MBA Insider: Admissions Q&A July 20, 2009, 1:15PM EST

Washington Olin: Admissions Q&A

MBA Admissions Director Evan Bouffides explains why selectivity is up, inexperience is O.K., and recommendation letters are no longer required

Evan Bouffides
Washington University
Olin Business School

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Evan Bouffides has been working in admissions for about a dozen years, not counting the two he took off to get his MBA. Since becoming assistant dean and director of MBA admissions and financial aid at Washington University's Olin Business School (Olin Full-Time MBA Profile) three years ago, he has committed himself to streamlining the application process and selling potential students around the world on the perks of living in St. Louis.

So far, it seems to be working. Since he arrived, applications to Olin's small, 300-person MBA program have doubled. The caliber of student has risen dramatically. And the program is gaining recognition.

Fresh back from a trip to Ghana, where he recruited at the embassy, Bouffides talks to BusinessWeek's Anne VanderMey about what the school is doing to increase international diversity, how students are handling the tough job market, and why St. Louis is a great place to live.

Have there been any major changes to the application process in recent years?

Over the last few years we've tried to streamline the process as much as we could. I think we have probably done a pretty good job of only asking applicants for critical pieces of information. We're not too extensive in terms of the essays that we ask them to write. There is one big switch. This year rather than requiring actual letters of recommendation, which is what many programs do and what we have always done historically, we switched over to simply asking for two professional references—whom we may or may not contact.

So when you think about it from the applicant's perspective, that makes it a lot easier. Number one, because they don't have to sort of wait for recommenders to submit their letters. Oftentimes in the past what we've found was the applicant had done everything he or she needed to do, but they were still waiting for the recommenders to submit letters. That really delayed the process, to their detriment sometimes.

We're a pretty selective school—as a percentage we don't admit that many students—so I think there's no need for us to require letters of recommendation for a population that may not get admitted. I think what we found was that it wasn't a really big discriminating factor in allowing us to make the decision. If we have any questions we can always contact the people who would ordinarily write the recommendations and have a brief phone conversation. I think that, sometimes, is equally valuable. There's always this other issue that you never have full control over the application process—it's not always clear who's writing the letters of recommendation, and so the authenticity of some of these documents was something that we had some concerns about.

Our overall goal has always been to try to make the process relatively easy for the applicant. Another example might be that if a person submits an application in order for us to render a tentative decision. We can have unofficial copies of transcripts and unofficial copies of test scores and then, ultimately, if they get admitted and decide to join us, then we would require those documents. I think sometimes there's a delay in the process simply because they're trying to get official documents to us.

And so you'll continue that policy with letters of recommendation?

Yeah, I think so. I think it worked out pretty well this year, and I don't see any reason to change it for next year anyway.

How often did you end up reaching out to those references?

Only when we had questions. I don't have a percentage for you, but if there's anything that comes up as we try to render a decision that is unclear, then we'll go ahead and contact the person, but I would say it doesn't happen all too often. We tend to address the issue of professional experience and sort of future professional potential through other pieces of data.