Ankur Kumar of Wharton ( Photo: Wharton )

In a quick Q&A; with PaGaLGuY, Wharton’s admissions director Ankur Kumar talks about the new curriculum at Wharton, the move to eliminate alumni from admission interviews and the school’s approach to the new GMAT.

Could you describe what your role as Director of Admissions and Financial Aid entails?

The role of the Admissions and Financial Aid office or an Admissions Committee is to help attract and bring to the programme, the best and the brightest at Wharton. Our role involves marketing the programme which involves travelling around the globe, typically from May to October each year. We help interested applicants around the globe learn more about Wharton. We try to bring a little bit of Wharton to them, through our being there and through engaging alumni in our marketing presentations to give them a first-hand perspective of what the programme is. So thats a considerable portion of where we spend our efforts. The remainder of the year, from October to May, we actually get into the process of evaluating and selecting candidates to bring to the programme. Thats when applicants are submitting their applications. So were reading them, interviewing candidates and making the final selections as well.

How is the performance of the admissions department measured at the school?

The measure of our success as an Admissions Committee is really seen through the student body. Each year, a remarkable, motivated and incredibly diverse group of students comes from all over the world and different industries. We observe how they come together in the class, engage in the classroom, engage with faculty and each other, with alumni, with the broader Philadelphia community and globally. I think thats a way to capture the success of our offers.

Wharton has made major changes to the way it conducts its admissions, especially its interviews . Could you run us through your experience with these changes?

Regarding the first part of your question, one change from our historic interview process this year is that alumni are no longer interviewing candidates. Weve historically had alumni as a part of the interview process. Weve had students who interviewed here on campus and the admissions team travelled to a city typically outside the US for the interview. Last year, we announced the change in which we were no longer going to have an alumni interview.

We still have them engaged meaningfully in our marketing and welcome efforts. So when were helping candidates learn about the programme, alumni are a critical piece of that. Once we admit students, the alumni are a critical piece in welcoming them to Wharton and helping them learn more about the opportunities and the alumni network.

The move to no longer have alumni interviews was really the result of hearing feedback from both our applicants as well as our alumni. What we learnt is that what applicants and alumni both enjoy most about the chance to interact is the chance to do just that interact. And an interview is an evaluation tool and so it doesnt really provide the right platform for that kind of interaction. Applicants want to talk to alumni, hear about their stories and their experiences in the programme and after. Alumni also want to learn about applicants, understand their thinking, their experiences and help mentor and guide them through this process. Thats truly why we thought it was best to have both of these parties interact more in the marketing and the welcome phases than in the interview phase. Thats really been the primary change this year.

Have you also reduced the number of applicants you would interview as a result? Is this change likely to affect the kind of people who would manage to make it to the next Wharton class?

The number of students we interview each year varies by the applicant population. Theres not a concrete or set number each year. Also, the interview is just one component of this process. I dont anticipate having any meaningful change due to the process shift, if you will.

Considering how much Wharton is known for its alumni network, would this end up reducing the engagement between the school and the alumni? Is the school doing anything to compensate for it?

Our alumni are as engaged as ever. As I mentioned, they are a critical piece of the marketing effort. Theyve always been and continue to grow in terms of engagement. Similarly, once we admit candidates, the alumni have been critically involved in welcoming our candidates. In fact, our alumni clubs around the world each host numerous events for our admitted students after each round and welcome them to Wharton. They help them learn more about the alumni club in their particular city or region. So, alumni have been very engaged and have been great partners in both of those efforts. The feedback from these alumni has been incredibly positive around their experience engaging with applicants.

Wharton also underwent a major curriculum review last year. How is studying at Wharton going to be different now from how it was earlier?

Were really excited to be launching our new curriculum. Its actually going to launch in the fall of 2012. The class that we are currently in the process of admitting or have already been admitted will be the first to go through it. Were excited for them to be the first to experience this shift. The new curriculum does have subtle elements to it, but theyre all really at the core of who we are as Wharton and how weve always approached teaching business.

Wharton has always had a flexible curriculum. Were a school that thinks that its important to give our students a chance to touch all the business fundamentals. So, we have a core curriculum in the first year. And we think its important to give them a chance to cut some ice and pursue their academic experience to meet their interests as well. So we always had a major that students pick primarily in their second year.

The new curriculum change is going to increase that flexibility in three specific ways. Firstly, its going to increase flexibility in terms of timing in when students can start their electives. Historically, students have spent their entire first year taking their core curriculum and they start taking electives in the second year. Now, due to a reduced or pared down core curriculum, students can actually start to take electives in their first year and start on their pursuits around different academic subjects and interests.

