Or for that matter, by its tweets?
We’re of two minds on this.
(Maybe we’re of more than two minds on this. And on everything. We are EssaySnark, after all.)
On the one hand, those running admissions and managing a twitter account are not the ones running the school. So what if their tweets have typos from time to time?
Who cares? So what if a school’s website sorta sucks? Admissions is usually quite separate from the rest of the school — and it’s certainly separate from the bschool education you’ll be getting. The admissions people will not be teaching your MBA classes. The admissions people are not expected to be social media masters (we laugh a little when we see some school blogs where they’re replying back to the spammer’s comments – “Thanks, glad you liked it!” to the guy whose name is “Louis Vitton Handbags” – it’s sorta funny but mostly sad).
Social media aside, we often need to caution BSers not to judge the school by its admissions team. There are some schools that have amazing admissions staff, forward-thinking and applicant-friendly policies, and transparent processes (to the extent that’s possible in admissions). There are other schools that — don’t.
In fact, there’s one behemoth of a bschool where the admissions team is very ivory-tower-like. The school shows up on everyone’s short list every year because of its strong brand (no it’s probably not the one you’re thinking about). We’ve had more than one client come back from an interaction with this school’s admissions team feeling bent out of shape. We have multiple datapoints on this. The admissions peeps seem to not get that they are a customer service function.
When this happens, and the BSer who once was in luv with this school now is feeling irritated or outright POed at them — often after getting admitted — we exhort them to not judge the school by its staff. Once you start school, you’re likely not going to ever have to deal with them again. Or maybe you will, since you’re probably the type who will volunteer to do alumni interviews – and when you do, you can give the admissions folks some feedback about what the experience was like for you!!
What we’re trying to say is that the admissions people don’t run the school — even if they sometimes seem to think they do (we actually have a different behemoth school in mind now… yes there’s more than one of these big chalupa schools that have left a distaste in the mouth over the years). Once you’re in, you never have to talk to them again — really, you don’t.
Of course this doesn’t mean you should be rude to them, or tell you what you think of them the moment you get in — here’s a cautionary tale about that (note that story is from two years back).
So we said that on the one hand, the school’s website and twittering and FB presence and how they treat BSers who apply — all that doesn’t really matter. That’s just the admission people doing their job, and they’re not necessarily experts in social media management.
On the other hand… it’s a business school. They’re ostensibly going to be teaching you about marketing. And how to win market share. And how to win friends and influence people. If they don’t have good people staffing the front lines as the face of the school…. well it just makes you wonder.
And typos in tweets? From a TOP GRADUATE SCHOOL? Lame.
It’s ghastly how many school websites seem firmly lodged in the 20th century. We only in the past year started seeing schools launch sites that were actually appealing. The majority of them are still dullards and some are so navigationally-challenged that it’s ridiculous.
(Yes we know that the EssaySnark website still leaves something to be desired, even after our major overhaul – but we’re not telling you we know anything about marketing, so we get a pass on it, at least a little.)
So from one side: No. Totally doesn’t matter if they have a low-paid associate-type person running the twitter account, or that they don’t think it’s important to have a snazzy website that’s pretty and easy to find stuff on. Does. Not. Matter. You don’t choose a bschool for its website.
But really folks. You’re saying that you can lead these students into the next age of business and beyond and you don’t even have these fundamentals down right?
Get with the program, you bschool admissions people. Please.
For further reading: How much does your experience with Admissions matter in your choice of schools?
mrsjonstewart says
Aaah, I’m famous! Sort of! I definitely wanted to comment on this post as I am the @peacockdiaries mentioned in the infamous tweet. I think I have a pretty sharp eye when it comes to grammar. I have spotted and corrected countless typos and errors on the websites of major companies (cough*JetBlue*cough) and one of my favorite Twitter accounts is @stealthmountain, a Twitterer who alerts other users that they have incorrectly used the phrase “sneak peak” when they mean “sneak peek”. So yeah, this got my attention…for all the wrong reasons.
Texting, social media, and other modern forms of communication have become excuses for people to get incredibly lazy with their spelling and punctuation, but I still want to hold some people to a higher standard. Those folks representing a top b-school definitely fall into that category. Your audience is busting their collective butts slogging through painful GMAT sentence correction prep. We can’t afford to miss the easy ones…and neither can you.
essaysnark says
Have to check out that stealthmountain – looks right up our alley!!!
Love your point about how hard you BSers have to work on studying the intricacies of the language – why should you give a pass to the schools?? These are people selling EDUCATION (and at *Oxford* no less!!! eek!).
Glad to have you around, peacock!