Everyone needs grades

The Harvard Business School recently decided that its MBA students will soon be accountable for one of the staples of any education: their grades. Administrators at the Wharton School should take the hint.

Like Harvard students, Wharton MBA students have always earned grades.

But in 1994, our elite business school decided that its students were no longer allowed to distribute grades to potential employers during the job search process.

The school had reached the point where its students were of such high caliber that employers would allow themselves to rely solely on other factors, such as personal interviews, experience and recommendations.

This policy has dampened the academic environment at the institution, and Wharton would bolster the reputation of the school, and its students, by changing its policy.

Sure, the 1994 decision was undoubtedly laced with idealism. Encouraging MBAs to take difficult classes without fear of bad grades and making recruiting more than simply a numbers game are noble pursuits. What administrators did not take into account was that grand ideas do not always work in the real world.

We applaud efforts to try and move the focus of education away from As, Bs and Cs and toward a stronger emphasis on learning, but not forcing students to be accountable for their performance is an unsustainable practice.

Only a few years removed from corporate ethics scandals -- one of which involved a Wharton alumnus -- Wharton should be doing its part to ensure its students, many of who will be leaders in their fields, learn accountability.

The current policy protects MBA students who only do the minimum work required.

The University should not be protecting lazy students from repercussions.

When MBAs only need to pass a class, there is little incentive to do well and to work hard -- stifling what should be a vibrant academic climate.

It is also unfair to both employers -- who deserve a track record of their future employees' performance -- and to other students at the University. When MBAs are put in groups with law or undergraduate students, what incentive do they have to put in equal time and effort when they face no penalties if they do not do so?

Is Wharton trying to say that its degree alone is enough to carry its students through life, no matter how hard they worked?

For the sake of everyone involved, Wharton's prized MBA students should have to face up to their performance.

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