Michigan Daily Bashes Ross

by David

Article. Discussion thread. My response to author:

“I do agree with some of your points, namely the lack of truly rigorous mathematics/statistics in the BBA program, inherent problems associated with the case method, and a focus on form over substance (in other words, we don’t do enough thinking).

“But, I also think you’re misguided in a few respects. One, your implication that our professors are not leaders in their fields hinges on your fuzzy definition of “field.” Are the two business school professors you’ve studied under, Charles Klemstine and Amitabh Sinha, leaders in the field of business? Maybe not. Are they leaders in their respective fields, accounting and operations? Absolutely.

“Moreover, you argue that the econ/math departments are better because faculty “publish important papers, work for influential committees and then run classes in their spare time.” How is this relevant? B-School professors do precisely the same thing. (To illustrate: many Ross professors actually teach across disciplines, including courses in history, psychology, public policy, law, and [just deliciously] econ/math.)

“Two, who exactly is overrating Ross? It can’t be the companies who are actually hiring college students. No, business school rankings are based primarily on the reviews of recruiters. If Ross is preparing its students for “careers that are essentially dead weight in the economic system,” why are real, product-producing, profit-driven organizations coming to the school?

“Three, you write, “[m]ost students, even those not in Ross, know mandatory group work at the undergraduate level is counter-productive.” From where are you basing this assertion? Is it because group work is hard? Admittedly, I don’t like group work because I find it difficult. I also don’t like the process of exercising because I find it difficult. That doesn’t make it counter-productive, though.

“I’ll end with a couple of questions for you. From a more philosophical perspective, you seem to believe that engineers are the players in our economy creating wealth because they’re actually making things that people want to buy. I’ll submit that they do play an incredibly important role. But, is it possible that good business people can add value to organizations, too? You criticize managerial consultants, but wouldn’t their popularity seem to indicate that sound business practices are contributing something to American companies?”