Home
| Register/Subscribe Home |
|
 UNDERGRADSMain Page2007 RankingsAdmissions Q&AsCareer Q&AsUndergrad ForumReading ListRecruiter Q&AsSchool Report CardsSchool ToursUndergrad 24-7Undergrad VideosNews HeadlinesPREMIUM CONTENT
| |
MARCH 22, 2000 B-SCHOOL Q&A: ADMISSIONS Meet Thunderbird's Admissions Director A Conversation with Judy Johnson, Associate Vice-President of Admissions at Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management
Q: Judy, you're approaching your tenth anniversary at Thunderbird. How have the groups of applicants you've screened changed over the years? A: We're seeing an older, more mature group with better work experience. That's all by plan. We are targeting an older, more experienced group of students, because our faculty members have asked for them. They count on the students to enhance the classroom. The other reason is that all students expect access to the knowledge of more experienced classmates. In two years, an applicant's average work experience will probably be five years. And that's just about where we want to be. Now we ask for a minimum of two years, and we may push that requirement to three. Q: Where is the school seeing the most growth in applications? A: Primarily from Asia. When you look at the statistics that are published about whole groups of foreign students coming to the United States, half are coming from Asia. Of our total applicant pool, about 50% are international. That is equally divided between native English speakers and non-native English speakers. Q: Has Thunderbird had to reevaluate its marketing now that so many other MBA programs are flaunting their own international components? Once upon a time, Thunderbird had few competitors in the international management space. A: Yes. We have to mind our Ps and Qs out here. We have to become more sophisticated about our marketing and more articulate on what the difference is between the Master of International Management [that Thunderbird offers] and an MBA with an international emphasis. Q: What is the difference? A: We have a three-discipline approach. The first is world business, which makes up about 60% of our graduation requirements. The second is international studies and the third component is modern language. The last two departments deal with the environment where the business is conducted and the language it's conducted in. The dynamics of the culture affect how you do business.
Q: Many adCom directors say that when they are reading an application, they can tell that a student fits with their credo. They can also tell when they don't. What shows Thunderbird that an applicant is up to snuff? A: I will read an application and [find that] the person has spent time in another culture or country. It could be a work assignment, or a study abroad assignment. The best of both worlds would be that their international exposure began as an undergraduate, and then they built upon that experience by doing something in their first professional work assignment relative to that first international experience. Q: Applicants to the Thunderbird program can apply using Embark.com, Multi-App, an electronic application, or the traditional paper application. If you had your druthers, how would applicants apply? A: Electronically. It's easier for us and will become easier as the years go on, so that it eventually becomes a seamless process. We're seeing an increase [of electronic applications] almost every week. 50% of our applications are coming in via electronic means. And that's a big jump from even last year. Personally, I'd like to spend more time servicing people rather than doing data entry. The facts about their lives are more interesting. Q: When is the best time to apply? Does the early bird get the worm at Thunderbird? A: We do not work with the seat constraints that some schools do. Instead, we're a totally singular and self-sufficient campus. So we don't have to close out our classes because of a lack of space. We can usually accommodate people. Another consideration is financial aid. We fund about one-fifth to one-quarter of each entering class with a scholarship package. But when the money's run out, the money's run out. I tell people when they're asking me about deadlines that it's no small thing to get all of the documents together. Up until 30 days before a class starts, if you meet admission criteria, we will take you. But it would be a shame if you weren't able to get scholarship funding because you applied late. Q: When the application does arrive in the office of admissions, in what order is it evaluated? A: Overall, we review the applications on a first come, first served basis. With each application, we look at the applicant's quantitative skills first. If the quantitative criteria - mainly the GMAT score and the undergraduate GPA or equivalent - are not met, there's no use going on to the qualitative. And the GMAT isn't easy. Many people are coming in with different native languages. So we look at the GMAT scores within the ranges of that speaking group. ETS makes those statistics available to every graduate program. If [the quantitative threshold] is met, we look at the qualitative. We're looking for the quality and length of work experience. We like to see international exposure and activities that lead to the person having an orientation in the marketplace. Showing leadership qualities is a plus, too. Q: Is it frowned upon when an applicant has taken the GMAT more than once? A: No. We look at the highest total score. If it doesn't change, then we break it down into the quantitative, verbal, and analytical writing assessment scores. The good percentile in the quantitative is in the top 