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Our guest on Nov. 18, 1999, was Bob Alig, director of MBA admissions and financial aid at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School [1st on BW's 1998 Top 25 list]. Bob has been on the fast track since joining Wharton in 1994. He first served as an associate director of the Wharton Graduate Division in the Office of Academic Services. In 1995, he joined Wharton's Graduate Admissions Office, as senior associate director for one year, and was then appointed director of MBA admissions and financial aid in August, 1996. It's not hard to understand why Bob fits into the Wharton fold so well: He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and three years later, graduated from Wharton's MBA program, majoring in Entrepreneurial Management and Finance. He was interviewed by Business Week Online reporter Nadav Enbar. Here's an edited transcript of that discussion:

Q: Demand for the MBA degree continues to rise. Last year, for example, Wharton received a whopping 8,434 applications, a new record for a business school MBA program. What's going on here?
A: I think we are just seeing a continuation of the momentum that has been at the school over the last several years. When we last spoke about Wharton's admissions process in 1997, we had a record number of applications that year too. That has continued over the last two years. We've seen a particularly strong growth from our international applicant pool that's perhaps a reflection of our expanded outreach. But we're also seeing a solid interest from our domestic pool as well.

Q: B-school applications from domestic students have been flat for the last several years. Is that the case at Wharton? Is the bulk of Wharton's application growth occurring abroad?
A: I think that's a fair summary.

Q: You just returned from a recruiting trip in the Middle East and are headed to Africa shortly. Are schools, in general, making a greater effort to spread the word abroad about their programs?
A: I can't speak for other schools, but the strategy here at Wharton has been we want to provide the same access to information about the community, the experience, and the academic program to international students as we do for domestic students. To accomplish that, we've expanded our outreach dramatically. Five or six years ago, we probably recruited in eight or nine countries. This past fall, the admissions staff and I hosted receptions and interviews in 38 countries [in addition to our domestic recruitment efforts].

Q: When does the bulk of Wharton's MBA recruiting happen during the year?
A: Basically, we travel extensively from late September through mid-January.

1999-2000 Wharton Admission Profile

Total Enrollment 1,545 Full-Time Students 1,545 Tuition/Board $28,116; $11,000 Female 30% Non-U.S. Citzens 39% Underrepresented Minorities 9% Applicants Accepted [Selectivity] 13% Applicants Admitted [Yield] 75% Number of Applicants 8,434 GMAT Avg. Range 691 440-790 GPA Avg. Range 3.5 2.2-4.0 Work Exp. Avg. Range 5 1-19 Domestic Deadline(s) Rolling, 04/10/00 Int'l Deadline(s) Rolling, 04/10/00 Fin. Aid Deadline(s) 03/31/00

Q: What has been the response?
A: The response has been overwhelming. There are countries that we're going to for the first time. For example, we hosted receptions, earlier this week, in Ghana, Johannesburg, and Kuwait. I was frankly surprised at the numbers of people who attended the receptions. But I was even more surprised by the enthusiasm and the interest in the program. The foreign applicants simply had not been exposed to the program itself and the admissions process to the same degree that many domestic applicants have. At an even more basic level, the international applicants hadn't been exposed to the same degree to the value of an MBA degree as a resource over the course of the rest of their careers.

When we hosted our reception in Ghana, there were 10 alumni there to speak to a group of about 20 prospective students. Some of the alums had gone to Wharton as recently as a couple of years ago, and some dating back to the 1960's. All of them underscored the value of the degree from Wharton, however.

If we're truly creating an international MBA program next year, then, when a student raises his hand in an introductory accounting course, or in our global strategic management course, and talks about the role out of a new product in Latin America, my hope is that there'll be someone in the class from the Middle East or from Africa to respond from [that unique] perspective.

Q: One way B-schools have been getting their message out to prospective students is through the Internet. Wharton has recently integrated a number of admissions-oriented technology initiatives to reach a greater number of its applicants. What do these include?
A: We started employing breakthrough technology to expand our outreach and communication with prospective students three years ago. Wharton was the first school to launch an online application, named Online Application Communications System (OACS). It was also the first school to offer a dedicated chat room for admitted students, called student-2-student. And last year, we started communicating extensively with our prospective students via e-mail and digitized much of our paper brochure and application to basically be a counterpart to our Web and electronic communications.

This year we rolled out an electronic scheduling system -- not only for interviews around the globe, but also for our receptions. Coordinating and managing receptions and interviews in 38 countries simply got beyond the scope of what we could handle, and that's not even taking into account our alumni interviewing program. Now a student can simply log on to our Web site, indicate that they are going to be traveling to Kuwait, find out when we will be hosting a reception and conducting interviews in Kuwait, and then schedule an interview and RSVP for the reception immediately, in real time.

