MBA Insider: Admissions Q&A September 24, 2009, 2:09PM EST

Iowa MBA Admissions Tips

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Jodi Schafer
University of Iowa

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We also do video conferencing if the employer can't come on campus. But most important, we take a direct referral approach to placement. So we get to know the student very well, and we get to know the companies well and understand what positions they have available. Then we will send the company a few individuals that really fit the position that they're looking for. This is of interest to employers because they don't have to go through a number of résumés to try to find people themselves, and they're getting individuals that are a good fit for the job. And then they can sort of pre-screen the candidates and decide whether or not they want to fly them in.

I think it works very well as you look at our placement results. Certainly we're challenged because we are geographically not in a major hub of business, but at the same time I think that our students are very happy with the amount of attention they're receiving and the fact that they're getting the types of positions that they want.

Is the professional development plan and the increased focus on career preparedness achieved through one-on-one coaching, or is it though a class?

It's both. It's one-on-one coaching through the career services center. Then it's also one-on-one coaching with our Career Academy industry director, and this industry director has many years of experience. We have three Career Academy industry directors, and they all were in senior management-level positions in their respective fields. So they work with that individual to do personal assessments and act as mentors for them. So that, in combination with the mentorship that career services is providing, helps them to develop this plan.

And starting this year, they are required to develop the professional development plan. This is something that's part of what we call our LEAP program: Leadership, Ethics, and Professionalism. The program is over all four semesters and we focus, obviously, on leadership, ethics, and professionalism, but one of the things is career readiness.

And there are also more career and leadership-oriented classes?

The program is being enhanced greatly this year. There's the LEAP course, which is more than a course, and also an increased focus on global experiences. Obviously, it's a global marketplace, so we want to ensure that our students are given access to global opportunities, whether that be through student trips or though classroom learning, or hands-on experiences. We've incorporated what's called the Business Solutions Center, which is an opportunity for every student to work on a hands-on project. So they work with companies in consulting opportunities, and that's now a required component of the program. Then, the career academies also provide experiential opportunities.

And all this was just rolled out in 2009?

It was. Certainly many of these things existed in the program before, but we have brought more structure to it and more opportunities.

What are the opportunities for experiential learning? It sounds like there's now a lot more emphasis on it.

There is. Our program has always had hands-on opportunities that our students participate in, but there wasn't as much structure as we would have liked behind those experiences. They were very valuable, but a lot of the time they were led by faculty members, and they would be kind of one-off situations. Now what happens is this Business Solutions Center brings in clients who need consulting work, and then every student is required to participate in one of these projects. There are also hands-on opportunities relating to the individual's career interest through the Career Academies. In the Marketing Academy obviously there'd be a marketing experiential learning opportunity, in the Finance Academy there'd be finance, and so forth. So at a minimum, every student will be required to do two hands-on consulting projects, and more if they so wish.

That's a lot.

It is a lot, and I think that that's something that's a little bit different about our program. And then in addition to that, our students will be going to see corporate speakers who come to campus, and some of that will be required this year. So they're getting a lot of exposure to companies and executives to understand what types of careers exist for them, so that they can better hone in on what it is they want to do.

Iowa grads come into the program making around $40,000 a year, and they leave it making something like $80,000. That's a big improvement, but still not as high as some other top schools. Also, new research on MBA pay has shown that over the course of their lifetime, Iowa grads don't make as much. Could you tell me a little bit about what might be behind that?

I think a big part of it is that many of our students choose to work and live in the Midwest. So although we have students who go to the coasts, the majority of our students do not. And obviously the students that do go to the coast tend to make a little bit more money. So I think that's the reason: They're choosing work/life balance. Also, a handful of our students do like to stay in Iowa, and the salaries in Iowa are probably even less than what they would be in some of the major Midwestern cities. So because our program is a little bit smaller, when you have a handful of students who are staying in Iowa, it really does affect your average salary. So that's really where we believe those numbers are coming from. But I think if you dig into the data you'll see that we also have some pretty significant salaries, so if students want to work somewhere other than the Midwest I think we're uniquely equipped to make sure that they're able to do that, because we have many examples of that. But again, the majority do decide to stay in the Midwest.

I saw that Iowa students graduate with less debt than most other MBA students, is that something that has been mattering more to prospective students?

We talk about that a lot. Particularly with the economy the way it is right now, students more and more don't want to take on a tremendous debt. So I think we are seeing possibly some increases in applications and quite possibly it's due to that in part.

How many more applications have you been receiving?

We're looking at, in the past couple of years, about a 30% increase in applications.

I saw that Tippie had quite a few international students, it's was about 54% in 2005 and 38% last year, which is still slightly higher of most schools' averages of roughly a third. I was wondering if that number went down at all with the 2009 incoming class, considering the considerable challenges international MBAs are facing.

It did. Our international percentage is 27% this year. We certainly value our international students who are in the program and feel that they make significant contributions, and we want to continue to have a strong showing of international students. But at the same time, we want to ensure that we can help them to be successful given the challenges that we're seeing in hiring for international students, and the fact that international students need to be company sponsored. This year we decided to keep our international student percentage down slightly. So that's not to say that it won't increase in the coming years, but for now we think that this is an acceptable number of international students for us to really help and be able to give enough attention to so that they're successful.

So in the future would you expect to see that percentage around the 30% mark?

Yes, I'd say that is probably where we would want to be.

How has your job changed since you got here, and would you say the economic crisis has had an impact on it?

I would say that it's becoming increasingly competitive on the schools' end as well as the applicants'. I think that programs need to have a value proposition, and so that's what we've been really working on. We want to ensure that we're offering our students a strong value, so that they're successful. There's been a change in the international market; we've seen more applicants from India and fewer from Asia. And we really want to increase our female and minority enrollment. So that hasn't necessarily changed, that's always been a challenge, but I would love to see those populations increase in the coming years. As I'm sure many business schools would.