The Personal Touch: Meeting an Admissions Officer

Many Success Story interviewees cite a positive interaction with a representative of a prospective school as being profoundly influential in their decision to attend. For example, Damien Liot met MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership Director Stephen Sacca at an MBA Center presentation last year. Following the presentation, Damien had the chance to talk to Stephen to discuss the school and many of the questions and concerns he had regarding his application. Damien cited that personal interaction he had with Stephen as an influencing factor on why he applied.

In times like these, when most candidates learn about a school from its website or rankings that may or may not be addressing their particular interests and concerns, meeting a representative of a school can give you excellent insight in a significant investment you are about to make.

That is why MBA Center works with the world's top MBA programs in order to give our students a consistently convenient opportunity to meet the top business schools. Just last year, schools like HEC Paris, Kellogg, INSEAD, Chicago GSB, Stanford, IMD, and MIT visited MBA Center campuses throughout Europe looking to meet candidates and discuss the details of their programs.

In December 2007, INSEAD sent admissions officers to give presentations in several MBA Centers such as Paris, Rome, and London. The Paris presentation fielded nearly 75 candidates and was followed by an informal reception that allowed interested candidates to ask admissions officers any range of questions.

MBA Center Brussels, in its turn, hosted an MBA Day featuring top-ranked schools from Benelux: RSM, Vlerick, and Solvay. The panel discussion with admissions officers of these three leading MBA programs, moderated by Hubert Silly, proved to be an enormous success, giving a possibility to our students to meet the schools' representatives before the application period.

The point of the presentation is generally for informational purposes. An admissions officer will discuss the background of the school and other pertinent information in an effort to help build a view of what the school may look like. They may also seek to tailor the presentation to a particular audience by addressing questions the candidates might have.