Thought Leaders in Online Education: Patrick Mullane, Executive Director of HBX (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Now let’s go to the types of programs that you’re running. I’d like to take them one by one and understand better the trends in that. Let’s start with the one where you have people taking it as a preparatory step towards applying for Harvard MBA. What are the trends in that?

Patrick Mullane: There’s a specific product that people think about when they think about the market of people looking to go get an MBA. That’s our product called CORE, which stands for Credential Readiness. It’s a three-course program of accounting, economics, and data analytics. It was originally built as a pre-matriculation program for accepted Harvard MBA students who needed to get up to speed on those disciplines so that when they came to campus and got in a classroom, they would be ready to speak intelligently on topics without the faculty having to worry about remedial training.

By the way, I was a graduate of the MBA program myself back in the late 90’s. I fall into the category of people who did not have a business background. I had been in the military. I had a Math degree. When I was accepted into the program, they required me to take some supplementary materials and assessments. Back in those days, it was through a correspondence course. They mailed me the materials. It was very old school.

When CORE was built, there was a belief that we should think about a problem that we can solve in a market that we know very well. We knew the market of MBA. We knew that it was ridiculous to be sending out hard materials to them. The internet had an obvious way to solve that problem. We really focused on solving that problem. Then lo and behold, once we made it available to the public, all sorts of other markets emerged in the other two categories I’ve told you. What started off as very focused on a market we knew, it grew organically out of that.

Sramana Mitra: Can you share metrics on how many applications does Harvard Business School receive today of people who are doing this program online?

Patrick Mullane: I’ve never been asked that. Our online certificate programs are not meant to be the MBA program with respect to selectivity. When you think of it, the only thing that drives selectivity is that you have a limited number of seats. We can only admit 900 people a year. If you get more people than that, you start to get selective. Our online programs aren’t looking to weed people out as much as making sure they’re committed learners. There’s a light application process for us to assess that. To be honest, I don’t know the numbers.

Sramana Mitra: It’s something for your own interest that I would investigate. Listening to you, it strikes me that somebody who has effectively completed an online program and is applying shows a lot of commitment, diligence, and ability to be self-motivated. Those are candidates that would hold some sway if I were in the admission committee.

Patrick Mullane: You’re talking about if that person goes on to apply to the MBA program?

Sramana Mitra: Yes.

Patrick Mullane: That’s absolutely true. People ask me all the time if this helps you get into the program. What I say is that doing anything to show you have the motivation and an inclination to understand the material and embrace the material is always helpful. We like the idea that people would take CORE to do that.

If I think back in my own experience, I went to a local college and took an accounting course in the summer before I applied to HBS to make myself look like a more attractive candidate. You’re absolutely right. The best endorsement is the one I saw on the Wall Street Journal that had an interview with the Admissions Director at the University of Virginia Darden. She mentioned explicitly that the CORE program is something they’d like to see on their candidate’s application.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Thought Leaders in Online Education: Patrick Mullane, Executive Director of HBX
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