25%. In the AWA, four is about as low as we should go. On the verbal section, we expect native speakers to score in the top 30%. Q: That may stand true for domestic applicants, but international candidates are often held to slightly different standards. What verbal strength should they demonstrate on the GMAT? A: They should fall in the top 50th percentile. We do have an English program at Thunderbird, and some of our international students will do a semester of English before they get into the business and international studies courses. We use the GMAT and TOEFL scores to give us an idea of their English comprehension abilities. But all non-native English speakers have to test with our language department. Q: How much importance is assigned to the type of undergraduate institution an applicant attended? A: Some institutions are hard to disregard, for instance, your mainline Ivy League schools. But rather than [focusing on] the institution, we look at how well the person did in whatever program they're in and their course of study. We get applications from institutions from all over the world. And while I can admit to a bias of U.S. undergraduate institutions because I've had the advantage of reading rankings just like everybody else has, I have no idea how the schools in China would be ranked. I have a problem judging a person by the institution they went to. But with the wide range of international transcripts that we get at Thunderbird, it's virtually impossible to do. Q: What courses should applicants have on their transcripts? A: They should have a statistics [course] and a pre-calculus course. They should earn As and Bs. Q: Essays are one place on the application where MBA candidates have some control over the outcome. Despite that advantage, some still arrive in the offices of MBA programs with common flaws. What mistakes are you tired of seeing? A: An essay that is badly organized, or where the words are misspelled and punctuation is not appropriate. Essays that are too short or too long are looked down upon. We also want to know what the applicant's career plans are, so applicants should tell us. If they want an area of expertise that the Thunderbird program can prepare them for, we just look to see if it all flows. [Editor's note: Thunderbird requires applicants to submit two required essays: 1. What unique international background, cross-cultural perspectives, and/or unique experiences will you bring with you to Thunderbird? How do you feel they will help you become a more effective international manager? 2. What are your career objectives for the next five years? Discuss how your previous educational and professional experiences combined with the MIM will help you obtain these goals. Please articulate clearly which area of international business interests you most.] Q: Who should MBA candidates employ to write their recommendations? A: It depends. International applicants often ask for a faculty recommendation, because they have such a regard for their professors. But we always ask for a recommendation from the professional workplace. In our application, we tell applicants that if they cannot provide one from the workplace, please offer an explanation as to why they cannot. We don't want recommendation letters from family friends, aunts, and uncles. Q: Thunderbird doesn't require its applicants to interview. How does the school evaluate a candidate's fit with the school and the community? A: We have a remedy, because we ask the question: What most influenced you to apply to Thunderbird? Q: Does Thunderbird have a tendency to wait list a lot of its applicants? A: No. Oftentimes we will get the most applications for a fall term because that's when the whole world thinks that they need to start graduate school. If we start to get oversubscribed for the fall term, we'll first give applicants the opportunity to enroll later, perhaps in the following spring or summer trimester. That's better than putting a person on a wait list and having them wait until the end of the summer to find out if they're in or not. Of the few people that we do put actually on a wait list, we will probably place 60% of them. But we don't wait list them if they don't have enough work experience. Q: If not Thunderbird, where do accepted candidates tend to flock to school? A: In the U.S., we compete more with the smaller private schools. The University of South Carolina offers a similar curriculum with their [masters in international business degree]. Tulane is a competitor. University of Texas at Austin with their Latin American connections is [also a competitor.] Since we run classes 12 months out of the year, so that people can complete the program in a shorter time, we see competition from the European programs that offer one-year programs. Q: Any parting words of wisdom for Thunderbird applicants? A: A graduate business degree is one of the wisest steps and plans that any young professional can make. That degree offers them flexibility that will probably last the rest of their working career. In the end, education is the one thing that nobody can take away from you. Every school has its own core competencies and their areas of expertise. And applicants should do their research to match what it is that they want to do with the core competency of a school. Once they've decided, they should give [the program] their best. It's a competitive marketplace. They need to know that going in. Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | MARCH
 Learn about your online education options |
 Copyright 2000 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.Terms of Use | Privacy Policy |
MBA Insider
Printer-Friendly Version
