How Kellogg Applicants are assessed INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

 INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

Our community values collaboration, involvement and giving back, and we look for that in our applicants as well. A significant part of the Admissions process is ensuring a good fit between student and program. If you thrive in team-based environments, Kellogg might be a good fit for you.

The ability to work in teams doesn’t mean agreeing all the time, nor is it an easy approach. Team-based learning means you can push ideas, disagree respectfully and challenge each other, but also that you’re doing so in a way that’s both productive and conducive to a better outcome. Our ideal applicant likes to hear different viewpoints, respects others, can voice and challenge opinions and isn’t afraid to speak up, but can do so in a way that’s collaborative and would help further a group or a classroom conversation.

If everyone came from the exact same environment and was used to working in the exact same way, no one would learn much from each other. The diversity of perspectives and opinions in our community creates a rich arena for debate. Bringing together all those different perspectives enhances everybody’s experience. Learning to synthesize and negotiate those differences is a vital component of the Kellogg experience, too.

Some applicant’s backgrounds line up very well with business school, and they may have had more opportunities to demonstrate interpersonal skills. We recognize that some people may come from an environment that requires more independent work. Knowing that you want to grow in this area, explaining that you crave more teamwork and collaboration, expressing that you want to push yourself in that area — all of that is valuable information for our admissions team.

 Other parameters Intellectual ability, Work experience, Professional goals, Leadership, Impact

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How Kellogg applicants are assessed IMPACT 12-10

 IMPACT

Our team understands how demanding work can be, but pursuing interests outside the office helps maintain a balanced and engaged life. Our admissions committee wants to understand what fulfills our applicants outside of work, and how they’ve made an impact within an organization or a community that matters to them. In the United States, we think of that as “extracurricular activity,” but it applies all over the globe.

What matters here is quality of experience over quantity; two years of involvement with one activity means a lot more than eight brief commitments in eight different places. We like to see our applicants involved with something they’re passionate about. If it fits in with your personal career narrative — say you volunteer with a literacy organization, and you want to pursue education policy after Kellogg — that’s great. But for plenty of applicants, a personal passion or commitment is not directly connected to the career goals at all.

We also recognize that some jobs may not leave a lot of room for involvement outside of work. There are opportunities for impact within the workplace, too. Did you lead recruiting efforts? Maybe you headed up a green building initiative. Having an impact on organizational culture or community is just as valid, important and interesting to us. Passion and engagement are universal features within the Kellogg community. There are a lot of ways to showcase that you’re the type of person who makes a difference.

Other parameters Intellectual ability, Work experience, Professional goals, Leadership, Impact, Interpersonal Skills

How Kellogg Applicants are Assessed Leadership 12-10

Leadership

Many people pursue an MBA to gain experience and improve their management and leadership skills. The Kellogg admissions team is looking for both demonstrated leadership in the past and an applicant’s leadership potential. Given the scope and range of our community, this means many different things. Someone with a military background will present different accomplishments than someone with a few years as a junior analyst, or a teacher. What showcases your leadership is going to depend on the path you’ve had and the organizations that you’ve been in, and we take that into account.

A few things will be similar, though. We look for those who have taken up new responsibilities and opportunities in whatever way they can, however their career path has allowed. Maybe this means you’ve led an initiative within your company, or it could mean that you’ve secured promotions quickly, or that you’re deeply involved with a volunteer commitment. Your roles don’t have to be formal, just indicative of your drive. The better you can help us see how these activities fit in with your overall career narrative, the more clearly we can think about how you might fit in with the Kellogg community.

We also consider timeliness. The further along you are into your career, the more we’re going to expect some demonstrated benchmarks. If you’re seven or eight years out of college, consider presenting more recent examples. Likewise, if you’re early in your career, don’t worry that you’re competing with more experienced applicants. Our admissions team is just as concerned with where our students are going as where they’ve already been.

Other parameters Intellectual ability, Work experience, Professional goals, Leadership, Impact, Interpersonal Skills

How Kellogg Applicants are assessed. PROFESSIONAL GOALS 12-10

PROFESSIONAL GOALS

Ask any alum, and they will tell you that Kellogg was a pivotal point in his or her career. With your work experience, you’ve told us what’s led you to Kellogg. Outlining your professional goals will help us understand how a Kellogg MBA will bridge your past and future together.

