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DECEMBER 5, 2000 B-SCHOOL Q&A: ADMISSIONS Meet Rotterdam's Admissions Director "We try to look at the applications holistically. Academic performance is very important, but at the same time, to be able to perform well on the GMAT is also very important."
Q: In your 10 years with Erasmus, what has changed about the university that makes your job easier or harder in terms of marketing? A: Basically, the proportion of international students has increased tremendously, to 92% of the current class. The curriculum has also changed. Ten years ago, it was [delivered on] a trimester system and was a completely junior program. We had both a Dutch-speaking class and an English-speaking class at that time, whereas it's completely in English now. The average work experience [of incoming MBAs] has increased a lot, too, to 5.5 years. The size of the intake is much bigger. Now, we're up to 500 students on campus. Q: Over the past year, the school increased the full-time program by about 30%. Why? A: It was already in our strategy that when we moved into the new building in December [1999], there would be the possibility [of an increase]. We had 148 students start the MBA program this fall. Q: Will the school increase the number of MBAs again in the fall of 2001? A: We'll keep it the same. We're happy with the size right now. Q: Connie, you handle admissions for the part-time MBA program, too. Is it easier to get into RSM's part-time program than into its full-time program, where 40% of applicants are accepted? A: Yes. The fact that someone is choosing a part-time program means that they want to keep their job. So the choice of school is much more limited. On average, I would say about half of the students that apply for the part-time program only want to come to RSM. For candidates applying for the full-time program, they have a choice whether they want to go to the Netherlands or to Italy or to the U.K. That means that our candidates, on average, apply to about six schools for a full-time program. Q: What is it on an application for the full-time program that tells you that they are the right fit? On RSM's Web site, it mentions a desire for students who have a good sense of humor. Is that really the winning quality? A: We're looking for outstanding people who will fit in at RSM. What we mentioned was about finding people who are fun to work with. They're here for 18 months in the full-time program. We want to make sure that they're happy to be here and that they would like to continue a long-term relationship with the school, even as alumni. Q: So when you're looking at an application and its many subsets -- recommendations, essays, a transcript, and so forth -- what's the most telling piece? A: We try to look at the applications holistically. Academic performance is very important, but at the same time, to be able to perform well on the GMAT is also very important. Professional achievements and motivation are also very important elements in our selection. And all of the students sitting in a class now were interviewed.
Q: The interview sounds like a good place to start. Not all applicants are interviewed at RSM. The lucky are asked. What percentage of the applicant pool is interviewed? And of that percentage, how many get in? A: About 75% of the candidates who apply get an interview. Out of those students, about 80% were offered a place. Q: What should an applicant focus on during the interview? What do they need to get across to you? A: Our applicants really come from all over the world, so it's impossible to interview everyone who applies. We have a screening process where we review the entire application -- the GMAT, essays, references, etc. And then, if we're interested in a candidate, we invite them for an interview. A lot of the interviews are conducted by our alumni, since it's impossible for the secretary and the staff here to interview everyone ourselves. And we do believe that if they meet our alumni personally in Tokyo, New York, or Istanbul, that it will help us evaluate the candidate, but also help the candidates to get a sense of what it's like to study at RSM. The admissions interview serves two purposes. For RSM, it's to evaluate a match between what the candidates are looking for in the MBA program and what we are offering. Secondly, it also enable candidates to get an impression of the atmosphere, the learning environment, through [talking to] the interviewers, who are mostly our alums, as well as senior members of our administration or faculty. Before attending the interview, we encourage candidates to reflect on what they have done and what their career aspirations are. They should be prepared to ask thoughtful questions relating to the studies and how [they would] relate to their professional and personal development. Candidates should demonstrate that they will add value to the education environment at RSM, which is highly dynamic, international and team based. Also, we are looking for candidates who are able to work with people coming from different countries and educational and professional backgrounds, [who are] enthusiastic about learning and sharing, and [who] get things done. A short case is used during the interview. We are not testing particular business knowledge. Rather, we would like to evaluate how the candidates reason through an issue and articulate their solutions in a convincing manner. Q: During the interview, do alumni and staff pull information from applications? Should an interviewee have memorized his or her application? A: These interviews are semi-structured. Our interviewers get instructions from the admissions office on the areas we're looking at and address the questions based on the criteria. Q: What kinds of questions can