B-School Cuts Requirements, Adds Job Preparation Courses

The Business School recently approved a reduction in the size of the second-year MBA curriculum which may eventually lead to a new style of courses directed towards specific career preparations.

The faculty passed the proposals, which were unanimously recommended by a student-faculty committee on March 17. The reforms lower course load requirements from 11 to ten and a half classes with students take-the Committee, was quick to play down the in the spring.

In addition, student representatives on the Elective Course Subcommittee have expressed hopes that the new half courses will eventually evolve into "modules" geared towards providing students with more specific career skills.

The Committee originally made the recommendations to allow students time for more in-depth analysis of the cases used to teach business administration.

"It's a quality versus quantity idea: students will have more time to analyze," John Wilson, a student on the committee, said yesterday.

The B-School curriculum stresses preparation for upper-level management position. The first-year schedule consists of eleven required courses while second-year students take monthly electives.

The modules will aim to equip students for the interim until they reach the higher management positions. Students estimate that the half course will evolve into the module within the next three years.

Elizabeth Nill, assistant dean director for MBA Program administration, agreed yesterday, predicting the courses would teach students skills they could use immediately after graduating.

But Professor Thomas Piper, chairman of the Committee, was quick to play down the career orientation of the proposed modules and stressed the academic aspect of the new courses.

Practicality, Too

"By the time students get well into their second year they are already working towards their jobs," Piper said yesterday, adding, "the modules will bring out more interesting and focused ideas that wouldn't come in larger courses."

The changes come in the wake of reforms approved last year that reduced first-year requirements from 15-to-13 courses.

A third part of the proposals approved last month attempts to improve the second year independent study program. Currently, about two thirds of all second year students conduct some type of independent study but students often have difficulty finding faculty advisors.

Under the new plan, a program will be set up to match students with particular topics with professors who have similar interests and are willing to advice the students.

Currently, students must shop around on their own for suitable advisers.