Since there many different candidates drawn to Kellogg, your reason for pursuing an MBA will be unique. Some applicants have a specific idea of how an MBA will help them grow within an industry they know already; others want to pursue a significant career pivot, while still others have more general long-term goals while remaining open to many paths that might take them there.

The MBA program will expose you to a lot of great things to help you crystallize that path, but due to the nature of our programs, a lot starts happening very fast. (Have you heard about pre-term? We don’t waste a day getting you engaged.) Your time at Kellogg is going to fly by – and you are going to want to make the most of it by giving some serious thought for your reasons for pursuing an MBA. If you arrive without a clue what direction you’re headed, you’ll get overwhelmed pretty quickly. Knowing that our applicants have thought about the deeper reasons behind pursuing this degree — why they’re doing it, where they’re trying to go, how this education and their career fit together — helps students to hit the ground running once they arrive on campus.

This is not to say that our students know everything about what they want or where they want to go on Day 1. Kellogg has many opportunities for you to explore and discover, but no student can tackle everything we offer. Our Admissions officers are checking to make sure you’ve got a plan in mind. We understand the plan may change over time, but do think about what areas and opportunities you would focus on if you were starting our program today.

The most important factor in this case is honesty, both with yourself and within the application. Forget what you may think about what kinds of aspirations will impress an admissions officer: this is about your goals and your development.

We want to see a clear narrative that explains why you want this MBA. No answer is wrong, so feel free to talk openly about how this program and community will help you achieve that goal.

Other parameters Intellectual ability, Work experience, Professional goals, Leadership, Impact, Interpersonal Skills

How Kellogg Applicants are Assessed Work Experience.12-10

WORK EXPERIENCE

One thing that makes the Kellogg experience so rich is the wide variety of backgrounds — both personal and professional — in our student body. We admit applicants from diverse fields, with varying years of experience. We also analyze each applicant within the context of his or her own career path, rather than against each other. Our admissions officers are looking to understand how you’ve progressed and why what you’ve done is significant. Are you progressing faster than others at your same level? Did you get promoted more quickly? Have you taken on additional responsibilities?

The quality of your professional experience, regardless of where you are in your career, is what will stand out. A great way to make your application pop is to help us understand what the standards are within your industry and your particular company or organization. Some workplaces or careers are very structured about how someone can advance through the ranks, while others provide opportunities for leadership in other, less formal ways. One tip we will share: Think about how you would explain your job to a 10-year-old or your grandmother. Jargon and acronyms will often create confusion, so avoid them whenever you can. This is a great place to show us how you can communicate ideas across fields and disciplines.

By including your resume, you’re giving us a quick overview that highlights a few significant achievements of your work experience. Within your application, you can specify more about your day-to-day responsibilities, the nitty-gritty of how you operate in the working world. Capitalize on that extra space and don’t just copy your resume into the input fields! You have many chances to tell more about your career, so seize every one and make each part count in its own way.

Other parameters Intellectual ability, Work experience, Professional goals, Leadership, Impact, Interpersonal Skills

How Kellogg applicants are assessed.Intellectual Ability 12-10

When Kellogg admissions officers review an application, they evaluate potential students based on six categories. Here, Beth Tidmarsh, director of admissions for Kellogg’s full-time MBA programs, demystifies what happens once you submit your materials and helps you think about how to formulate the story that will help the admissions team learn more about you.

INTELLECTUAL ABILITY

Our goal is to be sure you can handle the rigor in the Kellogg classroom. Your undergraduate GPA, course selection and GMAT score help us assess your readiness. But we’re also invested in finding creative thinkers who can solve problems. Qualitative evidence of intellectual ability is going to come out in your essays, your interview and your recommendations. We truly take a holistic look at our applicants rather than relying only on a number.

Hard numbers like GPA and GMAT scores may seem like make-or-break factors, but one great test score doesn’t tell us nearly as much as seeing that you’ve taken challenging classes or broadened your knowledge base. And because each applicant is an individual, we recognize that someone with a liberal arts background may have different results than someone from an engineering background, but both could be wonderful candidates.

We look for applicants who are well-rounded, and who have demonstrated academic success. If your scores or grades seem a little lopsided, we dig deeper into your application to look for evidence that you’ve taken steps to develop those skills. That tells us if you’ve taken charge of balancing out your skill set. If you feel any of your grades or scores require further explanation or context, please feel free to include that information. Standardized test scores are also valid for five years, and we accept both the GMAT and the GRE for the One-Year, Two-Year, and MMM Programs. (JDMBA applicants can only submit a GMAT score.)

