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MBA Wire Taps 393—Wharton’s Team-based Discussion Interview · Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast

• 0:16
  Speaker A: Welcome to the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. I'm your host, Graham Richmond and this is your Wiretaps for Monday, November 4, 2024. For more than 100 years, Emory University's Goisueta Business School has been a training ground for principal and a laboratory for powerful insights. Whether you're looking to accelerate your career or make a career pivot, Emory's one year and two year full time MBA programs prepare you for a lifetime of career confidence. Learn more about Emory's top 20 MBA with top five career outcomes offering world class academics and small by design classes delivered in a dynamic global city. More at Emory Biz clearadmit. I'm joined by Alex Brown from Cornwall, England. Alex, how are things this week?
• 1:05
  Speaker B: Very good, thank you, Graham.
• 1:07
  Speaker A: So what's the latest admissions news?
• 1:09
  Speaker B: Well, we're, you know, interview invites are still rolling out. Sloan obviously is the last sort of big school to release interview invites in one sort of large tranche of, you know, going through everybody in one go. So that part of the process is now completed, but several schools that roll out interview invites are still doing that and that will continue on for the next couple of weeks. So plenty of activity there. Insead has its round two deadline in the upcoming week. Washington Olin is scheduled to release decisions as is side Oxford side for its round two. Well they call it stage two applicants. So things are moving along.
• 1:57
  Speaker A: Oh, excellent. Yeah. And I feel like one of the things that is always interesting to see unfold is the speculation on Livewire with those candidates who are waiting for interview invitations at the likes of Stanford or Stern. I mean there are a number of schools that as you point out, don't release them in one big chunk, but that sort of trickle them out. And so there's still a lot of people weighing in and trying to figure out, you know, when do the, when will it end? And, and you know, schools often say, oh, that you can get an interview invite right up until the date that they're technically supposed to deliver decisions. So it's, yeah, it's, it can be, it can be challenging.
• 2:35
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, no doubt. And the easiest way to figure this stuff out is just do a search on previous years, you know, livewire for the schools that you're looking at. And it's, you know, that schools are reasonably consistent with their process from year to year.
• 2:49
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 2:50
  Speaker B: So that's a good way to identify what's going on.
• 2:54
  Speaker A: Yeah, and I do that all the time. I'll sort Livewire and then just scroll back in time to the round that I'M looking for and see what was happening this time last year. So very useful. I want to remind everyone that we have an event this Wednesday at noon Eastern. It's the first in a series of two events around deferred enrollment MBAs. So this is an event that these events are targeting mostly college students. So if you're a senior in college thinking about locking in a spot at an MBA program, I'm going to sit down and emcee the event this week. We have Columbia, Harvard, Chicago, Booth and Yale joining us for that event this week. And then there'll be another one next week with Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Wharton, uva and Stanford. You can sign up for these by going to Bit Ly Ca Defer mba. That'll be fun kicking those events off. Now, Alex, I know you and I kind of prepped for this. We're going to do something different this week. We did the same thing last year, but basically instead of reviewing three candidates this week, we're going to devote the bulk of the show here to a rundown of the Wharton admissions interview, which is more commonly known as the Wharton Team Based Discussion, or TBD as people also call it that it is an interview that is unlike any other admissions interview that we know, and that's why we're going to devote the show to it. Now, I will say, even if you're not interviewing at Wharton, I think you might find this episode to be of interest because there'll be a lot of general interviewing lessons that we'll be offering up as we go through. And I think there are other schools out there that have interview days or whether it's any formal or even informal team exercises. I'm thinking of imd, Berkeley, Duke. These are schools that sometimes bring candidates together on campus. Stick around if you're just curious about MBA interviewing, but obviously if you are interviewing at Wharton, this is must listen to stuff. We're going to go through it, I guess. Wharton interview invitations, Alex, went out about 10 days ago. And so those who are fortunate enough to have an invite are now scrambling to get ready for this somewhat unusual process. So, Alex, I want to kind of have you take us through this, but just to give people a broad sense of what we're going to do today, we're going to talk about the history of this interview at Wharton. We're going to talk a little bit about why they use it, how to prep for it, how to perform during the interview, and then we'll even get into what this year's kind of prompt is. Because the prompt changes from year to year. And then we'll also talk a little bit about the one on one interview that sort of follows this team exercise. But Alex, can you tell me a little bit about like what, what is the Wharton team based discussion?
