Mary Spreen is director of MBA admissions and financial aid at the Tippie School of Management at the University of Iowa. She joined the school in November, 1996, though she has been active in admissions and student services through much of her career. She started as an assistant to the dean for student services at the College of Business at the University of Hawaii as an MBA student.

After working for Xerox in Hawaii, she returned to the University of Hawaii as assistant dean of academic services for its School of Travel Industry Management. She holds a BA in psychology from Wayne State University. She recently spoke by phone and e-mail with BusinessWeek Online reporter Mica Schneider. Here's an edited transcript of their discussion:

Q: In 2003, your office received 338 applicants to fill 80 seats, vs. 500 applications the year before. Where have all the applicants gone?
A: The number of international applicants seems to be down for all graduate majors at the university. Candidates are concerned about U.S. visa policies. MBA candidates, in particular, also have more options [to study] in Europe and [elsewhere] than in the past.

The number of U.S. candidates is very similar to last year. However, at the moment there seem to be quite a few who are applying later than usual.

Q: How competitive will MBA admissions be this year? Last year, you accepted 45% of applicants.
A: I expect the level of competitiveness to be about the same. We determined several years ago that it's more important for us to have high quality than to reach a specific number of students in the class.

Q: When is the best time to apply?
A: We have a rolling admission policy. Apr. 15, is the deadline for international candidates and the priority deadline for U.S. candidates. But we do run out of financial aid by late March, so earlier applicants have a much better chance of receiving funding.

We accept applications from U.S. candidates as late as July. (By then, we've filled out the spaces for international students.) This has allowed us to accommodate individuals who, for various reasons, make a late decision to enroll. We get a few really outstanding candidates who apply late.

We actually have space for 100 new students, but we've only been enrolling 80. We don't want to reduce the quality just to fill the class.

Q: How many seats do you dedicate to non-U.S. students every year?
A: The ideal number would be one-third of the class, but the percentage has been a little closer to 40%, even higher some years. We have a pretty good idea of how many students we need to admit to get those 33 students.

Q: Thirty-two percent of the class hails from Asia, a common source of MBA talent. How do you plan to increase the number of students from regions outside of Asia?
A: Well, we haven't solved that. What seems to work best is if you can get a pipeline established in a particular country. We've had a few more candidates from Peru this year, but I can't tell you that it's the result of any particular strategy.

We're going to Korea next week, because we've noticed an increase in the number of company-sponsored MBAs coming from Korea, and they're very good candidates. They don't have to look for jobs when they graduate, and they don't have issues regarding finances either. Plus, they bring excellent work experience, strong [GMAT] scores, and really good academics [grades]. We would like to see if we can increase the number of students with sponsorships.

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