<p>One would think that the programs that have pre-requisites are more rigorous and go more in-depth... but then how can Harvard's and Stanford's business schools NOT have any pre-reqs and how do they still hold on to their top tier reputation? What am I missing here?</p>
<p>If I'm just stupid, be brutally honest. I'm just trying to understand.</p>
<p>Moreover, if I take classes like economics, statistics, and business, will admission committees in general (even for programs with no pre-reqs) place more importance to my grades on those classes than my grades on my major-specific courses?</p>
<p>This might be trivial but... I REALLY. DO NOT. Want to do bank internships and the such. I'm getting my leadership experience in school organizations and jobs in my field. So would taking the biz pre-reqs look attractive on my application?</p>
<p>It’s interesting that this phenomenon occurs in a lot of fields. In social work for instance, lower status schools often require lots of prerequisites that assume that you attend a similar public university, while higher status schools tend not to require many electives.</p>
<p>I think the idea is that if you’re smart enough to get into Harvard for business, you’re not going to fail because you didn’t take basic intro classes in economics or statistics. It also recognizes that at the top, people are gifted, but they may be exceptionally talented in one area and not nearly as talented in some others. Less selective schools are more likely to try to put you into a box, using poorly designed formulas with test scores and GPA. Ironically, I think one of these reasons is that lower status schools assume that this is what higher status schools do, only that they require higher test scores and GPAs–when that’s not necessarily the case.</p>
<p>I’m sure you also realize this, but you shouldn’t be looking to apply to business school straight out of college. That’s not how the system works.</p>
<p>There are certain classes that you will find very helpful in life. I would recommend that, regardless of major, you take at least intro to microeconomics, intro to macroeconomics, basic statistics, calculus I (calculus II and/or linear algebra if you can), financial accounting, and an introductory course in computer science. In part, quantitative skills are hard to pick up on your own, particularly at the beginning level. These courses may also help you get more out of your MBA courses or allow you to take more rigorous coursework.</p>
<p>You haven’t articulated why you want to get an MBA.</p>
<p>In any case, it’s because lower-tier schools need a way to keep out the riff-raff (not because they are mistakenly trying to ape HBS). For a school like HBS, if you’re riff-raff, you’re not getting through their holistic admissions process anyway (but they don’t mind you applying to make their admit rates look low).</p>