北美TOP学校招办负责人采访录四(USC)

lewis · 发表于 2003-8-31 08:59:00

Keith Vaughn, director for the full-time program at USC

Q: How has the economy altered application volume to your programs?
Vaughn: We were up 34% in the first round of applications and about 50% in the second round. The quality of the applicants in our first two rounds is similar, if not slightly better, than we've seen in the past. I'd say 20% of the class has been admitted at this point.

Q: What benefits do full-time MBAs get that part-timers and executives miss out on?
Vaughn: First, day students get the all-encompassing experience of being on campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They also benefit from career-services activities that take place during the day -- company presentations at lunchtime or club activities during the day.

Q: What's the main difference between the admissions process for full-time, part-time, and executive MBAs?
Vaughn: The processes are very similar. The applications will be reviewed on the basis of a person's academic background, as well as their work history. The main differentiating point might be with regard to the focus of a full-time applicant -- why they're coming to business school and what career they're looking for after B-school. Part-time and executive MBA candidates are expected to maintain their current employment.

Q: Keith, what carries the most weight in the full-time MBA application?
Vaughn: When we look at our applicant pool, there are a lot of bright people, based on where they went to school, the courses they took, and how they performed. Once we draw a line in the sand that says, "everyone's bright," what makes the difference is their work history. Were they promoted? Did they show some level of energy and some level of excitement that we can see from either community activities or from their work experience?

I interviewed a candidate who talked to me about what he did once a week in a homeless shelter. He has a sincere level of commitment outside of his job, and it shows that there's more to this person than his MBA aspirations.

Q: Is it considered important to apply early to USC's program?
Vaughn: Applicants should research schools carefully to determine which round they would be the most competitive. It's good for well-prepared candidates to apply early. But students who aren't as competitive as our profile -- the average GMAT score is 670, grade point average is 3.3, and five years of work experience -- are better off applying in a later round.

Q: What's the lowest score the business school will accept on the GMAT? How can someone with a low score prove that he or she is worthy of admission?
Vaughn: There's no bottom-line score that we will admit. Last year we took a candidate who had a 550 GMAT. That candidate demonstrated in their college work, and by taking extension classes after college that they could do quantitative work. We're looking for courses that deal with quantitative work, such as statistics, finance, or accounting. Calculus is required at a minimum.

This person's work experience was exceptional, their energy was great, and their interpersonal skills and everything else that we're looking for in the application was presented well. We thought that they would be successful going through our program, and after they graduate.

Q: In 2001, the full-time program interviewed 42% of its applicants and 85% of the people it admitted. It seems that getting in front of an admissions rep can do an applicant good. What can someone expect from their USC interview?
Vaughn: This year in the first round -- and those are the only [application] decisions we've sent out thus far -- we interviewed 99% of the people that we admitted. In the interview, we're looking for an opportunity for the applicant to demonstrate interpersonal skills and characteristics that our Corporate Advisory Board members say they expect from managers in their own organizations, such as leadership, teamwork, the ability to recognize opportunities, and to quantify risk.

Applicants are always curious about what questions they'll get in an interview, and the questions depend upon the conversation that takes place. We start as simply as: "Tell us about yourself. Give us an example of where you demonstrated leadership within your organization. How do you know you're a good team player? What sort of feedback do you get within the organization that demonstrates to you that people think that you're being a good team player?"

Q: Can you describe someone who didn't fit with the Marshall community?
Vaughn: Someone who comes out of a very disciplined organization, where their role within the organization was pretty much individual, in terms of how they approached their work. After a 20- to 25-minute conversation, I may suggest that this program may not be a good fit for them, because they appear to enjoy working on projects by themselves. From the very beginning of this program, students will work in teams, so it may not be a good environment for that individual.

Q: Is an on-campus interview preferred?
Vaughn: An on-campus interview is always the preference, because it gives applicants an opportunity to look at the environment, to meet with students, and to get a real feel for what the Marshall experience is like. We also interview in locations around the world. In fact, we've been to Asia three times this year to conduct interviews.

Q: What regions are you trying to recruit more students from?
Vaughn: One of the areas that we've received more applicants from this year is India. For the first time, we will explore doing interviews [in India] later this month.

Q: Keith, do you offer the same advice to full-time MBA applicants?
Vaughn: Applicants can get better with regard to the selection of, and the discussion they have with, their potential recommenders. Many applicants appear to be just handing a form to a recommender and saying, "Please fill this out and send it to the schools that I'm applying to." Rather, they should find out exactly what that recommender may or may not be able to say in their behalf. They need to sit down with their recommender and have a dialogue about why they're applying to business school, what their strengths are, and whether that recommender would concur with them with regard to their strengths.

