Steve, to start, let's talk about the degree Krannert awards to its grads. It's not an MBA, but rather a master of science degree. Does this differ markedly from an MBA?

Not much. Over the years we have a had a reputation for being a bit more analytical in some of our coursework and curriculum. We bill it as an MBA program, though. We have had some trouble explaining to employers that it is, in fact, an MBA degree because they aren't as familiar with it, although we're not the only school to award a master of science degree -- Carnegie Mellon also awards one (the master of science in industrial administration)

Students can receive an MS in industrial administration (an 11-month, accelerated program), an MS in management, or an MS in human resources management. Which tends to be the most popular? And why?

That's right, we have three degrees. The first is an MS in management (MSM), which generally speaking, we consider to be a traditional, two-year, broad-based MBA program. The second is an MS in industrial administration (MSIA), which is an 11-month version of the MS in management that covers the same core courses, but offers fewer electives. (Editor's note: the MSIA offers four- to eight-week electives as opposed to 10-week electives for those in the two-year program). MSIA students actually sit in the same classroom as the two-year students The third program is our MS in human resource management (MSHR), which awards a two-year HR degree. We do not consider it an MBA degree, although it does have coursework that overlaps.

The two-year MS in management is our most popular program. This year we enrolled 184 students total: 127 in the traditional two-year program, 32 going to the MSIA, and 35 to the HR program.

Are applications assessed differently according to the program or concentration an applicant is applying to?

Slightly. A lot of the things remain fairly equivalent, such as the GMAT and the GPA. The differences primarily fall in work experience and background. For those applying to the MSIA, since they are going to earn their degree in an accelerated one-year program, we want to make sure they have the solid work experience. The HR program tends to draw applicants from social science backgrounds, so we accept the GRE in lieu of the GMAT. We are also a little bit more flexible about their work experience.

Krannert has a heavy quantitative influence. In fact, 30 of the 31 students in the school's first graduating class in 1957 were engineers. Fast forwarding to last year, 27% of the class landed a job in operations management. Are the majority of Krannert's applicants coming from engineering or heavy quant backgrounds?

Not the majority, but we are heavier in quant work than most schools. Last year about 40% of the incoming students to all of our programs had engineering and science backgrounds. That is more concentrated when you look at just the MSM and MSIA programs.

What is Krannert's official application total for its Class of '99? Is it up or down from last year?

Last year, we had 1,575 applications, and that's a dramatic increase if you go back a few years. In 1994 -1995 we saw a significant jump. The last two years have been right around 1,600.

Krannert was one of the most selective B-schools in our Next 25 grouping, accepting only 23% of it's applicants (second-lowest behind Maryland). What about this past year?

We accepted 26%, so we're still pretty tough. We are one of the smallest programs among the better-known MBA programs. But, we're looking to grow our class to about 200-225 for all three programs. Last year it was at 184.

Why grow it?

Primarily because of the good success that we've had with recruiters. They've really been happy with our grads and want more of them. Also, having more students adds to the opportunities available to the students: It helps, for example, increase the number of specialized electives offered because there are enough students to justify them, and also allows us to have more professors teaching electives in general. But most of the concern comes from company recruiters.

What was the yield?

Our yield was 44%.

Has that changed at all from last year?

Our yield has been between 44% and 46% for the past five years, and it's higher for domestic students.

In which student population segment are you seeing the sharpest growth in applications?

Internationals by far, especially in Asia. We could fill our program just with international students. But we only admit 180 out of 1,600.

What are this year's application deadlines?

Actually we use a rolling admission. The only true cutoff date is Apr. 15. We have an early deadline for domestic applicants on Nov. 1, and we guarantee that they hear back from us by Dec. 15. For international candidates, we ask them to apply by Feb. 1. We'll extend that if the deadline passes, however.

Is there a separate deadline for scholarship?

The scholarship form is included in with the main application. But obviously, the earlier people apply, the better chance they have at the scholarships available.

We've touched on Krannert's quant focus. What elements of an application do you tend to scrutinize most?

We actually use a very balanced approach where we look at the typical things, like the GMAT, GPA, and discipline that they got their degree in undergrad from. There are many engineers in the program, so you have to weight GPA a bit differently, and then look at the essay questions as well as the letters of recommendation. We try to use the whole range of input.

Certainly the GMAT, GPA, and years of work experience are the three things that get the most attention. Often the applications are sent around to a subcommittee composed of faculty and administrators who submit their opinions on a written evaluation form. Each subcommittee member evaluates an application independently. Afterwards, the application as well as the evaluations all go back to the director of admissions, Ward Snearly.

Is Krannert now using the Web as a way for applicants to fill out and return applications?

Candidates can now download an application, but they can't submit one electronically yet. That won't happen within the next year, but will happen in the not-too-distant future. Part of the difficulty is that we are still connected to Purdue University's central administration process. There are a lot of misgivings right now about electronic applications, though. The ability to verify certain info, for example, is still a problem. So applicants are still going to have to submit some supporting documents. There are still some logistics that have to be worked out.

