- Welcome to you all, and thank
you so much for joining us for Inside the Admissions Committee. We are super excited to
know that you're tuning in to learn helpful information
so that you can submit a competitive application
for the daytime program here at the Fuqua School of Business. My name is Jessica Brown, and I'm joined by four
of my amazing colleagues, and each person will talk
about different components of the application, and
give you helpful information to make sure that you'll
be ready to hit submit when you're ready to submit
your application for admission. Joining me today I have Lauren Sutherland, and Lauren will discuss
the academic components of the application, specifically
the undergraduate GPA, your transcripts, as well as everybody's
absolute favorite part which is the GMAT and or the GRE. Next we'll have Morgan Griffin, and Morgan will discuss the essays for the daytime MBA program application, as well as the resume, and
give helpful information about the essays and resume format. Following Morgan we have Natasha Gore, and Natasha will speak
to your work experience, as well as the importance of
selecting your recommenders for the letters of recommendation form with your application. And then last but not least,
we have Lauren Sutherland. And Lauren will discuss the leadership and involvement components
of your application, as well as the admissions interview. Sorry guys, it's early in the morning, and my voice is a little raspy. But again, we wanna thank you
so much for joining us today. Each panelist will take
a couple of minutes to discuss the components
of the application, and then once they're done,
we're gonna open it up to you. So please be sure to submit questions as we're going through today's session, and we wanna give you as
much helpful information and tips as possible. So, again, thank you for joining us today. So Lauren, do you mind starting us off with discussing the academic
portion of the application? - Absolutely. So, the academic component
is a little bit tricky because there's only a little bit that's still in your control. So I'll start with the two
factors that we evaluate that aren't in your control anymore, and that would be your undergraduate GPA and the undergraduate
institution that you attended. So we're going to look at
your GPA and your transcripts to get a sense for your trajectory, and how you performed in
your undergraduate work. We'd love to see that you improved from your first year up until graduation, and as you hit your major classes that things really started to click, but we know that sometimes
there are bumps in the road and that's okay. We're all human, so we're
expecting to see a few bumps on your transcript and that's all right. We also look at the strength of your undergraduate institution and how you challenged yourself with the courses that you chose to take. We would expect if you went
to a really challenging undergraduate that your GPA
may not be quite as strong, so that helps us balance out
your undergraduate performance. You can't do anything about
that, so don't worry too much, but the one piece that you can control now is the standardized test. And at Fuqua we accept the GMAT
and the GRE interchangeably. We want you to take the
test that's best for you. If you haven't taken
either, start with the GMAT, it's the business school
test so you might as well check your quantitative
chops by taking the GMAT. And then if you find that
you actually perform better on the GRE, that's okay too. Please submit that score, if
you have taken both tests, submit both scores to us. The admissions committee
will use whichever one helps you the most in your application. If the academics are a
sticking point for you, one way that you can help us understand why you are ready for an MBA and how you'll be
successful in the classroom is to use the optional
statement to explain anything in your transcript
that might cause us a pause or a question, or to explain a test score that isn't indicative of
your academic ability. - Awesome, thanks, Lauren. Morgan, can you give us some
information about the essays and how to submit a resume
with their application? - Absolutely. I think essays, we will usually agree that it's our favorite
part of the application. This is the part of your application where we get to learn more about you beyond your test scores,
beyond your resume. We get to really see your personality. So when people ask, how can I stand out in
the application pool, this is a great place to start. Our first essays or questions are going to be short answer questions, and those will be focused around, what are your MBA goals as
well as your Plan B goal. So those are just some short answers, but then we do have our famous
25 random things about you. I will add that as being a member on the admissions committee, we have also had to fill out
the 25 random things essay as well, so we understand that sometimes it can be a little challenging to talk about yourself
in 25 different ways. But really in this essay
we are looking to learn more about you. Was there something that
happened in your life that made a big impact? What are you passionate
about, what makes you tick, what do you love, do you
have a favorite food item? We really love to see your
personality come through and learn more about you. This should not reflect
anything that's written on your resume, this is
truly you outside of work, outside of your academics, and really just about you as a person. The next essay is focused around, how do you plan to make
an impact here at Fuqua, and why is Fuqua a good choice for you. So really read that
essay question carefully to make sure that you are
answering that question. This is also a great place where if you've done any
additional research on Fuqua, maybe you've talked to
our students, or alumni, or attended an event or
came for a campus visit, this is a great place to
talk about that experience. What did you learn about Fuqua and why do you see yourself
fitting in here at Fuqua and making an impact both inside and outside of the classroom? But again, just pay close
attention to that essay question. My advice with it is, if
you've written your essay, give it to somebody else
without the essay prompt, and if they're able to guess
what that essay prompt is, then you've answered the question. As Lauren mentioned too, we do
have the optional statement, and that will be in this
part of the application where you can explain any
gaps in work experience, or anything that you would just like to let the admissions committee
know about your application. The other thing we'll look
at with your application, as Jessica mentioned, is your resume. We want this to be a one page snapshot of what you have accomplished
in your work experience post-graduate, undergraduate, rather. So we really wanna see
have you managed people, budgets, or projects. We wanna see, what have
your accomplishments been? We don't want this to
be a technical resume where you have lots of your
industry jargon or lingo, we want this to be an easy to read resume where we can really
understand what have you done during your time in your career, in this job or previous jobs as well. You can also list any extracurricular
activities you've done but make sure you just
use that resume page, that one page, again, wisely. It's really valuable real estate, and we really just wanna know
what your accomplishments are in your work experience. - Awesome. So, Natasha, I think that's a great segue into talking about work experience. Can you share some information
about what we're looking for in the applicant's work experience and how that directly connects to their letters of recommendation? - Yes, definitely. So one of the things
that we get asked a lot is about the average number
of years of work experience. So for those that have looked
at our MBA class profile, you'll see that our incoming students have about five years of work experience. And I think we get a lot
of questions around, well, if I have less years of work experience or more years of work experience,
where does that put me as it relates to my
competitiveness as an applicant. And we would like for you
to know that we understand that you might have less or more average years of work experience
than our typical class, what it says in our class profile. But you're really, as Morgan said, going to be giving us information about the depth and breadth of your work. So have you been managing
