We had an excellent Q&A last week with Tiffany Gooden, Senior Associate Director of Admissions, and Meghan Bass, Associate Director of Admissions at Wharton. If you missed the Wharton event or if you wish to review it, you can read the whole transcript or listen to the full audio clip online.
Here are a few questions and answers to get you started:
Linda Abraham: This is a question from me that all the applicants should be interested in. When you are evaluating the applications, and the numbers are competitive and the applicants are applicants who qualify and are competitive applicants, what puts one applicant in the admit pile and the others in the rejected or wait list piles?
Meghan Bass: That's a good question. The applicant pool we get here at Wharton is an incredibly talented pool; they are all high achievers, they are all high scores. They are a very impressive group, and frankly 80% of the applicants we do receive are 100% admissible to Wharton. So then the question comes: how do we choose one over the other? Really it comes down to the compelling story they are going to share. At Wharton we admit 800+ a year. Of that, each student really needs to be able to bring a unique voice and perspective.
We need to have that feeling that this person is going to impact their incoming class; this is a valuable voice to be heard. And that really comes through in your essays. Your essays, your recommendation, the whole thing; it's really how you choose to present yourself. I will say that we have a ton of people who are high achievers in their careers; we have a ton of high scores on their test scores and academic profiles. Use your essay as a chance to stand apart and introduce yourself. Don't do anything crazy, but it's a good opportunity to show who you are, what kind of a voice you are going to bring to Wharton, and the impact you are going to have. I think that is really the defining thing that can set two people apart; how they choose to present themselves.
Linda Abraham: This leads into a question that Stacy is posing. She asks, "What role does community service outside work contribution play in the admission?"
Meghan Bass: It definitely does play a role. Sometimes I see applications where people list a ton of different community service things that they've done. But then when I look a little bit closer, each one is maybe for a week, a month, or even a day. I don't think it's a good idea to collect things just for the sake of a business school application. I would rather see people perhaps invested in one or two things, whether it's tutoring inner-city school kids, or doing several 'Habitat for Humanity' initiatives because they love to build, and they love to contribute that way to society. I would rather see people passionate about certain areas, rather than trying to blanket everything. Volunteering at soup kitchens and then running to tutor and then running to clean up the neighborhood; that makes me wonder if you're just collecting for an application.
So again, it's about you. Think what you are passionate about. We definitely want to see involved students. Social impact is a huge thing here at Wharton, so definitely think about where that is important to you and how you can present that properly.
View the full Q&A transcript or listen to the mp3 recording of the event now!
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