Q: Is Wharton the first school to put this type of functionality into place?
A: It's the first school to put this functionality in place for the scope of interviews and receptions that we're doing.

Q: What have been the early returns so far?
A: We rolled this out just after Labor Day, in September. And during the first 10 days, we scheduled over 1,400 interviews. What that means is that a student in Tokyo who wanted to schedule an interview -- either in Tokyo or, perhaps on campus -- didn't have to set her alarm clock and get up in the middle of the night to call us and schedule that interview. Instead, she could schedule her interview whenever it was convenient for her. Our strategy here is to make the process as easy as we possibly can, so that prospective students focus on what's really important: Getting to know the school and the program, and allowing us to get to know them.

Q: Have you encountered any glitches or problems rolling this out?
A: We had a couple of minor glitches at the beginning. We had some problems with students who scheduled an interview, and then needed to cancel and reschedule. The system wasn't seamlessly allowing students to cancel the first interview. It took a couple of days to get that fixed. But overall, the system has worked magnificently and it's changed how we interact with prospective students.

Now, prospective students who have particular questions and need to talk to an admissions officer are the people that we're talking to on the phone. Over the last several years, our administrative staff and our admissions officers were spending an inordinate amount of time scheduling interviews and they weren't helping students with their assessment of Wharton. Now, we've changed that, and the phone calls that we're handling are actual questions and things like that.

Q: The MBA admissions landscape has changed markedly over the last couple of years -- specifically with respect to the integration of the Web and Web applications. With privacy concerns subsiding and familiarity increasing, a greater number of people are turning to the Web to fill out and submit their applications online. How much have electronic applications and the Web changed Wharton's admissions process?
A: I think it has made the process easier for prospective students, and that's [what] we're looking for. I am not sure it has dramatically changed the admissions process itself. We still go through the same type of evaluation that we went through three or five years ago. But the ease [with which students provide] their information to us is improving.

Q: If you had your druthers, how would you like to receive all of Wharton's applications? Via the Web, through a cyber application vendor? Through Wharton's online application system? On paper, through snail mail?
A: I want students to apply to us in whatever form or fashion is easiest for them. My preference is to receive an application on our online application system because then it's a seamless transaction for me to upload all that information into my database. If a student applies on paper, I have to manually input that data.

Q: Does the form you receive a prospective student's application affect your decision one way or another when evaluating it?
A: Not in the slightest.

Q: What are the different avenues applicants can use to apply to Wharton?
A: They can use our online application. They can use the Embark.com (formerly CollegeEdge) online application. They can use Multi-App. Or they can download the application from the Wharton Web site, print it out, and then fill it out manually.

Q: Let's get down into the actual admissions process. Wharton's full-time MBA class contains about 770 spots. How many people to do you admit each year to fill those spots?
A: This past year we admitted about 1,060 people, to arrive at a class of 780.

Q: Are you finding more people deferring admission to Wharton to take advantage of the robust U.S. economy?
A: I had more students contact me over the course of the summer and ask me for a deferral for work-related reasons than I had ever seen in the past. I don't have hard and fast numbers on what percentage of those were for technology or dot.com companies, but it's safe to say that a preponderance of them were for technology startups. We also had a significant number of students who completed the first year of the MBA program ask for a leave of absence to continue with their summer internship and not return to Wharton.

Q: How do you feel about that?
A: My bottom line is, if it's the right thing for them, personally and professionally, we should work with them and give them the flexibility to do that.

Q: Do you frown upon people who, after being admitted by you and your staff, say, "You know what, I need to take a year off to pursue some lucrative professional opportunities?"
A: I encourage applicants to apply in the year that they want to attend, and if a personal or a family emergency comes up, I am always willing to grant a deferral. I am more selective about granting deferrals for work-related reasons. This past year was an exception, and our yield increased considerably. I had more students say yes to Wharton than I expected, so I was more flexible about granting deferrals.

Q: The admissions process itself is getting more competitive each year -- especially as criteria such as the GMAT continue to rise, and a greater number of people continue to apply from around the world (particularly to Top 25 business schools). How much time do you feel a prospective applicant should spend investigating and then applying to Wharton?
A: I wouldn't even approach it from a timeframe standpoint. I think it's inappropriate to say, "O.K., it's August of the year I'm going to apply to business schools, it's time to begin the process." As a part of your other responsibilities and your associations apart from work, I think you can do a lot of thinking and a lot of preparation for an MBA program. You can take the GMAT immediately, for example, and your score will be good for five years at most programs. I certainly think it's to your advantage, early on, to begin talking to alumni and visiting schools to gauge which program is the right fit.