Its also going to increase flexibility in terms of actual content that theyll be studying. In fulfilling some of the core requirements, theres going to flexibility in terms of the subject matter that a student can pursue to fulfil one of the core course requirements. A great example is a course like Operations. Historically, there were set courses in Operations that students could take. Now they have some flexibility in terms of how they can fulfil the Operations requirement. Theres going to be a course in IT, a course in Innovation and so on. So, they can basically tailor the way that they fulfill their Operations requirement, to really be in line with their interests and needs.

There are also changes in terms of learning style that students will be absorbing information in. Some of our required courses are now going to be offered in different formats of learning with different learning methods. Some courses will remain in the traditional lecture and case format. Some may be more simulation based. So students have a chance to pick the format that they best learn from as well.

Has the new curriculum changed your ideas of what an ideal student should be like? Are you interviewing differently now to find students better suited to the new curriculum?

Wharton has always had a behavioural interview format. In a behavioural interview, were trying to understand how you, as a candidate, think. We want to know what the situations youve been in and what youve learned from them, what your self-awareness and reflections have been and how youve used those situations to continue to push yourself professionally and personally. At the end of the day, thats what a behavioural interview is. At Wharton weve always had that style.

In terms of the new curriculum, what we seek at Wharton and who we seek in the programme remains constant over time. Were not changing our core values or our culture. Were changing some of the ways in which we help our students learn, which is structural in nature. Our business philosophy and the way we think about educating students remains the same. We continue to look for students who are bright, intellectually curious, who are driven by the desire to learn. We want students who come to Wharton wanting to engage and who are motivated to expand and push their thinking and also do the same for their classmates as well. That remains very much at the heart of who we seek to bring in to the class every year.

GMAT has added the new Integrated Reasoning (IR) section this June. If anyone has taken the GMAT in 2012 before June, does that person need to take the GMAT again in order to stand a better chance in the 2013 admission cycle?

Not at all. The GMAT is valid for five years. If someone has taken the GMAT within that window, there is no need to retake it. Theres no concern or issue from our end.

So if you had two people, one who applies with the older format of the score and the other with the additional IR section score and both look more or less the same, will the IR score be a deal breaker?

The GMAT is just one piece of our holistic evaluation process. Were looking for people who are well-rounded and multi-dimensional and who bring many different dimensions to the table. So, those things include your academic profile. Were looking for students who have excelled academically and are going to be capable of handling the curriculum. We want students who come to the programme to have had exceptional professional trajectories, regardless of the sector or industry theyve worked in. They should have excelled and accomplished a tremendous amount. Were looking for candidates who bring a set of personal qualities, including curiosity as I mentioned before, and who are mature, self-aware and who have the initiative and motivation to engage and also can present themselves in a compelling way, in the application and the written portion. As I said, it is incredibly holistic. The GMAT is just one piece of the puzzle.

How is the job situation in the US different from what it was 2-3 years ago for people graduating from Wharton?

A lot has certainly happened in the last couple of years. There always have been evolving interests from our students. Weve seen the growth of economies, industries that were more nascent a couple of years ago, like clean technology, retail, the social impact space and entrepreneurship. Were seeing that our students come to Wharton with these backgrounds or with interests to go into some core enterprise as well.

Do applicants’ stated post-MBA career goals in the admission essays have to be realistic with respect to the job market as it stands today?

Were giving freedom for a lifetime. Were admitting people to be connected to Wharton not just when theyre here for two years or for their first job or business, but people whore going to be a part of the Wharton family for the rest of their lives. In that sense, we take a long term view on our candidates. We want to understand how theyd be here in the programme, how theyll engage with faculty, with their classmates, with employers and how theyll be as alumni. Their careers and lives will take many twists and turns throughout that timeline. Were looking for an understanding of how our candidates think, how they navigate these twists and turns and how theyre going to make career choices.

When someone states a post-MBA career goal in the application, is that goal run by the Career Services department to see whether its realistic enough?

When were looking at someones stated objective or goal, were really looking for an understanding of the why and the how. Far more than what the absolute answer or interest may be, were looking to understand why they want to go down that path. What theyve done to try to move in that direction and how they plan to continue to do so. Wharton is not the end, but the means to an end. How theyre going to leverage the experience and the opportunities to continue in that direction is far more important than any specific interest.

How difficult is it to get a job for an international student in the US compared to how it used to be 2-3 years ago?

It really depends on what you want to do. Certainly there are macro factors that will have an impact and there will also be individual level considerations. What kind of industry or opportunities are you looking at? There are certain parts of the world that are moving and growing in different ways in the US. I see that our students are leaders and want to be trailblazers in industries in parts of the globe. They take a very broad view on how that may end up placing them geographically. A quarter of our students, every year, actually goes outside the US and takes up opportunities around the globe.