projects, people, or budgets, and a lot of that will be
reflected in your resume. We also have a work experience section within the application, so you're going to be
filling out information within our form that says
the jobs that you've had, we're going to be asking
for data points like salary, and starting title, and
all of this information is going to be great
for us to get a sense of where you are within your particular job, and how you've made an impact. One of the tips that I would give is, we have a piece on the
work experience section that asks why you left your previous job. I would say that it would
be to your advantage to fill that information out to give us a little bit more information. Sometimes people will say
something as brief as, I was looking for an
additional opportunity in sales so that I could grow
in that particular way, and that's great, but this just gives us a little bit more
information to understand your particular work trajectory. And as Morgan said, you're
going to want to reflect all of the various ways that you've grown in your job within your resume. And there might be other opportunities within the application that you see fit to
reflect on that as well. In the optional essay, for example, if there are anomalies
within your work experience or things that you want to
explain a little bit further, then you can use that optional essay to give us a little bit more detail about your particular work experience. Lastly I would say that
we have a huge percentage of our class that is coming
into the program every year that might consider
themselves non-traditional, and I think that that term is probably gonna
continue to be phased out, just because there are so
many different backgrounds and so many different fields and roles that our students represent. And we are open and willing
to have applications from people from across the board. So not just people who have
had direct work experience within the corporate world, but people who have
been teachers or nurses, or in the medical field,
or in the legal field, because we know that that
particular employment diversity is going to round out our class well. Another component of the application that you may think you might
not have a lot of control over is the letters of recommendation. We do ask for two
professional recommendations as a part of your application, and we use the common letter
of recommendation form. And we're asking that
one of those recommenders be your current immediate supervisor. What we'd love to see
in these recommendations is that they're reflecting
on all of the things that you have said within your resume and within your essays about
how your work experience has played out within your
career, and how you have grown. And so we'd love to
have those recommenders reflect on that experience. So what this is going to entail for you is some background work and research prior to submitting your application and prior to requesting
those recommendations. One tip that I would
suggest is to start early with having the conversation with your current immediate
supervisor or past supervisors to help them understand what your goal is as it relates to applying
for business school, what kinds of things you'd
like to do with your MBA, and remind them of some of the things that have made you an asset
within the organization. For some of you it might not be possible to ask your current immediate supervisor, you might be waiting for
an important promotion, or you just don't want
to disclose at this point that you're going to be pursuing an MBA and essentially leaving the
company, and that's okay. You can ask a past supervisor or someone else in a leadership role to reflect on your experience, and then just tell us
briefly in the optional essay that you have asked someone
other than your current immediate supervisor to
make your recommendation. One last thing I would suggest is to start very early with this process. The recommenders might be
submitting recommendations for lots of people. They might only be submitting
a recommendation for you, however they are likely to be someone that has a very busy schedule, and you don't want that
to be the component that holds up your
application from being read in the cycle that you intend to apply. So make sure that you're
giving them ample time to submit that recommendation, write all of those good things. I will say that it's best
to have these conversations in person, or over the phone
if you absolutely have to, but I would caution against sending your potential recommenders
written information about some of your accomplishments. Just because as they are getting busy and they're under the gun with submitting that recommendation, it might be all too easy
for them to cut and paste the information that you've submitted, which then could result
in a recommendation that is not in their genuine voice. In general, these are going
to be somewhat of a capstone to your application, and
really give us a sense of how someone from the
outside is viewing you compared to how you've described yourself. - Thank you, Natasha. Lauren, we often get
questions about the leadership and involvement component
of the application, and also interviews, especially
the open interview season versus invitation only. So do you mind explaining
the two components, as well? - Sure. So, one of the best ways
to differentiate yourself as a candidate at Fuqua is through our leadership
and involvement section. This is the opportunity where
you get to share with us what you do outside of
your work environment. A couple of examples of things
that you're able to share, activities from undergrad. Undergrad is a part of your life story, that's a little snippet of who you are and where you've come from until you get to this point at Fuqua. And so if you were involved in a sorority, a sport, a club, or
nonprofit work in undergrad, we wanna know about that,
that's where you would put it, in the leadership and involvement section. Similarly, at your current company, if you're involved in
some sort of club or, the Care Committee, for example, and you set up happy hours after work, that's where you would include it in the leadership and involvement. Or something along the lines of more traditional
non-profit volunteer work. With leadership and involvement, we care about quality over quantity. So while there are quite a few openings in the application for
you to fill them out, we would rather see a handful of them that really show your
passion and your commitment to that activity than just filling it out just to look like you are
very involved outside of work. So make sure to show your
passion and your commitment in longevity to things that you are investing your time in outside of work. When it comes to the interview, we have invitation only interviews, and then we also have open season. Open season comes at the
late summer, early fall, so mid-September to mid-October, and this is where we open up the campus to anyone applying any around, early action through round three, who wants to come and interview. They feel really confident,
they feel prepared, well-researched and ready, and they don't wanna wait to be invited. And so they can come onto campus, we have our calendar open on the website, and you sign up for a slot
and you come and interview. The only caveat is that
you have to have started an application. So you started an account with us, just start your application
and then come and interview. If you are not ready,
please don't feel pressured to come and interview during
open interview season. That will not count against
you if you decide that you are wanting to wait to be
invited to an interview only. Our interviews will happen through a couple of different avenues. So typically we host them here on campus with our second year students, they're called our admissions fellows. If you are abroad or an
international applicant and you're not able to come
to campus to interview, you're able to interview
either via Skype request or through an alumni in your
region or in your home country. And then for folks on the west coast that are not able to come to
our campus here in Durham, we also have a San Francisco hub as well. The interview will be about
a 40 to 45 minute process, and it's really a
