# Grad School Problem -- Please Help! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 7, 2008, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grad-school-problem-please-help/448378 "2008-05-07T00:55:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grad-school-problem-please-help/448378/1 "2008-05-07T00:55:34Z")
I have a problem with my grad school – a big one. I’m enrolled in an MBA program in a well-known New York University (no, not NYU). My major is Information Systems and I’m currently finishing up my first semester. I had been considering taking a second major since before I even enrolled (an option the college allows). However, I wasn’t certain which secondary major I wanted to take, so I didn’t declare it right away. This isn’t a problem at the school – you can change your major after enrollment. Having taken some time during the semester to look through the school catalog and speak to some people, I figured that a major in Operations Management would be just the thing. The courses look interesting, it’s something I can see myself being involved in for the next twenty years or so, and it is a good fit/compliment for the IS courses. However, when I went to register for the courses for the Fall Semester, I found that none of them were being offered. A check of the (current) Spring semester and the summer semesters shows that the Management Science courses necessary for this major weren’t being offered either. I spoke to someone in Acedemic Advisement, and they informed me that due to a lack of demand the courses were discontinued quite a while ago. Needless to say, this came as a big surprise to me – it’s still in the school’s catalog, and the school’s website still shows the major and courses. I emailed the Chairman of the Operations Deptartment. Here was his response: > [@](#): > > Zev: Its wonderful to have a student with interest in the important area of Operations Management but unfortunately you are among the few. As someone who helped with the MetroCard in the subway, I can assure any student that Operations Management and Operations Research are alive and well. > > But, at School X they are not. Students generally choose finance (though ironically most of the quantitative models come from management science – just applied to a different topic). > > For you specifically, I can’t offer much. The MBA in management science was to be removed from the catalog but it slipped by during a period of great change at the University. I can’t offer the courses because there are not enough students to take them. So, even if I did, they always got canceled. > > It’s a shame because we end up with students who think no one makes anything (there are only middlemen who ironically worry about the logistics component of operations management) and don’t appreciate the tremendous operations management going on in banks in transaction processing because operations management affects service businesses too. > > But, I don’t have a solution for you. The MBA operations Mgmt is really gone even if the catalog says it exists. We did try to remove it but it slipped by but even if wasn’t gone on paper, I would have ended up canceling so many of the offerings that it would have been effectively gone even if not listed as gone. > > I appreciate the value you place on the degree but student interest effectively hold us both back from doing much about it. I have instructed graduate admissions to discourage students from selecting Operations Management at the MBA level while we work on fixing the catalog. To be honest, I’m more than a bit annoyed. Had I known that the Management courses weren’t going to be available, I might have selected a different school. True, I didn’t ask at the time of enrollment if the program was available, but you’d think that if it’s on the school’s website and in the catalog, then it should be available! But now I’m kind of stuck. I’ve already taken out student loans for this college. I can’t start over at another school – that would just be throwing away the time and money already invested (please don’t bring up “sunk costs”). Does anyone have any suggestions? I’d love to find out if there is any interest in the Operations Management courses so that I could go back to the Chairman and have the courses reinstated, but I have neither the time nor money to start a public relations campaign. Do I have any recourse against the school to force them to offer the classes? Any advice/suggestions are greatly appreciated. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grad-school-problem-please-help/448378/2 "2008-05-07T01:10:33Z")
Would it be possible to talk to the profs in the dept who would have taught the classes and set up a few independent-study or directed-study courses? I don’t know how different an MBA program is from an MA program, but people in my department regularly set up directed study courses for projects/areas they were interested in that didn’t have a regular course… ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grad-school-problem-please-help/448378/3 "2008-05-07T01:11:23Z")
Why shouldn’t I bring up sunk costs? No matter what you do from here on out, the time and money you’ve already spent is gone. The view to take is that you can spend three semesters at a school that doesn’t offer exactly what you want to study, or you can spend four semesters at a school that does (and go through applications again). ---
**Author:** ![sugar\_and\_spice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@sugar\_and\_spice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugar_and_spice)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grad-school-problem-please-help/448378/4 "2008-05-07T01:16:04Z")
Big question: are there faculty still there who are interested in OR? What about in other departments, in Statistics for example? From the email it sounds like they canceled the major because no one was taking the classes, not because there wasn’t anyone to teach them. If that’s correct, then I would recommend setting up an independent study with someone whose work interests you. Another options would following leads and seeing if you can be supervised by someone outside the university. I know the email basically says there is nothing to be done, but I’m assuming the question you were asking was “What happened to this major?”, and not “How can I pursue my interest in Operations Management?”. If that’s correct, maybe write the guy back and frame it that way. To be honest I think having self-motivated experience with a professional can be just as valuable as taking the classes. Anyone can just go buy the book. Seriously, if you can into an interview and talk about how you got up off your ass to do such and such and work with so-and-so, that’s gonna carry a lot of weight. You can even put on your resume, “Not-NYU. MBA. Academic interests: Operations Research and Informations Systems. Major project: Routing and Distribution of Widgets in Narnia”. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grad-school-problem-please-help/448378/5 "2008-05-07T01:16:14Z")
[QUOTE=ultrafilter] Why shouldn’t I bring up sunk costs? [/quote] No good reason really. What annoys me the most is that I wasted the money and it’s not even my fault. I’m out thousands of dollars because the school advertised a product they don’t have. If it was my fault, I could I could just accept it and move on, but this is a different story. I guess it’s just an emotional reaction on my part. > [@](#): > > No matter what you do from here on out, the time and money you’ve already spent is gone. The view to take is that you can spend three semesters at a school that doesn’t offer exactly what you want to study, or you can spend four semesters at a school that does (and go through applications again). Ugh. I _really_ don’t want to go through applications again. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grad-school-problem-please-help/448378/6 "2008-05-07T03:52:50Z")
My husband plans to major in Operations Management for his MBA. He’s taken one semester so far, just like you have. I don’t know if this helps you at all, but I can tell you that it is offered at other schools. Good thing–he’s not especially interested in finance. He’s an engineer, and has spent his entire career in factories. The world needs more people who are interested in us “people who make things”! It sounds like the professor you e-mailed is tired of fighting the fight. I’m a little surprised he didn’t mention some sort of independent study option. If you are dead-set against switching schools, I’d pursue that if it is possible. ---
**Author:** ![Mongo\_Ponton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Mongo\_Ponton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mongo_Ponton)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grad-school-problem-please-help/448378/7 "2008-05-07T04:28:10Z")
You may be able to work something out where you get 2 MBAs from 2 different schools without having to do it all twice. A friend has gotten them from Wharton and Hopkins/Woodrow Wilson simultaneously. I would immediately drop the “whose fault is it” thing and get this figured out fast. 2 schools, a new school, no school, it doesn’t matter. A MBA candidate should be able to burn up some phone lines, use his contacts (including the Chairman), and put in the hours to get this resolved before September. Otherwise go back to work.