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© Copyright 2019 Percept Research, Inc.
2019
MBA Applicant Survey
MBA Admissions: The Human Connection
Survey Committee:
Scott Edinburgh
Krithika Srinivasan
Andrea Sparrey
Scott Shrum
Karthik Palaniappan
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Executive Summary
• Even in today’s digital world, applicants increasingly value human interaction
• Current students are becoming more influential in applicant decisions
• Applicants value having a coach to help them find the right MBA program
• Standardized LOR questions have made applicants’ lives a lot easier
• Applicants seek more transparency and honesty from everyone in the
application process
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Thank you to all who distributed the survey!
Schools
University of Virginia, Darden
Vanderbilt, Owen
Large Organizations
Stratus Admissions Counseling
Accepted.com
Agos
Stacy Blackman Consulting
MBA Prep School
Medium Organizations
The Sparrey Consulting Group
The Red Pen
Maxx Associates
Round One Admissions Consulting
EXPARTUS
Small Organizations
ApplicantLab
Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd (BYJU’s)
August Academy
Adam Markus
Personal MBA Coach
Admit Square Consulting
Paul Bodine Consulting
Philadelphia Consulting
Shine / MBA Admissions Consulting
Master Admissions
John Couke
Salma Qarnain
Affiliates
Enrollment Strategies
Other Organizations
GMAT Club
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89%
66%63%
50% 50% 48% 48% 46% 46%43%
36%
2%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Schoolwebsites
Currentstudents
Onlineinformation
sessions
Alumnireferrals
Off-campusinformation
sessions
Admissionsdirector /officer /
team
MBA fairs On-campusinfo
sessions
Schoolblogs
Schoolsocial media
channels
Printedviewbookbrochure
Other
School resources used (N=866)
Applicants continue talking to current students. Info sessions and MBA fairs also rise in importance
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Candidates seek more personalized understanding of programs through social media
54%
39%30% 25% 25%
14%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
LinkedIn YouTube Facebook Instagram Quora Twitter
Overall (N=871)
Applicants selected all of the social channels they used to research, thus % add up to more than 100%
48%33% 29% 24%
15% 14%
61%
45%
21%36%
13%
36%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
LinkedIn YouTube Instagram Facebook Twitter Quora
By Citizenship
Domestic (N=438) International (N=433)
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Candidates seek regular status updates and transparency
“Waiting for phone call decisions was agony-inducing…I really think the phone
calls prior to decisions is INCREDIBLY more painful than necessary...
especially when you're waitlisted or dinged.”
“If you are waiting on multiple schools (which all release decisions on
different days of course), you are stressed out every day. For me, that was
four work days that I wasn't at my best. Best scenario: stop calling
everyone.”
“I think from an applicant's perspective it's very useful to receive
communications …throughout the process, particularly as an application is
going through a final review. There were a few programs I applied to where
the team seemed somewhat uncommunicative and this impacted my view of
their program.”
“The process of calling admitted students before releasing decisions is the
most anxiety inducing process.”
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Overall, applicants are applying to more schools
27%
16%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Number of Schools Applied to 2018 (N=1377)
2019 (N=778)
2018 Avg: 3.82019 Avg: 4.5
Domestic:
International:
8%
29%
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40%
41%
41%
42%
57%
57%
63%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
My desire to make a positive difference in the world,improve society
Acquire/enhance professional credentials
Advance my career (vertical move)
Increase my salary
Access a strong network
Access job prospects (change career)
Acquire new information, skills, and/or knowledge
2019 (N=917)
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Candidates increasingly value networking in their MBA
Factors with the Most Influence on Decision to Apply to MBA Programs
6 pts
8 pts
9 pts
5 pts
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21%
23%
27%
38%
40%
47%
50%
54%
63%
63%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Faculty quality
Cost of program
GMAT or GRE score I attained
Alumni network
Academic focus
City/geographic location
Career impact
School culture
Ranking
Reputation
2019 (N=1979)
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Top Factors Influencing Specific Choice of Schools
10 pts
17 pts
11 pts
Many candidates continue to rely on reputation and ranking as indicators of future success
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15%
16%
20%
22%
32%
36%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
Applied to lower-rankingschools than planned
Applied to higher-rankingschools than planned
Applied to fewerschools than planned
Applied to moreschools than planned
Worked to earn a higherGMAT score before applying
Applied to a schoolnot previously considered
2019 (N=414)
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Top RecommendationsTaken from Admissions Consultant
Consultants advise candidates to target the right schools for them
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Consultants encourage self-reflection
“This whole process helped me understand more about myself, my limitations
and goals. I will always be grateful for this process. It was hard, but worth
it.”
