I attended the QS World MBA Tour event yesterday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and had a chance to meet one on one with admissions teams from Rotman School of Business (University of Toronto), Schulich School of Business (York University), Richard Ivey School of Business (University of Western Ontario), and Queen’s School of Business (Queen’s University). I quickly fell in love with Rotman, Ivey, and Schulich, and will likely apply to all three schools.
Queen’s on the other hand, quickly left a sour taste in my mouth. So sour that I am now writing a few lines here to broadcast my distaste for them so that it is documented somewhere on the internet. After all, the internet makes an excellent vehicle for the spread of (negative) opinions. The gentleman I spoke with, who was sadly the Director of the MBA program himself was disrespectful and condescending and operated like an arrogant fool. I was turned off by the school within 15 minutes of speaking with this so-called ‘Director’ and am now struggling to understand how the school has entrusted him with their MBA program. And worst yet, placed him in a customer-facing environment (customers in this case, are potential applicants and candidates who are deciding on the best institution to invest $70,000 with. In business, we call them prospects.) Is this not a business and is that truly how you represent your brand? It was like a tutorial on how to destroy your brand in 15 minutes. Or, maybe to give the benefit of the doubt, perhaps the man was bitter about working on a Saturday. In any case, Mr. Director, it’s time to get off your high horse and ease up on that false illusion of prestige in your head. It doesn’t matter how great the school may truly be (and I’ll never have the slightest desire to find out). If they’ve chosen to have individuals like this man represent the face of the school, then negative, unwanted perception will inevitably develop and spread and we all know that perception is very much reality. I hate to break it to you but Ivey, Schulich, and Rotman have you beat, starting with just the very basics of operating with humility and treating potential candidates and applicants with the utmost respect. In fact, Schulich took it one step further by positioning themselves to be privileged to have our interest in their program. For what it’s worth, thank you to the representatives from Rotman, Ivey, and Schulich for an informative and pleasant experience.
Back to photography. Another one of those crazy large spiders in Costa Rica with heavy duty webs that practically require scissors to destroy! Happy Sunday!
