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Published: July 17, 2016
Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Johnson Graduate School of Business’s Judi Byers
Moving right along in our new series designed to give applicants a glimpse into the real, live people who run admissions at the world’s top business schools, we’re pleased this week to feature Judi Byers. The Hawaiian-born Byers now calls upstate New York her home, where she’s overseen admissions and financial aid at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Business since 2015. (Prior to that she directed admissions at American University’s Kogod School of Business in Washington, DC.) “I hope you’re getting the sense that I am very comfortable with who I am,” she said matter-of-factly as she rattled Read more
Published: July 17, 2016
Discover Why You Need the Lehigh University Flex MBA
Sponsored Content The online MBA isn’t what is used to be. Just a few years ago, an online degree was considered a “fake” degree. Now, that couldn’t be further from the truth. At top schools like Lehigh University’s College of Business and Economics, an online MBA is more than a mode of study; it’s an invaluable experience. Read more
Published: July 14, 2016
Chicago Booth to Seek New Dean as Sunil Kumar Leaves to Become Johns Hopkins Provost
University of Chicago Booth School of Business Dean Sunil Kumar is leaving to become the next provost of Johns Hopkins University, effective September 1st, the Baltimore school announced today. The Indian-born Kumar becomes the school’s 15th provost and the first-ever Asian to hold the position. Kumar just last year was appointed to a second five-year term as dean at Chicago Booth. In his tenure there, he is credited with helping raise more than $300 million, focusing on student recruitment, including increasing the female enrollment of full-time programs from 35 percent to 42 percent, and expanding courses for undergraduates, Read more
Published: July 14, 2016
Columbia Professor Breaks Down What Brexit Could Mean Down the Road
Columbia Business School posted an article on its blog this week by Professor and Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz about the potential economic fallout that the United Kingdom’s recent “Brexit” referendum could have on the global political arena in the not-too-distant future. Read more
Published: July 14, 2016
Fridays from the Frontline: One Week in Bangkok
This week’s Fridays from the Frontline has it all. A Shark Tank‒like pitch performed on live national television, a plan to help India’s smallholder farmers meet growing demand for local, fresh produce and even a Thai massage. Even though the team at its center—five MBA students from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Business—didn’t take home the very top prize, we think the story’s a winner. Thanks to Jeremy Kuhre (MBA ’16) for sharing it with us! The following post has been republished in its entirety from its original source, Johnson’s Student Blogs page.  One Read more
Published: July 13, 2016
What Brexit Means for Britain’s Business Schools
With David Cameron having officially resigned and Prime Minister Theresa May taking up residence behind “the most famous black door in the world” at 10 Downing Street, speculations abound regarding just what the full implications of the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union will be. Immediately following the Brexit vote, we reached out to admission directors at leading business schools in Britain to get their views on what it means for incoming MBA students in the short term, as well as what some of the longer-term impacts might entail. Read more
Published: July 12, 2016
Robin Chase, MIT Sloan Grad and Visionary of the Sharing Economy
Robin Chase, MIT Sloan Graduate School of Management MBA (1986) and co-founder of Zipcar, is a visionary in the brave new world of the sharing economy and peer-to-peer technology. It’s easy to take for granted the omnipresence of the sharing economy in our everyday lives. For some millennials, it's hard to recall that there was ever a time before they could walk outside, wave a gadget to a car windshield, and go on an unexpected road trip. Robin Chase's Zipcar gave birth to a phenomenon. Read more
Published: July 11, 2016
Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Julie Barefoot of Emory’s Goizueta Business School
Julie Barefoot of Emory’s Goizueta Business School is a self-professed foodie who loves to cook and especially enjoys trying out new recipes. She can also make the fun claim of having admitted someone who today leads MBA admissions at another top-tier business school. Darden’s Sara Neher, who kicked off our Real Humans of MBA Admissions series last month, is a Goizueta grad whose candidacy Barefoot was in charge of evaluating. “We often laugh about how I admitted her and now we’re ‘competitors,’” Barefoot says. Read more
Published: July 11, 2016
GMAC Launches New Online MBA Rankings Tool to Demystify Rankings
In their most recent rankings, U.S. News & World Report and Bloomberg BusinessWeek named Harvard Business School the number one business school around. But wait…according to the Economist, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business gets top bragging rights. And then there’s the Financial Times, which names INSEAD number one, and Forbes, which says it’s Stanford Graduate School of Business. Confused yet? Many applicants to business school look to rankings as a way to make sense of the many different choices that exist for getting an MBA—but making sense of the Read more
Published: July 10, 2016
At the University of Florida, MBA Class Size Matters
Sponsored Content When it comes to choosing an MBA program, there are many factors that matter including location, ranking, and opportunities. One area that is often overlooked is size. Smaller MBA programs such as the Hough Graduate School of Business Full-Time MBA come with many advantages, including personalized attention, direct interaction, and cohesion. While this intuitively makes sense, does it make a difference in the long run? Read more
Published: July 7, 2016
UCLA’s Anderson School Hosts Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for U.S. Veterans
This month, more than eighty post-9/11 veterans with disabilities will gather on various campuses, including at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, to pursue entrepreneurship opportunities. From July 9th through 17th, they will channel their military experience into the business world during the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV). Read more
Published: July 7, 2016
Fridays from the Frontline: An Open Letter to Donald Trump from Members of Wharton’s Community
