Tepper MBA
Admissions Interview (cont'd)
Our MBA
Tracks take this basic concept of cross-campus opportunities
much further. Our dean is really interested in providing
ways for students to go outside the walls of the business
school to develop an area of focus or expertise if they
would like to. This happens through a Track -- an integrated
sequence courses that include several outside the business
school in other Carnegie Mellon departments. For example,
our Integrated Product Development (IPD) Track exposes
students to courses in Design, Engineering and Business.
Students in the IPD Track take classes and complete
company-sponsored projects while working with students from
these other departments. A track is typically eight to ten
courses (out of 32 required to earn the MBA degree) -- and we
offer Tracks in many different areas. In addition to
General Management (our core MBA) and IPD, the Tracks
available are Biotechnology, Computational Marketing,
International Management, Operations Management, Operations
Research, Wealth and Asset Management, Entrepreneurship and
E-Business Technologies.
What
general advice would you like applicants considering the
Tepper MBA to know?
When you
consider an MBA degree, think about your goals for the
future and develop a list of schools that provide a
curriculum specific to the areas that interest you. At
Carnegie Mellon, we are encouraging students to learn about
us, starting with our Web site which is kept current and has
lots of good information about our program and ways to
connect with the community. Our on-line community for
prospective students provides journals of current students,
the opportunity to ask questions, and have live chats and
even search for a student with a similar background or
career goals and connect with them. We realize that a lot
of students can't visit our campus so we try to put as much
on line as we can. So getting to know us is a big part of
being prepared for the whole admissions process.
When
do you encourage applicants to apply to the program?
We have
four application deadlines. The earliest one is in November
and the final one is end of April or early May. I recommend
that applicants apply as early as their application is ready
without rushing the process. I encourage them not to rush
the process and to spend more time on their essays as we are
looking for a stronger candidate. When we look at our
admissions profile throughout the four deadlines, the
quality of the application is more important in the process
rather than the time we received it. The down side about
applying later is that we have a number of activities and
opportunities for applicants. For example we have "Welcome
Weekend" and invitations to alumni meetings and other
networking events and if someone applies later, they are not
able to take advantage of everything that we offer.
What
are the specific characteristics that you target in the
applications to help you identify the "best fit"
candidates?
There
are four areas we think about when we evaluate all the
components of the application. The first is the potential
for success academically in our MBA program. We look at
their past academic experiences and test scores. One thing
that underlies our review is potential for the quantitative
or analytical education we offer. The second major factor
is potential for professional success. We look at what a
candidate has done so far, their growth and responsibilities
over time, and the kind of contributions they have made. We
are looking for people who have made an impact in their
working life. The third group of considerations is a whole
range of personal qualities starting with team work skills,
leadership skills, communication skills and work ethic. We
are looking for the kind of students everybody loves to work
with. We want people who thrive in that kind of
collaborative atmosphere. Finally, we have to determine if
the Tepper MBA is the right step for a candidate right now.
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