EMBA Grades - The Letters that Count

EMBA Grades - The Letters that Count

“Perfect is the enemy of good”  - Voltaire

As the quote from Voltaire suggests, an obsession with perfection can lead to poor decisions and even worse results. I think about this quote when I talk to Executive MBA students who seem obsessed with earning straight A’s in their studies.

Not too long ago I spoke with an Executive MBA student who was thinking about withdrawing from the program. I wanted to find out why and to see if there was any support we could offer to address the concern that led to this. After all, Executive MBA students sign-up for a demanding balancing act where being successful with studies, career, and family requires a lot of time and work. EMBA programs and faculty are always ready to be as supportive as possible to help students manage this balance. The rationale the student gave me was troubling: “I want to withdraw because I can’t get straight A’s.”

This student was only in his third course in the program (the first with a clear quantitative theme) and had earned A’s on the first two. In our conversation, the student confirmed that he was passing the course but the grades he earned on the first few assignments left it mathematically very difficult to earn sufficient marks over the balance of the course so as to get an A as a final grade. Because of the expectations he placed on himself, earning a B in this course was not an outcome he would allow himself to accept. As you might expect, I encouraged him to take a balanced perspective and think about the end goal of completing the program rather than be so focused on one course. In the end, however, he did choose to walk away from the chance to earn an MBA rather than face the prospect of something other than straight A’s on his transcript.

While an extreme case, sadly, this was not the first time I had this sort of discussion with an EMBA student facing the reality of earning something other than an A in one of the courses. The good news, of course, is that most EMBA students who sign-up for this pressure cooker environment figure it out, have reasonable expectations for themselves, and effectively allocate their attention to balance work, school, and personal life. This allocation process has to be flexible since the demands of each of these parts of an EMBA student’s life will constantly ebb and flow. As the discussion with this student shows, however, there is a subset of EMBA students who don’t get this dynamic balancing act right. One version of this is the student who is obsessed with grades and the pursuit of a straight A’s. Don’t get me wrong: as someone who has taught many course in Executive MBA programs over the past 18 years I enjoying having students who want to do well in my course. What I am referring to here is the student who is obsessed with grades, to the extent that the other parts of this balancing act suffer. Or, as in this case, by focusing on A’s has lost sight of the letters that really count in this endeavor: MBA.

While I am very concerned about this sort of obsession on grades, I understand its origins. The participants attracted to Executive MBA programs are hard working managers and professionals who have high expectations for themselves. I applaud and share a goal-setting sensibility that includes top-level results. That said, setting a self-imposed requirement to always earn an A in every course in a demanding program while simultaneously meeting the demands of your career and personal life is unrealistic.

To help EMBA participants adopt a more realistic and appropriate set of goals I think it might be helpful to offer an interpretation of a typical A/B/C passing grades system. Not all EMBA programs use this specific grading scale, but the interpretations I offer below can be mapped to every grading system when you consider what the range of grades is meant to represent.

A: The grade of “A” is awarded to students who over-deliver. These students do more than just meet the expectations for a course requirement: they exceed those expectations. When expectations are already set high, the only way to over-deliver is to work very hard and devote a great deal of time and energy to this goal. “A” students make a special contribution to the learning of their classmates by extending class discussions, reading and sharing additional material beyond what has been assigned, and urging fellow students to grow through similar efforts. Just like in one’s career, there is no published formula explaining how to over-deliver: exceeding expectations is based on one’s creativity, ingenuity, and dedication. While the participants in EMBA programs represent a highly motivated group of strong achievers, realistically only a minority of participants will choose, or can afford to dedicate the time, to rise to the challenge of over-delivering and earn a grade of “A” on a course.

B: The grade of “B” is awarded to good students whose solid performance has led to them meeting the expectations for a course. Earning a grade of “B” for one’s efforts is an honorable and appropriate result for devoting the time and effort necessary to meet the high standards of a reputable EMBA program. Students who earn a grade of “B” worked hard, carefully read and reviewed the assigned materials, and contributed to the learning of their classmates. These students deserve to be thanked and congratulated for all of their work. Earning this grade should not be a cause of disappointment nor seen as evidence of not having met the expectations for the course. While participants in EMBA programs represent a highly motivated group of strong achievers of which the majority are certainly capable of earning a higher grade by exceeding expectations, the majority of participants will choose to apply the time and effort in order to meet the stated expectations of a course and, as a result, will earn a grade of “B” on a course.

C: The grade of “C” is awarded to students who met only the most basic expectations for learning within a course. To earn this grade, there are several key concepts and techniques in the course – normally the more advanced and sophisticated – that the student failed to properly master. Earning the grade of “C” is normally the result of one or both of the following: (a) the content of the course posed a significant challenge for the student to overcome despite applying (at a minimum) the amount of time and effort normally required to master the material or (b) the student failed to devote the amount of time and effort necessary to properly master the material. Sometimes, demands in the personal or professional lives of EMBA participants require so much time that there simply is not enough left to adequately devote to studies. While such a compromise may be unavoidable, it does not moderate or change the results when a student’s work merits a grade of “C”. Given the high standards and commitment EMBA participants set for themselves, only a small minority of students to earn a grade of “C” on a course.

It may also be helpful for me to reiterate the goal of this blog at this point lest someone erroneously conclude that I am trying to dissuade EMBA students from ever striving for an A in their classes. Like any significant challenge someone might choose to undertake, a participant in an Executive MBA program will get more out of this experience as he or she invests more time and effort. That said, in order to complete this experience and earn an MBA degree it is equally important to approach this undertaking with a realistic plan to balance all the demands on your time. In order to strike that balance, a perfectly acceptable choice is to invest the necessary time and effort to meet the expectations of a course and earn the grade of B in recognition of that success.

Don’t take your eyes off the prize at the end of the race and don’t forget which letters really count when you set yourself down this path.