By Nathaniel Luce
Recognizing the extraordinary challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic poses to prospective business school students, Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management has made adjustments to its current application round and introduced a new Round 4 deadline for prospective MBA candidates in the early stages of the consideration process.
“This unprecedented situation has disrupted everyone’s lives in countless ways,” said Dean M. Eric Johnson. “It’s our hope that these measures alleviate some of the challenges that prospective MBA students are facing right now when it comes to the application process.”
Round 3 changes
To honor prospective students who are ready to submit an application for Round 3, we are maintaining our original application due date of April 6. We are waiving the application fee for Round 3 as well. Due to issues some applicants are facing with regards to testing and score reporting, the admissions team will now make decisions with self-reported scores, eliminating a potential roadblock to app completion. Official scores must be submitted at the time of acceptance of admissions offer.
Vanderbilt is introducing an additional application round to extend the window for applications in this uniquely challenging environment and facilitate an expedited admissions process for prospective students who may be just beginning to consider business school for the Fall 2020 term.
Round 4 applications will be considered on a rolling basis, leading up to a June 1 deadline. Applicants will be provided a decision within a week of app completion. Applicants who are unable to provide a test score will still flow through the normal consideration process, with interviews, admission committee review, and other standard procedures.
For prospective students who have yet to take the GRE or GMAT, the later round offers more time for remote-testing solutions to come to market, giving new applicants a chance to enroll for school in the fall. The lack of testing availability is affecting many prospective students, and Vanderbilt hopes that the additional application round will alleviate some of the uncertainty they face.
“We are hearing from prospective students about the closures of test centers,” said Sue Oldham, Associate Dean of MBA Operations. “We want to remove as many barriers as possible to ease stress and anxiety. Adding this fourth round with rolling admissions will allow candidates to submit an application and move through the application process completely, where the only part remaining is the actual test score. Our promise, upon submission of that score when possible, is that candidates will have a decision within a week. In addition, we want to assure candidates that we will save a spot for them, should their plans for business school allow them to be able to join us in fall 2020.”
Vanderbilt Recruiting and Admissions Managers are also setting up weekly “Admissions 101” webinars for prospective students that are new to the b-school process, creating remote campus visits to showcase the Vanderbilt Business experience, and offering virtual appointments with Recruiting Managers to ensure that we can continue to showcase our “personal scale” even in the midst of these trying times. We will provide more information on these resources as they go live.
Admissions 101 webinars will be held every Wednesday at 1 p.m. CT, beginning on March 25. Register for a webinar at the following link: https://apply.owen.vanderbilt.edu/portal/mba_webinars.