First off, Fran, the Haas School has seen an extraordinary rise in applications over the last five years, rising each year to an all-time high this year of 3,996 apps. That's a 102% rise over that time, highest of our top 25 group. What's going on here? Why do you feel this has occurred?

I think there's a variety of factors. The first is the industry-wide phenomenon of increased applications to the top schools; we're seeing a dramatic increase in international applications. So certainly that's a big part of it. In Latin American economies and parts of Europe, applications have increased. I think that's a direct result of the strong economy.

You have to understand that top schools are reporting this increase because we experienced a dip in 1993 when the domestic economy was so shaky. Managers were being laid off at a rate that I don't think U.S. businesses and employees have experienced in some time. So I think the mindset of taking a two-year break in one's career to strenghten one's portfolio of skills and credentials and wait out the recession for a rebounding economy is also a part of it. Some of this has to be tied to that rather shaky period in the economy.

But, of course, California is enjoying extraordinary gains. As one of the preeminent California schools, we've certainly taken advantage of that. I think there's an increasing awareness of the particular value of an MBA degree only from top programs -- though I haven't done the anaylsis. But I suspect that it's not all the many hundreds of schools in the U.S. that are experiencing increases in applications, but rather just the top schools.

Has the relatively new building (built in 1995) -- the mini-campus -- been a success? Do you think its construction can be linked to Berkeley's app surge?

I dont think so, although it's a wonderful facility. Arguably Barrows Hall was the ugliest building on campus. The new facility is outstanding. We have gone to the most distinctive from an aesthetic and architectural standpoint. The dean likes to joke that there is more fiberoptic cable in the new building than cement. Berkeley is a high tech playground for its students and the new building certainly enhances all of those offerings and opportunities. But, to answer your question, I don't know how much of this application rise is due to the facility. My suspicion -- and again, I can't prove it at all -- is that it doesn't have that profound an impact on the numbers that we're experiencing.

Does the Haas admissions staff now find itself cutting corners now that it is being faced by such a tremendous increase in applications? Are you now doing anything differently with respect to the admissions process?

That's a difficult question to answer. Because Berkeley is one of the smallest top programs, the school has the smallest enrollment and admissions staff. There are three professional staff in the admissions committee and we have had to move to contract readers and make other efforts to accommodate the increased demand.

But I think more of a factor is the selectivity ratio. This year we admitted 11% of our largest pool. Historically we've been one of the five most selective schools in the country. Stanford, Harvard, and Wharton are all private schools and enjoy a typically higher ratio of applicants and have larger student bodies. Our size makes selectivity optimal. The admissions process is still a very close and personal experience. We're very qualitatively driven. One of the greatest challenges is the fact that our pool is large and it's highly qualified.

Typically you have 10% - 20% of the application pool who walk on water and a bottom 10% - 20% of people who are very marginally qualified. And then, you're faced with the bulk of the application pool that occupies the middle 60%. Every applicant in that middle range brings a number of strengths to the table. It constantly impresses me that in the Berkeley pool, by and large, 95% are more than qualified to do the program. So it makes it very difficult.

Fran, you've held your position at Haas admissions for the past nine years, have you noticed any trends or differences in the application process or in the applicant over that time?

Well, most definitely, the customers are more informed. B-schools are seeing experienced applicants with higher numbers, a greater degree of career focus, and much more of an experiential base -- they're older and somewhat more experienced than say 10 years ago. Every year there's a different type of composite makeup, but I would say that the average GMAT of the pool has been climbing all the time -- the same goes for work experience, in terms of type and quality.

How big is this year's class and how many people did the school need to admit to fill it?

We enrolled 237 and my target was between 235 and 240. Our yield was over 50% ... the exact number is 55% -- and there are really only 10 to 15 schools that achieve yields in excess of 50%.

Now I understand that, for this year's class [of '99], that Haas's class profile includes 8% minorities, 32% women, and 33% internationals -- a respectable mixture of students. However, it seems a bit low as far as minority enrollment is concerned. Is the school trying to increase its minority student population?

One of the problems I have with surveys is that you're usually comparing apples and oranges so that you can't have a standard. For example, this year's class is made up of nearly 22% Asian Americans, East Indians, Pakistanis, Vietnamese, and others. But, if you're talking about the current 8% comprised of African Americans, Latin Americans, and Native Americans who are a part of our Class of '99, then yes, we are continually trying to encourage those students to apply to Haas.

Has Proposition 209, the bill recently passed by the State of California banning state schools from targeting minorities, had any effect on the school's minority enrollment?

It wasn't in effect during the 1997 admission cycle. It is now though. It became law in California in August and will definitely have an impact on this upcoming class [of 2000].

How does Haas evaluate its international applicants?

We review our international applicants on a country-by-country basis. For example, we review everybody from Germany together as a whole. That practice enables us to select the best that apply from each geographic area. It's also relative to the entire pool of applications: we review on a country-by-country basis, then make a comparison, let's say, between German applicants and Japanese applicants, and then U.S. applicants. The bottom line is that we admit the most qualified individuals into our program.