conversation back and forth. So while we will be asking questions to get to know you and your interests in our program and in our culture, we also encourage you to ask
the interviewer questions. You're looking for a program that's a really good fit for you, and when you are face to face with someone that has lived that experience, that's one of the best opportunities you have to ask about that. So that's going to be the interview, and we've heard really great things, it's one of the best
experiences that they've had when they come on campus, and so we hope that you
enjoy that process as well. - Awesome, thank you, Lauren. So we have received a couple
of questions from you all, and happy as much as possible to answer what we can during the time that we have. The first question I think
is a really good segue from the interview component, because it's referencing coming to campus and having a campus visit. The question essentially is asking, am I at a disadvantage if I
am not able to come to campus and visit campus before
I submit my application. And how does that potentially impact my candidacy for admission. - Yeah, I think, that's a great question,
I think it's really valid, especially for folks that
live a little bit further away and it's hard to get here. I would say it definitely
will not harm your candidacy. What we're looking for is a passion and a commitment to not only our program and curriculum, but also our community. And so there are a lot of
different avenues and ways that you can show that
interest and that commitment, as well as that genuine
knowledge and research, versus just copying and pasting or mimicking what you see on the website. And so a couple of the
things that you can do is what you're doing right now, you're watching a virtual webinar and you're showing
engagement and interest, and a desire to learn
about what we're about and what our curriculum
and culture is about. You can also connect with
our student ambassadors. We have a link on our website
that will take you to a page with all of our student volunteers. They come from various cultures, work experience backgrounds,
amounts of work experience, and they are wonderful
resources for our applicants to learn about what it's
like inside the classroom from a first-hand experience. And so those are two really solid ways that you're able to connect and engage without actually coming to campus. Another way to engage with
Fuqua or with our community is through our alumni. We have an incredible and
really extensive alumni network, and they are all over the world. Virtually in every country, and so if you were go onto LinkedIn or maybe connect with
one of us counselors, we could help you connect with a really strong alumni as well. - Very good. One thing I would like to add is if you are able to come to campus, go out and see Durham
as well, not just Fuqua. This is an amazing city, and I think we all love the
lives that we have here. There's so much to do, if you like food the way that we do there's so many restaurants
and so many options. Whether you're coming
with families and partners and you love the recreational
aspect of the city, and being able to go to baseball games or the numerous parks that we have. If you enjoy music and the arts, there's the Durham Performing Arts Center. So just as much as you want to consider the Fuqua community and culture and the Duke University campus, you also wanna consider Durham. Wherever you're gonna be studying, it's gonna be either like the
best two years of your life, or potentially not so much. And so you wanna make sure that
you make the right decision and that you're in a place that will feed your personal interests and desires as well as your professional as well. So, thank you for that. There is a question, Lauren, in regards to the GRE and the GMAT. Is there an impact, either
negative or positive, if someone decides to take
the GRE instead of the GMAT? - Sure. When we look at a GRE score, we're going to plug it
into a converter tool to get a sense for what
it would be as a GMAT. You can also find a converter tool online if you Google that. And we're hoping to see that you fall within our published ranges of the GMAT. We don't publish any
ranges of the GRE yet, we don't have a critical
mass to report on that yet, but if you fall close to our 80% range with the GMAT with your conversion, then you should feel really
good about your GRE score. But the admissions committee is going to look at your GRE in the
best light possible. The only other thing to consider is what fields you'll be recruiting for, and whether or not employers
that you're interested in have a preference between
the GMAT or the GRE. So be sure that you've done your research, talk with students to make sure that you're setting
yourself up for success both on the admissions front
and then the recruiting front with the Career Management Center. - Thank you. Natasha, we have a question
about work experience, specifically candidates that
may have changed their roles what may be considered frequently. Working from one company to another, maybe perhaps within about
a year or two difference. How does the admissions
committee view a candidate that may have had frequent job switches? - So we all have different trajectories within our work experience, and some of us have been in
roles that it would make sense that you would be in
that role for five years, and you would move up
within that particular role. And some of us have been in industries where it might be common to switch roles. And you also know that you
have had very specific reasons for why you have left a job, why you have pursued another job. For us, the key is gonna be transparency. So if you can give us information
about that work trajectory and help us understand what
that looks like for you, and give us the sense that
these decisions were made from a standpoint of
maturity and thoughtfulness, rather than flightiness. Of course if we're going to
be looking at your resume and we see it's jumped all over the place, then we might have the
first inclination to think, oh gosh, what is going on? Why is this person
continually leaving a job to get a new job? But you can reflect very
easily in your optional essay to say, hey, I just wanna
make sure that you know I'm aware that my work experience
could look a certain way. And let me explain how that
looked from my standpoint, and how each and every
move has been strategic and has been something that
has enhanced my career. It's possible that you have the opinion that those moves have not been strategic, and even in that situation we would appreciate the transparency, just so that you are
demonstrating self-awareness throughout the application process. We understand a lot of
different things can happen as it relates to certain
fields and the economy, and there are some jobs that are a bit more volatile than others. But giving us that
information is going to help put everything within your
application in context as we're comparing applications and various work experiences. - And that might be a great reason to come and do an open interview
on campus if you're able. That gives you a chance to
explain your work experience in person, in an evaluative manner, which helps provide more context in the written part of your application. - There are a couple of
questions about interviews, particularly Skype interviews. For example, an applicant may
have had a last minute change in a work assignment and they are now traveling internationally
or may not be able to come to campus as previously assumed. Do we offer Skype interviews,
and how flexible are we with assigning alumni interviews as well? - So, we prefer for you to
indicate on your application where you want to interview, and to stick with that whenever possible. We have interview windows
set up for a reason, and we wanna make sure
that you're able to come to an interview and have the
best experience possible. In extenuating circumstances, we will accommodate a
Skype interview if we can, and those extenuating circumstances are typically if you
are located in an area where we don't have an alumni interviewer, or it's impossible for
you to get to campus. You will still prepare for that interview just like you would an on campus
or an in person interview, it'll most likely be with one
of our second year students. But those are pretty rare, as we really want you to
