Last week, the Association of International Graduate Admissions Counselors (AIGAC) hosted its first annual conference in Chicago, drawing together AIGAC members from around the world to share experiences and best practices with fellow admissions counselors and speak directly with admissions officers from top graduate schools.
The two-day conference, held on June 18th and 19th, featured panel discussions on a range of topics related to the graduate admissions process and the role of admissions counselors, as well as tours of area business schools, meetings with admissions officers and valuable networking events for AIGAC members. The inaugural conference was organized by Clear Admit’s own Graham Richmond, who serves as AIGAC’s Treasurer and Chairman of the Events Committee.
AIGAC was established in 2006 as a not-for-profit association dedicated to setting industry standards for graduate admissions consultants and increasing public understanding of the important role admissions consultants play. Jointly founded by Clear Admit, Accepted.com, Maxx Associates and MBA Empresarial (Brazil), AIGAC’s membership now comprises more than 50 consultants from nine countries, including the United States, Japan, Mexico, China, Korea and Israel.
A strong line-up of compelling events helped make the inaugural AIGAC conference a huge success, with registration volume exceeding AIGAC’s initial goal by more than 200 percent.
“When embarking on the organization of this event, the AIGAC Events Committee frankly wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of interest, but we decided to follow a ‘If you build it, they will come’ philosophy,” said Richmond. The philosophy seems to have worked.
The conference’s first day included campus tours of the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business in Hyde Park, led by GSB Dean of Admissions Rosemaria Martinelli, and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in Evanston. As part of these visits, AIGAC members also had the opportunity to meet with admissions officers at each school. To conclude the day, conference attendees gathered for a private dinner at a downtown Chicago Restaurant.
The conference’s second day featured a full roster of panel events, including speakers from other top-tier business programs such as the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, the London Business School and UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.
Conference attendees also had the opportunity to meet with representatives from other schools as part of a joint cocktail hour hosted by AIGAC at the annual Graduate Management Admissions Council conference, taking place the same weekend.
“Over and over again we heard from the schools that they really liked the fact that we formed AIGAC and that they were thrilled that we were having our first conference and reaching out to them,” Clear Admit’s Richmond said.
Through these and other interactions with admissions officials, AIGAC learned that both Kellogg and Chicago are planning to release essay topics in the next couple of weeks (Kellogg has just done so), that Kellogg’s new facilities are now expected to be ready in 2012, that career placement this year has been superb and that application volume is up across the board, with schools reporting increases of anywhere from 10 to 30 percent.
While in Chicago, Richmond also gave a lecture to a group of about 45 prospective MBA applicants — standing room only! — at the Manhattan GMAT center in Chicago. As part of his presentation, he covered the basics of MBA admissions and answered numerous questions about the application process.
Fellow AIGAC members expressed enthusiastic appreciation for Richmond’s organization of this first annual conference.
“We toured great universities, met formally and informally with
admissions officers, learned from excellent panels, ate delicious food
and enjoyed meeting with, and learning from, our peers,” said Stacey Blackman, adding that the only complaint she heard was “I wish it was longer!!”
Calling it “a great step forward for the industry,” Accepted.com’s Paul Bodine expressed interest in helping to organize next year’s event. Consultants from several other firms also said they look forward enthusiastically to future years’ conferences, noting that the inaugural event helped them learn more about their profession and their colleagues, including that that they face many of the same challenges.
Hats off to AIGAC and our own Graham Richmond for a terrific conference kick off!
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