I would describe the core values of the students of Baruch as being practical realism, accountability, achievement, ambition, challenge, and commitment. After going through 4 years as a student in this school, I’ve realized that all of these values are essential in order to succeed. To surpass the continuous hardships that Baruch places in our way, you must have the endurance to stick to these values.
The envisioned future of Baruch’s students seems to be sustainable personal growth and success in all ventures that they try to pursue. In “Building Your Company’s Vision”, Collins and Porras did a good job of explaining how necessary having a big, hairy, audacious goal was. I’ve learned that many of us attend Baruch with a grave misconception of just how we will spend our time here. We all have that big goal. We often come thinking we have a “plan” all set out when in reality our plans are often flawed and we are just blind to that fact. We try to see ourselves 5 to 10 and sometimes 15 years from now because that is a constant question asked in Baruch. It isn’t until you face that first “hard professor” that you begin to realize just what it means to work hard and still not see any progression in your plan. It even comes to the point where many of my peers have had to alter their educational and career paths in order to continue on towards the goal of graduating, getting a job, and finally leaving Baruch.
In many ways, Baruch tries to support the goals and dreams of their students, but at the same time they make it nearly impossible for those same students to reach those goals without having their spirits crushed and their values questioned.
Yes, I agree with you that commitment is key at Baruch and in fact for any college. Students need to be committed to school to finish it even if they do not wish to apply all of their effort. But don’t you agree that it may just not be the challenging professor that crushes dreams or changes life paths but instead maybe strategies, goals and interests that are changing? I figure that if your core ideology was focused around your interests, your goals, your major than that would, “provide the glue that holds an organization (or individual) together as it grows (Collin&Porras). Maybe that professor was needed to help you realize the changes and adjustments needed to allign yourself properly with values and goals.
I agree with your sentiment that at times Baruch can crush ones spirit. I myself have experienced its effects which were most notably felt in my calculus class, in which EVERY class the professor apologized to us non-math majors that everything we were learning in his class was useless for us in life.
Though I think to your second statement about questioning values, I think that this is where Baruch shines, for introspection is one of the most important ways to grow as a person and it is only through questioning ones core values and seeing if they align with what you now know that we can become successful professionals, so to that point I thank Baruch.