Which piece of the GSB application carries the most weight? The GMAT scores, an applicants personal essay, recommendations, or something else?
I’m in a good position to answer this, since I make the final decision on admissions. We don’t use a rank order in our application process. We have eight criteria on which we evaluate a candidate, and I’m not at liberty to disclose what they are. Every single complete application is read in its entirety. There are no quotas. There are no cutoffs — you don’t have to have a certain GMAT score. Having said that, I will tell you this: Of the eight criteria, the first thing I look at is the interview report. We spend a lot of time doing our best to interview everyone who requests an interview, which is quite a few people. For the class that entered in the fall of 2001, we received 4,173 interview requests. Q: Which interviews — on-campus, alumni, or phone — carry the most weight? What can an applicant expect to be asked? A: There is no different weighting, regardless of which way it’s done, or who conducts it. Applicants are going to be asked a couple of things. We’ll ask for a resume, w
