A Former MBA AdCom Reviews Tina Fey’s New Movie Admission

BRAGGING ABOUT HOW WEALTHY YOUR FAMILY IS WILL NEVER GO OVER TERRIBLY WELL

At one point Portia pushes one imaginary prospective student off her desk after he highlights his monetary value, which reminded me of how some applicants’ underlying assumptions about what would impress an adcom member were simply incorrect (bragging about how wealthy your family is will never go over terribly well).

For example, there were times when it felt as if applicants were going through the motions of seeming dynamic, making sure they could check off ‘dramatic family back story,’ or put together a laundry list of an ‘obscene number of extracurricular activities,’ or produce a ‘recommendation from an extremely important person,’ but without any true passion or reflection on these subjects or activities. While they did have all these characteristics, how they presented themselves sometimes made it seem calculated while others were more naturalistic.

There’s another moment in the film, during the meeting of the entire admissions staff where they were making final decisions, when Fey dismisses the idea that she is subconsciously identifying with an applicant that reminded her of herself. We were very much aware of this potential bias at Tuck and tried to avoid it altogether by being open about such tendencies when discussing relevant candidates.

TOUGH DECISIONS ARE OFTEN BOTH OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE

Being an admissions counselor, whether at an Ivy League undergraduate institution or a top MBA program, necessitates a mixture of objectivity and subjectivity. This is seen again and again in the movie, as tough decisions about just who is most accomplished or impressive comes down not to their GPA or AP standings, but their life experiences.

Deciding which of two applicants with similar GMAT scores and GPAs should get an acceptance sometimes is simply a gut decision or the choice to go with the person in the more notable or memorable club – but no one can say definitively whether a star of a nationally recognized debate team is a better choice than the candidate who spent six months in the jungles of South America searching for an elusive insect. Yet as an adcom member you’re often put in a position where you still have to make that decision.

Fey’s refrain throughout the movie is that the secret of the process is ‘to be yourself’ though the underlying message is ‘be yourself, but also join clubs, write well, get good grades, know four languages, swim with dolphins, play the guitar and have an x factor that can only exist if you’re not trying to have an x factor.’

 A CANDIDATE WHO AT FIRST APPEARS ENTIRELY UNWORTHY OF ATTENDING A TOP SCHOOL

Jeremiah, the applicant for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting, has an abysmal GPA and lack of traditional extracurricular activities, which make him seem at first to be entirely unworthy of attending a school like Princeton. But he also displays an extremely high level of intelligence through his test scores and a profound love of reading. While I have never come across a candidate quite like him, there were certainly moments in my own experience when I championed a candidate whose ‘on paper’ credentials initially paled in comparison to other applicants. Underdogs – whether it was a photographer who paid his way through school by selling photographs to local newspapers or an entrepreneur with a spotty academic record due to war in her home country – had a ‘spark’ that inspired me to pound the table when it came to final decision making.

I never went to (nor even considered) the unethical lengths that Fey did to get a student in (she actually goes into the computer system to change the committee’s rejection of Jeremiah to an acceptance), but I do understand the impulse. This could be in part because the process at Tuck was slightly different than at the undergraduate level. Each applicant’s file went through two blind reads, which resulted in two recommended decisions that were then further considered in a group discussion. While in the movie it seemed as if a ‘legacy’ guaranteed many an applicant a spot, that wasn’t the case at Tuck … your actions in addition to your connections would influence the adcom’s final thoughts on your candidacy.

For often jittery and hopeful applicants, this movie gives a bit of insight into the ‘behind the scenes’ environment of an admissions process. But it is Hollywood wanting to tell a slightly different story, really. Admissions becomes the framework for a story of a woman accustomed to judging others without considering her own life.

You’ll laugh a few times, perhaps groan once or twice, and generally find yourself happy with the movie’s resolution. But if you’re looking to this movie as truly demystifying on how to get into your target school, you might do better saving your $10 and simply remembering to ‘be yourself.’

Former assistant director of admissions for Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, Stacey Oyler knows MBA admissions inside out. Over a 21-month period, from October of 2003 to July of 2005, Oyler participated in every admissions decision for two full classes of admits to Tuck. For the past five years, Oyler has taken that inside knowledge of elite admissions and put it to work for clients on behalf of Clear Admit, the MBA admissions consultant. Her stint in the admissions offices of an elite business school, followed by three years as a recruiter of MBAs for McKinsey & Co., has given her the credibility and the knowhow to smartly advise applicants who want to get into the very top business schools.

DON’T MISS: HAVE AN MBA ADMISSIONS QUESTION? ASK STACEY, OUR RESIDENT EXPERT