It's helpful when they use recommenders who either have an MBA or are at a sufficient level within an organization that they understand what that person is really trying to accomplish by getting an MBA.

Q: What are some common mistakes that MBA hopefuls make on their essays?
Vaughn: The most common mistake is that applicants don't always read the [essay] questions. They should make sure that their essay answers the question and also relates the subject matter to the school they're applying to. For example, students will often make the mistake of suggesting that they're interested in a particular concentration area within a school, and the school may not have that concentration. Understand what each school offers and what it doesn't offer. If a student says their career interest is in manufacturing, for instance, there are other schools that probably do that better than we do.

Q: Is there a particular essay that both of you like to read first?

Vaughn: I like to read an essay that tells me something about the person. It's really helpful when I feel as if I know something about the individual, and what motivates that individual.

Q: Keith, just 43% of the school's admitted full-time applicants enrolled at Marshall. Where do they go instead?
Vaughn: The competition for our students is extremely intense. The top 10 schools in the country tend to attract a lot of students, and the students that we accept are accepted in that top 10 group.

We also lose some of the domestic students -- especially in-state students -- to our university system here in California. The price for going to a state school vs. a private school is a substantial factor.

Q: What convinces people who attend the full-time program to ultimately enroll?
Vaughn: For many students it's the private school experience with a personal touch. They really feel that this environment caters to their needs, and the faculty and the students have a close-knit community. One of the big selling points for USC is its alumni network.

Q: Once students on campus there, what are they going to complain about?
Vaughn: Certainly not about the weather! Because business students think that school is about finance, statistics, and accounting, they sometimes dislike the fact that they'll have to take classes such as business communication. But after students go to work, they realize how important communication skills are.

They'll also complain, possibly, about the workload and the number of projects or homework assignments they have to turn in vis-à-vis what their friends are doing at other programs.

Q: What's the best strategy for applicants hoping to be admitted from USC's wait list?
Vaughn: They need to take another look at their application, and figure out what, if anything, was lacking. Take the initiative to visit the campus, or have another letter of recommendation sent to the program. The wait-list pool gets reviewed in every round. So if a person has been put on the wait list in round one, we're going to look at them in round two.

Q: The B-school awarded 31 full tuition scholarships to full-time MBAs in the last 12 months. How did those MBAs manage to get their scholarships?
Vaughn: Not all of the 31 scholarships that you referred to are full-tuition. We offer full scholarships as well as half scholarships to the top 10% of our applicant pool. That's determined during the regular application cycle. We don't ask for applicants to fill out an additional application to be considered for the scholarships but look at them on the basis of the interview, their essays, work experience, and their leadership abilities.

Q: Keith, in 2001 about 73% of your graduates landed jobs in the western part of U.S. What can USC offer its full-time MBAs who want to study in Los Angeles, but return to work in other parts of the world?
Vaughn: The Career Resource Center has off-site information sessions and visiting periods in New York, San Francisco, and other parts of the world. That also gives students an opportunity to meet with companies that are doing business in China, Japan, Chile, Mexico, and other [regions].

Q: Any final words of advice for your applicants?
Vaughn: The main thing we look for in a candidate is a level of interest. A lot of candidates have been surprised over the past couple of years as our applicant pool has gotten to be more competitive that their scores didn't automatically get them accepted into USC. Also, we encourage our international applicants to apply earlier than the final deadline, so that we can get back to them in time for them to process paperwork that's necessary to get a visa.

jeff2003 · 发表于 2003-9-2 10:26:00

看到Lewis发的帖子，想起来我也下载过一些类似的东东，在这里贴出来与大家Share,可能老了点，但还是能反映出学校的一些Profile:

A Chat with Harvard's Admissions Director

Brit K. Dewey discusses MBA admissions at Harvard Business School
Brit K. Dewey is managing director of MBA admissions and financial aid at Harvard Business School (No. 3 on BusinessWeek's 2000 Top 30 B-school list). Dewey graduated from the school's MBA program in 1996 and returned there to work for the past four years in a variety of capacities specifically related to admissions and broadly to the MBA program's administration. She began running admissions at Harvard in June 2001.

Dewey's comments came during a live BusinessWeek Online chat on Nov. 29. She was responding to questions from the audience and from BW Online's Mica Schneider. The following is an edited transcript of their discussion:

Q: Many B-schools are tracking dramatic increases in first round applications this fall -- increases of 49% to 200%. How many applications has HBS received?
A: At this point it's too early to tell. We received our first round of applications in late October. We will have to wait to for our next two rounds to see where applications trends have come out for the year.

