Maybe savoring London Broil with mushrooms au vin--overlooking stately red-brick Georgian buildings, blooming impatiens and manicured carpets of grass--is your thing.

Maybe a six-figure salary sounds nice.

Maybe the Harvard Business School (HBS) is for you.

On the other side of the Charles River, a short hike over the Weeks Footbridge, lies Eden. The trick, of course, is getting past the gatekeepers.

The good news: HBS is looking to diversify. The school hopes to increase the number of women and minority applicants and is accepting candidates from a wider variety of academic backgrounds than ever before.

Mixed among the requisite sample of McKinsey alums in dark suits are eager company presidents fresh out of college, a biking tour guide from California and a Navy officer.

But though getting in no longer requires late nights on Wall Street or a degree in economics, it still takes something next to a miracle: Only one out of eight makes it into the garden.

Knowledge of Good--and Not-So Good

Deciding to apply is the first step.

"The Harvard Business School is probably the most powerful private institution in the world," begins David W. Ewing in his 1990 book, Inside the Harvard Business School.

The 90-year-old "cathedral of management" also has one of the most competitive atmospheres, least intimate environments and least faculty availability outside class in the business school world, according to this month's Business Week magazine.

It's an evaluation confirmed by current students.

"HBS is not a low-stress environment, especially after college. There's not a lot of direct support, either--you have to book your own faculty appointments, and grading is largely determined by the final exam," says Joshua B. Marks '97, an HBS second-year. "With 1,600 students, HBS assumes you can look after yourself."

The magazine named HBS No. 1--in cost. Including foregone salary, the price tag of a Harvard MBA is $196,923.

The rewards for those who make it through the gauntlet are substantial, however. The median starting pay--salary, bonus and other compensation--for the HBS class of 1998 was $145,000; and each HBS graduate garners, on average, four job offers.