Real Humans of MBA Admissions

Published: April 30, 2019

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Blair Mannix of the Wharton School

Blair Mannix, Director of Admissions, The Wharton School Just a few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of getting to know Blair Mannix, the Director of Admissions at the Wharton School. Working in admissions for 13 years and counting, Mannix took on the mantle of Director of Admissions in the fall of 2018. In our Admissions Q&A, she walked us through life in the admissions office, what happens with your written applications and during the Team-based Discussions and more. She also took the time to address some fun Real Humans questions, and we hope that in reading her responses, you get to feel as much like you know her as we did in speaking with her. Read on to learn a bit about Mannix’s personal side and don’t forget to catch up on the podcast if you want to hear more about admissions at the Wharton School. Coffee or Tea? Coffee. I am a coffee fiend. I probably have 4 cups a day, even through the afternoon. Beach or Mountains? I was lucky enough to grow up in the beaches of South Carolina. And one of the other virtues of Philadelphia is that we’re very close to the Jersey Shore, so my husband and I pop down to the Jersey Shore every summer. So I would say beach. But I burn—I’m Irish in nature, so I turn very red and I burn often. So, beach, but only for a couple of hours a day. Read more

Published: April 22, 2019

Podcast Episode 36: Admissions Q&A with Wharton’s Blair Mannix

Blair Mannix, Director of Admissions, The Wharton School We are excited to bring you our latest podcast with the Director of Admissions at UPenn / Wharton, Blair Mannix! Mannix has had a healthy admissions career—13 years and counting—beginning with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania. After earning her master’s from Penn’s Graduate School of Education and serving Penn undergrads as the Associate Director of Evaluation and Selection, she moved onto the Wharton School in 2012. She has previously served as the Director of Operations and Evaluations in the Wharton MBA Admissions Read more

Published: September 17, 2017

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Pascal Michels of IESE

Our Real Humans of MBA Admissions Series this week takes us to beautiful Barcelona, where we caught up with Pascal Michels on what he tells us was the first day his new job as head of IESE MBA admissions began to feel real. In fact, he stepped into the role earlier this summer, but with students arriving on campus and the admissions season kicking into full gear, now is when the rubber is truly hitting the road. Though he may be new to the role, Michels is not new to IESE. He obtained his own MBA from Read more

Published: July 30, 2017

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Stanford GSB’s Kirsten Moss

Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) announced this past spring that Kirsten Moss would fill the void left by Derrick Bolton, who led admissions for the most selective business school in the world for 15 years. Moss, who assumed her new role in June, becomes the only person to ever lead admissions at both Stanford and its chief rival, Harvard Business School (HBS). An HBS alumna, she nonetheless knows Stanford’s admissions office intimately, having worked there from 2004 to 2010, first as a consultant, then as associate director of evaluation and finally as director of MBA admissions. She left Stanford Read more

Published: July 17, 2017

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Haas Dean Rich Lyons

Though we usually feature admissions officers in this space, we recently had a chance to sit down with Dean Richard Lyons of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and couldn’t resist learning a little bit more about who he is as a person and how that influences the school he leads. Lyons took over as dean of Haas in July 2008 after taking a leave between 2006 and 2008 to serve as chief learning officer at Goldman Sachs in New York, overseeing leadership development for the firm’s managing directors. He originally joined Read more

Published: July 9, 2017

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: INSEAD’s Virginie Fougea

We were delighted at last month’s Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) annual conference in San Francisco to catch up with admissions directors from top business schools from around the globe. Among them was Virginie Fougea, INSEAD director of MBA recruitment and admissions, who we hope racked up plenty of frequent flier miles in exchange for her journey from Fontainebleau, France, to Northern California. Though Fougea is somewhat new to leading admissions at INSEAD—she was promoted from associate director of admissions in October 2016—she is not at all new to the school. “I have been with INSEAD for Read more

Published: July 2, 2017

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: UCLA Anderson’s Alex Lawrence

