UC Berkeley (Haas school)

[Keny]

MBA INSIDER: ADMISSIONS Q&A

Getting into Haas: No One Is a "Perfect Package"

Pete Johnson and Jett Pihakis, who head Berkeley"s MBA admissions, say it"s better for applicants to be self-aware than claim no weaknesses

Pete Johnson and Jett Pihakis Haas School of Business University of California at Berkeley
HAAS RANKINGS Full-time MBA rank:
2002:	13	1994:	19
2000:	18	1992:	18
1998:	16	1990:	19
1996:	13	1988:	17

Pete Johnson and Jett Pihakis are co-directors of MBA admissions at the University of California at Berkeley"s Haas School of Business (No. 13 on BusinessWeek"s current B-school rankings). Johnson manages international MBA admissions, and Pihakis handles domestic applications. They recently spoke with BW Online"s Mica Schneider. Here are edited excerpts from their conversation:

Q: How has the leadership at the school changed since Laura D"Andrea Tyson left for London Business School?
Johnson: The Haas school in general, and our office, was very fond of Laura. [The new dean,] Tom Campbell, has brought a number of positive things to the school, as well. One of the things he has emphasized is making himself available to students. He has a town hall meeting every month. He has breakfast with small groups of students every morning, and he went on the road with us to our admission events.

Pihakis: Students are thrilled with his hands-on approach. It has helped him keep a finger on the pulse of the school.

Q: The last time we spoke, about two years ago, you were basking in the glory of a 90% increase in applications. What are you doing this season?
Pihakis: Right now, we"re down 23% from where we were last year. We"re definitely experiencing a decline.

Johnson: Talking with our colleagues, we"ve heard everything from 10% to 39% decreases.

Q: What"s the remedy?
Johnson: I anticipate this will change as the economy continues to recover. Currently, a lot of good candidates for MBA programs with solid work experience are less likely to feel confident about leaving those positions for two years, not knowing where the economy and hiring will be [when they graduate].

Pihakis: One remedy would be to increase, in creative ways, the marketing of the programs.

Q: Have you begun any creative marketing at Haas?
Pihakis: There will be more of that next year.

Johnson: This year, we stepped up our recruitment efforts a little bit -- but primarily recruited from the same markets as last year. We"ll be reaching out to a more diverse group of people to educate them about the benefits of a management degree.

Q: What are some misconceptions to dispel about the degree?
Johnson: Many people who are in consumer products -- businesses such as the wine industry -- or nonprofit positions can really benefit from an MBA, but they don"t pursue it because they think MBA training is only for consultants and investment bankers. We have a student in the first-year class who has a nonprofit background and is interested in microlending programs in the third world. Although she initially thought of pursuing a public policy or international relations degree, she discovered that an MBA was a better fit for developing the finance and management skills she needed.

MBA programs aren"t only about accounting and finance but also about leadership, organizational behavior, entrepreneurship, and developing strong communication skills.

We often have to explain to prospective students what really happens at business school and the variety of issues and disciplines that are addressed. This spring, for example, our Management of Technology Program is jointly hosting a conference with the United Nations entitled Bridging the Divide -- Technology, Innovation, and Learning in Developing Economies. The conference is about how to bring technology to the developing world to help poor countries benefit from the global economy. That"s not the sort of thing people necessarily expect when they think about an MBA program.

Pihakis: Some people hear the word "business" and think, "Business isn"t for me." They think, "I want to do more good for the community." We need to communicate to them that there are ways to make significant impacts on the community [through business].

Q: With such a dip in MBA applications, will MBA admissions be somewhat less competitive at your school this year?
Pihakis: If you have fewer applications, you have a better chance of being admitted -- at least statistically.

Johnson: Although smaller in number, we"ve been pretty pleased with the applications we"ve reviewed. But the percentage admitted is going to be higher.

Q: What are some common pitfalls applicants should avoid?
Pihakis: A lot of applicants spend a lot of time trying to tell us what they think we want to hear, something they feel will impress us. By doing that, they deliver the same answer that several hundred other applicants deliver.

Johnson: Another pitfall, in the opposite direction, is that we see a number of people describe their work history and assume that we know what they"ve accomplished and the significance of their job title. For instance, they say, "I"m a consultant at Bain." They don"t give us details about their progression. We want to compare such people to their peers.

