Bw-online: UMich's Admissions Director

flyingty · 发表于 2004-1-31 11:41:00

Recruiters have long been enchanted with graduates of the University of Michigan Business School. Praise from CorporateAmerica for everything from the financial acumen to the technological skill of Michigan MBAs helped land the school at No. 8 in BusinessWeek's latest B-school rankings. Kris Nebel, director of admissions at MBS since 1999, spoke recently with BusinessWeek Online reporter Brian Hindo about application trends, new essay questions, and the Supreme Court'sdecision on Michigan's undergraduate and law-school admissions policies. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation
Q: How has the application atmosphere changed since the Internet bubble burst?
A: In the late '90s, it was a no-brainer: "I'm going to go get an MBA and I'm going to make great money." Now, youreally have to step back and think about it. "What am I trying to get from this, and does this make sense? What do I want,and how do I position myself for it?" So I think applicants are more thoughtful -- or should be. We're expecting that.

Q: Can you tell me about application volume this year?
A: Sure. The Graduate Management Admissions Council did an application-trends survey that showed volume down 10% to 30%around the country. We were around 13% to 15% down this year. Granted, that's off a record high the year before. So keepthat in context. And we still saw applicants of amazing quality, just fewer than last year.

Q: Despite the dip, the MBA is as popular, historically, as it has ever been. Do you foresee any change from top MBAprograms in response to that?
A: Some smaller schools have started to increase enrollment, but I don't know if it's tied directly to that. Michigan's strategy is to deliver a highly customized, hands-on program. And we can't mass produce this for 800 or 900 students. So, at least in the short term, I see us sticking with our class size of about 420 to 430 and maintaining the high level of opportunity that we provide.

Q: Are you hearing concerns about the job market from applicants?
A: I think that's on everybody's mind, and probably contributed to the decline of MBA applications across the country. But we saw placement rise 10% this year vs. last, which I think is a bit of a surprise.

We don't know how everyone's doing across the country yet. But my counterpart, Career-Services Director Al Cotrone, is inpretty close contact with most of the other top schools. Indications are that the number of [corporate recruiter] interview slots is up for next fall. We're seeing that especially with the top 30 companies that recruit at Michigan -- they're increasing their presence on campus.

My guess is that these companies are starting to cut back on the number of schools they go to, so they focus more onschools they keep on their recruiting schedule. We're clearly not where we were in the late '90s or early 2000, but we'reon an improving trend.

Q: Can you tell me a little bit about the composition of the class? Where do most of the people come from?
A: Oh, all over. Two of our biggest cities are New York and San Francisco. It doesn't change much year-to-year. Closeto 25% come from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, 25% from the Midwest, about 10% to 15% from the West Coast, and then amixture of everything else. This year, we're probably going to be about 27% international.

Q: Is that international percentage down from previous years?
A: Yeah. In the past couple of years, it has bounced around a bit. When I started in 1999, I think we were at 27% or28%. Then, we got up to almost 32%. We've been hovering around 30% the past two years.

We saw a little bit of the visa issue for students coming from Beijing. We lost some of our Chinese students who weren't able to get visas. We still very much want to maintain a global class -- I think the decline is just a reflection of someof the visa issues and normal application trends.

Q: Have visa issues arisen in other countries, as well?
A: No. We had one issue come up with Russia, but in working with some of our contacts there we solved that problem. Itreally was just China, and Beijing specifically. Shanghai was fine.

Occasionally I'll talk to some other schools and they'll run into problems in India or in Eastern Europe.

Q: Are people, especially from other countries, less willing now to incur the cost of the MBA?
A: It's hard to say, because within the international population, applicant volume is still very high. There are somany more students than we have places. So is there a shift in the international pool toward more well-off students, whocan afford the education? That could be. We do have a guaranteed loan program through CitiAssist. Students are guaranteed funding, so that cost isn't an issue. Of course, they need to repay that.

Where the challenge comes is that it's harder for international students to stay in the states after graduation. That's afactor. And we've been doing some things to help them. For example, we work with some of our corporate partners that aren'thiring for their U.S. operations but are hiring back in Asia.

Q: Can you tell me about student interest in terms of post-MBA jobs? Are finance and consulting still the two mostpopular career paths for MBAs?
A: They are, although consulting still hasn't rebounded by any means. We're seeing the slack filled in marketing andbrand management, general management, and corporate finance. Consulting is still one of the most appealing post-MBA jobs,as well as investment banking ? partially because of the salaries. But at Michigan we also see a lot of students doingnontraditional things -- going into nonprofits and a range of different companies. So, students don't just focus on who'scoming to campus, they'll build their own search with help from our career center.

