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Feb 20 2012

Questions to ask before enrolling in a business school 

7 questions to ask about a business school before you enroll

I've taught for the last 4 years in Paris, France at 3 different international business schools. I’ve taught at American universities as well, and have more than ten years of experience teaching and working for university level schools. I’d like to tell you about what I’ve seen from the inside to help you choose a good school.
 
First, let’s consider a few thoughts on business schools in general. Often one does not think about the fact that most business schools are for-profit businesses. That means that the middle of the road schools will be doing anything they can to get new students – including telling “little white lies”. However, the best Ivy League schools don’t have to lie about the experience you’ll receive, so if you’re rich or exceptionally bright you should orient yourself in a direction that will get you admitted to such institutions. You know which ones they are, they are in the top twenty rankings, they post the average GMAT score of their students on their websites, and they cost almost twice as much as the middle of the road school. Asked of those schools, the seven questions that follow are generally not issues.  On the other hand, middle of the road business schools have a tendency to lie or hide information about their student body, their courses, and their faculty. Here are 7 questions to ask about a middle of the road school:
 
1. Do they list their faculty on their website, specifying achieved degrees for
     each member?
2. Is the current student body composed of students of low intellect?
3. Do they produce course syllabi that evidently do no match what is taught in
     the courses?
4. Is the dean really qualified to be leading the school?
5. Does the school produce marketing materials that include pictures of
     “pretty” students and “slick” campus buildings?
6. Does the school list an affiliation with numerous other schools?
7. Do the requirements for a degree change every year?
 
Here’s what to look for in the answers, and why:
 
1. By not listing faculty names with associated degrees the school is saying that the faculty has a high turnaround, and that many faculty members do not have correct degree qualification for the subjects that they teach. This signifies that school as having a low pay scale, poor teaching conditions, and/or many problem students. The school will only attract good teachers temporarily, and you may find one (or more)  of your courses interrupted by the professor quitting during the semester. I’ve seen several cases of this, and it’s a real problem for the school to find a substitute – so generally another professor of the school takes over, even though he/she may not have a good background in the subject.
 
2. Think you’re smart? How about finding 2% of your fellow students as smart as or smarter than you and 60% of them with intellect far, far lower. Are these the people you want as your peers? Think now about doing projects with them, listening to their dumb questions, and perhaps putting up with their unruly social habits. I have seen physical violence, paper wade throwing, and other juvenile activities happen at university level institutions. You might be surprised that talking in class is a common problem with first and sometimes second year students. I often have had good students complain about the students around them having conversation during class. Protect yourself from being exposed to the wrong environment.
 
Even more important, as pointed out in 3., professors play to the audience, so if your class is full of dummies either the course content depth or coverage might be lessened all the way down to please the vast majority.  Don’t wait to find this out after you’ve enrolled and started classes. Go to the school, hang out for the day, and keep your eyes and ears open. Sit in on a class, preferably one on a subject familiar to you.
 
3. This is biggest concern going, however the answer is also the hardest to determine. Often a school has a student body that is of overall low intellect. This happens because the school is a business and wants to make as much money as possible. By lowering the bar at intake, the school can fill more class seats, and thus make more money. So what does that have to do with the syllabi – course mismatch? Most professors are judged by their student evaluations. This means that they have to keep the students happy to look good to the school. Thus, instead of upsetting the class with the real course content, the professors glance over topics, giving them a light treatment, and often do not talk about some of the important, harder topics in the course. That way, all the students are happy – no homework, or not much homework, easy exams that just require memorizing slides, etc. See "A lack of rigor leaves students adrift in college" at http://ontheuniversity.com/2011/08/30/a-lack-of-rigor-leaves-students-adrift-in-college/.
 
Not much learning takes place in schools where there are discrepancies between course syllabi and actual course coverage. The discrepancies create holes in the school’s pedagogy since the learning involved in one course often involves the learning in predecessor courses. Unfortunately, the only way you can find out about possible course syllabus – coverage discrepancies is to ask a former student. Schools will show you syllabi, but they won’t show you exams. So you must rely on a student's take on this. If, in your first semester at a school, you find discrepancies, you should ask the dean about why they have occurred.
 
4. I’ve seen cases where a dean has left and the school did not have sufficient funding to hire a new dean, and a totally inexperienced and non-qualified person took over as dean. Sounds like a nightmare, and it was, causing many of the good faculty members to leave. So, be sure to look at the dean’s qualifications. If they are not posted on the school’s website and if no one from the school will tell you what they are, then assume the worst. The dean is the overseer of hiring, student intake, and pedagogy. Most good deans have least 10 years of teaching experience, are well versed in all business subjects, and are compassionate and approachable. In today’s schools, they must be capable of embracing technology as well.
 
5. Ok, marketing is marketing, but sometimes marketing is used to disguise ugliness. Pictures of campus buildings are often deceiving. Cute outside shots of old buildings with dilapidated interiors, grossly stained carpeting, etc. are very normal in advertising. You may find substandard structures in even the best of schools, and miserable environments in the worst schools. Air conditioning and heating systems that don’t work adequately are common. Ever been in a full classroom of 32 seats with 32 students without air conditioning? Open a window, you say. But then the street noise overpowers the room! Day after day of sitting in squalor, in a sauna, adds up to poor performance. One of my schools changed to a newly constructed building and I saw a 15% increase in class participation, attendance, and learning.
 
