再转一篇中欧英国籍在校同学 wing 发表在Finacial Times 上的文章，从国际学生的角度写中欧的学习和生活。
个人很喜欢那句“our destiny is of our own choosing”，态度会决定很多事。
In the blink of an eye, three months have passed since I arrived in Shanghai to begin my MBA at Ceibs. As I look at the rays of the warm evening sun through the library windows and procrastinate over studying for final exams, I ponder a frequent question that has been asked of me of late: ‘Why did you choose to do an MBA in China’?
One of the most commonly known facts about working in China is the importance of interpersonal relationships – connections with people – ‘guanxi’. What is less known is that it is a far more complicated concept than it first seems.
I believe the complication begins with integrating into Chinese culture which is highly diverse. People have their respective local dialects and their way of thinking can sometimes be as varied as the language they speak. I came with the hope of ultimately starting a business based in greater China. I felt that one of the most suitable places to connect with like-minded individuals would be within an established business school in the region.
My first school term has mainly been spent integrating with the diverse student community of 203 individuals. Over one-third are international students, mainly from the US, Korea and India. I have learnt a great deal from one particular member of my project team who was a serial entrepreneur before he decided to enrol in business school. He chose Ceibs because he wanted to learn more about the western approach to management as well as the opportunity it provided to meet potential business partners – both elements he considers vital to further his portfolio of business ventures in the future.
It has been one of my most rewarding experiences to hear about and learn from his experiences (for example in working in a B2B environment in China), as well as getting the opportunity to build a strong relationship based on mutual respect and working together on assignments.
As with most MBA programmes, the significant amount of hours you spend in intensive discussions with your project teams and classmates is a rewarding yet exhausting experience. I cannot shrug off the mental and physical toughness that has been required to balance my new life (integration) and the old one (family and friends). Yet I believe the gains from this 18-month programme will be more than enough to justify all the hard work: strong friendships and a solid professional network, plus the knowledge and skills that will help me start my own business.
As I look around the library, I see classmates working hard to meet their respective aspirations. Each of us understands that the decision to come here has empowered us to change our lives. Now, our destiny is of our own choosing.
同样是wing 在ft上的文章，讲述 The perils of obsession with the grade point average
同样的教育，最后大家所得的，未必是同样的东西， walk our own paths.
I would say that deep self-reflection is a core part of the MBA curriculum. This is because maintaining your personal perspective is potentially one of the most important things during a MBA – to keep your sanity if nothing else!
It is key as there are so many things going on which make it is easy to lose sight of your own path.
This is particularly true at the start of the programme where the academic work generally consumes most of your time and where one of the most commonly heard problems is the over-obsession with grade point average or GPA.
Students are all graded relative to each other (“like a horse-race” as our marketing professor would say) and this naturally leads to a highly competitive environment. Getting a bad grade does not necessarily mean you are not producing good work, but the quality of your work is just not as good as, say, the person next to you (at least in the eyes of the grader). It also means that if the majority of the class is eager to get a good grade, then others need to work hard at the same time to maintain a satisfactory grade.
There is definitely a variety of reasons for wanting to perform well academically. For example, people who have never studied a business or finance-oriented discipline before their MBA would naturally want to put extra emphasis on that part of their learning.
There are also very good quality learning aspects from the course material and performing well relative to your peers in this respect can be very rewarding.
For example, I have greatly benefited from the ‘case method’ of studying. It really helps me to develop a systematic approach to solving real business problems and to present the solution to a wide audience for a wide range of disciplines ranging from marketing, corporate finance to economics.
It often feels that there are too many cases to complete within a given week. However, I believe this is one of the most valuable learning elements of the course as it really simulates a competitive working environment in terms of the time pressure and teamwork, as well as the process of picking up a business problem, solving it and then presenting a final, executable solution.
On the other hand, there is a negative side to the academics structure as well. Many people put a lot of pressure on themselves to obtain a better grade purely because of peer pressure.
Some professors regularly remind us that the GPA is only one element of the learning experience, but there are still many instances where people are trying to adjust their grades and complaining to the professors.
In this context, I believe it is important to reflect on questions such as ‘What am I trying to achieve? What can I do better to improve on the current situation?’
After all, the journey is different for everyone and we should all aim to walk our own paths.
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发表于 2012-12-19 21:50:31
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