Business Week Magazine interviewed Stanford GBS adcom Derrick Bolton about the usual blah, blah, blah. No real news, as is par for the course for these interviews (cant they get a real journo to ask some non-softball questions, ok, ok). Link is above, we post entire interview below the line below, but first we engage in some deconstruction of some of the more pontificating obscurantims:
How do the application numbers look from last year to this year?
All the hype about applications being up dramatically has been just that: hype. In reality, I think the numbers are going to be very similar to trends we’ve seen in the last two years.
HUH, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN, THE TREND IN LAST TWO YEARS WAS UP, DO YOU MEAN THAT TREND IS CONT., AND APPS WERE UP IN TOTO 10-15 PERCENT, OR DO YOU MEAN, CONTRA THE HYPE, TOTAL APPS WERE FLAT. THERE IS A GOOD REALLY EASY WAY TO ANSWER THIS Q. –HOW ABOUT A NUMBER, DUDE. THIS IS NOT A STATE SECRET, IT IS KNOWN, AND IT WILL BE PUBLIC SOON ANYWAY.
How much work experience do you look for in a candidate?
Really, there’s no set period that we look for in all candidates. We have a great group of students who will join us directly from university and candidates who join us with 20 years of experience or more,
OH BOY, THEY ARE BRINGING OUT THAT GEEZER AGAIN, I THINK THEY ACCEPTED ONE GEEZER 30 YEARS AGO, AND THEN PUT HIM IN DEEP-FREEZER AND THEY DEFROST HIM FOR EACH INTERVIEW. SURE,SURE, SURE, YOU WILL TAKE FOLKS W. 20 YRS OF EXPERIENCE AND AHEM, ‘A GROUP’ OF KIDS DIRECTLY FR. COLLEGE, BUT DUDE, HOW ABOUT SOME GROSS STATS, LIKE HRH PUBLISHES ON HER BLOG ABOUT THE WHOLE CLASS, SO WE CAN GIVE SOME TEXTURE TO THIS FROTH.
and then everything in between.
GREAT, THAT IS ALSO HELPFUL.
It’s a personal decision on when to apply.
NOOOOOOOOO! REALLY, I THOUGHT IT WAS LIKE REGISTERING FOR THE DRAFT, OR MEDICARE PART B, LIKE COME AGE 18 OR 65, YOU GOTTA DO IT, THANKS FOR THE INFO.
As a school, we see a lot of people waiting because they think business schools want them to wait. [They] think they won’t be competitive until they have four or five years of work experience. And that’s not true. We have expended a lot of effort in the last few years trying to dispel that myth.
WELL, MY AMIGO, ONE REALLY, REALLY GOOD WAY TO DISPEL THAT MYTH IS TO PUBLISH THE SAME CHART THAT OL’ HBS PUBLISHED ABOUT HOW MANY KIDS EXACTLY GRADUATED IN YEARS X YZ ETC.
When we look at successful alumni who come back to the school and talk with us about their careers and the impact that this place had on them, you see them all across the spectrum in terms of work experience.
??????????? WTF????????? SUCCESSFUL ALUMS, FOR THE MOST PART, WENT TO SCHOOL SORTA 10 YEARS AGO, WHEN IN FACT MOST DID HAVE 4-5 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE.
As Stanford moves ahead, what is the biggest challenge it faces?
There’s a challenge for MBA programs in general, which is ensuring that the pool of candidates is selecting an MBA for the right reasons. I think [we] schools have done ourselves a real disservice on this front. If you look at students who are applying to medical school or law school, they’re applying for the education.
WHA??????????? NOT SURE I GET THIS.
There’s certainly a credential element there, but when you talk to those students and look at the publications from those schools, they’re about the education.
WELL, TALKING TO STUDENTS AND LOOKING AT OFFICIAL PUBS, ARE TWO WAY DIFF. THINGS. MOST LAW AND MED SCHOOL KIDS I TALK TO ARE SORTA JUST AS CAREERIST AS MOST B SCHOOL KIDS. ANYONE EVER NOTICED HOW MANY DOCS ARE NOW BECOMING DERM SPECIALISTS????? [I AM NOT JOKING, THIS IS WELL KNOWN FACT IN MEDICAL AND GEN.INFO CIRCLES] IS IT BECAUSE OF WORLD PLAUGE OF ACNE? NO, IT IS BECAUSE YOU CAN MAKE LOTSA $$$ GIVING OUR SCRIP STRENGTH CLEARISEL AND BOTOX POKES –AGREE THOSE KIDS ARE NOT ON COVER OF HMS BROCHURES. THIS PATCH OF CONVO IS JUST BOLTON’S FIXATION ON VICTMOLOGY–IN THIS CASE, HIS IMAGINED OWN, HE LIKES TO POSITION B SCHOOLS AS VICTIMS OF THEIR OWN MANGLED MARKETING, AND IN NEED OF SAVIOR, CALLING MR ????????
Business schools have in the last couple of decades gone astray and really put too much emphasis on the post-school benefits and not enough on what transpires while you’re there.
THIS IS ABOUT THE TIME IN THE SERMON I START LOOKING AROUND THE PEWS FOR HOT CHICKS, OK, YOU GOT ME, I BEEN DOING THAT SINCE ENTERING, BUT YOU GET MY POINT.
