Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Welcome to the clear Admit MBA admissions podcast. I'm Graham Richmond, and you are about 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 at the GMAT conference and I'm sitting with Sheri Huber. What's your title, Sherry?
[00:01:43] Speaker C: Hey, there I am. My title is associate dean of admissions for Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: And I always say fuqua. Fu qualify. That's how we remember. At least I clear admit when I think of how to say the name. Do you guys say you say that internally too, or.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: No?
[00:02:00] Speaker C: Well, you know, we're a little bit more inclusive.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: Okay. All right. All right.
[00:02:07] Speaker C: But we do have a really fun video on how to pronounce it.
[00:02:10] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:02:11] Speaker C: Ok. And it is cute, but like, few.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Yeah, ok. Got it. So I appreciate you making time to chat. I know there are a million things you could be doing while we're at the conference, but I wanted to ask you. The first question that I've been asking people over the course of the conference is, what's your point of view on artificial intelligence and applicants using tools like chat, GPT, or whatever generative AI tools they have at their disposal when it comes to producing materials for the application process.
[00:02:37] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks for asking that question.
Personally, I am really intrigued by it, and I am trying to educate myself on it and my team as much as possible. I think it is here to stay, and there is a lot of really great productivity enhancements that can be done with AI. And so to that point, we recognize that that might be the same for individuals applying to our programs, that it might be a useful tool in their full toolkit of what they use to apply to a program. So people use Grammarly, people use submissions consultants, people use other editing tools and resources to make sure that they're putting their best foot forward. And so we are open to people using it. We do have a disclaimer in our application instructions that say that if you do use it, then we expect for it to still be authentically used. So we jokingly say that AI stands for authentic individuality. And so whatever you do provide to us should still be factual representation of who you are.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: That makes sense. And so, the next question I wanted to ask you is very much related. So, I'm a big fan of the essay that you guys have in your application. You've had it for many years now. It's this 25 random things about you. And I learned from one of your colleagues that you guys used to do this internally as an exercise. When a new team member joined the admissions committee, they would have to fill out this 25 random things, and then it became an essay question.
[00:04:09] Speaker C: That is exactly right. And to this day, we still do it. So every new member who joins the admissions team, they. They provide the team with their 25 random facts.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Oh, wow. That's great.
[00:04:18] Speaker C: I did it. And to this day, every other admissions team that joins us, member that joins us does it as well.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: So talk to me about, like. So I'm a candidate and I'm applying to Fuqua.
Any tips on, like, how do I approach this? Cause that's. It could be. I mean, I think it's interesting in the context of AI, because I feel like it's sort of, you know, chat. TPT is not gonna come up with 25 random things about you. I mean, as an individual, that's, you know, and maybe. But how would you go about, like, starting that process if you're trying to write this?
[00:04:47] Speaker C: Yeah, I wouldn't use GBT right here. 25. That is not at all what we are recommending, but so I think a lot of people approach it just thinking about things that are unique about themselves. Maybe it's what you like, what you dislike. Maybe it's your experiences that you've had. It can be things that are about you yourself, or it could be things about your family, your upbringing, your, you know, what you are good at, your talents, some unique things situation that you found yourself in. And what insights did you gain from that? So they're usually not just one liners, okay? They're usually kind of a fact plus some context around why that fact is relevant or makes sense or special or meaningful to you.
But we encourage people to seek help from their friends, their family. Ask them, like, what are the quirky things about me? Or what are the things that, you know, unique or that you love about me that I wouldn't necessarily think about myself. Right.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: That's a good idea.
[00:05:49] Speaker C: So there's a lot of different ways you can approach it. You know, you can do kind of just a data dump and then go back and, you know, sometimes you, everyone gets challenged with, what can I think about? Right. So I would not just limit it to the yourself, but I would also try and think about your ecosystem around you, your lived experiences.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:06:10] Speaker C: And you can go as far back as you want.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:13] Speaker C: You know, you can, you know, talk about things that you want to do, that, you know, places you want to go and why. I mean, there's so many different angles and avenues. It really is random. Right. So if you think about that, too, there doesn't need to be a pattern. The one thing that I do, I would recommend people not spend a ton of their real estate on that essay is talking about their professional experiences and background, because we get that from your resume.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: Right. Okay.
