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• Thread: 69 Goods vs 12 No Goods

1. Economist
   c734
   

   Interesting how you address yourself as a "Business PhD". I could be wrong but around my place, only non-Finance PhD's in Business would call themselves a "Business PhD". You doing organization behavior or marketing or something like that?

   Anyway. Those attributes that you'd listed are so generic that it pretty much describes any "sufficiently well educated young adult". While I hope the MBAs learn something from business school, is it worth the tuition and more importantly, is it necessary walk around with a blatant superiority complex? It seems to me that the MBA is just a really expensive rite of passage.

   MBA/Business PhD here
   I agree MBA is mostly a signalling and screening mechanism, but not a "bad equilibrium outcome."
   If you are hiring someone to manage a consumer brand, you are not looking for a guy with an A in real analysis. You want someone who:
   -works well in teams
   -communicates well
   -understands customer needs
   -has enough quant skills to understand and use Excel spreadsheets
   An MBA is a good indicator of these qualities.

   10 years ago # QUOTE 3 Volod 1 Vlad !

2. Economist
   c734
   

   The insecurity of some of the PhDs on this board is pathetic.

   In what sense...?

   10 years ago # QUOTE 1 Volod 1 Vlad !

3. Economist
   6058
   

   American universities pick people who are good at extracurriculars because somebody has to be in the bottom half of the class, and the guy who plays violin really well is less likely to be bothered by being the worst student in his class. Keep in mind that these schools are dependent on alumni donations, so providing an enjoyable undergrad experience is important to the business model. Besides, extracurricular success is often a good proxy for things like determination and interpersonal skills that predict life success.

   10 years ago # QUOTE 5 Volod 3 Vlad !

4. Economist
   b826
   

   An MBA is as much about learning how to communicate as anything else. You learn just enough of a bunch of business topics/buzz words to be able to communicate in a "meaningful" way.
   Compare that to a PhD talking about biased estimators, pooling equilibrium, etc and an MBA is a breath of fresh air.
   PhDs are trained to be cynics. Corporate America wants forward looking optimists.

   why is it that being good at stats and math is always synomymous with being f**king crazy and insane?

   10 years ago # QUOTE 1 Volod 0 Vlad !

5. Economist
   b826
   

   American universities pick people who are good at extracurriculars because somebody has to be in the bottom half of the class, and the guy who plays violin really well is less likely to be bothered by being the worst student in his class. Keep in mind that these schools are dependent on alumni donations, so providing an enjoyable undergrad experience is important to the business model. Besides, extracurricular success is often a good proxy for things like determination and interpersonal skills that predict life success.

   lol good

   10 years ago # QUOTE 0 Volod 0 Vlad !

6. Economist
   dbf7
   

   One strongly misunderstood point here.

   MBA attracts different people from different industries who are already "well-qualified" in their industries. Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Accountants ... All go to an MBA program. They are not going there to learn some "advanced technical" stuff. Because there is no way an MBA will make an engineer a more advanced engineer, or more advanced doctor etc.

   For technical/vocational advancement, they parallelly do other things, such as IEEE conferences for engineers, CFP/CFA type programs, MPH for doctors etc.

   So most PhD students think that people come to MBA programs for "technical advancement'. That is a wrong perception. There is no way an MBA program can technically advance people of varying backgrounds. They all come there to network, learn basics of other professions, form a 'general management' view.

   10 years ago # QUOTE 10 Volod 0 Vlad !

7. Economist
   f3fb
   

   "The insecurity of some of the PhDs on this board is pathetic."

   In what sense...?

   In the sense of bullshitting about a group of people they know very little about while being strongly convinced of their own superiority.

   I am a finance/econ PhD who has taught in two different top-3 MBA programs and can say that the top 20% of these MBA classes consist of incredibly impressive and accomplished people. And frankly more accomplished, and certainly much more well rounded, than the Aspie-virgin f**kers populating finance and econ PhD programs.

   10 years ago # QUOTE 10 Volod 11 Vlad !

8. Economist
   12d8
   

   oh what a surprise that people at harvard or stanford business school are not idiots but are highly motivated and intelligent individuals.

   i'm not sure what your point is here. what about the other not top people? i think the point here is that the variance at MBA programs, public schools, low ranked programs, etc. is so high. it isn't about the upper quantile. it's about the lower one.

   10 years ago # QUOTE 1 Volod 1 Vlad !

9. Economist
   dbf7
   

   Variance in PhD programs is much higher than the MBA programs.

   Have you heard of Nobel Prize? That is created to increase variance to astronomical reasons, to distinguish Phds from one another.

   10 years ago # QUOTE 0 Volod 2 Vlad !

10. Economist
    b758
    

    http://poetsandquants.com/2011/03/31/aspiring-minority-mbas-casualties-of-ranking-arms-race/
    I suspect the popularity of the MBA is because it favors the "right" people for admission to executive ranks. A few women and minorities are allowed in, but only if they show they are willing to play a particular game. Look at the white-frat-boy culture that is raised to its highest expression in MBA programs. Look at the willingness of MBA students to take on idiotic levels of debt for a degree that basically involves learning junk any econ PhD student could master in a couple of weeks. It is a ticket to the club, no more, no less.

    10 years ago # QUOTE 3 Volod 3 Vlad !

