Better: ME or BMH?

[autumn01]

Which do you think is the better course, ME or BMH? Better, in terms of the perception of people in the corporate world. Which graduates has better chances of getting hired by companies, given that all things are equal, except the course?

Actually, am an ex-BMHer. Was kicked out of the course! But hey, no regrets. It's a perfect training ground for the dog eat dog world!;)

[rabbaddal]

Here's something I posted some time back...



Blueblood,

I was pointing out to you that the thread you started, and the analysis it contained, sounded very much like the apples vs. oranges analysis threads posted by those DLSU IE guys. The fact that it was the way it was, and that of all the subjects that you chose, you had to choose one that had to do with mgt-h made it very inviting for another litany from Mr. Victory. Before you go on comparing the two courses, ask yourself:

(1) What criteria are my conclusions based on?
(2) Do I have enough information to come up with a conclusion?

Based on how you answer any of the 2 questions above, you may have to adjust your criteria or the information you dig up. So, based on my understanding of what you’ve written, you said that ME is better than mgt-h using the following criteria: (1) the major subjects are more advanced (2) ME students will easily make the eco-h and mgt-h cutoff (3) ME is where the honor students gather to compete.

Let’s go through these criteria one by one:

First, “ME major subjects are more advanced”. By advanced, do you mean ME subjects are sweepingly more quantitative? I’ll assume that’s what you meant for now since I don’t have enough information. One thing I discovered after four years of ME, five years of work experience, and one term here in b-school is that there are 2 types of quantitative skills – (1) technical and (2) intuitive. Technical skills, to put it simply, refers to knowing and applying advanced mathematical tools. ME begins with fundamental topics like theoretical Calculus and goes on to applying math in OR, Game Theory, etc. In this case, ME has an advantage because the kind of subjects in ME are simply not covered in mgt-h, and are therefore irrelevant and out of mgt-h’s scope.

But in terms of developing intuitive quant skills, based on what I’ve observed with mgt-h majors in my time, mgt-h has an advantage. By intuitive, I mean, for example, if your client asks you what he/she should do (that’s literally all you’re asked – “What should I do?”), and all you have is a balance sheet and income statement, you have to provide a solution using the best quantitative analysis you can come up with. Based on what I’ve learned so far from my mgt-h contemporaries, the learning environment of mgt-h encourages intuitive thinking. I’ve never attended a mgt-h class before but I would suppose that in those classes the professors deliberately challenge the intuition of their students. They are asked to make assumptions and then required to defend these assumptions in coming up with a solution – kind of like the case-based learning that I do now in b-school. Added to that, the ultra-competitive environment in mgt-h teaches its students to be independent and resourceful. These are things you can’t read in a textbook, nor do I know of anybody who has put a formal definition to this type of learning. Maybe Victory can provide a definition if he knows one.

Next, “ME students can make the ECO-H and mgt-h cutoff”. I actually had a classmate from ECO who double-majored in ME (the reverse of what Oscar did). The reason why we don’t see that many ECO-H guys double-majoring in ME is because we don’t see that many ECO-H guys to begin with. In my time, there were only a handful of ECO-H majors who came in the freshman year. This is probably because economics as a subject may be too theoretical for prospective bright applicants to appreciate, but with a technical-business subject like ME, it’s easier to see where the money is coming from. As for mgt-h, you really can’t tell because mgt-h majors are not allowed to double-major in ME.

Finally, “ME is where the honor students gather to compete”. At least when I was a student, mgt-h had a significant proportion of high school honor grads in their ranks as well. Besides Victory, there was Rodolfo Ponferrada (this year’s bar topnotcher), Bing Soriano (Miriam High salutatorian), and so on. And like ME graduates, many of them have gone on to pursue their graduate studies in the world’s top schools. One of the Ateneans now studying in the Columbia MBA program with me is a 1995 mgt-h graduate. I think a mgt-h grad would know more about the honor grads and those studying abroad from mgt-h than I do.

Neither can you say that ME’s grads are of a higher caliber than mgt-h because mgt-h grads have also performed well in world-class institutions. I actually know 2 mgt-h grads working for McKinsey.

So based on your criteria, you can’t conclude which is better because you’ll end up with an apples-to-oranges comparison. Personally though (and I won’t deny that I’m biased), I think ME fits me better than mgt-h because I don’t trust my intuition, at least not yet. Furthermore, I believe that it would be better to develop technical skills first before intuition, but other people may not see the need for technical skills at all. If there is one slight advantage that ME has over mgt-h, its that ME gives you the flexibility to work in a technical-quantitative field like OR. However, very few ME grads actually venture into these kind of jobs, and instead prefer quantitative careers based on application such as management/strategy consulting, investment banking, equity research, internal strategy, etc. where they work side by side with mgt-h grads. These careers are stepping stones to bigger careers in general management, entrepreneurship, etc.

So I hope I’ve sufficiently addressed your concerns. And you don't have to go on starting "Which one is better"-type of threads. Just work hard so that your success will be enough proof.

[Oscar01]

Dog eat dog? (And there's no such thing as BMH.)

Anyway, since this is another apples and oranges thread (entrepreneural slant v. quantitative, corporate slant), maybe someone should just say that you can't be a True Atenean™ unless you're an ME major, in the words of a MgtH grad.