Case Studies.

Up until I came here, I had had no exposure to the case study system. As such, i didnt really know how it worked. A few people i asked said its basically a bunch of notes regarding a particular topic and then there's the cold-call. Most people i spoke to didnt talk so much about the case-study as they did about the dreaded "Cold-Call" I suppose that's a valid enough fear considering that you are in top-notch school and the pressure to sound good is omnipresent.

I've been in my course for nearly 5weeks now. 2 of my courses, Entrepreneurship and Marketing are case-study based. The same proff takes both classes. He only cold-calls in the Marketing case. Luckily, i've not been called in the marketing class, and i've invariably landed up well read for the Etr class.

But the American system of education is interesting to say the least. Highly recommended. I'm in a full-time course with a lot of free time yet i'm not as prepared for my other classes as i should be(it helps that my proff for Etr and Mkt is also my advisor :D )

Opinions on Case-Studies
Its been interesting. Sure its a long read and the numbers at the end of it are often a meaningless jumble of figures, but sometimes the end-notes make for interesting reading(Did you know that by the time he was 17,Dell was earning 18,000 a year! in 1982!!!)
Am i enjoying the case study? You bet!! Proff Kasouf throws out interesting questions and then has us students battle it out with each other(umm we are graded on class participation but that's not important) the quality of ideas put forth is enlightening. My class is not a bunch of students in the same program but a mix of people pursuing different prgorams. So there are a coupla MBAs, a physics major, mech major, Me, an engineer dude with some 15yrs of work-ex thus ensurin he's Head, of whatever, freshers etc etc. There's a lively discussion which the proff augments with notes and videos. He's requested us to not look at how the case ended and to a large part people dont or atleast those that do, are honest enough to admit that they did and this is what they had picked before lookin it up.

Of course,i'm only reading 2 cases a week so i dont know the work-load in b-schools. But for now, Case-Study method it is! :)