For readers of the blog that are interested in submitting an application for spring or fall of 2011 I want to provide a brief update on where we are in the process.  Each summer the Admissions Committee meets to review the most recent cycle and we discuss changes we would like to make to the application.  Over 6-8 weeks we then review and approve new questions, update fields, and make sure everything is mapped out correctly.

Not to get too detailed, but getting hundreds of fields of information from an online application to print on a form correctly can be a bit painstaking.  Some day we might have a paperless review process, but for now we print several thousand applications and they get passed around the building for review.

We are about 6 weeks into the process right now and have just under 2 weeks to hit our goal of having the application live for input starting on August 15th.  As soon as the application is live I will post a message to this blog.  For now we would ask that interested applicants hold off on starting an application.  If you have started an application that is fine, but we do not recommend continuing until after we post the updates we are working on.

There area a few details that I hope to release here on the blog prior to August 15th.  For example, the Admissions Committee is in the final stage of approving the personal statement questions/topics we will use for the coming year.  We will not be using the same set of questions that we used last year.  There will likely be three topics applicants will be asked to write on and the Committee is close to agreement.  I am hopeful that the personal statement topics will be approved soon and when I have final confirmation I will post details here on the blog.

Overall the changes to the application will not be major.  We will continue to ask for two résumés, three letters of recommendation, transcripts from all coursework completed after high school, GRE or GMAT scores, an English language exam if applicable, and a personal statement broken into three sections.

Also of note is that 100% of the application process can be completed online – we do not need to have a single document mailed to our office to review an application file.  All of the necessary information can be submitted on the application site via data entry or upload.  Further details on our process will be available here in the coming weeks.

I will spend some time over the next month providing advice on completing our requirements so stay tuned.  As a reminder the application deadline for spring 2011 is October 1st and the deadline for fall 2011 is January 5th.