Darden moves to "Interviews by invitation"

Question

Virginia - Darden has eliminated the applicant initiated interview system. Is this an effect of the increasing application volume or is it a fundamental shift in the school's admissions philosophy? I was under the impression that Darden wanted to interview all its applicants in order to eliminate any application induced pre-conceived notions about the applicant.

Pelihu, can you please chime in?

https://www.businessweek.com/mediacenter ... index+page

The official answer is that Darden wanted to level the playing field for international applicants.

pelihu · Answer

I saw that. I do not have any inside information on this subject, but in the video, the Adcom states that they went to this policy because visiting and interviewing was a burden on some students and it created an uneven playing field putting people with less money (or greater travel distance I guess) at a disadvantage. She also specifically mentioned international students and said that the old policy made international students that were not able to visit campus feel that there were at a disadvantage in the application process.

I think the other obvious factor is that Darden's applications were up 35% last year - I believe they said in an earlier podcast that this was the largest increase among top schools and came on top of double digit increase for the 2 prior years. Obviously it takes a lot of effort and manpower to interview all those people so perhaps they felt stretched.

Finally, I'll speculate that they probably concluded they were wasting a lot of resources interviewing people that didn't end up submitting applications. The old policy was that they would interview everyone, even those that hadn't yet turned in applications, and I believe even those who hadn't yet paid an application fee. This was broader than even Kellogg & Duke, which interview virtually all applicants, but only after they turn in their applications and pay the fee. By interviewing these people prior to collecting a fee or application, I think that they lost out on some application volume because people who had poor interviews would just forgo applying.

I don't believe the fee was an important issue, but application volume is a huge concern (for all schools). If they collect a bunch of applications from people who then drop out after interviewing, they can still count these people in their application statistics - impacting both admit rate and yield. On the other hand, under the old system, people who would have otherwise turned in applications probably dropped out after poor interviews, negatively impacting application volume and yield.

They did say in the interview that they intend to meet with a lot of applicants, and I believe they will stick to the completely blind interview process - which is the most open exchange that I encountered with any school throughout the process. In fact, I believe she states in the interview that most applicants will still have a chance to demonstrate their character in an interview. I believe the new system is in place to reduce the burden on people early in the process, and encourage more people to turn in applications.

Darden is also reducing the number of essays from 4 to 3. I believe both policies are in place to encourage higher application volumes to improve selectivity and yield numbers. I think that applicants will still have a chance to prove themselves in interviews.

ncp · Answer

Pel, thanks for your response. Good insight as always.

I was of the opinion that Darden's approach was an advantage to applicants who felt that they could ace any interview but had less than stellar numbers. In other words, many applicants who would normally think that Darden is out of their reach applied anyway in the previous years hoping for that outstanding interview to swing the decision in their favour.

My speculation is that Dardens application volume from these "what the hell, lets see how the interview goes" pool will drastically reduce and will probably be compensated by increased application volume from other more competitive applicant pools.

IMHO, Darden aspirants will have a tougher task this year.

pelihu · Answer

My take on these changes is the same as yours: they are largely designed to attract a larger pool of more competitive applicants. If this in fact occurs, then the school and Adcoms will likely be ecstatic. From an applicant's perspective, it will likely mean tougher competition.

Business schools operate in a competitive environment. Their main constituencies (perspective students and recruiters) are acutely aware of rankings. To a certain extent, schools must be aware of their competitive positions, for the benefit of students past, present and future. Nobody wants to attend a school that drops precipitously in the rankings 3, 5, or 10 years after they graduate. Schools that have widely fluctuating reputations suffer because of this unpredictability. I think Darden has always had a reputation of caring less about rankings criteria and more about individual applicants. I always felt that they were more likely than most other schools to overlook certain weaknesses if they were offset by compelling strengths; and I believe their process has historically fostered a real strength of community. I think that will still be the case, but applicants must take the first step by leaning about Darden and demonstrating their interest by turning in an application.

At the San Francisco reception last year, I actually questioned Dean Bruner about Darden's lower average GMAT and GPA scores relative to other similarly ranked schools. His response to me was that Darden increased their class size about 3 years ago, which impacted selectivity and yield, and that they had "turned the corner," meaning that Darden's selectivity was picking up. They recently announced at Darden Days (so I hear, I wasn't there) that average GMAT would be about 700 this year, and selectivity was way up because of a large increase in applications.

I still believe that Darden will stand out from the rest as a place where individuals are valued during the application process. I imagine that applicants will continue to find Adcoms that are genuinely interested in learning about them as individuals. I think that people who have unique experiences and qualities as well as a demonstrated affinity for Darden will continue to do well in the application process. That said, I think you are correct that applicants will have a tougher task this year.

helpslip · Answer

Which is at the heart of what seems compelling to me about Darden. The email that I got from Darden Admissions linked to: https://www.darden.virginia.edu/html/sta ... d=4&id=588 It seems reasonable to assume that the attendees (at the "new open house") will have some opportunity to interact with admissions as well as faculty and students. It may be the case that attending the open house provides a more low key way to "learn about Darden" (even the most relaxed interview would come with some pressure). In any event, I look forward to meeting our Darden ambassador. I hope you are correct in your first assessment and less so in your conclusion.

It would seem though that closing the interviews, dropping an essay, and reducing word counts on the rest most severely impacts those whose candidacy does not neatly accept categorization. The higher the bar, the sweeter the reward though.

Darden moves to "Interviews by invitation"

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