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to accomplish them. We expect our working professional students to incorporate their plans into their annual per- formance reviews with their employers. For instance, one prospective student maintained our attention throughout the structured interview process, but solidified our decision to offer her admis- sion into our MBA program when she presented her carefully executed career plan. She included a table of contents, an executive summary, a page of works cited, and detailed action items with SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely). She even outlined a contingency plan if relocation was no longer a viable option upon graduation. Because we want to be fair to other current or potential applicants, we ask candidates not to disclose any aspect of this assignment to others; in fact, we require them to include and sign an honor pledge that we provide on this topic. Step 4: Accept or decline. At the close of each inter- view, we let candidates know when they might receive admissions decisions from us and when we need to hear back from them. Most applicants apply to several schools, and once we've identified the candidates that we think will make great hires, we don't want to lose them to other schools. So we handle this final stage of the process with great care. Many Players, Many Roles an interview helps provide objective data points to aid in the admissions decision. We also use a structured interview guide to capture our notes about all candidates, and we make sure none of our questions violate individuals' privacy or other rights. If a question is designed to assess a candidate's employment readiness, it's probably safe to ask. Step 3: Ask for a career plan. When we have identified viable candidates whom we want to consider for admis- sion, we ask them to submit career plans detailing their aspirations. These can be created in whatever formats suit them best. Candidates generally view the career plans quite favorably, telling us that the process of creating one helped them evaluate their career goals and identify how At the Rollins MBA, we know that faculty are respon- sible for increasing the intellectual horsepower of our students by making sure the curriculum fills the gaps that employers have noted in the workforce. But their task can be daunting if the admissions team hasn't admitted the right students in the first place. We're convinced that following our four-step plan will help us increase the number of qualified appli- cants, admits, and alumni that go through our system. We're also convinced that when our school's admis- sions goals are aligned with employers' goals, we will attract talented and ambitious students who will become successful graduates. They will take the Rollins brand far beyond the classroom—and their employers through the next business challenge. Jacqueline Brito, a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), is assistant dean of the Rollins MBA at the Crummer Graduate School of Management at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. BizEd November/December 2012 57