Wharton Wants More "Candor" or Something

Hello future Wharton MBA monkeys,

Last week user David Aames put forward a perfectly reasonable complaint about MBA candidates fluffing up their resumes with a bunch of softs to make them appear more qualified, despite the fact that it's all, oftentimes, a bunch of bullshit they could care less about. The responses in the comments were varied, but most seemed to express some trepidation at such disingenuousness spraweled across an application. Well, worry not, because good news, turns out that Wharton would like everyone to be more candid, more genuine, and they're taking steps to make that happen! This totally doesn't sound like a ridiculous idea that will never work, so let's take a look at what they're looking for, and how they plan on finding it.

The article starts off in a rather confusing way, at least form my perspective, as it notes some of the current tools used by business schools to elicit an honest, unrehearsed answer.

Hoping to elicit at least some unrehearsed honesty from prospective students, schools regularly tweak essay topics or add interview prompts.

Wait, what? Tweak essay topics? I can understand adding interview prompts, but essays? Surely, this is a typo, because no one can really think that by tweaking an essay topic that candidates have ample time to write will cause them to say, "Oh, they're not asking me about my biggest weakness, and instead want to know what I would do if my afternoon was suddenly freed up? I guess it's time to talk about that strip club I like." But, I digress, as this article isn't about former practices of the admissions process, it's about the new process that is being implemented by Wharton, arguably the best business school in the world, surely their idea will be novel and force prospective students to put forth the most honest version of themselves:

That cat-and-mouse game has been in full view this year amid changes to admissions procedures at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, which is interviewing applicants in groups, and Harvard Business School, which now asks hopefuls to write a postinterview reflection.

After a brief pilot, Wharton this year introduced a team-based discussion to its application process, inviting candidates to participate in a six-person, 35-minute discussion on a pre-assigned topic, such as how the school might invest in new projects.

Genius! A team based discussion on a pre-assigned topic! Clearly, something that is not so easily side stepped with prior preparation. Well, until you do the first one, then apparently, this happens:

And it wasn't long before consultants moved in, too. Last month Accepted.com, a Los Angeles-based firm, began offering a $500 online mock interview for Wharton applicants modeled on the group sessions. Another admission consulting firm, mbaMission, is charging $400 for a practice group discussion. About 100 applicants have run through that firm's trials so far.

"Making these changes to strip away the veneer only encourages applicants to prepare more," says Scott Shrum, director of M.B.A. admissions research at Veritas Prep, an admission consulting firm.

I'm sure nobody saw that coming. At any rate, while I enjoy poking fun at people for having silly schemes to try an elicit a type of behavior that runs counter to what you'd expect to see, I can't help but think that Wharton is awfully lucky to have such a problem. From where I'm sitting, it seems that their candidate pool is tremendously great on paper, in fact, it's so good, that they now have the enviable problem of trying to separate the candidates who work hard to have an awesome resume from those who have a naturally awesome resume. A very good problem to have, and the article ends with some very valuable advice to the business schools with such a problem:

Business schools "don't seem to worry about [students] being natural when they're going for a job," [Linda Abraham, founder of Accepted.com] says, noting that students are encouraged to team up and practice for interviews with consulting and finance firms. "I don't think applicants should be any less prepared than graduates."

I couldn't agree more. What do you monkeys think? Am I being too hard on Wharton? Or is this top business schools having their pick of the litter, who then complain about it being too hard to pick just one (or, in Wharton's case, picking 837 out of 6,408)?

 

Lulz at paying $500 for a mock interview session. And then they've invested so much time and capital in the interview process that when they participate they bomb it in an epic fashion.

I paid a web-based service $300 to review some essays I wrote - discarded almost all of their feedback - and that was enough for me. If you think you need substantial coaching to have a 45 minute convo with some drones from the admissions staff and your applicant pool "competition" there's a 90% chance you have a serious/debilitating personality disorder.

 
Best Response

Laughable. I am waiting to hear back from hbs, wharton, and booth, and think MBA admissions is total fluff. Stuff like this doesn't help.

Part of the reason for this fluff is that MBA students don't really acquire a hard skillset. From talking to numerous friends and alums at various top programs, they all said that the MBA helped them break into a certain industry or firm but that they did not learn much while they were there. The network can be valuable to an extent, but many of them felt that part was also overhyped. Another reason is that most of MBA adcom is comprised of women who studied liberal arts or education, and they have a clear political agenda on what type of class they want to create. Certain demographic groups and industries are punished while those with "international" experience or a heart warming story of volunteering in technoserve make adcom's hearts swoon.

If I had it my way, I think I would have interviewed applicants visit the campus (or a hub city) and write an analytical essay on a question whose topic was not divulged before. The topic would change for each round. And the group interview would be more intense, with active questioning by adcom and a rigorous debate between applicants. For those of us who did the wharton group interview, we all know that it was a total joke.

 

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