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The Art of Admissions
Technology: A Double-Edged Sword?
by Carlotta Mast
Technology is transforming the MBA admissions process. Prospects can now apply and review the status of their applications—all online. They can use the Web to download information about hundreds of MBA programs and chat electronically with admissions professionals, students, and other applicants from all over the world.
But while technology seems to be making life easier for applicants, it’s proving to be more of a mixed bag for MBA admissions professionals.
Columbia Business School’s Linda Meehan offers this case in point: When Columbia enabled prospects to apply online several years ago, people were confused. Rather than just submitting one online application, many prospects actually sent three: one via Columbia’s Web site, one via the postal service, and one via the vendor that accepts online applications on the school’s behalf.
Needless to say, weeding out duplicate applications and determining the actual number of applicants became “a real challenge,” says Meehan, assistant dean and executive director of admissions and financial aid.
Technology may have temporarily complicated some admissions processes, but it has also enabled admissions professionals to communicate more efficiently and effectively with applicants from San Francisco to Sydney through the use of e-mail and the Web.
In addition, online applications, which some schools now use exclusively, have made it easier for admissions professionals to track candidates throughout the application process. And because they no longer have to spend a lot of time entering data from paper applications into a database, admissions professionals can focus on answering questions and providing guidance to applicants.
“Technology has freed us up to be more candidate-oriented,” says Brook Hardwick, associate director of admissions at IESE at the University of Navarra in Barcelona.
Hardwick is quick to note, however, that technology has also increased candidate expectations. “They constantly bombard us with questions,” she says. “And they are looking for more immediate responses.”
“The incredible influx of [applicant] e-mails is actually unmanageable,” agrees Jett Pihakis, director of domestic admissions for the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. “How can we possibly answer the volume of e-mails that are coming in and give individuals good customer service when there are not enough people to even come close to responding?”
The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania debuted an online bulletin board for applicants this year, as a way of reducing the deluge of candidate e-mails. Applicants can log onto Wharton’s bulletin board, ask questions, and engage in dialogues with current students and admissions staff.
“We decided that e-mail had outpaced our ability to meet needs,” says Rosemaria Martinelli, Wharton’s director of MBA admissions and financial aid. “One e-mail from us to a candidate didn’t really allow people the opportunity to benefit from other people’s questions.”
Like many other business schools, Wharton also uses technology as a recruitment tool. This year, instead of mailing print view books to prospects, the school sent out a CD-ROM that discusses the history and value of an MBA degree, provides information about the Wharton School, and helps prospective students assess whether an MBA degree is right for them. The CD-ROM also guides prospects through the Wharton application process, with live links to Wharton’s Web site and other online resources.
“We are absolutely explicit about what we look for in an application and how to prepare for an interview,” Martinelli says. “Because we want to admit the best applicants not the best applications, we wanted to level the playing field by giving this information to candidates.”
While technology certainly enables schools to better market themselves to prospects, it also forces schools to be more cognizant of the information they are—and are not—putting out to the public, notes Jennifer Chizuk, director of the MBA program at Michigan State University.
“You can’t hide anything anymore, because there is a lot of open communication now, not only between us and the applicants but between the applicants themselves,” Chizuk says. “They have access to different chat rooms and to alumni and former students. You have to be aware of the information sharing that is going on and market yourself honestly.”
As one admissions professional sees it, technology has been a benefit but it hasn’t made it any easier to ultimately decide who gets into an MBA program and who does not.
Says Joshua Kobb, MBA program director at HEC in France: “Technology has helped deliver applications. It has helped us communicate better with candidates. But I don’t think it has helped with the decision process, because at the end of the day, we are still dealing with people and people issues.” //
Carlotta Mast, a freelance contributor to Selections, has also written for Business Week online and Working Woman magazine. Her article “The Art of Admissions” appears in the spring 2002 issue of Selections.
© Selections: Spring 2002