Graduates » Carol J. Carter

Is It Time to Retrain B-Schools?

CAROL’S SUMMARY: With the current financial downfall, some blame the way business schools are taught. Schools like the University of Phoenix have become a popular alternative in the last decade because their classes are taught by business professionals, not professors studying business.Â Certainly, if traditional business schools emphasized more leadership, initiative and project-based learning more students would be â€œdoingâ€ business than studying about how to do business. Some of the case-based and project-based learning should involve consequences of poor actions as the ones we are living out right now in this depressed economy.Â If students could have a sense of the fallout of their actions, they would likely behave differently.

Questions to consider:
1. Do you agree?
2. What fundamental aspects are business schools neglecting?
3. How can business schools team up with more people from the world of business?
4. What experiences do business studentsâ€”or any student who wants to enter businessâ€”need to be a responsible, measured leader?

ARTICLE:

By KELLEY HOLLAND
Published: March 14, 2009

JOHN Thain has one. So do Richard Fuld, Stanley Oâ€™Neal and Vikram Pandit. For that matter, so does John Paulson, the hedge fund kingpin.

Yes, all five have fat bank accounts, even now, and all have made their share of headlines. But these current and former giants of finance also are all card-carrying M.B.A.â€™s.

The masterâ€™s of business administration, a gateway credential throughout corporate America, is especially coveted on Wall Street; in recent years, top business schools have routinely sent more than 40 percent of their graduates into the world of finance.

Visit www.nytimes.com to view the entire article

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Now, Get to Work

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Flexibility is key to surviving the competitive job market our distressed economy has created. Internships and volunteer work can give you the experienced edge employers are looking for, or skills may need to be practiced in other positions until your dream job opens up. Keeping busy networking with people who can help you or introduce you to someone key, taking an extra class or working for free under the tutelage of someone who has valuable business expertise can make all the difference.

Questions to consider:
1. If this economy is limiting your job prospects, what other positions or fields utilize the same skills? Are there any jobs or study opportunities overseas you might want to pursue?
2. Have you considered an internship or volunteer work? If you already have some of those experiences under your belt, which new volunteer job or responsibility would benefit you even more?
3. What, specifically, do you need to grow in (skills, knowledge, experience) to get the job you really want?
4. If you were recently laid off, is there some information you can take away from your former boss about how you can improve in your next position?
5. Who are the key people who can write you letters of reference which you can provide at any time?

ARTICLE:

By ANNA PRIOR
March 15, 2009

Here’s the bad news: If you are graduating from college this spring, you are facing one of the toughest job markets in years.

Employers expect to hire 22% fewer graduates than they did last spring, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

“Almost every level of the job market right now is shrinking,” says Edwin Koc, director of strategic and foundation research for NACE. “You are going to have to compete for the job — as opposed to the last five years, when employers competed over you.”

Visit www.wsj.com for the entire article

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Alternative Measure of Success

Currently, graduation rates are measured by the U.S. government by the proportion of students who earn a degree within 150 percent of the expected time (six years for a bachelorâ€™s degree and three years for an associate degree). The U.S. government only counts first-time, full-time students.

The University of Alaska at Anchorage has decided to create its own measure of success and include all types of students and extending to ten years, asking whether the student met their goal or at least made progress on a goal.

Questions to consider:
1. Which measure do you prefer?
2. Do you feel youâ€™ve been successful in pursuing your educational goals?
3. If not, have you made progress?

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ARTICLE:

Get any group of college presidents, assessment experts or education researchers together, and it’s not hard to get a consensus that the federal graduation rate is seriously if not fatally flawed.

According to the U.S. government, graduation rates are measured by the proportion of students who earn a degree within 150 percent of the expected time six years for a bachelor’s degree and three years for an associate degree. The formula counts only one group of students: first-time, full-time students. Not surprisingly, elite, residential colleges that serve well-prepared students do amazingly well by this methodology, routinely having rates in the 90s. But for many other colleges, the graduation rate is both irrelevant (they may have very few first-time, full-time students) and infuriating (the institution that takes full-time, first-time students that other institutions pass over may well be working harder and more effectively, but looks lousy by comparison to the wealthy institution that serves the wealthy.)

Visit http://insidehighered.com for the entire article

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