Question/concerns about campus visits

Hey, folks. At this time of year, there are literally thousands of people diving into the MBA application process and a major part of that process for many will be campus visits. These applicants will either make individual visits to their target schools or will attend targeted group events aimed at disseminating information to a candidates from specific segment of the application pool. This entry concerns the latter type of campus visit.

The email below was written by a reader who is planning to attend diversity weekend events at his top three schools. He knows that he’ll determine whether he’s a fit at these schools during the visits, but he’s wondering whether he might also get some sort of advantage in admissions from attending the events. Since I attended similar events during my MBA application cycle, he asked for my perspective about whether participants in these diversity weekends get a “leg up” in the application process. I had a lot of thoughts on this question, but I’ll leave them to the video to share with all of you…

This was a really interesting question because I can’t remember ever being asked something like this before. I hope that some of you find it helpful, whether you’re a diversity applicant or not, because I’d say that my thoughts would apply regardless of your background or status.

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EH wrote:

Marquis,

What’s going on man? I am an african-american prospective student that will be attending diversity weekend events in the next few weeks for my top 3 schools (in no order): Northwestern Kellogg, Chicago Booth, and Michigan Ross.

I understand how these visits are important for me to be able to assess my “fit” with that respective school, but I’m uncertain if these visits give me “a leg up” in the application process and increase my chances of getting in. Obviously all prospective student in these events are hoping that their presence would get marked in their application file and that the relationships built and time spent during that visit would help them have a better shot of being admitted (considering the application package in and of itself is at least marginally competitive). I know that you had attended these same type of events for some schools that you were interested in before you selected Stanford. I just wanted to get your thoughts on how those events worked for you, what you got from them, and any insights on if these actually give you “a leg up” in the process or not. I imagine that if these events actually gave anyone a better shot, they surely wouldn’t admit to this and post that on their website. Just wondering if this is sort of an unspoken rule that being admitted into these diversity events are some sort of screening tool and would help.

Let me know your thoughts. Hope this prompts a video response,as I’m sure there are a lot others thinking about this. If this is already addressed somewhere on the site, please let me know where I can locate in the archives, as I didn’t see it. Hope all is well.

EH

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My video response:

Question concerns about campus visits from Marquis Parker on Vimeo.

Key points:
– The value add of attending MBA diversity weekend events and doing other school visits includes the following:
–> Getting a better understanding of the school, community, and culture
–> Building relationships that can lead to deeper insights about the school
–> Meeting your peers who are also applying to school and building your network
–> Talking to professors, admissions staff, and administrators to get an idea of what the school is like from the top
–> Being able to write your essays from a different perspective