Do M7 schools prefer some professions over others?

scottj19x89:

I know it takes a lot of hard work, I just don't understand why it would make anybody better for a business school besides for the second paragraph... ps you said the same thing in 4 different words a couple times in that paragraph

n most athletes receive very good grades as well? really?

Because b-schools are much better at teaching "technical" knowledge (accounting, finance, marketing, etc.) to someone who already has a history of leadership, team/interpersonal skills, and crazy commitment/dedication (i.e. special forces, Olympic athlete, etc.) than they are in teaching some math/academically oriented person the leadership, team/interpersonal skills, and commitment needed to succeed in business.

In other words, b-schools feel it's easier to teach an ex-Marine how to do basic accounting (or any "hard"/technical knowledge), than it is to teach some hardcore engineer how to be a better public speaker (or any "soft skills"). And armed with even rudimentary business knowledge, chances are the ex-Marine will do better in just about ANY business career (finance, marketing, management, consulting, etc) than the hardcore math guy who may be crazy smart, but may have serviceable or even poor soft skills (and whose education on "leadership" and group skills is centered mostly on what he/she read in books, rather than real world experience).

You can't really "teach" leadership or a level of dedication required to be an outlier, but you can certainly learn it - through experience. And the military, sports and the arts provide better opportunities for young people to learn these things better than any academic environment, or even better than the "hardcore business nerd" who did undergrad business, worked in consulting/banking, but besides the work resume - has little else to offer.

In plain English, b-schools are better at teaching book smarts to an already street smart person - and can't really teach a book smart person any street smarts.

And frankly, business in the real world is about street smarts - hustle, dedication and that strong sense of competitiveness.

My advice to most college students (or younger) is to certainly focus on academics - do the best you can to get good grades, but not at the expense of everything else. Ideally, you should work hard enough to pull in respectable grades, while dedicating yourself outside of school to some meaningful activity at a high level -- whether it's sports, arts, nonprofit/community work. What this will mean is cutting back on a lot of the partying, but it is worth it in the longer run. You should only have enough free time to party it up on special occasions (celebrating some milestone), but not so much free time that you are partying to fill up your free time. Of course, this is easy to say, and very hard to do -- which is why if you are able to manage this delicate balance of academics and being dedicated to something special outside of school since childhood (all while having a smidgen of a social life) - you will stand out from many of your peers (and as a result, have a better chance of not only getting into b-school, but having more opportunities available to you in terms of your professional career).

Of course there's a lot of peer pressure -- if you're the kind of person who really wants and believes in getting strong grades, you will put a lot of focus on that, and to avoid being seen as "the nerd" you will try and party it up whenever you're not studying (and at the expense of accomplishing anything outside of academics). Or, you may be the person who doesn't give a shit about academics, and the grades suffer (regardless of whether you're doing something outside of school, or just partying it up).