How do we select MBA candidates?

Sandfly Beach - Otago Peninsula

The Otago MBA is situated in one of the most beautiful places in the world, an adventure wonderland with surfing minutes away and enough beaches to accommodate varying wind conditions. We are lucky in this regard, but we're also uncompromising about the quality of education we offer.

My profile for this blog describes our MBA programme as adhering to a coherent business model designed to deliver distinctive value to our students, defined as attention to the individual and whole person, with an emphasis on his or her thinking abilities and character.  Other programmes follow a different business model that emphasizes scale (N of students) and brand recognition, but compromises on one-to-one mentored experiences that nurture the person and contribute to a cohesive MBA class.  We begin with the careful selection of candidates into our programme: here's what you need to know.

No precise profile or perfect student exists and we cannot fully articulate that which informs our selection of one individual over another.  We know the right person, when we see him or her.  We're looking for well-grounded candidates; with a solid base of experience; who demonstrate maturity and character; are self-motivated and self-directed; with (at least somewhat) clearly articulated career ambitions; who come from diverse backgrounds and cultures; and who demonstrate the ability to think conceptually.

The ability to think conceptually figures prominently into our selection decisions.  Consider this: experience contributes to intuition and has value, but the person who thinks solely from experience relies on either small-N data (i.e., one or a few data points/experiences that do not widely generalize) or opinion.  Without the ability to think conceptually, the student will (1) contribute little to our classroom experiences; (2) struggle to think within a credible business/academic frame; and (3) not easily be able to abstract away from the noisy immediate details of a business situation to discern the structure of a complex problem.  "It's this kind of problem and requires this kind of solution."

No Kids Allowed

Important point: GMAT scores inversely correlate with age, so kids younger than
 twenty post the highest marks.  We require students to submit GMAT scores, but we are far more interested in the maturity and character of the person!  

I invite you to register your interest now 

David

See also, Selection: part two