About 30% or so of our students do an off-campus search, where you can target industries that might not come to campus.Entertainment is an example. We've been doing a student-run entertainment and media forum in New York City, tapping intosome of our alumni at NBC and other outlets.

flyingty · 发表于 2004-1-31 11:42:00

Q: I'd imagine because of the school's location, it has a good relationship with the Big Three car manufacturers andauto-parts makers.
A: We do. General Motors (GM ), Ford (F ), in particular, and DaimlerChrysler(DCX ) have been great supporters of the school -- in terms of financial contributions, internshipopportunities, multidisciplinary projects, and more. They're wonderful neighbors. On the other side of that, peoplesometimes have a misperception that because we're near Detroit it's the focus of the school. Detroit is one piece of a muchlarger fabric

Q: Can you compare the opportunities career changers have today vs. five years ago? Also, what percentage of MBAs arelooking to change careers?
A: We always are trying to pin down that percentage. I'd say 70% of the class is doing some sort of career change.Business is part of almost everything that happens in the world. You can use the MBA as a tool to do almost anything,whether you want to run a museum or a bank. We're making sure that message is out there to folks who hadn't previouslyconsidered an MBA.

Q: Are interviews required of applicants?
A: Anyone we're going to admit we've talked to. It's an up-front process -- people interview prior to submitting theirapplication. Applicants aren't required to interview, but we strongly encourage it.

Q: Are interviews done by phone or in person?
A: Three different ways. You can come to campus, which is great because you can sit in on a class, go on a tour, andinteract with current and prospective students. On campus, you can interview with staffers or members of our studentcommittee. You can also call in by phone to Ann Arbor and interview with a student or a staff member. The third way is anin-person interview with an alumnus [outside of Ann Arbor]. We have alums all over the world.

Q: Is it more of a conversational interview or professional interview?
A: It's a professional interview, but obviously you want to have a dialogue. Part of what we're trying to do is gain abetter understanding of the candidate and also allow the person an opportunity to learn more about us.

We're a "behavioral-event" interview, if you want to call it that. "Tell us about a time when you've been in asituation...." But we also are very interested in understanding how applicants view their MBA experience and what theirobjective for the MBA is. Not just their career objective, but how they're going to view co-creating their MBA experiencewith us.

Michigan isn't a cookie-cutter program. Students have an opportunity to customize their experience. We want to know thatyou've thought through things you want to take advantage of, and what you're going to bring to the community -- and thatyou recognize some of the differences about our program compared with others.

Q: So you're also evaluating how the applicant will fit in?
A: Definitely. I call it the personal impact. We look at how applicants conduct themselves, their demeanor andprofessionalism. Then through the entire conversation, you're learning about what they're looking for.

There are certain types of things that we're about, and if you're not interested in them, Michigan might not be the bestmatch. So there's a particular kind of person we're looking for.

Q: What are the defining characteristics of a Michigan student? Some schools have a reputation for beingteamwork-oriented, while others draw more competitive, individualistic students. Where does Michigan fall on thatspectrum?
A: More on the side of team interaction. You aren't going to do well in this program if you prefer to run through it onyour own. It's a competitive program, but students aren't going to succeed at the sacrifice of others in their class.

What we're looking for -- I think the difference that you see in our program -- are students who want to take knowledge andtheory and put it into action while they're in the program.

It's that action-based learning component of our program that's the signature piece of Michigan. You need to be interestedin getting into it while you're here -- jumping in with two feet. Our dean will say, "This isn't a puppet show." We're notlooking for folks who are just going to sit back and have the faculty profess their knowledge. It's a partnership -- one inwhich students are engaged, whether it's in or outside the classroom.

Q: Like some of your peer schools, Michigan has new essay questions for this admissions cycle. Are schools trying to be a little more idiosyncratic intheir questions, to elicit more of a personal response from the application package?
A: It might be that. We hadn't changed ours in about four years, and so it was time to make a change. Our dean has beenhere two years now, and he has a good sense for the core values of the program. So he wanted to tie our essay questions more tightly to that.

In our second essay, specifically, we're asking students to think about more than why they want an MBA, and why Michigan. Iwant to make sure that someone understands our unique approach, is excited by it, and can articulate that.

