Tài liệu Trends in MBA Admissions: Perceptions of Admissions Officers at Top 30 Business Schools pdf

Veritas Prep Presents:Trends in MBA Admissions: Perceptions of Admissions Officers at Top 30 Business Schools A white paper analyzing the issues and perceptions among admissions officer

Veritas Prep Presents:

Trends in MBA Admissions:

Perceptions of Admissions Officers

at Top 30 Business Schools

A white paper analyzing the issues and perceptions among admissions officers

at the leading U.S business schools to provide prospective students with the insight

to improve their chances for admission in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Introduction 1

Selected Results

Student Applications 2

Student Evaluation Criteria 3

What Admissions Officers Want 6

The Emerging Role of Parents

in the Student Application Process 8

Conclusion ……….9

Table of Contents

“Understanding the issues and perceptions among admissions officers at the leading MBA programs provides prospective students with the knowledge and insight to improve their chances for admission.”

Introduction

Application volume continues to climb as the economy slumps

The applicant pool is becoming more diverse Demand for various

types of graduate business education grows as applicants look for

more flexible learning options To spread their bets and improve

their chances of admissions success, applicants are applying to

more schools than ever before Clearly, gaining admission to a

graduate business program is getting more and more difficult

Business school applicants face a myriad of challenges and

con-siderations throughout the graduate admissions process As the

world’s fastest-growing GMAT preparation and MBA admissions

consulting provider, Veritas Prep is committed to helping

ap-plicants leverage their academic and personal strengths to gain

admission into the top business schools in the world, via sound

intelligence and thorough preparation Understanding the issues

and perceptions among admissions officers at the leading MBA

programs provides prospective students with the knowledge and

insight to improve their chances for admission

This white paper highlights notable findings from the Veritas Prep

Survey of MBA Admissions Officers, an eight-week online survey

conducted during the 2008-09 admissions cycle among the top

30 business schools in the United States, according to bi-annual

rankings compiled by BusinessWeek Based on responses from

admissions officers at over half of the top 30 business schools

nationwide, the survey sought to glean current trends in the

ap-plication process The result is an enlightening snapshot of where

the MBA admissions landscape is currently, and where it is likely

headed in the next five years

Student Applications

The MBA application process at top 30 U.S business schools can

be a complex and arduous exercise Today, business schools re-ceive more applications than ever before for the same number of available seats, and the applicant demographic is shifting younger

as applicants try to outmaneuver one another for an advantage in the process In this dynamic landscape, applicants are urged to avoid common mistakes that irk admissions officers and jeopar-dize their chances of admission

• Careless errors (81%) ranked as the top faux pas com-

mitted by applicants Inconsistency between institution- al choice and students’ educational objectives and ambi-tions ranked second, and the inclusion of unrequested items and inappropriate interview conduct tied as the third most common application faux pas.

• Forty three percent said they would not prefer a larger applicant pool.

• Almost half of respondents (47%) report that the num-ber of admits straight out of college has significantly or moderately increased compared to five years ago.

How to Use It to Your Advantage

The volume of MBA applications continues to rise and shift to-ward a younger demographic, reflected by a push at many top business schools to attract younger applicants through initiatives like Harvard Business School’s 2+2 program Interestingly, nearly half of MBA admissions officers report that they would not prefer

a larger applicant pool, suggesting that applicant quality is more important than sheer quantity As admissions competition contin-ues to grow at top U.S business schools, quality rather than quan-tity may be what admissions officers are most concerned about when it comes to attracting applicants

In a dynamic admissions landscape, one of the primary drivers

of admissions success is static and unchanging—an effective, error-free application While it may seem rudimentary, applicants are encouraged to thoroughly proofread their applications for careless errors and enlist trusted friends, family, colleagues or a skilled admissions consultant to do the same to avoid the number one most common application faux pas Applicants also need to resist the temptation to copy and paste material from one appli-cation to another, or to decide that an essay is “good enough.” Misspellings, inaccurate uses of grammar or blatant inattention

to posted directions—all of which can be perceived as signs of a lack of enthusiasm for a program or a lack of aptitude—can easily overshadow even the best of essays or resumes An extra round

of proofreading may be the difference between getting admitted

to or rejected by a world-class MBA program

“As admissions competition continues

to grow at top U.S business

schools, quality rather than quantity may be what

admissions officers are most

concerned about when it comes

to attracting applicants.”

Student Evaluation Criteria

Admissions officers at top MBA programs evaluate applicants on

a wide scope of characteristics from GMAT score to community

service to professional experience In many cases, candidates will

enlist the help of an admissions consultant for guidance in creating

the very best application possible, highlighting their strengths in

key areas and positioning themselves as viable prospects

• The importance of analytical skills (50%) ranked ahead of

leadership (19%) in student selection.