Q: How would you begin collecting information to gain a better understanding of whether Wharton is right for you?
A: An immediate and very easy place to start is the rankings. They are a great place to get a lot of information in a condensed form to begin framing your thinking of whether or not a particular program has the resources and is the right fit for you. Another astounding resource is, obviously, the Web. I think the vast majority of the top-tier schools have strong Web sites that can give you a lot of input and a lot of access to information that's relatively easy to come by.

Q: How many schools do you feel an applicant should apply to? Is it unwise to apply to just Wharton?
A: In most cases, I would discourage applicants from applying to just one school, but I also would discourage people from applying to more than five or six schools. The process is extremely time-consuming to do it right, and I would find it difficult to imagine that a person could effectively manage an application process to more than five or six schools and a full-time job concurrently. It's a better use of their time to narrow a list of schools to perhaps a couple of long shots, a couple of solid bets, and a couple that are almost a given. Then, focus on those and prioritize.

Q: Wharton runs a rolling admissions that ends on April 10th, 2000. These days, applicants are applying earlier and earlier to up their chances of acceptance. Is that a good plan of action? Do the chances of admission lessen as the application cycle progresses?
A: I consider an early application to Wharton to be any time between October and January/end of January. Any time in that time frame is considered early and an applicant has absolutely nothing to worry about. By the third week in January, we probably will have only admitted 10% of our class. So, there is no issue. Sometimes students have the perception that if they apply on October 1st, it's considerably advantageous over December 1st or January 1st. What happens is that they rush the process and risk their candidacy. So again, I emphasize, applying any time in the time frame of October to January is perfect.

The students who really compromise their chances for admissions are the ones who wait until the end of March or early April to send in their application. Last year we did admit students as late as early May. But over the entire admissions process, we admitted 12% of our applicant pool, and [admission] was certainly skewed towards the people who applied during the first four or five months of the cycle.

Q: Let's say I don't quite stack up as well as the other candidates that you're evaluating. Is it one strike and I'm out? Or will you and your staff get back to me and say, "Here are a couple of things that you might want to work on and then we'll re-evaluate your application again, later in the application cycle?"
A: One of the hallmarks of the admissions process here at Wharton is initiative. I will not necessarily follow up with an applicant and say, "These are some things you could do to improve your candidacy, and we would encourage you to come back to us as a re-applicant." If, however, an applicant picks up the phone and calls us and says, "I'd like to get some feedback on my candidacy from this past year," then we will schedule a feedback appointment for that person to talk with an admissions officer, and give them some perspective on how their candidacy was viewed, within the context of the entire applicant pool. I think that helps students understand the admissions process and the thoroughness of our evaluation.

Q: The first thing that applicants tend to share with each other when discussing their B-school admission prospects are what I call their Big Three credentials -- their GMAT scores, GPA, and years of work experience. Just how important are these three criteria to you when you evaluate an application?
A: I think all three are extremely important. You referenced earlier that the competition [to get into B-school] has racheted up considerably over the last five years. I would underscore that and emphasize that as the competition has increased, the importance of each of those three areas has become even more important. So applicants needs to do everything they possibly can do to put the best possible candidacy forward, in each of those areas.

Q: Can the Big Three preclude you from entrance into Wharton on their own?
A: There is no number on the GMAT or the GPA that automatically puts you into a different type of evaluation at Wharton. You will get the exact same consideration here if you have a 530 GMAT or a 790 GMAT. We do admit students that don't perform as well on the GMAT, but the academic profile is extraordinarily important to us, and I want to know that a student is going to be successful in the program academically.

Q: Is there a baseline GMAT score that you adhere to when evaluating applications?
A: Absolutely not.

Q: What about a high GMAT score? Does, say, a 780 GMAT ensure an applicant's admission?
A: Absolutely not.

Q: Do you consider different factors when evaluating two applications, one from a U.S. applicant and the other from overseas?
A: I will always taking into consideration the implications of a student applying from abroad who does not speak English as a first language and how that affects their GMAT results. I will also factor in that for many [international applicants], a standardized test like the GMAT is somewhat foreign, meanwhile many domestic students have been exposed to that type of standardized test their entire life. Whenever we evaluate an application, it's important for us to be sensitive to and respectful of the context within an applicant has accomplished his or her GPA and GMAT, or the context of their work experience.

