I'm not a hateful person... so why do I hate MBA students so much?

[MissMillie]

I'll tell you why.

It's because they can't be bothered to find the instructions or to follow them.

My boss's mother died last week, and we had to shuffle around some of the assignments. The assignment for today was originally scheduled for last Friday. It included a poll which had a deadline. At first I didn't think I could extend the poll w/o losing data, so when a few students told me they had missed the deadline, I told them to email their answers to me.

Then I found out that there was a way to keep the data and extend the poll, so I did that. To make sure people knew that the poll had been extended, I posted an announcement to the course web-page. In this announcement I specifically asked those who had emailed me responses to go to the poll and add their responses there.

I just got an email from one student who wanted to be sure I had his emailed responses and that I was able to add them to the data.


Can I kill him? Can I at least FAIL him?

You know, I wasn't here when * was here, but I imagine that he was just this kind of student.

Now my fear is that this idiotic thorn in my side will end up being President one day.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

(/rant)

[mark414]

1. wait...you teach at harvard?

or something like that?

[MissMillie]

3. I assist people who teach at Harvard

Faculty Assistant/course administrator

[demnan]

2. Go ahead and fail him

he might not end up as President some day, but who wants to take a chance? :sarcasm:

[ProfessorGAC]

4. My Experience

I had to go get an MBA for my job, and i was teaching some advanced statistics courses at the time. (Sidebar: They made me take the stats class! I'm teaching 600 level statistical mechanics and they wouldn't wave the course! I never attended class, didn't buy the book, and just took the mid-term and final. Got a hundred.)

Anyway, i was amazed at how dim some of these other students were. Not just in stats either. I'm talking in general. I wondered over and over where these people got their degrees, and where they worked that they could know so little and still get through college and keep a job.

Your experience doesn't surprise me at all. I know when i was there i was in grad school for the third time, so i knew the ropes and all. (Plus teaching grad school too!) But, geez some of these people were dopes!

Based upon what i saw there, i vowed to never teach a class that included MBA candidates. I want the bright students who are interested in the ins & outs of the science behind it, not just there to get their B and move on. I want people who NEED to learn because they're driven by a quest for understanding. The rest are just lumps.
The Professor

[Worst Username Ever]

5. Barackmyworld goes to Harvard.

You guys should have a beer.

[MissMillie]

8. I'd like that

I just saw her beautiful picture w/ John Edwards. I'm jealous.

I like meeting up w/ Boston area DUers. They are a terrific bunch of folk.

[sir_captain]

15. And luckily there's a BIIIIG differenece between

Harvard MBA's and the vastly superior undergrads :7

[Mizmoon]

6. Maybe I don't understand clearly

but it sounds like he simply didn't see your announcement. But you seem irate over it. Seems like an overreaction.

Are you stressed?

[MissMillie]

9. It only seems like an over-reaction

because you see this one instance.

This happens ALL the time w/ these guys.

This is the same student who admitted to me earlier this week that he failed to complete an assignment because he neglected to read the handout we gave him that described the assignment and he didn't realize that it was an online exercise that he needed to start 3 weeks ago, and complete last week.

Mind you, we put up 3 announcements about this particular assignment, because the access for it was sent by email, and we were concerned that people's SPAM blockers were deleting it (so we told them that if they hadn't received their access, they needed to let us know).

[coloradodem2005]

7. I remember seeing a commercial. I don't remember what it was for.

But there was a guy at a computer and a woman telling him what to do with it. He was starting a new job. He seemed to think that the job was too menial and he interrupted the woman and said "You don't get it. I have an MBA." She said "Oh, you have an MBA. Well in that case, I'm going to have to show you how to do it." It was funny. The way it slammed MBA types.

[MissMillie]

10. I remember that commercial.

They were putting him in the mail room to ship out some boxes.

I enjoyed that one too.

[RaleighNCDem]

11. I love that commercial...

I think it was for FedEx. At the time, I was working in a department which employed a lot of undergraduate interns. I would ask them to do certain things, and they would say something like, "I can't wait until I graduate so I don't have to do this kind of crap." I loved the blank stare when I told them that I, in fact, had a degree and 4 years of experience so not to get their hopes up.

[LeftCoast]

12. Hey now! My partner is a Havard MBA!

Be nice now. :) He's a good liberal and amazingly smart too, not to mention the sweetest partner on the whole damn planet! :D

[MissMillie]

13. There are some good ones out there

But I am consistently amazed how many of them hand their assignments in without putting their names on them.

[Hand]

14. Flunk the little wanker...

...and when he kvetches, bitch slap him! And when he cries, laugh really loud and long. You'll feel much better. :evilgrin: