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MAY 29, 2006
B-School Realities, Undergrad And MBA As an economics instructor at a state B-school for more than 25 years, I noticed especially four items of information from your survey of "The best undergraduate B-schools" (Cover Story, May 8). First, average age is 22 with a high school grade-point average of 3.8 and SAT of 1262, suggesting that the typical respondent is a mature, capable undergraduate student. Second, 30% selected their university on the basis of academic reputation, raising questions as to what other factors influenced their choice. Third, more than half complained of "heavy" workload, hinting that these students are doing some heavy lifting. Fourth, on average they spend two hours a day on classwork, which, given that university administrators typically recommend two hours of study for every one hour in the classroom, hints that your respondents are either under-reporting their hours of study or don't know the meaning of heavy lifting. Edward J. O'Boyle Senior Research Associate Mayo Research Institute West Monroe, La. Much of American higher education now competes on issues of prestige. The present yardsticks of institutional distinction produce a wild scramble for pride of position, which would be ludicrous if it didn't also divert us from the real business of teaching and learning. It might be more interesting to look at the outliers -- for example, colleges that can return higher than expected value with much lower cost. By way of disclosure, I work at one of the top 50 undergraduate B-schools that you ranked. Want to understand why the cost of higher education has exploded in recent years? Look no further than my job title (database architect of business analytics), which did not exist until the recent pressures for competitive advantage grew distortional. Gary Lewis Wayland, Mass. One reason undergraduate business schools are getting more important is the failure of the MBA programs, particularly the highly rated programs. Today's professors at those schools are pure academics with no interest in the real business world, while the undergraduate schools tend to have a sound basis in reality. Also the "top" MBA schools are now dropping all the unpleasant-to-teach skills courses for seminars. The undergraduate programs all have a healthy dose of skills. Stephen Wells Greenwich, Conn. I suggest that you give more attention to process and outcomes in future rankings. The Monfort College of Business (University of Northern Colorado) students perform at the top of the heap of seniors taking an Educational Testing Service exam. It does this without admitting the highest SAT/GPA high-school students. I visited Monfort last year as my son was deciding where he would attend. (He chose the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's Isenberg School of Management.) The focus that Monfort places on teaching process and student outcomes deserves more attention from higher education in general. And the school won the 2005 Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award for it. Other business schools should follow Monfort's lead. Hal Macomber Andover, Mass. There's "No Need...To Invent Maladies," Says Pfizer To charge our industry with the "creation or exaggeration of maladies" insults patients and trivializes pharmaceutical research ("Hey, you don't look so good," News: Analysis & Commentary, May 8). Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE ) pipeline includes new medicines for cancer, smoking cessation, diabetes, HIV, bacterial infections, and other serious conditions. While new diseases emerge, our population ages, and medical understanding grows, there is no need, time, or resources to invent maladies. Our research does lead to disease identification. In 1999 no clinical definition existed for post-traumatic-stress disorder, and no medicines were approved to treat it. We provided treatment data using our medicine sertraline HC1 (Zoloft) that persuaded the Food & Drug Administration to recognize this separate clinical entity and to approve a treatment. Thousands have benefited from the diagnosis and treatment. Maladies are not invented, they are defined by our regulatory authorities. New medicines empower physicians against real diseases that once went untreated. John L. LaMattina, President Pfizer Global Research & Development New London, Conn.   The Future Of Engineering: At Home And Abroad Re "A red flag in the brain game" (News: Analysis & Commentary, May 1): There is an argument to be made that innovative societies are increasing their technological lead on other cultures. While America spends a dollar mapping the human genome or designing the next generation of computer technology, other cultures are spending a dollar trying to find a way to get a billion people into basic housing with running water. China's overtaking America in the next 50 years would be funny if people weren't so serious about it. We need to continue to innovate and pursue excellence in our educational system, but the reality is America spends 35% of the world's research dollars, and much of the research done in developing countries is the intellectual property of American firms. Barry Gross Worthington, Ohio Having worked for a well-known semiconductor company for over four years, I have watched as my job was eliminated, the next job "offshored," and I have trained a foreign engineer to do my most recent job so it, too, can be offshored. This same company recently acknowledged it has been paying its engineers and technicians well below market, upward of 15% to 20%. The present CEO, at an employee open forum three years ago, stated that for every $1 spent on engineering in the U.S., the equivalent in India is 20 cents. Do we really have a shortage, or are executives trying to flood the labor market to make these skills even more of a commodity? If there is indeed a shortage of engineers in the U.S., as claimed by your article and many analysts, the laws of economics -- including globalization -- are to blame. Why rack up thousands of dollars in student-loan debt to obtain an engineering degree only to have continually diminishing prospects upon graduation? Ron Johnson Chandler, Ariz. Your article on the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest misrepresents the importance of these contests. American students (and research universities) are looking ahead to the next wave of high technology (such as in biotech), but computer science has lost much of its luster. Four years ago, top collegiate programmers could compete for $20,000 weekly from sites like TopCoder Inc. Students have much less incentive now to practice all day, when prizes have shrunk considerably. Nonetheless, engineering majors can easily learn to write software, as they require it in their research. David Chen Pasadena, Calif. You point out the catch-22 for U.S. computer science majors: "Programmers with business and leadership skills will do fine." However, the majority of programmers are not allowed in business to display their leadership skills, especially junior-college hires. Look at the divide between computer science and management information science (MIS), the latter taught in business schools: In their first jobs, MIS grads are hardly ever asked to program, while computer science graduates are given only that task. Frequently, programmers need to take MBA programs or other leadership-certification courses before their skills are recognized -- more often, it comes when they switch jobs. It is no wonder many bright students are turning away from computer science careers. Abel Sussman Falls Church, Va.
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