IIM-A Vs HBS...

It is said and with a decent amount of accuracy that CAT is the most competitive exam on the third rock from the sun and the reason for the same being that more than .15Mn test takers are potentially competing for 1500 seats (actually for one of the 250 IIM Ahmedabad seats, if one comes to think of it)...

It would be safe to assume that more than 95% (a highly conservative estimate) of the test takers would opt for IIM-A if given a choice between IIM-A and any other B-School...



Harvard claims that it gets anywhere between six to seven thousand applications for a batch of a little over thousand students...

Considering the two above mentioned arguments it is only logical to assume that it is probably a hundred times more difficult to get in to IIM-A as against HBS...

Statistically speaking ->

For IIM-A
95% of 1,50,000 is 1,42,500 => 1,42,500 students vying for 250 seats => 1 in every 570 students actually makes it...

For HBS
7000 applicants slug it out for 1000 seats => 1 in every 7 makes it...

Statistically speaking it is 60 times more difficult to get in to IIM-A than HBS...

Staggeringly true but surprising especially considering the fact that HBS is the best B-School in the world as against 60 something ranked IIM-A...

There is an inherent flaw in the reasoning, the same being that the basic premise itself is wrong...

Just as most CAT takers would want to get in to IIM-A given a choice the same relation also holds good for GMAT and HBS -> given a choice almost all GMAT takers would want to get in to HBS...

Now look at the odds for HBS
On an average more to 2,00,000 aspirants take GMAT ever year across the atlas...
With more number or seats it is as difficult to get in to HBS as it is to IIM-A, remember nothing has been said about the quality of applications till now...

Now that statistics are out of the way lets look at the quality of intake...

Accepted IIM-A takes the best of best from a large pool of aspirants and HBS does the same but one has to keep in mind that HBS has the whole world as its fruit basket, from which to pick and choose the one's which have the most potential...

IIM-A carries the Indian B-School flag in the International scene but everyone knows who the biggest of them all is...

Signing off...