grades
so the big h has unilaterally decided to bring back grades. well, technically, the grades never went away, but the grade disclosure policy prevented anyone (e.g., recruiters) from seeing them.
here's a good summary article from business week.
i thought the non-disclosure policy was a great thing. it let me spend a lot of time on work that mattered to me (e.g., finance, entrepreneurship, healthcare) and less on classes that did not (marketing, strategy). i spent 60% of my time in my last semester on a research project that looked at how first generation immigrants raise capital. it was easily the most interesting academic work i did in all of grad school and i talked about it extensively during interviews--i think it really set me apart during the interview process. i'm actually still talking to my advisor on the project about publishing the paper in a journal.
i was able to do all of this because i didn't have to worry about a recruiter looking at my transcript and asking why i didn't get a higher grade in subject x, y or z. additionally, the non-disclosure policy fosters a collaborative spirit that underpins the learning model at hbs. it's what encourages wall street jocks to help other people with their modeling skills, b/c the jocks know that helping people won't really hurt themselves (i should mention that all classes are graded on a strict bell curve).
hbs announced recently that despite enormous opposition from the students (more than 80% oppose, according to the business week article), it will implement the change starting next year.
commentators say that this merely encourages the competitive spirit. well, the last thing hbs needs is more competitive spirit. if you arrive there, you are already in the top 1% of the top 1% of competitive, type A, anal-retentive people.
by definition, half of each class will be below average. i'm pretty sure that i was in that bottom half. guess what? i don't care. it didn't matter then and it surely doesn't matter now.
what hbs needs is more teamwork. more collaboration and less sharp elbows. what are the top complaints by recruiters of hbs students? is that they are not smart enough? not competitive enough? don't work hard? can't build a model?
no. it's that they are not team players.
leadership is about 5% how smart you are and 95% how well you can motivate and work with others.
will be interesting to see how this changes the culture at hbs.
am i alone on this one? nobf? slim shady? fu tan clan? treves?
here's a good summary article from business week.
i thought the non-disclosure policy was a great thing. it let me spend a lot of time on work that mattered to me (e.g., finance, entrepreneurship, healthcare) and less on classes that did not (marketing, strategy). i spent 60% of my time in my last semester on a research project that looked at how first generation immigrants raise capital. it was easily the most interesting academic work i did in all of grad school and i talked about it extensively during interviews--i think it really set me apart during the interview process. i'm actually still talking to my advisor on the project about publishing the paper in a journal.
i was able to do all of this because i didn't have to worry about a recruiter looking at my transcript and asking why i didn't get a higher grade in subject x, y or z. additionally, the non-disclosure policy fosters a collaborative spirit that underpins the learning model at hbs. it's what encourages wall street jocks to help other people with their modeling skills, b/c the jocks know that helping people won't really hurt themselves (i should mention that all classes are graded on a strict bell curve).
hbs announced recently that despite enormous opposition from the students (more than 80% oppose, according to the business week article), it will implement the change starting next year.
commentators say that this merely encourages the competitive spirit. well, the last thing hbs needs is more competitive spirit. if you arrive there, you are already in the top 1% of the top 1% of competitive, type A, anal-retentive people.
by definition, half of each class will be below average. i'm pretty sure that i was in that bottom half. guess what? i don't care. it didn't matter then and it surely doesn't matter now.
what hbs needs is more teamwork. more collaboration and less sharp elbows. what are the top complaints by recruiters of hbs students? is that they are not smart enough? not competitive enough? don't work hard? can't build a model?
no. it's that they are not team players.
leadership is about 5% how smart you are and 95% how well you can motivate and work with others.
will be interesting to see how this changes the culture at hbs.
am i alone on this one? nobf? slim shady? fu tan clan? treves?
posted by Wintermute at 1:26 PM
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