• 5:46
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean it sort of mimics the learning team environment at wartime and we might go into a bit more detail on that environment in a little bit. But the idea is you're on a specific learning team of the same five students throughout your first year, et cetera, et cetera. So they want to use the interview to sort of measure your behavior and also provide you approximate experience of what the first year of Wharton might be like in that regard. So yeah, they've been doing this work for several years now, Graham and I was surprised it survived after the first year. But this is now part of Wharton's process. I know Ross went down this pathway for a year or two, but they're no longer doing it at this juncture anyway. But you mentioned imd this is a process that they use and I think they originated the idea. Yes, but, but the idea does from Wharton's perspective. I think it does come from their faculty. I think it's some research that faculty did as a way to best measure how folks will do in that first year at Wharton.
• 7:06
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely right. And it's been, yeah, it's been around for a long time now. And as you say, you know, it's like five to six applicants are kind of put in a room or now it's virtual, but a virtual room and they have to have kind of a discuss about a topic they have. Usually I think it's about 35 minutes long to go through this. And essentially my understanding is that the, and this was put forth by the faculty at Wharton. But you know, the school wanted to sort of better understand how candidates behave in groups and as a way to kind of assess how they might perform in the MBA program. So that's where it comes from. Now because applicants love to sort of at least have a brief moment to talk about themselves. There is a one on one interview that happens after the team based discuss discussion. So you'll have that 35 minutes where you're with the group, you have your discussion and then after that each individual that was part of the team based discussion gets a one on one interview. I believe it's about 10 minutes long or so. And that interview is conducted with one of the two student, usually student observers who have kind of observed and taken notes during the tbd. So you probably get it put into a waiting room after the main session and then you'll go on and have a one, one on one. But Alex, tell me a little bit. I mean, we talked about the kind of structure at Wharton and these learning teams. I don't know if there's anything more you wanted to say about that. I mean, I just remember from my own experience that the learning team was really a great tool to have as I traveled through that first year curriculum. And I mean, my team, and I think they're all built this way on purpose. But my team was a mix of men and women, a mix of U.S. and international students and man, a real mix of kind of professional experience from pre mba. I mean, I had an architect, a consultant, a banker. I mean, it was a great, it was like a dream team or that's what we thought we were going through. But the school does this on purpose and it is a kind of hallmark, I think, of the program and one that I felt like really eased off the kind of competitive nature of the program. It helped me to kind of navigate the first year in a really kind of collaborative way. So I presume that's what they're trying to go for here.
• 9:19
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, that makes perfect, perfect sense. And you know, as you know, everyone knows Wharton is a large program. You know, along with Harvard, you know, admits the largest class of top quality MBA candidates. So they gonna, you know, but they want to, you know, try to provide a more personalized experience. Right. So they put the classes into clusters and cohorts and then within that cohort is this subunit of the learning team. So I think the structure is tried and tested at Wharton and it works really, really well.
• 10:00
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I think one thing that we, I know we've said this before because we every year we talk about the TBD because it's such an unusual process, but every year we talk about how, okay, when you're on a learning team at Wharton, everyone's got the same goal, right? Which is to graduate from the program together and to go through that first year and help each other. Of course, when you're put into a TBD team, we know that not everyone's going to get in to Wharton. So there is a little bit of competition. Obviously you want to be friendly when you go through this process, but if you look at the numbers, typically, what, two out of the six people on any given team based discussion are going to get in and the others are not. Right. So it's a little different. It would almost be like if Wharton had said to my learning team at the beginning of my experience, hey, two of you are going to graduate the rest mall. That would be a very different dynamic. So in any event, I want to put that out there. But do you want to walk us through the mechanics of this? I know people get a prompt and can you want to just walk us through not necessarily what the, we'll get into what the prompt is in a second, but just the basic structure of this.