An alumnus of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Alex Lawrence knows the school and its admissions process inside and out. He’s served as assistant dean and director of MBA admissions for the past five years. Before that he spent eight years as executive director of Anderson’s Riordan Programs, a series of opportunities for diverse individuals from all over the country to receive leadership and management training through mentorship, workshops, and community service. Lawrence himself is also a Riordan alumnus. After graduating from Anderson with his MBA in 1999, he spent four years working as a management consultant Read more

Published: June 25, 2017

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Rebekah Lewin of the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School

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 Read more

Published: March 28, 2017

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: ESADE’s Cristina Sassot

Cristina Sassot joined the admissions team at Barcelona’s ESADE Business School in October 2008, soon after she earned her own MBA there. In 2010 she was promoted to director of admissions and has held the role ever since, helping craft the classes for the school’s 12-, 15- and 18-month full-time MBA programs. ESADE, meanwhile, has been climbing the ranks itself. The Financial Times ranked it the 17th best MBA program in the world this year and second best in the world for career progress. The Economist, for its part, ranked it third best in Europe for salary increase. We’ll feature an in-depth interview with Sassot in the coming weeks about the school’s admissions process, but today we are happy to share a little bit more about the person who leads that process as part of our Real Humans of MBA Admissions Series. Our thanks to Sassot, and ESADE, for taking part in both. Read more

Published: March 22, 2017

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Carlson School of Management’s Linh Gilles

Earlier this month, we had the pleasure of getting to know Linh Gilles, director of admissions and recruiting at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. She’s been in admissions at Carlson for the past decade and in the director’s role since 2012, but she also knows the school from the student’s perspective. That’s because she is currently enrolled in the full-time executive MBA (EMBA) program herself—all while working full time and raising two kids. “I suppose at some point working for an MBA program for 10 years, you do just drink the Kool-Aid,” she says with a laugh. But Read more

Published: February 5, 2017

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Alison Merzel of OSU’s Fisher College of Business

Returning to our popular series after a brief hiatus, we are pleased today to share a little about the real human who helps lead MBA admissions at the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. Alison Merzel is senior director of graduate recruiting, admissions and financial aid at Fisher, a role she’s held for the past year and a half. But she’s been at Fisher for much longer than that—starting as a student herself. Soon after graduating with her master’s degree in labor and human resources from Fisher, she joined the admissions team as assistant director of MBA Read more

Published: December 4, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Christie St-John of Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Business

We were delighted to connect last week with Christie St-John, who heads MBA admissions at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. St-John describes her career as “zig-zaggy,” referring to the fact that she started at Vanderbilt back in 1997 before zigging to Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business for nine years and then zagging back to Nashville and to Owen, where she’s been at the helm since 2012. As you’ll see below, her time up north impacted her preference for mountains over beach but did nothing to diminish her love of true southern fried chicken. A more in-depth Admissions Director Q&A with St-John will soon follow, but for now, enjoy getting to know her lighter side. (A big hockey fan, she's pictured above at a Nashville Predators game.) Read more

Published: November 20, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: UC Berkeley Haas’s Morgan Bernstein

Morgan Bernstein is currently in her first year as executive director leading the full-time MBA admission team at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, having taken over last March for Stephanie Fujii, who held the role for four years before that. “I’m excited about growing my team, learning, figuring out what I know and what I don’t know,” she told us last week while taking a break from reading applications. “Stephanie left some big shoes to fill.” But Bernstein is by no means a stranger to the school or its admissions process. Indeed, she was part of the admissions team for five years before stepping into her current role, and she knows things from the other side as well. A successful applicant herself, she graduated from Haas with her MBA in 2009 (and married a fellow alumnus to boot). Read more

Published: November 13, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: UC Berkeley Haas’s Peter Johnson

We are looking forward to connecting soon with Morgan Bernstein, current admissions director at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. In the meantime, we’re delighted to have caught up with Peter Johnson, who formerly held Bernstein’s role and has recently returned to Haas as assistant dean, full-time MBA program and admissions. In his current role, he oversees Bernstein and her team in admissions as well as academic and student affairs for the full-time MBA program. Johnson has spent his entire professional career in admissions—including an eleven-year stretch as executive director of full-time MBA admissions at Haas. He’s just returned after six years away, including four in Hungary leading student services for the Central European University. Members of both the Haas community and the graduate management admissions community are thrilled to welcome him back. Read more

