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The Art of Admissions
by Carlotta Mast
Selections Interview with Michelle Jacobson, Director of Graduate Business Programs at the Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University
Selections: Tell me about what you do.
Jacobson: I am director for more than just the MBA program. I am director for the MBA, master’s in labor human resources, master’s in accounting, and the Ph.D program.
I have been director for three years. Admissions is a large part of my job. I have an associate director for admissions and for student services. The associate director for admissions has just come on board.
We have 11 people in our office. We all share the reading of files. We meet weekly to make decisions. We typically recruit for a class of about 150 students in the full-time. We are rolling out a brand new part-time program. That starts in June. We are recruiting a class of 160. The admission criteria are the same for full-time and part-time. We don’t have separate standards for each program.
Selections: Who is the ideal applicant? What qualities and characteristics do you look for? How do you gauge them?
Jacobson: The ideal candidate is someone who has a clear idea of why they are interested in an MBA. Somebody who has shown some maturity in career goals and outlook, who has demonstrated strong team-oriented skills. That is an important component for what we look for. People need to have a solid idea of why they want to do an MBA program and why they want to do it at the Fisher College of Business. So we are looking for the same types of people lots of schools are looking for: motivated, bright, capable, talented. People who want to take their experiential base and couple that with graduate education to prepare them for the position that they are looking for. Team is clearly a focus for us so they can make contributions to their community and company.
Selections: How do you gauge these qualities?
Jacobson: We ask questions in our essays. As we advertise, we try to explain clearly the type of student we are looking for. We are a smaller program with a team component. We are clear about what average GMAT score and what the average years of work experience is. So, hopefully, people have researched us and they know the profile of our typical student. That doesn’t mean we won’t admit people to the right or left of that profile. But we are hoping people, as they are researching, that they will narrow their search to include us if they meet that profile or a template of that. Then we ask very specific questions in our application: “Why do you want an MBA?” We also ask them to give us an example of when they worked with a team. This is the very first essay question. The fact that it is first says something. I’ll just read you the question: “The Fisher College of Business MBA program places a heavy emphasis on building teams. What from your past demonstrates your leadership, your ability to work with others, and your skill in resolving conflict?” We ask them to limit their answer to one page. If somebody can give us an example, I don’t care if it is from their undergraduate experience, their volunteer work, their work. Dealing with people is a very important part of being successful and being able to resolve conflict. We don’t doesn’t necessarily look for examples where people have won their point. How people approach this essay is what we look at, as well as what they have to say.
We interview all applicants we are interested in, whether we are interested in admitting them or interested in knowing more about them. The interview is a half day here. It is also a time to interview with one of our staff members, as well as with a student ambassador. The students’ questions are also geared toward team focus. If an applicant can’t come in because they are international or for some other reason, then we conduct it over the phone. The interviews become part of the file.
Student ambassadors ask questions that are broken down into categories. The first category is teamwork. We ask questions on teamwork, and the students are trained so they know the types of follow-up questions to ask. The second category is focus and motivation: “Why do you want an MBA? Why are you considering the Fisher College of Business?” We have people with very interesting backgrounds who want an MBA. They take this question, and it is so interesting how they respond to it. We have someone who was an international male model. We have someone who was a chef on a yacht.
How they answer that question—“How did you come to desire an MBA?”—is not always typical. But that is why team is so important. We want people from diverse backgrounds. The third major category is stress management. Then ethics. Then communications skills.
The student interviewers do this as graduate assistantships. We have six at this point. They apply for the job. They are people who went through the process themselves. They are motivated because they went through the process and they want to help make the process better and maintain the high caliber of students. They don’t want people to come in who don’t seem to want to be here. The students don’t have the applicant’s GPA or GMAT. They only have the résumé, and they know they are interested in the program and that the admissions committee is interested in having more information about the applicant. The job of admissions is handled by admissions professionals, but we incorporate what the student ambassadors learn from their interviews.
Selections: What role does the GMAT play in the admissions process? What does a GMAT score tell you about an applicant?
Jacobson: We use the GMAT as a predictor of success. Much like law schools use the LSAT. But we use it coupled with the GPA. We look at the written analysis and compare that with [the applicants’] essays. So the average score is about 640. Some people score higher, some lower. The GMAT is a very important component, but we are not GMAT-driven. If someone applies with a 710 GMAT, they won’t be automatically admitted. We deny people with 710 GMAT scores. We look at people as a whole, and our criteria are pretty straightforward.
These are not necessarily in order, but we will start with GMAT, undergraduate GPA and major, their postundergraduate work experience, their essays and letters of recommendations. As we are looking at applications, if we have someone who has great letters of recommendations—and not everyone does, by the way—and they have great essays. . . The average years of work experience for us is 4.5 years. If they have really low grades but really but a high GMAT, I might think, “Here is someone who is bright but has not applied himself.” We look at people as a whole. The GMAT is obviously a very important component, but we don’t use that in isolation. It is coupled with other criteria.
Selections: What role does the interview play?
Jacobson: We generally have a sense of whether an applicant will be a good fit and whether they will contribute to our program, and then we want the student ambassadors to get a sense of that, too. Sometimes what happens is, the applicant comes across with the student in a whole different light. If that were to happen, we may deny the person admittance. Again, it always depends on the situation. Sometimes, it could be a language barrier or a control dynamic. We will follow up with the information that the student gives us from the interview. On that day when the applicant is interviewing, we will also couple the student interview with an interview with a full-time staff [member] so we are able to cross-reference those two pieces.
