????雖然沃頓商學(xué)院去年的入學(xué)申請(qǐng)人數(shù)持續(xù)減少，但今年秋入學(xué)的MBA班級(jí)的GMAT平均分卻達(dá)到了創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的725分，比之前一年高出了7分。

????庫(kù)馬爾于2009年加入沃頓商學(xué)院的招生團(tuán)隊(duì)，擔(dān)任高級(jí)副主任。對(duì)她而言，這也是一段動(dòng)蕩不安的經(jīng)歷。過(guò)去五年，沃頓商學(xué)院MBA入學(xué)申請(qǐng)人數(shù)減少了17.2%。庫(kù)馬爾曾將這種狀況歸因于亞洲和歐洲商學(xué)院的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。雖然許多競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手也出現(xiàn)了申請(qǐng)人數(shù)下滑的情況，但情況都沒(méi)有沃頓那么嚴(yán)重。去年，許多商學(xué)院的申請(qǐng)人數(shù)都有所回升。但沃頓商學(xué)院卻依然下滑了5.8%。競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手芝加哥布斯商學(xué)院的入學(xué)申請(qǐng)人數(shù)增加了10%。收入方面的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手、著名的哥倫比亞商學(xué)院（Columbia Business School）增加了7%，哈佛商學(xué)院（Harvard）也增加了4%。

????更重要的是，近幾年沃頓商學(xué)院招生辦公室出現(xiàn)了一系列的失誤。2010年，沃頓商學(xué)院機(jī)密的面試官指導(dǎo)材料以及行為面試問(wèn)題泄露，一些入學(xué)咨詢公司將這些資料出售給了申請(qǐng)者。被泄密的幻燈片中包括六個(gè)問(wèn)題，跟進(jìn)的提問(wèn)建議，以如何對(duì)申請(qǐng)者的回答進(jìn)行打分的詳細(xì)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。泄密事件后果是：愿意花錢(qián)接受培訓(xùn)的申請(qǐng)者將從這些顧問(wèn)那里獲得內(nèi)幕信息，從而大大提高面試成功的可能性。而面試是橫亙?cè)谏暾?qǐng)者面前的最后一道錄取障礙。

????在庫(kù)馬爾的影響下，沃頓商學(xué)院決定不再由二年級(jí)學(xué)生進(jìn)行MBA申請(qǐng)的第一輪面試，此舉被許多學(xué)生認(rèn)為，是剝奪了他們參與錄取過(guò)程的權(quán)利。據(jù)稱(chēng)，去年沃頓商學(xué)院對(duì)招生政策進(jìn)行了大規(guī)模改革，結(jié)果是由創(chuàng)新副院長(zhǎng)卡爾?T?烏爾里希、而不是庫(kù)馬爾公布的。此次改革在錄取過(guò)程中增加了新穎的小組討論部分，將以英語(yǔ)為第二語(yǔ)言的申請(qǐng)者拒之門(mén)外，或許是導(dǎo)致商學(xué)院申請(qǐng)人數(shù)下滑的原因之一。

????也有申請(qǐng)者私下抱怨稱(chēng)，新的考試要求他們?cè)陬A(yù)定日期和時(shí)間返回沃頓商學(xué)院，這為遠(yuǎn)隔千里的申請(qǐng)者們帶來(lái)了諸多不便。今年，針對(duì)申請(qǐng)者的問(wèn)答題目招致了許多MBA入學(xué)咨詢公司的譏諷。HBSGuru.com的桑迪?克瑞斯伯格形容這些題目“無(wú)聊乏味，混亂不堪。”

????他說(shuō)：“即使你對(duì)客戶解釋了第一個(gè)問(wèn)題是希望你回答，沃頓商學(xué)院在職業(yè)與個(gè)人方面能給你做些什么，第二個(gè)問(wèn)題是希望你談?wù)勛约耗芙o沃頓商學(xué)院帶來(lái)什么，可他們還是會(huì)打趣道：‘兩者有什么區(qū)別？’他們是對(duì)的，所有這些泛泛而談的問(wèn)題都在吹毛求疵，缺乏想象力，完全以沃頓商學(xué)院為中心（以不好的方式），不可能從申請(qǐng)者那里獲取任何新鮮有趣的信息。”