Relative Importance of Student Selection Characteristics

25%

Interpersonal Skills

6%Maturity

50%

Analytical Skills

19%

Leadership

•

Professional experience (63%) is the most important fac-tor in student selection Community service (6%), which

traditionally ranks high, is reportedly the least important

selection criterion.

Least Important and Most Important

Student Selection Criteria

Least Important Most Important

Professional Experience

Standardized Test Scores Extracurricular

Activities Community Service

“The importance of institutional priorities in the admission process is a significant cue for applicants that the school’s needs

matter as much in the admissions process as do the applicants’ needs.”

“Admissions officers look for applicants who

display leadership in all

aspects of their lives‚

not just on the job.”

• Seventy percent of admissions officers feel that admis-sions consultants help students identify the programs with which they fit best and clarify their career goals.

• Ninety-two percent of admissions officers are aware that applicants use admissions consultants more often than they did five years ago.

• Eighty percent of respondents said that institutional pri-orities and enrollment goals are more important than or

as important as an individual applicant’s merit

How to Use It to Your Advantage

The importance of institutional priorities in the admission process

is a significant cue for applicants that the school’s needs matter as much in the admissions process as do the applicants’ needs For example, a school that has committed itself to increasing classroom diversity may pass on an otherwise strong applicant if the applicant comes from a professional background that is already well repre-sented in the entering class Therefore, it is crucial for applicants to clarify their career goals and identify programs with which they fit best This requires that applicants perform a great deal of introspec-tion to determine what they really want from an MBA program It also requires a great deal of research, so that applicants know what exactly each business school has to offer

From previous research, Veritas Prep has found that MBA admis-sions officers consistently look for four traits that have shown to be predictive of an applicant’s success in the business school classroom and beyond While schools differ in how much emphasis they place

on each dimension, demonstrating leadership, innovation, teamwork and maturity are essential to suc cess in the business school applica-tion process

Admissions officers look for applicants who display leadership in all aspects of their lives‚ not just on the job Successful candidates demonstrate leadership in both their professional and personal lives Stating a tendency toward leadership is meaningless unless supported by specific examples A helpful exercise to identify leadership situations involves posing a self-directed question: “What are some positive happenings that would not have occurred if I had not been a part of the process?” Even if examples are seemingly mundane—such as identifying a cost-sav-ings opportunity at work or helping a new colleague navigate his or her assignments—admissions officers will recognize them as signs

of leadership potential

“Applicants should identify themselves as unique and stress how their contribution

to the business school setting will be distinctive, embrac-ing points of difference as opposed to burying them in admissions essays. ”

“Innovation” refers to both traditional intellectual

ability and creativity Naturally, the former is

re-flected in the hard statistics submitted in the

appli-cation, including GMAT scores and undergraduate

GPA Applicants who wish to increase their academic

attractiveness should enroll in a reputable GMAT

prep course to attain a competitive score, and should

enroll in a quantitative course at their local college to demonstrate

the appropriate discipline and intellect to do well in such a course at

the graduate level

MBA admissions officers also want to see evidence of creativity in an

applicant’s background In the traditional sense, “creativity” suggests

musical talent or other artistic abilities, attributes that can certainly

set an applicant apart from the competition However, admissions

of-ficers also look for evidence of creativity in the business sense; in

other words, the ability to look at old problems in new ways

While some people still have the vision of

sharp-elbowed sharks in the typical business school

class-room, the reality is that a team-oriented attitude and

the ability to work well in groups are now baseline

ex-pectations of every applicant Basic social skills and

a willingness to share successes and take

account-ability for failures are skills that make a candidate

at-tractive to an admissions committee, even at schools that do not rely

heavily on team-based projects Highlighting teamwork abilities in

the application might manifest through referencing instances when

objectives were achieved through working together with colleagues

or demonstrating understanding of group dynamics Especially

im-portant for younger candidates, referencing experiences that

high-light collaboration skills can prove tremendously effective if they

lack managerial experience

While the word “maturity” is often used

interchange-ably with “age” and “experience,” admissions

of-ficers value quality over quantity when it comes to

experience One of the most rewarding aspects of

the business school experience is that students teach

one another based on their respective backgrounds

Therefore, admissions committees look for mature

candidates who have something to teach their peers, but are also

willing to learn from them as well

What Admissions Officers Want

Among the various challenges that plague admissions committees

at leading schools, creating classes consisting of diverse, qualified students is an issue of primary concern In fact, almost half of ad-missions officers predict the application process will evolve over the coming cycles to identify ideal candidates and yield improved admis-sions outcomes

• The biggest challenges institutions face are attracting more highly-qualified students (33%) and supporting cultural diversity (33%).