Returning to the quant focus...

Well, let me say that we don't use that word anymore. We tend to think of our program as analytical as opposed to quantitative. We have a somewhat broader vision. Quant skills is one, critical thinking skills is another... We try to help our students develop those skills through the case-study method and develop analytical frameworks for that. Many courses are tied into a database for information-systems types of decision aids. That's all part of a larger data-driven decision-making process. We draw on data and martial it in ways that can broaden students' vision. So, we think we're going past the quant area.

That said, how do you evaluate the GMAT? Is there a certain cutoff score that you refer to?

We don't have a hard cutoff score, but are always keeping track of the class average. The last class's average GMAT score was 616. Our goal is to stay in the 610-and-above range. We don't break it up if their overall score is there. But if it's below what we like to see, then we'll look at the individual parts. The full range in GMAT goes as low as 350 and as high as 760.

If quant scores are weak, does the school provide some sort of preparation course for applicants to bone up on math skills?

No, but we are investigating that. The GMAT has a self teaching quant CD-ROM that we're looking at. But we're also starting to investigate the possibilities of implementing a primer course for incoming students. They would be able to enroll into it on a volunteer basis and would have to come ahead of time. It's not in place yet, though, and there's currently no target date in place.

Right now, our students come in and are assigned to cohort teams whose members take all of their classes together. One criteria for assigning teams is the students' quant background. Part of our philosophy is to build a support sytem for students who are not as strong as others. That seems to have helped a lot because they do a fair number of team-based projects where there's a lot of students teaching students.

Interviews at Krannert are not required, though I understand that the school will request one if it believes additional info is necessary. Is that true?

Yes, there are two conditions for requesting an interview: One, if they are going to be considered for a scholarship, we'll request that they come to campus; and two, if we're having difficulty deciding on an applicant's ability to succeed in the program. As a general rule though, we encourage all applicants to come to campus. Last year, we conducted 200 interviews on campus out of a total of 1,600 -- most of them were domestic applicants.

Does Krannert offer just a campus-only interview?

Pretty much. We also do phone interviews, but we'd really like to have applicants see what we have to offer firsthand. When they come to visit on campus, they can talk with students, go to a master's class when the school is in session, interview with some faculty, and then interview with the placement office.

Is the school putting more emphasis on the interview?

Yes, we are, but given our limited resources, our location, and our size, it is slow going. We are doing more now than we've been doing before, though. This year we'll probably hold steady at around 200 interviews.

What should applicants do to prepare themselves for the interview?

They should be ready to talk about a particular situation that does not shine favorably upon them or discuss any other weaknesses they might have openly instead of ignoring them. Have supporting information available to help us understand why you, for example, had a poor academic trancript. Maybe you had to work 60-hours a week throughout college. The point is, we don't know that unless you tell us. Generally, if we've requested an applicant to an interview it's because we see promise and we want to figure if an applicant's weak point is a show-stopper or not.

It helps if they come in and can talk about what they want to do with their degree. Answer the question: "Why Purdue?" What attracts them to us? We really do have the "fit" questions.

Well, what is the "fit" at Krannert?

Beyond being a strong enough student for success in the program, we are also looking for people who have an interest in running or working for a technology-driven company, for people tailoring their careers for those types of industries. We are not, for example, going to put people on Wall Street. Most of our finance students go out as analysts at places like Intel, United Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, and SAP.

Krannert, rightly or wrongly, has the reputation for being a hardworking school. Students that have maturity and a well-developed work ethic fit into our program well.

I understand that the essay portion of the application is comparatively small. How many essays are there? Are there imposed word limits?

There are four questions, and we don't limit the length of their answers anymore.

The four essay questions ask:

1) What are your reasons for pursuing graduate study in management, and what do you hope to gain from the degree? It also asks you to describe your long-term and short-term career goals.

2) Describe two accomplishments that you are most proud of.

3) Discuss your involvement in community or extracurricular organizations. What position did you hold, and how did you help the organization meet its goals?

4) Describe how your work experience relates to the Purdue program, and explain the skills that you bring to the program that could benefit your classmates.

They are fairly general, but we use the essays to complement the other admissions criteria, not as an end-all, be-all.

Can the essays bar an applicant from acceptance to the program?

I'd be very surprised. Most of the people who apply to the program are fairly astute. I think it's more of a case where they go from vanilla to strong. The essay portion won't eliminate a student but can help a student whose other credentials are not so strong. The essays allow the applicant to make a case for themselves.

How many recommendations do you require?

We ask for three, and want students to have their recommendations written by people who really are in a position to give an informed judgement of the candidate's character.

How heavily is work experience emphasized? The trend seems to be tending upward... and you mentioned it is increasing.

More isn't always necessarily better after a certain point. Last year, our class average was four years. A person with three years or more, or even two years' worth of work experience would be seriously considered by us. Once below that, we get a little concerned. A students with strong credentials, in addition to two years of work experience is going to be just as interesting to us as someone with five years of work experience. The range goes down to 0 years and up as high as 10 years -- but those are outliers. The bulk of our students fall between 2-5 years.

