An Interview With Darden Admissions Chief Dawna Clarke
Maria |
November 7, 2024

Welcome to this week’s Business Casual, John Byrne is joined by co-host Maria Wich-Vila and a special guest, Dawna Clarke, the renowned admissions chief at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. Recently honored with the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award, Dawna reflects on her distinguished nearly 40-year career in MBA admissions, during which she has been the final decision-maker on over 70,000 applications at leading institutions such as Dartmouth Tuck and UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Today’s podcast delves into Dawna’s longstanding career, highlighting the personal touches and strategic decisions that have defined her tenure in MBA admissions. Through her stories, we gain a glimpse into how admissions strategies have evolved over decades and the personal commitment required to guide thousands of students through one of the most critical phases of their professional lives.

Episode Transcript

[00:00:04.360] – John

Well, hello, everyone. This is John Byrne with Poets and Quants. Welcome to business Casual, our weekly podcast. Today, my co-host, Maria Wich-Vila, is with me. She is here with a special guest. This past week, we’ve honored our very first Lifetime Achievement Award honoree, Dawna Clarke, who is the admissions chief at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. We’ve honored her for her near 40-year career in admissions. She has been the final decision-maker on more than 70,000 applicants, the overwhelming majority of them MBA-bound hopefuls at Dartmouth Tuck, UVA Darden, where she’s been twice, UNC Chapel Hill, Kenan Flagler Business School. Dawna, welcome.

[00:00:58.920] – Dawna

Thank you so much, John. It’s been such a special week with the award, and I’m so grateful. It’s just been so fun to hear from people that I’ve known through all these different schools. So thank you so much.

[00:01:12.900] – John

And congratulations on a well-deserved honor. Now, 40 years is a long time to be doing admissions. I don’t think there’s anyone around. In fact, I think your nearest colleague in time is Bruce DelMonico at Yale, and he has only 20 years, half of your time. What’s made you stay in this field for so long?

[00:01:36.920] – Dawna

It’s such a good question. I think something I’ve been reflecting on just because 40 years, that creeps up on you. How did that How did that happen? But I think I’m really fortunate in that I fell into admissions in part by happenstance. Over 40 years ago, I was a tour guide in my undergraduate school, and so I knew the dean of admissions there. And he asked one day what my plans were and asked if I would consider applying for a position in admissions. And I obviously took it at the undergraduate level. And I just love it. I love connecting with people and hearing people’s stories. I really like rooting for people and trying to make them feel comfortable. I’ve only worked for schools that I feel that I can authentically personify in my interactions with people. So you have to feel pretty strongly about the institution that you’re representing. I can do that with great, sincere enthusiasm for Darden. But ultimately, it is a connecting. It is a quintessential people position. I mean, not that there isn’t. There is a lot of a fair amount of analytics that go on to compiling a and some behind the scenes data gathering when you’re making decisions and you want them to be based on data.

[00:03:06.510] – Dawna

But I think it’s really the opportunity to connect with such interesting people and at a somewhat vulnerable time in their lives, applying to business school can be the top goal that is a top of mind for candidates at that time. I find it gratifying to try to make that process a little bit more welcoming, a little a little less daunting. I love it. Then I think the more you know an industry, the more value you can bring because I’ve been through so many cycles and seeing all kinds of things, the impact of elections on an African pool, the impacts of the economic downturn, the importance of scholarship. I think the more you do it, the more valuable you become because you gain experience and wisdom from each cycle is a little bit different. I like to lean into my experience in terms of how to navigate some challenging experiences, but I’m just really grateful for a career that I’ve loved enough to keep doing for this long.

[00:04:18.280] – John

Now, one of the things that comes through in the profile very strongly is the empathy you bring to a difficult job where, frankly, you reject that the vast majority of the people who apply. In other words, you have spent most of your life disappointing many, many people, and yet you’re able to do it with a degree and depth of empathy that is surprising and consistent. I wonder where that empathy comes from. You say that your mother was incredibly kind, generous, and loving, and that was the start of it. But where else does it? What’s your source of empathy over so many of these years when you are in a profession like this?

[00:05:08.690] – Dawna

I would say two things. I’m going to say two things, one more personal and one more professionally related to the field of admissions. One is that, and I’ve told you this before, John, but just a reminder, I was waitlisted. My top choice for undergraduate schools was Dartmouth. My dad went to Dartmouth, really wanted to go to Dartmouth. I was waitlisted at Dartmouth. Then I ended up not going to Dartmouth. I didn’t get off the waitlist, and I ended up going to a small liberal arts school that had a really good reputation for pre-med, and that is what I thought I wanted to do at the time. Then when I applied to UNC Chapel Hill for my master’s in higher Ed, I was waitlisted again. Have been a good performer, have had good grades in both undergraduate school and graduate school, but I would say pretty average a standardized test taker. I found the admissions process, even as a high school student, to be really intriguing. My parents took me on several visits and interviews, and I remember the kindness of some people through that process and also the frustration of having solid grades, having good extracurriculars and leadership, but not being a stellar test taker.

