You're certainly able to "experiment" with classes and still receive a grade for them. I belong to the school of thought that your grades mostly pretty accurately reflect the effort you put into a class, so there is no concept of you (and only you) being punished for choosing to do something different you have had no prior experience with. In my opinion, if a class requires some previous knowledge of the subject for you to do well, it will have the appropriate course pre-requisite. Otherwise, most everyone will start on equal footing.
Stern has proper grades (and by that I simply mean an A through F scale) but that hasn't prevented me or my peers from signing up for the classes we want to take, without worrying about the repercussions any single class might have on our respective GPAs. Heck, I will probably get a B/B- on some of the classes I plan to take, but why would that stop me from taking the class if I'm truly interested in it?
Nonetheless, different people will have different opinions. But I will contest any argument that posits that having GND allows for greater freedom in selecting "harder" electives. In fact, I would probably skip class a lot more if I knew my grades were meaningless - but again that's just me! It's completely possible these other GND schools have remarkably disciplined student bodies who don't need the scepter of a "poor" grade looming over their heads in order to ensure they do what is needed to be done.
Like underscore3 said, GND versus having none is probably the biggest non-issue when it comes to your academic experience at any business school.
MBAgirl2010 wrote:
They want to be able to experiment with different courses, and courses that are not necessarily in their area of expertise such as a mixed course with other disciplines, without being punished for it.