The MBADiversity Organization::Blog

The Talent Pool Speaks

The attendees at MBADiversity’s 2^nd National Symposium in 2006 participated in the organization’s first in-house survey. Of those who responded, 80% were prospective MBAs. The majority, 87%, agreed that the institutional representative present at the event was moderately or very important in their impression of the school or corporation. When recruiting women and people of color (POC) specifically, the best recruiters are not necessarily those that look like the attendees, but those that can relate to the attendees. We have noticed that an engaging, confident white male has made a favorable impression whereas a stoic person of color (POC) may not, thus discrediting any notion that “if you put a black person or female out to represent us, we should draw more diversity”.

Fig 2. MBADiversity 2006 National Symposium Survey. Answers to Question #4:

Shaping the Social Business Model: Future Directions

	Very Important	Moderately Important	Neutral	Somewhat Important	Not Important	N/A	Rating Average
Multicultural and Personable Admissions Committee (not just one Diversity rep reviewing underrepresented applicants)	54.2%	33.3%	4.2%	0.0%	4.2%	4.2%	1.61
Multicultural and Personable Faculty and Administration	54.2%	37.5%	0.0%	0.0%	4.2%	4.2%	1.57
Integrative curriculum complete with real-world case studies	70.8%	16.7%	8.3%	0.0%	0.0%	4.2%	1.35
Multicultural and Personable Students and Alumni	58.3%	29.2%	4.2%	0.0%	4.2%	4.2%	1.57
Financial and scholarship assistance (application fee waivers, tuition scholarships, prospective travel stipend)	70.8%	20.8%	4.2%	0.0%	0.0%	4.2%	1.30
Less focus on GMAT, more focus on overall application (e.g. character/ethics, work experience, interpersonal skills)	45.8%	12.5%	16.7%	12.5%	8.3%	4.2%	2.22
Mentor Matching upon matriculation (this is a “mirroring” technique. Entering students are assigned a current student match and an alumni match with similar career interests and/or background)	62.5%	25.0%	0.0%	8.3%	0.0%	4.2%	1.52

MBADiversity collaborates to help innovate business schools recruitment and retention strategies across tiers and will conduct similar surveys to aid corporations.