• 11:08
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean you're going to get a prompt and like you say, we'll discuss that a little bit later. And I think, you know, and sometimes we, I'm not saying disagree on this a little bit, but I'm a big believer in preparation, really understanding the prompt and being as prepared as you can before the Wharton team based discussion gets underway. So looking at the prompts, doing your research, identifying a key in this case community to develop, etc. Etc. Look at what Wharton's doing currently in this regard, identifying the niche and so forth, and then having a really strong sort of, of understanding of why you're making your proposal, etc. Because I do think the more you prepare, the more confidently you can then navigate the reasonably unusual team based environment. As you rightly said, Graham, it is an unusual environment because not everyone on your team is likely to become a Wharton student and you're competing for these slots with again, these very capable candidates. So you're in some kind of competition in that regard. So yeah, the better you prepare, the better you understand the landscape and the process and so on and so forth. I think the better your experience will be through the team based discussion. And then like you say afterwards and you'll have the one to one which may go in two different directions. Right. It might be used by the interviewer to better understand your goals, why Wharton, etc. So that's one line of query. The second line of query might be to get your feedback on that team based discussion experience. So that could go either way or a mix of both. But surely the biggest sort of aspect of preparation will be to focus on being really ready for a vibrant discussion.
• 13:26
  Speaker A: Yeah, and I think going back to your point, I love this. I mean with preparation, I think one of the things that jumps out at me is it's not just a question of coming in with an idea because everyone's required to read the instructions, come up with a point of view and bring that to the discussion so that there can be a really fruitful discussion. But I think one of the key things is, and this is a Tip we'll talk about is to make sure that you're thinking about your own background and what lens you bring to this discussion and to whatever extent you can figure out ways to share your experiences and how they've shaped your view on the discussion topic. Because I think that in many instances will help you to differentiate. And also you're just going to be on stronger footing if you're talking about something that maybe comes from your past and how it fits with the discussion. But we'll get into that. I did want to sort of step back a second and just indicate that you're given this prompt. You come to the virtual interview and usually there's a couple minutes where you get to meet everybody. Okay. So you'll have a couple minutes to chat with the other five interviewees and then the moderators. And as I said, they're usually two moderators, most often second year students. Sometimes they could be members of the admissions team. They will ask you to begin the discussion. And the way the discussion is set up is that you go around and each person shares their, let's call it homework, as you said, their preparation. What did they come up with as an idea? In this case, you're supposed to present an idea this year for something called a Wharton Impact community. And we'll get into that in a second. But in any event, so you present your idea and then a discussion ensues. And the assignment is to kind of coalesce around a single idea. So you have six people presenting their point of view, but then you've got to come together as a group and spend the 35 minutes sort of working into a final kind of pitch around a single idea, which could be a mixture of the different things that have been brought into the discussion. But that's the assignment. And again, it takes about 35 minutes. Usually folks are responsible on their own for sort of keeping time and making sure that they have enough time to sort of present what the group has sort of come up with. So there are all these different roles that can be up for grabs like timekeeper or you know, et cetera as you go through the discussion. But Alex, I mean, what do you think we should do here? Should we go through some of the general tips or do you want to talk about the prompt itself? I mean, there are a lot of things, because I feel like I definitely want us to have some time to talk about how to deal with different personalities in these team based discussions. But. Yeah, where do you think we should go next here?
• 16:22
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think we should talk about the prompts. And then through that, we'll come up with several tips. And then I think, yeah, the different personalities would be very interesting.
