MBA Insider: Admissions Q&A August 12, 2010, 12:59PM EST

Admissions Q&A: North Carolina

Kenan-Flager Business School is looking for students who have clear goals and a track record of getting things done

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Sherry Wallace has a pretty good idea of what it takes to succeed at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School (Kenan-Flagler Full-Time MBA Profile). That's because Wallace, director of MBA admissions at the school, earned an MBA from Kenan-Flager in 1987. Wallace says she had to "work my tail off" once she entered the rigourous business program.

So what's Wallace looking for in today's Kenan-Flagler applicants? On top of solid academic credentials, the school wants to see that applicants have the "ability to get things done," Wallace told Bloomberg Businessweek's Zachary Tracer during an interview.

For more on how to get into Kenan-Flager, located at UNC's Chapel Hill campus, and what the school has to offer business students, read the edited excerpts of Wallace's conversation with Tracer below.

What makes someone a good fit for Kenan-Flagler?

The first thing that you absolutely have to have is a pretty clear vision of who you are, what your strengths and weaknesses are currently, and where you are trying to go. We're looking for people who have a more clarified vision of what they are trying to do with the MBA. The more focused you can be coming in, the better outcomes you are going to have at the end. The MBA is not inexpensive, in both time as well as cost. We owe it to the prospective students to make sure they know what they are signing up for.

What are they signing up for? What makes UNC unique among business schools?

Excellence with a heart. We are very concerned not only with what we do here, but with how we do it. We're not going to make any excuses for a very rigorous curriculum because you've got to be good. We've got to teach the knowledge and the skills that you are expecting to get when you come to an MBA program. But we recognize that simply knowing something and having a strong skill set don't mean you can get anything done. And so there's a lot of attention and emphasis in our program on the ability to make things happen, to get things done.

Can you tell me about any big changes to the application process for the coming year?

We are a member institution of an organization called the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. The consortium has a common application, [but] UNC has not been part of that common application for about 12 years. This year we are rejoining the common application. In the past, [we] have required all students educated in India to provide a test of English proficiency. We are not going to make that a blanket requirement this year. We will request that if we feel it is warranted.

UNC conducts admissions in four rounds. Is there any advantage to applying in an earlier round?

We have the four rounds because we fully intend to invite strong applicants in each of those rounds to join the class. I wouldn't say that there is any favorable treatment of people who apply early. The fourth round, there is always the risk that the yield of candidates admitted earlier is over what we had forecast, so sometimes in the final round, even if [an] application is stellar—and this has happened three or four times in 12 years—we have been oversubscribed before we even have a chance to consider the fourth-round applicants.

Once you have students' applications in hand, how do you evaluate them?

One of the big drivers for us is ability to get things done. So we're looking for people with a record of achievement. We're looking for people who have demonstrated ability to be effective in teams— in leadership roles, but also in collaboration roles. We're looking for people who have vision. We're looking for academic excellence, test scores—all those other things.