We welcome back Lindsay Loyd, Executive Director of MBA Admissions at NYU Stern, to share insights into the MBA program, application strategies and more in this Admissions Director Q&A.
Lindsay leads the recruiting and admissions efforts for Stern’s Full-time MBA Programs, including the two-year Full-time MBA and focused one-year MBAs: the Andre Koo Technology & Entrepreneurship MBA and Luxury & Retail MBA. She joined NYU Stern in 2023 after a 20-year career in financial services, serving in roles of progressive responsibility in analytics, marketing, and strategy at Capital One and American Express. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Washington State University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Check out our conversation with Lindsay here to learn what to expect from the admissions process this year, the unique aspects of the Stern MBA, and ways you can put your best foot forward on your application.
Clear Admit: What is one aspect of your MBA program that you wish applicants knew more about?
Lindsay Loyd: I want applicants to know how deeply AI is integrated into the Stern MBA experience to prepare them for a future of work in which AI is changing how we lead, make decisions, collaborate and more. This includes a new MBA AI specialization, which will be available for the first time starting this fall, complete with original classes built from the ground up including an agentic AI course, a first among business schools.
Also here are a few other fun facts for applicants:
NYC is the largest tech hub on the East Coast. Plus Stern has seven computer scientists on its faculty, a significant number for a business school. This translates into regular access to experiential projects, hackathons, and opportunities to engage with real businesses in real time, as well as start ups. For example, Stern is home to the Endless Frontier Labs, founded and led by Andrew Hamilton Director and Professor Deepak Hegde. It helps turn scientific and technological breakthrough startups from around the world into companies that can scale. MBAs pair with and support founders in their go-to-market, market research, and fundraising in a companion course taught by Professor Hegde. In fact, this year, one student stepped into a provisional CEO role with his EFL startup while getting his MBA and is continuing in that capacity after graduation!
CA: Walk us through the life of an application in your office from an operational standpoint. What happens between the time an applicant clicks “submit” and the time the committee offers a final decision?
LL: NYU Stern employs a unique, hybrid approach to the MBA admissions process. It’s not a purely rolling process, nor are there structured rounds with fixed decision dates. Our reviews are structured around four submission deadlines for applicants. Each deadline has a corresponding “initial notification deadline,” which is the absolute latest date by which you’ll hear about the next step from us. Those are: invitation to interview, waitlist, or denial of admission. Many will hear from us before the initial notification deadline, as we don’t wait for a deadline to pass to start reading applications. We try to release decisions as soon as we make them. I encourage prospective students to submit their application whenever it’s ready. Applicants don’t have to wait until a deadline day to press submit.
Every single application we receive is read in its entirety by multiple admissions officers and evaluated holistically across three dimensions: (1) academic potential, (2) professional achievements and aspirations, and (3) alignment with Stern core values. Stern’s emphasis on both intellectual intelligence and emotional intelligence, what we call IQ + EQ, is top of mind throughout the reading and evaluation process. We try to exemplify it as admissions officers in all of our interactions with prospective students. We strive to build a class and community of individuals who demonstrate IQ + EQ, as it is core to our culture, and recruiters seek these qualities. Our application is designed to help applicants highlight not just what they’ve done, but how they’ve done it, and how they’ve inspired others around them.
If the initial notification is “invite to interview,” an applicant will have the opportunity to schedule an interview, usually within a week or so. Once the interview has been completed, the application goes back to the committee for at least two more reads. If the decision is to admit, the application will also be reviewed for merit-based scholarship awards. After the interview is complete, we typically get back to the candidate with a decision in about three weeks. If someone is being offered a spot in the class, they get a phone call from me or someone on the Admissions Committee with the good news. These are our favorite calls to make!
One final point: we offer regular “Mock Application Workshops” with Stern admissions officers via Zoom throughout the year. Candidates often find these sessions very helpful in demystifying the process.
CA: How does your team approach the essay portion of the application specifically? What are you looking for as you read an essay? Are there common mistakes applicants should try to avoid? What is one key thing candidates should keep in mind as they sit down to write?
LL: This is your chance as an applicant to tell your story. The application and all of its components, including the essays, should be a cohesive narrative of who you are, what your aspirations are, and what you are hoping to experience with your MBA. And the key word across all of that is YOU. Be authentic and be yourself! It’s really important to invest some quiet time before getting too deep into the admissions process, and really think about your individual goals. Reflect on your personal values, strengths, and development areas. Spending time on this will give your research into different programs better context, which can help you narrow down your target programs, and ultimately enable you to write more compelling application essays.
This year, we’ve refreshed and focused our essay prompts.
Our first essay prompt will ask the candidate to tell the admissions committee about their short-term career goals and why an MBA from Stern is a critical next step on that path. We’ve expanded the word count from prior years to give the candidate a bit more space to tell their story. We encourage candidates to be specific. If you have targeted functional roles and/or companies in mind, incorporate those details into your answer.