• 16:32
  Speaker A: Yeah. So what I'll do is I'll just read out the prompt because there's an assignment each year. And what's interesting is that only the people who have been invited to interview get this. We always have candidates sending these things our way, so we have it in our possession. But this is not something that you can find on the Wharton website. So here's the assignment. It says, the Wharton MBA program is dedicated to developing impactful, globally conscious leaders who are passionate about meaningful change. To advance this mission, Wharton has introduced two impact communities, Social equity and environment. MBA students interested in one or more of these critical issues are invited to join the associated impact community to discover the many resources available at Wharton. These communities will consolidate resources and opportunities in research, academics, and career growth, acting as a hub for MBA students to uncover insights, attend engaging events, and connect with peers, faculty, and organizations. So then here comes the sort of assignment the Wharton School is exploring. The addition of a new impact community focused on an emerging topic of global interest. For today's discussion, you and a team of fellow MBA students have been chosen to propose a new impact community. As a team, address the following aspects, define the emerging global issue and your proposed impact community that your proposed impact community will address. The second thing you need to do is identify one or more potential partner organizations that could collaborate with the community by offering resources, support, or engagement opportunities. And by the way, those partner organizations are non Wharton. Like, it's sort of outside of Wharton. Then the third assignment here is identify resources within the Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania that could support the proposed impact community, such as, like, academic programs, conferences, research initiatives. Then you are to outline the learning outcomes that the impact community aims to achieve for its members. And then your final presentation should clearly articulate the vision for the new community, emphasizing how it will provide a unique and impactful learning experience aligned with Wharton's mission to prepare leaders for the world's most pressing challenges. Consider discussing why your team selected this emerging global issue, as well as the relevance of the resources and partner organizations identified. So that's it, Alex, that's a lot.
• 19:08
  Speaker B: Crikey, yes.
• 19:10
  Speaker A: Right?
• 19:11
  Speaker B: That is a lot.
• 19:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. And, you know, it's funny, we always joke about this year in and year out, but I feel like half of this is like, encouraging applicants to get to know Wharton. So, you know, you and I, as soon as we saw this prompt, we spent some time digging on the Wharton website, looking at what information they had about the current impact communities. And so obviously candidates are going to do that too. And so I think to some extent the Wharton team based discussion, it didn't always work this way, but over the last several years it sort of morphed into a little bit of a marketing exercise where the school's kind of, I think, trying to get people jazzed up about all that they do and that sort of thing. Would you agree?
• 19:49
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think so, for sure, certainly over the last couple of years. But it, but it does provide that useful exercise of really encouraging candidates to scrutinize Wharton, et cetera, et cetera. And that should help them get a better sense of the community, the resources, the offerings and so forth. And obviously, I mean this, this prompt is really super interesting, but I find it also extremely challenging. Challenging in as much as it's quite hard to find on the Wharton website the real scope of these two impact communities. And as you know, Graham, I've written an essay on trust where I talk about this idea of firms and businesses. They really need to have a big focus on people and they need to have a big focus on the planet to drive trust. And it seems like these Wharton impact communities are just that they're focusing on people in one of their communities and they're focusing on the planet in the second of their community. So I'm kind of wondering with such broad scope for both of those, what room have they left for it for a third impact community? We'll talk about some ideas in a minute. But I do find this particular prompt really interesting, yet super challenging to do the requisite research.