applicants expect to hear? A: Well, a lot of the questions relate to their previous study performance as well as their work experience. Examples are the accomplishments they've made, their career objectives, why they chose a certain job or a certain industry or profession. Q: How important are the four required essays that applicants are expected to submit? A: The essays are very important in our evaluation. The first one is about the applicant's career objectives and why they think that studying in the MBA program will help them to achieve those objectives. The second is about their personality, strengths, and weaknesses. The third one is about interests outside of their jobs, since we want to have people who are fun in the program. We want to see that they also have a life outside of their job. The fourth essay is a choice between an account of how they adjust to changes on the job or in their personal lives or an example of their involvement in a successful team effort. The fourth essay is very useful in assessing maturity and how they perceive themselves and people around them. Finally, [it indicates] how flexible they are in dealing with changes and multiple commitments. Q: A fifth essay is optional. Is it a good idea to do that optional essay? A: I think so. This is the second year we've offered the optional question. We found that sometimes there are candidates who send us a cover letter or additional sheets of paper trying to provide any extra information they think will be valuable in supporting their application. Q: What are some of the common mistakes you see on them? A: Not answering the questions sometimes. Some spelling errors. Q: Is the GMAT weighted as heavily for applicants with more work experience, since they've been out of school longer? A: We try to look at the previous education and also their nationality, because these are factors that effect [applicants'] performance in the GMAT. Q: What's the kind of GMAT score that applicants simply shouldn't submit? A: Well, there is a big range in the candidates we accept in the program, we have people with varied GMAT scores. From my experience, there are candidates from some cultures who are not used to taking standardized tests. Instead, they're more used to writing essays and things like that. So we also look at the analytical-writing parts in the GMATs. Q: Rotterdam's class profile may have become more international, but are there areas of the world from which you'd like to see more applicants? A: Twenty percent to 25% of our students come from Asia. Apart from that, about half come from Europe and then about 20% from North and South America. If you look in the Middle East and Africa, it's a much smaller percentage, only about 6%. Q: What is the school doing to increase the number of applications it receives from the Middle East and Africa? A: It's a funding issue a lot of times, when you look at Africa. About 12% of our students are from Central and Eastern Europe, and those students [have an easier time with funding] because we belong to a cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development. They provide loans for students coming from that region. Q: Just 21% of Rotterdam's MBA class is female. Why so low? A: Basically, there are not as many women applicants for our program as we want. A lot of times, it has to do with the fact that there are fewer female candidates in the pool of students from Western Europe, which is 50% of the applicant pool. That's because the first degree already took them about five to six years to complete. So by the time they get to 29 or 30, there may be other priorities. We would like to see more women candidates, so we're also working with a major investment bank to organize a women's lecture series to raise the profile of women in management and investment banking. Q: When do applicants have the best chance of being admitted? And at what point in the admissions season are they up against the most competition? A: Our application process is starts around December, when we give out the first acceptances for the fall program. We advise candidates to apply between November and April. June 15 is our application deadline, but normally by that time, the program is filled. At the moment, we've received about 10%, or 80, of the total applications. The peak period here -- it's mainly from February until the end of April. Q: Do you make exceptions? A: Yes. The fact is that there are candidates from certain countries who tend to apply much later in the process. Normally, Asian and North American candidates apply quite early, because, of course, they need to make a lot of arrangements, especially with regard to relocation, visas, and things like that. Our European candidates tend to apply much later in the year. I can imagine that most of the European candidates prefer to study in Europe. Asian and North American candidates are thinking of going to the U.S. and Europe. And most of the schools in the U.S. have a much earlier deadline. So in that sense they apply earlier. Q: Do you anticipate any differences in this year's crop of candidates from last year's? A: We have already been on the road in the past two months with a lot of forums and our own information sessions. We notice an increasing amount of interest in business schools, so we expect to see an increase in the number of applications for September of next year. Also, there are candidates applying currently who do have startup, dot-com, experience, many from North America and also from Asia. We've received maybe about 10% more applications compared with last year and more diversity. The increase at the moment comes from Asia, and also from Latin America.  | | Learn about your online education options |
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