<p>That’s what I was thinking (the target thing sounds like law schools where you’re screwed if you want to work at a top firm in this economy and your school isn’t top 15 or higher). However, I would expect WashU to perform extremeley well as their SAT scores in their business school is higher than Penn (1492 vs. 1462). What I was thinking was, that those sorts of stats. matter up to a certain point, but certainly not more than the connections of the school as you were describing with Penn. As in, it would not matter if Emory admissions stepped up its game and joined the club with the other top 20s (and Virginia) that have students with over a 1400 SAT average (currently 1377 at Emory). We lag here, and I wonder if it would make a difference. Not sure if Emory will ever hit that magical 1400 (soon that is). If anything ECAS will hit it first and the BBA program will be slightly lower (which is the opposite situation for schools that separate the freshman admissions of the b-school or engineering school from the Liberal Arts entity. Normally the former 2 would select higher caliber students than the latter). Regardless, Emory does very well considering that the statistics of the incoming students don’t measure up to the peers. </p>
<p>As far as ECAS is concerned, you won’t find much of a difference in quality or rigor of the curriculum between us and the near peers with maybe a 40-60 point advantage (so Emory is at least trying, for the most part. What’s weird, is that you can’t really tell that students are smarter on those campuses. They seem kind of the same, except attitudes toward academics may vary based upon the school’s atmosphere. For example, students at these schools can actually seem less smart or intellectual despite being statistically better in all categories. Many of the Ivies, on the other hand…you can actually tell the difference, mainly because the students are more intellectual and perhaps more aggressive in their ambition). However, I imagine the differences do affect how challenging the supposedly math intensive (non-science geared) courses are such as those in the econ. department which by and large are joke like (seriously, there would need to be no grading distribution if their core courses classes were already challenging. The distribution would be achieved by applying the regular scale). It must come from the idea that students can’t handle a more challenging econ. or calculus class or that making them more challenging would jeopardize people’s chances at the b-school (but still, this wouldn’t be a concern if the professors were confident in the students’ math ability). Given that incoming statistics will likely remain static for a while, I would argue that they should change the intro. calc. and econ. sequences anyway (right now, only financial accounting is apparently a weedout, but it doesn’t really matter if it’s your only B. You’ll know financial accounting, but you won’t know econ. as well unless you took AP, which is likely at a higher level than many intro. econ. sections here). This way, the b-school could actually select for those who are actually really good at the foundations and can perhaps do more than those who can’t (a B+ average in the b-school pre-reqs will mean significantly more even if many people achieve it). Sometimes, there is nothing wrong with raising the bar even if you don’t really believe in the students (however, before you do that, you need quality instructors. I believe econ. suffers here, at least at the intro. level. The whole econ. dept.'s instructional quality cannot just be carried by Bannerje. Sorry, can’t spell). I mean, ultimately, if they want to go to GBS, the students won’t have a choice but to step up.</p>
<p>And BTW: I am also kind of anti-BBA, especially if one plans to pursue an MBA afterwards. You’re better off just majoring in something you like in the college or choosing something that will develop “marketable” skill sets.</p>