MBA Insider: Admissions Q&A August 30, 2010, 2:00PM EST

Admissions Q&A: Northwestern

Kellogg is good at more than just marketing, says Beth Flye. Read on for her tips about getting into this top MBA program

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If you're applying to Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management (Kellogg Full-Time MBA Profile), be prepared to reveal far more than just your GMAT scores. "We're interested in their life stories, all the experiences that make them who they are at the time of application," says Beth Flye, Kellogg's assistant dean and director of admissions and financial aid.

Such a probing admissions process is actually a good thing for applicants, giving them an opportunity to highlight strengths that might not otherwise be apparent, says Flye. She ought to know: She has headed full-time MBA admissions at Kellogg since 2003.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek's Zachary Tracer, Flye discussed how Kellogg evaluates applicants and helps students find jobs. Excerpts of their conversation follow.

What makes someone a good fit for a Kellogg MBA

The first word that comes to mind is multidimensional—someone who has interesting life stories as well as a strong track record professionally and academically. What that equates with is somebody who brings diversity to the table. Diversity is a hallmark characteristic of Kellogg, so we want to keep that fabric of diversity very strong with a well-rounded, multidimensional class that comes in each year.

Are there any minimums that students need to be aware of? Minimum years of work experience, GMAT quantitative scores, or anything like that?

We are a school that does require some full-time work experience, but we don't assign a minimum in terms of duration for that. What's important to us is the quality of one's professional background, and quality comes in many packages in terms of length. [Take] a look at our averages, if people are interested in average years of work experience, average grade point averages, and so forth. But keep in mind that's an average, and it reflects a range. [Editor's Note: The average GMAT score for the MBA Class of 2010 was 714, with 72 percent of enrolled students' scores between 650 and 740, according to the Kellogg class profile.]

So how are you evaluating applicants?

Very holistically. We're no different than a company that's hiring talent. We're recruiting talent and want to bring in great talent. And then there are some more intangible qualities that we're looking for. We don't have an absolute hard and fast list, but someone who, for instance, has potential and a demonstrated background in leadership, someone who's collaborative, is a team player. Someone who [is] multidimensional and well-rounded. Someone [whom] there's more to than just their academic transcript. There's more to them than just their professional background. We're interested in their life stories, all the experiences that make them who they are at the time of application.

The third essay question on your application asks students to tell the admissions committee why they should get in, and the fourth essay question seems challenging as well. Do you have any advice for applicants who are completing those?

What I always tell people is [to] speak from your own mind and speak from your own heart when it comes to these questions. It's an opportunity for someone to tell us more about who they are via their own response to the question. There's no answer template, there's no right or wrong answer. And so really, I think as long as a person is very self-reflective and very thoughtful, they're going to have a good response to these questions.

Your interview process looks a bit different. Could you tell me about how it works?

On part one [of the application], an applicant needs to request an interview, and that can be an on-campus interview here or that person can request to be interviewed by an alum in the general region where they're located. The very large majority of our interviews are in person, either with one of the officers here or with one of our alumni interviewers. In some cases, we may have to arrange telephone interviews if someone is in a remote location.