To start, Randy, one of your responsibilities as the associate dean at the Wisconsin School of Business is to oversee the MBA admissions process. Have there been any new wrinkles in the full-time program recently?

We haven't had any revolutionary changes in the admission process in last two years. But three or four years ago things were quite different. Several years ago things were quite mechanical. We looked at applicants' GMAT scores and GPA grades, evaluated the value of their undergrad program, and attempted to quantify the amount of their professional work experience. We then combined those into a formula. Basically we assigned weights to the relative importances of each of those indicators and plugged them into a formula to calculate an admission score. Virtually all of the admissions decisions were made mechanically based on how high those index scores were.

Now the process is different. We're attempting to do a more global evaluation of the candidate. We have minimum expectations for grades, GMAT, and work experience. We don't have an absolute cutoff except for the TOEFL score -- a 600 minimum. However, if there is an international candidate who is extremely well qualified except for the language skills, we'll work with him or her to the point where they can perform well on the TOEFL or pass a written test administered here at Wisconsin.

You say that the Wisconsin program hasn't undergone any revolutionary change over the past two years. However, the program has experienced quite a revitalization over the past five years. For example, in 1993 it moved into Grainger Hall, a new $40 million building; created and fully integrated a techno-business and three-phase curriculum; and beefed up its popular niche programs. Which of these innovations do you feel has had the greatest impact on applicants?

Well, we've been hitting hard on niche programs. We actually recently introduced another niche program called the Agricultural Business MBA -- an MBA degree taught jointly by the B-school and the Agriculture & Life Sciences School.

I think there have been two parallel things moving applicants toward the school. One has been the really heavy emphasis on niche programs such as distribution management, technology management [first offered in 1996], and agribusiness [introduced this fall]. We will also have a new niche program in international business law that will begin next year. So, the one track we've focused on to pull these candidates in is the niche programs.

We also reworked the MBA curriculum. We have 16 core courses in the MBA curriculum, and only four of them existed last year. I think this change has really paid off this year -- we've had the best yield this fall than any other time in the school's history. Our yield rate for this spring is 70%, which is unheard of. Maybe it's a fluke, but students are telling us that they came because of the curriculum change. We introduced new classes in technology management and management change, and a data-analysis class for managers instead of a statistics class. [We emphasized] teams, leadership, and ethics. We did some marketing research and built this curriculum around what we think will make candidates attractive to recruiters.

Did these changes have a definite effect on applications? Were they up in 1997 from 1996? How about this year, thus far?

We had an increase, but not a huge one -- probably a less-than-10% increase in the number of applications. When we send information out, we include info on the qualifications of our existing class to give people an idea of what it takes to be enrolled. So I think that there is a bit of self-selection. The average GMAT for the class that just came in January is 613. In addition, work experience and grades are up. We publish that -- which might keep the apps down a bit. So there is some self-selection. The average amount of work experience was 3.89 years for this January's class, while its average GPA was 3.42.

Are you trying to appeal to a specific type of applicant? How do you gauge the applicants' "fit" with the school and its culture?

The kind of students we're looking for come fully intellectually equipped. To me that's what the GMAT tells us. Then we're looking for somebody that has life and work experiences so they can bring value to the classroom. So we're paying a lot of attention not only to how much work experience they have but the nature of it. What was their role? Were they really holding responsible positions? Can they show us their accomplishments on the job? We want them to show us what they have done -- to show us that they have the leadership to be effective. So probably the biggest change in our admission decision is how much we've relied on that.

We only really look at the last two years of undergraduate grades. We do look at the academic work students did during the first two years of college, but there are so many factors involved there that we emphasize their grades only in the last two years of their undergrad career. We actually pay quite a bit of attention to what they have taken, not just how they did. We try to sort out what they take when they had the freedom to pick. We also pay a bunch of attention to global experience because we want global and cross-cultural experience in our program. Those issues are specifically addressed in all 16 of those core classes. Twenty-nine percent of our master's students are from outside the U.S.

You alluded to that high yield rate the school experienced this spring. To clarify, Wisconsin has three entry dates: May, August, and September. Is that a new wrinkle? What's the thinking behind it? Are the dates geared toward specific programs?

It's not a new wrinkle, but the way we're handling it is. Our traditional entry date is September -- our state legislature dictates that state educational institutions cannot begin classes until September -- and is designed for students going into the two-year program. The spring entry period [January] is designed for students who are in some sort of unique situation. For example, two students entered this January who are PhD students here on campus; they made the decision to go for MBAs along with their PhD degrees, wanting to attain two degrees in a condensed amount of time. We thought they qualified to do that.

Another reason for the spring entry date is to get the best students out there. Sometimes there are prospective students who are in the midst of a life transition and apply late. We want to enroll them without having them wait too long. And we explain to all of our spring students the constraints of entering into the program in January, particularly with respect to course sequences. Usually, spring applicants have undergraduate business degrees or business knowledge, having done a couple of economics, finance, or marketing classes. We just enrolled the largest incoming spring class we've ever had at 57 students, and our target was 20.