With the pool as large as it is, you can't manipulate that type of thing. Because of the value we place on international students, essentially they are admitted at the rate that they apply. There will be increases and declines from cycle-to-cycle, and that's due to a large range of cycles. It's not an agenda of the admissions office, it's more a reflection of the pool.

What are this year's application deadlines?

Nov. 18 is the early, then it's Jan. 23, Feb. 23, and Mar. 31 is the last for domestic applicants. The international deadline is Feb. 16.

We do admissions by rounds, so they are sent notification deadlines that are not evenly divided. For the early decision, we mail decision letters the week of Jan. 15, 1998. For Jan. 23, it's Mar. 23; for Feb. 23, it's May 1; and for the final deadline, it's June 1.

I know that Berkeley accepts applications that were put together by MultiApp and other software packages. Is the school now accepting applications completed through the Web?

Yes. We are using Snap Technologies to make available our applications on the Web. It's taking effect this year. I understand that Snap says there are a couple hundred people who are already working on their Haas application via the Web.

Does Haas accept transfer students into its program?

No it doesn't, and that's part of a university-wide policy. Berkeley is arguably the top ranked graduate school in the world -- certainly in the country -- by which to say that it has more departments in the top 1, 2, or 3 positions as determined by accrediting agencies than any other grad school in the country. And it's a requirement that, essentially to earn a graduate degree from Berkeley, you must complete all of your academic learning under the Berkeley roof. I am sympathetic to, and fully endorse that policy simply because an MBA program is too short to accommodate switching around -- you lose the momentum and advantages of establishing contacts and networks.

About how many seats or spots generally get filled per deadline?

I'm afraid I can't answer that one. We've only been doing admissions by rounds for two years. Because the pool has been changing -- with the rapid growth in apps -- I can't generalize at all.

Can you give me a rundown of all the variables involved in the Haas application?

Academic records; GMAT test score; a complete application form including essays -- there are four essays plus a section of shorter answer questions designed to give us a sense of the applicants' background experiences and activities; a detailed work history; and two letters of recommendation -- we urge applicants strongly to get a supervisor to recommend them.

We also strongly recommend an interview. Depending on the applicant's ability to interview at Berkeley or participate in alumni interviews that are offered primarily on the East Coast, the interview could possibly be a component of the application review. There are cuttoff's by round for the interview.

How much weight does the GMAT carry for an application and how do you evaluate it?

I think it's valid to look at the GMAT as a type of mass phenomenon, and I mentioned that the GMAT for the pool has been steadily increasing, certainly with international applicants as well who tend to score much higher -- an interesting phenomenon in and of itself. So it's not culturally biased, not linguistically biased, and it's weighted somewhat on the verbal section. Its value as a diagnostic tool is identifying those candidates who might make the greatest contribution in the classroom. And it's only relative. It's just one of many indicators that we use when evaluating applicants.

I think there's an undue emphasis on the GMAT. The standard deviation, the last time I saw it, was about 40 points -- a huge spread. That's one of the reasons why you'll find, if you contact ETS (the Educational Testing Service, the company that produces the GMAT) and ask for psychometric numbers, that there's not going be a very big difference between a score of 670 and one of 710. It's just not that significant. However, it's perceived by the mainstream public as being quite significant.

We utilize the GMAT as a tool. Half of our applicants are liberal arts majors, so obviously if you majored in literature, your performance is going to hold more weight with me than if your major was economics.

Lets return to the interview. Are you seeing an increase in requests?

Yes we are. It's difficult to accommodate demand.

Do Haas alumni interview abroad?

No we don't.

Is that going to change?

We're in the same position as Stanford -- the pool is so broad that it's very hard to accommodate the demand and interest, and this is an industry-wide phenomenon. Resources are limited. We have a much smaller alumni base. We have 235 in a class, and 70 to 80 people abroad, so part of it is an operational issue. Short of maintaining satellite offices in every major world-class city, it just can't be done.

Who interviews -- alumni, students, admissions officers ... contract readers?

Program administrators such as myself and the rest of the admissions staff, students who are trained to do interviewing, and alumni who are trained to interviewing. We used contract readers for the first time this past year to review applications -- reading the essays and reviewing documents, not for doing any interviewing.

How many contract readers did you hire?

Last year I hired four and this year I'll be working with a group of six to 10.

During the interview, do you ever ask the applicant whether Haas is their first choice? Or where else they have applied?

No. I always ask them what their interest in Berkeley is and why they've chosen it. But I don't ask them to put a rank on the schools that they are applying to.

Fran you mentioned that Haas requires students to complete three essays with a fourth optional. Have the essay questions changed at all?

I change them periodically. When we get a question that gets the kind of response that we're looking for, we work with it until we get tired of reading it and then come up with a better idea.

Is there any type of word limit that you place on the essays?

The first essay, which is a kind of major thinking piece, is opened-ended. There is actually a minimum length required because we want substantive responses. We're looking for around 500 to 750 words, which comes to roughly two pages, double spaced.

Your typical applicants are applying to six or seven b-schools and the one thing that I don't think applicants take sufficiently to heart -- and it's something that I think is one of the sore points with admissions officers -- is that applicants don't answer the questions at hand. There's this tendency to cut and paste, or give that one-size-fits-all generic response.

