Admissions Director Q&A

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

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! Read more

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.” Read more

Published: July 15, 2015

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.” Read more

Published: July 13, 2015

Admissions Director Offers Advice on Kellogg’s New Essay Questions

We caught up with Director of Admissions Beth Tidmarsh late last week to discuss the new essay questions posted by the Kellogg School of Mangement on July 8th. Though the wording and order of the questions has changed slightly this year, applicants are asked, like last year, to respond to two required prompts and given 900 words in which to provide their answers. As in past years, applicants also have the opportunity to respond to an additional optional essay with no word limit. Leadership and collaboration once again factor prominently into Kellogg’s new essay questions this year, but Tidmarsh and her team hope the prompts provide applicants with a great deal of latitude in how they respond. Read more

Published: June 29, 2015

Fuqua Admissions Dean Dishes on Essays and Life

It’s not every admissions director who will make time during her vacation to discuss how prospective business school applicants should approach their essays. And yet Liz Riley Hargrove, associate dean for admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, did just that. Speaking from North Carolina’s Outer Banks this morning, before the kids woke up ready to head to the beach, she shared insights with Clear Admit on the essay prompts released last week. Not a lot has changed this year in terms of Fuqua’s application, it turns out. Applicants will find they have twice as much space in which to answer three short-answer prompts—one on short-term goals, one on long-term goals and one on an alternative plan should that first short-term goal not pan out. This year candidates get 500 characters for each response, up from 250 last year. “We wanted to give candidates a little more opportunity to expand upon their responses,” she says of this year’s doubled answer field. Read more

Published: June 15, 2015

Georgetown McDonough’s Shari Hubert Points to Subtle Changes in New Application

Refreshed following a two-day staff retreat, the head of admissions at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business took time this morning to share with Clear Admit her advice to prospective candidates on how to approach the school’s application for the Class of 2018. Though its essay question remains unchanged from last year, there are subtle shifts elsewhere in the application, says Shari Hubert, who has served as Georgetown McDonough’s associate dean of MBA admissions since 2013. Among other things, applicants will have greater opportunity to highlight experiences living and working abroad. Read on to learn more about these subtle shifts, as well as Hubert’s advice on how to make taking a risk in response to the essay pay off. Read more

Published: June 10, 2015

NYU Stern Head of Admissions Offers Advice on Essays Posted Today

Just after New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business posted its essay questions for the 2015-16 admissions cycle this morning, Assistant Dean of MBA Admissions Isser Gallogly got on the phone with Clear Admit to share some advice on what the school is looking for in prospective applicants’ responses. Stern didn’t change much this year in terms of its essay prompts. The first, identical to last year, invites applicants to outline their professional aspirations, including why they are pursuing an MBA now, what they have done to determine that Stern is the best fit for them and what they see themselves doing professionally when they graduate. Read more

Published: June 9, 2015

McCombs Director of MBA Admissions Weighs in on Essays, Application Changes

The McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin earlier this week posted its essay questions for the application season. Though the prompts remain largely the same as last year, McCombs Director of MBA Admissions Rodrigo Malta had several interesting tidbits of news to share yesterday in an interview with Clear Admit. “We really, really, really love our first essay question,” Malta says of the prompt that invites applicants to introduce themselves to members of their future McCombs cohort. “We have had it for three years now, so we had it way before Harvard did,” he adds with a satisfied chuckle. When the question debuted at McCombs the year before last, applicants were asked to reply in essay form. Last year, McCombs offered greater flexibility, inviting applicants to choose between writing an essay, sharing a video introduction or sharing an about.me profile. Read more

Published: May 26, 2015

Columbia Business School Admissions Director Provides Insight into 2015-16 Essays

Columbia Business School (CBS) kicked off the application cycle for the Class of 2018, sending its application live in late April, before any other leading business school. Though this year’s essay questions aren’t hugely different from last year’s, the school’s admissions director took time to share her perspective on the subtle changes with Clear Admit and offer some guidance to applicants who may be preparing to embark upon the application process. Speaking to Clear Admit yesterday, Admissions Director Amanda Carlson turned first to the school’s first essay prompt—the “career goals/why a Columbia MBA now” question. Read more

