Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Master Classes

This post is in response to a blog comment I received from 'Tommy'. He asked me to explain the master classes that are offered at Columbia. Here is the description from the website:

Master Classes are hands-on, project-based electives designed to challenge students to creatively integrate concepts learned across the core curriculum and apply them to contemporary business problems. More than a passive study or report, Master Class projects require students to make managerial decisions or recommendations. Master Classes are integrally tied to external organizations that evaluate and consider students’ recommendations.

Each Master Class focuses on a specific industry context (e.g. media, real-estate, consulting) and draws significant input from the professional community via group projects, guest speakers, adjunct faculty and alumni participation. With substantial projects and practitioner involvement, Master Classes provide students with a unique exposure to the current realities of the business world.


One of the more popular master classes is the Strategy Consulting Skills class taught by Professor Wadhwa. The students are broken up into groups and each does real a strategy consulting project for a client, with the professor acting as a mentor and teaching them frameworks (Prof. Wadhwa used to be a consultant w/McKinsey). I have a clustermate who took the course and said it was quite good.

This coming semester there are some other master classes happening, including Entrepreneurship in Africa, which culminates with a trip to Africa over the winter break. Here's another one that sounded interesting related to macro investing.

Hope this helps!

1 comment:

kpmg said...

Hi John..

I'm applying to Columbia ED round and would like to be able to discuss the classes with you? Would you be willing to talk about them? If you are, I would really appreciate it very much.

Please email me at hopeful.wannabe (at) gmail.com

Thanks and all the best!

Wannabe