Since I got here, I have been more flustered and confused over the acronyms that are used here than over the cases. At the risk of sounding stupid, I will mention a few that I’ve struggled with thus far: I thought “EC” meant “Extra Curricular”-didn’t know how it was used…thought maybe you take your RC courses and with luck, would have some time for some EC during second semester. Jake, our accounting-for-those-who-don’t-know-accounting professor, asked us what “FRC” meant. As the class chanted unanimously, “Financial Reporting and Control,” I said, “Finance for Required Curriculum” (They were right. I was wrong. I don’t think anyone heard, though). And when Rawi, my Modern Cap professor, mentioned “TOM” today in class, I thought rather confidently to myself, “That must be Tools of Marketing!”
I would be more embarrassed of my ignorance except that ONLY Harvard Business School, or shall I say HBS, students would laugh. These acronyms are hard to get used to. And for those over-achievers in the class of 2003, here’s a short pop quiz. Let’s see you how you fare:
1. LVDM (starts out easy)
2. TOM
3. ID4
4. LEAD
5. BGIE (Ahh…thought that
was “Big E” for “Big Economy”. Oops again.)
6. S&E
7. EC
8. ELC
9. GMAT
10. C&S
All of the answers are in the HARBUS handbook and no question we’ll get the hang of these acronyms since most of them are names of our classes, but there are a lot of them to remember. Here are the answers if you need them: 1. Leadership, Values and Decision-making; 2. Technology and Operations Management; 3. Independence Day (the movie with Will Smith…trick question); 4. Leadership and Organizational Behavior (not even an acronym!); 5. Business Government and the International Economy; 6. Society & Enterprise; 7. Elective Curriculum; 8. My initials (sorry. Another trick question); 9. the test we took to get in here. I actually don’t remember what this stands for. Something-something-aptitude test?; 10. Competition & Strategy.
If you got them all right, Congratulations. You are a star…or a very strange person. If not, don’t worry. They told us in Foundations Special that none of us were admission mistakes!
