"I had several years of team leadership under my belt from running a business," Marks says. "Also, my dealership had serviced real companies with real problems--so I'd been exposed to a lot of different management styles and corporate environments."
But even Marks cautions that HBS is not for everyone, and it is definitely not a place to take lightly.
"Unless you're 100 percent committed to getting your MBA, wait," Marks says. "Don't think of HBS as a two-year 'delay' while you figure out what you want to do, because you won't have the drive to keep up."
Diversifying the Portfolio
The Business School is one place where the gender gap has been slow in closing. Of all the University's graduate schools, HBS has the lowest female-to-male student ratio.
Women make up 30 percent of this year's class, the highest in history. The number was 6 percentage points lower two years ago, one of the least impressive in the nation. Fadule says she hopes the figure will reach 40 percent.
But reaching that goal could be difficult, thanks to recent publicity. According to BusinessWeek's survey, HBS dropped this year from fourth to fifth in the magazine's annual ranking of business schools in part because students were unsatisfied by the school's slothfulness in disciplining six male students who sexually harassed fellow classmates.
And the school didn't make Working Woman magazine's top 10 list of the best business schools for women, with the magazine also citing Harvard's "slow disciplinary process" after the incident.
To be more proactive in attracting female applicants, HBS is increasing special events for prospective female MBAs, including panels led by female faculty members and student leaders.
While she says "we don't have a quota," Fadule and her office, in conjunction with the Women's Student Association (WSA), have launched outreach and marketing efforts to attract female applicants.
Amy Martin, WSA vice president for admissions, says she is sending out letters this week to every HBS student, seeking the names of potential female MBAs from whom the admissions office could solicit applications.
The last year's publicity seems to have blown over, and some students say they can feel a difference in the school's attitude toward women.
"Despite the numerical disparity, I find it to be a pretty open place," McCullough says, citing panels and mentoring opportunities developed by the WSA.
And WSA Co-President Julie-Anne Collart applauds the administration's recent efforts, noting "a number of substantial strides in the past year to improve the environment on campus for all students, including women."
Tempted?
Once the bastion of white, male economics majors, HBS is changing its student body, ushering in a more diverse group of "leaders for the new millennium," Fadule says.
To its students HBS offers tremendous amounts of capital and an awe-inspiring list of networking contacts, not to mention the promise of an affluent lifestyle after graduation. And now for more than the usual suspects, Eden is just a walk, and an application, away.