Paul, Illinois has been expanding the size of its graduate business program over the past several years. That includes its class size, administration, and faculty. In 1996, the school had the largest full-time enrollment of our Next 25 grouping -- at 566. Can you tell me why the school has decided to take that tack and about the scope of the increase in each area?

When I joined the program, concurrently with a new dean (in July of 1991), a decision was made to reengineer the program, both in terms of all of the components of the program, including the curriculum, as well as the class size and service. In that context, let's talk about class size. There were two prevailing reasons for increasing it: We had developed a program with a curriculum and services that required a particular level of financing, and a decision was made to allow the program to be financially self-sustaining.

In a sense, we privatized our program within the larger public institution. We went to an almost totally tuition-and-special fee-based revenue -- which is unique for a public program. To support that budget we figured that the class would have to grow to 300 each year, for a total student body of 600. Secondly, we wanted to create a critical mass in each of the concentrations here -- we call them professional tracks. With that type of a class size, we could support a critical mass of students that attracts a greater number of recruiters.

Can you give me an idea of the kind of growth the school has experienced over the past couple of years?

Sure. Nine years ago, the program enrolled approximately 370-400 students total. This year, we enrolled approximately 600 full-time students. We have joint-degree programs, however, which means that some of the students float around after three semesters. The total operating budget (which includes financial assistance) when I came was at $632,840. This year's budget will be over $8 million. That means that we now are beginning to have the resources to really fund our program competitively.

Have you expanded the size of the faculty to accommodate the recent influx of more students?

We've seen the most significant growth of our faculty within the last year. Since the reengineering of the program took place three years ago, there have been approximately 15 new faculty added, primarily in the business administration and finance departments.

How about growth in the school's application pool?

When I arrived, we really didn't have an MBA marketing campaign in place -- we didn't even go to the MBA Forums (Editor's note: MBA Forums, sponsored by the Graduate Admissions Management Council, bring a number of international and domestic B-school representatives together to speak with prospective applicants. For more information and a schedule of future forums, go to: http://www.gmat.org/opps0000.htm.) So yes, we have raised our application pool over the last five years, by about 250%. That's largely due to the fact that we put an actual marketing campaign in place.

I'd say that we received less than 500 applications when I first came here. And it will be up to about 2,000 this year. We're not seeing as significant an amount of growth this year as past years, however, and I think that's due to several reasons. The first is that we have an attitude that we would rather have very focused students here who are interested in pursuing one of our areas of strength -- technology management, entrepreneurship, finance, management of information systems, marketing -- and we talk pretty clearly about our admissions requirements. In some ways I think that attitude dissuades some students from applying. We'd rather have our expectations out in the open so as not to mislead people to apply when their prospects are not very strong. And our application profile is not too different from our class profile. That's a result of having fairly focused marketing activities. (Editor's note: The class profile for University of Illinois students graduating in 1999 is: 600 GMAT, 3.24 GPA, 3.5 years of work experience, and an average age of 27 .)

Paul, how many applicants do you typically admit to fill the Illinois classroom ?

To enroll 310 students, we'll admit approximately 600. That might seem a bit high, but that's to compensate for the number of quality applicants that we lose to the likes of Chicago, Kellogg, Indiana, Wharton, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, and Michigan.

Illinois has traditionally been a very internationally oriented program. In fact, according to the records in front of me, 43% of the school's Class of 1999 student body is non-U.S. Is the school going out of its way to bring in international applicants through its marketing efforts? Or does Illinois already reap the benefits of its hefty reputation abroad?

I think it's a combination. I think we have a reputation abroad. For example we have a huge Asian application population, and I'm actually headed to Asia next week to interview more than 350 applicants, made necessary by our new emphasis on the interview. Our second strongest international pool is from Central and South America, based in large part on the historical ties that the school has with that region. University-wide, we've had less of those ties with the European continent. But having just returned from interviewing 200 candidates, I can tell you that the school's reputation is beginning to take root. Part of our admissions philosophy is to seek a diversity of international students. And, slowly, we're increasing that by going to roughly 40-45 countries. And, of course, we'd like to expand upon that.

Where specifically is the sharpest growth in international applications coming from?

China, without a doubt. I saw some data from ETS (Educational Testing Service, the outfit responsible for maintaining the GMAT) that prospective Chinese applicants also have the highest average quant scores. The downside however, is that they frequently need financial assistance. We've also seen new growth coming from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Applications continue to be strong from those regions despite the current economic malaise.