So it's not impossible to enter the program with no work experience to speak of.

No, it's not, and every year we have a very small number of people enter with zero work experience under their belts. This last year, out of 184 students, my guesstimate is that about 5-8 students were enrolled straight out of undergrad. They obviously had quite a bit to offer: a strong GMAT, outstanding undergrad grades, and wonderful extracurricular involvement to speak of.

Does Krannert utilize a waitlist?

Rarely. We do once in a while, and will accept about 5 to 10 per year. So we're talking about a trickle. We do consider deferrals for up to two years, though. You know, sometimes a student is admitted and something happens and they'll defer. We get about 10-15 requests a year. This year was a bit higher than most, with 38 requests -- I don't think 38 were granted, however.

If I'm on the waitlist, does that mean it's time for me to look at the other schools that I applied to? Because it doesn't seem like Krannert's waitlisted candidates have a good chance of admission.

Probably, yes. The way the admissions process is set up, you get so late into the season, it's a little risky to hang on too long. Often they'll call us, and we'll try to be as clear as we can about their chances because we know that they have other decisions to make.

Krannert is an excellent bargain, especially for Indiana residents. In fact many students have said that the program is a great bang for your buck. What's this year's tuition?

For in-state residents, it is $6,836 per year, and for nonresidents it's $14,692 -- which is still pretty cheap.

Another financial bonus at Krannert is the comparatively cheap cost of living in West Lafayette. What would you estimate the annual cost of living to be?

It's around $8,000. So It ain't like living in New York City! The funny thing is having all this corn around us.

However, on the flip side, the relative remoteness of the area can be a bane. Has the school's location hindered companies recruiting on campus? Has it limited recruitment to regional companies?

Oh, no. Our students are placed worldwide. I don't think it in any way affects our company recruiters because of the huge engineering and science departments at the university at-large. So we already have a preestablished niche. Our location probably persuades some students to go to other schools for an urban environment, but our philosophy is that there's no distractions. And the community is very safe. But for those craving the city life every so often, we're only two hours from Chicago and an hour from Indianapolis.

I understand that the school does not offer classes on Fridays...

We did move the curriculum around so that all of the classes are on Mondays through Thursdays. Some Fridays are left free for students to use to catch up on coursework, schedule trips, or attend interviews. We also schedule Forum Days.

Our philosophy is that we are small, and we think that's an advantage in many ways; we can get the entire class together and become better integrated. As part of that philosophy, we created what are called Forum Days, where we have developed certain activities for the entire class to participate in together. We're able to provide a novel learning environment that wouldn't be amenable in the classroom. For example, we run a computer economic war-game simulation called SEABS that the whole class does together. We also run a marketing simulation for everyone to be a part of. So, because of our small size, we are able to run these 3-4 hour simulations and share in the learning. That's really exciting.

Krannert's tuition is comparatively cheap, does that preclude the school from awarding any type of sizable scholarship packages?

Purdue has a central office for the divison of financial aid. Krannert gives out a number of merit-based scholarships that range anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000. Also, many of our students come in and are employed, typically in the second year, either in assistantship positions or as residence hall counselors. They get a stipend as well as part of the tuition and fee waived. If we add all of the forms of scholarship together, we estimate that 45% of our students get some type of financial aid.

Steve, you've been teaching some form of management education since 1976. Have you witnessed an overwhelming change in teaching philosophy over that time? Has Krannert's philosophy been transformed since your arrival there? Do you feel the school takes a unique slant?

I don't know whether we're unique, compared to other schools. I've been here since 1987. Over that time, there has been a much greater emphasis on teams and international learning. Also, today there is a much larger international presence in the program. (Editor's Note: international students make up 30% of the student body.) We see that as a real value that we try to use to our advantage.

The case method is still strong here, but the new computer simulations have really grown. Their use in the classroom has exploded. In addition, the program has put a lot of effort in outside-the-classroom learning experiences now. Certainly in 1976, faculty worried about primarily teaching their class. Now we put project teams into companes. In fact, we just sent a team to Germany for a project.

The Krannert program has a big ethic for service in the community. There is a management volunteer program for community service that we attach a lot of importance to, and there's a lot of pride in it. Students do everything from Big Brother/Big Sister to teaching elementary school students. It's part of our larger ethic in the program that students are talented people and have a responsibility to give back to the community. The students seem to resonate to that.

I believe that the next big revolution in business education will be the video experience. We do some of it now, and I expect we'll do more of it as time goes by. The innovation will include, for example, long-distance learning to bring into class via video one of the principals in a case students are studying to talk about the state of a case and answer the hows and whys personally.

Who are your toughest competitors?

Interestingly, the University of Texas is one of our chief competitors because of their technology orientation. Indiana, Michigan, and Northwestern also have a lot of overlap with our applicants because of their proximity. We also compete with Carnegie Mellon because they offer a similar program.

Thank you Steve for your insightful comments about the Krannert program.