Hey has anyone any advice on taking an MBA is Harvard really that hard to get into or is that just a silly question? Apart from London BS does anyone recomend another good MBA in the UK or is the US the place to go? Thanks

If you have to ask the question...US: Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia, Chicago, Northwestern... the list goes on. See Business Week rankings.UK: nowhere else beyond LBS in quite the same bracket but Oxford is rapidly acquiring a good reputation and Warwick, Manchester and Cranfield have all tradtionally been good.Seriously though, it is a bit of a bone question if you really aspire to get into one of these places.

I had researched this prior to asking the question I just wanted to get some other insights on the matter I was also looking to know how difficult is it to actually secure a place on these top US BS?

Well, some research might turn up the fact that a GMAT of 700 or more will help, and that this is something like the 90th percentile. That's the 90th percentile of test takers (ie aspiring business school applicants) not the general population, by the way. You will also need an excellent academic record, impressive career history, glowing references and impressive application essays.Figures for % acceptance are readily available and should enable you to draw your own conclusions as to the competitiveness of the entry process. Bear in mind there is a degree of self selection and they probably don't get a huge number of totally unsuitable nuggets applying.But hey, why not just fire an application in and see?

Or put it this way:Applicant 1:710 GMATGood GPAFormer astronaut, major league player, etcGood subsequent experience, essays and references...may find it really rather easy to secure a placeApplicant 2:570 GMAT2.2 from the University of ShitsvilleUninteresting career spent in front of a screen IT programming...may find it rather hard

I think FFS hit the question square in the nose. However, I would downplay the importance of the GMAT only in the sense that while the average score in top BSchools may be in the 700s, the actual range is more like 600-800. Meaning, if you score only in the 600s, but everything else is stellar, you have a fair chance of getting accepted. Bschool Admissions truly looks at the entire package a candidate presents. Everything is important. And yes, it's very difficult to get into a Top 10 institution. But hey, you won't know if you don't try.

John, why don't you post some stats? Then you might get a specific answer. Without more info people can only talk in general terms.

Having done extensive research my conclusion on reaching a top MBA school (Harvard,Wharton,MIT,LBS,Insead,IMD) etc is all about being excellent across the board. Yes and that means high GMAT scores, super human being, great grades, great experience and all that. With so much competition for places...very good just isnt good enough. I haven bothered applying after the research cause i know at the moment its goona be hard but in 3yrs after my experience builds up i am confident i will be able to!But dont let put you down if you want to go in now! Firstly they take all these factors into account and your application needs to be tailor made for each school addressing all your strength and keeping ur weaknesses at bay. If you arent good at one of the above but excel at others than you stand a good chance but lets not forget that a hell of a lot of ppl apply to these schools and most applications are very good and even they get rejected!I personally advise you to go onto amazon.com and buy one of these book 'getting into a top b-school' as that will help you refine what you want to do and which school is best for u. there are a lot of factors that might just rule some options out for you. best of luck but make sure when you apply give yourself three months and refine it to perfection and then send it!

Thanks for your feed back everyone by the way newmove whats your background education etc you say you need another 3 years building up experience just want to see where I stand compared to other people.