I think our industry overall has made a really big mistake of overemphasizing those ancillary benefits. Applicants have interpreted that as being the reason you go to school.
OH NO, THE REAL REASON YOU SPEND 100K IN TUITION AND ALSO STOP EARNING FOR TWO YEARS IS……………..THE REALITY IS, IMHO, B SCHOOL GRADS HAVE HAD A MORE POSITIVE IMPACT ON DO-GOODER STUFF AND POSITIVE IMPACT THAN LAWYERS, OR IT SURE IS CLOSE. DOCS ARE PROB. LESS GUILTY OF RECENT SCANDALS, BUT THAT SEEEMS ONLY B.C. THEY HAVE LESS OPTTY. THEY SURE GET THEIR HANDS DIRTY IN EVERY AREA THEY TOUCH FR. LOBBYING, COZY CONTACTS W. PHARMA, ETC. ETC.
That’s probably the thing I worry about the most at Stanford. How do I make sure that we’re picking people who and want to take this [education] and make themselves better people, managers, and leaders, in support of our society?
WELL, OK, STANFORD APPLICANTS, IF YOU DID NOT KNOW WHAT MATTERS TO YOU, KNOW YOU DO.
I really think we’ve got to do some soul searching, as business schools, about the messages we’ve been sending out.
NO MR. BOLTON, YOU GOTTA DO SOME SOUL SEARCHING ABOUT THE INCOMPLETE DATA YOU SEND OUT, SEE NOTES IN PAST THREE POSTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How do you combat the perception of business schools as the means to a high-paying career?
There are a lot of little things we can do. At Stanford, we recognized a while back that there are great people who should be pursuing business school who frankly would have pursued an MBA a generation ago. They’re not looking at it now because of the stigma, because of the perception of what an MBA is.
WTF?????
We need to do a better job of conveying the real benefits of this education.
We can start by talking more to people while they’re in college.
OH, SO THE YOUTH JIHAD IS NOT TO GET YOUNGER, CUTER, LESS MATURE (AND MORE FUN STUDENTS) WHO CAN BE HIRED CHEAPER, IT IS TO GET YOUR WORLD SAVING MISSION STATMENT OUT THERE TO THE UNDERGRADS BEFORE THEY BECOME ANTI-B SCHOOL BASED ON INCORRECT MARKETING BEING PUT OUT BY B SCHOOLS THEMSELVES. THIS GUY IS ACTUALLY A GENIUS AT ADCCOMERY, REALLY, YOU GOTTA HAND IT TO HIM.
We’ve done a lot more outreach on college campuses to influence the students there before they hit major inflection points in their careers when they jump off to law school or policy school instead of looking at business school. We decided to take the GRE [scores, in addition to GMAT scores.] Let’s say we’re able to encourage students for whom the GMAT might have been a barrier, and who are looking at nonbusiness programs, to consider an MBA. I think that will make a difference.
ISNT THIS THE PART WHERE INTERVIEWER IS SUPPOSED TO CUT IN AND SAY, “WELL JEEPERS IF THAT IS TRUE, HOW COME HBS IS EATING YOUR LUNCH W. 2+2 AND WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT??????”
Honestly,
[TRANSLATION, BEND OVER, HERE IT COMES AGAIN]
I think you’ll see a lot of schools coming out of the economic malaise that we’re in now by really looking inward and trying to assess whether they’ve put an emphasis on the broader role that businesses play.
HMMMMM, ACTUALLY, A LOT OF SCHOOLS WILL BE LOOKING OUTWARD, AND SEEING IF ANY STUDENTS ARE STILL APPLYING, HONESTLY.
I think that’s something that Stanford has done for a long time. It will help Stanford when other schools start to realize and convey that businesses are not just economic institutions but also social institutions that have responsibilities that extend beyond the income statement and balance sheet.
SO, THAT IS GOING TO HELP STANFORD????? AND HE IS ACCUSSING OTHER SCHOOLS OF NOT DOING THAT NOW, WHILE STANFORD, ALL LONELY AND UNSUPPORTED, FIGHTS ON ALONE IN THE DARK AND MATERIALISTIC WORLD. I REALIZE NO ONE IS SUPPOSED TO ACTUALLY READ THIS FAR, LET ALONE, ACTUALLY COMMENT ON WHAT IS JUST PURE HOT AIR AND BALONEY, BUT STILL, THIS IS PRETTY AMAZING, I MEAN, IF YOU WANT TO BE SO CRUEL AS TO POINT OUT WHAT IT ACTUALLY SAYS, IN LIKE ENGLISH.
The kind of scrutiny that organizations are going to put business schools under in the next months and years is going to have a really positive effect.
YEAH, WE WILL ALL BE SAVED. BUT IT WILL TAKE WORK AND PRAYER. AND I NOW INVITE ALL MY PARISHONERS FOR TEA AND CAKES, EXCEPT YOU, MR. GURU, WHO WILL SPEND THE NEXT HOUR IN THE WOODSHED FOR EVIL THOUGHTS AND LACK OF CHARITAS.
FOR FULL INTERVIEW SEE BELOW (more…)