“My consultant helped me dig deep into my experience and find my story. She
helped me articulate my strengths and also communicate my passion and
future goals effectively.”
“The biggest help was self introspection. It helped me to articulate my goals,
my reasons, my achievements better.”
“Provided a space for me to introspect.”
Q: Looking back on your MBA application experience, in what ways did your
admissions consultant serve your needs well?
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They also help candidates to plan for their career ahead
“She helped me widen the scope of the schools that I applied to and
also helped map out my career path that I plan to follow during and
after my MBA.”
“The consultant supported me by making my career goal more
concrete and feasible.”
Q: Looking back on your MBA application experience, in what ways did your
admissions consultant serve your needs well?
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Consultants provide support to get through the process, helping candidates stick to goals
Q: Looking back on your MBA application experience, in what ways did your
admissions consultant serve your needs well?
“The cheers up and the emotional support is priceless.”
“She really got to know me and my goals/interests/needs. She also provided
important moral support when I got a few rejections at the start. She
offered advice the whole way through [… including] coming to a decision
once I got accepted.”
“She was amazing and helpful as basically a therapist - someone to talk me
down when I felt overwhelmed or lost. Great tactical advice as well, but the
emotional support was what got me through the hard nights of multiple
essay re-writes!”
“My consultant was the guard rails on the bowling lane that prevented me
from throwing a gutter ball. She helped me understand the process and
answered questions throughout each phase of my application. [] Most
importantly, she was just there to be supportive.”
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62%
46%41%
31%39%
26%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
2013(N=273)
2014(N=)
2015(N=401)
2016(N=1512)
2017(N=768)
2018(N=1980)
2019(N=917)
% of Applicants asked to write their own Recommendations
US: 15% asked
Non-US: 35% asked
As more schools adopt common LOR questions, fewer applicants are asked to write their own recommendation letters
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Applicants give suggestions for streamlining the letter of recommendation process
Q: Did your recommenders ask that you draft/write recommendation letters
for them?
“Applying to business school is a tremendous amount of work, which is fine for
the applicant, but asking recommenders to complete numerous different essays and forms is really too much to ask.”
“In today's age recommendation should be a video interview of the
recommender. Because it takes time to write a good recommendation but the
video will capture an instantaneous feedback.”
“The letter of recommendation is one aspect I feel is very much biased against
genuine applicants who don't want to do unethical work of getting a great
letter of recommendation by interfering in the process of filling it. But as a
result they suffer as they don't get out a bloated, great LOR. So I believe
letter of recommendation … does not give a right view of the applicant.”
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The LOR process restricts applicants from applying to schools of interest
Q: Did your recommenders ask that you draft/write recommendation letters
for them?
“I think that if recommenders could fill out one common recommendation
that could be sent to all schools, it would alleviate a lot of stress …. I may
have applied to a few more schools if I didn't have to ask my
recommenders to write additional recommendations…”
“XX had unique recommender essay prompts, which was an extra burden for
the two people writing my letters of recommendation.”
“I would have applied to at least three more programs than I actually did…if it
had not meant I would have asked my recommenders to complete more forms.
In fact, XX was one of my top choice schools, and I didn't even apply because they require a unique essay from recommenders.”