And the May entrance is geared for whom?

It's very unusual; it's geared towards the students that we admit for September but who want an early start. Really, it's designed either for someone who has makeup work to do -- maybe they need to make up their prerequisites [which include one course each in microeconomics, calculus, and computers] -- or for those who want to earn two majors within two years. The summer allows them to get part of one major out of the way. It's a very popular attribute of our program.

What was the class total in September?

We were 201. This year, because we introduced the new curriculum, instead of attempting to accept 200 students, we set a goal for 150. But our yield was so high that we ended up with 201. We accepted 380 to yield 201 (for a 53% yield).

What are this year's application deadlines for the traditional program starting in September? Is there a separate deadline for scholarship?

We are really late on that. We have a May 1 deadline that is scheduled so late because we do rolling admissions. Last year we had a June 1 final deadline for admission, but next year we'll move it further up, to April. We changed the date because it sends a bad message -- many people interpret that as saying that Wisconsin is desperate for students.

Are the majority of the school's students enrolled in the niche programs?

We're about 50-50. And there's some overlap. For example, in one of our niche programs -- the Applied Securities Program -- you might take 12-14 finance classes.

As I understand it, students have to apply twice: They need to submit one application to the B-school and another to the college at large. How does that work?

That's true, they do have to submit two copies of the application. The only degree-granting body is the University of Wisconsin Graduate School. It's an odd-appearing situation that students have to submit two copies of the application. It's confusing, and we've been working with the grad school to try and work this out. So, effective this year, the graduate school is allowing us to make the final decision on a domestic applicant. Before, we were not legally free to say to a student "we accept you" until the grad school gave us the go-ahead.

Starting next year [fall of 1999], domestic applicants will only have to submit one copy of their application. For international students, however, we will continue to use the central graduate office to evaluate them.

The Wisconsin program utilizes the Web extensively. In fact, as I understand it, all of the course materials, including test dates and assignments, are on the Web. Has Web technology worked its way into admissions? Is the school using the medium as a way for applicants to fill out and return applications?

We've looked at the CollegeEdge program, and it's fairly attractive. Students can submit an electronic application to the grad programs through an internal system. A new database system will be implemented in about six months, so a final decision has not been made on how we will approach applications online. But students can currently submit an online application through the school's own proprietary system. I'd say that about 20% of our full-time B-school applicants take advantage of that. Part-timers will be able to do that starting this fall.

Wisconsin's class average GMAT score for 1997 was 594, making it one of only a handful of schools in BW's top 50 with average GMATs below 600. Is the school emphasizing GMATs any more than it has in the past, in an effort to push the average up?

Yes, we are, for two reasons: No. 1, we've got to make sure students have the basic capacity to successfully complete our program, and No. 2, for the national ratings -- if the GMATs go up, our ratings go up.

Are interviews at Wisconsin required?

We do not require interviews. They are optional.

How many candidates would you say are interviewed per cycle?

Probably a little over 50%, though the spring enrollment is higher than the September enrollment. That's because we obviously need to explore the unique circumstances which make them available for January entrance and because we have more time to interview a smaller group of candidates.

Wisconsin, I understand, sometimes interviews through videoconferencing...

Actually, that's for the job interviews. I can only remember that happening twice with admissions. We have a videoconferencing facility that we use for employers who want to preinterview or have a small division and don't want to come to campus to interview. My guess is that we did about 25 interviews that way out of 233 companies that came to campus for master's students last year. Most of the videoconference interviews are for unique circumstances. We've done a lot of experimenting with technology, and we came to the conclusion that it just doesn't replace the positive aspects of haveing a face-to-face sitdown.

How does the interview fit into your overall evaluation of applicants?

We use the interview to satisfy three primary purposes. One is as a recruiting device -- we're assessing them and they're assessing us. The other two purposes are to avoid false positives and false negatives. An example of a false positive would be someone who has a high GMAT score but who really shouldn't have been accepted. And vice versa. The only time we actually request an interview is to eliminate false negatives.

What should applicants do to prepare themselves for the interview?

The best advice I can offer is to think ahead to what it is about yourself that will improve the quality of our program and what it is about our program that will improve your effectiveness when entering the job market. You need to convince us that the program will be made better with you enrolled.

How many essays are applicants required to submit with the application?

Students write one major essay for us that runs about 1,500 words. They are also free to submit additional material if they want. In the essay, there are some specifics that we ask them to address with respect to their work experience, their formal education, and their life experiences and how those will add value to our program. We also ask them to address how our program will add to their career aspirations.

How many recommendations do you require? What do you look for when reviewing the recs?

