Beth Flye, assistant dean and director of admissions for the full-time MBA program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, is the latest contributor to our ongoing Admissions Director Q&A series. Flye, who has almost 20 years of experience in higher education, has served as admissions director at Kellogg since January 2003. She is well known in the admissions circle for encouraging applicants to know themselves and be themselves when applying to Kellogg.
In the interview that follows, you’ll learn more about Kellogg’s unique accelerated one-year program and get Flye’s tips for writing stand-out application essays.
Clear Admit: What is the one area of your program that you wish applicants knew more about?
Beth Flye: The Kellogg School’s One-Year (1Y) Program. The 1Y program is designed for a person with consistent and specific career goals who wants to gain more business education and return to the workforce quickly. For this type of candidate – a person seeking career enhancement who meets certain prerequisites – the One-Year Program is an excellent educational opportunity and return on investment. More information about the Kellogg School’s One-Year Program can be found here.
CA: Walk us through the life of an application in your office from an operational standpoint. What happens between the time an applicant clicks ‘submit’ and the time the committee offers a final decision (e.g. how many “reads” does it get, how long is each “read,” who reads it, does the committee convene to discuss it as a group, etc.).
BF: After an applicant submits the application, our processing team downloads that information and collects all of the other necessary information to make the file “complete.” After that, the application file goes into the evaluation pool.
For a portion of the applications, the first review will be conducted by a member of our student Admissions Committee. Following that evaluation, one of the admissions officers will review the file, and then the application will come to me for a final review.
For some cases, the file will be read by a fourth reader to help the admissions office reach the most informed decision. As you can surmise, we have a very thorough review process, given that a significant amount of attention is given to each application.
CA: How does your team approach the essay portion of the application specifically? What are you looking for as you read the essays? Are there common mistakes that applicants should try to avoid? One key thing they should keep in mind as they sit down to write them?
BF: Essays serve as another means for an applicant to tell us more about him/herself. We are looking for clarity from our applicants on not only what they have been doing but why various elements of their professional and personal experiences are significant.
Regarding potential mistakes, I always advise applicants not to fall into the trap of writing what they think the Kellogg School’s admissions team wants to read; what we are looking for is their authentic/genuine thoughts.
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