Admissions Q&A Sample
Cornell Reaches Out
A revamping of the admissions office means, among other things, finding more ways to connect with prospective students
Like every top B-school, Cornell's Johnson School certainly has its fair share of consultants and investment bankers, but director of admissions Randall Sawyer also has a soft spot for nontraditional candidates or those looking to make a career transition. In fact, as a 15-year public relations practitioner who only this year switched over to the admissions office, Sawyer fits that profile himself.
And while the Johnson School's reputation as "the friendly school" is well-deserved, says Sawyer, potential MBAs should note that "friendly" doesn't mean "easy." Standards are set high, in class and out, and Sawyer says he's not looking for ticket-punchers who attend classes and then go straight home without participating in any of the school's many groups and clubs. (The school's tight-knit culture, after all, is no accident.)
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| Randall Sawyer
Cornell University |
BusinessWeek.com reporter
Kerry Miller spoke to Sawyer about the changes to come in the Cornell admissions office and what he looks for in applications. Here are edited excerpts from their conversation.
You started out at Cornell as a public relations officer. How did you end up in the admissions office? That doesn't sound like a typical move.It definitely isn't a typical move. I started out and worked my way in politics for about 12 years, and then was here in PR at the Johnson School for two and a half years before becoming director of admissions on Mar. 1 of this year.
The Johnson School is taking a look at admissions from a new point of view. Over the last several years we've seen a decline in our domestic applications. We've never really had a strategic plan, so I'm in the process of writing the plan and taking a look at how we do what we do.
What kind of changes do you have planned?One thing is that we're going to have a few more touchpoints with students. In the past we've been light on that end, and I don't want students to feel like they hear from us once or twice over the course of the entire process. Of course, every school is interested in communicating with prospective students a lot. What's too much? What's too little? I'm not sure. I'm doing some focus groups to try and identify what that is. I want to find out what's the right amount.
Can you take me through the life cycle of an application at the Johnson School?When an application comes in, it's read by two people—a student and a staff member—who decide whether that applicant should come in for an interview. The student readers are second-year students who have gone through a rigorous selection process and read and evaluate applications based on the training program that my office runs.
We look for a number of things in applications—GPA, GMAT, career progression, extracurricular activities, team opportunities. The student makes one recommendation, and then one of my staff members will review that file and make another decision. They both may be "Yes, interview," they both may be, "No, decline."
And if that's the case, that's how we move forward with the file. If one says yes and one says no, then I have a group that sits together and we talk about that file and whether or not that student should be interviewed. Then if the decision is "Yes, interview," we've got an e-mail saying, "Hey, we'd like to invite you to an interview."
In the Johnson School, you can't get in without an interview. You could be interviewed either here on campus or in the state in which you live or by phone by one of my staff. We provide you that option. So by the time you get to an interview, two people have read your application.
When the students arrive, they're interviewed by...
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