Ep 90 | Navigating DEI in MBA Admissions: Advice for Today’s Applicants

DEI may be under scrutiny, but diversity hasn’t disappeared from MBA admissions — it’s evolving.

In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast, host Harold Simansky speaks with Senior MBA Admissions Consultant Nisha Trivedi and MBA Admissions Managing Director Harshad Mali about how diversity, equity, and inclusion are being reinterpreted in business school admissions following the Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action. They explain what admissions committees are really looking for today, how schools define diversity beyond race or ethnicity, and why authenticity remains a critical factor in successful applications.

This conversation is essential listening for MBA applicants who want to understand how to present their experiences honestly, thoughtfully, and strategically in a shifting admissions landscape.

00:00 Why diversity enriches MBA learning

00:41 DEI and admissions: current context

01:29 When DEI becomes contested

03:10 Expanding the definition of diversity

05:18 The Supreme Court ruling explained

07:42 Are MBA classes becoming more uniform?

10:02 Holistic admissions and merit

12:36 Applicant stories that challenge assumptions

15:08 Addressing identity in applications

17:32 The importance of authenticity

19:08 What applicants should focus on now

20:15 Closing thoughts and guidance

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Transcript

Why diversity enriches MBA learning

Nisha Trivedi 0:00

Having a class that's rich in diversity in all aspects is just going to make it a better learning experience in a community for the students. Really lean into the experiences that make you who you are. And the more you are yourself in your application process, embracing all parts of you, you know, I think honestly the greater the chances were you will be at a school where you'll thrive.

Harshad Mali 0:22

Look at the creation piece rather than worrying about what they will or will not like. Deal with the circumstances and do the best you can.

When DEI becomes contested

Harold Simansky 0:41

These days, conversations around diversity, equity, inclusion, DEI are front and center in business schools across the world. But DEI isn't just about quotas or statements. It's about who feels welcome, whose voices are heard, and how admission processes are changing in response. In recent years, we've seen business schools and accrediting bodies pull back, reword, or even drop references to DEI under pressure. Some institutions have seen declining minority enrollment trends, and yet others are bucking the trend. Several schools posted big gains in underrepresented minority enrollment even after the Supreme Court's ban on race-conscious admissions. Meanwhile, surveys show that many prospective MBAs, two-thirds by one count, still say a diverse student body is a deciding factor in where they'll apply. So, what really happens when DEI becomes contested? How are admission offices deciding what to keep, what to discard, and how to maintain fairness, authenticity, and compliance? Okay, so our next podcast is a little bit more serious in tone than usual, and that really relates to this notion of business schools, as well as honestly our society more broadly, starting to move, or apparently starting to move away from the concept of DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion, which really has been a fundamental piece of how business schools look at applicants as far as their own mission, how they think about their own almost responsibilities to government. So let's start off very simply.

Nisha Trivedi 2:13

Sure. So DEI, of course, is diversity, equity, and inclusion. Um, so really it's we can think of it as a philosophy, you know, for making sure that the let's say a selection of a group really reflects uh different perspectives as well as just the overall population and how rich it is in terms of differences in every way.

Harold Simansky 2:37

No, that makes sense. And Harsh had in a more practical way, how do businesses look at that? What do they do as they try to approach this issue of DEI?

Expanding the definition of diversity

Harshad Mali 2:45

Well, there's several things. I mean, as Nisha was saying, DEI is uh is is very broad. Um initially DEI was created uh as a function uh in admissions because uh people from uh different races, especially minorities, um uh you know, sexual orientations, genders, they were not getting the the say in business school uh classrooms. Um and so business schools found a way to bring them in. There was a lot of talent in there. And over the course of time, that turned into a really good way of bringing in diverse thoughts in the classroom because in many ways uh the diversity comes through the again, the race, the gender, the sexuality, national origin, those kinds of things. As uh things uh changed, uh what the Supreme Court has realized now is that maybe the DEI that business schools were looking at is not the way uh it should be looked at. Because in the eyes of the lawmakers and you know the overall community, um the DEI was maybe taking away opportunities from those who had met it in them. So uh right now uh business schools are grappling both things, and that uh while the Supreme Court has gotten rid of the affirmative action, uh business schools uh understand that they have to keep in tune with what the what the law is. Uh, but at the same time, they're trying to understand uh what DEI is today with affirmative action. Because like I said, uh the DEI piece is uh is very critical for a successful business school outcome, not only for the business school uh schools themselves, but also for uh the students.