Published: November 6, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Columbia Business School’s Michael Robinson

After a brief hiatus we are delighted to resume our Real Humans of MBA Admissions series this week with an interview with Michael Robinson, director of MBA admissions at Columbia Business School (CBS). A 2001 CBS alumus himself, Robinson returned to work in admissions at the school in 2002, after a brief stint in business development at Panasonic. He’s been at CBS ever since and was promoted to director of MBA admissions in July 2016. In this role, he both serves as part of the admission committee and manages strategic relationships with key corporate and nonprofit partners that will drive Read more

Published: October 16, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: SMU Cox’s John Roeder

John Roeder knows Dallas’s SMU Cox School of Business inside and out as only an alumnus would. A 2003 graduate of the full-time MBA program, he confesses that it might be the closest to his heart, although today he has oversight of admissions for all the school’s graduate programs. These also include a “Fast Track” one-year program geared toward recent college graduates without significant work experience, a Professional MBA program for mid-career professionals who want to obtain their degree while continuing to work and an Executive MBA program for experienced business leaders. In fact, Roeder’s knowledge of SMU dates Read more

Published: October 9, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Isser Gallogly of NYU Stern School of Business

With the first application deadline for NYU Stern School of Business coming up this Saturday (October 15th), what better time to learn a little bit more about the person in charge of evaluating MBA candidates? Associate Dean of Admissions Isser Gallogly came to Stern almost 14 years ago, and since then he’s had a hand in almost every aspect of admissions for the school’s MBA programs. After a start in banking, he himself sought out an MBA to pivot into marketing, spending several years working for Mattel, Unilever and L’Oreal before heading into higher education. So he understands Read more

Published: October 2, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Sue Oldham of Rice University’s Jones School of Business

Last week we got to know Sue Oldham, executive director of recruiting and admissions at Rice University’s Jones School of Business (Rice Business), while she was wearing her admissions director hat. This week, we’re sharing a bit more of her personal side as part of our continuing Real Humans of MBA Admissions series. Among other things, she’s a trained classical pianist and dog lover—but that’s not all. Read on to learn more, including how to stay in her good graces if you’re ever a guest in her home. Our thanks to Oldham for taking part! Real Humans Read more

Published: September 22, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Harvard Business School’s Chad Losee

Harvard Business School (HBS) made waves in the graduate management admissions arena last fall with the announcement that Dee Leopold, who led admissions at one of the most selective business schools in the world for the past decade, would be leaving her post. Then, spring brought the announcement that she would be succeeded by an HBS grad just three years out of school. Chad Losee, 32, is that fresh-faced alumnus. And indeed, just a couple of years as a consultant at Bain & Company stand between him and his last stint on campus. Losee has kept something of a low media profile since assuming his new role in May—which HBS Director of Media and Public Relations Jim Aisner takes responsibility for. “I wanted to give Chad some time to do the things that he has to do as he assumes this role,” Aisner said, adding that the first few months should not be taken as any kind of sign that Losee will be inaccessible going forward. Read more

Published: September 18, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Kellogg School of Management’s Melissa Rapp

With the Round 1 deadline approaching for Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management later this week, we're pleased to feature the school's Melissa Rapp as our Real Human of MBA Admissions this week. Rapp joined Kellogg in 2012. She most recently served as director of admissions for the Evening and Weekend Program before becoming director of full-time MBA and Master of Science in Management Studies (MSMS) admissions in January 2016. She loved the Evening and Weekend MBA Program, including being on its Chicago campus, but she jumped at the opportunity to head to Evanston and head up Full-Time MBA admissions because it presented an opportunity to have new challenges as far as recruitment goals and to work with a new population of applicants, she says. Read more

Published: September 11, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Dawna Levenson of MIT Sloan School of Management