????許多入學(xué)顧問(wèn)認(rèn)為，庫(kù)馬爾的辭職表明這家商學(xué)院內(nèi)部存在更深層次的問(wèn)題，也表明了它在全球頂尖MBA課程中的地位。沃頓商學(xué)院曾經(jīng)的支柱行業(yè)是投資銀行和投資管理，可如今在這些領(lǐng)域找到工作的學(xué)生越來(lái)越少。庫(kù)馬爾并不是近幾年離職的唯一一位高管。去年6月份，耶魯大學(xué)管理學(xué)院（Yale University's School of Management）挖走了沃頓一位德高望重的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人恩賈尼?賈恩。這是沃頓的一大損失：賈恩在沃頓工作了超過(guò)26年，擔(dān)任負(fù)責(zé)MBA課程的副院長(zhǎng)已有10年時(shí)間，在學(xué)院的最后兩年擔(dān)任高管MBA課程副院長(zhǎng)。

????And though applications continued to decline this past year, the MBA class that entered this fall boasts record GMAT scores -- an average of 725, up seven points from the previous year.

????Still, for Kumar, who joined Wharton's admissions staff as senior associate director in 2009, it has been a turbulent ride. In the past five years, applications to Wharton's MBA program have fallen by 17.2%. Kumar had earlier attributed the decline to new competition from B-schools in Europe and Asia. But while many rival schools also suffered declines, the falloffs have not been nearly as steep, and in the past year, applications to many peer schools have turned around. Not at Wharton, where the school had a 5.8% drop in applications. Rival Chicago Booth reported a 10% increase. Finance rival and powerhouse Columbia Business School had a 7% rise, and Harvard was also up, by a more modest 4%.

????More importantly, perhaps, there have been a series of miscues by the school's admissions office in recent years. In 2010, Wharton's confidential instructions to its alumni interviewers -- along with the behavioral interview questions -- had been leaked and were being sold to applicants by some admissions consultants. The leaked slideshow included all six questions, suggestions for follow-ups, as well as detailed guidelines for how to grade the applicants' answers. The upshot: applicants who were willing to pay for help were getting inside information that made it far more likely they would do well in the crucial interview session, the final hurdle to an acceptance.

????It was under Kumar that Wharton decided to no longer use second-year students as first readers on MBA applications, a move that some students felt disenfranchised them from the admissions process. It was telling, too, that a major change in admissions policy last year was announced not by Kumar but Karl T. Ulrich, Wharton's vice dean for innovation. That change, the introduction of a novel team-based discussion component to the admissions process, may have led to at least part of the fall in this past year's applications to Wharton, turning off applicants who speak English as a second language.

????Some applicants also privately groused that the new test required that they return to Wharton on set dates and times that were often inconvenient for them when traveling from afar. And this year, essay questions for applicants drew ridicule from some MBA admission consultants. Sandy Kreisberg of HBSGuru.com called them "dullsville made worse by confusion."

????"Even after you explain to clients that the first question wants you to talk about what Wharton can do for you, both professionally and personally, and the second one wants you to talk about what you can contribute to Wharton, they still gag and say 'what is the difference?'" he said. "They are right, of course, in the grand scheme of all possible questions, this is hairsplitting, unimaginative, Wharton-centric (in a bad way) and not likely to capture any new or interesting information about applicants."

????Some consultants believe that Kumar's departure signals deeper issues for the school and its place among the world's elite MBA programs. Fewer students are taking jobs in fields that were once Wharton's mainstay -- investment banking and investment management. And Kumar isn't the only top official to leave in recent years. In June of last year, Yale University's School of Management hired away a highly admired long-time leader at Wharton, Anjani Jain. For Wharton, it was a major loss: Jain had a career at Wharton for over 26 years, spending 10 years as vice dean of the MBA program and his final two years there as the vice dean of the MBA program for executives.