Jeremy Shinewald 4:59

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The Supreme Court ruling explained

Harold Simansky 5:31

Now, listen, I think that's right. And really what we're looking at for quite a bit of time is this notion here of okay, how does one make a class more diverse? And in many ways, there's a few different ways of doing it, right? One is what I would say almost a classic quota system, meaning we don't have people from this country. Let's make sure we have 20 people from this country. And for many years now, that's not how business schools have done it. First of all, it was made illegal many years ago at this point. So then we got into a little bit of a mushier world that on the one hand, the Supreme Court has yes, said no to things like affirmative action, which is you can debate whether or not it's a quota system, but that certainly has a little bit of smell to it. But now we're in a world of a very aggressive approach by the current administration to get out and not only to remove DEI, but to almost destroy DEI as a philosophy or as of the concept. And sort of it's manifested in a few different ways. And Nisha, I know you're very involved with an organization like the Consortium, the Forte Foundation. So what have they done?

Are MBA classes becoming more uniform?

Nisha Trivedi 6:29

Sure. So the consortium is, you know, just to kind of recap, um, it's an organization that's looking to um uplift, you know, those in the across all sectors um who are, you know, African Americans, uh Hisper Hispanic Americans, as well as Native Americans in all echelons of business nonprofits. So that's been their mission. And um lately, of course, you know, that's with the, you know, with light and everything uh with DEI, you know, it's you know, it's been more challenging. And in fact, unfortunately, um based on recent events, you know, a few schools have uh released themselves from consortium. Um so that's uh that's definitely been a challenging development. So with Forte, of course, it's uh, you know, it's specifically designed to really further, you know, the interests of women or make sure that really women are represented um in all um you know professional fields. Um and so, you know, they're unfortunately, you know, the again, you know, based on um recent uh rulings, recent events, um, some schools have uh exited uh the Forte network as well.

Harold Simansky 7:37

As schools can no longer weigh DEI or use it as a, in some ways, a metric of applications or the types of students they were getting, the question always becomes, okay. So if they're not doing DEI, does that mean that they're looking more at creating a class that is almost more homogenous, less equal, and you know, exclusionary?

Nisha Trivedi 7:58

Definitely not. That's the good news, right? Schools um have so many reasons to have a diverse class, right? Um, the thing is, students are going to learn as much, if not more, from each other as they are from anyone else in the business school community, including, let's say, even their professors. And so it's critical that there are different perspectives represented, right? And diversity in this case does not necessarily just have to mean nationality or ethnicity. I know that's what it commonly gets associated with, but it can take on so many forms. You know, what was your pre-MBA profession? How much work experience do you have? Um, what was your, you know, socioeconomic background? Um, what, you know, personal experiences have you brought with you to the program? Those are all aspects of diversity as well. And having a class that's rich in diversity in all aspects is just going to make it a better learning experience in a community for the students.

Harshad Mali 8:47

Absolutely. And I think the business school admissions work a little differently than the college admissions do. As you probably know, um, college is now mostly on merit, uh, whereas business school admissions have several things.

Harold Simansky 9:02

Merit we can decide in terms of things like test scores, things like GPA, certainly play a bigger part in a decision around college than they necessarily do around business school, as we as consultants know. And we have to keep on reminding uh the folks we work with. It's yeah, numbers count, but let's not overstate it either.

Holistic admissions and merit

Harshad Mali 9:22

Yeah. I mean, some schools might take into account the GPA and the test score more uh heavily into their decision-making process. But I think overall, uh, what you bring in the classroom is very important, and that's where the diversity comes in. And, you know, different people work in different industries, professions, and they come from different races, genders, sexual orientations, all of those things. And uh because of what they bring into the classroom through their insights, their perspectives, that's where the diversity comes in. And then the old way of looking at DEI comes into play again because these people happen to work in areas that are, you know, uh majority a certain type of uh DEI metric. So I would say you got to look at things holistically still, because business schools are not going to uh ignore people who are from the original DI lens, but also have this DEI aspect in them through other aspects of the application, through the extracurriculars, to the work experience and other things. Yeah.

