Dear Scott,

 

This item from my archives may interest you. You will need to know, to make it complete, that I was "Student # 279". The original of this document is in my archives, should you doubt what you see.

 

 

To:           All First-Year Students

From:       EA-General Operating Group

Subject:   The Graduate Record Examinations

 

Your score on the Graduate Record Examination, "Effectiveness of Expression" Test, is shown below. Your relative rank in your M.B.A. class and a comparison of your performance with national scores can be determined from the attached table.

 

Your score will be kept confidential. It will not be divulged in any way that might influence the evaluation of your efforts at the Harvard Business School.

 

Your score: (Student # 279) ........................................................................ 760

 

Harvard Business School, incoming class, average or arithmetic mean ........... 526

 

National Scores (Senior men, 74 Undergraduate Colleges, all regions) ............ 448

 

For further context, note that at the time, students at the Harvard Business School were culled from the 98th and 99th percentiles of standard tests for I.Q. and that Phi Beta Kappas were a dime a dozen. I shared a single room with my friend Bill Hodgson on the fourth floor of Gallatin Hall. To one side of us were a former Boston Celtics basketball player and a Norwegian Olympic skiing gold medalist, both Phi Betes. To our other side, 3 of the 4 suite-mates were Phi Betes. Bill and Brad were not.

 

.brad.02 feb09.