MBA Quant Experience

Back in March, I posted about an article I read about mindsets written by Carol Dweck.  Since then, I've read her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.  It's a quick, engaging, and wide-ranging read.  I believe that it is extremely relevant to understanding how MBA students react to the overwhelming rigor of the MBA first year.  I'll start with a quick post containing an anecdote from the book and then I'll provide an overview of the book's structure and some definitions in a separate post.

Basking in the warm, self-affirming glow of their hard-earned acceptances to top MBA programs, admitted students will soon need to leave behind the big-picture talk about career goals and get down to the nitty gritty of a fast-paced curriculum that includes demanding quantitative courses in finance, accounting, economics, statistics, and decision science.

I'll shift references from medical school to business school in one of Dweck's anecdotes to address incoming MBAs more directly:

Most students started out pretty interested in [business].  Yet over the semester, something happened.  Students with the fixed mindset stayed interested only when they did well right away.  Those who found it difficult showed a big drop in their interest and enjoyment.  If it wasn't a testimony to their intelligence, they couldn't enjoy it.

"The harder it gets," reported one student, "the more I have to force myself to read the book and study for the tests.  I was excited about [business] before, but now every time I think about it, I get a bad feeling in my stomach."

In contrast, students with the growth mindset continued to show the same high level of interest even when they found the work very challenging.  "It's a lot more difficult for me than I thought it would be, but it's what I want to do, so that only makes me more determined.  When they tell me I can't, it really gets me going."  Challenge and interest went hand in hand.