Harold Simansky 10:36

No, listen, I think we see it almost every day as consultants, where we will certainly have candidates when they start working with us, never at the end, will they say, well, there should be a spot for me because I am X, Y, or Z, either from a certain race or certain sexual orientation, whatever it is. And we have to keep on reminding them that, yes, that's true, but what are you gonna bring to the classroom? And I think this notion here of DEI or diversity, let's move it away from simply these uh almost say these objective categories you can talk about. Instead, again, what are you gonna bring in? How do you show diversity? And I think at the end of the day, you you show diversity in many different ways and ways that uh it honestly should be explored and that business schools still really want to have you there. So you're hearing a lot about this notion of DEI rollback, this idea that folks from certain, whatever it is, certain groups are not having as success as they may have once had. I mean, from a practical perspective, Harshad, what are you seeing? Is DEI really impacting who gets in or who doesn't get in at this point?

Applicant stories that challenge assumptions

Harshad Mali 11:41

I would say DEI or the affirmative action uh policy might have affected a few people because uh business schools want to tag along with what they have been told. But uh honestly, a lot of the business school uh process is different from college admissions, as I say earlier. Uh, in my case, I have seen people who fell in the DI metric in the old way of things do well now. Um, I mean, one example is one guy who got into HBS in Stanford, 3.3 GPA, 615 GMAT. But his work experience uh was very unique. Um, he did a lot of things in Africa, uh, which is a very resource-rich country. Um, and he could bring that experience in, um, had a lot of personal insights also, um, was from a minority background, also. Uh, but what counted more was what he was going to bring to the table again and what he wanted to do in the future. You know, with an MBA from HBS or Stanford, I think he's gonna do great things, but he had some specific things he wanted to do in Africa that was not only going to uh do good things in the energy sector, but also enhance the brands of those schools. And there were other aspects also that played in. I mean, he interviewed really well. So just looking at his test score and his GPA uh would have made a common uh person think that this is not gonna be his uh time in the sun, but that was not the case.

Harold Simansky 13:21

Right, right, absolutely. But Nisha, you for the for our purposes as far as a FERB goes, you really are one of our, you know, people who think deeply around working with the consortium. I know I personally have relied on you, you know, quite heavily, maybe too much so, to help me through the process of thinking about this. But right now, how are you how are you seeing it manifest in clients now?

Nisha Trivedi 13:43

Yeah, so there's definitely been a concern, you know, about um some of the schools exit from consortium and how exactly are schools considering diversity, right? Lots of uh questions on that. And so what I've been telling candidates is really lean into the experiences that make you who you are, right? I mean, you don't know who else is applying, right, first of all. And so you don't know exactly, well, you know, do they have a candidate like me? But, you know, I would say the thing to focus on is not that, but rather, you know, what are the experiences that you bring to the table professionally and personally that are essential, you know, to who you are? And actually, I can give a story that's, you know, slightly different from uh Harshad's about a candidate I worked with um recently who was concerned he was too conventional of a candidate, right? Think about a heavily represented uh profession in the pool, you know, American male. And so he was wondering, you know, do I bring enough diversity to this class? Um but he had some really remarkable things about him, right? You know, first of all, just a wonderfully engaging personality and really brought back to his workplaces, really improved the culture of the places he worked. And that was a really big part of um, you know, what he leaned into in his applications. And, you know, that's how he ended up getting admission um to a top school. So again, it's really about uh describing your experiences in a way that resonates with the admissions committee.

Addressing identity in applications

Harold Simansky 14:58

So it's funny. I've had actually somewhat of a different question from uh clients of mine or consults from mine for a free 30-minute consultation, by all means go into our website, 30 minutes with Harsha, 30 minutes with Nisha, 30 minutes with me. We'd love to do it, we'd love talking to folks. Sometimes I'm asking those 30-minute consults. It's okay, I actually come from one of these diverse categories of what has historically been considered uh a less represented community. Should I hide from that? Should is DEI now, however you define it, is now that a negative? Meaning, as an Indian male engineer, should I hide that fact? Not quite sure how you can hide it, but to make this example, is this now something, is the notion of traditional diversity, is this something that people should almost hide from, that they should definitionally not highlight in their application?