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2.772.87
3.003.22
3.343.47
2.392.552.552.57
2.632.84
2.973.033.08
3.233.48
4.064.25
2.273.24
3.444.04
1 2 3 4 5
London Business School - (N=52)
UCLA (Anderson) - (N=98)
Emory (Goizueta) - (N=64)
Georgetown (McDonough) - (N=74)
Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) - (N=93)
University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) - (N=92)
Stanford (GSB) - (N=137)
MIT (Sloan) - (N=174)
University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) - (N=194)
Columbia (CBS) - (N=141)
UC Berkeley (Haas) - (N=131)
Yale (SOM) - (N=145)
New York University (Stern) - (N=128)
University of Chicago (Booth) - (N=151)
University of Michigan (Ross) - (N=177)
University of Texas - Austin (McCombs) - (N=112)
Dartmouth (Tuck) - (N=132)
Cornell (Johnson) - (N=173)
Vanderbilt (Owen) - (N=100)
Harvard (HBS) - (N=223)
Northwestern (Kellogg) - (N=222)
Duke (Fuqua) - (N=212)
University of Virginia (Darden) - (N=315)
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Applicants continue to pay attention to how well schools get to know them
Ratings for How Well Schools Got to Know Applicants (Applied, N>50)
N >2
00
N 1
00
-20
0N
<10
0
*Schools rated on a 5-point scale, 1 = Not at All Well; 5 = Extremely Well
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3.363.403.43
3.543.583.623.66
3.773.863.893.913.93
4.004.024.064.094.094.104.10
4.224.294.304.35
1 2 3 4 5
University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) - (N=39)
Emory (Goizueta) - (N=45)
Georgetown (McDonough) - (N=51)
University of Texas - Austin (McCombs) - (N=57)
New York University (Stern) - (N=50)
UCLA (Anderson) - (N=45)
University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) - (N=67)
Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) - (N=61)
Yale (SOM) - (N=37)
UC Berkeley (Haas) - (N=27)
MIT (Sloan) - (N=22)
University of Chicago (Booth) - (N=43)
Northwestern (Kellogg) - (N=53)
Dartmouth (Tuck) - (N=41)
London Business School - (N=16)
Duke (Fuqua) - (N=69)
Columbia (CBS) - (N=33)
Harvard (HBS) - (N=21)
University of Michigan (Ross) - (N=48)
Stanford (GSB) - (N=9)
University of Virginia (Darden) - (N=215)
Cornell (Johnson) - (N=136)
Vanderbilt (Owen) - (N=93)
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Ratings for How Well Schools Got to Know Applicants (Accepted)
4 +
3 +
*Schools rated on a 5-point scale, 1 = Not at All Well; 5 = Extremely Well
No surprise… accepted candidates claim that schools got to know them better
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We saw some gender differences when asking respondents how well schools got to know them
How Well Schools Got to Know the Applicant (Largest Disparity - Applied)
2.45
2.132.00
2.37
2.96
3.75
3.30
2.712.48
2.85
3.43
3.07
1
2
3
4
5
Emory (Goizueta)(F N=20, M N=43)
Stanford (GSB)(F N=63, M N=70)
Harvard (HBS)(F N=80, M N=137)
UC Berkeley (Haas)(F N=54, M N=74)
Northwestern (Kellogg)(F N=84, M N=134)
Carnegie Mellon(Tepper)
(F N=36, M N=55)
*Schools rated on a 5-point scale, 1 = Not at All Well; 5 = Extremely Well
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Many women start financial planning afteracceptance; more men plan before applying
37%
18%
34%
19%
42%
19%
31%
19%
33%
11%
41%
22%
39%
16%
36%
21%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Before I Started During the ApplicationProcess
After I was Accepted None of These
Financing Degree – Male vs Female
2018 2019 2018 2019 2018 2019 2018 2019
2018 N = F: 725 M: 1225 2019 N = F: 326 M: 575
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Applicants judge the schools with every interaction and seek a human connection
“XX Campus visit program is not very well organized and it feels like they
don't even want students to apply. Class visit was boring and students there
were rude to visitors. Decided not to apply because of this experience.”
“…the comfort level and sense of community that I felt, along with the
perceived happiness and engagement of the current students I heard speak on
panels most strongly influenced my decision.”
“Overall, the on-campus information sessions were pretty unhelpful. The class
visits, however, were very impactful to my decision-making process.”
“Schools should have more in-depth curriculum / school experience
information sessions and not limit themselves to just the modalities of the
application process.”
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Interacting with applicants is tough in the age of immediate communication
“Some schools seem to know who their applicants are. Others seem to have no
clue. For example, XX (did not apply) has a marketing engine that insisted
on sending me EMBA promos at least weekly, perhaps based on my age. It
continued even after I unsubscribed and reestablished my profile. My interest in XX went from top 5 to zero almost entirely on that factor. “
“A communications strategy during and after applications that is proactive,
honest, and... human? ...goes a long way in establishing trust and (perhaps)
yield.”
