CA: What one thing are you most excited about at Wharton in the coming year?
FD: I am really excited and energized by Dean Garrett’s dedication to innovation at Wharton. Just a few weeks ago Professor Karl Ulrich was named Vice Dean for Entrepreneurship and Innovation with his oversight extending to our San Francisco campus. In recent years Professor Ulrich’s team led Wharton’s efforts in online education, business radio, lifelong learning and our hugely popular semester in San Francisco. He’s also a practicing entrepreneur. I can’t wait to see where the dean and Professor Ulrich take us next.
CA: What is one thing about the Wharton MBA program that you wish applicants knew more about? Any misconceptions you’d like to correct?
FD: Two years at Wharton is an incredibly comprehensive experience. Yes, Wharton will empower you by teaching you invaluable professional and leadership skills, but you’ll also grow as an individual. Our entire community—from faculty, to staff, to classmates—serves as teachers, mentors and friends here to push and support you. You’ll meet people from all over the globe, be given the ability to see the world through new viewpoints and create lifelong bonds.
Wharton is a remarkably collaborative and supportive environment. For example, leading up to the Focused Recruiting Period (a dedicated week of recruiting for first years) you’ll find students spread about campus and our space in Center City working together on interview prep. In many cases these students will be meeting with the same companies in just a few hours, but at Wharton we are committed to helping each other succeed.
CA: Walk us through the life of an application in your office from an operational standpoint. What happens between the time an applicant clicks “submit” and the time the committee offers a final decision (e.g. how many “reads” does it get, how long is each “read,” who reads it, does the committee convene to discuss it as a group, etc.)? Where does the Team-Based Discussion fit in?
FD: We conduct a holistic review of each application. After we have considered each file we invite a subset of applicants to participate in the Team Based Discussion (TBD). The TBD is meant to model the collaborative environment of which I spoke in an attempt to draw out those characteristics that we believe contribute to the success of the individual and the class as a whole. An applicant’s performance in the TBD is considered as an element of the overall application (as is an essay or letter of recommendation) when we make our final decision.
CA: Are there changes ahead in the application process? You decided to stick with last year’s essay question for the impending application season? What led to that decision?
FD: It is monumentally important to us to hear about candidates’ goals and aspirations and for them to reflect on how they believe Wharton can be part of their journey. Getting accepted to Wharton means you are becoming part of a community—one that seeks to provide an enriching and stimulating atmosphere for everyone to grow in and succeed; an atmosphere that extends far beyond graduation. We want to know not only who and what you want to become, both personally and professionally, but also to gain insight as to whether Wharton is right for you and how you can contribute to the strength of our community.