[00:06:28.550] – Dawna

I think that’s something that I can identify with personally and have encountered so many alumni over the years who would say, Oh, I would never get into Darden now or other schools because they, too, fit in that category. I think part of the empathy for the admissions process dates back to having navigated it myself and really knowing what it’s like to be waitlisted and knowing what it’s like when you feel like You can crush it, but your standardized test score may not say you’re going to crush it. It may say it’s in the middle range. I think I’ve always had a frustration with the disconnect between standardized testing and the reality of what I felt like I could perform. I think that empathy goes way back but was amplified with working as an admissions consultant for a long time and seeing… I think every admissions director should work as an admissions consultant for a certain amount of time and see the anxiety, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the hopes that go into this, and really try to understand the applicant experience. Because for me, I think it was the best educational experience within admissions that I had.

[00:07:57.680] – Dawna

I had the opportunity to work with Jeremy Shinewald at MBA Mission, and it really also cemented how many candidates I would encounter who I thought were just fabulous and stellar and who were not getting admitted to their schools of choice. I would feel their frustration for them that they had these hopes and aspirations, and in many cases, couldn’t crack a certain number on the GMAT. This This was a little bit before the GRE was more prevalent, and this is before most schools went test flexible. I felt that I lived that with some candidates that you’re trying to be a cheerleader for and advocating for and would add so much value, and schools were missing out on them. So that helped reinforce some of the policies we came up with at Darden. I also had a mentor at Tuck, Paul Danos, who It used to say repeatedly, and it became a mantra in our office, always do what’s in the best interest of the applicant, not your office. Sometimes there are things that create more work for the office or create less reading or less interviewing. But I think it was really great guidance to be very applicant-centric in making decisions because that is our most important audience when you’re in admissions.

[00:09:27.870] – Dawna

I think some of comes from some of those experiences navigating the admissions process. But then I also would say, I have had a couple of life challenges. The adage is that people who have gone through challenges, like a very difficult divorce and custody dispute, I’ll use that as an example, can take a toll. I think what I have always been told read or received from professionals is that people who navigate life experiences or maybe some mental health issues, if you can navigate them with all the professionals and come out on the other side with what are the silver linings? I think some of those life experiences can build great character and care and compassion. And even if somebody isn’t facing the exact same set of challenges, maybe an identification with someone who I’m pretty optimistic and positive person. I think it’s been overwhelmingly positive, but sometimes we have curveballs that are thrown our way. I am really grateful that our team started asking a question in the application about four or five years ago, and it was basically the opportunity to talk about any context, any additional information, maybe any challenges that the person has faced in their life, and that would give us greater context.

[00:11:01.320] – Dawna

So maybe somebody’s had a tough semester or a tough year in college, or maybe there’s a gap in their employment, or maybe just knowing that they grew up in great poverty or didn’t have opportunities that maybe others have had, it puts into context some of these achievements and has really reinforced life’s complications, too. And I see that so frequently in the applicant pool. I just think navigating a few things in life and coming out on the other side with a lot of support and help has probably taken my empathy to a different level. I think it’s an important quality to have when you’re in admissions and people are navigating something that’s so important to them. Not everybody, but a lot of people have overcome a lot. I see it every day. I think asking that question was very illuminating in terms of people who have navigated a lot to get to this point, and that context is really important for us. So trying to make people feel comfortable. It’s an optional question. You don’t have to answer it. Sometimes people are more open and forthcoming about maybe personal circumstances or financial circumstances or even loss of a loved one.

[00:12:22.460] – Dawna

Or there was a year when I saw a lot of the opioid. We have been hearing so much about the problem with I had a year in admissions where there were so many candidates who wrote about a parent or a loved one that they lost because of the opioid crisis. You see things that are happening in society, filter into applications. This is a long-winded answer to your question, but I think it’s a really important quality to have in admissions when you’re trying to make people feel comfortable being their authentic selves and safe being their authentic selves in a different way. It’s okay to talk about challenges and what you’ve learned from it to the extent that you’re comfortable doing so. People are also entitled to be private as well.

[00:13:12.420] – John

That’s very true. Maria, I’m I remember having represented a good number of applicants over the years in helping them make their decisions and present themselves, you see the same thing, a lower standardized test score, and they’re incredible in every other way. One reason or another, they just can’t get past the screen, right?

[00:13:36.640] – Maria

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s heartbreaking. It’s one of the more heartbreaking aspects of what is a frequently heartbreaking process.

[00:13:42.860] – Dawna

I would imagine.

[00:13:44.390] – Maria

Yeah. But that’s what’s one of the many things that has been so great about what Darden has done with its test optional, not test optional, but test waiver policies. Also, I love the fact that you guys accept a breadth of standardized tests. It’s not just the GMAT or the GRE or even the executive assessment. Someone could submit their MCATs or the LSATs exams. In the test waiver application itself, I think you’re even allowed to talk about your high school, your SAT or ACT scores. You’re allowed to bring any data to show and prove, Look, I can be successful in this program. I’m not just this one particular three-hour test on a computer screen. I think that you guys actually walk the talk in terms of Having that empathy and realizing that people are more than just a test score. Obviously, you need to make sure that people can handle the academics. You don’t want to set anyone up to fail, but you give them so many opportunities to really show that they can handle it and to allay those fears. Like, okay, there might be other reasons that your candidacy isn’t accepted, but we are confident that you can handle the academic and intellectual rigor of the program.