Other parameters Intellectual ability, Work experience, Professional goals, Leadership, Impact, Interpersonal Skills

Please also read

 Tips for Applying to Kellogg

Kellogg's unique approach to data analytics

The interview 11-28

The interview

Many applicants wonder if we weight how and where they complete their interview, whether it’s on campus with an admissions officer or student, or an off-campus meeting with an alum. All interviews are evaluated the same way  that is, they’re your chance to tie everything together about your application, and go more in-depth on anything that will help us understand why Kellogg is right for you. Feel free to introduce new information, or to expand on something you touched on in the written application.

The interview is a piece of the application; it is important, but it’s just one piece.We look at all these things in context. They’re each a component to help round out the story that you want us to know about you. Above all else, be thoughtful, be honest and be yourself. Kellogg is very excited to get to know you.

Apply now!

Additional topics: Test scores, essays, Letters of recommendation and Video essays

Go Back to Tips for Admission to Kellogg

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Video essays 11-27

Video essays

Don’t stress too much about the video essay. It’s meant to be personal and authentic. If you’ve ever used Skype or Facetime, this should feel familiar and easy. We also added a lot of information about the video essays to our website, so that’s a great place to read more to ease your mind.

The video essay is about lifting you up off the pages of your written application and giving you a chance to showcase your Kellogg interest, personality and communication skills in a way that written essays and test scores can’t.

For more information about our video essays, take a look at this recent Poets & Quants story and this Crain’s story with Director of Admissions Kate Smith.

Additional topics: Test scores, essays, Letters of recommendation and the Interview

Go Back to Tips for Admission to Kellogg

Essays 11-26

Essays

The essays are your opportunity to talk directly to the admissions committee and tell your story. Since this is about you and your experiences, there’s no right or wrong answer. The essays provide color about who you are and the important things in your background. We want to know what you’ll be adding to our Kellogg community, and contributing in our Kellogg classroom, so it’s really important to be yourself. Don’t worry about trying to say what you think we want to hear.

It’s also important to answer the question that’s been asked, in a way that lets us know you’re writing with Kellogg in mind, rather than say recycling a generic essay you’re submitting multiple places. Some applicants have a second reader look over their essay and guess what the prompt was to be sure their answer is as focused and relevant as possible.

Additional topics: Test scores, Letters of recommendation, Video essays and the Interview

Go Back to Tips for Admission to Kellogg

Tips for Applying to Kellogg 11-26

Tips for Applying to Kellogg


My name is Beth Tidmarsh and I am the director of admissions for full-time MBA programs at Kellogg. We get lots of questions about how applicants can make their application stand out. Here are a few suggestions on how to help us understand who you are and why you want Kellogg to become a part of your future.

• TEST SCORES
• ESSAYS
• LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATIONS
• VIDEO ESSAYS
• THE INTERVIEW

Please also read "How Kellogg Applicants are Assessed"

Kellogg, ETHS students partner for business mentoring program 11-01

Kellogg, ETHS students partner for business mentoring program

A group of Kellogg School of Management students are helping launch a mentoring program for local high school students to provide them with preprofessional experience and personal guidance.

Martin Green, a Kellogg graduate student, conceived the idea for “Kellogg Connections @ ETHS” in the spring following the school’s first annual business case competition in which a group of Evanston Township High School students competed.

The program emerged from a collaboration among Green, Kristen Perkins, the Northwestern/ETHS partnership coordinator, and Darlene Gordon, a teacher in the high school’s applied sciences and technologies department.

Through one-on-one interactions between students and mentors, the organizers hope the students will gain business skills, exposure to working environments and a connection to someone who can provide guidance as they begin to consider plans for life after high school, Green said.

“A lot of people in Kellogg have had an opportunity to be mentored and the opportunity to serve a group of kids in the local community that could use their input and guidance was really appealing to this group,” Green said.

ETHS is holding information sessions and releasing the application this week. Green said they are seeking 10 students, ideally juniors, who are committed to the project.

The structure of the program is based around biweekly meetings between mentors and students, where they will discuss different aspects of business or fields in which the students can pursue jobs.

The program will include field trips to 1871, an entrepreneurial hub for digital startups in Chicago, and professional services firm Deloitte LLP.

“We want a teaching element, but also a very experiential element,” Green said.

