I visited Yale SOM last week during a visit to the East Coast. Yale’s admissions office graciously arranged for my husband and me to participate in a tour, attend a class, and meet with Bruce DelMonico, the Director of Admissions at SOM.

I can’t tell you how much such a visit adds to one’s understanding of a school. I just drafted a four-page, single-spaced memo for the Accepted staff with impressions and insights gleaned from the visit. And I already knew a lot about the program. I strongly urge you to visit schools you are interested in, if possible when classes are in session.

I want to focus on one part of my discussion with Bruce. (I am using quote marks and dialogue, but please realize that I am writing from notes and memory, not a recording.)

Yale’s stated mission is to “educate leaders for business and society.” Bruce emphasized that SOM wants “principled leaders who will make a difference.”

I asked him how he reacts when he reads essays from applicants who have dual goals of going into Wall St. and then going into sustainable development, micro-finance, rural development in poor parts of the world, or fill-in-the-blank cause-of-the-day, but have not participated in any related activities.

His response: “Our antennae go up. We view such essays as a red flag. We suspect that the applicant is writing what he or she thinks we want to read. Frankly, we would rather hear from the applicants whose professional commitments haven’t allowed community service that they intend to follow Bill Gates’ example and turn to philanthropy later in their career, or that they intend to provide financial support to Cause X throughout their career.”

We discussed Yale’s core curriculum and its focus on stakeholders in the business world. I observed that this focus highlights the conflicting interests inherent to business. Bruce agreed and added that because the core is infused with a values-based approach, there is no separate ethics course at SOM. Furthermore, the ability to recognize and balance clashing priorities is part of “principled leadership.”

Bruce concluded this part of our discussion by saying that Yale wants to see commitment plus action. That combination makes values real. (Please see “Passion in Admissions.”)

So does the Bill Gates comment mean that if you want to apply to Yale you should not make time for community service? Not at all. Yale wants sincere, credible applicants. If you want to save the whales and have never been to the ocean, your commitment sounds hollow. It lacks credibility, and so do you.

You will be much better off if your application reveals actions that reflect your values than if you just say you will support your favorite cause financially. But the last thing you want is to flunk a credibility test by claiming noble goals that do not align with your past behavior.

Furthermore, principle-based leadership is not just about fine social goals or even actions you have taken in support of worthy causes. For Yale it also means recognizing and navigating the conflicting interests intrinsic to business. Through its curriculum, SOM displays a profound understanding of and concern with that clash. You may find it advantageous to present your understanding of the colliding currents in business as well as your ability to navigate those currents when you apply to Yale SOM.

I would like to invite all 2009 MBA applicants to sign up for the second 2009 MBA Admissions Telethon on Tuesday, May 13th between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM PT (1:30 PM ET - 3:30 PM ET; 6:00 PM GMT - 8:00 PM GMT). What is the MBA Admissions Telethon?

Two hours when 6 MBA admissions experts will be available to answer your individual questions via telephone. Prior to calling in, you will receive a brief, 6-question questionnaire and submit it along with your resume to a designated email address. (No essays, please.) When you call in, your consultant will review the information you provide, and you will have 15 minutes to discuss with him or her your most pressing MBA admissions questions.

Oh, by the way, the 2009 MBA Admission Telethon is free.

You can learn more details and sign up at 2009 MBA Admissions Telethon.

A potpourri :

• London Business School Chat on Monday, April 7 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/5:00 PM GMT when Zoë McLoughlin, MBA Marketing Events Manager & Peter Johnson, Admissions Officer - Masters in Finance, will be available to answer your questions. This will be a combined chat for those interested in both the Full-time MBA Program as well as the Masters in Finance.
  
• Senior Editor Paul Bodine’s book, Great Application Essays for Business School , continues to jump off the bookshelves. It has been ranked no. 2 in Amazon.com’s Business Reference books category for some time. A new Chinese-language edition has been published by McGraw-Hill Taiwan and a Korean edition will be published soon. Finally, McGraw-Hill India is providing Indian readers with a way to order the book in India rather than from the U.S.:  contact McGraw-Hill Education India Pvt Ltd. at UK_Prasad@mcgraw-hill.com or Phone: 091- 044 – 24769557 – 62 (6 Lines), Mobile: 99400 64903.
• Waitlist Chat transcripts. We have hosted several waitlist chats with different program over the last several months. You can review waitlist policies at different schools in the following transcripts:
• Michigan Ross Waitlist Chat with Soojin Kwon Koh
• INSEAD Waitlist with Virginie Fougea
• USC Marshall Waitlist with Kellee Scott
• Cornell Waitlist with Randall Sawyer
• MIT Sloan Waitlist with Jen Burke Barba

Wharton's waitlist chat transcript from today's chat should be posted next week.

• Yale SOM has posted an excellent article on its waitlist policies.
  
• BusinessWeek has published a special report on European programs.

Yesterday I met with a LAMP client who is shrewdly starting now to prepare for his fall application. We went over his profile, and I made several suggestions as to what he can do between now and this fall to improve his chances of acceptance next year. He found the session very valuable. And again, I commend him for starting early to work on his application. I want to be able to commend and mentor and help prepare more of you.

