What They don't Teach You about in B-school

People make three kinds of mistakes when they speak up in class. First, they launch into their remarks without signaling where they're going. You need to give your comments a preface: "I want to respond to this point." Otherwise, you'll lose your audience before you get your message across.

Second, people speak up just to get their voice heard. Once you've been the butt of a professor's caustic response, you'll learn to speak only when you've got something to say.

Third, people ramble. You don't have to be right, but you do have to present your ideas clearly. So before I raise my hand, I often jot down three or four words to remind myself of the points that I want to make.

Coordinates: Nici Audhlam-Gardiner, naudhlamgardiner@mba1999.hbs.edu

Name: Matthew Bailey, 30, president of the MBA Association; Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
Job before B-school: Manager in Andersen Consulting's process-competency group.
Summer internship: Associate in Coca-Cola USA's brand-marketing department.

What I've learned

Own your work -- don't let it own you. One day during third term last year, I realized that I was getting crushed by all of the work that I'd taken on. I had slept fewer than 5 hours each night for 10 days straight. But despite all of my extra effort, I wasn't prepared for class, I was underperforming in my study teams, and I wasn't delivering on the extracurricular stuff that I had committed to.

That's when I learned a big lesson: No matter how much work you do, there will never come a time when you can say with complete confidence, "I've studied enough. I've covered all of the material."

I have a classmate who takes lots of classes in various subjects. But in each class, he focuses only on what really intrigues him. With the rest of the material, he learns just enough to get by. He'll come away with a broader range of knowledge than anyone else in our graduating class -- and with a deeper understanding of the things that really charge him intellectually.

On that day last year, I finally recognized that I'll never plow through all of my course work. I evaluated what was really important to me, and I cut back on my commitments. Everyone I know here has gone through the same process of overextending, doing a reality check, and then cutting back.

Coordinates: Matthew Bailey, mkb2@mail.duke.edu

Name: Mary Jo Dunnington, 30, coeditor of The Reporter; Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Job before B-school: Project manager in the geography-education program at the National Geographic Society.
Summer internship: Summer MBA intern at American Express.

What I've learned

If the school fits, wear it. Business schools are not unlike business organizations: Different schools attract different kinds of people; they have different expectations, different competitive landscapes, and different cultures. So it's not enough just to get into a school. You've got to get into the school that's right for you. To get a sense of what spending two years at a school would be like, talk to its students. Asking various students at that school the same set of questions will help you determine whether you'll fit into the school's culture. Here are three simple questions that worked for me.

1. "Tell me about your typical day."

Find out how much time people spend in the classroom and how much time they devote to studying and to extracurricular activities. Get a sense of how much time they spend socializing with one another. See how recruitment and career development fit into their schedules.

2. "What's the academic culture like?"

Get a sense of how much work is done in teams. Ask people whether the academic atmosphere is competitive or cooperative. Find out whether the emphasis in class is more on theory or on practical applications. And listen carefully to how people talk about grades. Their real attitude toward grades might be far more serious than they're willing to admit.

3. "What did you do before business school, and what are you going to do after you graduate?"

Find out how many people plan to return to the industry that they worked in before school and how many plan to change industries. Find out how many are going into consulting or financial services who weren't in those industries before, and why people are making that switch. Most important, talk to second-year students: They're in a better position than first-years to know where they're headed -- and how business school has helped them to get there.

Coordinates: Mary Jo Dunnington, www.gsb.stanford.edu