Student Stories

Andrzej Buks

Vice President at Dakota Guardian Trust

I have gotten an incredible wealth of knowledge and theories that are ready to apply. With every minute of learning, my company was better off and was setting a course for success.

CORe goes well beyond the basics, but it isn't overwhelming. The classes are structured in a way that each lesson builds on the lessons before to reinforce everything you've learned. CORe also provides you with real world examples that illustrate the concepts. It's one of the most impressively organized programs I've ever been a part of.

Eric Black

Director, Production & Technical Operation at Scholastic Entertainment and Co-Owner of Lyla Tov Monsters

In my job at a publicly traded corporation, I have been able to change my viewpoint of daily goals and accomplishments. Instead of just completing tasks to achieve an end goal, I now look at that end goal and consider how it affects the company as a whole and if there are financial goals and benefits that will increase the value of the company.

Desirée Kaplan

Writer looking to pursue a career as a chief sustainability officer

"I am early in my career and am looking for a path to becoming a chief sustainability officer or sustainability manager with a company I can align my values with. This class seemed like the perfect opportunity to give me the right tools to learn more about this field."

Peter LaBerge

Undergrad in creative writing who took CORe to help grow his poetry journal

I entered the CORe program with the assumption that business was binary in its reliance on creativity and science, on ideas and numbers. In reality, it’s simply not. There are numbers behind the most successful marketing campaigns, brand directions, and management decisions.

I felt the course covered a good overall scope and understanding of healthcare economics and would be beneficial for anyone seeking or needing a greater understanding of the stakeholders and forces at work in the healthcare sector. This applies for those new to healthcare as well as those who have worked in the industry for long periods of time.

This program…created so many “ah-ha” moments for me. Even if you've taken similar courses before…CORe walks you through the way of seeing these subjects through the eyes of a manager. It was truly an amazing experience!

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire content on the course. It was extremely simplified, engaging and to the topic. The course faculty was outstanding, they made understanding the financial concepts much simpler. In fact, even the video segments were very informative. Last but not the least, the case teaching method was great. This method allows you to test the applicability of the concepts studied and boosts ones confidence.

Emer Moloney

Emer Moloney, Research Associate at the Harvard Business School European Research Center

I now feel that I have a broad overview of finance and can approach topics with a strong, integrated framework instead of approaching them in isolation.

I use my CORe training every day. Whether at work on in my private life, CORe was a paradigm-shifting event for me.

I work in M&A, venture capital, capital markets and special situations. All of these areas cover numbers at some point, so I strongly recommend my colleagues to take this course to understand the client's rationale and the numbers implicated.

My favorite part of Entrepreneurship Essentials was the financing and equity module. It taught me the basics of how to look at spreadsheets and make sense of them—one of the most vital things for any company or start-up to understand.

As an entrepreneur, mentor and educator, I can safely say that Harvard Business School Online has shown me the future of education. It is worth every penny and is definitely something I'd recommend to anyone looking to enrich their business education.

Amita Metkari

Mechanical Engineer looking to pursue an MBA

The program offers a perfect blend of three fundamental courses.

Enrique Garcia-Rivera

Enrique is pursuing a PhD in Chemical Biology and working to find cures for diseases like cancer. He plans to use CORe as a way to bridge the gap between his work in the lab and the funding and entrepreneurial support he will need to bring those discoveries to the public.

Enrique Garcia-Rivera

Pursuing a PhD in Chemical Biology in Boston

By learning these essential business skills, I now feel more prepared to advance scientific discoveries; raising capital, leading a team, developing strategic partnerships with established pharmaceuticals, and other crucial activities are now even clearer to me because of CORe.

The CORe program will help me to better understand the world around me…and to hit the ground running in any job after graduation.

Marcin Jasinski

An excellent course: world-class content, perfect delivery, excellent and diverse cohort, and finally wonderful collaboration with both the organizers and the class.

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire content on the course. It was extremely simplified, engaging and to the topic. The course faculty was outstanding, they made understanding the financial concepts much simpler. In fact, even the video segments were very informative. Last but not the least, the case teaching method was great. This method allows you to test the applicability of the concepts studied and boosts ones confidence.

Megan Lacy

Engineer and varsity athlete working towards her master's in Athletic Leadership

I was considering taking economics and accounting classes on the side while completing my master’s degree. However, I realized that through Harvard Business School Online I could get the same experiences I could get in a classroom over time all in only a few months.

CORe was much more than a tripod of rigorous courses. The sense of community that developed from all the various social platforms that were unique to Harvard Business School Online that provided me the platform to interact with other students from all over the world in various industries were instrumental in my application and understanding of the concepts.

Monica Higgins

Public relations Account Director who took Management Essentials to augment her management knowledge with a practical, case-based approach.

Being able to break down real-life scenarios, and look at the management processes within each - what worked and what didn't - provided a unique method of learning, and incomparable to other course offerings available.

Exceptional. It's about as good as online learning can get.

CORe Student Testimonial

Hear what students are saying about the Credential of Readiness (CORe).

HBS Online was an invaluable and essential education. The information provided, the quality of the presentation, and the high-level engagement among students surpassed my expectations.