For years I have encouraged MBA applicants to lay the foundation for their MBA application in the months before applications come out. That's why I wrote Best Practices for MBA Admissions, a featured ebook this month. That's why Accepted has hosted MBA Admissions Telethons and teleseminars. And that's why Accepted is introducing a new subscription form of MBA Admissions Consulting: Start Smart ™.

With Start Smart, you can meet up to one hour per month with your adviser, an experienced Accepted consultant and editor who for years has seen what works and what doesn't. Our experienced staff shares my frustration when talented but flawed clients come to us in September wanting to apply in Round 1 and hoping that a magic wand will make them competitive. We don't have that wand. We do have decades of collective experience that we would like to share with you on an individual basis through Start Smart.

With Start Smart, you can have a mentor guide you in:

• Identifying the core stories for your application.
• Focusing on specific schools.
  
• Strengthening your application and ameliorating weaknesses.
• Choosing recommenders.

We can even help you work out an application time table.

In addition, Start Smart is something that rewards your early-bird-gets-the-worm approach to your applications:

• You will pay less per month when you sign up for more months.
• Your credit card is billed on a monthly basis for the exact number of months you want. You do not pay for the entire service up front so it is more affordable.
  

Mark your calendar for next week's chats:

• MIT Sloan Admissions with Jen Burke Burba, Associate Admissions Director at MIT Sloan, and two second-year Sloan MBA students.  The chat will take place on Monday Oct. 22 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM EST/5:00 PM GMT. 
• Cornell Johnson with Director of Admissions Randall Sawyer and additional staff and students. They will be available to answer your questions on Wednesday October 24, 2007 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT.

Both chats are opportunities for MBA applicants interested in these programs to gain insight and ask questions about these particular schools. Please feel free to join us in the Accepted chat room.

We also have posted transcripts from last week's two informative chats:

• Yale SOM Chat Transcript with Bruce DelMonico
• London Business School Chat Transcript with David Simpson.
  

Here is an excerpt from the Yale chat.

John W (Oct 10, 2007 1:03:06 PM)
Bruce and Michelle: Hello. I am curious of course about the new curriculum. Do you find it drawing more students interested in certain industries? And how do you think it fits with someone interested in investment banking?

BruceDelMonicoYale (Oct 10, 2007 1:04:47 PM)
John, that's a great question. I don't know that the industries represented in either the class itself or the applicant pool have changed greatly, but there does appear to be a much more entrepreneurial bend to many of the applicants we see.  I think, too, that the new curriculum does fit in quite well with people interested in IBanking. About half of our graduates go into finance after they graduate, and the largest portion of them go into IBanking, so I think Yale is strong in that area generally, and the new curriculum has only strengthened that. This past summer, we had 18 students intern in IBanking for the summer, and all of them got full-time offers, which was great.

MichelleVitaliYale (Oct 10, 2007 1:05:32 PM)
Hi Rogan, we've heard lots of positive feedback from recruiters about the new curriculum. In fact, many companies were consulted before the change was made to get their thoughts on what they're looking for in a successful post-MBA candidate.

Linda Abraham (Oct 10, 2007 1:18:11 PM)
Bruce: Why did you add Question #2 this year? What do you hope to learn from it?

BruceDelMonicoYale (Oct 10, 2007 1:21:16 PM)
Linda, we added the second essay topic because we felt that it would help us in our evaluation of the candidates. The mission of the school is to educate leaders for business and society, so we want to make sure that leadership is something that is central to every student here on campus. We felt that adding this question was a good way to get at that quality.

 An excerpt from the London Business School chat:

 Margaret (Oct 15, 2007 1:06:50 PM)
Zoe: What's the minimum year of working experience?

ZoeMcloughlinLondon (Oct 15, 2007 1:11:27 PM)
Margaret: One of the requirements of admission is that all of the students are able to contribute to the classroom discussion and the learnings of their class mates through imparting their professional experiences. This obviously requires some level of post-graduate work experience. How much that is however will vary depending on the individual and what they have been doing. The average experience for the current class is 5.5 years, and it ranges from 2-17 years. It is quite unusual to be admitted with less than 3 years however due to the sheer competition of highly experienced applicants.

Dips (Oct 15, 2007 1:14:38 PM)
David Simpson: Is it ok to be not sure of what one wants to do after an MBA, like in my case I'm looking to weigh a few options and is it ok to mention the same on the application - essays.

DavidSimpsonLondon (Oct 15, 2007 1:19:21 PM)
Dips: We hope that everyone coming into an MBA has some sense of direction, but recognizes that there will be a lot of opportunities placed before them - that balance is important. You should always be honest in your application - so do not invent desire to pursue any particular role unless you have a desire to go after it. Showing that you recognize that there will be choices, and showing some evidence that you've researched post-MBA choices should be ok.

I had a lot of trouble deciding which excepts to display here;  If you are interested in these schools, please read these transcripts. The LBS transcript is a little difficult to follow because it was so well attended (over 200 people) and active. But it is well worth the trouble. The Yale transcript is easier and very meaty.