| Topic Name: |
NYU for IB |
| Message Name: |
wait one minute... |
| Date Posted: |
05/19/2000 |
| In Reply To: |
My friend, you are obviously bitter and that greatly impairs your ability to make objective inferences. A person is identified as smart not by what he studies but by how and what he learns from his studies, by his capacity to absorb and digest new information and often by his ability to think strategically and have a vision. That doesn't come from studying PVs and WACCs. Studying finance doesnt make you smarter at all - you just gain a different kind of knowledge.
And believe me knowledge and smarts are two very different things.
There are plenty of people who can pick up a book and leanr the basics of finance in no time and apply it to real world problems in a textbook manner. The problem is that the real world is never like theory. In the real world you have to analyze the intangibles and question everything.
The main advantage of liberal arts education is that it teaches one to question things, to rason objectively, to perceive the world around you, to express yourse;f..
Learning the PV concept is the easy part.. Anyone can build and run the models. You are hired not just to become a number crunching monkey, you are hired for the potential you have of becoming a dealmaker and that's when all the things you've learned in your liberal arts education might be a lot more useful.
Also, you are very mistaken by thinking that a business/finance class can teach you how the real world atually works. The thing that makes business so different from other disciplines is that you can only learn from expereince. |
| Message: |
The major flaw behind the artsey fartsey majors' arguement is their assertion that liberal arts teaches you how to think. That proposition is entirely false! If you can't think by the time you get there, your ass is in trouble! Besides, everyone takes the same core courses at most universities, and they are the same dumbass, easy liberal arts courses. I majored in political science (76 credits) before I transferred then switched to finance & marketing so I know the deal on both sides. You'll learn nothing of much value in an upper level liberal arts course, afterwhich you begin to realize you won't get a job after you graduate. Fortunatlely for you your ivy league pedigree will get your foot in the door of an ib or mc firm, and get you an analyst position that your are TOTALLY unqualified for. That's alright for now because I will get my chance to kick your ass in b-school and as an associate in the firm.
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