Q: The GMAT CAT [Computer Adaptive Test] allows students to essentially take the exam three weeks out of every month, making it easier for applicants who are unhappy with their scores to reschedule and re-take the test. Do you judge an applicant's second or third GMAT score as heavily as an applicant's first?
A: The only GMAT score I evaluate heavily is the applicant's highest score -- whichever one it is, that's the one I focus on. I tend to see diminishing returns from taking the GMAT four, five, or six times. My advice is to take it once, prepare, see how well you do, and if you're not satisfied with your score or if you think you can improve it, perhaps hunker down and take a preparation course. Focus on your weaker areas, and use the first test as a guide for where you can improve. That way you can prioritize your preparation and really give it your best. Applicants can perhaps take the GMAT a second or a third time. After that there's probably not much likelihood that you're going to considerably improve the score.

Q: Do applicants lose credibility the more GMAT exams they take?
A: I wouldn't say so, but they probably will experience diminishing returns on their results.

Q: It's hard, if not impossible, to judge the merits of 8,400 applicants based solely on their Big Three. Last year, a Wharton official either sat down or talked over the phone with 83% of its overall applicants, and 95% of its admitted applicants. Just how important is the interview in your eyes?
A: I think the interview is very important from two angles. Obviously, we want to get to know an individual applicant as a person. I want to get some perspective on the decision making processes behind the data points on an applicant's resume or behind his transcript and some of the other objective pieces of information we have.

The other part of the interview that I think is extremely important is providing an opportunity for a candidate to really become comfortable with the Wharton community and the Wharton experience, and do their own assessment of whether or not we are the ideal fit for their personal and professional goals. Just as it's difficult for me to truly get to know someone by reading their essays, recommendations, and transcript, I think it's difficult for a prospective student to truly get to know us by only visiting our Web site and reading our brochures. It's really helpful interacting with either an admissions officer, a current student, or a recent alumni.

Q: Is an applicant hindered by not setting up an interview?
A: I strongly encourage interviews. I am not in a position to absolutely guarantee every single applicant has easy access to an interview. If an applicant tries to schedule an interview, and they're not able to, or we're not able to accommodate them in a timely manner, then he or she will never be penalized. All they have to do is address that in their application. But interviews should not be avoided.

Q: There are several different ways that the interview can be conducted: by admissions officials such as yourself, by alums, or by students. Do you attribute the same weight to interviews, no matter who does the interviewing?
A: Absolutely. A current student is every bit as equipped to assess whether or not someone would be a strong contributor to the program, and whether someone would give back both inside and outside the classroom. Moreover, students are certainly better equipped to help prospective students assess whether or not Wharton is the best fit for them because they've recently gone through that assessment process themselves, and they're currently living and breathing the experience.

Q: How can an applicant best prepare for the interview? What should he or she expect?
A: I think he or she should expect us to want perspective on the decision making processes behind the data points on their resume. I typically don't even like to have the resume at my disposal during the interview. I much prefer to just engage the prospective student in a conversation and understand how they've gotten to where they are and the decision making processes behind that. In general, candidates should be prepared to help me understand how they reached the decision to pursue an MBA, and how they're going to avail themselves of the resources here at Wharton, in order to get to the next point in their career -- not only immediately after graduation, but over the course of the rest of their lives.

Every time I meet a prospective student, one of the thought patterns in the back of my mind is: how are they going to contribute and make Wharton stronger? How are they going to make an imprint on this learning community and this program and this experience? I'm looking for students to be themselves. The ones that give me stock answers, the ones that have prepared and rehearsed are probably not as compelling because the motivation for being at an interview is to get to know them as people.

Q: What does the actual interview environment look like? Is it formal or informal? Does it change depending on who's actually administering the interview?
A: If it's an interview with an admissions officer or with a student on campus, it's going to be fairly formal, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily structured. If it's with an alum, it can be more variable in its tone. It could be over a cup of coffee after work, or it could be a very casual Saturday morning thing. It varies.

Q: Should candidates always dress formally for their interviews, no matter what the venue?
A: Yes, unless, for some reason, someone says specifically otherwise. I have, for example, conducted interviews in airports and in some other places that simply aren't conducive to business attire. In those situations, I was only too comfortable saying to the prospective student, we can dispense with the business attire. But if you come to campus, or if you are interviewing with us in one of our [interview] locations around the world, for the vast majority of the cases, it will be business attire.

Q: Should an applicant send a thank you note afterwards? Is that important?
A: I don't think it's important, to be honest. I think it's a very nice touch, but I think the applicant should focus much more on the interview itself. Obviously, people like to be appreciated and like to know that their efforts were well received, but a thank you note really isn't necessary. It's certainly not anything that we factor into the admissions process.