Q: You began leading admissions and financial aid at HBS in June 2001. How will the first class of MBA candidates that you recruit differ from the classes your predecessor, Kirsten Moss, accepted to HBS? Are you hoping to change the HBS student profile?
A: Our admissions criteria remain the same this year. I hope to attract and enroll as capable a group of students as Kirsten did last year.

Q: Can you share with us a snapshot of the ideal HBS student?
A: We're looking for leaders. There is really no "standard" applicant or typical student. HBS students are seeking to have an impact in the world -- in a variety of domains from the nonprofit to the for-profit sector, from the private to the public sector.

Q: Is it true that HBS will be interviewing everyone who is admitted this year? And when will HBS start inviting its applicants to interviews?
A: Interviews are offered at the invitation of the admissions board. In many cases, an interview can provide valuable data points to the evaluation process, supplementing the data that candidates have already provided in their application materials. For those cases, we will extend offers to interview. When we invite someone to interview, they could interview with a board member in Boston, over the phone, or with an alumnus.

We will notify all candidates of their application status for the first round by Jan. 16. Many candidates will receive an invitation to interview on that date. If the board is able to determine that we would like to interview a candidate prior to the 16th, we may extend that offer early so that we can turn around a final decision as close to the 16th as possible. The majority of candidates who are admitted to HBS this year will likely be interviewed.

Q: Extending interview invitations on Jan. 16 seems later than usual for HBS. Why the change?
A: There has not been a change. We have always sent out interview notifications on the notification date, so this is not a change to our process.

Q: What can someone expect to be asked in their HBS interview? What's the right impression for an applicant to leave on the interviewer?
A: Each application is early-reviewed by several members of the admissions board prior to the interview. Our evaluation process focuses upon assessing a candidate's strength on our three criteria. Those are: academic ability, leadership experience, and personal qualities and characteristics. During an interview, we're trying to further assess a candidate's relative strength on these three fronts. But for a candidate, there's no additional preparation required. Know your application well, be well rested, and enjoy the dialogue.

Q: Recommendations. Do titles matter? Does a recommendation from a managing director carry more weight than one from an associate?
A: First and foremost, choose recommenders who know you well. During the application process, we're trying to get to know you as people. We're trying to hear from you, through your essays, through your words, about your experiences, your insights, and your dreams.

Recommendations provide you with an incredible opportunity to have someone who knows you well share their perspective. We expect that one of your recommendations will be from your current supervisor (unless you're unable to notify them that you're applying to business school). But again, choose recommenders who know you well and can share specifics with regard to your capabilities. What's not important is the status or the seniority or the affiliation of the recommender. What's most important is that they know you well.

Q: With such a focus on leadership, should applicants encourage their references to point out examples of their leadership know-how in the rec letter?
A: Absolutely! And if candidates review the questions that we ask recommenders to comment on, leadership is a strong theme.

Q: HBS students, and HBS culture, is perceived as quite arrogant, much more so than at other schools. How would you comment on that?
A: I find this description to be inaccurate. As a student and as a member of the community on the other side of things, I think the community and culture of Harvard Business School are true differentiators. That's true with regard to camaraderie, collaboration, and support. An example of this would be the HBS classroom experience. Please come to campus to visit a class -- you'll see what I mean.

Q: How heavily does Harvard weigh each of the following: undergraduate record, GMAT, and work experience?
A: We do not have a weighting system in our evaluation process. Our goal is to assess the candidate's strengths on our three main criteria. Every applicant is unique, and each of those data points is taken into consideration in evaluating the application in conjunction with the many other data points presented in our applications.

Q: How about this scenario: An applicant has a not-so-hot GMAT score, great work experience, and a 3.7 undergraduate GPA. Any chance?
A: Looking at just those attributes would be an oversimplification of our process. We take into consideration all aspects of a candidate's personal and professional background. We don't have a threshold for the GMAT or for GPA. There is no requirement with regard to years of work experience.

Q: HBS' e-mail notifications tell an applicant that HBS received a person's application. If it has been more than four weeks since the application was submitted, should an applicant expect that something is wrong with his/her application if no notification has arrived?
A: Absolutely not. Be patient. For the vast majority of our applicants, their applications are complete and we will notify you shortly. I know it's on the minds of many of our first-round applicants, but you will hear from us shortly.

Q: Is HBS doing anything to attract more women? In 2000, Michigan Business School and Catalyst, a nonprofit focused on women leading businesses, produced a study about the few numbers of women enrolled in B-schools.
A: Yes. HBS is committed to being the pre-eminent business school for women, and we are very interested in increasing the number of qualified women applying to Harvard Business School. This year, 36% of our class is female, and we're very proud of that. We will continue to do outreach and work very closely with Harvard Business School alumni around the world and the student organization WSA (Women's Student Assn). Michigan and Catalyst have done some terrific work.