[00:14:55.010] – Maria

I know that candidates really appreciate Darden in particular with just how gracious you are and how open-minded you are about allowing candidates to prove that.

[00:15:07.370] – Dawna

Great. Thank you so much, Maria. It’s probably the policy that I’m most proud of instituting. We did look at a lot of data before we implemented that because Scott and I, our dean, Scott Beardsley and I felt that there was a growing amplification on the emphasis on the GMAT in particular at the time. But we did want to make sure that our admissions committee was equipped to make good decisions because to your point, you want to set an applicant up for success and make sure that they can handle the academics. But it is now 2024. At the time we did this, it was more like 2020, 2021. What other elements of an application correlate with success? Scott formed a committee at Darden or an office called enterprise Analytics. We worked really closely with enterprise analytics to dig into what information do we have access to in an application that could serve as an alternative, what we call alternative compelling evidence. For example, from that research, we learned that the GPA has a higher correlation with academic success at Darden. We focused on academic success because it’s easier to quantify. Other kinds of success are very harder to quantify, and we want to make sure that they’re academically prepared.

[00:16:34.530] – Dawna

So the GPA had a higher correlation. The GMAT and the GRE do correlate really well. So we’re not saying that they’re not good indicators. They are, but not all stellar applicants are stellar test takers. So we wanted to open up other avenues for them to show that they are prepared. We also found that the interview score correlated with academic success. At first, we were a little by that, but then we thought, Okay, Darden uses this Socratic method. There’s a huge emphasis on class participation. It makes sense that somebody who has strong interpersonal skills and communication skills is going to do well in the Darden classroom. Good fit for people out there who pride themselves on their emotional intelligence and their people skills and ability to communicate well. But every year we iterate on this a little bit a little bit more and look at things like, what about if they have a CFA or a CPA, or what if they did HBS core or some Coursera classes? We’re constantly iterating. You have to have enough of a sample size in order to do the research. Are there enough people that we’ve admitted who are matriculated that have a CFA or CPA?

[00:17:49.220] – Dawna

But in the years when we have, we just keep getting additional data to say, yes, there actually are other indicators outside of the GMAT and the GRE, and Some people do really well in those tests and go for it. But if you’re a candidate who doesn’t shine on a standardized test, but you are strong otherwise, we do not want to miss out on you. I mean, ultimately, we’re looking for high impact leaders. These are exams that are three hours long. I think some of them obviously have been shortened recently, but there are other indicators and Coursera classes. Like I said, HBS core and all these certifications that exist. Also with some of those certifications, people are working full-time while they’re getting their CFA or CPA. They’re working full-time while they do HBS core. So not only are the classes in and of themselves helpful, but What a statement of somebody’s motivation. They’re willing to work full-time and take HBS core, which is like 150 hours. That says a lot about how serious a candidate is in demonstrating their preparation. So I mean, it’s 2024. I think it’s time to be inclusive of other indicators. But yes, we do want people to succeed.

[00:19:08.660] – John

I should point out the core reason why Dawna deserved the Lifetime Achievement Award is her position on this. Darden really led the way. Initially, you put forward a test optional policy. It’s become a test waiver. 19% of the latest cohort that you entered in this fall entered without the in need of a test. And more than just changing the policy, you actually went out there and advocated for why this made sense. And you also made the statement with Scott, your dean, that schools were over indexing standardized test scores and admission decisions, in part because of rankings. And I think that that was a bold and courageous move to make. Other innovations that you’ve pioneered over the years was an open interview policy at Tuck, which is also a really stressful decision. But when you interview everyone who applies, you get insights that many other people don’t have. You instigated an early action deadline at Darden, which has become a real key part in helping the school recover from the Charlottesville rally after it was put in. You have a level of transparency in what you do and how you do it and how you evaluate candidates.

[00:20:40.120] – John

That’s rare in admissions. As you say in our interview, this is a world that has become so much more complicated over the years since you first entered it, in large part because of the recent Supreme Court decision that bans race-conscious admissions at colleges, which now denies you the opportunity at first glance to see even if a candidate is a female or a minority, which really complicates the ability of an admissions director at a public university to craft a class, a diverse class. It’s a wild and crazy world, isn’t it?

[00:21:29.170] – Dawna

It It really is. The things that’s really interesting for me, even though it’s the same career, some different schools, but also each year can be so different. Last year was really a game changer. I mean, my whole career, we had the opportunity to utilize affirmative action in our attempts to bring in diverse classes. So that was a major seismic change. But there are also years where I’ve never until recent years, had never seen a political election have an impact on applicant pools. But there was a former President who was elected, and it really impacted a decline in international applications, applicants who felt that maybe it wasn’t so safe to come to the United States or they weren’t as welcome. There are years everybody was navigating COVID and Darden. I’m really proud of Darden did to innovate and offer a January section. I think one of the innovations that I’m really proud of, and this goes back a good 20 years, is I wrote a proposal, I think it was around the year 2000 to 2003, was called Operation Top Talent. It was the first proposal to actively recruit students from with a military background. It made a lot of sense for Darden.

