To get their degrees, MBA students must listen to six online lectures on beef production and do homework assignments such as writing a pro-beef letter to the local paper.

WSJ: Beef Industry Carves a Course

The review, which kicked off Zelda's writing career and led to several more magazine assignments, surfaces in several of the new novels.

WSJ: Zelda Fitzgerald's Moment

These short-term assignments must get done fast--designing filter algorithms for digital signal processors, say, or writing software for Internet-based phone calls.

FORBES: Hello brain. Good-bye rules.