MBA students may have to surrender and learn calculus

[mikea]

When I was in EE school they called it pre-business because so many switched to business after the first calculus class.

Now those "Boss school" students are having to think about training for real jobs:

As Wall Street continues to buckle and choke on the mortgage crisis, many MBA students are rethinking the path to finance jobs with six-figure starting salaries and bonuses that can push annual earnings past $200,000.
biz
Though MBA students are seeing Wall Street offers vanish in the financial crisis, they are learning to switch gears and are staying guardedly optimistic, say the nation's top business schools.

Overnight, many students have been forced to abandon their hopes for "dream jobs" as investment bankers, switching gears and looking at new options.

...
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5868400&page=1

Where are the Wall Street wizards of tomorrow going to come from?

 

[wsuffa]

Where are the Wall Street wizards of tomorrow going to come from?

Same place as always. Harvard. Old boys network.

 

[SkyHog]

I think its a bit early to declare that we, as a nation, are screwed enough to warrant these people jumping majors.

If they want to? Let 'em, my roommate and I will continue plugging away at Business Admin and laugh when this blows over.

 

[AirBaker]

*sigh* As if your actual degree defined what your job would be...

 

[flyersfan31]

No need for calculus. I haven't used it in the more than 20yrs since I struggled through it (and yes, I was in the B-School calc class, not the engineering class). Now algebra, that's a different story. I used it all the time at work. Calc - eh, fuggedaboutit.

This is a cycle that has repeated itself time and time again. Bschool students are bailing on IBanking. That just means they'll do marketing, or consulting, or maybe ops. It happened in 1987 - IBanks stopped hiring, so the IBanker wannabes all bailed into interviewing for consulting, increasing the competition for jobs. Happened again in 1992-3. I'm familiar with those dates because I happened to be in the job market post college and post grad school.

They'll be back. Ibanking is on a low cycle. It'll start all over soon enough.

 

[gprellwitz]

Okay, some of you know this geek love story.

Leslie and I MET in Calculus class! We were the only two in the room who carried Texas Instrument calculators in a sea of Hewlett-Packards! (Of course many will argue that if we didn't have HPs we weren't really geeks!)

Don't remember much about the class anymore, though!

And she did go on to get her MBA.

 

[flyersfan31]

Okay, some of you know this geek love story.

Leslie and I MET in Calculus class! We were the only two in the room who carried Texas Instrument calculators in a sea of Hewlett-Packards! (Of course many will argue that if we didn't have HPs we weren't really geeks!)

Don't remember much about the class anymore, though!

And she did go on to get her MBA.

Funny, my wife and I met over Calculus too.

She was studying while working in the commissary in our dorm. I walked in, noticed her studying Calc, made some remark. She said it was easy, because she had AP Calc in high school. I told her she was the kind of person I hated - raising the curve in the BSchool calc class.

23 yrs later we're still together.

 

[AuntPeggy]

I took calculus in B-school. Fortunately, never used it, which has kept me free from the financial disaster that derivatives have brought.

As a business school student, I tutored some engineering students in solving matrices and other finite math principles. I was amazed to find that E-school taught finite math so shallowly. So, we all have our own conceits.

 

[wabower]

It wasn't because calc was that hard, it was because we all looked around at who else was there and figured any other major had to offer a more socially adept group to hang with.

But we had it easier back then. All the Engine school dorks had their 4' slide rules hanging from their belt, easier to spot.

When I was in EE school they called it pre-business because so many switched to business after the first calculus class.

Now those "Boss school" students are having to think about training for real jobs:


Where are the Wall Street wizards of tomorrow going to come from?

 

[mikea]

It wasn't because calc was that hard, it was because we all looked around at who else was there and figured any other major had to offer a more socially adept group to hang with.

But we had it easier back then. All the Engine school dorks had their 4' slide rules hanging from their belt, easier to spot.

Yep. At the time I came along one of my buddies bought the HP45 for $450(!)....and called me up and told me how he could punch in sin(x)+cos(x) (?) and get 1!

 

[mikea]

Uh, oh. They're saying they'll switch back to IT after they all went to business after the dot com busts.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9115616

 

[Trapper John]

Yep. At the time i came along one of my buddies bought the HP45 for $450(!)....and called me up and told me how he could punch in sin(x)+cos(x) (?) and get 1!

I think that's sin^2(x) + cos^2(x) = 1

Although in the good old HP RPN, it would be:

x
cos
enter
y^x
2
x
sin
enter
y^x
2
+




Trapper John

 

[mikea]

I think that's sin^2(x) + cos^2(x) = 1

Although in the good old HP RPN, it would be:

x
cos
enter
y^x
2
x
sin
enter
y^x
2
+

Geek moment!

As I remember he had to choose a value for x and used 45.

 

[Bill]

Same place as always. Harvard. Old boys network.

Word, sadly.

 

[ScottM]

Yep. At the time I came along one of my buddies bought the HP45 for $450(!)....and called me up and told me how he could punch in sin(x)+cos(x) (?) and get 1!

sin2(x)+cos2(x) and get 1

Fixed it for ya.

Trapper john is right. And technically it equals 12

But that is also equal to 1

 

[ScottM]

I think that's sin^2(x) + cos^2(x) = 1

Although in the good old HP RPN, it would be:

x
cos
enter
y^x
2
x
sin
enter
y^x
2
+




Trapper John

An easier way is


x
cos
x2
x
sin
x2
+

Saves you four key strokes. The pressing of the enter just shifts the cvalue in the x register up tot eh y register. No need to push it. I am unsure if the HP45 had the x2 key but the HP 41 and later models did.

 

[ScottM]

I am unsure if the HP45 had the x2 key but the HP 41 and later models did.

It did {Column 1 Row 2}

 

[mikea]

Don't argue, just use it. http://www.hpmuseum.org/simulate/sim45.htm

Press the Run button on the right.

Man is it weird to use a calculator that way.

And I dig the LED display.

 

[wsuffa]

Well, we DO have a shortage of engineers....