My first interaction with Harvard took place when I was 4 years old. My mother brought me to visit Harvard University and took an extremely stereotypical and embarrassing picture of me in front of the school. She loved the idea of me going to one of the best colleges in the world and wanted before and after pictures of when I would go there in the future. Alas, when it came time to apply to colleges, I had no interest in Harvard due to a combination of a lack of confidence in being accepted as well as a terrifying fear of the famed east coast cold.

My next interaction with Harvard was while watching the movie Legally Blonde. I remember being in awe of Elle Woods as she practically waltzed into Harvard Law with her handbag sized Chihuahua and her perfectly matching pink outfits. To me, Harvard was a school for the movies; an unreachable vision without much of a tangible reality tied to it.

Yesterday, I had my third and most recent interaction with the school. My friend who studies at Harvard Business School invited me to disguise myself as a Harvard student, don my best crimson apparel, and sit in on classes with her. (As a side note: I had never thought about attending business school until a few months ago when it became a real option in my mind). I was in Boston visiting my aunt and I agreed to come over to Cambridge to hangout with my friend and finally see Harvard as a real school.

As I stepped on the campus, I automatically felt a different vibe than going to school on the west coast. The buildings were all grandiose and made of red brick with Ivy League banners hanging from them and large Grecian columns decorating the sides. The class itself was held in a small auditorium that was shaped in a semi circle to incentive maximum class discussion. It was a two hour-long class about entrepreneurial management called Founder’s Dilemmas, which was a case based class about different issues that founders of companies face. Here are some ideas/opinions that I learned and had about the overall experience:

• Business school classes are mainly discussion based and the professor acts as a moderator instead of giving a lengthy lecture. It important to read all the cases and assigned readings because the professor calls on people randomly and expects them to have a well thought out answer. In addition, Harvard is one of the only business schools that is primarily case based and looks mainly at real world examples.
• The structure is more formal than classes at most undergraduate schools. Everyone in the class has an assigned seat with a name tag and they could only speak when called on by the professor. It is also very much looked down upon to have any laptop or cell phone out on one’s desk and no one even leaves to go to the bathroom during the class.
• Most people in business school are in their late twenties and have had multiple years of experience in the work force before coming to Harvard.
• What really surprised me was that I could keep up with the class and its material without having a background in business. I came into the experience thinking that everyone would be leaps and bounds ahead of me, but I was able to understand the whole discussion and there were even points when I had something to contribute. This was eye opening for me because it was the first time that I could see myself at a business school like Harvard and even see myself enjoying the experience.

Overall, this experience was beneficial in giving me a concrete glimpse of how business school would be for me. Most importantly, sitting in on the class gave me the confidence to think of Harvard as a real option for my future. I learned that it is important to give yourself a chance to try out various options so that you can realistically weigh them when you need to make a decision. I also learned not to underestimate myself and allow the opportunity to try everything without making assumptions of my competencies. In all, I enjoyed my Harvard experience and maybe one day in the future my mom will finally have the “after” picture that she so