北卡(UNC)招办主任谈2005年度MBA申请与录取

hsWang

University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School Admissions InterviewThe University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School has achieved a remarkable reputation for ingraining a strong sense of teamwork within its graduates. The fact that incoming students are assigned to teams of 4 to 5 people as soon as they arrive on campus and these teams do not disband until after the first year likely plays a part in this teambuilding reputation. (This no-excuses-accepted approach to teamwork mimics the teams employed in the workforce where one does not get the opportunity to specifically choose his or her team members.)

Additionally, the school is bucking a recent trend by requiring its applicants to have a minimum 2 years of post undergrad full-time work experience. The faculty is lauded for belonging to a wide variety of corporate advisory boards to ensure their current knowledge base is extremely current and relevant.

Below is our 3-page interview with Sherry Wallace, MBA admissions director.

[此贴子已经被作者于2004-8-30 16:00:23编辑过]

hsWang

Describe how the MBA program at Kenan-Flagler is evolving?

Our MBA program is more than 50 years old and we have always been driven by a commitment to work in teams as well as being individually accountable. We have a lock-step curriculum wherein the first year everyone will take the same classes. This year we are departing a little from that, by keeping the best of it, but adding some flexibility. The class of 2006 will be the first to enroll at a time when the second half of the first year is more flexible than it has ever been. In the first year, students will be able to choose a subset of courses. All of these are part of the core, but instead of having to take each and every one of them, the students can pick and choose and customize that subset of courses so that they can sooner pair their course work to the career of their choice. We are not going to erode the solid general management base that this program has been built upon. We believe that we have answered the feedback to allow students to customize their careers sooner.

What general advice would you like applicants considering UNC Kenan-Flagler’s MBA to know?

Each year we create a class of people who are very different from each other. This gives our students a sense of being in a program where they can interact with different types of people. While there are some things that are culturally specific to UNC, people are coming into our program from very diverse backgrounds. This contributes to a strong sense of community and learning from each other and also a sense of responsibility to be available to each other.

How would you describe the general culture at Kenan-Flagler?

People choose UNC because they find a fit here. That fit is described to us in terms of the strong sense of community, and the way things are done here, not just what is done. There is a huge premium placed on leading, motivating, and communicating. It is not enough to be just individually accomplished. If you can't sell yourself to others, if you can't earn trust from them as well, then you are not going to be an effective leader ten years out. We concentrate on finding people with raw material in leadership potential as well as those who value working and succeeding as a team. We provide continuous feedback to our students as they develop their leadership and team-working skills using a 360 degree evaluation tool. This begins with self-assessment at the onset of the program, followed by evaluations from peers and faculty later on. These evaluations provide feedback on motivational skills, trust building, and communication skills, to name a few. Then, the students have a benchmark to guide them in the direction of developing their potential while maximizing their experience at Kenan-Flagler.

When do you encourage applicants to apply?

We generally have four deadlines. Our first deadline this year is October 28, which is our Early Action deadline, December 2, is our first regular decision deadline, the third is January 13, and the final decision is March 5. Applicants should submit their packages as soon as they are ready. Nothing is worse than receiving an application from someone with an incomplete or rushed package, so we like to encourage applicants to apply when everything is in place for them. It is better to be in the last deadline and have your package be good than to have an incomplete or rushed package submitted for an earlier deadline. For the early action deadline of October 28, one can expect a decision on December 13, for the December 2 deadline decisions will be released on February 7, for the January 13 deadline one can expect a decision on March 23, and for the last deadline of March 5, a student can expect a decision by May 16. We will continue to evaluate applicants after the final deadline if there is space available in the class.

hsWang

What are the specific characteristics that you target in the applications to help you identify the “best fit” candidates?

