Former Wharton/Lauder Admissions Director Joins Accepted: Welcome Kara Keenan Sweeney [Episode 570]

Admissions Straight Talk

Show SummaryMBA admissions veteran Kara Keenan Sweeney has joined Accepted. Formerly part of the admissions team at Wharton Lauder, INSEAD and Columbia Business School, she's not only an Accepted consultant but she's our guest on the podcast. Kara discusses various aspects of the MBA application process, including choosing the right schools, handling common challenges faced by international applicants, and approaching the essays and resume. She also touches on the qualities that management consulting firms look for in MBA recruits and provides advice for MBA re-applicants. Finally, she discusses the use of AI and ChatGPT in the admissions process and the importance of authenticity in application materials.Show NotesOur guest today is no stranger to Admissions Straight Talk. She's been on several times but wore a different hat. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Kara Keenan Sweeney, Accepted consultant. Kara previously served as the Director of Admissions, Marketing and Financial Aid at Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and Penn Law School.Kara has an extensive background in graduate admissions, starting with her master's in higher education administration from Columbia and including admissions positions at INSEAD, Penn State, and as I mentioned, Wharton's Lauder Institute. Most recently, she was a senior recruiter for McKinsey & Company. Kara, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. [1:24]Thanks, Linda. It's great to be with you on this side of the table.Glad to have you back, and this time as a colleague. Let's start with something really easy. How did you get into admissions? [1:32]Yeah, it was a little bit by happenstance, which I think is true for a lot of admissions professionals or higher education folks. I started working at Columbia University at the beginning of my career, and one of my first jobs was in student affairs at the business school, and I was working specifically with Executive MBA students as their... Directing a cohort through the two-year program, so working closely with admissions, actually.And I started to get a little bit of exposure to admissions and help out with interviewing and things like that. And then, a few years into that role, an admissions job opened up on my team, and I was lucky enough to get it. And the rest is history. That was, I think, 17 years ago, which is crazy to think about it. It's been that long. But yeah, I started in student affairs and navigated my way to admissions, and it's been a great experience.You have a wealth of experience in MBA admissions and a lot of it has been focused in the international business space. What do you think is critical for MBAs interested in international business, and specifically those programs that you've worked for? [2:31]It's funny as I'm thinking through the question again. So much of business education now is international. The cohorts and the classes are so international. I think Wharton's 30, 40%; Lauder, of course, is probably 50, 60%. So it's just such a global pool of students. Back maybe 30, 40 years ago, it was mostly Americans at Wharton or whatever. So it's changed a lot. Very global by nature. But for students who are looking at international business, it's looking at it in that global context. It's looking at it from a big vantage point.For Americans who are maybe looking to gain some more hands-on experience, maybe going to INSEAD or London Business School, having a “study abroad” experience can be a great way to really get that on-the-ground cultural immersion, language immersion in some cases.

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