As one of the leading graduate business schools, Harvard Business School has just under 2,000 current students and a powerful ground of alumni. Often considered one of the best business schools around, the Harvard name is well known. Offering a dedicated MBA program at its Cambridge campus, as well as executive education programs that range in length from 3 to 8 weeks and graduate programs for aspiring scholars, the Business School has a stellar reputation in the corporate world.

Founded in 1908, the School has a rigorous admissions process which has led to an admission rate of just over 10% in a global student body, with nearly 1/3 of students originating outside of the country. Best known for its core competency in Operations Management, the Business School also publishes the widely read and highly influential Harvard Business Review Journal. Students take a core curriculum with a focus on Finance, Management and Accounting, while moving into more specialized fields such as private equity, information technology and supply chain management in their second year.

The school has a well known focus on case studies which are based upon real-world examples from the corporate world, as its leading faculty is drawn from successful industry executives as well as leading researchers. An annual Business Plan competition draws interest from investors world wide, and has helped launch a number of successful companies in recent years.

If a strong alumni helps decide, then the fact that Matt Damon, Reese Witherspoon, and President Elect Barack Obama all went there might be a good indication of the type of people that are drawn to Harvard, and you can find out more information on them in our article about colleges famous people attended.