Academic Rigour in a b-school!! :)

Over 2 months in a b-school and I was still wondering wat is the so called "academic rigour in a b-school" ?

But then I thought that maybe I have faced the music in the real world i.e. The Great Indian IT Industry for almost 4 years ... so rigour is an inconsequential word for me now .... It must be a relevant word for the "freshers"!! :)

So I observed the freshers for some time to find it !! ..... still couldnt coz I could attribute all the sypmtoms of the so called "academic rigour" like: sleepless nights, overworked look on the faces, people scurrying around for academic matters of importance (read: prereads, assignments, presentations, group meetings etc) etc ... to some or the other trivialities of life.

People going for walks on the campus with some pleasant company (read: opposite sex) at odd hours in the night would obviously lead to sleepless nights. ;)) :P

The remainder of the nights being spent in discussing extremely important but non-academics matters like "b-school X is not as good as/is better than ours", "there is no value add in MBA" etc ..or playing TT at 3 AM (which was oficially stopped in our college for some days to artificially induce "academic rigour" ;) :P ) or spent on watching movies which you have seen zillion times already ...

so finally at say 5 in the morning when you manage to pick up a book in your hand its bound to result in this: :))

.. then you somehow manage to get up 5 minutes before the class time and still make it to class ..... with your overworked and underslept look intact when you enter the class ;) .... you sit like a zombie in the class initially trying to make some sense out of your surroundings .... but soon realise that its a futile exercise ... then you peacefully sleep thru the remainder of the class :D ....... which means you also miss out on "matters of academic importance" ..... ..... so no wonder you will end up scurrying around trying to figure out what assignment to complete, what presentation to make etc etc .....

so I finally concluded that the so called "academic rigour in a b-school" is an overstated phenomenon which an average b-schoolers uses to brag in front of lesser mortals who are not blessed enough to be in a b-school :))

but then when I see a mail listing the following "academic" activities to be done in the week ahead over and above the mundane and routine i.e. daily classes, walks on campus, movies/TT at night, discussions on worldly matters etc etc :))

1. Accounts
- Report in hard copy to be submitted tomorrow in Prof. XYZs pigeon hole in the scholars block
- Presentations to begin from Thursdays class

2. Marketing
- Final report containing all 3 sections + executive summary + corrections of first three reviews to be submitted in hard copy to Prof. ABC tomorrow day end/Tuesdays class
- Presentations on the reports to start from Tuesdays lecture
- Group assignment related to analysis of positioning of 3 products of one product type to be submitted on or before next Monday i.e. 17th Sept

3. LAB
- Quiz on companies act tomorrow
- The Lab group assignment has to be submitted by next Mondays class. Please confirm the same with Prof. PQR tomorrow.

4. MicroEco
- Groups 3,4 and 5 to be ready with their presentation on UnderCover Economist for tomorrows extra class from 10:15 AM
- The MicroEco group project has to be submitted right after the end term exams. Kindly reconfirm this in the class tomorrow

5. Stats
- Quiz expected tomorrow

6. HBO
- The HBO project report to be submitted next week I suppose. We will reconfirm this in Tuesdays class
- Harvard case study had been kept in the pigeon holes. Group Presentations on the same from Thursday.

.... I feel maybe this is what they call "Academic Rigour of a b-school" !!! :) :)

PS: by writing such a long post given the above schedule I am also inviting "academic rigour" so I better close it here .... :)) ;)