Review of AdCom panel

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I went to a UPenn Alumni Club event with members of the admissions committees at Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, and MIT. Most of the answers were pretty standard, but I did find a few interesting tidbits.

There were surprisingly a lot of people there... I would estimate about 200 - 250. This made me nervous b/c I was thinking if there are this many people here, consider how many will be applying to these top schools in just the entire DC area. They polled the audience in the beginning to get an idea of work experience (most people were applying with 3 - 5 years of experience), whether or not people had significant others that would join them at school (only about 10 -15 people!!!), and how many had already taken the GMAT (just under half).

Each member of the panel spoke about a different part of the admission process.
General comments - they really do read the entire package. They all agreed that they never look at stats and then just put you in the reject pile. At least two people will read your package (including all essays).

Kellogg Rep - GMAT and Transcripts

• Want to demonstrate you can handle rigor of program. Will understand a lower quant score if you were an English lit major. Everything taken in context of the overall package.
• AdCom is looking for improvement and trends.

MIT Rep - Work experience and recommendations

• Average is 4 - 5 years of work experience, more or less years is fine but make sure you goals are clear and the "why now" comes out in your essays
• Being sincere will help you to differentiate yourself if you are in a common group (e.g., consultants). Be sure to show the impact you've had and let your passion come through.
• Write about your accomplishments, not your tasks
• Recommendations should highlight your strengths; best way to make sure that happens - get someone who knows you well to write the recommendation

Stanford Rep - Extracurriculars

• Cover extracurriculars in college through current time; try to focus on leadership, scope of responsibility, size of organization and what kinds of activities that organization does, impact you've had
• Non-leadership positions can be valuable too - sometimes you made an impact as a team (sports) or perhaps you tutor kids (individual accomplishment). Attaining a certain level of achievement (e.g., All-American) also shows your dedication and self-sacrifice
• They look at context. Understand that if you are working crazy banking hours and flying every week for work as a consultant that it would be hard to get involved. However, it is therefore even more impressive if you have managed to do that.

HBS Rep - Essays

• Essays are the heart of the application. Will help if you see it as an opportunity rather than a chore.
• Chance to distinguish yourself. Make the AdCom excited to get to know you (they'll want to see you for an interview!)
• AdCom should feel like they've gotten to know you well after reading your essays
• Ask your reviewers to think about whether this is you when they read your essays

Wharton Rep - Interviews

• Gain insight into passions, career path, why you want/need an MBA
• Rehearse your story and do your homework on the school - just don't get to the point where it's just recitation and not a conversation
• Every school does its interview process differently - make sure you understand it for each

After this general discussion, there were prepared and open Q&A. Here are some things I found interesting:

• All schools except Kellogg were very open to younger applications, particularly women (this stems from realizing that women often want to go to school earlier because they do include family planning in their career). Kellogg didn't say they were against younger applicants, but I guess they really value work experience.
• All schools are really trying to get more women. They pointed out that law and med school has reached a 50/50 representation while b-schools still hover around 30%. (as a side note, MIT has clearly been proactive about this. I got a letter in the mail from the school highlighting their focus on recruiting and training women in business).
• Optional essays are truly optional.
• If you come from a non-traditional background, that's great b/c it represents diversity. But, you may have to do a bit more explaining about what you do so AdCom can understand.
• Types of classes: Kellogg - variety, MIT - variety, Stanford - case, experiential (a few lecture), HBS - 80% case, rest are experiential (50% of their students do field studies in 2nd year), Wharton - mix of case and lecture
• Most schools have a global business component (some more so than others). Stanford talked a little bit about their new curriculum, but I found it echoed the information available on the website.

That's it! :) I hope that was helpful to some fellow applicants.