Selections Interview with Jean-Paul Mounier, Associate Dean for the MBA Program at HEC (Hautes Etudes Commerciales) and Joshua Kobb, Director of the MBA at HEC

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Selections: Who is the ideal applicant? What qualities and characteristics do you look for? How do you gauge them?
Kobb: We really look at admissions from three different angles. Overall, we are really looking at three different things. We are concerned about the candidate’s academic qualifications and ability to perform in the program. We look to our professors to help us evaluate the academic qualities of a candidate. Our professors are involved in the application process. They interview our candidates, and there is always a professor on the admissions jury. The professors are involved in the final decision. They look at academics.

There is a corporate side, as well. One of the things we are looking at is bringing individuals into the program who are going to succeed as senior managers and become business leaders. To do that, we rely on business people. We have relationships with companies and we are trying to develop those relationships further. We invite human resource professionals, for example, to participate in our selection. They sit on the interview committees. Because the HEC MBA program and the HEC School of Management have such close relationships with companies, we have to ensure that our product—the product being the MBA graduate—meets the needs of our clients, the recruiters. So an important part of our process is [asking], “Will this person become a senior business leader?"

Another angle that we are judging really comes from our alumni. What will be the institutional impact of that individual? Is the individual someone who is going to be a positive reflection on our institution? Will the other alumni welcome that individual as a colleague? The alumni are involved and interview the candidates.

So we are looking at those three elements. Academics: Is the person qualified and capable of following the program and benefiting from the program? The corporate side: Does that graduate meet the needs of recruiters? Are they going to become an effective business leader? Our own network: Is this somebody who is going to be a positive contribution to the institution?

Mounier: Of course, we start with a file. We check the GMAT, the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), the academic background of the candidate, his professional history. Does he have an international background? Has he worked in several countries? Then we have a first selection. We go through all of the applications and then we do the interviews. So we call that the preselection phase.

During the interviews, we have these three angles. We try to have representatives from these three angles. We not only try, we do it. So we have someone from the corporate world, we have someone from the alumni, who is also from the corporate world, but sometimes they have another view, and then we have someone from HEC itself, usually a professor. We want to produce future leaders, so we need to know if applicants have the strengths for succeeding here, if they will be happy and fit into the community, and if they have the capacity for leadership.

Kobb: Those candidates who are preselected are invited to interview. So everyone who has been admitted to the program has been interviewed. We have two “intakes.” Those two intakes together make one graduating class. The number varies because we don’t have any quotas. We don’t have a fixed number, but it’s usually about 150 students.

Mounier: This year’s class is 158. It varies. 150 is a small size for a class especially with two intakes. That allows us to organize these interviews with corporate representatives, alumni and faculty in 31 different countries.

Kobb: We are on a rolling admissions process. We define about six admissions sessions for those two intakes. We are not going to interview in each of those 31 centers for every admissions session. We try to group them together as much as we can to still meet the needs of the candidates, but we need to have some efficiency, as well.

Selections: What role does the GMAT play in the admissions process? What does a GMAT score tell you about an applicant?
Kobb: The GMAT is required for the HEC MBA program. Our official policy is that we don’t have an official minimum score. Our average is just over 635. It is an important part of the application process, but it is not the only part. Obviously, a GMAT score can be eliminatory, but we don’t want to make a decision based only on one element, whether that is GMAT, the age or work experience, or another element within the application. We do try to take as balanced an approach as possible. Like any other element in the application, we will balance it. So a strong element, whether it is the GMAT or exceptional work experience or background, can compensate for a weaker element.

Selections: How long have you been incorporating the interviews into the admissions process?
Kobb: Since the beginning. The notion of interviewing is important to all of the programs within the HEC School of Management. We have been around for a long time as a business school. It is an important part of the selection for all of our programs. Maybe it is our French background, but that is really where we are focused. They are evaluatory interviews. We are not trying to sell someone on the program. Once they are invited to interview, they are expected to really demonstrate what their motivation is for the MBA program and what they are going to contribute to the program and whether it is a good fit for them. So it is a very important part of the process. We have always interviewed.

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