[00:06:40] Speaker C: And so we really want to know what makes you, you, what makes you tick, what are your lived experiences? Something that's probably more personal.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: Okay.
I mean, it feels to me like the kind of exercise where I wouldn't want to sit down at my computer and be like, now I'm writing this essay. Like, it feels like over the course of a week or two, I should be, like, making notes, like, start, you know, and maybe you come up with a list of more than 25 things to start and then maybe pare it down. But I love this. It just seems like such a fun exercise. And also, I just feel like for you all, it's gotta be fun to read these. It's just so different than my career goals are this or that. And I've done, you know, this just feels more like you're gonna get at the authentic candidate. So what a great. Yeah, I'm a big fan.
[00:07:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: Thank you. So the last thing I wanted to ask you, shifting gears a little bit, what? Have you observed any trends in candidates kind of career interests? Because, you know, even at this conference, we're hearing a lot about, you know, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, artificial intelligence. And I'm just wondering, like, are you seeing that stuff manifest in when, you know, when candidates are writing essays or filling out their application forms and, you know, in terms of their planned goals post MBA, or is it still sort of similar to years past?
[00:07:55] Speaker C: Yeah. So I asked my team to do some actual data gathering on that. We have a question in our application about future career interests.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:02] Speaker C: And the top for this particular incoming class, top four industries of interest continue to be consulting, financial services, healthcare and technology.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:13] Speaker C: There's a much greater interest, though, this year in health than last year, which I thought was interesting. And we do have a number of programs that really focus on healthcare or health sector management programs.
Technology as a sector is slightly down, but still in the top three industries of interest.
Financial services, again slightly down this year from last year, but again, still in the top four. Social sustainability are flat at about 10% of the students incoming expressing interest there.
Consulting is still the largest percentage. Media, sports and entertainment, slightly up this year, which again, I think aligns well with Duke University, but it's still not a huge percentage of the overall.
And then consumer goods interest is a fair amount as well this year, which I thought was interesting. So in terms of AI, we don't ask the question.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:07] Speaker C: But I have to think that, you know, when people are thinking about technology, careers, it's embedded in that somewhere. And then we do. We will be having probably a course coming up that's focused on it. Don't have a lot of details yet, but so we are, anecdotally, people are asking more about, like, what curriculum are we doing in this space versus, like, I am interested in.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Right, okay. That makes sense. I appreciate you pulling these numbers. Like, this is really interesting. I think healthcare is very interesting to me because on the show we do talk a lot about different schools. And when candidates are, we do our weekly wiretaps thing where we talk about candidates and their profiles and what they want to do. And Fuqua comes up a lot with respect to healthcare.
And so that makes sense that you're seeing that. And I always thought in the wake of the pandemic, we would see just an increased interest and even this intersection of, like, artificial intelligence and biotech. And there's going to be a lot of things coming from guests.
[00:10:05] Speaker C: It's an exciting time.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's what I love about management education, is that it's so malleable, and the skills that you learn in business school are so relevant. You know, even though, you know, there are all these things that are changing, we still need managers, you know, probably more than ever. Right.
I appreciate you making time to do this. I know it's been. You know, it's been a long time that I've been wanting to talk to you on the show, and we should do a proper, like, full on episode at some time, at some point about just your whole admissions process and everything. But thanks for making time. I know you could be doing many other things while you're at the GMAT conference, but it's a pleasure to catch up.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: Well, it's always fun to catch up with you, Graham, and I appreciate all that you're doing for general management education. You and Claire admit and Jamera and the folks that you have around you are just really great, top notch caliber, high caliber. So really appreciate all that you're doing as well.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: Thanks for saying that. Appreciate that. All right, we'll talk to you soon. Okay.