Pihakis: We see that often. They list their current title and don"t let you know what other positions they"ve had. We have a second-year woman who began her career as a middle-school math teacher, then decided to become an investment banker. She became a receptionist [at a firm], three months later she transitioned to an analyst"s role, and then into an associate"s role. It was so much more impressive that she made that transition. Even if you"re not proud of a title you"ve had, you"d be surprised how describing each step can benefit you.

Johnson: Also avoid unexplained gaps in career progression: We assume the worst.

Pihakis: Another pitfall is being dishonest in representing your work experience. Last year, our in-house staff checked 100% of the people we planned to admit. This year, we"ve contracted with an external vendor to check the facts after they"re admitted but prior to their enrollment.

Q: What"s the added cost to run those checks?
Pihakis: That comes from the applicant, when they send in their deposit. I believe it will be $85.

Q: Is there any way to waive that fee? The admissions process is already costly.
Pihakis: Not at the moment.

Q: When is the best time to apply to the Haas School?
Johnson: Rounds one and two. Apply as early as you feel you can submit a solid application. It doesn"t help someone to rush and get a half-baked application in.

Pihakis: We have individuals debate between rounds two and three. But the most important thing is that you submit what you perceive to be the very best perception of your work.

Q: Mar. 5 is the final application deadline of four rounds. What percentage of the class is enrolled by then?
Pihakis: We admitted 7% of the current first-year class out of round four.

Q: By your standards, what kinds of professional experience make MBA hopefuls stand apart from the competition?
Johnson: Evidence that they"ve progressed more quickly than their peers shows that they have skills that make them stand out in the workplace. This kind of person has letters of recommendation to show they"ve had responsibilities above and beyond what someone else at their level might have had. In two recommendations I read this week, the [applicant] was asking for more work, showing initiative.

Q: Which piece of the MBA application carries the most weight?
Pihakis: Honestly, there isn"t one piece of the application that carries the most weight. We did an interesting exercise two years ago on a staff retreat, where we had staff rank what was the least or most important aspect of the application. There was no consensus.

Q: What can an MBA candidate do to prepare for a Haas interview?
Pihakis: Always anticipate questions about why you"re interested in the school, what your goals are, and why you"re interested in the MBA. Then think of behavioral examples of experiences you"ve had in the workplace. For instance: "Can you give me an example of a time when you led a team?" When you"re asked a question, and you"re unsure of the answer, it"s appropriate to think about it silently for a moment. Take time to think before answering.

Q: Would you share an example of a terrible interview?
Pihakis: One thing that definitely leaves a bad impression is when someone isn"t dressed in business attire. [We also interview] individuals who don"t seem to carry themselves with confidence -- who seem insecure or nervous. Oftentimes, it"s difficult to make those applicants feel comfortable. Some candidates are fidgety, don"t look you in the eye, take too long to answer a question, or don"t answer the question.

Johnson: One thing I"ve seen a number of times that doesn"t help candidates is when they come with certain messages about themselves that they"re determined to sell to the interviewer, whether those have something to do with a question or not. That really hurts someone in an interview -- when they don"t answer the question.

Q: A lot of applicants fret over the perfect balance between saying positive things about themselves and showing self-awareness by pointing out their weaknesses. What"s the right balance?
Johnson: I actually prefer someone to be relatively honest about what their weaknesses are. Not what their weaknesses might be, but what they"re doing to address them. No one comes to business school as a perfect package.

Pihakis: Focus more on strengths than weaknesses, but self-awareness is important. I"m impressed by people who can look me in the eye with confidence and talk about things they could do better. We have one question: "What"s your biggest weakness?" And the answer we most often see is, "I"m a perfectionist." Don"t write that. What"s best is when someone feels free to reveal their true weakness.

Q: Which undergraduate courses (with good grades, of course) should applicants have on their transcripts to show that they"re up to handling the course work in your MBA program?
Pihakis: Statistics and calculus. If someone has performed well in statistics and calculus, we"re less concerned about weaker performance on the GMAT quant section because their strong performance in course work demonstrates quantitative proficiency.

Q: How does your office respond to GMAT scores that fall below its 700 average or mid-80% range of 650 to 750?
Pihakis: It"s completely fine to apply with a score that"s below our average. If you fall below the low end of the 80% range, however, other elements of your application should be particularly strong to offset the lower GMAT score. The further you fall from the low end of the 80% range, the lower your chances are of admission.

