Monthly Archives: September 2015

Building the Perfect MBA Class

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Leigh Gauthier, Assistant Director, Recruitment & AdmissionsThey’re here! It’s hard to believe that just over a year ago I joined the Rotman Full-Time MBA Recruitment and Admissions Team to support the team in recruiting the Class of 2017. As a transplant from the Career Centre I was quite sure that I would be able to hit the ground running and help the team bring in the best and most capable class that would attract the top employers. (and I believe we did, but more on that later!)

But, what I quickly learned is that there’s more to building the perfect MBA class than meets the eye. When making offers of admission, not only are we looking at candidates at an individual level (see more on what we look for here) but also at a macro level. How are we actually building the cohort to provide a world-class experience to all who come? While I was quite confident on the individual part having had the privilege of insider information from some of the world’s top employers, I learned that the sum is greater than its parts.

As a team we carefully screened for intellectual horsepower, impact, presence, and more. Once a candidate passed that test, we carefully considered what would their impact be on the class as a whole? Did we have the right mix? What were we missing from a diversity perspective, a talent perspective, and spikiness perspective? How would we carefully choose individuals to make up a community that works; something that both we and they will be proud of for years to come?

The Class of 2017 can be classified in a myriad of ways:

  • Class Size = 351
  • Average Age = 27
  • Average Experience = 4 years
  • Female = 32% (111 in total) Male = 68%
  • Domestic /International = approximately 50/50 split from 34 different countries
  • GMAT = 680 (Median), 663 (Mean)

But what I am most proud of is some of their impressive accomplishments, in many cases beyond the work realm that the statistics don’t quite capture. Each student was chosen based on their experiences which will bring a unique perspective into the classroom and demonstrate resilience, perseverance, and creativity. Characteristics that many of our top recruiters demand.  For example, we have students who are a:

  • Published author
  • Varsity athlete – soccer, badminton, football, hockey, Frisbee, swimming
  • Pro poker player
  • International sailing champion
  • Singer or music producer
  • Band member who toured Latin America and the US
  • Black belt in judo, karate, jujitsu, taekwondo and karate
  • Patent holder
  • 1/2 and full marathoner as well as triathlete and former Ironman competitor
  • Surgeon or MD

And I could go on. The cohort is in their first week of class and what I hear in the halls most consistently is where did you find such an impressive bunch?

The beautiful part about Recruitment and Admissions is that when one year is complete, we get to go out and do it all over again. Next year’s perfect class will be different from this years’ because each student who is admitted will bring something equally distinctive. The next class will take on its own persona and I can’t wait to see who’s out there. In fact, I enjoyed the Recruitment & Admissions experience so much (thank you Class of 2017) I’ll be staying on as an Assistant Director this year.

I look forward to meeting you on the road in our pursuit for the perfect Class of 2018!

Rotman’s 2016 Intake – Application is Open!

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Niki da SilvaWe are officially live with all components of the 2016 application for Rotman’s full-time MBA Program!  Our team is already out travelling the world to meet prospective applicants for our next class (Fall 2016 intake) and with the Round 1 deadline next month so it seemed like the right time to share some background on what you can expect from the Rotman application this year.  We have five official deadline dates as follows:

  • Round 1: October 19, 2015 (Decision by December 18, 2015)
  • Round 2: January 11, 2016 (Decision by February 26, 2016)
  • Round 3: February 29, 2016 (Decision by April 15, 2016)
  • Round 4: April 18, 2016 (Decision by May 20, 2016)
  • Round 5: May 30, 2106 (Decision by June 24, 2016)

We are excited to introduce an innovation in our process this year with a timed written response question alongside our two video questions.  We identified a need to find a tool to better assess the regular business-communication skills and ‘voice’ of our applicants.  We find a great deal of value in essays – which are reflective writing pieces, and also in the GMAT AWA – a component that showcases a candidate’s ability to dissect and discuss a topic.  These tools reflect some of the communication skills required for success in our Program, and in the business world broadly but we were missing an opportunity to see the more casual and real-time style our students use most frequently to write emails communicating with team members, professors, etc. and a style that they will carry forward in their careers.  There is no “right” answer to this component – our team is simply interested in better understanding this element of our applicant’s communication abilities.

So after sharing this rationale what is most pressing of course is how it actually works!  After completing their video questions, our candidates will receive one written response question (delivered via our video provider – Kira Talent).  The question will begin by providing some context to help explain why it is relevant for a Rotman student, and our applicants will have a total of 10 minutes to read and reply to the question.  This is not videotaped but is delivered ‘live’ with one opportunity to write/edit/submit.  Here’s an example of the type of question we are asking (obviously not one from our actual bank :))

  • Often prospective MBA candidates build strong relationships, primarily online, with the admissions office.  We encourage candidates to follow-up with the admissions team members they meet representing Rotman around the world.
    • Craft an email to the Rotman representative that you met at a recent MBA Fair reiterating your interest in the School and desire to stay connected.

As you can see – these are situational questions and there is no word limit.  As an applicant it will be your call to edit to the length that seems most appropriate.  We wanted to showcase the types of situations students encounter and prompt for the communication that would suit these interactions while being realistic about the amount of time a student would spend drafting something like this (again-a 10 minute maximum).

We are excited about this new component of the process and proud to be introducing an innovation to admissions this year.  We will be monitoring the results and feedback to see if this provides the added value we hope!

The admissions process is important as it is an opportunity to showcase your skills, background, goals and talents and we hope our applicants feel that this new component provides one more opportunity to display all of that.

Good luck and have fun!