Q: The other main elements of Wharton's application include the essays and the recommendations. Have Wharton's four essays changed much over the last couple of years?
A: We changed them considerably last year. So, this will be the second straight year that they have changed. The first essay probably has not changed considerably, but essays two and three and the optional essay have changed a little bit. [Editor's note: Wharton's questions are:
1) Please discuss the factors, both professional and personal, influencing the career decisions you have made that, in turn, have led you to your current position. What are your career goals for the future, and why is now the appropriate time to pursue an MBA at the Wharton school? How will you avail yourself of the resources at the Wharton School to achieve these goals?
2) At Wharton, the Learning Team, which consists of approximately five first-year students, is often assigned group projects and class presentations. Imagine that, one year from now, your Learning Team has a marketing class assignment due at 9:00am on Monday morning. It is now 10:00pm on Sunday night; Time is short, tension builds and your team has reached an impasse. What role would you take in such a situation? How would you enable the team to meet your deadline?
3) Describe a personal achievement that has had a significant impact on your life. In addition to recounting this ahievement, please analyze how the event has changed your understanding of yourself and how you perceive the world around you.
Optional: If there are extenuating circumstances or concerns affecting you application that you feel the Admissions Committee should be aware of, please eleaborate here (e.g., you academic performance as an accurate measure of your potential, unexplained gaps in your work experience)]

Q: In general, what is a good word count to adhere to when replying to each of the essay questions?
A: The word counts are listed in the application, but I wouldn't even emphasize word count. I am certainly going to read everything that is there, but a student is communicating a message about themselves, and they should be succinct and they should make sure that what they're communicating is a compelling representation of who they are.

If a student sends in an essay that's 14 pages long, I'm going to think that the student used poor judgement in how they communicated and what they communicated. But if a student needs to go over the word limit because, perhaps they have a significant amount of work experience or perhaps they work in a very non-traditional environment that we might not be familiar with, then I would certainly respect that applicant's choice to give us more insight. If it's a little bit longer, than it's not a problem.

Q: How important is it to complete the optional essay?
A: It is truly an optional essay. I tell prospective students, if there is something important about your candidacy that you didn't feel you were able to convey in the other parts of the application, then you should address it in the optional essay. But if you feel the other essays and the other components of your application itself have given us a complete picture of who you are, there's absolutely no reason to do the optional essay.

Q: These days, most of the Wharton's applicants have an average of five years of work experience. Given that fact, should an applicant's two recommendations be filled out by his or her professional colleagues or supervisors?
A: I strongly encourage applicants to send in at least one recommendation from a supervisor who can provide perspective on how the applicant has performed versus their peer group at work, and give us some context and insight into how they've developed professionally over a period of time. At least one of the recommendations should give us that perspective.

The second recommendation might be from someone else at work. It could be from a former faculty member from the applicant's undergraduate experience as well. It could be from an extracurricular activity, or something like that. Again, all of these things are at the discretion of the applicant and I put a great deal of ownership on the applicant for making the determination of who they choose for a recommender, what topics they choose to cover in their essays, and how they conduct their interview.

Q: Is the whole application taken as a holistic piece of work? Or, do you attach weights to specific facets of the application?
A: There is no weight assigned to the different aspects of the application. I would say that the academic profile is extremely important to us--no student is going to be admitted without our absolute comfort that his or her academics are strong and that they will perform very well in a classroom at Wharton. But I would then share with you that 80% of our applicants can handle the work load and be successful here academically. So, many other factors become important to the overall evaluation, once we get past the academic profile.

Q: Once I submit my completed application to Wharton, what is the turnaround in response?
A: We typically guarantee an applicant that we will respond to them within eight to 12 weeks after their application is complete -- including the completion of their interview and the GMAT obviously. This past year, for the first time, we rolled out an on-line status check so that, periodically throughout the admissions process, an applicant could log on to their private account with us and see what the status was of their application. At the end, they actually receive their decision letter electronically, as well. That helped us to get the word to students even quicker than we had been able to in previous years.

Q: If I receive a fat envelope from Wharton's admissions, should I be beaming with pride?
A: My hope is that prior to receiving that fat envelope, you would have gotten a phone call from an admissions officer or a current student, and you would have also logged onto the system, and seen your decision electronically. We call every applicant who is admitted to congratulate them and welcome them into the program. Oftentimes, last year, admitted students had already gotten the word electronically, but it was still important for us to reach out and give them a name and a face, in case they had questions.


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