Is Illinois doing anything to help international students who have been hurt by their countries' currency devaluations?

Well first, international students are gift-aid-eligible for our program, and we have never made a distinction between domestic or international citizenship with regard to financial aid. In addition, with the new reengineered program, we implemented something called MBA Student Management Leadership Grants -- which each carry a work requirement of 300 hours in the second year. International students have been awarded about 40 of those grants (which are nonsponsored). The University of Illinois, this year, has also enacted a special provision allowing international students -- specifically those impacted by the Asian crisis -- to defer their tuition for a year.

According to our 1996 graduate survey, Illinois had the least integrated core curriculum of our Top 50 B-school grouping. What type of curricular reform has been instituted as part of the program's 1993 reengineering?

I believe that now we have the most integrated of curriculums. I really think that if you ask GMAC (Graduate Management Admissions Council) which school has the most reengineered program in the country, whether you're considering schools' curricula, career services, or technology initiatives, they'd say us.

The first year of the curriculum is now a required and flexible core that alternates between seven-week and one-week modules. The first three modules of seven weeks revolve around themes, and a team of seven faculty teach that module. Then, students stop for a week to do a feasibility plan, where they try and develop a pseudo-business plan.

The first year is completely integrated and includes case studies and projects across the curriculum. We moved to a collection of courses, and this is our third year offering them. In addition, we have an intranet that all of our 600 students and the faculty use. We're constantly updating the curriculum based on student comments over the intranet.

I understand that second-year students have three options available to them: study abroad at one of a dozen schools, adopting a "professional track," or pursuing a joint degree. Can you tell me which of these tends to be most popular with students?

The professional tracks are definitely the most popular, then comes the joint degree, and third is study abroad.

Students can also participate in the Center for the Study of Business Initiatives (OSBI) by completing a study for a company. They have to submit a resume and a statement of their ability to participate in a particular project. Second-year students, who are project leaders, select student teams. Right now there are 240 students involved in that. They take the professional track and are involved in related OSBI-affiliated projects.

All students must take an integrated capstone course during their last semester. So they all come back together for a course called "Corporate Strategy in Global Issues in Management."

O.K., let's switch tacks and start talking about the admissions process. What are this year's application deadlines?

For international students, the final deadline is on Mar. 1, and for domestic students it's Apr. 1. And we accept applications that come in beyond those dates if an applicant makes a case for him- or herself.

What's the turnaround for response?

We're on rolling admissions, so once a completed application is submitted, you're looking at three weeks in response time.

What are the different criteria assessed within the application packet?

In addition to the application form itself, applicants must provide a transcript of all of their prior academic work, submit four essay responses, three letters of recommendation, and then they're free to submit any supplementary material -- CD-ROMs, a portfolio of projects that they've done, a book or shorts stories, published materials written, patents, etc. And, of course, they must submit their GMATs. For international candidates who have not attended an English-speaking institution, the TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language) exam is required.

How do you evaluate the application packet? Are any of the materials in the packet considered more important than others?

We break each application up into two sets: the quantitative (GMAT, TOEFL, GPA, and years of work experience); then there's the qualitative set, which includes the essays, recommendations, and the interview -- which is strongly recommended (almost all of the school's admitted students have been interviewed). The qualitative set is about the persona of the applicant. It's that set of qualities that speaks to the applicants' presentational skills which reflect maturity, articulateness, and appealablility from the corporate and business standpoint. I actually look at the qualitative set of variables first. Then you have to gauge whether they have the prerequisites to succeed in the program.

Illinois is especially strong in accountancy, finance, marketing, and agribusiness. Do you segment your application pool according to industry background?

Everyone talks about the concept of balancing your class. So, we try to balance our class from the perspective of industry, geography, and institution distribution -- we also look at gender and ethnic/racial distributions. We try to bring together a class that has the heterogeneity, diversity, and the sizzle. I look at it this way: Will the other 299 students in the class be pleased that this applicant is here and vice versa? That is ultimately the bottom line for each application I review.

How do you evaluate the GMAT?

We do break it down to its verbal and quant parts. We look especially close at the quant score. Because of the quant nature of our program, we prefer the GMAT to be in the upper 25th percentile.

