The MBA Gatekeeper To Berkeley Haas

How often do you make mistakes in admitting people?   

I’m not just saying this for job security, but not very. The flip side of that is, the question that we always have is, ‘How do we define success?’ From an admissions perspective we’re trying to take into account the interests of everyone in our community, so, of faculty, career management, alumni, other students, staff. Every year maybe there’s one or two students who’ve turned out to not be a great fit. But I will also say that the culture is so strong. There are some times where somebody will come in not being the best cultural fit but the culture corrects that – they’re in study groups, it’s a small, intimate community. It’s a small community, and behaviors that stand out that as not embodying our defining principles, there’s feedback around that to help students sort of adjust.

And that’s also a big part of how we view admissions. We know that we’re bringing people in who are here to grow and develop and learn and so they may not be the strongest academically for example but we know they have the drive and the determination, they’ve proven it in other areas in their life, to really rise to this challenge. There’s sort of that initial period of adjustment, and which students are struggling, versus, ‘Where do we end up when the class graduates?’ and I would say that from that perspective, if we have mistakes, it’s one or two students.

We do take some risks on non-traditional students, and there are some students who at the end of the day maybe this wasn’t the best program for them. Coming off of graduation about a month ago, I can’t think of a student in that class who didn’t in the end really value their experience and the community here. Some of our students who in the beginning struggle more, they’re not comfortable being uncomfortable, and that’s certainly part of what they go through when they first get here in the fall. With time and how they show up as alums, changes your perception of them. It’s a continual process of development, and I think there are students who might have been challenging on the program side or on the career side but after they’ve been out a few years they continue to change. The values and just how they’re influenced by their classmates and their peers who become their close friends, they continue to change after they leave.

If I had to think about students who have been difficult, it’s students who lacked empathy. We don’t see this a lot but in a situation where they’re unable to understand what others might be experiencing, and they can’t take themselves out of their own perspective, which makes them not flexible, not adaptable, and I would say that that’s probably what’s at odds with our culture, because so much of it is realizing that you learn so much from people who think differently from you, and that being around really diverse people changes the way that you see the world. People who struggle with empathy, it takes them longer to come around. It’s a combination of empathy, but also resilience, in terms of, ‘How can I make the most of this situation and realize that there are a hundred ways to do something or to learn something? And in this case it doesn’t fit with my style but there’s still something for me to learn in this situation.’

Do you have an example of an applicant you took a chance on, in spite of some deficiencies?

There was a candidate a couple of years ago who was very nontraditional, didn’t have any business experience but was an elite athlete. We recognize that there’s just a bigger learning curve when you don’t have that business foundation coming into business school, because the pace is so fast. Our fall core classes are seven weeks long, so three weeks in you’re already taking mid-terms. It is really, really intense. But when we’re looking at something like that and just the perspective, and the different way of seeing the world, what they will bring to their study groups, to the classroom, outside of the classroom, it seems like such a huge perspective to bring into the class, and somebody who has been successful at such a high level we felt really confident that they would have the drive, and the discipline, and the determination to fail and get up and try again.

Again, this community is so strong, it’s so incredibly supportive, that for people who are struggling it’s an amazing place to struggle, because of the number of people who are just immediately willing to help you out and be there for you. For those people for where it is a bigger challenge, it’s the type of community that will lift you up versus being so competitive that it’s so extremely difficult to succeed.

(The elite athlete) has been working on their own venture, has had an initial round of funding, but still very early stage, but talks about what a challenging experience it was to go though personally, to be completely out of their comfort zone. It was a struggle but again I think what you learn about yourself in those situations and how you develop your leadership, it’s certainly a transformational experience.

What application caused your biggest-ever disagreement with an admissions colleague?

We always joke that we would love to have our own admissions committee reality show. We have a lot of heated discussions about sort of work experience and preparation for the program and career goals and balancing a unique perspective versus a rich perspective. There are seven of us and we all have very strong and different opinions, which is what I think is what makes it such a rich and effective process. Our committee, it’s by consensus, and every application is reviewed by at least two members on the admissions team, because we’ve seen that we all could see an applicant slightly differently, and interpret things slightly differently, and that’s why the discussion is so important, and the multiple perspectives.

The biggest disagreements, it’s over potential fit concerns, and what’s coachable versus what are behaviors that could just make the experience miserable for everyone involved. Is everything else in the application that compelling that we take this risk? Fit and culture risk is one of the hardest risks that we take, and we really try not to take those. The argument really comes down to, is the culture strong enough?