No Essay and No Waiting: What’s Not to Like?

Tippie Candidates on a Tour

MORE WORK, BETTER RESULTS

That doesn’t mean the admissions process is any easier. In fact, Schafer notes that One and Done actually creates more work for her team. “From a coordination standpoint, it takes a lot of effort, just making sure we have the staff resources, particularly in the summer…just setting aside days way in advance [to] make sure the key people [and alumni] are here.” The team must also decide whether to reimburse travel expenses on a case-by-case basis. While campus visits generally follow the same schedule as One and Done sessions, “they don’t all come on one day typically,” Schafer says.

However, Tippie customizes the program for certain student populations. Due to travel costs, international students are interviewed via Skype before receiving a decision within 24 hours. The school has also implemented one day turnaround for meetings with prospective students in Minneapolis and Salt Lake City.

Despite the added work, the initiative has yielded results. In May, Tippie announced that applications had jumped 67% from 212 to 355 from the same time a year earlier. Overall, the school has held nine domestic and seven international One and Done events (with the latter mostly targeting students in China and India). The events have touched 130 students, with half of the candidates receiving acceptances – and half of accepted candidates ultimately enrolling at Tippie. In other words, a fourth of Tippie’s full-time students will be comprised of One and Done participants.

Like Shanti Elangovan, these students are starting to make a dent. Schafer noted that faculty consider Tippie’s 2015 class, the first to include One and Done participants, to be “strong quality-wise,” adding that they’ve seen an uptick in teamwork and leadership from this group overall.

ONE AND DONE IN ACTION

Tippie’s latest One and Done session was held on June 30th. The full-time MBA program is based out of the Pomerantz Center, a four-story glass and white stone marvel that sits atop the largest hill on the Iowa City campus. The full-time program is of moderate size, consisting of roughly 120 students, a quarter of whom are international. Ranked #35 by Poets&Quants, Tippie attracts students with average GMATs in the 666-675 range, with over half of the students coming from business and engineering backgrounds. According to U.S. News and World Report, the school maintains an enviable 87.5% placement rate within three months of graduation.

While the darkening clouds and rising wind foreshadowed an epic Iowa thunderstorm, the seven participants couldn’t be sunnier. Dressed in suits and dresses that conveyed know-how and humility, they arrived from such undergrad programs like Iowa State, Kansas, Wisconsin, and (of course) the University of Iowa. After graduation, they worked as brand managers, insurance underwriters, mechanical engineers, and biomedical researchers.  And they dreamed of becoming consultants, running hospitals, or moving into business development or operations.