connect with the community in person, whether that's here
in Durham or with an alum, we feel like it's important
for you to get that connection to Fuqua during the interview so that you have a really genuine feel for what it's like to be
a member of our community. - And when it comes to scheduling
interviews with our alumni if you do decide to do that route and you're not able to come to campus, usually those are either on selected days that you'll be notified about depending on what region you're in, or it might be you and
the alumni interviewer agreeing on a joint time
that works for both of you. So it will vary region to region, but they are very flexible
in working with you to make sure that you have time
to not only meet with them, but they have time to meet with you. - And for those that ultimately know that they're going to be
doing a Skype interview, whether or not it's a situation
where it's last minute, just also know that you might be doing some additional things to
prepare for that Skype interview than you would when you're preparing for an in-person interview. All of the technical aspects of that, to make sure that you're giving yourself the best possible process, and to make sure that you're putting your best face forward, literally. And so that could be
positioning of the camera on the laptop, making sure
that when you're calling in, you have a strong internet connection, so that you're not leaning
over looking into a camera, that you're looking straight at them, that the background is
appropriate and not distracting, there's not people walking by,
it's not in a public place, and that you are fully dressed
in professional clothing just as you would be for
an in-person interview. Just in case someone rings the doorbell and you need to run and get it, then we would like to see
that there's a suit pant, or something. (all chuckling) - Awesome. One question that we get as
counselors quite frequently is, how do I determine which round is the best round for me to apply? - Great question. - We offer a total of
four application rounds, the first being early action,
round one, two and three. Can we talk a little bit
about each of those rounds, more so probably early action. Why would someone choose
to apply in early action, perhaps versus round one or round two, and is there a difference in admissibility or competitiveness between the rounds? That's one of the questions
that's being asked. - Yeah, so, I think with early action, and I think Lauren Aagard
touched on this a little bit, is that early action's for people that have really done their research. They know that Fuqua is their top choice, especially since the early action round is a binding decision. So if admitted, you
will be attending Fuqua. That really, I can't stress enough, is for people that just for sure know that Fuqua is the right place for them. If you plan on applying to other schools, which we completely understand that you might be
applying to other schools, and that is completely fine, that will be up to you to decide what round you should apply in. We do admit people in
all rounds of admission, we also have scholarship
in all rounds of admission. We would say that though for
international applicants, though, specifically, we
would ask that you apply by round two. That is just so if you are admitted, you have enough time to get your visa and international paperwork done in time. We don't want you to be
rushing through that, we understand that sometimes
getting visa interviews might be a long process in some countries, so we do want to give you ample time from the time you're
admitted to make a decision, and then get the ball rolling
on that visa paperwork. But again, when it comes to deciding what round is right for you, it is when that you feel
like your application is the absolute strongest. We would much rather
you apply in round two if it means having a well-written essay, or a more flushed-out MBA goals. Rather than rushing to get it in in early action in round
one because you think that's what you want us to see. Again, we admit people in
all rounds of admission, but it's truly up to when you
feel like your application is as strong as it can be. If it means taking the GMAT
again, refining those essays, making sure your letters of recommendation are well-written and that
your resume is put together. Truly, round one or round two, it's whatever you feel
most comfortable with, or even round three. - In terms of admissibility
between the rounds, in early action, since it's binding, we know that you're going
to say yes to Fuqua. We also have all of our
seats available for the year. So if there's anything in your application that you're worried about, and you know Fuqua's the
place that you wanna be, applying in early action
sets you up for more success than waiting into later rounds
when we have fewer seats, and maybe are trying to fill our class. So apply early if there's a test score that you're not really happy with. If you're a little bit afraid
of your undergraduate GPA. The earlier in the process you can apply, the better off you are, but
between the other rounds, between rounds one, two and three, as Morgan said, we admit in every round, we admit with scholarship in every round, and we have allotted seats
for all of those, too. So there's not a very big difference between our selectivity
in rounds one and two. The difference comes in round three, when we're getting towards
the end of the cycle and many of our seats have been awarded to admitted students. so keep that in mind
when you're considering which rounds to apply. - And there's also one question, or request about tips for re-applicants, and I think that feeds directly into consider applying earlier in the process versus waiting until perhaps round two. If you are a re-applicant, we host and have hosted a
re-applicant webinar every year that kind of gives you
tips and things to consider if you are reapplying, ways to strengthen different
components of your application. Maybe consider retaking the GMAT or taking the GRE this go around, if you've already taken
the GMAT a number of times. Doing a lot of self-refection, and looking for ways that you've grown and enhanced maybe
professional opportunities as well as just personal
growth that you've experienced since submitting your
previous application. The admissions committee, they really want to
see that you're in tune in being able to identify what your weaknesses were previously, have you been able to address them during the time that you
submitted your application. Looking for continued
demonstrated interest in Fuqua. You've done additional research, maybe you've reached out
to more students or alumni, maybe you've had a deeper connection to our community than previously. We're wanting again to make
sure that you understand fit, and that you understand
your personal story, you understand our community, and you're able to demonstrate, this is what I've learned about myself since submitting my previous application. Here are my goals again,
here are my desires, and I believe that Fuqua will help me to accomplish those things in this way. As a re-applicant applying, there are some changes in the application. So you wanna make sure
that you identify those and that those things are clear. There's a re-applicant essay where, again, you'll tell us about the changes from your previous
application to this one. And you're only required to submit one letter of recommendation
instead of two. But again, take the time
to do that self-reflection, to really work on that
level of self-awareness so that the admissions committee can see clear growth and progression from your first application
to your second application. Natasha, there's a question in regards to our diversity weekend,
specifically, and it asked, essentially, events like the
women's leadership weekend and the minority workshop, how do they help to add
value to an application, and how can someone take
advantage of those weekends if they're thinking about applying? - So first of all we host
four diversity weekends in the fall starting with
our Veteran Symposium, then our Women's Leadership Weekend, our MBA minority workshop, and ending with our LGBTQ weekend. And all of those weekend
applications are now live, you are able to submit what
we call a questionnaire to be considered for those weekends. It's very basic and simple,