Published: May 21, 2015

Ross Admissions Director Provides Insight into New Essay Questions

The admissions director at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business weighed in on the school's new application essay questions—announced this week—in an exchange of emails with Clear Admit. Read on to learn what she had to say. On Wednesday, Ross Admissions Director Soojin Kwon posted the school’s new essay questions for the 2015-16 application season on her Admissions Director Blog. This year, she and her team chose to combine last year’s two essay questions ("What are you most proud of personally?" and "What are you most proud of professionally?") into one, more open-ended question and ask a second question about applicants’ career goals. Read more

Published: November 5, 2014

Admissions Director Q&A: Dana Brown of Saïd Business School at Oxford University

Dana Brown recently assumed the role of MBA director at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. In this position, Brown has overseen the review of the MBA program and implemented new elements to help “ensure that Oxford MBAs – as future leaders – have the skills, knowledge and personal qualities needed to meet the world-scale challenges of the 21st century,” she says. Brown is no stranger to Oxford. Having received her PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she came to Oxford to study for an MPhil in Russian and East European Studies as a Rhodes Scholar. She went on to teach international business at Saïd until 2010, when she relocated to France as academic director of the International Executive DBA at EMLYON Business School. Brown has recently returned to Oxford and continues her research on international business and corporate social responsibility while serving as MBA director. Read more

Published: October 12, 2014

Admissions Director Q&A: Grace Kim of the USC Marshall School of Business

Grace Kim is senior associate director of MBA admissions at the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business. She was generous enough to make time recently to answer our questions about the admissions process at Marshall, and we thank her! In the interview that follows, Kim shares new developments planned for the school, including the creation of several half-semester electives as part of the curriculum. These new, shorter courses are designed to add greater breadth of content and allow students to better prepare for highly specialized careers. Read more

Published: October 8, 2014

Admissions Director Q&A: Maryellen Lamb of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School

Maryellen Lamb was named deputy vice dean of Wharton MBA Career Management, Admissions and Financial Aid last fall, and she tells us that she absolutely loves the role. “I have a great job because I get to see both the comings and goings. I see Wharton students from when they just start thinking about an MBA through their time here as students and then as they advance in their careers,” she says. “It is so fun to watch really high-performing individuals reach even higher.” Philadelphia born and raised, Lamb began her career in Princeton as a currency trader, but she found that the more successful she became, the farther away from Philadelphia she was forced to move. About 10 years ago she decided she wanted to return to Philly, and when she got a call from Wharton to come work in the Career Office as an advisor to students looking into investment banking, she jumped at it. “Over time, I have loved being at Wharton even more than I ever thought I could,” she says. Read more

Published: October 5, 2014

Admissions Director Q&A: Itziar de Ros of IESE

Itziar de Ros has been leading the charge since 2011 as MBA admissions director and president of the MBA Admissions Committee at IESE in Barcelona, Spain. She is responsible for global marketing, student selection and administration of scholarships for the IESE MBA class of 280 students. No stranger to the school, de Ros herself obtained an IESE MBA in 2006. She worked as a marketing and sales consultant at DuPont before returning to IESE in 2007, where she held roles in admissions, marketing and communications and development before stepping into her current role. Read more

Published: September 24, 2014

Admissions Director Q&A: Isser Gallogly of New York University’s Stern School of Business

Isser Gallogly, assistant dean of MBA admissions at New York University’s Stern School of Business, understands the MBA and its potential for changing people’s lives first hand. “I am on my third career,” he told us in an interview. He worked in banking after college and then returned to business school to obtain an MBA as part of a career shift toward marketing. After almost a decade working for Unilever and Loreál, he decided to shift again toward education and academia. “I know how much an MBA has changed my life both personally and professionally, and helping others on that journey seemed to me to be a very gratifying job opportunity,” he said. Read more

Published: September 10, 2014

Admissions Director Q&A: Rupesh Bisht of the Indian School of Business

Moving right along in our Q&A Series, we turn this week to India, specifically the Indian School of Business (ISB). With campuses in Hyderabad and Mohali, ISB features an accelerated one-year Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Management, as well as a PGP for Senior Executives, a Fellow Program, a Management Program for Family Business and several additional executive education offerings. Against time zone odds, we were lucky enough to connect with Rupesh Bisht, ISB’s associate director for admissions and financial aid. An alumnus from the ISB class of 2009, “I am an experiencer of the product itself, which gives me some advantage in terms of knowing the product inside out,” he tells us. In addition to his admissions responsibilities, Bisht also oversees international marketing for ISB, as well as the school’s Young Leaders Program (YLP). Read more

