The MBA Gatekeeper At Indiana Kelley

Photo by Kelley School of Business at Indiana University/Ann Schertz

Say a candidate has a really strong educational background in terms of undergraduate institution and GPA, a great GMAT score, and traditional pre-MBA work experience, but turns in atrocious essays. How does your office weigh that?

Probably one of the most important parts of our process is the interview. And so, it’s the interview that will make the difference there. The interview will give us a chance to sit down with applicants and get a better understanding of their past and what they want to do in the future. It also gives us the opportunity to imagine them sitting down in front of a recruiter next year, representing not only themselves, but the Kelley School of Business. Do they have the self-awareness, the social-awareness, and the emotional intelligence to do well? A solid interview can certainly make a difference if their essays aren’t doing the trick.

And what if that same candidate completely misses a piece of the application like you mentioned earlier. Do they still get an interview?

Yes, most of the time. It would be great if all applicants were perfect across the board. Most applicants have areas of great strengths, and then some things that aren’t quite so strong. And the trick is to figure out if the strengths balance the deficiencies. So we definitely try to give the benefit of the doubt to the candidate and gather as much information as we can to make the best decision we can.

What are the most interesting things you’ve seen in an application in terms of applicants going above and beyond with additional information?

You know, we don’t ask for non-traditional essays or anything. Ours are pretty straightforward. We don’t get many things like that. Over the years, we’ve received a novel that somebody had self-published. We have received a couple of videos over the years. One presented herself in poem and dance, which was interesting.

Did she get an interview?

It was a while ago, I don’t remember. But we all did gather around the screen during lunch to watch it.

What are the three best things an applicant can do to prepare for an interview with Kelley?

First, work on the application and certainly work on the first essay, which asks them to think about their reasons for pursuing an MBA and their reasons for pursing a Kelley MBA, in particular, their short-term career goals, and essentially, their plan b, should their short-term goals not be realized. Thinking about those things will certainly prepare them well for sharing some of that information during their interview.

Beyond that, working on their resume and really thinking about their career and what they’ve accomplished and learned. That self-reflection piece will serve them well as they prepare for the interview.

Do you and your team look for any specific nonverbal cues?

I don’t think there are any that we set out to look for. But, as I mentioned a moment ago, a big part of the interview is assessing their communication skills and the way they carry themselves because we know they’ll be presenting themselves in interviews throughout the MBA. So things like eye contact and the thoughtfulness they put into their responses is important.

But we also recognize that students aren’t all going to come to us perfect. We have a lot of support and a lot of great programs through our career services office and through the MBA program itself. We recognize the potential they demonstrate is going to be just as important, and we have to figure out where they are now and what we know they’ll be able to achieve in the MBA program. Are we going to get them to the point where they are going to be successful in their career and job interviews, in particular?

Have you or anyone on your staff experienced anything unusual in an interview?

I had a candidate one year who was a landscape architect. He brought his portfolio and sat down and tried to take control of the interview and wanted to reveal his portfolio to me. And I said, ‘Well, I’ll be happy to take a look at the end of the interview, but I have some questions for you first.’ And he gave me a look like I was crazy, and threw himself back in his chair and said, ‘Fine, quiz me.’ That wasn’t the point of what I was trying to do but probably also wasn’t the best way to start the interview.

How did he eventually do?

It was not a good result. It was the last time we saw him. But I think far more candidates do a good job in the interview. They recognize the opportunity that the interview is. When there is a situation like that, it really does stand out.

Do you all have a ‘weakness’ question and a preference for how applicants should answer it?

We have a cleverly disguised weakness question. One thing I will say about our interviews is we don’t have a set group of questions. We’re trying to get a sense of their reasons for pursuing an MBA. We’re looking at their communication skills, their focus, their management potential and leadership potential, their emotional awareness, and things like that.

We like to see students with a strong understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. And the interesting thing about that question is not so much the actual weakness that makes the difference, but the awareness they have in terms of talking about it. When you ask a question to get at their weaknesses or areas for development and they get a pained look or they look like they’ve never even considered what might be an area for further development, you begin to wonder.

But if they demonstrate they have given this some thought, and are looking for an MBA to help offset some of those weaknesses, sometimes it doesn’t even matter what the weakness is. It’s more about their self-awareness. Certainly if someone says they hate working in teams or they’re only successful when they work independently, given the nature of our program, that would be a huge red flag. But most of the time, it’s not the weakness per se that we’re looking for. It’s again, the awareness and thoughtfulness that a person is putting into the process.

What schools would you consider Kelley’s competitors?

Certainly we have an overlap with schools like North Carolina, Emory, Michigan, and Texas. Those are some of our biggest head-to-head competitors. But we compete pretty well. And there’s a fair amount of overlap with the Top 20 MBA programs, depending on which ranking you choose to focus on.

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