Thoughts on the new curriculum?

[miqqy]

Hi,

I was wondering whether any current students could give some insight on the effectiveness of the new curriculum? It sounds extremely interesting to me based on what I have read so far, but I would love to get some information from the students currently enrolled in the program.

Thanks in advance!

[kensand]

I would also like to hear comments from current students. Please take the time to enlighten us a little!

[lewellen]

Hi folks. We just launched a new student blog, so most of the first year students are busy posting away about the new curriculum over on the blog. Check out http://blogs.som.yale.edu for more info, and send me a note if you still have any specific questions. I'm a second-year student, but I can direct your questions to a first year and/or try to answer them myself (I've TAed a large number of core first-year classes this year).

Thanks, and apologies for the delay.

[paulip88]

Sorry for the delayed response, but it's been a busy few weeks with Welcome Weekend and other events.

Overall, response to the new curriculum has been positive, although there have been some areas that we'll certainly be working to strengthen for next year.

For the first-year class, 83% of us of internship offers as of last week, which is comparable to prior years. This should tell us that whatever we're being taught, it's good enough to get us jobs. Take that result as the feedback from recruiters.

In evaluating the curriculum, one thing to keep in mind is that we as first-years have no real basis on what an alternative curriculum might be like, so some of the comments may be due to general feelings natural to any first-year business student and the adjustments and anxieties of being in such a program. Another bias is that the reactions listed below are usually from particular segments of the student body. Student feedback has varied greatly based on area of focus/industry, background, and the different parts of the curriculum. For example, many people interested in banking didn't like the Innovator perspective much since it didn't focus on getting capital. I, on the other hand, have the minority view that it was a great class that taught me exactly what I needed to know to land my dream internship at Microsoft for the summer. Likewise, feedback on the Investor core varied greatly depending on people's professional interest and their past experience with financial instruments. Those with no experience sometimes thought it was tough, while those looking to do banking would have preferred the class to cover much more material. Overall, most people have been satisfied with the way that the courses are integrated - that is, a case that is covered in one class is often referenced in another. The same happens with concepts that cut across perspectives.

I'm sure you're interested in what sorts of complaints there have been, so I'll try to summarize some of the things that have been discussed and what's going on in response to the feedback that we have had so far. As the Academic Committee Chair of the Student Government, I have been impressed by how open the administration has been to feedback. A lot of things went well, as evidenced by the jobs that we've been able to find, but yet we are still continuously looking for ways to make things better.

Although the majority of the courses were very well integrated (Competitor, Customer, Innovator, to name a few), there are a few courses that felt a bit disconnected. Based on this feedback, a few changes will be made for the core next fall. For example, the Investor perspective and Sourcing and Managing Funds will be taught simultaneously in the Fall which should not only help with creating connections between the two but would also be good for people who will be interviewing for banking positions during superweek in January. Another change is that the International Experience will be standardized and will be tied into the State and Society perspective which has been moved from the Fall to the Spring. The Problem Framing course will also feature more formal cases, introducing us to case work at the very beginning of the semester.

We have also heard a lot of feedback regarding how deep some of the courses go into the material. For example, how well does the finance core prepare you for a banking internship? How well does the marketing core prepare you for an internship as a brand manager? Although it doesn't make us feel better, or reduce our anxiety, the new curriculum covers almost everything that was covered with the new curriculum. Granted, that doesn't mean that we won't do anything about it to try to help. Next year the two finance courses will be offered earlier and in tandem, which should help. I believe there will also be additional sessions set up by both the Career Development Office and professional clubs to help further assuage anxieties people may have (such as the Excel course we have had the past two days). Another thing to keep in mind is that during the second semester we have the opportunity to take one and a half electives (one full semester elective and a half semester elective) which we can use to get some deeper knowledge about an area.

Another academic thing is that some people have expressed that they would like to be forced to do more quantitative work. In a few classes we get the option to pick which cases to write up, which makes it easy to avoid certain questions that are more quantitative. Whether this will change depends on the adjustments that will be made to the finance core (Investor and S&M), but even without, the opportunities are there.

The mentorship program will also be modified for next year. I'll have some more details next week if people are interested. From what I can tell, more second-years will be involved as mentors. Since I'll be one of these mentors, I should have a better idea after tomorrow if anyone is interested in the details.

[miqqy]

Thanks for the responses you two!