Simon Says, Be Rigorous and Intimate

Greg MacDonald has been the executive director of MBA admissions and administration at the University of Rochester's William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration for six months, but he has a long history of college admissions work. He spent the past 15 years working in undergraduate admissions for Carleton University, Case Western Reserve University and, most recently, Rochester.

MacDonald says Simon students get the most out of the faculty -- and each other -- because of the intimate nature of the program. But he adds that the program is rigorous. Though students can look forward to happy hours and barbecues, they should be prepared for a large helping of economics course work. MacDonald recently spoke with BusinessWeek Online project assistant Meredith Bodgas about how to get accepted during this competitive year. Here's an edited transcript of their conversation:

Are applications up or down this year?
Early signals are encouraging. We are about 20% ahead of the same date last year [see BW Online, 12/7/05, "First-Round Frenzy"].

What makes Simon stand out from other B-schools?
Simon is a mighty business school because of the world-class quality of the scholarship put forth from a relatively small faculty. The students are attracted to this when they're making their enrollment decisions. Our students leave with exceptional problem-solving and leadership skills and increased confidence.

What's new at Simon?
We're making some changes to the core requirements to reflect the new approach of framing, analyzing, and communicating business problems. We believe this new curricular design better reflects how business problems are...

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