Business Schools Look for Different Kinds of Students
Admissions offices are pursuing more women and minority candidates
Reader Comments
Business Schools
Access, exposure and experience are exceptionally important factors to understanding the value of a business education. It concerns me that people don't understand this, I think we should do as much as we can to encourge females to enter the world of business and yes race does matter too. Just take a look at the world - white males have done the creating and leading. This something to think about and to change.
Diversity = lower quality? really?
It's interesting to me that as soon as we start talking about adding more women and minorities to the applicant pool, all of a sudden "lower quality" comments start floating around.
That's the real discrimination.
The logic of preferences and a rebuttal to Msrs Proust and Deschanel
Deschanel has a few good points.
Proust has some also.
I'll ask a question of you both:
What happens when you debase a currency by printing more of it? or of diluting the metal or other underlying commodity content? It becomes worth less. When you do the same to addmission to grad school by saying "Oh this person comes from background X we will make it easier for that person." You have just made the rest of the process less valuable for those who do not have that preference.
Could somebody please explain a critical / logical justification for letting anybody into grad school whose grades and GMAT are not at a set level? Setting it low and then letting people in based on some non-merit criteria is nothing more than preferences. From here, all else looks like some form of favor or discrimination, thus debasing the value of your degree.
For Mr. Dashanel, I'd like to add one other side comment:
Please note that you are posting in an advanced society that got to where the economy has enough surplus in order for you to have to sit in your chair in an air conditioned setting and think it was screwed up. History having been written by the successful, it generally shows white males in the leadership roles in doing this.
Feel free to visit a third world country where there is as much or more resources but not at much progress (Honduras, Turkey and Mexico all come to mind. I have been there, seen that, took the antibiotics for the parasites in the water.)
Now please notice how those societies had progressed only on their own. Now please notice that if the Spanish had gotten to where we are today, the non-Spanish would be saying the same as you are. Same for Hindu or Chinese. No matter. You should just be glad we have gotten as far as we have and that minorities have some chance of success, in the US at least. We did not get to where we have those surpluses by spending resources on training and education of people who were marginally qualified.
We need consistent requirements applied in gender/race/etc neutral basis. Anything else is bad for our society in the long term. I suggest you look up there confuscian meritocracy some time. There was a stable effective methodology that lasted centuries.
Gender, Race should not even be considered
When applying to schools, gender and race should not even be asked for. If women want to be represented more in business schools, they can work hard and apply to business schools just like white men do. The same goes for the blacks, hispanics, and every other minority group.
Test scores, grades, research, recommendations: these are the areas that should determine eligibility.
Do you care more about the race of your doctor or their ability to safely perform surgery?
Do you care more about if your lawyer is a man or woman or their ability to represent you in the court room?
In the real world gender and race do not matter in these positions. All that matters is the individual's ability to do their job. So if schools are trying to make their classrooms better represent the real world, they should cast gender and race aside.
Discrimination at its worst.
Pierre=bitter?
Pierre,
Its funny how when someone has an opinion that counters yours, you have to attack them personally?
The fact is, this is THE LAST thing schools should worry about now. Not that schools shoudn't look to diversify...all else equal, a more diverse student body is a better experience for all, and more learning occurs. All else equal, remember.
Schools should concentrate on making people aware of the programs they have. Companies should also be encouraging their current employees to get higher educations. But to go out of their way to diversify is rediculous. If you have a good GMAT score and a strong background, you'll get in regardless of your background. The school should be, again spending its resources on the best it can its students, which means getting its current students, especially minorities, jobs in a crappy economy.
Here is a FACT. At my MBA program, ALL black students had at least one internship offer before most of the class did. When our school was sitting at 20% offers as compared to 50% the previous year, EVERY black student had at least one offer. Some had as many as FOUR, while some kids, brilliant but Indian or White, had none.
I don't blame the black students. They are all great students with alot to offer...but to stack so many internships off the bat? That wasn't magic. The fact is, the playing field has leveled out for minorities admitted into higher ed. I don't think by any means its moved in favor of minorities, but every student noticed this trend and I'll bet money its true everywhere else.
The moral to the story Pierre? Stop crying with two loaves of bread under your arm.
Business schools attempt to diversify.
Universities engaged in discimination against women, blacks, Mexicans, and native Americans for Three- hundred and fifty years and I think it is about time for them to allow others into their " professional" schools. The women and minorities could do no worse than the white males , who screwed up this country ,as well as, the world economy. As for Richard Proust, he is an ignorant , racist pig.
Diversity = Discrimination
Is your website going to rename itself the UN News? I can hardly believe I'm reading this one-sided, activist tripe. I don't come here to read divisive genderprop. I'm especially disquieted by the way this author avoids an ugly fact: that graduate schools are "diversifying" their student profiles by skewing the admissions process. The marketing she discusses is only one aspect of this exercise in social engineering.
Further, consider the impact of giving women an edge on med school admissions. This is adding to the doctor shortage, because women doctors often have short careers and don't put in the hours their male counterparts do. Some of the leading voices decrying this highly negative outcome for society are women!
