It’s early summer, which means that admissions directors have emerged from reading applications for a brief window of time before hitting the road to recruit the next batch of candidates. And that’s afforded those of us here at Clear Admit the opportunity to connect with many of them and reprise our Real Humans of MBA Admissions series.
Today, we’re pleased to feature Rebekah Lewin, assistant dean of admissions and financial aid at the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School. Lewin—pictured above with her son, Ryan—has spent her entire career in higher education and has been at the University of Rochester for almost 20 years. She worked at the Warner School of Education to start and initially engaged with Simon as a prospective applicant to its part-time MBA program. Concurrent with that exploration, a job became available and she ended up transitioning over to work at the business school while also obtaining her degree.
Though she wasn’t initially considering a career in higher education as she pursued her own MBA, she credits many mentors with helping her explore career growth opportunities that ultimately convinced her to stay put. “I work with a really amazing team, both within admissions and the business school,” she tells us. “It’s a very rewarding experience to see the candidates we admit—not only in the application process but while they are studying—and to observe all the amazing things the Simon degree affords them as they move forward in their careers.”
Read on to learn a little bit about Lewin’s personal side, and stay tuned for an in-depth Admissions Director Q&A later this summer.
Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Rebekah Lewin of the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School
Coffee or tea? Coffee
Beach or mountains? Beach
Morning person or night owl? Night owl
Pet peeve? Being late
Guilty pleasure? HGTV
Favorite virtue in others? Integrity
Worst habit? Those who know me well know I tend to overschedule and be unrealistic about how many things you can get done in a given period of time.
Happy place? The gym
Comfort food? Starbucks Coffee
Go-to cocktail? White wine—chardonnay or pinot grigio
Proudest moment? A combination between the first day of orientation for our incoming students each year and graduation each year. You get the best of both worlds between the excitement of welcoming a new class and then seeing the fruits of our small labor in bringing them in and the excitement of what’s next in their journey.
Biggest regret? Choosing to go through the MBA program here at Simon part time instead of full time. It was still a great MBA experience for me, but there were certain things I didn’t have the opportunity to do just because of the time constraints of working full time as I studied.
One thing you would change about how you were raised? I don’t really have any regrets.
Superpower you wish you had? Seeing into the future
Favorite fictional hero/heroine? Any of the lawyers in a John Grisham novel that are working to bring someone to justice
What schools, if any, rejected you? (How does it impact how you will interact with those who you must say no to?) I have not ever been rejected from the school I applied to, but I think it is really important to realize that every candidate is a human being and someone who has professional aspirations regardless of how close or far they were to be admitted. I have tried really hard to have a strong customer focus in our process in terms of responsiveness, regardless of a candidate’s profile. Sometimes candidates will come back and ask for feedback and want to reapply. To the extent that we can provide insights into how they can be successful, we will endeavor to do that.
Which part of the Simon process would you most like to skip if you were applying today? Definitely the GMAT. I took the paper-based GMAT, and it was difficult at the time, but I have a great deal of sympathy for the students with the computer-based test.
