Admissions Director Q&A

Clear Admit’s exclusive interviews with admissions directors at the world’s leading MBA programs.

Published: October 1, 2017

Admissions Director Q&A: Pascal Michels of IESE Business School

We got to know Pascal Michels, who started in his new role as head of admissions at IESE Business School this summer, as part of our Real Humans of MBA Admissions series earlier this month. Now we’re excited to feature a more in-depth interview that delves into the admissions process and team he oversees. Michels is new to admissions, but far from new at IESE. A 2010 graduate of the MBA program himself, he headed from business school to Citigroup in London, where he worked in financial management for three years. But Read more

Published: September 25, 2017

Admissions Director Q&A: Luke Anthony Peña of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business

Luke Anthony Peña joined Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business this past summer from Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), where he’d worked as part of the admissions team for five years, since graduating with his own MBA from the Palo Alto school in 2012. In coming to Tuck, Peña fills the role of executive director of admissions and financial aid left vacant when Dawna Clarke, who had headed Tuck admissions for more than a decade, set out to establish her own admissions consulting firm last fall. In fact, Peña’s admissions expertise dates back to before attending business school himself. Prior to enrolling at Stanford GSB, he also worked for four years as assistant director of admissions at the USC Annenberg School of Communication. But it’s not just his long career in higher education admissions that makes clear his passion for education. The internships he pursued while a business school student were also both education focused. Click here to learn more about Dartmouth Tuck's MBA Program. 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: August 30, 2017

ICYMI: Adcom Director Shares Her Own Responses to New Ross Short Answer Essay Prompts

In a recent post to her Admissions Director Blog, Soojin Kwon, director of admissions at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, gave a glimpse into life at Ross before school had even started. She highlighted the Ross Impact Challenge that new students take part in during orientation and the MBA2-led MTreks that followed—taking members of the Class of 2019 everywhere from Iceland to Brazil, Croatia to South Africa. But then Kwon got down to the business that will most interest current applicants, namely, fulfilling a promise she’d made in Read more

Published: August 28, 2017

Wharton Class of 2019 Profile Reveals Continuing High Female Enrollment, Increasing Appetite for STEM Undergrads

The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School last week released its Class of 2019 profile, and we connected yesterday with Maryellen Reilly, vice dean of MBA admissions, financial aid, and career services, to discuss some of the highlights. Chief among them: yet another year of enrolling 44 percent women and an uptick in students with a background in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Overall application volume was largely flat, with 6,692 applications received, up just 13 from last year. Despite her team’s apprehension that international application volume might take a hit or that it could prove difficult for incoming international students to get visas to study in the United States due to the current political climate, neither proved to be the case, Reilly reports. Read more

Published: August 15, 2017

Admissions Director Q&A: Rodrigo Malta of the University of Texas’s McCombs School of Business

Rodrigo Malta, a native of Brazil, moved to the United States for high school and college and ultimately graduated from the McCombs School of Business full-time MBA program in 2007. While a student at McCombs, he was highly involved in admissions activities, and after graduation he remained in Austin, accepting a marketing position with Dell. A little over a year later, when then-Director of MBA Admissions Tina Mabley contacted him about a job opening with her team—as associate director of admissions focused on diversity recruiting—he jumped at the chance to return to campus and work on something he was really passionate about. Later, when Mabley was promoted to assistant dean for the full-time MBA program, Malta applied for and got the admissions director’s position in 2010. Prospective applicants may be happy to learn that Malta understands their position on such a personal level. This empathy might also be why he’s so forthcoming with useful tips and advice. Read on to learn what he has to share—including exciting plans for the new home of the Texas MBA, the many experiential learning opportunities that complement classroom time, and more. Read more

Published: August 13, 2017

Admissions Director Q&A: INSEAD’s Virginie Fougea

As promised, we’re following our recent Real Humans of MBA Admissions piece highlighting INSEAD’s Virginie Fougea with a more in-depth interview that delves into the admissions process at the top-ranked business school with campuses on three continents. In addition to Fontainebleau, France, INSEAD students can also take classes at the school’s Abu Dhabi and Singapore campuses during the course of the accelerated 10-month MBA program. Though its name is an acronym for the French "Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires" or European Institute of Business Administration, it has long since outgrown its European confines and today calls itself “the business school for the world”—with good reason. It is one of the most diverse business schools in the world, with 93 nationalities represented in the class and no single dominant culture. The school’s diversity and the rapid return on investment its accelerated program affords graduates have both helped contribute to its strong performance in rankings. The Financial Times ranked INSEAD the number one global MBA program in 2016 and 2017. Read more

Published: August 8, 2017

The Buzz at Yale SOM: Application Volume Up, Dean on Sabbatical, Rec Letters Accepted in Spanish, Mandarin

