While MBA applicants usually share good (interview invitations, acceptances) and bad (ding, ding, ding) admissions news on LiveWire, it’s also a communal touchstone for the admissions process in general. The real-time updates provided by candidates as they move through the admissions process at leading business schools has offered a new degree of transparency into the processes at individual schools—and sometimes those processes aren’t the smoothest.
As Clear Admit’s Alex Brown observes, “Schools sometimes forget how candidates are easily able to share information, joys and frustrations with each other on a variety of web-based platforms. It makes it more important for programs to have a strong sense of empathy and understanding of candidates and understand how their processes and communications will be received. Some schools rarely trigger candidate frustrations; their processes are well developed and fair. Other schools tend to stimulate frustrated feedback —while they do empathize, they are often inadvertently or even unknowingly opaque.”
We turn now to some grievances recently aired on LiveWire. The latest blip came up in regards to Berkeley / Haas:
Another MBA hopeful just wished for a clear cut answer:
Then it became apparent that Haas isn’t the only offender:
A search for answers amidst frustration continued:
And another applicant summed up the situation:
While decisions can take time, no one likes to wait in limbo:
Even when the admissions process is wrapped up, MIT / Sloan applicants also vented about the need for improvement:
While feedback started off simple enough, it kept growing, covering content to timing:
One member tried to soften the blow:
Someone who could, unfortunately, compare rejection letters added to the conversation:
Obviously, it’s never any school’s intention to create added anxiety for applicants. With any luck, these most recent examples—like others before it elsewhere—will only serve to help b-schools iron out any kinks.
Clear Admit regularly tries to communicate process issues with schools and we thank applicants for their honest feedback!
