What general advice do you have for applicants?
There are a couple things. The first thing is to be genuine about who you are. Students try very hard to find a way to differentiate themselves in a competitive applicant pool, to mark themselves as somehow unique and different. At the end of the day, what differentiates candidates or makes them a great fit for the program is surprising.
In an environment where we see an increasing number of applicants who have had assistance in writing their essays, many of which become a bit sterile or formulaic, we lose a sense of the individual and personality behind the written text. What is often striking and compelling to the Admissions Committee is an applicant who is simply genuine and sincere.
The second bit of advice is to treat the application process a little bit like a job. Take your time to really research programs. Talk to anybody who has an MBA to learn about the degree. Go to different MBA school receptions, visit websites, participate in discussion boards – we have one on our website, for example, called "student2student" or "s2s." Also make sure to view blogs. For example, we have our Wharton MBA student diarists who offer details of their daily life on our website. We also have our MBA Admissions Blog!, which is the official voice of the Admissions Committee. The Blog! offers tips on the application and interview process.
When prospective students take the time to do research, talk with others, and explore and probe the degree and the experience anyone has had with it, they fare better in both the application process and when they attend a business school.
They're more fully prepared to engage and know how to best exploit the experience.
What do you suggest applicants do when their recommenders ask them to draft the recommendation for themselves?
We prefer that recommenders write their own reference letters. It is certainly fair, however, for an applicant to give a recommender his or her resume or data points that he or she would like mentioned, if appropriate. Most schools are pretty clear about the information they want from a recommender.
We often get a much broader, more accurate and fuller view of a candidate when the recommender writes the reference on his or her own. The recommender may share beneficial details and insights that would never occur to the candidate to mention. We are aware that recommenders have limited time and focus our evaluation on the actual content of the recommendation rather than its rhetorical style or flourish. A recommender who genuinely supports a candidate will take the time to write a strong letter of support of his or her own.
You mentioned candidates having help with essays. I understand that a growing trend is consultants interviewing the recommender and then drafting a letter for them to sign. Have you come across that situation that you're aware of?
We often have our suspicions and doubts, many of them confirmed. We do see increasing evidence of outside help in preparing applications, which does raise serious concerns for us. If nothing else, this assistance means that we frequently don't get to know the real person behind the application. There are also ethical considerations. When someone presents work that is not his or her own, it calls into question one's integrity. At the end of the day, candidates who obtain outside help usually expend a lot of effort with little, if any, return. Some of the best essays and applications we've ever read are ones written by the applicant. We essentially look for the best applicants, not the best applications.
What are the specific traits you look for in candidates?
We don't have a set profile that we look for in a candidate, but we do seek individuals who are introspective and able to clearly articulate their reasons for an MBA and career goals going forward.
We also look for people who are well rounded and well balanced, either in deed or in thought. There are variations around the world in the kinds of contributions individuals make to extracurriculars and community service. But we do look for people who will give back, whether in the classroom or outside.
These are probably the two largest things we look for and beyond that, we want applicants who are ready for the degree. So there is really no set profile, and I think that there's a lot of mystique around this. People think you have to have studied economics or business, to have worked in banking or consulting, in order to be admitted to an MBA. What really drives the process is a holistic assessment of an individual's personal qualities and suitability for an MBA.
Can you describe the applicant interview process at Wharton?
We interview by invitation, after a full review of an application. The interview is largely behavioral and very much a dialogue. Our interest is in getting to know the individual on a personal level rather than
to assess his or her ability to analyze a case or respond to questions under pressure.
The interview is not the decisive factor in the admissions process. It's just one more bit of information that we use in conjunction with all the other sources of data we have about a candidate. Interviews are blind, without the interviewer having read the application.
A good case can be made for either type of interview: blind or informed. In our case, we prefer to enter the interview free of any pre-existing biases or expectations.
Candidates have several options for interviews: on-campus, off-campus with alumni, or off-campus at hub locations. Interviews are conducted around the world.
All carry equal weight.
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