The MBA Gatekeeper At NYU Stern by: Ethan Baron on August 09, 2015 | | 15,631 Views August 9, 2015 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit NYU Stern School of Business assistant dean of MBA admissions Isser Gallogly Isser Gallogly doesnāt want to hear you drop the F-bomb, but when it comes to your personal Kryptonite, heās all ears.Ā Gallogly,Ā assistant dean of MBA admissions at the New York University’s Stern School of Business, estimates heās read more than 50,000 application essays during his dozen years at the school. While he and his colleagues assess specific attributes and deficiencies related to GMAT scores, undergraduate GPAs, work experience, communication skills, and fit with Stern, ultimately theirĀ evaluation falls under a framework they callĀ “the three Csā: how well applicants would do in the classroom; how successful they would be in their careers; and what kind of character they have. āThe piece that people donāt talk about as much is the character,ā says Gallogly, a Duke University Fuqua MBA who spent seven years as a brand manager for Unilever and a year as a marketing manager for LāOreal before arriving at Stern in 2003. āAt Stern we talk about IQ vs EQ (intelligence quotient vs emotional quotient). Itās nice if they can do the curriculum part, the classroom part — youāve got to be able to do the school work. But that doesnāt mean youāre going to fit in at Stern and youāre going to succeed in business. Character is very important. What sets Stern students apart is this IQ vs EQ, the fact that they understand how to interact with people, how to lead people, that they have superior communications skills, and are very collaborative.ā Applicants donāt, however, have to be perfect to get in. Superman, Gallogly points out, has a profound flaw. āNo one would like Superman if he didnāt have Kryptonite. Nobody would really root for the guy if he didnāt have a weakness,ā Gallogly says. Whatās important for Superman is whatās important for Stern applicants: they should know their flaws. āThe biggest sign of strength is being OK saying what your weakness is,ā he says. āSelf awareness is essential in the journey as a professional.ā ENGAGE BRAIN BEFORE OPENING MOUTH So is a little self-censoring. Itās not that Gallogly has a personal objection to the use of profanity – itās merely that some words are not appropriate for some situations, and, say, utteringĀ the F-word in an admissions interview shows poor judgment. But it happens more often than one might think, Gallogly says. Of course, in the B-school application process, doing the right things is as important as not doing the wrong ones. Any applicant can tell their story – but not every applicant can perform as well when an interviewer who has already scrutinizedĀ their application asks an unexpected question about their life and goals. When a would-be Sternie is talking about areas of career interest, she or he should be up to date on whatās going on in those spaces, and, ideally, provide examples of their experiences in them, Gallogly says. āIf somebody says, āI want to get into private equity,ā and you say, āWhatās your definition of private equity?,ā and they say, āThatās when youāre talking about investing a personās equity versus a corporationās,ā it doesnāt show a lot of depth.ā While Stern invites creative submissions for its personal essay, creativity in the application isnāt really what admissions is looking for. āItās not about how creative it is,ā Gallogly says, āitās how insightful.” Application materials and interviews should reflect detailed understanding of business fields applicants say theyāre interested in – and Gallogly recommends research.Ā āIf this is an area where you have passion and interest, the more you read, the more youāll want to read; the more people you talk to, the more people youāll want to talk to. It should be really fun to learn about it.ā HEAVY PRICE NOT A DETERRENT At $63,720 in tuition plus $4,000 in fees per year, Sternās MBA isĀ one of the most costly in America in the most expensive city in the U.S. Last year, Stern became the first business school to instruct students to budget more than $200,000 for school and living costs during the course of their studies – and that was based on a very conservative $26,000 estimate of annual room-and-board expenses in New York City. Still, the price has not deterred applicants, and Stern remainsĀ one of the most selective business schools in the world. In the latest 2014-2015 application cycle, the schoolĀ received about 3,700 applications for some 400 spots in the Class of 2017. That application volumeĀ in the latest cycle represents aĀ five percent dropĀ from a year earlier, but is on par with the year before that. Sternās position in the major rankings has also remained fairly evenĀ over the past several years, rising a spot to 14th from 15th in Poets&Quantsā 2014 composite ranking. āBeing, you know, a top-ranked school certainly helps, and also being as global as we are,ā Gallogly says. āWe do very well across a range of industries and functions, where some schools are more dependent on a particular geography or a particular industry. if youāre into your portfolio theory, the more diverse you are . . . the more stable youād be.ā As competitive as Stern is, potential applicants shouldnāt obsess over class-profile averages for GPAs and GMAT scores, Gallogly says. āI think sometimes people look at averages as a minimum requirement and think that ‘If I donāt have that number, Iām no good.’ I really hope that people donāt opt out because maybe theyāre over-fixating on a factor or maybe looking at it incorrectly.ā NEXT PAGE: Q&A With NYU Stern Assistant Dean of Admissions Isser Gallogly Continue ReadingPage 1 of 4 1 2 3 4 Questions about this article? 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