The most important trait we look for is leadership. We don't have a formula, we can't do the math say 50% is leadership and 20% is something else. It really is kind of a fluid type of process. However, it would be very difficult to have the MBA Admissions Committee accept your candidacy if you do not show enormous potential for leadership. It is leadership in environments where you are likely to be leading others in the types of careers that you may go into after business school. We are looking for people who have been truly influential in the workplace. We do not have a preference as to the right type of career or industry that a person may come from. We are not interested in having an entire class of people who have engineering backgrounds or an entire class of people with liberal arts backgrounds. We really want the gamut of what is out there. I would also like to mention if a candidate is coming from a liberal arts background that person will have to demonstrate to the Admissions Committee that they can compete with other MBA candidates who have strong backgrounds in quantitative course work. We do consider an applicant's GMAT score as a means of quantitative ability.

So an applicant's GMAT score is really important?

The GMAT score is very important in that it is the only universally available performance indicator we receive from our application pool in a given year. However, the GMAT is not necessarily the be-all or end-all. It is one piece of information we consider into the whole of the application. We also consider along with the GMAT score how you have done in previous classes, what your recommenders say about you, whether or not you are working in your native language and/or what your work experience is. Very often you will not be admitted because of your performance on the GMAT, and most of the time there are other things that led to that decision. A great score is not going to take the place of leadership, poise, presence, good letters of recommendation, or your interview. You want to make sure you have a competitive score and tie together your performance on the test with your profile given in the application.

Do you have any advice you would give to applicants who struggle with this exam?

First of all my heart goes out to them because I know how frustrating it can be. I often meet applicants whose GMAT scores do not represent their abilities. The first thing I would want them to know is that the Admissions Committee here at UNC will look at their entire application. I like to encourage applicants to do everything they can to beat the GMAT. If your GMAT is really low, show me something else that I can look at that will help me to believe you can do the work. Show me courses you took in the last six months or whatever. The most important thing an applicant can do is to go out there and try the GMAT and get yourself on board, registering for the test, doing your prep if you need or want to, recognize that you are competing against others who are prepping, so don't hurt yourself by not taking advantage of what other candidates you are competing with are doing, and find out sooner rather than later if this is going to be an issue for you. We see candidates all the time who wait until the last minute to take the test and are blown away by a score that is disappointing and there is no turn around time.

What is the GMAT score range for admitted applicants this past year?

The range of applicants that are enrolling this year range from 550 to 780. Considering the scores received in the 500's, I would like to say that there is typically a higher rate of denials to applicants with a lower score because they were unable to demonstrate how they would keep up in a class of people who received higher scores. With that said, there are people with GMAT scores in the 500's who do get admitted because we expect that they will bring attributes to our program that add tremendously to the class.

What should applicants most heavily emphasize in their work experience?

There are several things that I think would be important. The applicants should be a lot less concerned about their resume format. The most important things we want to see in a resume are: for what were you accountable, the results you achieved, and what were the tools or specific skills or knowledge you gained from the experience. I want to see in those results what you have accomplished and what makes you different from another prospective applicant with a similar background.

hsWang

How important is the interview in the admissions process and what specific applicant traits are you using the interview to gauge?

The interview is one of the most important things you can do if the rest of your package is solid. At our school we do not admit people who have not had an evaluative interview. But we may deny candidates who have not yet interviewed just based upon the information in their application. We have an open season that starts in September and goes on through December to the early part of January and in that season we will interview anyone who has submitted an application. In January we move to what is called our closed season. At that point we reserve the interviews to people we have screened using the application. When we do not invite someone to interview and make a denied decision, it is the feeling of the Admissions Committee that there is nothing that person could present in the interview that would have been enough to make him or her competitive with those who have already been admitted. We have to deny fantastic applicants every year. There are too many people coming out ahead of you to displace them. The advantage is to apply (and be ready) early. I suggest that people really look at the interview as your way of selling your candidacy and determining if Kenan-Flagler is where you want to be. Approximately 1/3 of our applicants are not in the United States and we expect that they will make it to our campus for an interview or visit.

What types of questions should applicants expect to be asked?

