Difficulty of school based on rep...

Question

Have people heard of some bschools being unusually difficult or easy, specifically in comparison with their respective rankings. Darden for example, is supposed to be notoriously hard, especially for not being a top 5 school. I've heard similar things about Tepper. On the flip side, do people know of schools that are supposed to be more relaxed or slightly less work?

bipolarbear · Answer

I'm not sure what you mean by "less-relaxing," but aside from Darden and those schools with notorious curves, I'd imagine it would be fairly easy to cruise through b-school if you really wanted to. Just take easy classes like intro to marketing...etc, find out which professors are easy, and voila you're done.
Of course, you ARE paying for your b-school education, so I don't think that would be a good idea.

3underscore · Answer

I am going to throw it out there that Darden isn't probably all that hard. It is a good reputation to keep though, isn't it? The hard school.

jallenmorris · Answer

Is this advice / post based upon experience in an actual b-school? Can you tell me how easy is law school, medical school, and dental school?

bipolarbear · Answer

Unfortunately I have yet to attend B-school so of course this is coming with a grain of salt. However I did attend an M7 undergrad and took several core business classes at the business school, and also have many classmates in the b-school with whom I've discussed their experiences.

I don't know you are bringing up law school, which in my opinion is a lot more academically rigorous. Not only is the grading more strict but the level of knowledge and preparation for exams is on an entirely different level. Just the idea of making hundred-page outlines would be enough to scare many business school candidates away.

jallenmorris · Answer

I bring up law school, medical school, dental school, etc because if your advice about b-school is not based upon experience, then you might as well comment on the others since you've not attended those either.

As for law school, once a person gets through the first year, they're good to go. It's still not easy, but the learning curve is hit the first year and once you figure out HOW to learn the law, then learning it is very easy.

bipolarbear · Answer

I'm actually quite familiar with law school and the importance of 1L grades, the lack of motivation for upper years once they have secured their biglaw jobs, clerkships...etc.

Despite not having attended business school yet, I don't think it's a stretch to say that the primary determinant of the difficulty of your business school career is the courseload you choose and the difficulty of the specific professors. I don't think it's entirely different from undergrad, where the same person can get a 3.6 while taking graduate level classes or a 4.0 cruising through introductory humanities classes. All I'm saying is that the difficulty is what you make of it.

jallenmorris · Answer

bipolarbear - check your private messages

Difficulty of school based on rep...

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