Due to the quantitative nature of the program, is it safe to say that the majority of Illinois's MBAs have quant backgrounds?

The highest single majority in the class -- I'd say about 40% -- have strong engineering or technical backgrounds. The next highest percentage of the class have business backgrounds, and the rest of the class covers the waterfront -- they have backgrounds in agribusiness, architecture, law, medicine, and many more professions.

Paul, you mentioned that the school is now placing more emphasis on the interviews. They're not required, but do they greatly enhance one's chances of acceptance?

This year we won't be at 100%, but I would say a significant majority of our target pool (those the school plans to offer admission) will have been interviewed. This year, I'd say that 75% of our accepted students will have been interviewed. We hope, over the next year or two, to make that 100%.

We do something a little differently here called Preview Illinois, which flies applicants in our target group to campus at our expense to learn more about what we offer. This weekend, we're actually flying 50-60 students in from around the country and Mexico. They pay a modest fee for housing, but we provide meals, air fare, etc.

There are four Preview Weekends offered throughout the year, as well as a diversity weekend, where we bring in students who are traditionally underrepresented in the class. The Preview Weekends are offered once a month, December through April. I expect that we'll have close to 200 participants this year.

Is Preview Illinois a new initiative?

It's now in it's third full year. Last year we had 150 target applicants attend. They come in on Saturday and are here until Monday to meet with students and faculty, attend class, be interviewed, look at housing, and tour the campus.

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

It's the key. The interview is key to establishing that set of characteristics so important to the corporate community. That's why we're placing increasing emphasis on it. It really relates to "placeablity." How do you ensure placement? By making sure that our students have the ability and intellectual wherewithal. The interview helps us determine that.

What should applicants do to prepare themselves for the interview?

They need to be prepared to talk about their focus and career objectives, respond to instances where they've been engaged in serious decision-making, and give us an insight of who they are, where they're going, and how they intend to get there.

How long do the sessions last?

Usually 45 minutes to an hour. And the length of an interview doesn't mean anything. Generally I'll ask a set of prepared questions and then ad lib depending on response. For example, I'll ask applicants what specifically attracted them to the Illinois program; have them describe the most difficult problem they've faced during the past 12 months and how they dealt with it; have them give me an example of a successful and unsuccessful team experience they've had; and ask them why they've chosen to enter a full-time MBA program in the first place. The responses to those questions really give me an understanding of the motivations behind the applicants' wanting to earn a MBA.

Let's segue into the essay questions.

O.K. There are four required, short essay questions that each have suggested word limits. We try to keep them down to about a page a piece.

Have they changed much from years past?

They were changed with the new program and then we made some modifications. This year's first essay question asks the candidate to describe their professional goals for the near and long term and explain how an MBA degree will help them meet their goals

The second essay asks applicants to discuss their most substantial accomplishment, what they learned from it, and how it will contribute to their success as a manager.

The third essay gets into Illinois's team-based learning philosophy and has applicants describe a group or team experience where they assumed a leadership role.

And lastly, the fourth essay gives candidates the opportunity to discuss their free-time activities and interests.

How do you use the essays in your overall evaluation? Are they a supplement to the interview?

The essays allow me to determine whether applicants can connect to the ideas they are presenting. And I have admitted applicants based primarily on the strength of their essays. I've actually called up applicants after reading their particularly moving -- and honest -- essays and asked: How would you like to come to the Illinois MBA program? That can happen based solely on the merits of their essays. And that's an example of the role qualitative criteria play in Illinois's admissions process.

Illinois has a fairly large undergraduate business program, especially strong in accounting. Is there a lot of interaction between graduate and undergraduate business students?

I would say not. In part, that's because we're housed on a particular part of the building that is kind of the MBA nest. Generally speaking, Illinois MBAs are very networked, very collegial, and live academically and socially together. Even though their classrooms are shared by undergrad business majors, the only interaction occurs when some MBA students are in a 300-level course with several senior undergrads. It isn't an intentional isolation, it's a programmatic one.

A lot has been made of the increasing level of work experience MBA students now have compared with years past. What's this year's range of work experience at Illinois?

It ranges all the way from 0-16 years. Some of our students don't have any because they're pursuing joint degrees. We have JD/MBAs, MD/MBAs, and PhD/MBA students here, and those disciplines require them to pursue their academics continuously, rather than take a break to pursue real-world learning. While they are in grad school, however, they are in co-ops and internships which give them some of the hands-on experience that they haven't had a chance to accumulate. Those co-ops and internships are not considered postbaccalaureate experience, however, so you have to be very careful when looking at and appraising work experience.

