To the Editor:
At Bridgewater Associates, we place a high value on accuracy and feel the need to correct even small inaccuracies so that misimpressions do not linger. In Tuesday's paper, Andrew Lohse recounts an anecdote in which a Dartmouth student was purportedly paid $100 by Bridgewater Associates "to write a statement explaining why she didn't participate in sophomore Summer corporate recruiting."
That statement is inaccurate in the impression it leaves. Here is what happened:
Earlier this year, as part of our continuous efforts to improve our recruiting on college campuses, we conducted focus groups at several schools designed to solicit the opinions of upperclassmen as to how they thought about their career options. We also wanted to know if students had an accurate picture of Bridgewater and whether there were better ways for us to find high-quality talent on campus. In general, these sessions yielded a lot of insight for us.
At Dartmouth, one of our senior recruiters ran three sessions. In total, we invited 152 students to participate and 33 elected to do so. No one at the sessions was asked to write out statements; instead the sessions were 90-minute conversations among the group. We value people's time and so as a thank you for the time devoted and the opinions shared, we gave each student a gift card worth $100.
Dartmouth has been a great source of talented people for Bridgewater, and we invite those who would like to understand us better to please take a look at our website.