Challenges Facing Admissions Departments

at Top Business Schools

8% Increasing student preparedness

26%

Other

33%

Attracting more highly-qualified students

33%

Supporting cultural diversity

• Among desired changes that admissions officers would like to see in their applicant pool, diversity ranks number one (87%).

• Admissions officers would like to see the student applica- tion process include more face-to-face or telephone inter-views in the next five years (60%) While a slight majority

of admissions officers see the application process becom-ing less complex, almost half (47%) believe the application process will actually become more complex in the coming years.

How to Use It to Your Advantage

Fostering a greater diversity of viewpoints in the executive suite is a strategic priority in business, and accordingly, cultivating diversity in each entering class is a key priority for business schools Students hailing from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances create a vibrant learning environment and reflect the makeup of today’s busi-ness world

The term “diversity” is a bit cliché in the 21st century, the traditional concept of which typically alludes solely to differences in gender or race Today’s notion of diversity, however, transcends sex and eth-nic origin to encompass a variety of other characteristics that yield a

“Admissions officers would like to see the student application process

include more face-to-face or

telephone interviews in

the next five years.”

Applicants should identify themselves as unique and stress how

their contribution to the business school setting will be distinctive,

embracing points of difference as opposed to burying them in

ad-missions essays After all, the very things that make them different

could be what scores them a seat in a desirable MBA program

Additionally, applicants should prepare themselves to adapt to

changes in the dynamic MBA admissions process While there is

generally a lack of consensus among admissions officers as to what

exactly those changes will entail, they agree on one aspect—more

interviews As the applicant pool continues to get stronger every

year, business school admissions officers need more powerful

mechanisms to separate the great candidates from the good

can-didates, and interviews are an ideal instrument through which to

do so The purpose of an interview is not to see how well applicants

act under pressure or to try or trick them into revealing something

unfavorable about themselves; rather, interviews present a way to

reinforce the components of the application, helping the admissions

committee put a face and personality to the application

The beauty of the business school interview is that applicants are

the foremost experts themselves—they know why they have made

the decisions that have led them to applying to an MBA program,

what their unique strengths are and where they want to go next in

their careers The challenge, however, is figuring out how to best

communicate this information to the interviewer and eloquently tell

stories from the past that best illustrate the applicant’s abilities

de-spite time constraints

While every school looks for slightly different attributes in its

appli-cants, admissions officers will generally use the interview to answer

a few key questions about prospective students:

• Are they who they say they are in their

The Emerging Role of Parents in the Student Application Process

“Helicopter parent” behavior—the activities of mothers and fathers who are overly involved in their children’s admissions applications— has recently come to the attention of business school admissions of-ficers As the millennial generation (those students born in or after 1982) begins to apply to MBA programs, this trend is expected to accelerate

• Sixty-seven percent of admissions officers surveyed said that parents are more involved in their children’s applica-tions than they were five years ago.

How to Use It to Your Advantage

While the intentions of over-involved helicopter parents are generally benevolent, such intervention can negatively impact their student’s chances of admission Graduate school admissions officers are be-coming increasingly sensitive to how well an applicant has defined his or her career goals and reasons for wanting to attend business school separate from those of their parents, and when parents lead their child through the application process, this lack of introspec-tion often emerges in the applicant’s admissions essays or evaluative interview

However, over-involved parents do not have to jeopardize admission for MBA applicants if they adhere to the core tenets of positioning oneself as serious candidates for admission at the leading U.S busi-ness schools:

• Understand the value of an MBA

Admissions officers look closely for evidence that applicants have really thought through their career goals and why an MBA is the right degree for them

• Be clear about the importance of pursuing an MBA now

Applicants who can articulate why now is the time to pursue an MBA, rather than in two or three years, have a distinct advantage

• Highlight leadership experiences

Younger applicants may not yet have led a team or managed oth-ers, but successful applicants need to emphasize other instances

of leadership in their past, including on the job and in school

• Demonstrate maturity

Any successful applicant can show that they will be a posi-tive addition to the classroom For younger applicants, this is especially important in demonstrating the emotional and profes-sional maturity needed to be a good classmate and

project teammate

Since the majority of top 30 MBA programs have yet to implement programs to manage parents that are highly involved in the student application process, admissions consultants can help applicants man-age their helicopter parents by providing guidance on helpful versus

“While the intentions

of over-involved helicopter

parents are generally benevolent, such intervention

can negatively impact their

student’s chances

of admission.”