we're asking for a resume and why you wanna pursue an MBA, and we're reviewing those questionnaires and accepting people into the weekend. And a lot of our determination
is just based on space, so we want as many people
as possibly to apply and hopefully attend those weekends. The value add for those
weekends is similar to what you would get at a campus visit, but maybe a little bit more robust. You are going to be in a
setting where there's people who have had similar experiences as you, maybe professionally, and maybe be facing some of the same challenges as it relates to their application. For example, with our military, all of them are thinking
about how their work is going to translate to our application, and what that looks like, and how they're going to even describe some components of their jobs that they're notable to talk about. So being in that setting and understanding that someone is going through
that same process as you and talking that through, and then talking to our
current students about what they did as they were
preparing their applications is really helpful. It's also just a fun
weekend to get to know so many different people involved in Fuqua and involved in your application process. From the current student
to the faculty members that will be presenting our mock classes, to all of the admissions committee members that will be involved in the weekend. And for some of these weekends there's a huge alumni component as well. For example, with the
MBA minority workshop, there's anywhere from 50 to 100 alumni who come back to that event
every year as a reunion. This is a perfect opportunity for you to get in front of them, understand their Fuqua experience, and it might be something
that you may reflect on in your application as
you are thinking about how you might make an impact
when you are at Fuqua. So it just gives you
that much more exposure and opportunities to think
about the Fuqua community, learn us, get to know us, and it's a perfect time to evaluate whether or not you feel like
this is the type of place that you would want to spend two years. And it gives you a little
bit more time to do that rather than a traditional campus visit that you might only be on campus for a day, a day and a half. So I would encourage
anyone who is interested to apply for those weekends, again, those applications are all open now, some of them are closing
within the next month or so. And we would love to see you on campus for one of those exciting weekends. - Thank you. The 50 thousand dollar question. How much time do we spend
reviewing applications? What does the application process review look like for candidates? We spend hours upon hours. - Days.
- Upon days. - Weeks, upon weeks. (all chuckling) - Reviewing your applications,
and this is very intentional. Because one, you've put
a lot of effort and work into submitting the best application and most competitive application possible, and so we owe it to you
to make sure that we're doing the same when we
are reviewing your files. So we have a very thorough
application review process, and we're very passionate about that, because we're wanting to
continue to emphasize that there is no perfect equation
that we use for admission. Meaning you won't necessarily be admitted because you have a certain GMAT score, or a GPA and that just
comes to a magical admit. That's not the case at all. Each aspect of the application helps us to understand whom
you are as an individual, and provide different data points to us to see again how well
you fit in our community, and how well you'll
perform in our community if you were to be admitted. Each application is read twice
by two different readers. It goes through numerous
admissions committees reviews. Literally between 10 to 15
people will learn about you as we're going through and
that's by no exaggeration at all. The admissions committee is made up of a number of different individuals, and we're all wanting
to review and make sure, A, that we are admitting candidates that will have an impact in our program, B, that they've proven that Fuqua is the place that they want to be. That Fuqua will provide
the tools necessary for them to achieve
their professional goals as well as any personal growth that they can experience
while they're here. We're also wanting to make
sure that they can give back, that they can contribute
and have an impact in the community, and that
their classmates' experiences will be enhanced as a result of them being in our community, as well. We are very intentional, again, about making sure that
everything is checked two, three, five, ten thousand times, and that we are again admitting
applicants into our program that will help the class be the strongest that it could possibly be. Anybody wanna add anything to that, or, no? - I think you hit all the high points. (chuckling) - Very good. So again, we respect the
hard work that you've done, and we want to make
sure that we honor that through the application process. So you will never hear an
admissions counselor from Fuqua say, oh yeah, this plus
this will equal admission, because there are so many
different components. Everyone's story is different, and we're wanting to make sure, again, that we're adding strong, competitive applications into our program. Okay. We have quite a few questions, you guys, so thank you very much. Lauren Aagard, there's
a question that asks, what are the principles
and values of Team Fuqua? I know you do a lot of
work with the students that volunteer here in the lounge. If you were to ask a student that, what do you think they would say, what do you think their
response could potentially be as far as Fuqua values and principles? - If I were to ask a student what their values and
principles were, man. That's a loaded question,
it's a great question. So I work with both our
first and second year student volunteers, and just a quick
backstory to my answer is, recently we did interviews for our admissions representative
coordinator program, and essentially those are
our first year students that make your wonderful
campus visits happen. So when you come onto campus
they're the friendly faces that check you in, they're
the chatty, awesome, outgoing folks that are keeping
you company in the lounge as you're nervously
anticipating your interview. They're taking you on
the tour of our campus. So we just went through that process, interviewed quite a few students, and when I asked them what their favorite aspect of Fuqua was, it was in relation to that
question which was, the people. The people that are so
team-oriented and so others-focused, and a couple of the stories
that they told me were, one woman said the reason
why she chose Fuqua was because when she was here for Women's Leadership Weekend last year, she was looking for the student store to bring some goodies
back home for her family, and a student say that she was lost. And he walked a quarter of a
mile across campus with her just to show her where
the student store was. And so selflessness is
one of those values. The team component, that we are a family, and that you cannot be successful here unless you work together, and I love that. Another story is, if you're here and you're
recruiting for consulting, which is one of the more
popular things to recruit for, and also very nerve wracking
and very competitive. We have students time and
time again that have told us, I was really nervous, there were x amount of us
interviewing for one position, and after my classmate came
out from that interview, he told me what the questions were, and he tried to help prep me. And these are people that are
competing for the same jobs. And so when you come
here on campus, again, just to emphasize, attending
a diversity weekend, or attending a campus visit,
you will hear so many times about the wonderful people and
their value of selflessness, community, engaging with one
another, having high principles in the classroom and sticking to them. Holding each other accountable. You find a group of people
that are incredibly ambitious, and really excited to take the privilege of a wonderful education here at Fuqua and give it back to their community, whether it's domestically or abroad. And so those are just a handful of things that I would say would represent kind of what we stand
for here at Team Fuqua. - Great, thank you.