[00:23:03.820] – Dawna

Darden is a general management program, so it was such a great school for people, military candidates hoping to make a transition from the military into a business and wanting to learn a general management program, as well as our proximity to Norfolk and Washington, DC. But I’m trying to remember the year when there were a lot of military candidates coming out of Desert Storm and writing a proposal for some funding to start military recruiting and then showing that to people at Tuck when I went there about why this is an important population to recruit. Super excited to Because this past year and the year before, 14% of our students had a military background. It’s been nice over the years to see that population grow. They bring so much in terms of their leadership and their team and their discipline. We get such good feedback from recruiters and students who are in class with these former military candidates, primarily from the US, but there are also international students who served in their military, too. That was an innovation that I’m really proud of that dates way back, but I’m still really passionate about, and they just thrive.

[00:24:26.790] – Dawna

They just thrive at Darden.

[00:24:29.240] – John

Well, I’ll also add, Tuck, you were the very first major admissions director to invite and welcome admission consultants to a business school campus. At the time, there was a lot of skepticism. There were some, particularly at Stanford, that were vehemently opposed to admissions consulting, and you understood that they had a lot of influence over their clients, and you were determined to influence the influencers, which was a pretty smart move many, many, many years ago over at Tuck.

[00:25:05.730] – Dawna

No, absolutely. I mean, these are professionals that work and live around the country and around the world who can be an extension of your admissions office. And so admissions consultants are pouring their heart into working with candidates and helping find the right school for them. So of course, it made sense to me to invite them to know talk. There’s nothing. We always tell this to prospective students, there’s nothing that replicates coming to visit. We would bring them on an annual basis to talk and have them sit in on some classes and talk to students and show them the Upper Valley. We did that at Darden. Maria and I were just talking about that a few minutes ago before the podcast started and took them to the downtown mall, John, which now I know you know with living here, and Monticello, and UVA and things like that. I do think it’s important. They’re valuable resources to us. If they know our schools and like what they see, they’re more able to be equipped to be ambassadors who know new changes. We had Scott Beardsley talk to the AGAC group, but I think I’ve heard that AGAC was born from that conference.

[00:26:31.740] – Dawna

We used to have that, and then AGAC formed their own organization, which is wonderful, and I look forward to going to the AGAC conferences whenever I can. I have lots of friends with members of AGAC and think, Oh, it’s a wonderful profession to connect with students and help identify their strengths and be their biggest cheerleaders and advocates and help them make decisions about where to apply and how to best amplify their signature strengths. In fact, you may not know this, but you’re inviting the admission consultants to talk, help to form AGAC because AGAC was formed the year after that event. Yeah, that’s wonderful.

[00:27:20.420] – John

It was probably the first event where actually, admission directors got to know each other because they came to your campus. Now, Maria, being on the other side of this helping that it’s represent themselves, I wonder if you have any questions about the selection process and how people get filtered in and get filtered out.

[00:27:38.890] – Maria

I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a fly on the wall at any admissions committee meeting? But just real quickly, I did want to… Touching back on the point about Dawna inviting the admissions consultants, I just want to thank you. As an admissions consultant, I saw you. You hosted us at Tuck, and then you also hosted us at Darden. I just think, thank you for viewing us not as antagonists, but as evangelists, because that helps us, to your point. Your hypothesis was correct. There are so many times when I meet a brilliant military candidate and I’m like, Have you thought about Darden? You should check out Darden. Or I meet someone with a slightly less conventional academic path, let’s say. I’m like, You know what? You want to make a big career. You have an unconventional path, or you want to a big career change, a career change that’s going to benefit from a super well connected, supportive alumni community, check out Tuck. And they’re like, Tuck? I wouldn’t have necessarily thought of Tuck. I’m like, You should check out Tuck. I tell them the stories of when we went to Darden and we saw the students talk about how the community benefits them and how in the case of Darden, specifically, the case method has been such a beneficial way for them to learn.

[00:28:55.600] – Maria

When we, as admissions consultants, go to the different schools and we see it ourselves, we can then amplify that exponentially. Makes perfect sense.

[00:29:03.290] – Dawna

Yes. So you’re valuable. I think they’re valuable relationships for us and meaningful ones. Some people I’ve known for years and nice to connect with him at the AGAC conference and so on and so forth. Also, insert that I worked as an admissions consultant for a couple of months in between things and loved it. I found it was so wonderful to help Some people are not even aware of strengths that are obvious maybe to somebody who’s experienced. I remember working with a young woman who was really well-traveled, for example. She grew up traveling a lot, and not everybody has those opportunities, but she happened to have had those opportunities and studied abroad, I think twice in undergraduate school and had some international assignments. She had no idea that that is something that she should amplify in the application process. I said, I want to have a on your resume that says international expertise or international experience with all the study abroad and travel abroad and awareness of cultures. That’s a strength. It’s fun to work with people and help identify strengths that they may take for granted and don’t think about amplifying in the application process.

[00:30:22.260] – Dawna

I have a great deal of respect for admissions consultants. Thank you for sending those people our way, Maria. Of course.

[00:30:29.690] – Maria

Yeah, and And the international travel, that’s another thing that is unique to Darden is you guys have that Baton scholarship that I believe funds international, at least one international project for every student, which is really such a differentiator. I mean, every school has the international trips, but not every school necessarily financially supports all students. And I know that if some students are on significant financial aid, they might see the trip to Shanghai or the trip to wherever it might be, and they might think, Oh, I would love to go, but money’s tight. I love the fact that Darden allows students of all income levels to participate in those learning experiences.