We require a minimum of three recommendations You can submit more than three if you want, but that's not worthwhile unless there's something unique in your background that an extra recommendation can explain or further expose. Maybe an applicant spent a year abroad during college and worked with a faculty member at the foreign university. Or if they've had two very unique jobs and wanted to make sure we had input from both organizations, that might warrant an additional recommendation. But receiving additional recommendations from the same university or company isn't going to help much. Too many recommendations is a neutral irritant. We ask that they be a mix of academic and organizational recommendations, and if they are not a mix, then we ask that the applicant explain why -- maybe all of a candidate's professors died or something!

One of the big knocks against Wisconsin has been the young average age of its students and their small amount of real-world work experience. Has the school tried to bolster its class experience at all?

Our new literature explains that we have a minimum work requirement of two years -- that was implemented in the fall of 1997. We also explain that the average is approaching four years -- it's about 3.7 for this year's spring class [the fall class was about the same]. That encompasses students in both our niche master's and our MBA program. For the class that just entered in January, they have an average of 3.86 years.

What's this year's range of work experience?

For starters, the minimum is 0. We are willing to accept up to 10% of the class with no work experience, but for those people, there has to be something special. We had 16 or 17 students come in with no professional work experience. Their average GMAT is about 665, and their average GPA was 3.8. So we went with raw intellectual capacity and a good set of career objectives. Most of those students go into focused niche programs such as Applied Securities Analysis. The reality is, if you're going to be a securities analyst so that you can go to Wall Street, being young is alright, so we put less emphasis on work experience in that context. In other instances we would attach more importance to experience. For example, setting your sights on a marketing or entrepreneurship major would mean that we would place more emphasis on your work experience.

How many applicants are generally waitlisted at Wisconsin?

We do not formally waitlist. Instead, we tell candidates that their decision has been deferred. But for all practical purposes, I'd say that 50% of our pool is waitlisted. If we're on the fence with an applicant, we'll hold them off until April for a decision, when the majority of applications are in.

It's more of a deferred decision, where we hold applicants near to the end of the cycle. But to an applicant the results are the same.

What's this year's tuition?

For a out-of-state applicants, tuition is $15,300 a year, and for in-staters, it's $5,600 annually.

We have a reciprocity agreement with Minnesota. So an applicant from Minnesota basically gets the reduced rate for in-state tuition.

Are the majority of Wisconsin applicants in-state residents?

No. This fall, 32% of our applicants were from Wisconsin, and we admitted 18% of that group. Meanwhile, 32% of our 1997 applicants were from outside the U.S. Usually our acceptance rate is a little lower for those applying from outside of the U.S.

What would you estimate the annual cost of living to be in the Madison area?

Our financial-aid office says it costs $11,350 a year.

What kind of financial aid and scholarship does Wisconsin offer? Are the majority of Wisconsin's MBA students able to grab some form of aid?

One of our highest priorities has been to increase the amount financial-aid packages available to our master's students. For the class that entered in the fall of 1997, 38% were offered merit-based scholarships with awards ranging from $2,500-$25,000. The average was $10,000 per year -- that does not include tuition reduction or waiver that comes with some of the awards. For our most qualified candidates, that works well. All of our need-based financial aid is done by a separate office.

Two years ago, only 5% of the class received merit-based scholarship at the time that we were recruiting for the program [offers made prior to coming to Wisconsin's School of Business]. This year, we're up to 30%, and we're shooting for 50% for the future. Almost all of the gifts are endowed. In December alone we had $3 1/2 million given to us for master's level students.

In 1997, Wisconsin grads grabbed an average salary of $51,280, up from $48,659 in 1996. What do you attribute that rise to? Do you feel the school's annual treks to job fairs in places like Chicago, New York, Atlanta, and San Francisco have played a large role in the rise?

Though those always contribute to our students' success, they don't really tell the whole story behind the average salary rise. There are two main things I think have really positively impacted our students' pay packages. One is the improved quality and increased size of our career services group. We expanded our career services programs, providing more in-depth information on things such as how to write a résumé, how to interview, and the best ways to perform a job search.

The second factor is that we've pushed real hard. We have a good dean's advisory board -- our niche programs have an advisory board that are populated heavily by alums and business leaders, and they've helped. We've also moved up work experience, and that always helps with starting salaries. Some of these niche programs are also pretty high-paying, and we'll be expanding several of those.

Given all of the changes Wisconsin has recently implemented, has there been a shift in the group of schools that Wisconsin competes against for students?

For the majority of students, that has not changed. What is starting to change is the level of success that we are having in our competition. We're starting to see more applicants who have applied to us and to Northwestern enroll here, for example. I feel that the niche programs can compete with some of those schools that have top programs. For the general MBA, we'll see a lot of our candidates also applying to Minnesota, Illinois, Purdue, Texas, and Michigan State.

Right now, students who are applying to Northwestern, Chicago, and MIT for the general MBA programs don't have Wisconsin at the top of their list. We're working on improving that.

Thanks, Randy. I appreciate your talking to me today about Wisconsin's B-school.