Q: Have the events of September 11 affected the way that HBS will look at international applicants, especially with the the potential threat of a cap on student visas?
A: No, it will not affect our view on any candidate. With regard to September 11, and more broadly, we encourage international candidates to apply in one of our first two rounds so that we have sufficient time to work with them to obtain student visas, which might be quite challenging this year.

Q: What's Harvard's general feeling toward a former dot-comer. Do those applicants have an advantage over tranditional consultants and investment bankers, or do they have a disadvantage at admission?
A: There's no standard or preffered applicant. We evaluate all candidates on their merits and assess personal and professional backgrounds individually.

Q: Since you won't discuss application volume, let's talk about quality: What kind of applicants (what sort of profiles) have you seen in the first round?
A: Again, it's too early for me to comment.

Q: Is the admittance rate in the second round lower than that of the first one?
A: We will admit the most capable candidates out of each of our three rounds. There's no formula with regard to what's an inherently individual selection.

I look at all rounds equally. That said, applying to HBS is a competitive process. We have a very capable applicant pool, and our challenge is to select the candidates who are strongest on our criteria -- academic ability, leadership experience, and personal qualities and characteristics.

Q: How many people worked in the admissions office reviewing applications in 2000/2001? How many in 2001/2002?

A: We have a full-time professional staff dedicated to this endeavor. I don't think there will be significant variance this year compared to last year. We spend a lot of time reading each application.

Q: Not everyone has submitted an application to HBS yet. Can you offer some quick advice?
A: We talked about recommendations. With regard to essays, please be candid. We want to get to know you -- in your voice. Spend time really thinking about where you've been and where you want to go, and how Harvard Business School can help you reach your goals. Don't write what you think we want to hear -- tell us your story. Also, try to find out more about HBS. Visit us, and we'll arrange a class visit for you, or attend an on-campus information session. Connect with HBS alumni to learn more about our community.

Q: How does HBS plan to lean on its wait list this application season?
A: It's really too early to tell. If we use a wait list and how we use a wait list varies from year to year.

Q: Any advice for someone placed on the wait list?
A: First, I should say that I'm grateful to candidates for agreeing to be on the waiting list, given their other options. Clearly, a candidate on the waiting list has many strengths -- oftentimes, we're not able to offer admission to waitlisters because of space. Last year, we had a very strong yield -- of the offers that we extended to students, a high percentage chose HBS, relative to other options. We always have a strong yield, but that does affect how many students we can take off the waitlist. My other advice is that it's not necessary to send us additional information.

Q: What is the school's view regarding reapplicants? Do you encourage them? Do they stand better chances?
A: Each year, candidates reapply to Harvard Business School, and our review focuses on their most current application. With this said, the admissions board will be seeking to understand what has changed since the candidate's original application.

Q: If you had to choose one top competitor among business schools, which would it be? How is HBS differentiated from that school?
A: There are many terrific opportunities (other B-schools and jobs) available to applicants. I think Harvard Business School is truly differentiated on a variety of fronts. With regard to the intellectual experience, Harvard's learning model is based upon the case method. Case is predominantly used, although we do use business simulations, lectures, and other models where appropriate. The case method is real-time, real-life learning. Harvard Business School's mission is to develop outstanding business leaders who will contribute to the well-being of society -- leaders with a general management perspective who will make a difference in the world. We feel that the case method not only allows students to learn the skills, tools, and frameworks of business, but to develop business judgment, flexibility of thinking, and comfort with ambiguity that will serve them over the course of their lives. Our faculty are a tremendous resource -- not only are they phenomenal researchers, writing cases that are used throughout the world at MBA programs, they are also committed to teaching excellence.

Each year, we attract a tremendously capable group of individuals to the MBA program. With 880 students each year, there is real diversity of perspectives. Our size affords us a critical mass of diversity -- there are more women at Harvard Business School than there are students at some MBA programs. We're also a residential community, which means that students, faculty, and staff come together day in and day out.

Were I an applicant again, HBS would again be my first choice. Under Dean Kim Clark, the school has invested significantly in initiatives with regard to technology, entrepreneurship, and globalization. As a learning institution, we're always looking for ways to improve and to innovate.

If people have questions after this chat, e-mail us at admissquest@hbs.edu. We've got a lot to share.

北美TOP学校招办负责人采访录四(USC)

北美TOP学校招办负责人采访录四(USC)

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