Poets and Quants

The Presentation Only Elite MBA Applicants See

by John A. Byrne

Jana Blanchette, founder of Inside MBA Admissions

Every year, many of the most elite companies bring into their offices B-school admission officials and MBA admission consultants to give their two-year analysts the skinny on the MBA admissions game. These insider seminars are a common perk at McKinsey & Co., Boston Consulting Group, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and other organizations that pretty much require the MBA degree for advancement.

Jana Blanchette, founder and president of Inside MBA Admissions, has traveled around the country, giving two-hour-long presentations to top-tier consulting firms and Ivy League alumni groups. The sessions cover what happens after a person hits the submit button on his or her application, bringing you inside an admissions office to show how Adcom staffers evaluate applications.

Blanchette should know. In 2007 and 2008, she was a senior director in the admissions office for the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. While at Ross, Blanchette benchmarked the application processes and admissions criteria at other top business schools so the system at Ross could be reengineered. Then, in 2008, she left Ross to launch Inside MBA Admissions, an admissions consulting firm.

Blanchette received her MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. After graduating from Kellogg in 1999, she worked as a management consultant for A.T. Kearney and later became a principal with the firm.

Readers can attend a one of several free webinars on “Understanding How MBA Applications are Evaluated” by Blanchette. They will be held on Tuesday (Aug 16th) and Thursday (Aug 18th), and you can register here.

DON’T MISS: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HIT SUBMIT AT STANFORD or WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HIT SUBMIT AT CHICAGO BOOTH

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  • Ranjit

    Hi John,
    I just thought I’d point something out that I think is a contradiction or maybe I’m understanding something wrong.
    On page 3, it says that Wharton applications are read by a student before it goes to a admissions committee member.
    However, I recall reading in on of the earlier columns that this system has been changed and now students aren’t involved in the reading and the application goes directly to an ad com member.

  • Mr Questions

    John,

    Interesting article. Can we get a list of candidates she feels are over/underrepresented?

  • http://poetsandquants.com/members/jbyrne/ John A. Byrne

    Ranjit,

    Very good catch. The presentation slides were done before anyone knew about this change, and we have been the only outlet to report that change in our interview with the deputy director of admissions.

  • Guiseppe

    John,

    Thanks for Jana’s presentation to us mere non-elite applicants. The components of evaluation process are well known, but small aspects such as weighting, underrepresented groups, designing preliminary class profiles and internal decision-making are informative.

    What is your take on recent declining application volume and correlation of class profiles in terms of strength and depth? adcoms do emphasize that quality remains unchanged in the top end of admits regardless of volume.

  • Clint

    I’ve always had the suspicion that admissions committees (as groups of individuals) are sensitive to various types of criticism against them, and might try and respond to that criticism in their admissions choices.

    For instance, a school thought to only take finance or 700+ candidates will admit an exceptional peace corps participant with a 2.7 GPA just to have backup against claims of being only concerned about ranking profiles.

    I’d love to see some article or commentary on how admissions committees respond to changing business and social dynamics, and what types of interpersonal interactions take place when discussing whether to admit a particular candidate.

  • Manishk

    Hi John,

    Great article. Though it only talks about what happens pre-interview.

    I would love to hear what happens after the interview process. Some schools like Wharton normally give out interviews to 50% of their applicant pool.

    Manishk

  • Francois

    Clint: It is human that adcoms are sensitive of criticism and defend their stance without disclosing the inner workings of decision-making (keep cards close to chest).

    Adcoms want to stick to the proven formula of finance, consulting and blue chips. Sprinkle a bit non-traditionals from the mililtary and voila, the new class is ready. Nothing too radical to rock the boat. In incorperate social changes is mostly lip service to beat off critics.

  • Aaron

    Thanks for this post, @jbyrne. I may have to check out the full preso on the 15th. On a separate note, did you receive my earlier note about a potential meeting later this week?

  • http://mbaprepschool.com mbaprepschooltyler

    This is a very informative deck and packs a great deal of valuable information into a few slides. Thanks for sharing it. I too would like to see more information like this available to more applicants in order to level the MBA application playing field. Reducing information advantages held by “elite” applicants is a step in the right direction. Resourceful, thoughtful, diligent applicants will make the most of the tools and guidance once they are made available. Thanks!

  • srini

    Can you please elaborate on the over represented groups? Does the term refer to groups like the Indian IT professionals or the Wall Street finance types? In general, what are some of the over represented groups? Are the requirements different for over represented groups? Thanks for your help!

  • http://www.mbastylemagazine.com Larry

    Just an itty bitty silly point. On the second slide, she should use (i.e.) instead of (e.g.)

  • ParkAve

    Do this:

    3.5 GPA
    650-700 GMAT
    Don’t be another finance applicant
    Do something cool, like start a non-profit or something
    Write really good essays – I mean really good
    Interview well – this can make or break you

  • Inbold

    Students should never be a part of the app reading process. What do they know about judging the quality of an application? They are in most cases themselves fresh off the boat having been admitted recently. Students being competent to judge the ‘fit’ is total bull. They will carry a load of prejudice and reject people who earned more money than they did pre-MBA.

  • Hattori Honzo

    @Inbold
    Mayte, why is it that a student who has himself made the grade insufficient in judging a potential student’s candidature ? Given an oppurtunity, I would definitely like to have a say on the quality of recruits in my firm. I don’t want to hobnob with folks who carry half their brains with them. Is that concept so difficult to grasp??

  • Pushkin

    I think the argument that schools will choose candidates will choose student who may not fit the “profile” but GPA or GMAT is a little outdated. There are exceptional people in the peace corps, in Teach for America and other similar programs, people who have the GPA (which is a requirement for many of these programs) and either the GRE or GMAT scores to be competitive.

    To me, these people are the ones that I worry about being competitive with. They are truly exceptional individuals who have demonstrated commitment to certain values, have shown the academic competence and risk tolerance that choosing a non-traditional path requires.

  • Pushkin

    I should clarify – my comment above is specific to Clint’s comments. This reminds me of the concept of “model minorities” and I think this is something that schools would conciously try to avoid.

  • http://www.mbaupdates.com/ MBA Colleges India

    Most of them try to get into the engineering and medical streams, there is a heavy rush seen for admissions.

  • Bob

    Uh, no, Larry — “e.g.” indicates an example, while “i.e.” basically specifies (=”as in”)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Nadir-EJ/100003561253394 Nadir EJ

    @mba colleges : i agree. Students should read such guide prior to applying to all very different degrees : http://www.universitycollege-online.com

  • JackLondon

    Well, I would say you have a good point about possible prejudices. A few things you might consider though is that the students know the culture of the school better than anyone and have an acute understanding of “fit”. Secondly, students only choose the brightest and best students because (once they are in) they want their alma mater to be known for intelligent graduates as the student have staked their careers on this degree. It is the students who understand and have the most to gain/lose. In that case how could you ignore that feedback?

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