Selections: How do you measure things such as leadership ability and value to an employer?
Jacobson: We look at what the recommendations are. Quite honestly, we are looking to get a sense of: Are these the type of people that the employer would want to hire again? Are they loyal, trustworthy, do they take initiative? Those are transferable skills. If these skills come across in the essay and in the recommendations and in the interviews. . . Now we know people can pull the wool over our eyes sometimes, but for the most part, we are generally a good judge of that. We don’t have that perfected. And sometimes, people can “talk the talk,” but we are hoping with the combination of factors—the grades, scores, work experience and all of those kinds of things—that somebody wouldn’t go to those lengths only to not really want to be here.
Selections: Describe the ideal class. What kind of class do you try to “build”?
Jacobson: I would really like to have 150 incredibly bright, committed, team-focused people. I would like for there to be about 25 to 30 percent international students. I would like a nice mix of men and women from a variety of backgrounds. I would like African Americans, American Indians, Hispanic Americans. Diverse undergraduate majors.
From our international population, I would like for it to be very global. Let’s say we have a significant amount of very strong applicants from China or India. We are going to accept a certain amount of those, but we won’t admit everyone from China. We want a diverse class. I am really proud of the diversity we have in our class. We have 40 percent women and 18 percent African American. And everyone here truly deserves to be here.
What happens is, when we have a really good class like this, and overall when they have a good experience and they see that they can learn from their classmates, they want to keep that going. So diversity is critical. As a matter of fact, last year we didn’t meet numbers. We were shooting for a class of about 140 and we have a class of 120. We strategically decided not to compromise on quality. My goal now is 150, not compromising on quality.
Selections: Are applications up this year?
Jacobson: Hard for me to say if the number of applicants is up, but just based on prospects and people making enquiries, the numbers have increased.
Selections: How has technology changed (helped, complicated?) admissions?
Jacobson: It has changed things significantly. We are moving away from brochures and the paper applications, which some people still like to have. Some still want to hang onto that. People can apply online, not only via the university’s own online application but also via another company’s application. The company makes it easy. You pay a fee and answer the general questions and then they ferret it out to fit the actual application for five or six different schools. So it makes it easy for students to apply to a variety of schools. So it has made the applicant’s job easier.
Selections: Has it made your job easier?
Jacobson: No. In the transition, it has made some things more cumbersome. Until things go completely to one system, we are having to maintain multiple processes. That is not bad. I am not complaining. But we need to maintain multiple processes. We want it to be fair. We want to make sure one application process isn’t making it faster or slower than the others. We want all applicants to be treated consistently and fairly. That’s a little extra work.
We have accepted online applications for three or four years. It happened ad hoc. Over the last three years, we have been dealing with this more with our eyes wide open.
Selections: Do you use decision models or matrices to help predict which applicants who receive offers will matriculate? If so, could you describe them?
Jacobson: Our process is trying to continue to interact and have different layers of contact with people that we have offered admission to. We don’t use a matrix.
Funding is obviously critical to people, so we will use that as a way of contacting admits. We will say we are interested in funding you. About 15 percent of applicants are offered funding. Then we have students contact potential students who we want to admit. We might have alumni, faculty, or deans contact that person. It depends on the situation. The Black MBA student association student reaches out to black admits. Women in Business would reach out to female admits. We have calling nights. We use a variety of techniques. The matrix is, we stay in contact through phone calls and e-mails.
Selections: What is the “art” of admissions, as you see it?
Jacobson: Being a student advocate and also having a passion about helping students learn and agreeing with the mission of the institution that you represent. I enjoy doing what I do, and I really want to help bring good students to the faculty and the Fisher College of Business. I think the art of that is genuinely believing that the product that you have is good. And here, it’s great. This is a place you will want to be, and these are the people you are going to want to learn from. These are the students you want to have as your colleagues. The art of that is hopefully having a story worth telling so that people are interested in applying as they are comparing us with other schools. That the fit feels likes a good match for them. I clearly am not interested in students who would rather be someplace else. I don’t want them to settle for living in Columbus, Ohio. I want them to desire to be here.
The art of admissions is to have a passion for what you are doing, to communicate that and to help students make educated choices. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they will just go with the highest bidder. Well, that is just part of the nature of people. Some people will accept a position because they really like the fit and feel like they are going to learn and they are just really motivated about the contributions they can make, and a couple thousand dollars here or there isn’t going to make a difference. But some people will take the highest dollar because that is where they are at. To me, people have a variety of ways in which they make a decision. I hope that we are able to attract people who decide to be here because it is a great program and the cost is reasonable for the value, the location is what they are looking for, and this is the type of climate they want to be in, etc.
Selections: How closely do you work with career services and how much would you say you consider the eventual placement of applicants when you consider their applications?
Jacobson: We are located in the same building. We do collaborate. Sometimes we want career services to look at applicants and offer insights into how they would be able to find positions.
Selections: Has the economic downturn affected your relationship with career services in any way?
Jacobson: Not yet. Some students are feeling the pressure because they are not having as many internships or job offers this year. Employers are still looking for good students. People are entrepreneurial.
Selections: Have you observed that the economy has affected who applies and why they say they apply?
Jacobson: Not yet. Occasionally, we will hear from applicants who just lost their job, but it used to be that way before. I would be able to give a better answer in five months. We are too early in the process. We are approaching second deadline date. We are not seeing a significant impact yet. //
© Selections: Spring 2002