Taking on Tepper Admissions

The competition to get into the Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business in Pittsburgh got tougher last year. The average GMAT score rose from 690 to 700. Now that applications are on the rise (see BW Online, 12/7/05, "First-Round Frenzy"), applicants are scrambling for advice on how stand out to the admissions committee.

Laurie Stewart (LStewartCMU) is the executive director of master's admissions at the Tepper School. She and second-year student Mary Boone (MaryBoone) recently fielded questions from B-schools channel editor Francesca Di Meglio (FrancescaBW) and audience members about getting off the wait list, why some students were rejected for unethical behavior, and how to set the right tone in your essay. Here's an edited transcript of the chat event (see BW Online, "Web Chat Calendar "):

biharmba: What is the typical turnaround time once an application is submitted?
LStewartCMU: We have a schedule that is published in our viewbook. The first-round decisions are going to be released on Monday, Jan. 16. We just had an application deadline for second round this monday, Jan. 9, and those decisions will be released on March 13. We notify everyone by e-mail when decisions are ready to view online.

FrancescaBW: I have a question from someone who was unable to attend the chat: What advice would you give to an applicant who has about two years of work experience in the IT services industry in India?
LStewartCMU: We welcome applicants from all experience levels in our MBA program. Most of our MBA students fall in a range of having two to eight years of experience, so this level of experience would be right in that range. We also have some really exceptional candidates with less than two years of experience.

FrancescaBW: What kind of advice do you have for students who want to demonstrate the type of leadership and experience they have in an essay on your application?
LStewartCMU: It's really helpful to have specific examples from the candidate's own experience -- situations where they've led projects or people. Applicants should try to...

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