This past year, we ran a stat to see what percentage of applicants with GMAT scores of 760 or more were offered admissions: We denied 75% of those applicants.

Johnson: Educate yourself about the GMAT ranges -- the range in which most of the admitted applicants" scores fall -- at the programs to which you"re applying. We have applicants every year with scores that are well below our middle 80% range, and they"re surprised when they don"t get in.

Q: Will you look favorably on applicants who retake the GMAT to improve their scores?
Johnson: We don"t mind seeing that someone has taken the GMAT a couple of times. In fact, the average is two or three times among our applicants. The important thing is that they remember it"s only one of the factors we"re considering. We see people obsess over the GMAT score to the exclusion of other parts of their application. People come up to me and say, "I only got a 710, so I"m going to take the GMAT again."

There are a lot of people who fall below our average who still get admitted. If they"re particularly weak in the quant section, it may be a red flag without other evidence of their quantitative preparation [to counter the low score].

Q: Who are the best people to write an applicant"s recommendations?
Pihakis: You want to have your current supervisor, a former supervisor, or a major client -- individuals who aren"t at the same level as you in an organization -- who will be effective at eval‎uating your strengths and weaknesses. If you"re from a family business, don"t have a family member write that recommendation. Look to clients or suppliers, or someone you work with closely.

Q: What"s the best length for each recommendation letter?
Johnson: Most of the letters of recommendation that have impressed me have been in the one- to three-pages range. Last week, I read a 10-page recommendation, and it provided nothing that couldn"t have been said in a two-page letter.

Q: When should an MBA candidate write (or not write) an optional essay?
Johnson: It"s an opportunity [for applicants] to tell us anything about their background that they think is significant. For instance, something that"s affected their career development that would help us understand who they are and what their goals are. A lot of people use it to repeat things they"ve already told us, and that really doesn"t add any value.

Editor"s note: Haas" 2003-04 MBA application asks applicants to respond to 15 essay questions, most of which require short answers. The following questions allow applicants to write 750-word responses: 1. What are your professional goals? How do your past and present experiences relate to those goals? 2. (Optional): Please feel free to provide a statement concerning any information you would like to add to your application that you haven"t addressed elsewhere. 3. (Optional): If you wish to be considered for a Haas Achievement Award (for individuals who have overcome significant economic, educational, health-related and/or other obstacles), please use this space to address the obstacles you have overcome.]

Q: Is this the place for an applicant to mention that he/she hiked Mount Everest?
Johnson: Yes. Or why you had an epiphany and decided you didn"t want to be an advertising guru on Madison Avenue, but you wanted to be in venture capital. Help us understand where you are now. We also ask people to address major obstacles they"ve overcome. We have a scholarship program for people who have done that.

Pihakis: If an applicant has completed the rest of the application and they feel there was something important that they haven"t had a chance to describe to the admissions committee, that"s the time to use the optional essay. Don"t think that you have to come up with something to put in an optional essay.

Q: Speaking of scholarship money, what kinds of awards does Haas give to MBAs?

Pihakis: We give [MBAs] more than $1 million in scholarship money every year. About 13% of our first years are on full-tuition scholarships now. Haas Achievement Awards are for MBAs who have been successful, despite significant economic, educational, health-related, or other obstacles. Haas Merit scholarships are for the people who fall at the top end of the pool we admit.

Q: Which characteristics of the student body does Haas hope to change or improve in coming years?
Pihakis: In California, we"re up against Proposition 209. It limits our targeted outreach based on race and gender -- and limits our ability to think about race and gender as we make admissions decisions. We"re fortunate that our students, who aren"t bound by Proposition 209, are taking tremendous initiatives to help us recruit.

Our Black Business Students Assn., Native American students, and members of the Hispanic Business Club held a Minority MBA Workshop in November, 2003. The students also created a 501(c) organization called Infusion, which is raising money to be distributed to students based on race. The Women in Leadership club has done special events for women.

Q: Currently, 32% of the class is from outside the U.S., which is slightly higher than last year. What"s the ideal size of Haas" international population?
Johnson: We have 37 countries represented in our first-year class. For the past five years, that"s been a strength of our program. We"ve maintained a stable and diverse international enrollment.

