Entries from July 2008 ↓
July 31st, 2008 — Accounting, Textbooks, UF MBA
Every student admitted to the two-year program at UF is expected to bone up on his or her accounting skills prior to setting foot on campus. We’re given two options, either take an introductory accounting course at a local community college or buy the Essentials of Accounting workbook. UF strongly encourages us to take the community college class but that wasn’t a realistic option for me so I went with the workbook.
That might have been a mistake.
This book was preposterously easy to complete and its possible, err probable, that I didn’t learn anything. The questions in the book are almost entirely fill-in-the-blank questions and each blank is typically pre-filled with the first letter of the answer. Also, each question is preceded by a statement that includes the answer. Sounds easy, right? That’s because it is easy. My two-week old nephew could pass a pop quiz on the material covered in this book. Take a look at this question pulled from the chapter involving debits and credits.
In the language of accounting, the left side of an account is called the debit side, and the right side is called the credit side. Thus, instead of saying that increases in cash are recorded on the left side of the Cash account and decreases are recorded on the right side, accountants say that increases are recorded on the ________ side and decreases are recorded on the ________ side.
I blew through this Mad Libs version of accounting in a matter of days, missing only three questions along the way. I know I must have learned some accounting, it would be impossible not to have since the material is repeated ad nausem. However, I can’t shake the feeling that I only acquired a superficial knowledge of accounting and that come day two I’ll be lost.
I hope I didn’t screw up my MBA by not going to community college. Accounting can’t be this easy.
July 29th, 2008 — Etcetera, Images
UF has been ranked the number one party school in America by The Princeton Review. (Check out the rest of the top twenty here). I’m sure this idiot put us over the top.
July 25th, 2008 — Links
July 23rd, 2008 — GMAT
I’m all for tight security to minimize cheating on a test as important as the GMAT, but the new security measures GMAC is rolling this month are ridiculous.
“For decades, the world’s leading business schools have relied upon the GMAT exam as the best predictor of a candidate’s academic success. We have an ethical responsibility to business schools and students to preserve the integrity of the GMAT and the application process, so insuring the highest level of security is critical. Pearson VUE is an excellent partner in this capacity because it, too, places an emphasis on security and responsibility to our customers. PalmSecure helps us respond to the needs of our international marketplace. It is a more accurate, more efficient, and less invasive way to ensure that each test taker has a single GMAT record, thus preventing individuals from taking the test for others.”
GMAC rolls out the handprint scan program in India and Korea this month and will expand the program to the U.S. by the fall. Lovely.
July 23rd, 2008 — Images, Marketing
This great visual from Sam Lawrence shows you everything you need to know about the state of marketing in 2008. As marketing continues to expand its relationship with conversational media we’ll need a new set of metrics to measure effectiveness. A shift from quantitative statistics to tonality and subject matter of mentions is inevitable.
July 21st, 2008 — GMAT, Images
NFL Average Wonderlic Scores by Position
Check this interesting graphical representation of the average NFL Wonderlic score by position. The Wonderlic test is basically the NFL’s version of the GMAT. A high Wonderlic score can improve a players draft stock and land them a large pay day just like a high GMAT score can help get you into the business school of your dreams. However, the GMAT isn’t the only factor an Adcom analyzes in your business school application and the Wonderlic isn’t the only factor an NFL team analyzes when making a draft pick. In fact, you could argue a lot of NFL teams ignore a player’s Wonderlic score. Vince Young reportedly scored a six (out of a possible fifty) on the Wonderlic in 2006 and was still drafted 3rd overall by the Tennessee Titans. The Titans obviously valued his experience and leadership ability over a simple score on a scantron. That was wise of them. Today, if the NFL held that draft again, Vince Young would be drafted first overall.
It’s interesting to note in the infographic that the faster position players, the wide receivers and defensive backs, have lower average Wonderlic scores than their teammates on the line. Perhaps brains and brawn are not mutually exclusive after all?
Source of Infographic: Ben Fry (via Richard Florida)
July 18th, 2008 — Links
July 16th, 2008 — Marketing, Videos
July 11th, 2008 — Links
July 9th, 2008 — Computers, UF MBA
One of the reasons I am excited about business school is that it gives me a solid excuse to get a new computer. I’ve been abusing an iBook for the last three years and I’m not sure how much life is left in her, so the timing is great. However UF, and most other MBA programs, requires its students to own a laptop that runs either Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional. Well, that’s a problem for me because I made the switch to Apple three years ago and haven’t looked back.
I could learn to accept Windows again if I had to, but do I really want to? The switch back to Windows wouldn’t be easy. All of my multimedia is stored on a mac-formatted hard drive, so I wouldn’t be able to access my songs and photos from a PC. Also, Apple’s design and user interface is second to none, so a switch from OS X to Windows would be a regression in user experience. Finally, if I bought a Windows PC it would come pre-installed with Vista, which seems to be the most hated operating system in the history of mankind.
So what to do? I can’t keep my old iBook because it doesn’t meet UF’s minimum hardware requirements, nor does it run Windows. I don’t want to buy a Windows PC because Vista sucks and my entire digital life is formatted for a Mac. Thankfully Apple gives me a solution: The new generation of Apple computers are capable of running Windows! Just install Windows, in my case an old version of XP Professional, on your Apple hard drive and upon start-up chose to launch Windows instead of OS X. According to PC World it does a damn fine job. I spoke to the IT department at UF and they agreed this set-up would meet the business school’s requirements, but cautioned me against it because most of the IT staff is not trained to troubleshoot Apple computers.
“Nearly 80% of businesses have Macs in-house, nearly double the percentage that said they had users running Mac OS X two years ago.”
–ComputerWorld 06/28/08
The reason business schools require students to own a Windows based PC is because most companies run their business on Windows. Historically speaking this is true. However, according to ComputerWorld, “Nearly 80% of businesses have Macs in-house, nearly double the percentage that said they had users running Mac OS X two years ago.” This penetration percentage isn’t going to decrease in the future. Students graduating from college today grew up on iPods and many of them now own, or plan on owning, an Apple computer. This workforce is going to demand the right to use Apples at work and companies will either acquiesce or lose talent to more progressive competitors. (sources: BusinessWeek and CIO)
I would rather push the envelope now than receive the memo later, so I rolled a hard six and put in an order for a new Macbook Pro. Clearly Apple is making gains on Windows in the business world. Within the next five to ten years I think every workplace will have integrated Apple computers into their network and employees will have the option to work on either an Apple or a Windows PC. By that time the iPhone will probably have at least a 50% share of the smartphone enterprise market too, but that is another post for another day.