Q: Are there any other questions that are particularly unique?
A: The third one is a little different. We used to have one that was kind of a failure/setback essay. That alwaysproduced some interesting responses. But we changed it to one that reads: "When and how should personal or social valuesinfluence the decisions of business leaders? Please explain how your personal or social values have influenced a businessdecision in which you were involved. Alternatively, evaluate a recent decision of a business leader and how it aligns withyour own personal or social values."

flyingty · 发表于 2004-1-31 11:43:00

: Is that a reflection of some of the business scandals of the past three years?
A: Well, partially. I think it's more tied to the core values of the school: Understanding the role of business insociety is a piece of who we are. It has always been, before Enron, before all of that. Especially in light of what hasbeen happening, we want to make sure that people understand that. In some ways, it's a signal that social values areimportant to us, and it reflects that business is more than just about making money

Q: Once you get an application what happens to it? Who looks at it and what do you look at first?
A: The vast majority of our applications come in online -- about 90% last year. I'm expecting that to go almost to 100%this year. When they come in, they go through data-entry processing to make sure that everything is in place. Then they go to some of our admissions assistants who do the credential check and put everything in order to be read by the admissionscommittee.

Then they go through the reading process. On average, applications get two reads. If we don't agree on a decision they can go to a third or a fourth read. But we try to avoid that. We have a team of second-year students who are part of ouradmissions student committee. They go through a multi-day training program to be prepared for this. They will sometimes bethe first reader on an application, but a staff member is always a reader on the file. So you never would have two students read or review a file.

We make decisions in batches. Once the decisions are finalized, we post notices online. Of course, our admitted studentsget their Michigan binder in the mail and get personally contacted by the admissions committee.

Q: Does everything have to go through you before an applicant can be admitted?
A: No. I do see a fair number of them, but I've got a team of extremely experienced folks, and so I trust theirjudgment. We meet weekly to talk about files. I know different admissions directors do it differently -- some touch everyadmit. But we know the kind of student that we're looking for, and my team is pretty well empowered to make those decisions.

Q: You mentioned credential checks. Could you explain that?
A: That's making sure that your degree was actually granted, that we've got both of the transcripts, that all of theessays came in, and both recommendation letters are there.

Q: Do you do any sort of background checks?
A: We do. It's not full out, such as Wharton [which vets the entire incoming class]. Ours is a spot check. Clearly, ifwe've got any questions there are times where we will reach out to recommenders. And we've had situations come up, so we'llcontinue to do that.

Q: Is there any particular situation that keeps popping up?
A: You know, part of the application process is that you expect everything that's prepared in an application to betruthful and that candidates have been honest and that they've created the things they're supposed to create, like theessays. And we expect them not to be involved in writing their own recommendations. I just think at times people forgetabout the integrity that we're looking for, and those are the people who aren't going to be part of the class.

Q: How do you feel about admissions consultants, who offer anything ranging from application strategies to essayhelp?
A: It goes back to integrity. I have no problem if you have someone you want to bounce ideas off of or want to give youa sense of things. But applicants need to know that the creation of the application is on their shoulders. So they need to have that internal compass that tells them when they're crossing the line. The admissions process has become extremelycompetitive, and so candidates are more savvy.

I always tell folks -- I'm not advocating hiring a consultant -- but one thing I've said is if you're writing your essays,have a couple of people read them. Don't have too many people read them, or you're going to have too many thoughts. Havesomeone who knows you really well, but then also have someone who doesn't know you as well read them.

I could see how an admissions consultant could play that role. The applicant shouldn't have an "I need to get admitted atall costs" attitude. That isn't what this is about. This is about you sharing your story and what you want from a programand finding the best school for you.

Q: Michigan's B-school admissions process is completely separate from that of the Law School and the undergraduateschool. But did the recent Supreme Court decision on the University of Michigan's admissions policies have any impact onthe way you do things?
A: One, we were thrilled with the decision. The law school's admissions criteria are similar to how we evaluateapplications. Even at the undergrad level, though the manner in which they were reviewing applications was struck down, theintent behind it was supported by the decision in terms of valuing diversity in your class.

So I've been having meetings with our general counsel, evaluating everything that we do, including the admissions process and all of the outreach of our different programs, to make sure they're in line with the decision of the Supreme Court. Our admissions process we felt really good about from the get-go because it's holistic. Our applications are reviewed the same way, whether they're from an underrepresented minority or a majority student, whether they come in through the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management or via our other channels.

So the review process to me was fine. What we were evaluating was, for example, we do a weekend for minority prospectivestudents. And in reviewing that with general counsel, he felt very comfortable, because everything that we offer in thatweekend is offered in other ways to other students -- anyone can come on campus and meet with one of my team or with me.You can come in and do a tour and interview.

We're still reviewing some of our partnerships such as Management Leadership for Tomorrow or the Toigo Foundation to make sure everyone's on the same page. But we feel really good about [what we do] from an admissions standpoint.

Bw-online: UMich's Admissions Director

Bw-online: UMich's Admissions Director

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