The second essay prompt is our much loved “Pick Six” visual essay. It is my favorite component of our application, and applicants often tell me they really enjoyed the process of creating it. The “Pick Six” provides space for prospective students to introduce themselves more personally to the admissions committee, using photos, infographics, drawings, or any other images. If an applicant is wondering what to include, I would encourage them to think about the interests, hobbies, people, places and things that are important to them as a good place to start. Applicants should briefly introduce their Pick Six (~3 sentences), and include a one sentence caption for each image. If an applicant is visually impaired or otherwise needs accommodation, they are welcome to request an alternative prompt by contacting the admissions office.
The final prompt is our optional essay, which truly is optional. If the applicant has something to share that hasn’t been covered elsewhere in the application, this is the space to do so. If the applicant feels like they’ve covered everything already, there is no need to complete this essay.
CA: Could you tell us about your interview process? Approximately what percentage of applicants are invited to interview, who typically conducts interviews, and what should candidates expect in terms of interview style and format?
LL: The interview is by invitation only and is required for admission. About 30 percent of applicants are invited to interview. Our interviews are 30 minutes long and conducted exclusively by admissions officers. All interviews are conducted via Zoom, so it’s a consistent and equitable experience for everyone. Importantly, the admissions officer interviewing you will have reviewed your application and resume in advance. The interview will be very conversational. It gives us a chance to get to know an applicant beyond the application, get a sense of their communication style, and understand how a Stern MBA fits into their career journey at this time. There will likely be at least one behavioral interview style question, and we’ll be looking for alignment with Stern core values, particularly IQ+EQ.
Don’t forget — it’s also an opportunity for candidates to ask questions and get to know Stern a little better. I would encourage applicants to think about the things they want to know about that aren’t easily captured on the website.
CA: Is there anything in particular international students should keep in mind during the admissions process?
LL: Mastery of English is required for NYU Stern. If you are not a native English speaker, and if you have not completed a prior undergraduate or graduate degree taught in English, you’ll need to demonstrate language proficiency by submitting a language test score. We accept TOEFL, IELTS, and Duolingo test scores taken within two years of your application submission. There is no minimum score required, and the score will be evaluated holistically along with the rest of your application materials.
If you have been approved for a Standardized Test Waiver, that only applies to the Standardized Test Requirement. It does not waive the Language Test Score requirement. More information about test requirements and waivers can be found here.
For the one-year, specialized MBA programs in tech and entrepreneurship, and luxury and retail, respectively, that matriculate in May, the latest date by which you can apply is January 5th. For the two-year Full-time MBA Program, all deadlines are open to international students. Having said that, it’s important to be mindful of visa timelines, and I would recommend submitting your application as soon as you feel you are able to submit your strongest application.
CA: Conversations about MBA value often center on jobs, salaries, and ROI. What are some of the other ways students benefit from the MBA experience that may be harder to quantify upfront?
LL: In a world that is automating, human capital becomes an even more valuable differentiator. EQ is integrated into Stern’s brand DNA. We actively screen for students with high EQ, build a community infused with it, and then help students flex this muscle through the MBA experience. And it’s proving to be an extra special super power to employers when it comes to managing people and ideas in environments of ambiguity and rapid change. Stern students get regular opportunities to practice through Experiential Learning projects and courses in which they tackle real challenges in real time. There is no predetermined road map so it simulates what they’ll encounter after graduating. Because of our NYC location, alumni can easily get involved as project sponsors, and there are typically about 90 different projects on offer each year. One example — a media company prompted a Stern team to build an AI agent that helps guests select the best park experience package. Stern is not only a pioneer when it comes to experiential learning (with a 25-year legacy!), but also earned the distinction of “Best in Class for Experiential Learning” in 2025 (source: Poets & Quants).
CA: Are there any trends in the applicant pool, admissions process, or MBA experience that you are particularly focused on right now?
LL: The good news is that students can really tailor their MBA experience to their career interests. Everyone gets the fundamentals through the core curriculum. Then, there is the opportunity to select up to three areas of specialization to go deeper and build studies around a career path of interest. Whether it’s sustainable business, real estate, entertainment and media, healthcare or a number of other options, there are so many choices and often an MBA student club that is also closely affiliated.
CA: Is there anything else you’d like to highlight about your MBA program or admissions process?
LL: I started this interview talking about how deeply we are integrating AI throughout the Stern MBA experience, and I’d like to close it by emphasizing our incredible community and the Sternie superpower of EQ. This is a common thread across all constituencies at Stern — students, faculty, administrators, and staff. As we leverage AI to innovate and work more efficiently, our EQ skills become ever more important. It’s the human capital that will ultimately set Sternies apart as successful leaders of tomorrow.
