If we were all given a time machine and a fat envelope from Harvard College, chances are that many of us would take it. Because when it comes down to brand appeal, endowment size, and ability to inspire a tangled matrix of envy and admiration, Harvard is king. But since most of us will never know the Yard from the inside, we must content ourselves with denigrating it in public and obsessing over it in private, through books like Ahead of the Curve by Philip Delves Broughton.

The memoir, which was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, traces the two years Broughton spent as an MBA student at Harvard Business School. What seems especially interesting about Broughton's book is that he entered HBS not as a businessman but as a journalist; before entering the Class of 2006 he was Paris Bureau Chief for the London Daily Telegraph.

As the WSJ reviewer notes:

Some of what he found won't be surprising, particularly the sense of entitlement for which its students and faculty are famous. The self-regard must get handed out with the matriculation packets. Most graduate business schools, you might have noticed, award MBAs. HBS, according to the dean, specializes in "transformational experiences."

It's fitting that "transformational experiences" sounds a lot like freshman convocation jargon since Broughton makes HBS sound a lot like college. The MBA's "had two modes: deadly serious and frat boy, with little in between." More titillating details after the jump.

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Despite having no idea what actually goes on during business school (our only clues have been through YouTube), attending one has always seemed like a good idea. You finish undergrad, self-loathe through Teach For America and McKinsey for a little while, then coast on into B-school. Ka-ching! MBA = instant six-figure salary!

Then we saw BusinessWeek's annual rankings and roundup.

Bad: The Ivies land one measly prof out of 23 in their "My Favorite Professor" feature, Rich Curtis of Cornell.

Worse: Chicago nabs the No. 1 rank, thwarting Wharton at No. 2.

Absolutely terrible: In "The High Price of Admission," BW calculates how long it takes to earn back the money B-schoolers spend on tuition, taking into account their average before-and-after salaries. Ivies in the top 10 values: none. Ivies in the bottom 10: Harvard, Penn, Columbia and Dartmouth. What gives?

The likes of Wharton and Harvard tend to attract high earners, making it harder to get a big salary bump at graduation and recoup the investment in an MBA. How hard? For Harvard grads, the breakeven point won't come until 2020, or about 20 years shy of retirement.

Getting carpal tunnel from Excel, dressing up for class all the time, paying back loans for 14.44 years -- remind us why B-school is worth it again?