Welcome back to Trivia Tuesday, our weekly exploration of all the details that distinguish one MBA program from the next. We’ve often recommended in our admissions tips that MBA applicants cite their interest in school-specific elective courses in their application essays, since this can reveal specialized academic interests while demonstrating that one has thoroughly researched the school’s academic program. Today and next week, we’ll look at how the different processes MBA programs use to coordinate elective registration impact the odds that students will end up in the courses they desire.
The most popular elective enrollment system at the top schools is the auction system. Schools using this system include Columbia, Kellogg, MIT Sloan and Wharton. Using Sloan’s auction system as an example, we can examine the typical structure of an auction course selection process.
Course selection at MIT Sloan is organized through an online bidding system. Students receive 1,000 points at the beginning of each semester and use those points to place bids on the elective courses in which they wish to enroll. Spaces in the class are filled starting with the highest bidder, though students are only “charged” the number of points bid by the lowest bidder who won a spot in the course. Following two rounds of bidding, during which students line up the bulk of their elective schedules, they are given another 1,000 points to use to bid for a spot on the waitlist of courses they did not win entry to in the regular rounds. Finally, in the weeks before classes start, Sloan holds one final round of bidding, allowing students to move between different sections of the same course in order to optimize their class schedules.
Although Wharton uses an auction system for both pre-term activities and elective course selection, the organization of its system is slightly different. Instead of being given new points each semester, Wharton students are given an “initial endowment” of points in their first-year fall that they must use across their time in the program. This adds an extra layer of strategy to the course selection process, since students must think ahead about when their most-desired electives will be offered and budget their points accordingly. This system also has the added twist of allowing students to accumulate large point balances by “selling” spots in popular courses to other students at premium prices. By making shrewd sales, some Wharton students collect enough points to ensure that they get all of their top-choice, high-demand classes in the final semester.
For students with a background in trading or strategy, online bidding systems may prove to be a fun, easy way of registering for classes. It’s important to remember, though, that auction systems are used primarily to assign spaces in the most sought-after courses with the most popular professors. Students who are willing to explore a broader range of courses should be able to register for electives rather painlessly, using very few bid points in the process.
For more on the elective selection process at the leading MBA programs, tune into this column next week or check out the Clear Admit School Guides!
Read the full article: Trivia Tuesday: Choosing Electives – The Auction System