What are the M7 business schools?

* Harvard Business School* Stanford Graduate School of Business* MIT Sloan School of Management* Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management* University of Chicago's Booth School of Business* Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania* Columbia Business School

Talk about diversity! Seven distinct, vivid cultures – each with its own history, values, characteristics, opportunities, and challenges. Sure, there are many commonalities among the M7 schools: all are highly competitive, all feature deep academic resources, all are supported by committed and involved alumni, all attract top-tier recruiters (even in down business cycles). Yet the most important commonality is their individual uniqueness! Their strong and determined “individualism” literally reflects their leadership in the MBA realm. They rise to their prominent position because they are the leaders in their domain, graduate business education. So, they reasonably expect you – their students and prospective students – to have correspondingly high ambitions, whether your domain be finance, healthcare, energy, social entrepreneurship, or something else. 

While these M7 programs all value diversity, together they also represent diversity.

What makes the M7s so magnificent?

Of course, there are other elite MBA programs. These 7 have a history together that continues –their deans connected with each other years ago and formed a group to regularly meet and share information. Eventually these meetings grew beyond just the deans to include others within their admissions offices, creating a consistent flow of information. Meetings and discussions address a range of issues, including best practices for components of the admissions process and responses to current events that directly impact MBA admissions.

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A deeper look at the M7s

Harvard Business School

There is not a day I regret going to HBS. The classes I am taking this year have been incredibly valuable, being taught by practitioners who have been incredibly successful in their careers. The case method is also incredibly unique. You are learning from peers who have collective experiences no individual could have themselves – from the military, Tesla, big corporations with different missions and visions, and all are invaluable to my learning experience.Tess Michaels, then a second-year student at Harvard Business School; today Founder & CEO of Stride Funding, on Admissions Straight Talk

Immersion could be the keyword for the Harvard Business School experience. The cornerstone of the program is the case-study academic approach: students read the case and then intensively analyze it both before and in class. The aim is to train students in real-world, complex decision-making. By continuously engaging with classmates from different functions and industries/sectors in these case discussions,