At UNC we have a very tight list of attributes that we are looking for and an interviewer may get to that using a personal interviewing style. The success of your interview is going to be a combination of how you can establish a rapport with that interviewer and how well you are able to be yourself. We are looking to gauge your leadership potential, we are looking to see how focused you are and what your focus is in terms of why you want an MBA and what you see yourself doing with the MBA. We are looking for your passion, we are looking for what kind of person you are. We are also looking for the contributions you expect to make and the things that you value. It is very important for us at UNC to see how you will fit in this community. You should have concrete reasons for applying to UNC and put them into words as to why you want to attend.

Who can an applicant expect to interview with at Kenan-Flagler?

If you come visit our campus you will be interviewed by a member of our admissions team, none of which are students. We have students who are very involved with us in admissions in that they serve on the advisory board and also host and greet our visitors, but, at this time, students do not make admissions decisions. Our students are very capable and I think they would add a lot of value to that process, however, they are extremely busy with the program. Also if a candidate visits UNC, we want our students to be an advocate for you. We want the candidate to ask students whatever questions you have without feeling this might be a student evaluating you. We also have alumni who interview. Most of the alumni interviews take place outside the United States where it is not easy for candidates to get here. The alumni who interview are members of the Admissions Team. If you interview with an alumnus on campus or off campus, it is an equally weighted interview.

How are re-applicants viewed by Kenan-Flagler and what do they need to do to be successful the second time around?

We try to give them information that will drive a better application the second time around. We start usually in May, June and July. We try to give them feedback every year. Every year the pool changes. What it took to get in this year, it might take 10% more next year, or 10% less. We never know where the pool is going to be, but we do try to give people some sense of what it was about their application that was not competitive with the people who were admitted. We have found that people who have taken advantage of that feedback and applied in subsequent years have a slightly higher chance of being admitted than the average candidate.

hsWang

Describe what admitted students can expect in terms of scholarships, assistantships, and loan guarantees.

We are very happy that we are able to provide merit fellowships as well as access to loans for enrolling students at UNC. Approximately 25% to 30% of students this year are enrolling with a merit award. Our fellowship awards range from $5,000 to full tuition or a stipend award. This allows us to compete with other schools for the best that is out there. We have actually increased our fellowship support over the last year. In addition to the merit aid, we have something that has enabled us to really be attractive to international students. We have a loan program that allows people who are not U.S. citizens to borrow money through a non-profit private lender, without having to have a U.S. co-signer. I would like to add that an MBA is a fantastic investment that will serve you not just in internship or employment opportunities. In the marketplace we are in now, which is softer for MBA hiring than it was three or four years ago, you have to make very mature decisions about what you have to do and how you can measure your return of investment.

Do you have any special instruction or advice for applicants who wish to visit the business school’s campus?

You can go to our web site at www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu and you will see an Apply prompt. You want to go to the full time MBA Admissions section where you will see an easy-to-find link that takes you to visitation and interviews. Keep in mind that you can visit us even if you are not interviewing. We have a calendar there listing our class schedule and days the campus is closed. It is important to come, if you can, when we are not having exams, because you want to have as much access to the students as you can. If you visit us, you will be offered an opportunity to attend a class, have lunch with MBA students, meet perhaps someone from your home country, if you are an international student, and take a tour of the school. We also have a couple of Saturdays every year where the interviewers are available.

Can you briefly describe the housing situation for your students?

Almost all of the MBA students live in private housing. There is a graduate student dorm on campus, but most MBA students choose to live off campus. Chapel Hill is a college town so there are many housing options from which to choose. It pretty much depends on what you are looking for. Once you are admitted to UNC, you will have access to the student web site that can be used as a communication tool to see who is looking for roommates and what is available. We also have a weekend when many enrolled students come in late spring to meet each other and look for housing.

vagrant

thanks for share!

tomatohuas

[em01]

百分比

题目吸引来看看~

GPS

打个酱油我就走！

feichang

路过，回帖拿分来了