[00:31:10.290] – Dawna

Well, I’m going to give a shout out to our dean, Scott Beardsley, who really felt passionately When he came to Darden, he has a nontraditional background, worked as a strategy consultant for McKinsey, later became in charge. One of his responsibilities was leadership development for McKinsey and had the benefit of traveling extensively for McKinsey and felt like it’s an important skill set for our students to develop, and some have more experience than others. But even if somebody has traveled to Latin America, maybe they haven’t gone to Europe or maybe they’ve gone to Europe, but not Asia, and things. It really bothered him that some students could afford a Darden worldwide class. Those classes are a little bit more expensive than the average class because of the international nature of them. But he went and got a benefactor, Frank Baton, who was not even a Darden grad. He was a UVA undergraduate who started landmark communications and gave money for the Baton Institute, but also their family funded the DWC. Every Darden student gets a $4,000 scholarship to use. Our dean felt really strongly, I want them to continue to strengthen their international insight and the to learn about different cultures so they’re more prepared to immerse themselves in different cultures and really see…

[00:32:36.530] – Dawna

I mean, it’s a beautiful form of education, and they have some great trips. I mean, they study… Each one has a theme, so A mutual friend of John and mine, Carole and Miles, hosted one last year in Costa Rica, and the theme was sustainability and ecotourism. A member of our faculties hosted one in Iceland, and they studied Our former Senior Associate Dean, Jean Lidka, would host one in Barcelona and instead use design thinking and creativity to solve business issues. They’re all over the world, but they have all kinds of really unique themes. There was one the last couple of years in Finland and Estonia, and industries that are really popular there are ship building and saunas. They study those industries. They all have a We all have a cultural component, too, where you’re trying new foods and going to museums and really soaking up the culture. People were talking in a meeting, somebody who hosted it yesterday, that they were all in the sauna with the students together. In Finland. But they’re great opportunities.

[00:33:49.880] – Maria

And I think in the application, at least in the past, you would actually ask people, Where do you want to go if you could go anywhere with your Baton Foundation? So to bring it back to John’s earlier question about the application and how you assess it, not just that one particular question, but the the application in general, can you talk us through when an application comes in? What’s the process?

[00:34:14.360] – Dawna

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so an application comes in and what happens is it first goes out for one to two, usually two what we call pre-interview evaluations. We’re quickly trying to decide who to invite for an interview. Unfortunately, I’ve loved the years when we were able to do open interviews at Darden and Tuck. But as application volume has grown over the years, there just isn’t the capacity to be able to accommodate everyone. And so first a decision is made on if an applicant is going to get invited for an interview. Then the interview takes place and a student can choose to come to Darden. We have a lot of what we call day at Darden’s and interview days and opportunities to come visit a class, or you can participate one virtually. No right or wrong answer. There’s a choice to accommodate people’s preferences. The interview happens, and then the file goes out for what we call a post-interview one, a post-interview two. Then about maybe 60% of the files come me for people who are in the zone of admissibility, and I’ll make a final decision. I have another really senior person on my team who helps with reading maybe the students that maybe are not quite as competitive.

[00:35:49.220] – Dawna

But lots of TLC goes into reading them. Two evaluations before the interview, 2-3 evaluations. Usually three is the norm after the interview, so you have different opinions. I will say one of the phrases that I like the most in the evaluation process, as people are making recommendations and as I’m making final decisions, I love the phrase as simple as it sounds, strengths outweigh. So maybe somebody is a stellar applicant. They have really great work experience, wonderful recommendations. They had a strong interview, and they did choose to take a test score, but it’s a little under the average or whatever, but strengths that way. Maybe, likewise, somebody is just fantastic, but their GPA is a little under the 3.5 average strengths that way. We really are looking at this holistically and more at what are all the elements that this person can bring without the expectation that every applicant has to check every single box. I love I love that phrase, as simple as it is. I like that. I’m so grateful. I have such an experienced team that’s been there for a long time, and I really trust their judgment. I think that’s maybe a phrase that I would like applicants to know that at the end of the day, I see that phrase quite a bit, strengths that way.

[00:37:21.750] – Dawna

And not every applicant has to check every single box. I mean, they’re 27 or 28. Part of the reason they’re going to business school is enhance their skills and crystallize their leadership style and learn and evolve as we hopefully all do as human beings and become better versions of ourselves or more enhanced versions of ourselves. I really like that phrase, and we use it a lot.

[00:37:51.000] – Maria

And it’s great to hear that you use that, right? I mean, again, you guys really walk the talk, right? It’s fantastic to get that inside view that you are open to people who might have… Like, not everything is going to be perfect and that you are looking to have reasons to admit people.