Published: September 7, 2014

Admissions Director Q&A: Kurt Ahlm of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Kurt Ahlm is a 12-year veteran of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business admissions office, and he has been at the helm for the past four years. During that time, he has helped welcome a new dean, Dean Sunil Kumar, and seen the school continue its international expansion. Ahlm started his career in undergraduate admissions at Northwestern University and then spent time working as a corporate recruiter before coming to Chicago Booth. “I really liked higher education but I also liked the more professional type of atmosphere that the corporate world offered,” he says, adding that MBA admissions provides a great mix of both. Chicago Booth benefits, in turn, from his strong background in both admissions and recruiting. Read more

Published: September 3, 2014

Admissions Director Q&A: Stephanie Fujii of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business

As we reported here on the Clear Admit blog earlier this week, Stephanie Fujii just stepped into a new position at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business: assistant dean of the full-time MBA program and admissions. She was appointed to this newly created role last month by Haas Dean Rich Lyons, and she now oversees both the full-time MBA admissions and the full-time MBA program offices. A 2004 Haas alumna, Fujii knows the school inside and out. She has been working in admissions there for almost a decade, advancing through the ranks to become executive director in 2010. Between obtaining her MBA at Haas and returning to work there, she served as executive director of a San Francisco assisted living community for the elderly. Read more

Published: August 24, 2014

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

~ A CLEAR ADMIT EXCLUSIVE ~ Alex Lawrence, an alumnus of the UCLA Anderson School of Management (MBA ’99), took the helm as assistant dean and director of MBA admissions and financial aid in August 2012. Lawrence, who replaced interim director Rob Weiler, knows the school intimately. Five years after receiving his MBA, he returned to campus to serve as executive director of the Riordan Programs, an initiative founded by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan to help high school and undergraduate students attain higher levels of education. In this role, Lawrence developed programs targeting students who are the first in their family to apply to college or seek an MBA degree. Under his guidance, nearly 70 percent of Riordan MBA Fellows went on to obtain their MBA at some of the nation’s most elite business schools. In his current role as director of admissions, Lawrence is turning his focus toward assembling the strongest and most diverse incoming MBA classes he can at Anderson. Read more

Published: August 20, 2014

Admissions Director Q&A: Conrad Chua of Cambridge’s Judge Business School

Conrad Chua met an alumnus of Cambridge University’s Judge Business School while working in business development and was soon sold on the school’s values and ethos. In 2009, he became head of MBA recruitment and admissions. Chua, a native of Singapore, worked in the public sector there for 10 years, but he completed his undergraduate education at Stanford and a graduate program at London Business School. “The masters I did at LBS really opened my perspective, and I decided I wanted to work outside Singapore,” he told us. He and his wife moved to the United Kingdom seven years ago. Read more

Published: August 17, 2014

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 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, Malta applied for and got the admissions director’s position. Read more

Published: August 11, 2014

Admission Director Q&A: Amanda Carlson of Columbia Business School

Amanda Carlson was named assistant dean of admissions at Columbia Business School (CBS) in September 2012, and we recently had the opportunity to learn from her about some of the things that sets the school apart. A member of the admissions team since 2002, Carlson knows CBS admissions inside and out, and as assistant dean she oversees both the MBA and Executive MBA programs at the school. Read more

Published: August 3, 2014

Admissions Director Q&A: Sherry Wallace of the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School

Today we hear from Sherry Wallace, director of MBA admissions at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. We are grateful to her for making time to share some of the things she’s most excited about in the year ahead – not the least of which is welcoming a new class of students to campus today for orientation. But that’s not all. With a new dean at the helm, Kenan-Flagler is in the midst of wide-spread growth and improvement. Increased application volume, record numbers of job postings, a new energy concentration and continuing emphasis on leadership are just a few of the things you’ll learn about in the interview that follows. Read more

Published: July 30, 2014

Admissions Director Q&A: Bruce Delmonico of the Yale School of Management

We’re continuing our round of interviews with Yale School of Management (SOM) Admissions Director Bruce DelMonico, who has been leading the charge at the New Haven business school since 2006. (A lawyer by training, DelMonico grew tired of sleeping in his office and traveling for weeks on end, so he took a job in his hometown as part of the Yale SOM admissions team. A decade later, he’s still there.) It’s an exciting time to be at Yale SOM, DelMonico tells us. Under the leadership of Dean Edward Snyder, who joined the school in 2011, Yale SOM has continued to expand the Global Network for Advanced Management, a consortium of leading business schools, and moved into its sparkling new home, the Lord Norman Foster–designed Evans Hall. Read more