• 21:27
  Speaker A: Yeah, and I think it will take some time. We do, you know, it's interesting. I mean, we do have a set of sort of general tips, you know, for these team based discussions that we'll go through. But I think, you know, your point about preparation is almost more important this year than in some years past because in some years past it's been much more sort of straightforward kind of research that was required. And here, as you're pointing out, there's not a lot of detail on these current impact communities on the school's website. There's sort of a page of information and so it's going to require a little bit of exploration and just sort of improvisation to some extent of what you might want to do. I mean, luckily, I think it's open ended in the sense that you could come up with a new idea for an impact community. You can come up with whatever Sort of external partners you think could help and then comb through Wharton's current offerings and build out that sort of hub of like, well, what campus clubs and courses and conferences might be able to fall under the umbrella for this community that we're proposing. But, yeah, it's going to be a fair amount of work. And I think, as you say, going in prepared will make you all the better as the discussion evolves, in case it takes different directions and things. But, yeah, it's a lot. I definitely had to think about this one and we'll get into some of the ideas we came up with. But I will say I don't think it matters as much what your idea is as it does the kind of. What sort of homework have you done and how are you able to present your ideas and also riff off of other people's ideas and exchange during the discussion? Because they're not grading you based on how, you know, how likely is the idea you present going to be picked by the school as that next impact community.
• 23:16
  Speaker B: Yeah. And also, you know, the more you prepare and, you know, you obviously bring your idea to the table and present it, the more you prepare, the better you will be at recognizing the quality of the other ideas that are presented. So, absolutely. Being agile and recognizing that someone else's idea is actually really well thought through and they've identified a niche that perhaps you hadn't identified and you can then become a cheerleader for that second idea because of the research that you've already done and you can add to that second idea, etc. Etc. So, yeah, I mean, absolutely. Preparation is key.
• 24:06
  Speaker A: Agree. Yeah. And I think in the past, one of the things where you and I kind of butted heads a little bit, as I used to say, oh, the preparation is just the appetizer, not the main course. And I still believe that to an extent, but I. But I do think that, you know, you got to do your homework, you got to come in ready to go. Let me run through. We have these, like, sort of 10 very basic tips, right, on how to get ready and excel during the tbd. So the first we just covered is read the prompt and think about it, spend some time. I mean, this is, you know, not to be sort of dashed off in the. In the sort of 24 hours before the actual TBD. Then, you know, I had this kind of make sure that, you know, you're not only preparing, but that you're also thinking about how the TBD may unfold. And what I mean by that is, you know, it's not just coming in with your idea and assuming that you can sort of push it through and make everyone agree to your point of view. It's about thinking through the dynamics that are going to play out during the interview itself. Tip number three is arrive early and be ready. Do not piss off your fellow TBDers by showing up in the last minute before the thing's going to kick off. Remember we said you do get a few minutes to chit chat beforehand. Usually be early and be ready. The fourth tip is to be ready with your one minute pitch. Right? So typically the way that this works is the idea that you bring into the TBD is given some air time at the outset. So each candidate goes around and spends a minute just sharing their pitch. What's the impact community? Who's the partners? How are you going to, you know, what would it look like? Okay, so you've got to. I would, I recommend practicing that. Use your phone to just record yourself, make a little video of your pitch so that you can go over it and just be ready to kind of share. I would also say though that during the TBD I think it makes sense to try to be succinct and not just talk to sort of hog the air time. This is not a case where the person who speaks the most in the TBD is going to get the admit, right? So be careful about that and look to be succinct to make sure that whatever you're saying is additive, you know, as you go through. Tip number six is keep an eye on the clock. Right. As I said earlier, you know that to some extent the team is left to its own devices. I mean, there are the two observers, but they're not going to be saying to you guys, we think you're spending a little bit too much time on this tangent, you know, so you guys as a team, you got to keep an eye on the clock. Alex, I think you like this one. Tip number seven is don't shy away from conflict, but be polite. You know, constructive disagreement is not a bad thing. Tip number eight is be careful about tools and whiteboards. So sometimes people will start to use the tools in the. I can't remember if it's zoom or whatever system they're using, you know, to sort of start taking notes, etc. I just want to make sure that you don't get lost in some of these things and that you really are focused on, you know, being in the discussion, because that's the key. Two more tips. Number nine is be authentic. We have a great Quote that I share every year when we talk about the tbd. Someone who reported into us about their experience at Wharton during the tbd, they wrote everyone was bright and articulate, but there was not an ounce of authenticity. Everyone was overdoing it. Great idea. Let's take the caps off of our pens. So this is what this person wrote to us. So try to be authentic and not too fake. And then the final tip is just beware that these second year admissions fellows who are second year students at Wharton, they're observing. And I think you just need to be careful that the group experience is a good one. I don't, it's sort of unclear to me, like how easily swayed they are. Like if things go in a bad way, are they inclined to sort of just write off the whole group? Or if things are going really well, is the whole group going to get an offer of admission? Like it's very unclear how that part works. And so I think just be wary that these are second year students. They're not sort of admissions officials in most cases who've been doing this for 20 years. So try to keep your group on track. You don't want to have a train wreck or something. But in any event, those are the kind of basic tips. Anything you want to add on that, Alex?
