Admissions Puzzle: Getting the Mix of B-School Students Right

Melissa Korn:

Creating a business-school class isn't unlike casting a reality-television show or assembling guests for a dinner party: it's all about the mix.

Admissions officers spend every fall and winter weighing how certain types of students may fare in a classroom and debating how many bankers, business owners, consultants and Classics scholars add up to a diverse student body. Schools insist they have no set caps for the types of students they accept, but each one is chosen because he or she checks at least a few boxes--geography, industry background, career goals--that, when combined, result in a rich variety.

"It's a little bit like putting together a Rubik's Cube," says Dawna Clarke, director of admissions at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business. Though every student should have strong intellectual chops, leadership potential and communication skills, Ms. Clarke says, some may differentiate themselves based on career experience or their affinity for taking risks, professional or otherwise.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at October 15, 2012 3:03 AM
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