With a minimum length requirement, I would imagine that you've read your share of epic essay responses.

The 30-page essay is not as frequent as you might imagine because applicants are generally too busy. We suggest that 500 to 750 words be allocated per essay. And it's variable. Some people have sent in 15 to 20 pages though.

For example, the question: "Who's your favorite author?" will get a whole slew of responses. It might get just a first and last name, or it could get a paragraph of "it's impossible to answer that," or we might get a book report. We also ask people to briefly state in three sentences what their most notable accomplishment is.

Can you give a couple more examples of what the essay questions ask?

There's a short answer section and then there's the essay section of the application. In the short section we ask a variety of things: Have you traveled outside of your home country? Who is your favorite author? What is your favorite leisure activity?

The required essays are more in-depth. For example, one of them asks: "Please discuss a decision that you have made that in retrospect has had a profound influence on your present circumstances. In hindsight, would you have made a different decision?"

Do you accept candidates with no professional work experience under their belts?

We accept their application, but they are never viewed as competitive -- that's just too significant a component in our assessment.

How important a variable are extracurricular activities in your mind?

That's a broad-based question and frankly I still have a problem with the definition of leadership, I don't really know what it means. Certainly we're very interested about the kind of total picture that an individual represents. We're very small and qualitatively-driven in our admissions decisions. It's the personal dimension that matters most. To paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut, I don't think that you are necessarily what you do.

Do you allow accepted applicants to defer?

No.

How many applicants are waitlisted?

Well, it's a phenomenon with which we are struggling.

Did you utilize it this past year?

Yes we did. We experienced a fairly high number of acceptances early-on, which compelled us to utilize the waitlist.

Was being tacked on to the waitlist a fate worse than death this past year? Did you accept anyone off of the waitlist?

My sense would be that we might have placed as many as 100 people on the waitlist and about 20% got off.

One of the great things about Berkeley is the students' ability to get a solid education at a comparatively low price. What's this year's tuiton for in and out-of-staters?

It's still very much of a competitive advantage for California residents, but three years ago the Regents of the UC (University of California) system imposed a "professional degree fee" for out-of-state residents. The cost is still a value relative to private schools, but the tuition gap is closing. But Berkeley is still $5,000 to $6,000 cheaper than some of our competitor schools. Tuition is just under $11,000 for in-state students ... the exact figure is $10,394. For out-of-staters it's $19,000 ... the exact figure is $19,378.

And the estimated cost of living?

It really depends on your lifestyle, but I would say prospective candidates should figure on $1,000 a month, and that figure can be lower or double depending on certain factors. For some, it's very hard to go from a gainfully employed lifestyle back to the ways of a student.

What type of financial aid or scholarship does Haas offer?

The biggest source of financial resources available to prospective candidates is of course through financial aid, and by that I mean primarily loans. Most loans available are federally financed through the U.S. government.

What sort of scholarship aid does Berkeley offer?

We award nearly $2 million in fellowships to exceptional domestic and international students. Mostly that's comprised of the fellowship funds, and they're Haas-specific.

How many are available?

Typically the size of award will vary from $5,000 to $15,000. For first years, there's the summer internship opportunity offered between the first and second years. Also, oftentimes students get signing bonuses and incentives from companies that are equivalent to the entire first year's tuition. Some companies pay for a student's second year of business school if the student works for the company after graduation.

I've got to say that I don't think MBA candidates should be basing their decision to attend a b-school on the consideration of the pricetag. The income potential of people with higher degrees, particularly for MBAs within five years (of graduation) is very high. In most instances, within five years, you've earned back not only the cost of attending b-school, but the opportunity cost as well. It's (the pricetag) certainly a consideration for nontraditional employment and nonprofits, but they will earn back the cost of their degree as well -- it will just take them longer.

What is the demand like for technology management classwork? Given Berkeley's location, I would imagine Haas would offer quite an array of classwork dedicated to this field.

Demand is so great that the combined grad classes in technology management are continually full, with more students hoping to get in. This is a traditional strength of the Haas school. One of our major strengths in the curriculum is management of technology and that can be from the very technical to product modeling and development.

Today it seems that the spirit of entrepreneurism abounds. Is the Berkeley culture and curriculum conducive to that mindset?

Yes it is. I think California is at the forefront. Haas is home to the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship. There are also many entrepreneur clubs. Moreover, one of the questions on the application is how many students have a goal of owning their own business, and the percentage is very high -- something like 95%.

What's the Haas atmosphere like?

The educational atmosphere here in the class is very cooperative. This is not a pressure cooker or competitive environment in any way. The sense of the community is embedded in the concrete. For example, faculty can't get to their offices or mailboxes without walking through the student union, and that certainly informs the classroom gestalt.

Who are your toughest competitors?

That's actually kind of easy. Stanford is our toughest competitor, and then, to a lesser extent, UCLA. In ranked order it would be Stanford and UCLA because of their geographic location, and then Wharton, Harvard, Kellogg, and to a lesser extent, Darmouth and MIT.

Fran, thanks for your insights today.