• 28:38
  Speaker B: No, I think those tips are really on message. And I think what's key is there are several roles that a participant can take through the discussion. So yeah, if your idea is chosen, absolutely fantastic. But if your idea is not chosen, maybe you chose someone else's idea or helped drive that conversation forward. You can be very additive to that conversation. Again, the more you've prepared, the more you're going to be able to do that more effectively. But maybe you're helping to manage the discussion. Maybe at the beginning you set out some parameters in terms of. All right, we'll spend 10 minutes discussing the different ideas, we'll prioritize the ideas, we'll synthesize the ideas, and then we'll spend 10 minutes detailing the execution of the idea and then we'll fine tune so that we can present on time and then someone's timekeeping that process, etc. Etc. My point is, I mean it's not just about coming up with the very best idea, but also recognizing and listening. Listening is really important. Drawing others into the conversation might also be something to consider. So there's lots of opportunity to be successful in the team based discussion outside of having that winning idea. And in fact, having that winning idea is certainly no guarantee of Success. Although it does show that you did do a lot of good research.
• 30:20
  Speaker A: Right, right. I want to ask you. So yeah, I think you're making a great point. Like it actually at the end of the day, great if your idea is chosen, but certainly not the end of the world if it's not. Especially if like you say, you're good at identifying or piecing together others ideas into something that's ultimately the final product. So that's great. I want to ask you that there are different personality types. I want to give you these personality types to get your take on how to deal with them. What if you have someone in the group who is just sort of really shy and not contributing? Does that matter? Does that hurt the dynamics, anything you could do as a participant?
• 30:56
  Speaker B: I mean, I don't think it necessarily hurts your chances that someone is completely quiet, but I think it can help you if you're seen as actively encouraging and making sure everybody is contributing to the conversation. So, so it sort of gets to this notion of self awareness, right. You don't want to just be the blowhard that's always speaking that's driving the conversation, but you want to be the person that recognizes the contributions of the group of each of the individuals. So I don't think there's any problem by saying, John, we haven't, you know, your idea that you presented earlier was interesting. We haven't selected it, but there are there elements of that idea that you wanted to further share to add to the idea that we're pursuing. So I think there are ways to mitigate and there are ways to draw out the quieter person. But I do think it's important that everybody does contribute and you're seen as someone potentially encouraging that sort of contribution. Not forgetting that everyone that's interviewing is a high quality individual.
• 32:12
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I will say one of the things I love about the TBD nowadays is that ever since they moved it to be 100% virtual, it just feels like they have really good groupings. So before when they would go into specific markets, they would have some team based discussions on campus. Some would be in markets like India or in China. They would basically staff would go to these places and run the team based discussions. But what's great is now, you know, because it's virtual, you're more likely to have a really diverse group of people. So I think that helps. I want to ask you about another personality type though. What if you've got just a real jerk in the group, someone who's kind of domineering they're trying to sort of run the show. Maybe they're doing a little bit of mansplaining or, you know, what would you do in that instance? Someone's really trying to sort, take, make it their show.
