The MBA Gatekeeper At Indiana Kelley

The Kelley School of Business. Photo courtesy of Kelley School of Business at Indiana University

The Kelley School of Business. Photo courtesy of Kelley School of Business at Indiana University

How much does your office experience follow-up communication after an application is submitted?

You know, our hope is that when someone submits an application, they submit it after it’s complete and they have reached a point where they’re comfortable with the story they have told, the supporting documents they’ve provided, the recommendation they have requested. Sometimes it can be frustrating when literally two days after receiving the application, we get the email or emails, I should say, from a few asking if we’ve received their application, is it complete, do we have a decision? We have a timeline posted up there and it takes us a little while to process and pull together the pieces and parts in the preliminary stages.

There are applicants—and we’re talking about just a few—who will continue to contact us with new information. Certainly, if someone has had a change in their life, situation, or career, which is meaningful and truly provides an update, that’s great, but if it’s a matter of just keeping us in their minds, sometimes, random updates with information that aren’t new probably won’t produce the desired effect they’re looking for.

Do you recall any examples when an applicant contacted your office after submission with updates that have affected the decision?

I can’t say for certain whether it changed what the outcome has been, but we have people who have received a promotion or changed jobs in the midst of an application process, or have been provided with a unique opportunity, an international opportunity, or something at work that would provide them with some new experiences or new skills. And that could certainly add to their application.

How often does Kelley take risks on applicants and what does that look like?

It’s not uncommon to take a risk. And those risks can vary from someone who has non-traditional work experience, or someone for whom an MBA is a significant change in career direction. For example, with our current students, we have a professional baseball player, we have a person who was a professional musician who played the trombone on Princess Cruises, and after six years on Princess Cruises as a professional musician, joined the Army and was part of the U.S. Army band. And I suspect some would say taking a professional athlete or musician may be a little bit of a risk, but at the same time, they were able to identify transferrable skills. They were able to demonstrate the academic potential. They had a story and goals that identified the reasons for an MBA. And we knew they had some interesting things to contribute in the classroom. So there are risks on that side of the equation.

There are also candidates who have great experience, great emotional intelligence, great communication skills but we may be a little worried about their academic strength, based on something we see in their academic record or test scores. Those are the ones that probably take more thought because we don’t want to set anybody up for failure. But if they’ve demonstrated a strong work ethic and they do things to demonstrate they have the potential to handle the academic challenges of the program, then we’ll certainly take those risks as well.

The interesting thing is, sometimes the people we take the risks on are some of the great successes because we were their dream school or we were their stretch school. And they knew they really had to prove themselves to get in and are so pleased with that opportunity, they want to make sure that they don’t disappoint us. I’m actually excited when we’re able to take those risks.

What does it look like when there are disagreements between you and your colleagues on an admissions decision?

We’re a pretty agreeable group. We don’t have a lot of extremely difficult or unpleasant discussions around applicants, because we have a pretty clear view of what we’re trying to accomplish. And certainly, sometimes there’s that candidate that you fall in love with in terms of what they’ve done and you don’t see as clearly the risks associated with them. And sometimes a colleague can help you recognize that. But those aren’t always terrible disagreements as opposed to discussions to recognize the reality of the situation.

What are the most frustrating things an applicant can do?

I think today’s application processes are pretty intuitive. And sometimes I think they’re so intuitive that some candidates don’t read the application instructions. So I’m frustrated by those applicants who neglect to submit required pieces or parts of the application simply because they didn’t read the application instructions. And going back to what I said when we started, I’m frustrated by those who either over think the process or don’t trust the process and don’t allow us to get to know who they are.

Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below.