If you’ve got the MIT Sloan School of Management in your sights for the coming application season, you’re very likely busy putting the finishing touches on your Round 1 application—due Thursday. What better time to get a glimpse into the woman who heads MBA admissions for the school? Dawna Levenson has been in her current role as director of MIT Sloan Admissions since March 2013, but she’s been at the school for much longer than that. When she arrived in November 2007, it was as associate director of academic programs for the School of Engineering, and she had been reading MBA applications for the past year. She moved over to admissions in 2012, where she’s since stayed, but her combined experiences really help her know the MBA program inside and out. She also knows the school as a student, having obtained her B.S. in management science at MIT and her M.S., also in management science, at MIT Sloan. And she spent 18 years working for Andersen Consulting, now Accenture, as a consultant. All that experience gives her amazing insight into the goals and aspirations of prospective Sloan applicants and helps her know who will fit best with the school’s signature MBA program. Read more

Published: August 28, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: David Simpson of London Business School

This week’s Real Humans of MBA Admissions takes us across the pond to London. In some of the answers that follow, David Simpson’s British roots shine through—which makes sense for the admissions director of the MBA and Masters in Finance programs at London Business School (LBS). Simpson has been at LBS for almost a decade, and he’s always made time to keep Clear Admit in the loop on goings on at the school. In case you missed it, here’s a recent piece detailing the school’s decision to reduce its number of required application essays and the importance of the alumni interview in the admissions process. But he’s certainly not all business all the time—read on to learn more about his love of seeing live music, watching rugby and binging on House of Cards, among other things. Read more

Published: August 21, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Soojin Kwon of Michigan’s Ross School of Business

Moving right along with our fun and quirky series, we’ve continued talking admissions directors at leading MBA programs into answering our silly stream of personal questions. To our delight, we’ve had many tell us that they actually had fun in the process. Soojin Kwon has led MBA admissions at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business since 2006. She’s familiar with “non-traditional” MBA candidates, as she was one herself when she got her MBA at Ross. Prior to b-school, she used her MPP from the Kennedy School of Government to work as a budget and policy analyst on Capitol Hill and at the Department of Commerce. She’s also familiar with the private sector as she spent her post-MBA years as a consultant in Deloitte’s Strategy and Operations practice. An active, outdoor enthusiast, here's Soojin in the Rocky Mountains showing Michigan pride. Here, Soojin reveals her pet peeves, where she heads when she wants to get away, the power of her Korean mother’s home-cooked food and more. Read on to learn some little-known tidbits about Soojin. And if you want insider tips about Ross and its admissions process, check out Soojin’s blog and video blogs. Read more

Published: August 14, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Shari Hubert of Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business

Shari Hubert knows MBA admissions from both sides, having successfully navigated the process as a candidate herself, securing a spot in the Harvard Business School (HBS) Class of 2000. Leading MBA admissions at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business since 2013, she’s now on the other side, getting to know current applicants and trying to determine which of them bring the characteristics and experience that best fit with the values of the school. In keeping with our Real Humans of MBA Admissions series, Hubert shares below some of what makes her who she is. If you are applying Read more

Published: August 7, 2016

Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Kurt Ahlm of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business

It’s that time again—where we offer insight into just who it is who’ll be deciding your fate in the upcoming MBA admissions season. This week we’re featuring Kurt Ahlm, associate dean for student recruitment and admissions at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Ahlm is a veteran in the admissions world, having started out in undergrad admissions at Northwestern University 20 years ago. He then worked in corporate recruiting for a stint before returning to higher education at Chicago Booth in 2002. MBA admissions, he finds, provides the perfect mix of the academic and corporate worlds, Read more

MBA Applywire

November 16, 2024 5:16pm ET

Applying: ESADE, IE Business School, IESE

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Tech

Post-MBA Target Industry: Technology, Pharmaceutical Companies: Apple , Facebook , Google , Microsoft , Oracle , Johnson & Johnson , Novartis , Pfizer , Roche

GMAT: 525

GPA: 2.79

Years of Work Experience: 4

Post MBA Location: Europe

Notes:

Asian, female, USA. Top 10 Undergraduate school in USA, majored in Biomedical Engineering. Worked for Salesforce, Accenture, and Microsoft within sales department. Major accomplishments within sales roles. Strong personal essays. Letters of Recommendations from direct managers. Founder and held multiple leadership positions in school clubs during Undergrad. Just a really bad test taker and cannot seem to get my scores up no matter how many times I take it specifically in the quant section. American trying to stay in Europe post MBA and only applying to European B-schools.