• 33:03
  Speaker B: I think this would be highly unusual because again, this is a. Folks that are invited for interview are generally high caliber individuals. Self awareness, emotional intelligence, etc. Etc. Much more to the fore these days rather than just individual sort of competence and skill. So I think this would be quite rare. But certainly you need to be conscious that this could be possible. And I think that then you need to engage that person, you know, and say, John, you know, say something positive about their contribution but. But then try to steer it to someone else that perhaps is more of the introvert. So. So yeah, managing these conversations can be a little challenging, but I have faith that Wharton has selected quality individuals ahead of time. So hopefully this doesn't become such a big issue.
• 34:07
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, I agree. So I think one other thing just to mention is that it can be helpful and to be really active in your listening, you know, make some notes if someone's, you know, as people are going around sharing their ideas or making points like, jot stuff down. Because I think it could look quite good to use those notes to bring someone back into a conversation or to redirect to be able to say, oh, Susan had this idea earlier. What do you guys think about that? Should we maybe revisit that now that we're talking about this aspect of it or. So just keeping being an active listener, I think makes sense. I will say, you don't have to make everybody shine. I mean, it's not your responsibility to make that jerk into a really nice person or make the shy person suddenly turn into an extrovert. But I think it's useful, as you said earlier, to. Yeah. To just be attuned to what's happening in the group and. Yeah. Helping to sort of steer things as you can. Alex, I think what everyone's been waiting for us to do as we kind of get towards the end of the show here is come up with ideas so they don't have to think of them. And I know we normally say, hey, come up with your own ideas, but can you think of anything like, you know, there's an impact community, as you said, about the environment, which covers a lot of stuff, you know, and then there's an impact community about kind of social equity, which again, you know, these are big, broad topics. And so if you were tasked with coming up with anything coming to mind, like for another impact community.
• 35:35
  Speaker B: Well, quite honestly, Graham, you provided a terrific list of which I crossed out about five of them because they fall under the scope of people or planets for me. But I do like your idea of AI and governance and maybe governance in general and the relationship between business and governance because you know, regulation, regulations, et cetera, I think are really super important. And. But there's always that conflict between companies that are super, super successful and innovative, like all the tech companies and their real distaste for governments telling them what they should and shouldn't be doing.
• 36:16
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 36:16
  Speaker B: And they spend obviously a ridiculous sum in lobbying to get the influence that they want. So I think that might be an area of exploration and certainly with the way gen AI, AI more generally, but certainly generative AI is rolling out and can effectively, will effectively take us through sort of a transformation much like the industrial revolution. So we do face a lot of uncertainty in that regard and maybe that could be an interesting concept for one of these types of communities. So effective governance as the umbrella or something like that.
• 37:02
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I think that intersection of government and business is always fascinating and I remember I'm going to forget the name of it, but there is a core course at Wharton. I think it's just sort of a half semester course, but it is about kind of the intersection of business and government. And I think that world has really evolved. I mean, I read an article the other day about how Indonesia is saying they can't sell the iPhone in Indonesia, the new iPhone, because not all parts are made in Indonesia or sort from within Indonesia. So there are all these sort of kind of businesses butting heads with governments. And I think as you say, AI is just accelerating that too where you know, there's all kinds of things to consider. So that's one. You know, there are other topics out there, I think you would argue some of them maybe fall into the umbrellas that already exist in the two impact communities Wharton has. But you know, I noted down, oh, maybe there's something about alternative energy, whether it's, you know, batteries, nuclear, wind, solar, etc. Like how, how to kind of navigate that stuff. You know, you would argue that that maybe falls under the sort of environmental stuff, but who knows?
• 38:04
  Speaker B: Well, it has to like what else? Like that should be front and center. But so that's my point. I think it's quite difficult to differentiate. But I also think if a student comes with that concept and that idea and it's really well thought through and they've done all their homework it might well be a really viable proposal to make.