- Mm-hmm. - Morgan, there's a question about, how do I address weaknesses
in my application. Can you tie that back
to the optional essay? Like what's good to include in there and what are things that
they should not include? - Yeah, so this is
really, as we mentioned, a great place to explain
anything in your application. I always say, if you
had five minutes to talk in front of the admissions committee, what's one thing you couldn't
put in your application that you'd just want to share? So this can be reflective
of your academic experience in your undergrad years. We all know that you can't
go back and change that, but did you maybe switch programs or switch concentrations or majors, did you maybe have a difficult year but you were able to show that you did improve in those grades. You can include that. Any gaps in work experience, if you had to take time off
to maybe help a family member. We are all human and we
understand that life happens. So this is really a place where you can elaborate on your application, you don't want to leave any gaps for us. We read a lot of applications, and so you don't want us
trying to come up with a story that it might not be what your story is. So don't leave any room for that. Be, as Natasha mentioned, be
as transparent as possible. But don't also feel like you need to spill everything about your life in that optional statement as well. Really keep those to maybe
some short bulleted points, it doesn't need to be a full long essay. It can be a couple of sentences of, I had to take time off
from work for three years because I was helping a family member, I'm back now and I've taken on
additional responsibilities. That's all we need to know. It's just basic transparency on any parts of your application that you would just
like to further address. This is also a great place, as Natasha mentioned with
letters of recommendation, that if you can't get
your current supervisor to write your letter of recommendation, maybe you work in a family business, you own your own business, you
have a changing supervisor, this is a great place to just explain those circumstances around your selection. So really, again, it's
a chance for you to just address anything that you
might think is a weakness, or elaborate a little bit more on. I always try to say, it's not
to highlight your weaknesses in your application, it's to
explain maybe something that we might not fully understand,
know the full story about. - Thank you. Natasha, Morgan and Lauren, as the international market leads, we read a lot of
international applications. So there are a couple of
questions in particular, like for example about
the TOEFL or the IELTSs. And also about undergraduate transcripts, as well, from international institutions. Maybe like each of us could just give like maybe one quick helpful
tip or recommendation that we have for our audience's in particular international applicants. Anything from your region that you'd note, this would be helpful for them to know as they're thinking about
submitting their applications. - One thing that I would mention is that, and this is not always
just for international, because this could relate to some domestic applicants as well. We get a lot of different
college transcripts, and we know that your institution might grade on a different scale than the 4.0 scale
that's common in the US. And we know that some of the things are going to look a little bit different in terms of maybe how many years, or what kinds of coursework
and things like that. It's going to be to your advantage to not try to translate
your GPA to a 4.0 scale even though that's what we're asking for within our application. The section of our application where you're able to list
your undergraduate education and your GPA, you don't have to list a GPA if it is not in the 4.0 scale. And then we'll be able
to see on the transcript what scale that's on, and we also have a
variety of market guides for us to understand
where your school falls in the spectrum of the
schools within your country, or what might be some
common levels of study for people that are within your region. So we understand those things, just let us do the work on
our end to decipher that as opposed to you trying to fit it into, this round peg into a square hole. - Yeah. And I'll add to that, when
we're reading your application, we are well versed in how grading is done in different countries. So we're gonna see it, for example, if you're an Indian applicant, we're gonna see that you
might have first distinction. We understand what that
means, so you don't really, as Natasha mentioned, you
don't need to elaborate, we are well versed in
that and understanding how academics are done
in different countries. I would say any advice for
international applicants, I think a lot of times
international applicants, Lauren Aagard touched on this, of how do I show my interest in Fuqua? And again, going back to
connecting with students. Even if it's over email,
or maybe a WhatsApp phone conversation or anything like that, there are plenty of ways
to show your passion. You attending this information session shows that you're passionate
about learning about Fuqua. So feel free to use those
resources that are close to you, we certainly don't want
you spending a ton of money to come to visit us for one day, we understand that some of those
are very very long flights, and it can be exhausting. So there are lots of resources for you to connect with our community near you, and feel free to reach out to any of us, and we're happy to help
point you in the direction of how to meet with those people. - My piece of advice will
go around accessibility when you're applying. At Fuqua, we don't require
the IELTS or the TOEFL. There's no ESL test that
we ask you to submit. If you have taken it for another school, my typical advice is if you
scored above a 100 on the TOEFL, submit it to us, it's wonderful to see, but it doesn't need to
be the official score, please don't pay to have
anything sent to us. We're fine seeing a screenshot, if you want to send something like that, or nothing at all, because
we don't require that as a part of your application. And then actual undergraduate transcripts, I know depending on where
you studied in the world, can be very difficult to come by. So before you are an admitted student, all we require is your
unofficial transcripts. So that does need to have
the degree that you earned and your institution's name on there, but if there is a digital copy
that you're able to send us, that's wonderful. If you only have one copy of
your undergraduate transcripts, scanning those into us is completely fine. And this year we just changed our policy that you're not going
to be required to submit any transcripts from a study
abroad program separately. If those are listed on your
undergraduate transcript, that's all you need to submit. So we're trying to take down
some of the paperwork barriers of applying that tend to weigh heavier on our international applicants. So look at the Fuqua requirements because I think they're
a little bit lighter in terms of what you have to
provide before you are admitted than many of our competitors. - And in addition to
what's been discussed, the one thing that I would add, a question that I get from time to time, is around the letters of recommendation and the concern of perhaps the recommender may not be fluent in English enough to be able to accurately describe and answer some of the questions that are on the letter of recommendation. And as such, they may inquire about, is it okay to use a
translator or to have someone write the letter for them. Using a translation company is okay. We have seen that in the application. You want to be careful of not
writing the letter for them, even though that might be
tempting from the perspective of wanting to make sure that
their thoughts are articulated, you don't want to go that route. If it could potentially
be that much of a concern, then may consider again whom
your letters of recommendation will come from, because you
