The Admissions office for the MBA program has a three-stage process:

In the first stage, the admissions committee screens all applications. Of these, 40% move on to the interview stage. Of the applicants who receive an interview, 35% receive an offer of admission to the MBA program. 30% of applicants who receive the offer decline the offer. The remaining students (who receive an offer and do not decline it) join the incoming cohort of MBA students.

1. The admissions committee would like to have an incoming cohort of at least 850 new MBA students. On average, how many applications should they make sure they receive to attain this goal?

2. Suppose the admissions committee receives 800 applications per week during the admissions season. During this time, the Screening committee can screen 650 applicants per week, the Interview committee can interview 275 applicants per week, and the Offers team can send 150 offers per week. What is the implied utilization (in %) of the bottleneck step of the MBA admissions process?

Applications Screen Interview Offer Incoming cohort of MBA students Reject after screening Reject after interview Decline offer Applications Screen Interview Offer Incoming cohort of MBA students Reject after screening Reject after interview Decline offer