By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

Don’t blame the culture of Wall Street or the lure of large bonuses, the greed characterized in Oliver Stone’s film, “Wall Street” (he’s filming the sequel today). Don’t blame Michael Douglas. He was just acting. Don’t blame the drowsy regulators revolving in the SEC revolving door. Blame the business schools.

Aggressive high stakes businesses do not train on the job. New recruits are well-prepared for this environment with a combination of academic rigor and internships that either break their backs, sending them home to Mommy, or toughens them beyond Mommy’s recognition.

The good ones set a high standard and the others lag woefully behind to the point that MBAs are not alike in any way…check the label first.

Let’s peer into the curriculums and cultures of Wharton and the Harvard School. The tough, no nonsense pragmatism starts at places like this. People who attend these schools are bright and competitive. Their professors prepare them well academically and even job-wise. Both schools have aggressive, successful internship and placement programs. Placement suffers this year for obvious reasons. Fear not, graduates. Keep your diploma at the ready. You’ll be first in line.

Let the B-list graduates weigh-in on this discussion. We may even have a few A-listers out there with time to write. What do you think? Does our business culture, such as it is, form at institutions like Wharton and Harvard? And if so, should we perhaps send clipboard armed regulators there to monitor lectures and seminars, as a sort of culture oversight? Did your professors have a clue about the real world? Was your first job like a chilling dip in the Maine surf in October?