Monday, August 17, 2009

The question of "fit"



Over at the Tuck Admissions Blog, a prospective askes Suds:

All B-schools speak highly of diversity and fit. To my mind, these are really divergent values and each school has its own answer on how these values converge. As a Tuck student, what would you say is common to all Tuck students that gets them to bond despite the diversity and differences in background, actions and goals?

I want to answer it slightly differently than Suds did.

Most of the commonality among Tuck students is created while at Tuck. The reality is that many students who go to top ten business schools all originate from a similar diverse pool. It is the social insitutions within the school's framwork that cause bonding.

If there is any ex ante commonality to Tuck students, I'd say it is more about latent characteristics which are activated in the group dynamic:

- Willingness to commit yourself completely to a compact and inescapable social environment.

- A desire for a smaller, more entrepreneurial setting.

- Openess to a (temporary) rural life.

I'd say that's pretty much it, but I also view this as an entirely positive. I'm big on diversity of all kinds, as I believe that social evolution depends upon it. If "fit" was really about bringing in students with pre-existing commonality, then I would be against a "fit" doctrine.

No comments:

Post a Comment