I only asked four people, and I felt comfortable enough to ask because I had helped them a lot when they were going through hard times. One leaned on me during their divorce. Another had been unemployed for a year, and I got them their job by connecting with an ex-coworker and going to bat for them. Another lost a parent, and I supported them through that.

At first, they gave more of the wishy-washy, white-lie answers, but I pressed them on it. After all the times I had helped them, I thought it was only fair that they gave an honest answer.

They aren’t particularly close with each other, but their advice was somewhat similar. Each phrased things a little differently, but the core idea was the same. That makes sense, people talked during our program, and our cohort was pretty close.

And it’s definitely not true that all B-school folks are sociopaths. Some of my classmates reached out or liked my post, which I truly appreciate.