Speaking of "styles"...does anyone out there remember "People Styles at Work" from Mod I? For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, here's
a quick synopsis:- Prior to orientation in the 1st year at Babson, my entire class had to read this book - and figure out the style we most identified with (Expressives, Drivers, Amiables, and Analyticals).
- Throughout our first month of school, it felt like we were constantly referring to each other's "style" - both in class, and jokingly out of class too.
Advanced Managerial Communication - another great class. Hmmm, probably because it is the antithesis of the all-lecture format. Last class, we divided into 2 teams to represent French & Chinese parties of a contract negotiation. 60 minutes of plotting strategy among our teams, 50 minutes of negotiations b/wn delegates of the 2 parties, and about 60 minutes of class debrief at the end. So yeah, needless to say, I was really wound up after that class...
Interestingly, there are no Chinese students in that class - which I think is a shame. Everyone could use infinite amounts of practice and simulated negotiations (esp. since 46% of the Class of 2008 have degrees in engineering or sciences).
However, in all fairness, I should probably provide a quick demographic breakdown of Tsinghua's Class of 2008 for the international MBA program...
- 118 students
- 34 international students
- 78 Tsinghua students (presumably Chinese) studying abroad this semester
Ironically, in my initial courses registered, I stayed away from the management-type classes b/c I thought the strength would really be in the finance and hard quant classes...obviously another small surprise in big China. I'm still in 2 finance courses - and the one that's had class so far has made my ears bleed, and my eyes sag. [I know, I know "Cry me a river..."]
One class that I can't take for credit, but that I sit-in as much as possible (2 x's/week, 5 hours total), is a macro-economics course for the 1st years. Prof. Marthinsen @ Babson literally wrote the book on macro-econ and he is great! Speaking of which, does anyone recall Marthinsen's 4 Rules of Thumb?...Rule #1: "Above the line, below the line", etc...
The professor teaching macro here is an all-star in a different way. Yeah, 40% of a class is focused on text-book macro stuff (reserve ratio, balance of payments, etc)...then the rest of a class session is just all-out specific information on China from a macro view.
Prof. David Li is one of the top economists in China and is involved in closed-door policy meetings (etc) and he is just ridiculous. Several 2nd years highly recommended checking out his class, and one phrased it boldly..."If you do just 1 thing here at Tsinghua, it would be to go to his classes!" Would you be able to pass that up? Me neither. Plus, considering we compress macro into 4 weeks @ Babson...a little review can't hurt!
To further put a little perspective on things...the 1st year at Babson seemed like a TON of work (totaling 32 credits). OH, YEAH?! Well at Tsinghua, MBAs have to buckle down for a goody basket of 40 credits in the 1st year - and it was revised down from 42 credits last year! (Let's hope for future Babson 1st year students' sake that OPM doesn't find out about this...) 2nd year students are then freed up to do semester exchanges, launch their own businesses, job search, thesis, etc.
Classes start back up tomorrow after a week off, and I'm ready to go...
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3 comments:
Staying dry??
Clues that you've been in business school too long - 1. you honestly believe that People Styles at Work is a valuable tome, 2. you believe that an economics class taught in China might have merit (5 year plan anyone?)
3. you don't recognize your econ. professor "wrote the book" because that's how he makes money!
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