Admissions Director Q&A
Clear Admit’s exclusive interviews with admissions directors at the world’s leading MBA programs.
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
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Published: September 27, 2016
Admissions Director Q&A: Harvard Business School’s Chad Losee
If you’re a Round 1 applicant to Harvard Business School (HBS) crossing your fingers for an interview invitation (slated to go out in batches starting next week) or even if you’re working toward a later round deadline, what better time to get to know more about the school’s new head of admissions? Chad Losee, 32, joined HBS last May as managing director of MBA admissions and financial aid, succeeding 10-year veteran director Dee Leopold.
Losee still vividly remembers his own journey through the HBS admissions process—not surprising given that it was a mere six years ago. After earning his undergraduate degree in International Relations at Brigham Young University (BYU) in 2008, Losee set off to work in the Dallas office of Boston-based management consulting firm Bain & Company. A couple of years into the job, in part inspired by the many talented MBAs he worked with, he began to feel the pull of business school himself.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Published: August 17, 2016
Career Services Director Q&A: Julia Min Hwang of the Berkeley-Haas MBA Career Management Group
We are delighted to feature Julia Min Hwang of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business in our series of Career Services Director Q&As.
Hwang, assistant dean of the Berkeley MBA Career Management Group, has spent 10 years at Haas. Before taking over as assistant dean two years ago, she served as program director for the full-time MBA program. Before that she ran the MBA admissions process at NYU’s Stern School of Business.
Our thanks to Hwang for taking time out of her busy schedule to speak with Clear Admit.
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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
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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,
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Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Wharton’s Frank DeVecchis
Next up in our series of glimpses into the real people behind MBA admissions is Frank DeVecchis, who has been director of admissions for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School since March 2015. His tenure at Wharton began well before that though—he started back in 2009 as associate director for the Wharton Fund and led global immersion programs, academic affairs and academic operations from 2011 to 2015. He also got his own master’s degree, in higher education, from the University of Pennsylvania. So he’s most certainly an insider. In talking to him, his allegiance is abundantly clear. “Wharton is
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LBS Admissions Director on Reduction in Required Essays, Importance of Interview
With London Business School announcing its essay questions for the upcoming application season this week, we thought it a good time to check in with David Simpson, admissions director for the school’s MBA and Master in Finance programs, to see what led to some of the changes implemented this year.
David Simpson, admissions director, MBA and MiF, London Business School
In brief, LBS has decided to reduce the number of essays it requires from two to one, while retaining an optional essay.
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Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Rodrigo Malta of UT Austin’s McCombs School of Business
Brazilian-native Rodrigo Malta is next up in our series designed to showcase the real people behind the MBA admissions process at leading business schools. Malta heads admissions at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, where he himself got his MBA a decade ago. He went to work in marketing at Dell for a bit after graduating but was ultimately wooed back to the admissions office—where he’d also worked as a student—by mentor and then-Director of MBA Admissions Tina Mabley. He jumped at the chance to return to campus and work on something
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Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Johnson Graduate School of Business’s Judi Byers
Moving right along in our new series designed to give applicants a glimpse into the real, live people who run admissions at the world’s top business schools, we’re pleased this week to feature Judi Byers. The Hawaiian-born Byers now calls upstate New York her home, where she’s overseen admissions and financial aid at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Business since 2015. (Prior to that she directed admissions at American University’s Kogod School of Business in Washington, DC.) “I hope you’re getting the sense that I am very comfortable with who I am,” she said matter-of-factly as she rattled
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Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Bruce DelMonico of Yale School of Management
We’re moving right along with our fun new series spotlighting the real people who make those life-altering decisions of whether to admit or deny you to a given business school. At bat this week is Bruce DelMonico, assistant dean and director of admissions at Yale School of Management (SOM). We happen to know he’s a bit of a baseball fan, even though it didn’t come up in our interview. Read on to find some other lesser-known facts about the person who has helmed admissions at SOM for the past 12 years. Of course, we also talked a little
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Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Darden’s Sara Neher
We know. Admissions directors at top-tier business schools can seem all but omnipotent, charged with assessing your worth and charting the course of your future with the decisions they dole out. To be sure, there are admissions directors who have truly changed individuals’ fates with the calls they make. But here’s something else we know. These admission directors also happen to be real people, in many cases completely down to earth and genuinely great to spend time with. We had the thought that it might ease anxious applicants’ minds just a wee bit to get a glimpse of some of
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Admissions Director Q&A: SMU Cox’s John Roeder
As the latest addition to our Admissions Director Q&A Series, we recently connected with John Roeder, assistant dean of graduate admissions at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University (SMU). Roeder is a graduate of the Cox MBA program, so he knows the school and its offerings inside and out.
Roeder oversees all of the graduate programs at Cox, including the full-time MBA, “which is obviously close to my heart since it’s my program,” he says. He obtained his undergraduate degree from SMU as well, before heading into consulting at Andersen. Heading back to SMU for business school he then took an alternate path to head into graduate management admissions. “I graduated on a Saturday here at Cox and was working at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management the following Monday,” he says.
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Published: April 28, 2016
Admissions Director Q&A: Kelley School of Business’ James Holmen
How did southern California native James Holmen end up in Bloomington, Indiana, directing admissions at the Kelley School of Business? And what’s kept him there for more than 20 years? We caught up with him earlier this week to learn that and much more.
Holmen studied economics and sociology at UCLA, but what he learned was that he really liked working in a university environment. He spent a few years working at UCLA before heading to Indiana University in Bloomington to pursue a master’s degree in higher education administration. From there, he headed even farther east, to the University of Vermont to work in new student orientation. But a few years later Bloomington beckoned once again, drawing him back to work as Kelley’s assistant director of admissions. “After four years or so, I was named director—and that was about 20 years ago,” he says.