[00:38:08.980] – Dawna

Okay. I’m going to really… I think perfection is boring. I mean, I don’t mean in applicants, but I just think In human beings, we’re complicated. Life is complicated, right? And some of the imperfections are also some of people’s opportunities. And I don’t strive to look for Perfectionism can be very unhealthy and things, too. So I absolutely do not ascribe to us looking for the perfect cookie cutter applicant who checks every single box, every Everybody has strengths. Everybody has opportunities to grow and evolve. And I think most applicants apply and have an awful lot to give, to contribute to a business school environment and to leaders. And I I don’t like denying people. I like to talk about it as a space issue. There are more applicants than there is space to accommodate them all. A lot of times, we give feedback to people who are waitlisted on what they can do to strengthen their application during the waitlist process. One of the things that I know we do is amplify that a lot of this comes down to space. It’s We took the word rejection out of all of our letters because it’s really not a rejection.

[00:39:36.800] – Dawna

It’s a space. It’s an ability to identify the people who maybe have the most compelling applications and fit with what the school has to offer. But I haven’t for years not used the word reject in letters because it’s so harsh and it’s unfortunate that… I I wish Jarden was three times as big as we are so that we could accommodate more people. But it really boils down to a space, the ability to accommodate people based on space.

[00:40:12.550] – John

True enough. Well, Dawna, it’s been a real pleasure. Congratulations again on your Lifetime Achievement Award. It is well deserved. I love the quote, Perfection is boring. That’s a headline. Well, Dawna, thank you again.

[00:40:29.590] – Dawna

Thank Thank you so much, John. And just in closing, too, I’m so grateful for the award, but I’m also so grateful for you. I mean, we go way back to when you were starting P&Q, and I was at talk, and I can remember the first interview I did with you and thinking, whoa, he’s the real deal. This is like a real journalist. And I’ve just so enjoyed our relationship over the years, knowing you at Tuck and now Darden and having you as close friends in Charlottesville and all the different things that we’ve gone to in California and things together. But really so appreciative for the relationship with you and P&Q, too.

[00:41:17.430] – John

Well, it’s been a blessing and a pleasure, and really thank you so much for it. We’ve been around. California, we’ve been to plays in London together.

[00:41:27.120] – Dawna

Yes, that’s right.

[00:41:28.550] – John

Goodness, you helped us pick up our house in Charlottesville. It was during the pandemic when you couldn’t even fly. Dawna and her husband, John, literally went to this house that was for sale and put us on a FaceTime tour. Within an hour of that tour, we made an offer on the house, and we live in that house now. So yes. Thank you for all that and for all that you do.

[00:41:57.430] – Dawna

Oh, thank you so much. Maria, so good to see you, too. I’ll see you at AGAC, I hope in May. I can’t wait. Great. Thanks for the opportunity. Everybody, thanks so much.

[00:42:08.050] – John

For all you out there, this is John Byrne with Poets and Quants. You’ve been listening to business casual on a weekly podcast. Thanks for tuning in..

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] John Byrne: Hello, everyone. This is John Byrne with Poets& Quants. We have a really cool story to relate to you today. Me and my co host, Maria Wich-Vila and Caroline Diarte Edwards, are going to talk about the most disruptive MBA startups of the year. Every year, Poets& Quants invites the top schools all over the world.

To submit nominations for ventures with what we call the greatest potential for lasting beyond business school. So what we want to do is acknowledge MBAs who have launched really cool companies that are paving the way for the future. And this year, we have 41 student startups that we have honored in what is the sixth annual list of the most disruptive MBA startups.

And they come from all over. We got nominations from Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, MIT, INSEAD, London Business School and others. And, uh, I think what the basic list shows is that entrepreneurship is alive and well in business schools are a lot of great ideas. A lot of them are powered by AI. No surprise there.

They involve every imaginable industry. There’s a good number of these in the business of health as well as in beverages, consumer products and things like that. And I wonder, Caroline, if you have a favorite among this group, and I bet you it’s going to be an INSEAD startup.

[00:01:30] Caroline Diarte Edwards: Yeah, I have a few favorites, and definitely INSEAD is on my list, although I’m going to start with a London Business School one.

Um, and there were a few international ones that I thought were really interesting. I like the story from kiro, which is a fintech startup, coming out of London Business School, founded by LBS student Alicia Chowdhury. she secured 200, 000 in funding, and it’s the first AI powered financial coach, which is designed to help,

Gen Zed, as I would say, or Gen Z, as you would say. and young adults, get personalized financial guidance. So that’s something that jumped out to me, given that I now have a young adult among my children and trying to teach her financial literacy is somewhat challenging, so I can definitely see the need for that. And she tells a really interesting story about how financial literacy was something that she had struggled with and realized that there was a gap in the market, right? There’s a lot of great financial information out there, but it’s not necessarily tailored and communicated well to young people. And she ended up working in finance before business school.

she doesn’t have a tech background, but she did. Teach herself the fundamentals of AI and machine learning, and she assembled a technical team to work with her. And I thought it was really interesting as well, how she leveraged the LBS resources. And I think a lot of the stories that you have in this article really tell a great deal about the power of business school experience in helping people launch a company. And of course, there’s often a lot of criticism about the value of going to business school. And if you want to be an entrepreneur, there’s no point going to business school. And I think that this article really debunks that. so for example, this is how she benefited from LBS.

She was a finalist in the LBS Launchpad. She completed the LBS Entrepreneurship Summer School. She joined the LBS Incubator. She led the LBS Entrepreneurship Club. And then, of course, she benefited greatly from a lot of the courses that she took at LBS. I got a lot of great advice from LBS faculty, as well as the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital.

