--with the rest of the University. The library occupied part of the top floor of Widener in the Yard, and classes and offices were sprinkled in the Yard buildings.

It wasn't until March 20, 1924 that the fund drive Dean Donham called for got underway. However, under the chairmanship of the late William Lawrence. Bishop of Massachusetts, the campaign was unexpectedly concluded in little more than a month when the late George F. Baker, chairman of the First National Bank of New York, wrote the University offering $5,000,000 if he could "have the privilege of building the whole school."