Pihakis: We"re very fortunate to have the quality and richness of students we have from around the world: We learn a lot from them.

Q: Which countries are overly represented?
Johnson: We get a lot of applications from Korea, China, and India. As in the [large] pool from the U.S., the strong candidates rise to the top. Advertisement

Q: Just 24% of the class of 2005 is female, vs. 30% in the class of 2004. What happened?
Pihakis: Last year, we experienced a decline in the quantity and quality of female applications. That trend showed up at a number of schools. Because the numbers haven"t been as high, the competition to enroll the top women candidates is that much fiercer. We can"t give targeted scholarships on race or gender, whereas some schools we compete with can. We"re hopeful this next class will be more diverse.

Johnson: It"s a bit early to tell in our current applications. We"ve only just completed rounds one and two. Round three will tell the story. But the percentage of women in business schools generally is a big issue that all of us are trying to address.

Q: How do you manage Haas" wait list?
Pihakis: It"s always in flux. We look at it as indecision. It"s not that we"re putting them on the wait list until the summer, waiting untill we fill the class, and then pulling them off. It basically means that their file is still open and under consideration. People who have received a wait-list letter may be denied or admitted daily.

In past years, we haven"t thrown a lot of people on the wait list. Those that we have put on are people we find to be very interesting in any number of ways.

Q: What"s the best strategy for someone who"s placed on your wait list?
Johnson: We"re very prescriptive. We tell them some things they can do to help their candidacy. Take advantage of the opportunity to interview. We offer interviews on campus and, with our alumni volunteer network, all over the world. We even have someone in Kazakhstan.

We give them the opportunity to submit an updated resume if things have changed. Sometimes, people realize that maybe there"s a weakness in their GMAT, and they take it again. We"ll then consider the new score. However, there are also people who view that as an opportunity to send us an e-mail twice a week and flood us with documentation that isn"t useful to us.

Pihakis: Submit no more than two additional recommendations. One [additional recommendation] is often sufficient.

Q: What services does the B-school offer partners and spouses of MBAs? What job opportunities are available locally?
Pihakis: We have a partners club that"s very active. Above and beyond the partners club, there are a number of things that incorporate partners into the fabric of the community. Sometimes, students get confused about who are the partners and who are the students. The partners join student clubs, for instance. Our face book of incoming students includes partners.

We also have an admitted-student resource guide that"s for partners, and we have special programming during our admit weekend that"s geared towards partners. In the past, the career-services center has also helped partners, but it asks that they come by very early in the year.

Q: What changes do you plan over the reasonably near term in your admissions office and its procedures?
Pihakis: Last year, we created Super Saturday interview days. Tomorrow is a Super Saturday for about 100 round-one applicants. It"s an opportunity for us to do a huge number of interviews in one day. We invite people from all around the world so that they can get a day of activities and an interview. They hear from current students and career-services representatives, and they get to meet each other.

Last year, we did it as a result of feedback: People who had come to campus were disappointed with their interview experience because all they had was a 45-minute interview, as classes weren"t in session.

Johnson: An invitation to attend a Super Saturday doesn"t mean you"re offered admission. These applicants are still under consideration.

Pihakis: Of those we interviewed last year, 75% were offered admission.

Johnson: But we expect that percentage to change this year as we move toward interviewing the vast majority of people we consider for admission.

Q: Why? Were people falling through the cracks?
Pihakis: When we started working here, there was no alumni interview program. We started one, and each year we"ve expanded that network.

Q: When admitted applicants say they"re on the fence between your school and another, what"s your pitch for the Haas program
Pihakis: Students are stunned that we tend not to pitch. We help to answer any questions from a completely honest perspective. The most important thing is that they end up at the school that"s the best match for them.

Q: What other initiatives is Haas working on?
Pihakis: We"re taking teaching very seriously. Our senior associate dean has started a mentorship program for faculty. Six new faculty joined Haas last year, and seven this year. Anytime a new faculty comes on board, the person is paired with a veteran faculty member. They have to submit a syllabus to that veteran one month before a class begins -- for feedback. The mentor observes and tapes the first class and then carefully critiques the class, providing constructive criticism. All faculty are graded from zero to seven, and 70% have a score of six or higher.