Spring Break
The Agony of Choice
How HBS can ruin your summer. (Hopefully humorous explanation of the EC course planning process)
By Alex Godden (OJ), Viewpoints Editor
Issue date: 9/17/07 Section: Viewpoints
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If you have just arrived at this hallowed establishment, bright-eyed and eager, you may be thinking the hard part is over - writing those essays, studying for the GMAT etc. But no, the toughest challenge lies ahead. But not yet, you will have to wait nearly a year. Then you too will experience the joys of EC Pre-Registration, followed by the delights of the Add/Drop process.
Given that all of the ECs reading this article (at least 4 of them) are by this point smiling wryly and nodding their heads, whereas the RCs are baffled by the idea that anything could be tougher than that wooden slat puzzle from team-building, I will attempt to explain this wondrous system:
- Halfway through next semester you will be told that finally you are deemed responsible enough to choose courses which interest you, which you can benefit from and that will give you a fully-rounded yet specialized business education. (Rather than just choosing all the ones you know you can get a good grade in).
- You will be repeatedly told how important this process is.
- You will be told that you need to choose a selection of courses that is broad yet deep (you may be shown a diagram on an upside-down T at this point).
- You will also be told that it is important to take into account the professor as well as the course.
- You will be given a further set of complex criteria involving Y-schedules, half-courses, field study credits and something called 'auditing'.
- You will be told to talk to all your EC buddies about their recommendations.
- All of your EC buddies will tell you totally conflicting things about a variety of courses, to the point where you suspect they are ganging up to have a laugh at your expense ("Can you believe she bought it when I said International Financial Management was an easy course…? Mwa ha ha ha")
- You will be given the results of an array of polls giving you information on everything from how much work each course is to whether most students last year liked the professor's aftershave.
Given that all of the ECs reading this article (at least 4 of them) are by this point smiling wryly and nodding their heads, whereas the RCs are baffled by the idea that anything could be tougher than that wooden slat puzzle from team-building, I will attempt to explain this wondrous system:
- Halfway through next semester you will be told that finally you are deemed responsible enough to choose courses which interest you, which you can benefit from and that will give you a fully-rounded yet specialized business education. (Rather than just choosing all the ones you know you can get a good grade in).
- You will be repeatedly told how important this process is.
- You will be told that you need to choose a selection of courses that is broad yet deep (you may be shown a diagram on an upside-down T at this point).
- You will also be told that it is important to take into account the professor as well as the course.
- You will be given a further set of complex criteria involving Y-schedules, half-courses, field study credits and something called 'auditing'.
- You will be told to talk to all your EC buddies about their recommendations.
- All of your EC buddies will tell you totally conflicting things about a variety of courses, to the point where you suspect they are ganging up to have a laugh at your expense ("Can you believe she bought it when I said International Financial Management was an easy course…? Mwa ha ha ha")
- You will be given the results of an array of polls giving you information on everything from how much work each course is to whether most students last year liked the professor's aftershave.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Judy
posted 9/19/07 @ 1:05 PM EST
Thank you Alex for the reveal! It will make a difference to me to know the activities of the sign up period. Now I know what to watch out for!
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