The Business School will implement a unique admissions policy next year that will eliminate deferred admissions for all students except minorities.
The program is designed to attract more minority students but also to reduce the practice of accepting students conditional on two years of work experience. However, any admitted student may voluntarily defer matriculation as in the past.
The spots once reserved for two years will be reallocated to current applicants. According to an admissions officer, the deferred admissions program no longer makes sense because the applicant pool is so qualified as a whole.
Last year, more than 100 applicants were granted conditional deferred admission out of 1200 who applied. Assistant Director of Admissions Alan Carswell said this week.
Of those receiving deferred admissions. 33 were minorities. Carswell said the admissions staff would like to admit between 50 and 100 minority students under the new program.
However, the new policy may reduce the overall number of deferred admissions. The work experience students gain between college and business school is often a prerequisite to an MBA education, students and faculty agree.
Now, many students will have to work without the security of a B-School acceptance two years in the future.
"Deferred admits had the peace of mind that they had a spot at the B-School. If you take away the deferred admission, you take away the peace of mind,"add MBA student John A. Downer, Quincy House business tutor.
Many students who are not offered deferred admission will older be admitted immediately or, more often, encouraged to reapply in two years, officials said.
People accepted in the new program, the first of its kind, will be provided with a list of companies, who have agreed to give preferential treatment to their job applications.
"We are trying to provide to more help in getting people with deferred admits a job." Carswell said, adding that "we want to offer something more substantial to the college seniors we want to recruit."
Carswell said minority applications have been declining over the past few years, with applications in 1981 down 12 percent from the year before and dropping another I percent in 1982.
Hispanics, Blacks and Native American groups are considered under-represented at the B-School, currently comprising only about one tenth of the MBA student body.
The B-School hopes that reserving deferred admissions exclusively for minorities will boost that population cosiderably.
"Minority students are easier to recruit while in college than when dispersed in the work force," said William Hokanson, a B-School spokesman.
"One of the ways we try to increase the numbers here is by targeting people early, so this is a right step," vice president of the Afro-American Students Union Karla Rose added.
Students participating in the program are under no obligation to return to their two-year employer after receiving an MBA.
"The program is attractive to us because it is in keeping with our affirmative action goals to increase minority representation in the company, expecially in professional positions." Nancy Kendrick, a personnel official at Hewlett Packard, one of the participating firms, said Thursday.
"We've told the B-School to notify deferred admits we're interested," said Donald Linn, vice president of Blyth Eastman Paine JWebber, an investment banking firm. "It's one more opportunity for us to get a shot at qualified people.