6. See if these other schools have a direct connection with the listing school. I’ve seen these advertisements on the websites of the schools that I’ve taught at, yet have sometimes never heard anything about the schools – ever. Affiliate school relationships are often ruses used to make you think the school is bigger and more prestigious than it really is. Ask the school if it’s possible to transfer to the affiliate, or attend classes on exchange for a semester. If they say no, then ask them why they think it important that you should know about the affiliation.
 
7. The degree promised based on the courses listed when you enroll should be taken as a legal contract between you and the school. The mandatory courses you have to take that are listed in the brochure the year you enroll are for you fixed and cannot be changed. If the school changes the degree requirements in any way after you’ve started, that’s fine but it only concerns the new intakes. Be very upset if the school all of a sudden adds a requirement that you take something not  listed as a requirement when you enrolled, like for example, Managerial Economics. Just don’t (unless you’re interested). Ask them to please waiver the requirement for you. If they won’t, ask for your money back - they are in breach of contract.
 
Now, what about the international school? The international school presents an English speaking program, and often the administrators of it use English as their working language. If they don’t work in English, be skeptical about the program.
 
The biggest problem generator in international schools is, believe it or not, English. Not your English as a student, but your professor’s English, the administration’s English, and the textbook English you’re likely to encounter. I’m sure your English is a concern to you, as it is most likely a second language and you might think it a major reason for performing poorly. However, let’s examine a few cases that I’ve run into.
 
Many times you’ll find that a professor doesn’t really speak English. The professor might be native of the country you’re studying in, perhaps a former student of the school, and obtained a job teaching via the friend of the school route. It might be that the professor really knows a subject well, but is not able to teach well because of lecture noise – the accent or incorrect grammar and vocabulary – that he alone produces at every lecture. This noise is different and in addition to the noise that the students may make in class -- that noise will override the professor’s noise in the case the professor has bad English. In this case, you have a solution – just dig into the book, and put up with the babble in class.
 
I argue that most of the professors in international business schools are second language English speakers and this lessens their ability to present topics correctly and coherently in English. The minimal case is incorrect pronunciations. For instance, I’ve heard students say Beta (bet -a) instead of Beta (bait-a), because that’s the pronunciation their finance professor uses – and they’ve never heard the correct pronunciation. While generally thought of as just an annoyance, and seemingly harmless, think of using the wrong pronunciations in a later discussion with colleague, or prospective employers and being laughed at and ridiculed. Or worse than that, think about listening to the correct pronunciation and not understanding what’s been said. I once did a brief talk at the Sorbonne, in Paris, on Bollinger Bands, to an international audience of graduate students in finance. At the end of it, I was asked by several students if I meant “sigma” when I said “standard deviation” – they had never "heard" it before!
 
That brings us to another interesting problem, textbook English. Most fundamental business course texts are written by academic professors in the US who have never taught to an international audience. They write for US students that have native English skills. Sure, there are ”international editions” of the text – just for you, and these editions even say on their covers that they are not to be sold in the US. That’s a statement made to appeal to illogical people which makes them think that the book has been written for someone outside the US. Fact is, the international versions are still written for native English speakers. The only true difference from the US version is that some of the content has been changed to speak of businesses in other countries! This is easily verifiable by looking as a standard US text and its international version, side by side.
 
International books should be written in a way that assumes the student is not a naïve speaker of English. That means that, in particular, idiomatic phraseologies should be explained – perhaps in what’s called side-bars. In general, and especially if it is fundamental text for first or second year students, the English should be plain and simple.
 
What about administrators and your interface with them? It won’t be easy if both of you are not native English. I’ve seen students incorrectly put into courses, and sometimes enrolled in courses without their knowledge – and then charged for the course, all because of miscommunication in English. I once had the student advisor come into the 2nd meeting of my over-enrolled course to make an announcement (for me) that another section of the course was opening at a different day and time, and that 15 or so students needed to switch to it. I later found out that many of the students didn’t understand anything she said. Consequently,  the new section never took place, but several students changed to it anyway, and thus had to drop the course!
 
The worst consequence of bad English by administration that I can remember is one where an email was sent to all the students of my course stating that the final exam would be on the coming Monday, at 8 AM while it was originally scheduled for Tuesday, at 8 AM. It was sent out late Friday afternoon and turned out that it was supposed to be a reminder of the final exam day and time. Several of my students emailed me over the weekend with concern, but not knowing the reason for the announced change, I could not clarify – and of course, the administration was gone for the weekend, so I could not check with them. Thus, I told the concerned students that they had better do what the email said, and show up Monday at 8 AM. So all the students showed up Monday at 8 AM and were told to go home and come back on Tuesday. The email contained a mistake made by an administrative assistant - she got the English names of the days mixed up! About 10 of those students were good students and on exchange from a certain area in Northern Europe. I found that the next year, there were no Northern European exchange students from that area! Word does get around.
 
Things to look out for in selecting an international business school:
 
Professors with heavy accents or feeble English skills
Administrations that do not work in English
Fundamental course texts that are written solely for students with Anglo Saxon roots
 
Visit the school before making a final decision to enroll.