Beginning this winter, some MBA applicants to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania will be randomly selected to take part in a discussion with fellow applicants as part of the application process, according to recent reports in the Wall Street Journal and Daily Pennsylvanian (DP).
This supplemental team-based exercise will have no effect on admissions this year, according to Ankur Kumar, Wharton director of MBA admissions and financial aid. The new discussion format component is designed to help highlight applicants’ interpersonal skills, intellectual curiosity, leadership, teamwork, problem-solving and critical thinking, Kumar told the DP. She hopes it will “actually bring to life off the page who [the candidates] are and showcase that to us,” she added.
The new discussion component will focus on applicants’ general knowledge – not their business experience, Kumar said. This year’s test will help determine whether discussions will become a permanent fixture in the MBA admissions process, she added.
Wharton Vice Dean of Innovation Karl Ulrich thinks Wharton’s current applications may not allow reliable assessment of applicants based on all qualities, according to the DP report. “Wharton receives enough applicants with excellent grades, work experience, and GMAT scores to fill its class many times over … The team discussion format lets us observe and evaluate applicants in an unstructured format, which we believe will allow us to more reliably assess applicants,” he wrote in an e-mail to the DP.
Students in past Wharton MBA classes have participated in mock discussions after admission to the MBA class, the DP report added. 2011 Wharton MBA graduate Ayo Omojola participated in a discussion group featuring six to seven students discussing a general-knowledge topic and seeking to reach consensus while admissions team observers watched. Omojola told the DP that he thinks incorporating discussions into the admissions process will better allow the Wharton admissions team to get to know candidates.
Kumar stressed that the new discussion component should not contribute to any anxiety among current applicants since it is still in its initial testing stages.
Clear Admit’s team of admissions specialists sees promise in the new Wharton discussion component, which represents a major break from tradition, in which the application has been a one-way dialog between the admissions committee and the applicant.
“McKinsey uses the group interview method as a screening tool in final interview rounds,” says Clear Admit Senior Admissions Counselor Stacey Oyler, who worked in admissions at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and as a recruiter for McKinsey before joining the Clear Admit team.
“Top firms do this, so I’m not surprised,” added Clear Admit Senior Admissions Counselor Brett Haber, a Wharton MBA grad and former member of the Wharton Admissions Committee. “They’d finally see what people are like in a team setting,” she continued. “As long as the interview isn’t overweighted in the process, it could be interesting.”
We’ll keep tabs on these and other admissions developments and help applicants be as prepared as possible for any future changes, so be sure to watch this space.
Read the full article: U Penn’s Wharton School Tests New Team-Based Discussion Component for Potential Future Inclusion in Application Process