I sort of like the GSB myths because they keep the "wrong types" (I"ll leave that to your imagination;) of people from coming to the GSB. But I"ve been very surprised by the number of admitted students who I"ve spoken to lately who don"t seem to understand that these stereotypes have fairly limited truth.

• It"s all about finance: The GSB has 13 concentrations, only 2 of which are in finance, because many a GSB student has no interest in concentrating in finance, or even taking a finance course. You can get through your 2 years at the GSB without ever taking finance in fact. And the non-finance courses are excellent ... if you"re into that sort of thing.
• Econ, Econ, Econ. It"s all about Economics: Microeconomics is a required course (typical in MBA curriculums, no?) but courses for which micro is a prerequisite are not explicitly Econ focused. Students don"t sit around graphing utility functions in strategy or HR courses. (Personally, I find it annoying that they won"t let undergrad Econ majors test out of the Econ requirement since the class was just a waste of time and money for folks with a strong Econ background. (Sorry, it"s true, micro is micro is micro.) I could have substituted a PhD level course, but if I wanted to do a PhD course in Econ ... I wouldn"t be in bschool now, would I?)
• The students are (fill in the blank: unfriendly, arrogant, nerdy, etc): Look, if you"re concerned about the social life or community or friendliness factor, come visit. (And if you"ve visited/been admitted already without figuring this out, you"re on your own.) No one can tell you how a community will feel for you. For me, MIT and the GSB had the friendliest student bodies of anywhere I visited. But obviously, that"s not true for everyone. And frankly, I"m partial to "nerds" myself. To me, the GSB is for adults, smart adults. The school is best for those not afraid to think or to disagree or to take control of their academic futures, but there"s a lot of variation around that generalization. You can find folks who fit your worst GSB stereotype and folks who don"t.
• Every cliche contains some truth and some exaggeration: No place is utopia, but some imperfections are more palatable than others. All in all, I feel that the students are down-to-earth and non-presumptuous, and pretty darn bright. I like that but there are other metrics that may be important to you that the GSB doesn"t fulfill.
  

Any other myths that I"m overlooking?

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3.23 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."