<p>Sloan School of Management is a cash cow because of its MBA program…I’m guessing that over the past fifty years, MIT improved the Sloan School by funneling the revenue into improving the faculty and program. Later they were able to add an undergrad management program because they had already hired qualified faculty to teach in the business school.</p>
<p>Caltech isn’t starting with the business school, recruiting faculty, and then offering an undergrad major. It’s hiring people who are willing to teach business management courses at an institute that has no business management school. (And very few BEM majors for that matter.) The phrase “those who can’t do, teach” applies well to people who hold MBAs…why would you turn down a well-paying career in business to teach a few courses here in Pasadena? It’s hard to build a reputation for an undergrad business major when you can’t hire very many qualified faculty because you don’t have a business school. (And virtually no BEM majors to justify the hire.)</p>
<p>Caltech already offers economics, political science, and business management as undergrad majors, but funneling money into those programs to improve them isn’t a top funding priority for Caltech right now. They’re hardly the worst of the HSS majors we offer, though. We also offer English - can you imagine trying to get into an English Lit Ph.D. program with a BS in English from Caltech? How about History?</p>