November 15, 2024 9:32am ET

Applying: Cornell / Johnson, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, Michigan / Ross, Minnesota / Carlson, UVA / Darden, Yale SOM

Pre-MBA Career: Insurance

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting Companies: Bain , BCG , McKinsey , Other

GMAT: 505

GPA: 3.44

Years of Work Experience: 3

Post MBA Location: Midwest, Northeast

Notes:

GMAT Note:
* The score is an unofficial practice test. I am beginning my studies for the real thing now.

Undergrad Majors:
* Economics
* Business Management

Work Experience Notes:
* Insurance experience is at a family business
* I implemented data analytics into business operations since that was not a practice beforehand.
* I help with sales, customer service, bookkeeping, and marketing.

Extracurriculars & Volunteer Activities:
* Worked as an economics research assistant during my undergrad where I consulted public and private entities
* Was part of an economics research project that won a national award for its work in community economic development
* Published 2 university-sponsored economics articles
* During my senior year, I was appointed to a university faculty committee to help plan university award ceremonies and delegate student scholarships
* Won a leadership award from my university
* Economics honor society member
* President of a student club (1 year) and a club's Senior Advisor (1 year)
* Started and led 2 initiatives that installed free smoke alarms in rural area homes (received a leadership award from the American Red Cross for this)
* Ironman triathlete

November 14, 2024 8:16pm ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Cambridge / Judge, Columbia, Cornell / Johnson, emlyon, IESE, Imperial, INSEAD, London Business School, Manchester / AMBS, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, UPenn / Wharton

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Hospitality

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Technology, Consumer Goods, Other Companies: Amazon , Apple , Google , Coca Cola , LVMH , Nestle , Nike

GRE: 326

GPA: 3.46

Years of Work Experience: 6

Post MBA Location: Consultancy

November 14, 2024 6:29am ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Columbia, Cornell / Johnson, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, Georgetown / McDonough, UVA / Darden

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Consulting, Capital Project Development (Renewable Energy/CCS)

Post-MBA Target Industry: Investment Banking, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Commercial Banking, Family Business, Entrepreneurship

GMAT: 664

GPA: 2.9

Years of Work Experience: 7

Notes:

Pakistani male, looking to get into the financial services industry short term, and long-term make a significant contribution to the family business or pursue entrepreneurship. Studied engineering from UT Austin for undergrad followed by three jobs (roughly 2 years each) and a nine month break in between job 2 and 3. Planning to take the GMAT again in 3 weeks to offset GPA. Goal score is 695. Mitigating circumstances around GPA are just illness and general family/self issues but doubt they will be very convincing.

November 13, 2024 11:52am ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Columbia, Dartmouth / Tuck, Georgetown / McDonough, Michigan / Ross, UNC Kenan-Flagler, USC / Marshall

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Real Estate Development Analyst and Acquisitions Project Manager

Post-MBA Target Industry: Private Equity, Family Business, Entrepreneurship Companies: Other

GPA: 3.44

Years of Work Experience: 3

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MBA LiveWire

November 17, 2024 10:14am ET

Interview Invite to Stanford GSB

Round: Round 1

Received via email on November 14, 2024

GPA: 3.52

GRE: 322

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Technology

Note:

Consortium applicant applied round 1

November 17, 2024 12:58am ET

Rejected at Columbia

Round: Round 1

Received via portal on November 14, 2024

GPA: 3.49

GMAT: 740

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: India

November 17, 2024 12:46am ET

Interview Invite to Duke / Fuqua

Round: Round 1

Received via email on November 12, 2024

GPA: 3.49

GMAT: 740

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: India

November 16, 2024 12:19pm ET

Interview Invite to Northwestern / Kellogg

Round: Round 1

Received via email

GRE: 320

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Application Location: India

November 16, 2024 10:45am ET

Accepted to Boston College / Carroll

Round: Round 1

Received via phone on November 12, 2024

GPA: 3.91

GRE: 318

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: Texaa

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