In Peter Bryne’s blog post, Marks No Longer Necessary?, he discusses his concerns about Wharton University’s unwillingness to release marks to potential employers. He criticizes the unfairness of the system that Wharton has established in order to protect their “selective reputation”. In addition, by not releasing information about how well their students perform in their academics, employers must consider students based on their extracurricular activities and the reputation of their school.
Although I agree that academic proficiency is essential to a business student’s profile, I disagree that considering extracurricular involvement in order to determine employment opportunities is unjust to all business students. I believe that the epitome of a well-rounded businessman is one who harbors a combination of both hard and soft skills.
It is important for business students not to hone all their energy into their academics, but to also gain experience from participating in external business related conferences or activities that may add to his/her portfolio. In fact, even if one were to apply to a job completely unrelated to business, employers would be much more inclined to view what they have achieved and what skills they bring, instead of a reported % grade that indicates whether or not they have survived school.