Toward the end of the second semester, students will begin consulting for The Fitness Matrix, an expanding chain of gyms in Evanston.

“I’m hoping that they’ll be able to put themselves in the place of a small business owner and be able to look at the minutiae,” said Albert Ferguson, founder of The Fitness Matrix. “It’s one thing to advise a business, but it’s another as an entrepreneur to implement and to find the time and resources to bring that to task.”

The program is a product of the strengthened relationship between the University and the high school, which became closer with the appointment of Perkins as the liaison position between the two groups. It emerged as a part of NU’s “Good Neighbor, Great University” initiative.

“We’re focused on sharing resources,” Perkins said. “We have other programs that are ongoing and in-depth, but this one will be very intense and very immersive.”

After graduation, many ETHS students go on to college and professional tracks, but the students who don’t attend college could benefit just as strongly, Gordon said.

“We want a diverse and motivated group of students,” Green said. “We don’t necessarily want all AP students. We want the diversity that you see at ETHS to be reflected in the group.”

Although the case competition last year was the first of its sort for ETHS students, a chapter of DECA, an international entrepreneurial business organization, has existed at ETHS for years. Last year, one of the students who competed at the Kellogg competition went on to take first place at a DECA international conference.

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Uncovering insights on putting marketing theory into practice 08-24

True detectives

Uncovering insights on putting marketing theory into practice

 "We are all detectives, trying to uncover something.” 

Evoking Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Donald Lehmann of Columbia Business School shared that reflection at the conclusion of the 2014 Theory + Practice in Marketing conference held at Kellogg. Lehmann’s remarks illustrated how practitioners and academics alike are in constant pursuit of discoveries that have the potential to solve huge problems, such as the challenges posed by big data.

“While data analytics is one of the big ‘it’ ideas of the current day, why does it matter? We all know it’s about gaining a deeper understanding of the customer and how you create more value,” said Dean Sally Blount ’92 as she welcomed top marketing faculty from across the globe to the fourth annual TPM conference.

Speakers who have held top positions at Google, Microsoft and Booz Allen imparted the following ways today’s executives can harness the power of big data — by emulating the wisdom of Sherlock Holmes.

1. Become a professional skeptic

“My education here taught me how to be a professional skeptic as opposed to an armchair skeptic,” said former Booz & Company CEO Shumeet Banerji ’90, as he reflected on obtaining his PhD at Kellogg. “Being a professional skeptic is about asking, ‘Is that true?’ ‘Under what conditions is it true?’ ‘Can you support that claim with evidence?’ Good questions beget good answers. It is about not accepting something is thus because a wise man said so.”

2. Emphasize decision-making over analytic output

Speaking to his time in the corporate world, Banerji said, “While analysts do analytics, nobody listens to them. You have to get line people to use analysis. And the way you get them to do it is by integrating the analytics into decision-making. What matters is decision-making, what doesn’t matter is analytic output.”

3. Don’t buy the quick-fix “anxiety sell” — hire the right people instead

Instead of trying to find flash-in-the-pan big data solutions, Tony Fagan, who leads a quantitative research team at Google, underscored the importance of hiring a Watson-like team with the right combination of skills. “It’s almost a fluency issue. They need a certain intuition with data, they need to know what questions to ask and they need to have some understanding of technology, because that, in my view, is what will affect marketing organizations in the future.”

4. Experiment your way to rapid innovation
As the economics of technology professor at Stanford and the former chief economist at Microsoft, Susan Athey knows a thing or two about how research principles can best apply to modern business, especially in the area of web search and online advertising. “At Microsoft and Google, algorithmic changes [in web search] are proposed frequently and exposed to a subset of users in randomized experiments. Every single thing that changes at Microsoft and Google in search goes through A/B tests. Experimentation allows you to incredibly rapidly innovate. You can have people come up with an idea, put it through an experimentation process, test it and ship it within a week.”

Ideally, all of this tinkering will have a positive impact on key stakeholders. According to Athey, “When you think about changing a [web search] algorithm, it’s going to change the outcome for all constituents. It’s going to change revenue for the platform, it’s going to change advertiser profits and it’s going to change the user experience. You’re constantly monitoring how changes you make affect the welfare of participants.”

Conference conversations revealed the value of academics’ and practitioners’ shared focus on developing an analytical approach to customer centricity — and forging collaboration between the two sectors is truly a case worth cracking. 

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