CerealsMBA wrote:
Ok, although this is not the right topic at all, let me correct a few misperceptions here, as my personal values / credibility are challenged by what you believe to be true :
Woah, I never meant you to take it that way. I hold you in high regard! (In other words, im impressed by your Grande Ecole education).. I think you might have taken my comments about some of the debate around the schools as my personal views on the subject... they weren't. Personally, I'd cut off my right arm to go to a Grande Ecole, and I think the idea is superb.
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1- There are over 200 Grandes Ecoles in France. I did not go to X, but to one of the Centrales. The same way as people get into Polythechnique, ENA, HEC, etc which are ALL Grandes Ecoles, I just studied hard, took a competitive exam with neither my name nor my picture on the papers, and got in based on my ranking... It is not connected, believe it or not, and the only connection you get out of X or ENA is the alumni network (which, logically, you can only belong to once you got in, etc, etc...)
You studied very hard, no doubt. A Grande Ecole makes Harvard's odds look like the University of Pheonix Online.
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2- Funding of Grandes Ecoles: that is a subject of debate. Indeed, they are better funded than the universities, and it is quite unfair. I agree with you that universities are not valued enough in France. But they need, in addition to money, deep reforms to make them more in phase with what the professional world is expecting (France accounts for more psychology students that all of Europe - source : The Economist).
Good point.
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3- Grands Corps and Grandes Ecoles are two different things. Grande Ecole is a label (same as EQUIS, AACSB), while Grand Corps are civil servants, who are often succesful Polytechnique Students who got into the prestigious Ecole des Mines, etc... or ENA alumni, etc...
Well thats what I meant... That certain Grandes Ecoles provide access to the "Grande Corps" - a powerful powerful network of individuals, not that they are one and the same.
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4- Maybe the French system is very elitist. True. But so are all systems : aren's b-schools elitist ? What about Law school, med school in the US ?
Again I think you took the term elitist to somehow have a negative connotation... I don't actually think elitist is bad.
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5- As for the Cereal box. Do you really think I would try to convince the school to take me because I love strawberry Special K's
??? Anyway, I suppose you just say that to be nice and help, so thanks a lot.
No of course not, but you might very well crack a joke or mention someone about cereal in passing at some reception just as an ice breaker. I didnt mean to suggest you'd walk up to some adcom and just say something like "Hi! I like Frosted Flakes!" .... I had more of an off the cuff kind of remark in mind... I didn't mean to suggest you'd say something so silly to the adcom directly.
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[b]Edit : From wikipedia (so it can be challenged...) In 1979, in honor of a $10 million gift made to the school on behalf of John L. Kellogg, the former president of the Kellogg Company, the school was renamed as the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Here are Kelloggs words:
https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/new ... 0521sz.htm
" Founded already back in 1908 Kellogg did not receive its own name until 1979, when the John L. and Helen Kellogg-Fund donated ten million US dollars to the school. Since then, the identity of names with the US food company Kellogg has led repeatedly to confusion. "We have had to work the last 15 years to set ourselves off against the cereal producer""
....
That said, I was probably too strong in my words.... Wikipedia is right that there is a connection, but its removed.
The Helen and John foundation that made the donation was a philanthropic private fund. It wasn't directly related in any way to the firm itself, but it is true that John's father (his name i forget) founded the firm. I cnat remember for sure but i think that the gift itself was even done after helen and john died by whoever was managing the foundation.
What I was trying to say is that the name is not related in any way to the company itself - other than the fortune they had amassed came in part from the Kellogg company. The donation was entirely private, completed (I think) after John and Helens deaths and completed by the trustees of the foundation.
Whats funny about that is that its the John and Helen foundation.... yet they named hte school the J.L. Kellogg ..... Poor Helen got shafted...
In any case, if I offended, I didnt mean to. I'm impressed by your background and expect to see you listing some nice admits here six months from now.