Are you considering applying to Yale School of Management (SOM)? We sat down with Bruce DelMonico, assistant dean for admissions, earlier this summer to catch up on the latest and greatest at the New Haven school, and it turns out there’s a lot to report. Bruce DelMonico, assistant dean for admissions For starters, the most recent application cycle was a strong one, with application volume up roughly 12 percent year over year. “We feel good about that,” he says. And although domestic application volume did see a slightly higher uptick than international volume, both saw increases, 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 18, 2017

Adcom Director on MIT Sloan Application Changes: Video Essay, GMAC Common Recommendation Letter, Increased Word Count for Cover Letter, More

The 2017-18 MBA application to MIT Sloan School of Management went live last week, featuring a range of changes from last year’s. The debut of a new video statement (required of all applicants), the implementation of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) Common Letter of Recommendation form, and an increased word count and expanded instructions for the Cover Letter component were just a few. To learn more about these and other developments in MIT Sloan admissions, we caught up with Director of Admissions Dawna Levenson to walk us through. Read on to learn what she Read more

Published: July 13, 2017

Kellogg Admissions Director Dishes on Essay Questions, Application Volume, More

Mugs and glasses clinked all around and the smell of bacon and freshly brewed coffee was enough to awaken even the sleepiest of senses as Melissa Rapp, director of admissions for the full-time MBA and MSMS programs at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and I sat down to breakfast last month at Dottie’s True Blue Café in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood. We were both in town for the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) annual conference but decided to venture a little farther afield in hopes of finding something a bit more memorable Read more

Published: July 10, 2017

Johnson Admissions Director Weighs in on Recently Released Application Essays

Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management recently posted essay topics for the 2017-18 MBA application season, revealing some new twists as well as some old favorites. We caught up with Judi Byers, executive director of admissions and financial aid, to learn more. New this year is a novel fill-in-the-blank goals statement designed to help applicants convey their short- and long-term career goals. “A statement of your goals will begin a conversation that will last throughout the admissions process and guide your steps during the MBA program and experience,” reads the prompt, which 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 5, 2017

Admissions Director Q&A: Simon School of Business’ Rebekah Lewin

Last week we got to know a little about the person heading admissions at the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business when our Real Humans of MBA Series spotlighted Rebekah Lewin. Today we’ll delve deeper into just how the admissions process unfolds at the school. As we shared last week, if anyone knows the Simon admissions process inside and out, it’s Lewin. Not only has she worked at the school for almost 20 years, including in the lead role as assistant dean of admissions and financial aid for the past two, she also applied 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: June 21, 2017

Admissions Director Q&A: Alex Lawrence of the UCLA Anderson School of Management

Alex Lawrence, an alumnus of the UCLA Anderson School of Management (MBA ’99), took the helm as the school’s assistant dean of MBA admissions and financial aid in August 2012. Read more

Published: April 19, 2017

Admissions Director Q&A: Carlson School of Management’s Linh Gilles

Last month as part of our Real Humans of MBA Admissions Series, we introduced the Clear Admit audience to Linh Gilles, director of admissions and recruiting at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. Today, we’re pleased to shed even more light on the admissions process she oversees with a more in-depth interview as part of our Admissions Director Q&A Series. Gilles has been in admissions at Carlson for the past decade and in the director’s role since 2012. And by virtue of also being a current student in the full-time executive MBA (EMBA) program, she knows the school Read more

Published: April 4, 2017

Admissions Director Q&A: Cristina Sassot of Barcelona’s ESADE

Last week, we learned a little about Cristina Sassot the person as part of our Real Humans of MBA Admissions Series. Among other things, she tries to steer clear of caffeine, has been known to say she’d be in more than one place at the same time, and is a big fan of Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings, both the books and the screen adaptations. This week, we’re asking Sassot—who leads admissions at Barcelona’s ESADE Business School—to reveal a little more about the inner workings of her office and the admissions process at the school. And she’s 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 13, 2017

Admissions Director Q&A: OSU Fisher’s Alison Merzel

Last week we shared the lighter side of Alison Merzel in our Real Humans of MBA Admissions series. This week, we’ve asked her some more serious questions about the admissions process at the Ohio State University (OSU) Fisher College of Business. 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 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: January 25, 2017

Inside the Revamped Ross Admissions Process

As you navigate the MBA application process, do you ever feel like the websites, brochures and talking points for top MBA programs have blended together? Indeed, it has become more important than ever for schools to rely on innovative ways to differentiate themselves. At the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, the carefully curated process of admissions is ever evolving. Director of Admissions Soojin Kwon is known for putting a particularly personal fingerprint on the process, posting videos and written messages to a behind-the-scenes blog throughout the year. Read more

Published: December 19, 2016

Admissions Director Q&A: Vanderbilt Owen’s Christie St-John

Following up on our recent Real Humans of MBA Admissions piece with Christie St-John of Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management, we are delighted this week to feature a more in-depth interview with her about the admissions process she oversees. 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 in New Hampshire for nine years and then zagging back to Owen, where she’s been at the helm since 2012. (As she shares below, she is not actually following 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

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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