Amid a firestorm over a decline in application volumes at the Wharton School—highlighted in a recent Wall Street Journal article—the school and its director of MBA admissions and financial aid, Ankur Kumar, parted ways last week. mbaMission Founder/President Jeremy Shinewald was quoted in the original Wall Street Journal article and was then contacted by a variety of media outlets for feedback. Shinewald told The Daily Pennsylvanian on Tuesday, referring to the Journal piece, “I think the article clearly set off some alarm bells …. It upset students, alumni and administrators, and the school had to be perceived as taking action.” Shinewald added, “The timing of this all would suggest that [Kumar] didn’t politely resign, even if that’s the way they’re going to present it.” Shinewald was also quoted at length by Poets and Quants, commenting, “The bottom line is that Ankur is taking the fall for a lot of macro issues that she can do nothing about.” The increasing strength of Columbia Business School’s and Chicago Booth’s brands—the programs now offer career opportunities on par with those at Wharton—is one such macro issue suggested by Shinewald. “Of course,” he adds, “there is the ‘fall of Wall Street story’ and the fact that HBS and Stanford are creating more headline-grabbing start-ups.”