do want them to be able to add value to your application, and if we're not able to
understand their thoughts or be able to comprehend the recommendations and the information that they're providing
about the applicant, then it could potentially
put you at a disadvantage. So think of that or consider that when you are selecting your
letters of recommendation. There is a question in
regards to identifying a specific interest at
Fuqua when they're applying. So perhaps they're interested in the health sector management program. Maybe it's MSTeM. Should they identify
that in the application, and what if they get here
and they change their mind and decide that they don't
wanna do that anymore? Does it have any impact at all
on their admissions decision and or what they choose to do
when they get here to Fuqua? - So yeah, you can absolutely, there will be a section
of your application where you can indicate, is there a certain program
that you are interested in. You can also elaborate on
this in your longer essay where it talks about what
is your impact at Fuqua. As Jessica mentioned, maybe you're really interested
in health sector management. So feel free to explain how you might help with our HSM center. You are not, though,
tied, you're not applying to that specific concentration
or certificate or program. So if you get here and
maybe you take a class that completely changes what
you wanted to do post-MBA, that's fine, we will not
come find you and say nope, you applied to this and
this is what you're doing. We understand that business
school is a chance for you to explore different business verticals and maybe find a different passion that you're interested in. I think when you are selecting though something you're interested in, if it ties into what
you're currently doing, maybe you're already in
the healthcare sector, it might be nice to maybe tie that in and kind of link those things together, and weave your story that way. But you can absolutely indicate
what you're interested in, specifically when it comes to MSTeM, but you are not applying to that program, you are not tied to it for
your two years here at Fuqua. - In addition to what Morgan shared, when it comes to either our certificates or our second major, which is MSTeM, you will need to notify
on your application that you are interested
in participating in those certificates slash MSTeM, because there is a bootcamp
that is associated with those about a week before classes start for the first year students. And so in order for us
to be able to prepare for you to come and to
know who's interested in those certificate programs or
in the second major of MSTeM, we will need to know. Like Morgan also said, you're
able to change your mind once you get here and you get into it. If you realize it's not
a good fit, that is okay, but at least in the application process, specifically for
certificates or for MSTeM, we will need to know and you'll need to notify that in your application. - And for those that
apply in early action, round one and even round two, if at any point in time you
decide, oh, I do want to do HSM, and you didn't notify
us on your application, you can contact us directly to let us know because there is a timeframe
in which you are able to opt in even if you
weren't saying specifically that you were interested in
that in your application. - And that's the one that is
important to indicate early, because it's really
difficult to add HSM on in your second year 'cause
you've missed that bootcamp. The other certificates and concentrations you can add on at any point
during your career at Fuqua, but HSM has that really important bootcamp that Lauren mentioned, so be sure to indicate that one early. - Thank you guys. There's a question in regards to ultimately the admissions decisions. Can someone be wait listed if
they apply in early action? If I apply in round one and am denied, can I reapply again in round two and submit a different application? (laughter)
- If only. - What is our policy as it
relates to admit, wait list, deny in an application for
that application cycle. Can we talk a little bit about that? - So if you are wait
listed in early action, your decision for Fuqua
is no longer binding should you get into a future round. So whatever round you are admitted in, the policies of that round apply. On decision day of the
round in which you applied, you're going to get one
of those three decisions that Jessica mentioned,
admit, wait list, or deny. Two of those are pretty self-explanatory with the caveat that if you are denied, you aren't able to apply again
in the same academic year, you have to wait until next year. But, we do have about 10% of
our class are re-applicants, so we look very favorably upon people who do decide to apply to Fuqua again. If you're admitted, wonderful, come to a Blue Devil weekend, we'd love to see you on campus, but if you're wait listed, that's kind of the
feeling of the black box of now knowing what to do next. So we do provide information if you find yourself in that position, there will be a virtual session
that we want you to attend so that you can learn how to make updates to your application,
what we're looking for. We evaluate wait listed candidates at every subsequent round, so if you're wait listed in early action, you're going to be looked at again with our round one applicants, and if you're still on the wait list you'll be looked at again in round two. So we are constantly looking
at wait listed applicants. It's very dynamic at Fuqua. If you're on the wait list, we
want you to send us updates. We want to see improvements
to your application and dedication to Fuqua, because
we're going to review them and look for reasons to
admit you in future rounds. - And obviously if you're admitted, then the next question is,
hey, how do I get scholarships? (chuckling) And for every student that is admitted, we review them for
merit-based scholarships (clears throat) excuse me, at the time that
a decision is rendered. And if an admitted student
is granted a scholarship, you are notified at the
time of your admission. There is no separate application for merit-based scholarships. We make the decision again simultaneously. So that's why it's incredibly important that you are submitting the
strongest application possible, and wanting to make sure that everything is just as you want it to be and as it should be when you hit submit. Okay, so I think we may have
about five more minutes left, we're gonna try to answer
maybe one or two more questions before we close it out. And this one is, it's an interesting question, it says, what makes you deny an applicant? But I wanna put a twist on that and say, maybe what are some of the common mistakes that we see applicants
make in their application that may have an adverse effect, perhaps. Anyone have an example that may stand out? - I think that what people
sometimes don't realize is when we're thinking about admission, we're not just thinking about the time that you're gonna spend here in your two years in the MBA program, we're also thinking about
your next step in your career. So one of the things that's
really tough for us to overcome is when we can see that someone has not gone through a thoughtful process as to why they should even pursue an MBA. Some of that can be reflected in your short term career goals where we really just don't
understand the connection, or we feel like you maybe
haven't done enough research to understand why you'd be a
fit for a particular career. Or you might even be
talking about career goals that don't really align with the MBA. So when someone says that they would like to be a
high school principal, and that's why they want to get their MBA, then I do have a lot of
followup questions to that. I would like to understand
why they feel like this is the best path
versus a teaching fellows or principal fellows program, for example. And so just really understanding
why someone is pursuing this particular degree
versus other degrees, and beyond, I would like a
more robust business education and I would like an MBA network. Because those are kind