Harshad Mali 15:48

I don't think hiding is going to do anything, honestly, because at some point you're gonna get caught if you hide. So I would rather uh help applicants be who they are. As Nisha was saying about this American guy, he brought in what he could bring to the table. And that's what I try to bring in. Everything in the world is different. There are no two people who are similar. What makes you different and what makes you unique? I think that's something that applicants need to focus on. And I do the best I can to help my clients deliver that uh message to the admissions committees. And look, I mean, it's not like everything is perfect, and that's where applicants get everything wrong, in that they try to perfect and let's say game the system. And I would not recommend doing that. I think being who you are uh helps uh your applications go a long way because then you can actually uh defend that in the interviews. And uh again, in the interview process, as long as you're natural, you're not coming up with made-up stories or trying to just uh mug up or show uh someone you're not, you um you're gonna do well.

Harold Simansky 17:09

Yeah.

The importance of authenticity

Nisha Trivedi 17:10

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that there is, and you know, we work so hard for our clients, right? All three of us, all of our colleagues. But sometimes there is an element, and not to get overly philosophical, but where, you know, sometimes people just end up where they're meant to be. And the more you are yourself in your application process, embracing all parts of you, you know, I think honestly, the greater the chances where you will be at a school where you'll thrive, you know, where you'll not just be accepted, but you'll be embraced for who you are. And I think that's there, that there's something really to be said for that.

Harold Simansky 17:40

No, no, no, absolutely. And I think we keep on bumping up to this issue sort of across the board in our podcast and the consult on consults and everything else. If you try to start bending yourself or shape shifting real to imply that you're exactly what business rules are looking for, to be, quote, the perfect candidate and not being authentic to yourself, you generally don't do particularly well in this process.

Harshad Mali 18:01

I get a lot of questions on, oh, well, um uh the admissions committees are looking for certain things. And I want to write things in the way that admissions committees uh would like. And what I always tell people is this I mean, consumers are not creators. Uh admissions committees know how to consume stuff, but they cannot create it. And so look at the creation piece rather than worrying about what they will or will not like. Uh they you know read applications with open eyes. Uh they can sense uh you know originality. So I think uh the notion that you need to bend to the rules uh when there are no rules is is wrong.

What applicants should focus on now

Harold Simansky 18:44

Yeah, yeah. I I like that, where you need to bend to the rules when there are no rules. I think that's absolutely right. Uh listen, I think at the end of the day, it also touches on this notion here of there is no such thing as an overrepresented demographic. And what we mean by that is you should be a demographic of one. If you are effectively able to communicate who you are, yes, the community that you come from, or your sexual orientation or your profession, sure, it's a big part of you, but it's not the only pieces of you. And if you can sort of communicate to them what that whole story looks like, who you are as a person, then that really does make for the most successful essays. There's no question about it.

Nisha Trivedi 19:24

Yeah, I mean, the political, societal situations, you know, kind of shift back and forth. But I think, you know, one constant is to, again, really focus on the elements that you can control, right, in terms of the application process, making every application element as strong as it can be, and making sure that the admissions committee understands you holistically, you know, what you're like at work, you know, outside of work, the motivations that have um led you to date and that, you know, inspire you to pursue your the your post-MBA goals. Really, I think that is, you know, what's in your control. So it's it's easier said than done, but um, try your best not to focus on you know the the ever shifting change, you know, in climate.

Harold Simansky 20:02

That that's right. Yeah.

Closing thoughts and guidance

Harshad Mali 20:04

On my note, I mean, I have always dealt with uh difficult things. And what I always tell people is don't worry about what the circumstances are doing uh for you. Just deal with the circumstances and do the best you can. Uh, you know, there are cards you can play and there are cards you cannot play at all. So just go with what you have and do the best you can. You know, be wise, be methodical, and um, you know, something good can come out of that whole process.

Harold Simansky 20:32

No, no, absolutely. Again, authenticity, showing the whole person. That's what really makes for a successful application when all said and done.

Jeremy Shinewald 20:39

Absolutely.

Harold Simansky 20:40

Yeah, perfect then.

Jeremy Shinewald 20:41

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