11. Economist
    dc0c
    

    American universities pick people who are good at extracurriculars because somebody has to be in the bottom half of the class, and the guy who plays violin really well is less likely to be bothered by being the worst student in his class. Keep in mind that these schools are dependent on alumni donations, so providing an enjoyable undergrad experience is important to the business model. Besides, extracurricular success is often a good proxy for things like determination and interpersonal skills that predict life success.

    Impressive extracurriculars (that aren't sports/tech related) are indicative of only 1 thing, parental supervision and pressure.

    10 years ago # QUOTE 6 Volod 2 Vlad !

12. Economist
    a993
    

    wow, just wow... maybe you should apply to an MBA program... you could list president of the "top 20% at a top-3" fan club as your occupation or EC.

    "Aspie-virgin f**kers" what does that even mean? get over yourself, geez

    blockquote>"The insecurity of some of the PhDs on this board is pathetic."
    In what sense...?
    In the sense of bullshitting about a group of people they know very little about while being strongly convinced of their own superiority.
    I am a finance/econ PhD who has taught in two different top-3 MBA programs and can say that the top 20% of these MBA classes consist of incredibly impressive and accomplished people. And frankly more accomplished, and certainly much more well rounded, than the Aspie-virgin f**kers populating finance and econ PhD programs.

    10 years ago # QUOTE 0 Volod 4 Vlad !

13. Economist
    a993
    

    someone who is good at a musical instrument is disciplined and creative and tends to be intelligent... people who have put in the time and effort into music and have met a certain standard should get a bump in college admissions- unless everything is based on a national standardized exam only on academics (which I think is the fairest process)

    American universities pick people who are good at extracurriculars because somebody has to be in the bottom half of the class, and the guy who plays violin really well is less likely to be bothered by being the worst student in his class. Keep in mind that these schools are dependent on alumni donations, so providing an enjoyable undergrad experience is important to the business model. Besides, extracurricular success is often a good proxy for things like determination and interpersonal skills that predict life success.
    Impressive extracurriculars (that aren't sports/tech related) are indicative of only 1 thing, parental supervision and pressure.

    10 years ago # QUOTE 3 Volod 4 Vlad !

14. Economist
    1cd2
    

    I am not worried whateva side wins in this argument, because I am PhD + MBA !!!

    10 years ago # QUOTE 6 Volod 1 Vlad !

15. Economist
    d485
    

    someone who is good at a musical instrument is disciplined and creative and tends to be intelligent... people who have put in the time and effort into music and have met a certain standard should get a bump in college admissions

    Yeah except that the guy who has been playing violin since he was 5 years old will only have done so because he has wealthy parents who took him to private music lessons etc, most non-rich kids might play guitar or drums in their teenage years but thats it. Giving points for music education is basically just putting a sign up saying "only apply if you are a rich family who let your kid practice on your piano at home".

    10 years ago # QUOTE 5 Volod 0 Vlad !

16. Economist
    a877
    

    if you believe the best higher education admission is a system where "everything is based on a national standardized exam only on academics" then feel free to move back to china, india, korea, japan, wherever. this is america, fellas.

    10 years ago # QUOTE 0 Volod 3 Vlad !

17. Economist
    c734
    

    Interesting how America IT firms import skilled laborers from exactly those countries you'd mentioned. And even more interesting is that top schools in the US are populated exactly by people whose ethnic backgrounds are from those countries.

    if you believe the best higher education admission is a system where "everything is based on a national standardized exam only on academics" then feel free to move back to china, india, korea, japan, wherever. this is america, fellas.

    10 years ago # QUOTE 8 Volod 0 Vlad !

18. Economist
    b826
    

    "The insecurity of some of the PhDs on this board is pathetic."
    In what sense...?
    In the sense of bullshitting about a group of people they know very little about while being strongly convinced of their own superiority.
    I am a finance/econ PhD who has taught in two different top-3 MBA programs and can say that the top 20% of these MBA classes consist of incredibly impressive and accomplished people. And frankly more accomplished, and certainly much more well rounded, than the Aspie-virgin f**kers populating finance and econ PhD programs.

    why did you write finance/econ ? Surely you meant fenance/moron.

    You say that MBAs are accomplished, but the term accomplished is very subjective. Being an account manager at a fortune 500 company for 3 years and having a BA in philosophy from Dartmouth is not something that impresses me. What impresses me is "aspie virgin" stuff like pubbing in Econometrica or pubbing in annals of stats. Sorry bro. I have no respect for corporate douches like yourself.

    P.S

    Get a real PhD and GTFO

    10 years ago # QUOTE 9 Volod 4 Vlad !

19. Economist
    f3fb
    

    ^ that's exactly what I was talking about. You think "an account manager at a fortune 500 company for 3 years and having a BA in philosophy from Dartmouth" would be in the right tail of the accomplishment distribution in a top-3 MBA program, the group I referred to above. In other words, you have no f**king clue whatsoever. But you bask in your imagined superiority, while the rest of the world looks at you as a LRM aspie-virgin.

    10 years ago # QUOTE 4 Volod 5 Vlad !

20. Economist
    b826
    

    Someone doesnt understand what GTFO means.

    10 years ago # QUOTE 2 Volod 2 Vlad !

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