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Published: March 24, 2016
HBS MBA Executive Director Weighs In On Hiring Of New Gatekeeper
Harvard Business School (HBS) yesterday announced Chad Losee (HBS MBA ’13) as the next managing director of MBA admissions and financial aid—succeeding Dee Leopold, who has held the position since 2006. Make sure to check out our initial coverage from yesterday for information on Losee’s credentials and background. To learn more about Losee and Harvard’s decision to select him as Leopold’s successor, we spoke with Jana Kierstead, executive director of HBS’s MBA program. Clear Admit: Dee Leopold has done such a wonderful job with the MBA admissions process at HBS, building a reputation for innovation, transparency and fairness
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Published: March 20, 2016
Admissions Director Q&A: Maria Pineda of UMD’s Smith School of Business
In response to our readers’ interests, we are excited to have recently added a handful of new schools to the line-up of MBA programs we cover regularly on Clear Admit. The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business is one of them. As part of our expanded coverage of Smith, we caught up recently with Full-Time MBA Admissions Director Maria Pineda.
A 10-year veteran of the Smith School’s admissions office, Pineda worked in undergraduate admissions in New York City before that. “I wanted a change of scenery, so I was initially attracted to the Smith School’s location, with its traditional campus setting nestled next to a metropolitan city,” she says. She’s also a big believer in Dean Alexander Triantis’s vision of cultivating students to experience transformative change and then applying lessons learned to the workforce.
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Published: September 7, 2015
Admissions Director Q&A: Wharton’s Frank DeVecchis
Way back in February, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School named a new director of MBA admissions. Aside from an immediate flurry of coverage here and elsewhere about this Wharton “insider” Frank DeVecchis stepping in, little else has been heard since. What gives?
As was reported then, DeVecchis does know Wharton intimately. He worked in the Wharton MBA Program Office for more than five years before heading over to admissions. In charge of operations and daily management of the MBA program, he advised more than 800 students, implemented the school’s innovative Course Match registration program and rolled out a new three-week orientation for incoming students.
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Published: August 18, 2015
Admissions Director Q&A: Julie Barefoot of Emory’s Goizueta Business School
School’s in session at Emory’s Goizueta Business School! Just as students were beginning to stream onto the Atlanta campus for both the full-time and executive MBA programs, Associate Dean of Admissions Julie Barefoot made time to discuss all things Goizueta with Clear Admit. We are so grateful to her.
Barefoot has been at Goizueta since 1988, so if anyone knows the school, it’s her. She herself holds an MBA from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business, so she also knows MBA admissions from both sides.
In the interview that follows, the self-professed foodie dishes on the Atlanta restaurant scene, exciting developments in the school’s management practice initiative, the opportunities available to students interested in social impact and much more. She also goes into amazing detail about the admissions process, including giving advice on how to tackle the essay questions.
If Goizueta is one of your target schools, this is a must read.
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Published: August 10, 2015
Admissions Director Q&A: David Simpson of London Business School
London Business School (LBS) shared its essay questions for the upcoming application season with Clear Admit even before posting them to its own website! That’s the kind of special treatment we love around here. As if that weren’t enough, LBS Admissions Director David Simpson then made time for a wide-ranging interview in which he discussed the subtle changes to this year’s application, what he’s excited about most in the year ahead, why only a GMAT score will do and more.
Simpson has served as admissions director for LBS’s MBA and Masters in Finance programs since 2012, but his time at the school dates back many years before that. He is a self-described “geek” about reading applications, so much so that he sounded genuinely disappointed that there’s a bit of down time ahead for him in that regard. (His team recently finished reading applications for the incoming class.) “I miss it,” he says. “I absolutely love reading applications.”
Of course, that down time means he’ll soon be out on the road meeting new potential candidates, another part of the job he enjoys. Check out this list of events to see where you might have a chance to meet him in person. And don’t miss the tips and advice he offers in the interview that follows. Our thanks again, David, for the heads up on the essay questions and the chat!
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Published: August 5, 2015
Admissions Director Q&A: Sara Neher of UVA’s Darden School of Business
We recently caught up with Sara Neher, director of MBA admissions at Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (UVA), who had just returned from a family trip to celebrate her dad’s 70th birthday in the mountains of Colorado. Trading one beautiful environment for another, she’s back now in Charlottesville and ready to dive into the MBA admissions cycle just as it begins to heat up.
Neher, who celebrates her ninth anniversary as director of admissions this month, says she initially turned down an invitation to work at Darden. After five years in sales at Proctor & Gamble—including completing an MBA at Emory’s Goizueta School of Business while working—she returned to her home state and undergraduate alma mater to work for the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, which offers merit-based scholarship aid to exceptional undergraduates, graduate students and professors to come study and teach at UVA. During that time, the foundation launched a scholarship program with Darden for MBA students. “I met the dean—everyone was speaking my MBA language—and they said they had a vacancy at Darden in admissions,” she recalls. To which she replied, “No, I love my job.”
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Chicago Booth Admissions Director Reveals Origins of Unusual New Essay Prompt
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business has done it again. Seven years ago the school made waves when it invited applicants to respond to its essay prompts via PowerPoint presentation. This year, the school has decided to go even further—innovating on its prior innovation. Applicants now are instructed to select one of 16 photographs that capture elements of the school’s community and culture and offer a response—in whatever format they want—that tells the Admissions Committee how the photo resonates with their own viewpoint on why Booth is right for them.
“We are always trying to stimulate more authentic reactions,” Chicago Booth Associate Dean of Student Recruitment and Admissions Kurt Ahlm explained when we caught up with him earlier this week. “But we also wanted to give people a better sense of the breadth and depth of the Booth experience,” he continues. “With this new prompt, we wanted to give people the opportunity to see that and reflect on it.”
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