Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Welcome to the clear Admit MBA admissions podcast.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: I'm Graham Richmond, and you are about.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: To hear a mini episode of the show that is part of a series of Admissions director interviews I conducted at the annual GMAT conference, which took place in New Orleans this year. The GMAC conference brings together admissions directors and other admissions professionals from leading business schools across the globe. So, obviously, it's a great opportunity for folks like me to kind of get. Get their attention and talk with admissions directors and get all the latest on anything going on with the application process. So I sat down with admissions directors from a number of schools, and I asked them questions about how their team looks at artificial intelligence and its use in the application process. We talked about video in the application process. A lot of schools using kind of video interviews, online things these days, and also just general trends in the applicant pool and some other just admissions tips that they wanted to offer our audience. These are short. They're ten minutes long. And I just had a lot of fun connecting with these admissions directors, many of whom are friends I've known for 20 years now working in this industry. So please sit back and enjoy. And I will say, pardon the background noise. I mean, these are kind of man on the street type interviews. I was grabbing admissions directors right and left and taking them to the lobby of the hotel to kind of have a quick conversation. So you'll hear, you know, things rattling around in the background, whatever, but just enjoy. And, yeah, a lot of great advice. So, these are must listen if you're applying to any of these schools.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: I'm with Eddie Aspy from Cornell Johnson. Eddie, I appreciate you making time. I know that there's a lot going on here at the GMAT conference, so thanks for a few minutes. What's your title at Cornell?
[00:01:49] Speaker C: Yeah, so my title is executive director of admissions and scholarship.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: Okay. All right. So, as you know, there are, like, a few questions I wanted to ask. We'll try to be speedy, but the first one is about AI. Everyone's talking about Aih. And I just, you know, I feel like it's. It's been a hot topic for almost a year now, but I think that people have a better handle on how to use these tools and what they are. So I just wondering, like, do you guys, as an admissions team at Cornell Johnson, like, are you providing any, like, guidance to people? Do you have a point of view about, like, what candidates should be doing with these tools and maybe what they shouldn't be doing? Like, any thoughts on that?
[00:02:23] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, we get a lot of candidates, of course, who are asking us about the use of AI and our process. And I think, in reality, with us, and I'll give you also my personal view to it, is that we also have to stay relevant and up to date with, you know, technology and how things are changing. So we know candidates are going to use it. But we really do stress about that authentic piece in the application, and we really want to hear candidates voice. And that's what I will tell candidates all the time. Like, your voice is probably the most important thing. Being an advocate for yourself, you know, your story the best that, you know, technology is not going to be able to, you know, give that sense of that. That overall feeling or, you know, the initiatives that you work on or once again, that hard work that you put into it. So, you know, if you're. If you're going to use the AI piece of it, I think using it as a starting point is okay. Yeah, but that shouldn't be your final product. You know, when I think about, like, our essays or our impact essay in particular, we're looking for specific things in the Cornell community where you can see yourself making an impact. So it does require research. It does require talking about your maybe your past experiences and how you see yourself making an impact on our community. So, you know, once again, my overall thoughts on it is, if you are going to use it, maybe it is a starting point, but still go back and refine it and continue to work on it so that it, at the end of the day, it is your authentic voice to the access.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, that makes a ton of sense to me.
One of the things I love about your application is that you guys have this question that's almost like I was gonna say mad libs, where you're filling in the blanks. Right. And it's like. It's about your career plan. Right. And do you. Do you know the sentence that I'm talking about in the app? So what is it? You asked, like, for a short and a long. Like, what is it? Let's go over that.
[00:04:17] Speaker C: So, yeah, so it is our. Is our goal statement, and what we really want to know is, what are your short term, your long term goals? So it is a fill in the blank. It is. What is your short term goal? In which industry, what type of function or specific company? So it. What it allows us to do is for you to get straight to the point as far as what you want to do.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:40] Speaker C: There were so many times, you know, throughout an admissions for goal statement where you still have no idea what the candidate wants to do.
[00:04:49] Speaker B: And schools have, like, thousand word essays back, way back when, a 500 word or a thousand word essay about your goals. I love that you guys have just, like, cut to the chase.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Like, tell us, where do you want to work?
[00:04:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it's great.
[00:04:59] Speaker C: So it. And also, there's just no confusion as far as what they want to do, you know? So, you know, once again, whether you want to be in consulting, and maybe it is working for MBB, maybe it is more in the tech space or healthcare, you know, consulting, whatever it may be, once again, it's clear. And then we allow you to elaborate a little bit further on how, you know, you know, you're going to obtain these goals, but also thinking about what the recruiting process may look like as we see a lot of candidates who are also for switchers in our process.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, I love this part of your process, and I'm sure I'm kind of jumping the gun here, but I know you guys invite people to interview, and I assume you revisit this in the interview as well. A little bit. Do you talk with them about their goals?
[00:05:46] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a big part of the admissions process, is really having a clear understanding of what someone's career goals are. And we also understand that might change. It changes. And candidates one, when they get to the program, but also changes sometimes as they go through the admissions process, you know, even after they submit the application where they've maybe done more research or maybe there is something that has really sparked their interest a little bit more. But by asking the question in the application as well as in the interview, it just reconfirms that this is what you really want to do, and we want to make sure that, or we're the right school to help you get to where you want to be.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. And then the last question I had for you relates again to kind of goals. Like, I just was curious what, you know, you're about to bring in a class this fall, any trends that you're seeing in terms of, like, what people talk about with respect to goals. Like, are there any new things that people are saying, or is it kind of the same old stuff?
[00:06:42] Speaker C: I believe it's still more of the same stuff of what we've been seeing. You know, a lot of candidates, you know, consulting, you know, it still seems to be where candidates want to go. Definitely the financial sector as well. You know, tech. We still see a lot of, you know, we have entrepreneurs. You know, I would say the usual of what you're seeing within our process right now.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: And you guys, I mean, one thing I've noticed over the years is that you guys have what looks to be like a really good pipeline for investment banking, too, which I just feel like that's sort of like an unsung.
What's like, you know, it's a hidden gem. Like, people don't necessarily think that, you know, Cornell and Ithaca has this great pipeline into New York City, like investment banking.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: But that's something that I'm sure you're hearing about when candidates are applying, because they probably catch on to that.
[00:07:35] Speaker C: We have a very strong and very structured process for investment banking. First of all, our faculty, one of our faculty leads, Drew Pascarella, who's phenomenal, has really done a great job of really structuring the investment banking process, especially through our immersion learning program, as well as our career management center, as well as our professional student clubs and organizations, you name it. There's so much that our community does in the investment banking space, as well as other areas to really prepare our students for, you know, their post MBA goals. But, yes, if you. If you're not familiar with Cornell investment banking, please feel free to reach out. I'm happy to have further conversations.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: Okay, excellent. Well, I appreciate you making time, Eddie. It's been. It's always fun to catch up, but I know you're busy here, so I'll let you get back to the conference. But, yeah, thanks for making some time to do this.
[00:08:25] Speaker C: Absolutely. Graham, always a pleasure, and thank you.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: All right.