• 38:25
  Speaker A: Yeah. So. And then other ones that I jotted down are like the issues around food security, which again could be about the environment too. But you know, there's some specific things in that healthcare and you know, the fact that we have a really aging population in certain parts of the world, that that's going to create challenges. And I was also just trying to think along the lines of how, you know, they do talk about how it's not just what courses are on offer but you know, what kind of career tracks. And so I'm thinking about, oh, people going into healthcare, people want to work in the energy sector or you know, in food and beverage and so just trying to sort of put that lens on it. But yeah, there are a number of ways that you can go. And I do want to stress that I do not think that the observers are judging the sort of likelihood of your impact community to be selected as the criteria for whether you should be admitted to the school. Right. So as you say, coming in with a well thought idea is probably the main thrust here. But in any event those are some ideas that maybe get the creative juices flowing. I will say get to know to whatever extent you can the existing Wharton impact communities and how they work. As I mentioned at the outset, I think it's important to take inventory of your personal experiences and knowledge gaps and to then think strategically about how your own experience and goals might be brought forth in this exercise and then obviously spend some time coming up with your idea and be prepared to explain it to the other team members. And yeah, I mean this is an exercise that is unusual in that sometimes the work you do beforehand may not be the exact like your idea may not be chosen but you can still contribute enormously to the discussion. So don't lose sight of that. Alex, do you want to just spend a minute talking about how to approach that post tbd one on one interview?
• 40:19
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean again, just for the team based aspect of it, recognizing that the final goal is obviously synthesizing everything together into one cogent idea and plan, etc. So just making sure you keep the eye on that prize rather than trying to push for your own ideas to, to be a part of that final presentation. But yeah, so, so the one on one should be very straightforward. No, no why you're applying no Wharton itself, how it fits your goals, etc, etc, that's going to be fundamental and you know, you've gone through the essays, you've done all, all of that. So. So it should just, you know, in terms of how to prepare for that. It's just know your application. Yeah, so. So that should be fine. And then, yeah, you might be asked about your experience in, in the team based discussion. So again, you can portray that experience. Don't throw anyone under the bus. That, that's just a real. No, no.
• 41:25
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 41:26
  Speaker B: So be a little bit politically correct if, if there was some, some random person in your group that clearly didn't align with everyone else. So I would just caution against that, but just be honest and transparent in terms of how you felt, how you felt your contribution should be measured and so forth. But yeah, really. And hopefully just enjoy the whole experience. It is an opportunity to meet some other candidates, so maybe that'll help build up some relationships and so forth. And yeah, hopefully enjoy it.
• 42:05
  Speaker A: Yeah. So I know it's stressful because it's a different process than other schools deploy, but at the end of the day, as we said earlier, it gives you a chance to get to know Wharton a bit better and to come in with some ideas to get excited about, you know, imagining yourself as a student at Wharton and as you also said, to meet some other great candidates, you know, some of whom may be your classmates. Right. So down the road. So I think it's, you know, and for that, one on one, my understanding is that it has been a mix of those kind of classic, why do you want to come here? What's your background? What are your goals? But also with the. How do you think this discussion just went? So being able to, as you say, reflect on that is really important. Otherwise. Yeah, I just want to wish everyone the best of luck. And again, some tips in here that I think are certainly applicable for say, IMD in Switzerland, but also for you have these other days on campuses like at Duke and Berkeley where a lot of these sort of dynamics and how you interact with other candidates may be important. So, so keep that in mind. But yeah, I want to wish everyone best of luck. And Alex, I guess next week we'll come back and do a regular old wiretaps. We'll review some candidates and get back into the swing of that. But we just thought it was important to take a pause and focus on the Wharton TBD this week given that everyone's got those interviews coming up.
• 43:18
  Speaker B: Very good. Best luck everyone. Take care.
• 43:28
  Speaker A: SA.