The Door Is the School

Admissions is the foundation. If the first touchpoint is weak, everything that follows collapses.

I still remember the day I walked into the Army recruiting office. Standard strip mall lobby. Dingy carpet. A coffee machine that looked older than me at the time. And then this guy comes out from the back. Calm. Built like granite. The kind of person who does not need to raise his voice because everything about him already says: follow me. And that’s what I did.

Only later did I learn he was Special Forces. And that this moment lined up with the very beginning of the new 18X program. I enrolled. I went through the steps. I met people who were hungry and relentless. People who made you want to stand a little taller. Leaving that path is one of my life regrets. I still feel it in my chest when I think about what might have been.

That experience taught me something I wish business schools understood. Admissions is not a formality. It is culture setting. When you walk into a place and think, “Everyone here wants to be here,” the entire system changes. Standards rise on their own. People push themselves because the room demands it. It’s visceral.

So here’s what schools should do. Copy the Army. Put the best people at the door. The best faculty, the best admin, the best alumni, the best student ambassadors. The ones who live the mission and have the energy of people who are proud of where they work and study. Build the admission journey the same way we teach the customer journey map. Every touchpoint is a moment of truth and every step is a signal. And the message should be unmistakable: excellence starts here, and if you’re not up for it, back out.

Yet too many business schools treat admissions like customer service. Anyone who can pay is waved through. The first faces future students meet are faculty who know theory but never walked the walk, or tired administrators who are forced to take part. Alumni? Sometimes on the walls, but physically absent. And the only student reps are those that are popular and spend more time partying than studying. Result? No spark. No conviction. No pride.

I’m testing a simple fix in my own world. Every new class begins by hearing directly from previous students. Raw comments. Mini interviews. Real words, not brochures. They see the expectation before I teach anything. And instantly you feel the tone shift. They straighten up. They listen. The message is clear. This is for real.

If schools want better graduates, they must start with the door. Admissions is the foundation. Get that right and everything else becomes easier. Get it wrong and you spend years trying to fix problems that began on day one.