“I think from an applicant's perspective it's very useful to receive
communications from the admissions committee throughout the process,
particularly as an application is going through a final review. There were a
few programs I applied to where the team seemed somewhat
uncommunicative and this impacted my view of their program.”
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Questions
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Appendix
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We conducted a survey for ~1 month and gathered almost 1,000 responses
• Methodology
-Percept Research helped design and field web-based MBA Applicant Survey from March
16 to April 7, 2019
–# of participants: 24 AIGAC Members & Affiliates
–Participating schools: Owen, Darden
• Response Counts
–917 completed interviews
–778 Respondents who applied to at least 1 school
• Reading charts:
–Percentages rounded off; checkbox answers may exceed 100%
–Data cleaning (speeders and inappropriate responses removed)
–‘N ‘ values (# of valid responses, will differ for non-mandatory questions)
• How big is Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC)?
-180 representatives from 13 countries
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19%
81%
Has heard of AIGAC
Yes(N=171)
No(N=746)
36%
63%
1%
Gender
Female(N=326)Male(N=575)Not Specified(N=12)
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Survey Demographics
7% 9%16% 17%
13% 12%
22%
5%
0%
10%
20%
30%
24 oryounger(N=60)
25(N=78)
26(N=149)
27(N=158)
28(N=117)
29(N=111)
30 - 34(N=201)
35 orolder
(N=42)
Age
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8% 8%6% 6% 6% 6% 6%
4% 3% 3%
0%
5%
10%
Media/Entertainment
(N=12)
Government/Military(N=11)
Education(N=9)
Real Estate(N=9)
Retail(N=9)
Advertising/Marketing
(N=8)
Student(N=8)
Hospitality(N=6)
Construction(N=5)
Athletics/Sports(N=5)
Industry: ‘Other’ Breakout (Top 10)
17% 16% 15%12%
8% 7% 6% 5%
16%
0%
10%
20%
Finance/accounting
(N=158)
Consulting(N=142)
Technology(N=132)
Government/nonprofit(N=108)
Products/services(N=72)
Healthcare(N=60)
Manufacturing(N=52)
Energy/utilities(N=42)
Other(N=144)
Current Industry
Page 27
Views represent the variety of applicants across industries that we see applying to schools
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About AIGAC
twitter.com/OfficialAIGAC
The Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC) provides insightand transparency into the graduate admissions process and promotes ethical standards andprofessional development among our members and stakeholders worldwide.
Membership: 180 Representatives from 13 countries including including Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Japan, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine and the United StatesAIGAC Website Link
AIGAC Principles for Members:• Serving clients and prospective clients in an ethical manner, with professionalism
and respect.• Insisting that clients write their own essays.• Advocating that clients’ recommenders write their own recommendations.• Avoiding any relationship that creates or appears to create a conflict of interest.
facebook.com/OfficialAIGAC
linkedin.com/company/association-of-international-graduate-admissions-
consultants/
COMMITMENT TO HIGHEST STANDARDS OF
INTEGRITY & COMPETENCE
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About Percept Research
twitter.com/perceptresearch
Our consultant team has decades of experience in every aspect of the delivery of MBA programs, using data-driven,
collaborative approaches to assess your challenges and devise the most effective and efficient strategies. The
administrative and faculty experience of our consultant team can be leveraged to advocate for change so you can
create buy-in and unify your colleagues around those strategies. Contact us to learn how your school can stay
ahead and grow through stakeholder-centered innovation.
Market
Research
http://bschoolresear.ch/customresearch
• Admissions Funnel Assessment
• Brand Positioning Assessment (Image & Awareness)
• Competitive Secondary Analysis
• Focus Groups (Internal & External)
• Identify & Naming Assessment
• In-Depth Interviews
• Product Expansion Feasibility (Attitude & Usage)
Marketing Communications
and Consulting
http://bschoolresear.ch/consulting
• Influential Testimonial Development
• Information Sessions Optimization
• Lead Nurturing
• Marketing Communications (messaging)
• Media Rankings Management
• Referral Programs Development
• Social Media Strategy
CONNECT AND STAY UPDATED WITH USSubscribe to our blog for tips
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