It’s a typical Wednesday night. Twenty Harvard Business School first-years cross the Charles to one of Harvard Square’s several bars—Redline, Tommy Doyle’s, Daedalus.

Going out four, five times a week, the students, most in their twenties, don’t dare skip a social function for fear of missing out—or “FOMO,” (pronounced FOH-MOE), as they say.

For them, a Harvard MBA is worth more than just an Ivy League education.

The brand-name degree is their ticket to an ever-growing global network of influence (and affluence), as the school’s alumni base includes CEOs of leading multinational corporations and financial firms as well as a former United States president.

But in the aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis many blamed on reckless lending and poor risk management, critics questioned the value of the MBA, the two-year education meant to churn out future titans of industry.

In the past year alone, Business School professors Rakesh Khurana, Srikant M. Datar and David A. Garvin ’74 have published academic writings exploring the place of the MBA education in today’s society, prompting much discussion and reevaluation at business schools nationwide.

At Harvard, a new Business School curriculum will likely be implemented by the winter semester of 2012, according to Business School professor Thomas R. Eisenmann ’79, which provides an opportunity to adapt to new demands and address renewed concerns about the MBA program.

“Students increasingly saw the elite MBA as a place to develop a social network rather than acquire a professional education,” Khurana says. “In other words, elite MBA programs were becoming more like finishing schools rather than professional schools.”

NIGHTS OUT ON THE TOWN

Coming into Harvard, most Business School students acknowledge that much of the Harvard MBA’s value is derived from outside the classroom: the access to rich networks at social functions, the brand name degree—essentially, the promise of a better and brighter future.

“Business School students have a reputation of taking advantage of the social scene,” says John Coleman, who will graduate from the Business School this year with a joint degree from Harvard Kennedy School.

First-years especially feel pressure from their peers to go out and mingle at social events—because “they feel like they should,” says M. Scott Daubin, a former Student Association Co-President graduating this May.

“People are going out all the time in the beginning of their first year, because of FOMO,” Daubin says, adding that the pressure lessens with time.

Reflecting on their time at the Business School, this year’s crop of graduates stresses the importance of maintaining a vibrant social life to cement relationships with their peers—connections that may come in handy later in their careers.

“You come for a two-year program that’s about finding your career,” A. Kayode Ogunro ’05 says. “You expect to leave with a solid network of friends and alumni—you’re here to prepare for a professional career.”