After doing some last minute changes to my CV, cosmetic changes mostly, I sent my IESE app. Crossing fingers now.
On the INSEAD front, BusinessWeek MBA forums report that some candidates are already receiving interview invites (two weeks before official deadline for interview notification). I'm hitting on the "check mail" button as fast as I can, but no love yet from the Fonty dudes... THE PRESSURE!
Good Luck to everyone who applied for R1!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Why French Public Universities Suck
(A non-MBA related post for a change)
I've been studying for 3 years in a French public university. The institution in which I study is famous in France and is considered one of the best in its area in Europe. Because of that, the surprise that I had when I started attending the university was huge. The university is so badly managed, and the classes are so weak, that I wonder how any French descent researcher ever came out from this institute and others alike.
Let me explain why.
1. Student acceptance and success rate in studies: French public universities are "democratic". That means that anyone can just sign up to a university, the only demand is that he has finished his high-school education successfully. Let me repeat that: no entry exams, no application to send, no recommandation letters, no interviews, nothing! although this idea is great in theory, it sucks in reality. Students have to do zero effort before attending university, so a lot of them just attend default universities because that's what everyone else does. They have no motivation, and remain in their high-school state of mind. You can see them in amphis talking loudly with friends, or on the phone. They are there because they didn't know what to do in life after high-school, and it was so easy to attend university and make daddy and mommy shut up.
Beside the obvious consequence of having lots of teens hanging around without a real desire to study, lays a more dangerous one. Schools know that they have way too many students admitted than the industry and academy can absorb later when they graduate. A direct result of that is that they came up with a brilliant idea to filter students by making them fail in exams. The best proof is that according to a survey published last week by the OSEIPE (http://www.oseipe.univ-paris5.fr/IMG/pdf/TAB_doc_final_24sep08.pdf) only 21% passed from 2nd to 3rd year of Psychology undergrad. Let me rephrase: out of every 100 students, 79 failed to pass to third year. This is HUGE!
So you have a lot of failing students who lost 1 or 2 years of their lives, just because schools found a stupid method to adujst graduation numbers to available jobs post-graduation.
2. Teaching method: So you have the obvious lectures, boring and anonymous. Without student-teacher interaction whatsoever. And then you have the TD, or Travaux Dirigés (Guided Work) where you'd expect to see some reflexion and interaction right? well think again. The entire french teaching method, at least in my university, is based on boring lectures. I guess they never heard in France about group work, cases, projects etc.
3. Anonymous student and bad social life: In a French university, the student is completely anonymous. You'll never speak with the professor and don't even dream that he'll know your name even if you took a small class with 25 students in it. Don't wait to be invited to a students party or a university social event, these just don't exist. Of course the students could organize something, but the sad fact is that student in France attend the university closest to their parents' home, so they can live with them during school, and keep on seeing friends from high-school. The students social interaction is limited then to the casual "bonjour" to faces that you've been seeing for 3 years every day.
Maybe I'm just in the wrong French university, and maybe in other schools the situation is better, but from what I've seen in the last 3 years, French universities suck!
I've been studying for 3 years in a French public university. The institution in which I study is famous in France and is considered one of the best in its area in Europe. Because of that, the surprise that I had when I started attending the university was huge. The university is so badly managed, and the classes are so weak, that I wonder how any French descent researcher ever came out from this institute and others alike.
Let me explain why.
1. Student acceptance and success rate in studies: French public universities are "democratic". That means that anyone can just sign up to a university, the only demand is that he has finished his high-school education successfully. Let me repeat that: no entry exams, no application to send, no recommandation letters, no interviews, nothing! although this idea is great in theory, it sucks in reality. Students have to do zero effort before attending university, so a lot of them just attend default universities because that's what everyone else does. They have no motivation, and remain in their high-school state of mind. You can see them in amphis talking loudly with friends, or on the phone. They are there because they didn't know what to do in life after high-school, and it was so easy to attend university and make daddy and mommy shut up.
Beside the obvious consequence of having lots of teens hanging around without a real desire to study, lays a more dangerous one. Schools know that they have way too many students admitted than the industry and academy can absorb later when they graduate. A direct result of that is that they came up with a brilliant idea to filter students by making them fail in exams. The best proof is that according to a survey published last week by the OSEIPE (http://www.oseipe.univ-paris5.fr/IMG/pdf/TAB_doc_final_24sep08.pdf) only 21% passed from 2nd to 3rd year of Psychology undergrad. Let me rephrase: out of every 100 students, 79 failed to pass to third year. This is HUGE!
So you have a lot of failing students who lost 1 or 2 years of their lives, just because schools found a stupid method to adujst graduation numbers to available jobs post-graduation.
2. Teaching method: So you have the obvious lectures, boring and anonymous. Without student-teacher interaction whatsoever. And then you have the TD, or Travaux Dirigés (Guided Work) where you'd expect to see some reflexion and interaction right? well think again. The entire french teaching method, at least in my university, is based on boring lectures. I guess they never heard in France about group work, cases, projects etc.
3. Anonymous student and bad social life: In a French university, the student is completely anonymous. You'll never speak with the professor and don't even dream that he'll know your name even if you took a small class with 25 students in it. Don't wait to be invited to a students party or a university social event, these just don't exist. Of course the students could organize something, but the sad fact is that student in France attend the university closest to their parents' home, so they can live with them during school, and keep on seeing friends from high-school. The students social interaction is limited then to the casual "bonjour" to faces that you've been seeing for 3 years every day.
Maybe I'm just in the wrong French university, and maybe in other schools the situation is better, but from what I've seen in the last 3 years, French universities suck!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
TOEFL results in
OK, I was relieved to see my TOEFL scores today, I got a total score of 111 which is more than what INSEAD requires (105). I've immediatley sent the scores and so my application for INSEAD is officially complete. Waiting to see if I'm invited to interview...
Besides that, I talked recently with Jacek, an ESADE '08 grad, and the chat we had confirmed my idea that I would be as happy to be accepted to ESADE, as I will be to be accepted to IESE. Both schools seem strong in rankings, both schools use cases (even though IESE uses only cases whereas ESADE uses them along with other teaching methods such as lectures and projects).
Another important factor for me is the social style of the school, as I really want to spend my MBA experience in a pleasent and fun environement. It seems that both schools excell also in that, both places seem very friendly and alumni with whom I talked were extremely nice and helpful.
Anyway, enough dreaming - I first need to be accepted to at least one school in order to actually be able to decide where to go finally.
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