Published: July 27, 2014

Admissions Director Q&A: Shari Hubert of Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business

In our continuing series of interviews with admissions directors at leading business schools, we spoke most recently with Shari Hubert of Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. Hubert joined McDonough last year as associate dean of MBA admissions, where she leads recruitment efforts to attract highly qualified, diverse students to the school’s full-time and part-time MBA programs. Prior to joining McDonough, Hubert served as director of recruitment for the Peace Corps’ Office of Volunteer Recruitment and Selection, where she was responsible for recruiting 4,000 volunteers annually and managed the operations of nine regional recruitment offices across the United States. Before that, she led campus recruitment for Citi’s Global Bank in North America and served as the manager for campus relations in corporate recruiting at GE’s corporate headquarters. She also led the Executive Leadership and Civic Development Program at the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy association focused on public and private partnerships. Read more

MBA Applywire

December 21, 2024 12:13pm ET

Applying: Dartmouth / Tuck, Northwestern / Kellogg, UPenn / Wharton, UT Austin / McCombs, UVA / Darden

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Military/Corporate Logistics

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

GRE: 302

GPA: 3.63

Years of Work Experience: 9

Notes:

Submitting for R2, but retaking GRE after application deadline. Military Vet with Corporate experience.

December 20, 2024 5:17pm ET

Applying: Columbia, Duke / Fuqua, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, Stanford GSB, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Healthcare

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

GRE: 332

GPA: 3.5

Years of Work Experience: 3

Location: Florida

Post MBA Location: Consulting

Notes:

25F, lgbtq, 3 years as a registered nurse. also have started working for an early stage VC in the past several months.

December 19, 2024 4:44pm ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Stanford GSB

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Insurance

Post-MBA Target Industry: Entrepreneurship

GRE: 318

GPA: 3.59

Years of Work Experience: 3.5

Location: Georgia

Post MBA Location: Southeast

Notes:

Looking to launch a tech startup post MBA, without any background in tech. Come from a quant heavy background and undergraduate coursework. I regularly attended admissions events, in person and online at my schools. I hope that focusing energy on my few top schools and spending a lot of time on essays will help me overcome the less than average test score (164 quant 154 verbal) and GPA.

Serial entrepreneur with a history of profitable small businesses. Was promoted twice in 3.5 years. Involved in many extracurricular activities in and outside of work. My background is very centered around financial services/insurance, is this a red flag for a pivot to Tech Entrepreneurship?

Transferred between two state schools in the southeast. School I graduated from is a top 25 undergrad business program. Obtained a few professionals designations post grad.

December 18, 2024 11:38am ET

Applying: Michigan / Ross, UNC Kenan-Flagler, Vanderbilt / Owen

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Held various positions in Finance and Accounting in a healthcare institution

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Other Companies: BCG , Deloitte , Other

GPA: 3.0

Years of Work Experience: 11

Location: International

Notes:

I am passionate about healthcare enhancing patient quality care. So exploring in that field is what I would love. Got a 72k scholarship from Vandy and named Forte Fellow. UNC 50k. I'm having a hard time deciding though my heart is leaning towards Owen

December 18, 2024 10:23am ET

Applying: Arizona State / W.P. Carey, Indiana / Kelley, Ohio State / Fisher

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Facility management

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting

GRE: 309

GPA: 2.8

Years of Work Experience: 3

Notes:

Graduate GPA -3.869

View or Submit Entries

MBA LiveWire

December 21, 2024 8:37am ET

Accepted to Duke / Fuqua

Round: Round 1

Received via phone on December 11, 2024

GMAT: 675

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

December 21, 2024 2:38am ET

Waitlisted at Duke / Fuqua

Round: Round 1

Received via phone on December 10, 2024

GPA: 3.27

GMAT: 760

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Finance

Application Location: CA

December 20, 2024 11:16pm ET

Accepted to Babson / Olin

Round: Round 1

Received via email on December 17, 2024

GPA: 3.9

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: South Asia

December 20, 2024 7:50pm ET

Accepted to Columbia

Round: Round 1

Received via portal on December 10, 2024

GMAT: 750

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Application Location: India

Note:

$100k scholarship

December 20, 2024 3:21pm ET

Accepted to Yale SOM

Round: Round 1

Received via email December 20, 2024

GPA: 4.0

GMAT: 750

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Note:

100% scholarship

View or Submit Entries

Live
Wire