Daniela Fierro Touché

Daniela Fierro Touché is an Administration and Registration Analyst at the FEMSA Collection in Monterrey, Mexico, a Latin American art collection comprising of pieces from the 20th and 21st centuries.

"I've been able to understand the macroeconomic policies that are being implemented by, and imposed to, my country, and the implications they have on our lives. This has equipped me with more tools to make overall better decisions. The course has been tremendously useful and eye-opening."

Megan Valanidas

A designer who took CORe to understand the language of business.

It is really helpful as I apply for jobs to be able to demonstrate that I have the capability to consider economic constraints or opportunities.

David Bergin

Chief Technology Officer at Nantucket Technology Partners

As a consultant running a boutique management and technology consulting practice, I have already started applying what I have learned in Disruptive Strategy towards my own business.

The People, Opportunity, Context, and Deal framework is now in the back of my mind. Also, I have learned how to quickly assess and network with other companies and panelists at the hundreds of meetup events I've attended.

Mihir Desai was able to bring a relatively dry and inscrutable page of numbers to life in a highly engaging and interactive way. He has a great teaching style: clear, sharp, entertaining, and challenging. Mihir was able to truly engage our leaders of all levels of financial experience on the key levers of performance and how this applies to their own businesses.

This course is very well structured. Learning goals are well set up and in line with my expectations. I found the course to be just as entertaining as educational and presented in a very attractive manner

Elizabeth Malkin

Working at a tech startup in Cambridge, MA

I spent much of my college career fervently annotating novels and loved every minute of it but knew that my focus post college was going to be business.

Allie O'Hanley

Founder and Director of Rxhibition, a new nonprofit organization that curates, designs, and installs art exhibitions in chemotherapy treatment areas

I expected CORe to be much more of an overview. I never was expecting the depth that it truly delivered. I received a strong foundation to be confident enough to build my own startup.

If you have no formal education in business, this program will dramatically change the way you think…The combination of subjects covered will give you the fundamental knowledge to think deeper about what it takes to run a successful business, how to win in the marketplace, and how to make decisions as a manager.

Jonathan Rossi

Undergraduate admissions representative eager to pursue a PhD or MBA

Through CORe, I have uncovered a love for analytics, made valuable connections with people in several countries, and gained a strong foundation that will serve me well in MBA or PhD studies, which I am considering for the future.

Kali Pfaff

Healthcare business operations professional and current MBA student

While I originally enrolled in CORe to determine if I wanted to pursue an MBA, I ended up using the knowledge I gained from CORe to interview for and land my current job.

The platform was engaging, innovative, and allowed me to interact with the material in a way I never expected from an online course.

Daniella Patrick

Innovation Lab Product Manager at Accenture

The course equipped me with new ways to think about problems, products, businesses, and just everything in life.

Juliana Casale

Juliana Casale is the Head of Marketing at Crazy Egg, a SaaS company that builds website optimization tools.

"I'm now more mindful of how my colleagues are experiencing me, and less averse to having difficult conversations."

Jingning Ao

Jingning Ao, Space Tourism researcher and PhD student at Middle Tennessee State University

After summarizing what I learned from this program, I introduced finance in a 90-minute class to junior and senior college students in order to show them different ways of doing business plans in the leisure and sport domains.

Dave Nelson

Head of Sales at WegoWise

I feel like I have an unfair advantage now knowing what I've learned from this course. It has given me confidence and clarity in my decisions, and I can already see the material impact of applying this model and mindset to our business and our culture.

Abhilash Sharma

Student and entrepreneur from India using CORe to learn about the business world

Each course provided distinguished knowledge and presented that in a beautiful manner.

Professor Sahlman’s careful observation of the best and brightest entrepreneurs over the last 30 years has given him a perspective and insightfulness that few others can rival. He keeps his students eager to dissect and analyze the situation and range of solutions.

Tyler Sonsalla

PhD candidate studying molecular sciences and nanotechnology and interested in learning about utilizing sustainability within a business model

"I enjoyed hearing from top executives of large firms and their sustainable initiatives. Additionally, speaking with individuals that lived in different countries was very enlightening. Lastly, I enjoyed the ability to complete at my own pace because I liked to step away and think about each question."

I was worried that the courses would move too quickly for me to master each concept, but the instructors, the materials, real-world case studies and the class interaction allowed me to truly understand the fundamentals of each…

Sustainable Business Strategy should be required learning for everyone, regardless of their sector or beliefs about business. Professor Henderson’s approach empowered me with a fundamental understanding of economic systems, in the U.S. and abroad, in order to make it possible for me to question the assumptions upon which they are built and challenge me to rethink how we construct entities—public and private—to ensure long-term success.

Daily, I use the accounting principles succinctly enumerated by Professor Narayanan. I especially use what I learned in the volunteer work that I do as a board member for two nonprofit organizations.

…it was a great experience being able to interact with so many intelligent students all over the world…it's a perfect combination of teaching from the professors and help from all of your classmates.

Pablo Stuardo

IT consultant using CORe to help further his career

Additionally, the program allowed me to acquire a more holistic view of the services we provide, and it is helping me develop new ideas to innovate and generate different sources of revenue.

Raymond Porch

Meet Raymond, a Management Essentials participant who took the course in order to be more effective in his new role as Manager of Diversity Pipeline Programs for Boston Public Schools.