What percentage of the class has no work experience to speak of?

I would say, in the traditional sense, at least 10%-12% don't have any -- and they are the joint-degree people.

How many applicants are waitlisted?

I would say we waitlist 100-125 people. It really depends on what Duke, Wharton, Michigan, Indiana, and Carnegie Mellon do. Sometimes we're still in the admissions process, and we may lose some students to those schools. We try to close our admissions, particularly for international students, by June 1, because by that time, it becomes increasingly difficult to obtain a visa.

For those admitted international students who have questionable English-speaking skills, we require them to attend VIIPPs (Very Intensive International Professional Program) for 4-5 weeks to work on their business vocabulary, learn how to do case studies, work in teams, etc. Last year, we had approximately 40 students attend that. Their admission is conditional to them taking the course.

Do you provide counseling for those on the waitlist?

Yes, we talk with both waitlisted and denied applicants. Some will reapply if they have not been accepted the first time around, and we'll make suggestions to them about how they can improve their file.

A state school, Illinois, offers a lot of bang for the buck. What's this year's tuition? Has the school been able to maintain its comparative advantage in low tuition since making the transition to a financially self-sustaining program?

Yes, I think we have. We, of course, raised our tuition because it became the revenue source of the program. While we're still competitive, we're probably at the upper level for our peer schools. In-state tuition and fees now equal $10,600, while out-of-state tuition is $17,350 for the year.

What would you estimate the annual cost of living to be in the Urbana-Champaign area?

We say it'll run around $9,000 for a year, that includes travel and lifestyle. Figure on spending $12,000 a year to pursue a generous lifestyle.

What new scholarship and aid is now available at Illinois? You mentioned that the school introduced several financial-aid initiatives soon after it made the transition to the private-school model.

Yes. When the program was reengineered, a percentage of the new revenue was used to start the MBA Student Management Leadership Grant Program -- which awards grants based on students' performance, and can be valid for two years. Awards range from $500-$15,000 a year. The average award is probably about $7,000 a year.

During the two years of the MBA program, 28%-30% of the class receive some form of financial assistance, and we came from having zero dollars in our coffers. Now, we're probably armed with about $1.6 million of aid to distribute to our MBA students. In addition to that, students can compete for pretty lucrative positions around campus, particularly those with technical backgrounds. Minority students can also compete for university diversity fellowships, which are granted to 10-12 students per year, and their value is between $20,000 and $25,000 a year, depending on residency.

One criticism frequently mentioned about the program is its career placement office. 1996 grads posted the fourth-lowest median total compensation -- just $50,000 (tied with the University of Florida). However, this represents a 10% increase from 1994. Are pay packages continuing to rise? And has the office implemented any new initiatives to bolster grads' success?

We have a new career services office and have risen out of the ashes. When I first came here, we didn't have an MBA career services office, we only had a collegewide placement office. Three years ago, we opened our MBA career services office, which has three full-time professionals and four support staff running it. Five years ago, it was a tight market, and it's a hot market right now. So, predictably, the placement numbers are rising.

Is the number of companies recruiting on campus increasing, holding steady, or decreasing?

Both the number of companies and the packages are increasing significantly, and I think that's directly due to the quality of our students. The admissions process is placement-driven. When we reengineered the program, not only did we reform our curriculum but we also reworked our career placement office and financial-aid office. We feel that the benefits of our reengineering are now becoming palpable through our students' success. The number of companies that interviewed on campus this year was 103.

Is most of the placement tied to regional companies or branches?

It's very diverse, and scattered around the country. Most companies that recruit here are multinational. A significant number of our grads -- probably 44% -- choose to stay in the Midwest. But we have such a huge international student population, that the next group of students -- around 22% -- are being placed abroad. Then, we have the next segment going to Texas, California, and other parts of the U.S. The opportunities are everywhere.

More companies are looking beyond their back door these days, and we're getting more calls from California companies, for example. Some of the companies that recruit here on campus include: AT&T, Cisco Systems, Citibank, Coopers & Lybrand, IBM, Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, Taco Bell, and Warner-Lambert.

Paul, thanks much for filling me in today on the Illinois MBA program.