I think a wonderful story about how a student had a vision of something that she wanted to do and saw a gap in the market and really went after it, leveraging that wonderful ecosystem that you get at business school and she’s got a VC group backing her. So that’s one of her investors and Aviva Group is a huge financial company.

I think it sounds very promising. So congratulations to Alicia.

[00:04:11] John Byrne: Yeah, you’re right. One of the things that comes through here is the support that students get from the schools. And their classmates and their professors, it’s a real terrific thing.

As you said before, a lot of people say, hey, if you want to start a company, instead of paying a school tuition, just use that as your seed capital and you’re going to be better off, but the truth is that a business school you’re surrounded by really smart colleagues and people who’ve been through this before and mentorship from professors and seed money from the many venture challenges that occur at different schools can make a very big difference and shift the odds in your favor of success. Maria, do you have a favorite?

[00:04:53] Maria Wich-Vila: Yeah, my favorite.

startup was Cell Mind, which is out of the Johns Hopkins business school. This one really hit home for me personally. What they are trying to do is they are trying to maximize access to a type of cancer therapy called “Car T”. And I have indirectly lived this. We have a good friend from business school who has been battling cancer for several years, and last year there was a complete rollercoaster around  this car T therapy. And I apologize to any doctors if I’m butchering this. But basically, my understanding is that if it works for you, it essentially can cure your cancer or cause it to go into remission. But, if for whatever reason, if your body is too weak at the time that you receive it, it can actually kill you. Unfortunately, it can cause something called a cytokine storm, I think.

And so, the decision of whether to go or no go is obviously one that is very fraught with a lot of, emotion and risk. And so, we actually had a friend who last year was approved for CAR T. But then in the weeks right before they were going to give it to her, they then disapproved her because she had gotten weaker … it was this whole roller coaster.

And so any sort of startup that is doing something to figure out, which patients actually are likely to do well with this therapy? Can we expand our doctors being perhaps understandably a little too cautious because they’re concerned about the negative side effects, perhaps being worse than the.than the cancer itself.

Anything that can help expand access to this is why they were number one in my book. And as you guys were just talking about. Because Johns Hopkins is one of the best, if not the best medical school in the world, this is a great example of a business school student or group of business school students leveraging the resources and the expertise at that overarching institution, trying to find ways to commercialize it, and just make the most of those resources.

I really loved that story.

[00:06:40] John Byrne: Yeah, and that’s what you increasingly find. it’s not a bunch of MBA students doing their thing. It’s reaching out and having these really entrepreneurial collisions with students from other departments, other schools where they have deep expertise in computer science or engineering or medicine or law or public policy or environmental sciences teaming up with MBAs to launch things. which really give them extra power.

One of my favorites comes out of, uh, Chicago Booth. And, it’s sort

a really interesting idea where, first off, it’s called Encore, and it’s a marketplace for high end collectibles. Now, you think, how could that really be a cool thing? What they’ve done is they’ve combined TikTok style videos. With the traditional eBay auction format, to create a really engaging experience for people who want to shop for these collectibles. But what’scool is the MBA who’s behind this. His name is Will Enema, at first thought he shouldn’t apply to Chicago Booth, new venture challenge, because he had already raised a pre seed round and thought that Encore might not be good for that traditional, giving money out kind of program. But, he entered it after he was urged to by a number of professors at Booth. The idea placed second in the competition. He won $350, 000 to help launch his company, but here’s the real kicker:

Within two weeks of that competition, a venture capitalist who participated in the judging agreed to lead their seed round. So it just shows you how, incredible things can happen, in the environment of a business school.

Now, Caroline, I’m sure you have others that you really thought were really cool. Name another one.

[00:08:29] Caroline Diarte Edwards: Yeah. So my second one is of course, an INSEAD startup and it’s called faceflow. ai. And I really liked this one because it’s an AI powered skincare platform. So again, relating it to my personal experience of having four daughters who are constantly clamoring for the. latest ridiculous beauty product that they’ve seen on Instagram.

I think this is a fantastic idea.

What it does is it actually gives you scientifically based product recommendations, right? So they have for the two founders, Daniel Patel and Simon Zhang, Patel had previously founded a marketplace for international skincare brands. So he knew the skin, the beauty industry, skincare products.

And then his partner, Simon, is an experienced AI engineer, and so they’ve combined their expertise to bring AI to skincare recommendations. And it’s underway. I checked out their website. I have signed up already. The product is not yet available, but I’m looking forward to when it comes through.

And they won the INSEAD French competition and, talk about how they’ve benefited from the very entrepreneurial environment at INSEAD,

I really enjoyed reading about their experience and I’m excited to learn more about their products.

[00:09:49] John Byrne: Yeah, absolutely. And now

Maria, I know there are 2 Harvard startups on the list from your alma mater. did you pick 1 of them as your 2nd choice?

[00:10:00] Maria Wich-Vila: It was not necessarily my 2nd choice, but there was 1 called Vulcan Investments. This is a little bit out of my, Wheelhouse. So I think we all tend to gravitate towards something we know or something we have experience with, but it’s trying to figure out how to solve the rare earth magnet problem. Right now. A lot of these rare earth materials that are powering modern technologies are coming from China, which poses several challenges, especially should relations with that country not go well in the future. So this is trying to solve for that issue. I think that was a really interesting one.