of a given in our minds. But we wanna know exactly
what you would like to do. Yes, those things might
change once you get here and you're presented with
all kinds of opportunities, and lots of options for
how you might decide to pursue the next step, but we want to know that
you have gone through a thoughtful and meaningful process about this degree versus
other degree options. - I think another thing, when we're reviewing your application, no component of your
application outweighs the other. So I think sometimes one
thing I see is people forget to submit a section
of their application, whether it's leadership and involvement because they listed it on their resume, we still wanna see that
information that was on your resume about leadership and involvement in that leadership and involvement section that Lauren talked about. So don't leave a section blank, because when we get there
and we see a blank page, we have nothing to base on. So make sure that you
are filling out things, that you're answering the
questions properly as well, that is really key. - In addition to what Natasha said, and she made a really great point when she said know why an MBA. So how is that relevant to your journey, both what you've been through,
what you're currently doing, and what you wanna pursue in the future. But also, know why Fuqua? You have a lot of really great options, and as Morgan mentioned earlier, we are fully aware that
the majority of you are applying to a multitude of schools. So it's really important that when you are writing your essays and you're interacting with our students or our staff or faculty, we understand why our
culture, why our community, and why our curriculum
is the best fit for you. And so doing that authentic
research is really imperative, and that will be reflected in your essays. Or not reflected in your essays. So versus going online and
doing some copy and paste or regurgitating the
information that we provide you, we love to see and hear
about conversations you've had with our current students, and what they said, or the journeys that they're going through that impacted why you
want to attend Fuqua. Similarly if you're abroad and you were able to connect, go to coffee, go to dinner with an alumni, and you saw the success they had after being a Fuqua student, and how much their journey here impacted their future career, we wanna know about that. If you are really passionate
about health sector management or working in the healthcare industry, and you know that we have one of the best HSM certificates in the nation, we want to know about that interaction that you had with that
center and those students that are currently going
through that program. So just to reiterate, make
the research really authentic, and understand why our community is the best fit for your journey. - Mm-hmm. I think for me, it's just as simple as following the instructions
on the application. We are reading hundreds and
thousands of applications during a given application cycle. And we ask you to do things a certain way for a certain reason. And if we ask you, hey,
give us 500 characters, and you give us to 10 thousand, well, I might not be able to
read the extra characters. And so everything has a purpose. It is to require you to be able to kind of understand where you
are, why you're applying, to be able to state your goals. It gives you a little bit of
flexibility with your essays and having a little bit more
ability to be fluid there. But really just follow the instructions, that's super important to us. Because we want to make sure
that we can evaluate you properly on the same playing
field as other applicants. And so unfortunately
when that doesn't happen, it doesn't allow us to give a
fair and accurate assessment because we may have some
information that we need that we don't have because of that reason. Outside of that, Duke is spelled D-U-K-E. (women chuckle) Not Duck. (women laugh) And just make sure that when
you are crafting your essays that you are crafting
essays specific to us. Our random 25 things, that's very unique, so you can't really copy
that for anything else. But when we're asking about engagement outside of the classroom, don't create a very feel good essay that can be submitted for
different applications. Because I promise you, we will be able to identify
and pick up on that, 'cause there are certain things that we are accustomed to seeing. So don't cheat yourself by trying to figure out a way to do more
than one thing at one time, because you will be able to see, depending upon the schools
that you're applying for and the application
that you're submitting, more so the applications, the admissions committee
will be able to see how much time you've devoted
to our program in particular. So that's something to keep in mind. Before we wrap up, we
definitely want to make sure that you stay connected to
us in so many different ways. We're offering a number of
virtual information sessions for you to continue to learn more about the application process, to learn more about the
daytime program in general. We will be adding sessions to the website that will be hosted by
various student groups and student panels, so we encourage you to visit
our events page frequently. We are in the height of travel season, and so a lot of us will
literally be hitting the road, like, tomorrow. And throughout the next couple of weeks, to come and meet with
you guys so that we can share additional information
about our program. If we're coming to an
area near you, join us. Connect with us in person, we'll have alumni there to support, and it's a great way to just
learn more about our program outside of the application
aspect of the Duke MBA. Visit campus if you have
the opportunity to do so. It's one thing to read about our community and our culture online. It's one thing to attend
one of these sessions and hear us speak about the Duke MBA. It's a completely different experience to walk into the walls of Fuqua, to come into our doors and
talk with our current students and really feel that Team Fuqua vibe. It's unlike any other,
and I am maybe biased, but I think that's one of the things that makes our community
unique and different from other MBA programs. Once you come and experience,
you'll never forget it. And it can help to add
value to your application if you are able to come. We understand that everyone
can't come to campus, whether it's long 18 hour flights, or maybe perhaps your work schedule will not allow you to come before you submit your application. Take the time to connect with alumni that may be close to you. Sometimes we'll offer,
like, meet and greets, or coffee chats in your area, small group sessions where
you can talk intimately with members of our community. Register to do those, as well. We offer a variety of student
profiles on our website for you to read about
our current students, their backgrounds, the activities
that they're involved in, and those are ways to connect
and stay connected with us. Before you hit submit, just make sure that
everything is ready to go. You have your GMAT scores,
you have your essays ready, your letters of
recommendation are lined up. You are preparing for that interview, whether it's during the
open interview season or if you're waiting to be invited. You've got your academic
transcripts ready to go, and your resume is updated, and you are really ready to hit submit, you are ready to hit the button. And when you do that we
wanna say congrats to you, and thank you again. 'Cause we know that takes
a lot of work and effort to even be brave enough
to hit that button. And we are looking forward
to learning more about you as we continue through
this application cycle. Should you have any questions, you are invited to contact our office either by phone or by email. We have counselors that
are available to assist you as you're going through the process, or just to talk if you
have general questions. And again, we thank you
so much for your interest in the Duke MBA daytime program, and we wish you the best as you continue through the application process.