But actually, my second choice was one that again, I have indirect personal experience with, albeit in a different way. It was called Yogger. What they’re trying to do is, I believe it’s taking your phone to watch you as you perform exercise then give you feedback on, your gait, your form, et cetera.

And this was really interesting to me, not so much because of exercise, although I wish it were (ha ha) (though: side note, my dad was a track and cross country coach for decades and I totally forgot about that in the moment, but I should have mentioned that!!! D’oh!!!), but who knows, maybe this will motivate me to jog more (har har har).

In the interview with the entrepreneur. he talked about how you can do things like a gait analysis right now, in other words, tracking how your legs move when you are running or jogging, and then providing an analysis, but these sorts of things are very difficult to get to. It’s expensive. You need to be set up with, they put a whole bunch of sensors on all of your joints. and I have a friend who has a child with cerebral palsy and they’ve had to do these, go to actually Hopkins (this is not a Hopkins based startup, it’s from Tuck, Dartmouth Tuck), but they’ve (my friends, I mean) had to go to Hopkins and actually have these, it’s a day long thing to set up your child with the different sensors. And so the thought of using something as simple as an iPhone app, perhaps, machine learning, et cetera. all that good stuff to analyze your gait and make this accessible. It’s not only I think useful for casual exercise enthusiasts, but I think it could also have ramifications and uses even in other areas. For example, kids with special needs. So I was really excited about this one.

John Byrne:

MIT Sloan has three startups on our list this year.

That’s more than any other school. And one of the really cool ones is called Vertical Horizons. This is an incredibly ambitious startup. It’s all about commercializing high density, high efficiency power supplies for AI computing. Essentially, it’s a semiconductor company. and you might not think that an MBA would be involved in actually creating a semiconductor company.

But it’s founded by Cynthia Allen, an MBA in the class of 2024 at Sloan and one of her professors. So it’s a good example of where university develop some sort of new technology or new insights. And then needs to commercialize it. And in this case, you have an MBA coming along, who has a great interest in this, and is helping to commercialize it. The actual idea of it has 4 million in research grant funding to develop the technology. So there’s a good amount of money behind this very ambitious idea.

I think, stepping away from the individual startups, what I think this says about, the ability of people who want to go to business school and use that experience as an incubator to launch a startup, it’s alive and well, it’s a great way to launch a company because it does take a lot of risk off the table and these startups, these 41 startups that these different business schools really give you a great insight into what different people are doing.

Caroline, I’m sure, and Maria as well, you probably meet a number of people in your practices, that want to use an MBA to do a startup. Do you think they’re ready to take full advantage of these experiences?

Caroline Diarte Edwards:

Yeah, I certainly hear from a lot of candidates who are hoping to launch a venture. Some of them want to do it as soon as they graduate and for some of them it’s more of a longer term ambition because of course financing can be a challenge.

Especially if you’ve invested a lot in taking on a lot of debt with your MBA and a lot of the themes that I hear, candidates are interested in come through in your article as well. So it’s noticeable that there are quite a few startups in your list that address, healthcare issues as Maria highlighted, also education, environmental challenges. And I think those are three areas that I hear a lot about from candidates in terms of where they would really like to have an impact.

And I think, something else that is noticeable is that a lot of them are really trying to have a positive impact on the world as well. They’re really trying to address,  fundamental societal challenges, many of them, which I think is wonderful from health care, mental health issues, pollution. et cetera. There’s a lot of really interesting, and important issues that are being addressed by some of these startups. and, I think it’s wonderful that we have this young generation, going through business school who are ready tackle these challenges that that they have inherited from our generation.

John Byrne:

Yeah. And these ideas are going way beyond, some of the earlier ideas of five, 10 years ago, hookup apps and match.com, uh, wannabes and things like that. some of these ideas are remarkably sophisticated and elegant as well.

Maria, last words.

Maria Wich-Vila:

I think that this article not only is very optimistic in terms of these amazing ideas that are out there, but I also like that it shows that there are so many different paths to entrepreneurship through the MBA that first of all, number one, the NBA is valuable for entrepreneurship, which, as you noted a second ago, is often a stereotype that that exists that, oh, I don’t need this. but also there are so many different MBA programs out there. Look at the range of schools that are creating these amazing startups. Look at the fact, one of the, Stanford ones, the student was not an MBA student. They were an MSx student.

Sometimes I’ll meet people who are a little bit on the older side who are applying and they’re like, I have to do the two year program and I’m like, no, you can… you just need to get your foot in the door and even if it’s that MSxs program, it’s one year versus two years. For example, you can, you just need to get to a university that’s going to teach you the things you need and give you the resources and then you can take it from there.

So I, the other thing I really appreciate about this article is showing the breadth of programs and the breadth of students and the breadth of backgrounds of these students who are creating incredible new companies.

[00:16:37] John Byrne: Yeah, check it out. It’s called most disruptive MBA startups of 2025, and it’s on the Poets& Quants website.

If you are interested in doing a startup, I think you’ll learn a lot about how business school can help you make it a reality. This is John Byrne with Poets& Quants. You’ve been listening to Business Casual, our weekly podcast.

Maria

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