As anyone who has had even half an ear open to U.S. politics knows, presidential candidate Donald Trump has been quick to cite his affiliation with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In an open letter to Trump shared via Facebook recently, a contingent of Wharton students, alumni and faculty chose to express their thoughts on Trump’s candidacy as it relates to the school’s diverse community. Please note that the following sentiments reflect the views only of the 600 signatories to date—they are not affiliated with the Wharton School. Clear Admit also does not take a stance with regard to politics, national or international. Read more
Published: July 6, 2016
Pride@Kellogg Edges Out Columbia’s Cluster Q to Win Fourth Annual MBA Ally Challenge
LGBTQ student clubs at the Kellogg School of Management, Columbia Business School and Michigan’s Ross School of Business led the pack this year as 13 leading business schools competed in the fourth annual MBA Ally Challenge, a competition hosted by nonprofit organization Friendfactor to recognize efforts to encourage straight students to become visible and active allies in their campus communities. Pride@Kellogg won with a score of 75 out of a possible 100 points for the social, educational and community events it held promoting allyship throughout the year. Columbia’s Cluster Q was a very close second, followed by Out for Business at Ross. For its first-place showing, Pride@Kellogg will receive a $5,000 prize and on-stage recognition at the Reaching Out MBA (ROMBA) Conference in October. Read more
Published: July 5, 2016
Darden Launches New “Future Year Admissions” Deferred MBA Program
The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business is taking a page from the Harvard Business School (HBS) playbook and launching a deferred admissions program targeting college students. Similar to HBS’s 2+2 Program, the new program at Darden is open to current college students or students in full-time master’s degree programs who entered directly from undergrad. “Same as Harvard, we’re looking for applicants who haven’t been in the workforce yet,” explains Sara Neher, Darden dean of MBA admissions. But unlike HBS’s 2+2 program, which is based on the premise that admitted students will then spend two years working before Read more
Published: July 4, 2016
Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Bruce DelMonico of Yale School of Management
We’re moving right along with our fun new series spotlighting the real people who make those life-altering decisions of whether to admit or deny you to a given business school. At bat this week is Bruce DelMonico, assistant dean and director of admissions at Yale School of Management (SOM). We happen to know he’s a bit of a baseball fan, even though it didn’t come up in our interview. Read on to find some other lesser-known facts about the person who has helmed admissions at SOM for the past 12 years. Of course, we also talked a little Read more
Published: July 4, 2016
Summer Reading: 10 Books to Understand the Tech Revolution
In today’s world of quickly changing technology, it can be hard to stay current, especially when it comes to technologies relevant to staying afloat in the business world. Nonetheless, understanding tech and its evolution in business is imperative for staying competitive and effective. Read more
Published: June 30, 2016
Wharton School of Business Announces Groundbreaking Budget Model Tool
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania’s Public Policy Initiative has announced the launch of a breakthrough budget modeling tool. The Penn Wharton Budget Model Tool aims to allow transparent access to ongoing budget decisions. Accessible online, the tool is free of cost to the public and to those involved in legislation. Read more
Published: June 30, 2016
Top MBA Recruiters: Boston Consulting Group
Boston Consulting Group - A Dominant Force in Consulting When it comes to consulting firms there are a few names sure to show up on any MBAs dream job list: McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, Deloitte Consulting, and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). While McKinsey reigns on top in Vault.com’s ranking of the most prestigious consulting firms on Earth, BCG has had a lock on the number two spot for almost 10 years. Read more
Published: June 30, 2016
Friday from the Frontlines: A DIY Guide to Career Growth
Today’s Friday from the Frontlines is a bit of a departure from the norm in that it comes from a professor, instead of the current MBA applicants, students and recent alumni we usually spotlight as part of this regular feature. But the advice offered by Kellogg professor of entrepreneurship and marketing Carter Cast seemed so on point for so much of our audience that we decided to stray a bit from our usual protocol. Career development is such a crucial part of the MBA journey, both leading up to and ensuing from the business school experience Read more
Published: June 29, 2016
Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Darden’s Sara Neher
We know. Admissions directors at top-tier business schools can seem all but omnipotent, charged with assessing your worth and charting the course of your future with the decisions they dole out. To be sure, there are admissions directors who have truly changed individuals’ fates with the calls they make. But here’s something else we know. These admission directors also happen to be real people, in many cases completely down to earth and genuinely great to spend time with. We had the thought that it might ease anxious applicants’ minds just a wee bit to get a glimpse of some of Read more
Published: June 28, 2016
Professor Profile: Adam Grant, Wharton
When attending Ivy league schools like the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, students are guaranteed to have professors with impressive resumes leading lectures and projects. One such professor at Wharton is Adam Grant, 34, who is a New York Times bestselling author as well as the youngest tenured professor at the renowned business school. Read more
Published: June 26, 2016
Career Services Director Q&A: Cynthia Saunders-Cheatham of Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management
In our continuing series of interviews with career services directors at leading business schools, we connected earlier this month with Cynthia Saunders-Cheathem, who heads the Career Management Center (CMC) at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Business. Saunders-Cheathem joined the CMC eight years ago and was promoted to executive director in 2014. Before Johnson, she worked in corporate marketing for 15 years at a range of companies including Hanes Underwear, Valvoline and United Technology. Saunders-Cheatham was generous with her time and went into great detail regarding Johnson’s career management offerings, trends in hiring and student career goals and how Read more
Published: June 23, 2016
Friday from the Frontline: First-Year Project for PayPal France
This week’s post comes to us from Tuck rising second-year Ashley Cahill, a Connecticut native who spent the five years before business school working in Shanghai, China, in public relations roles for the American Chamber of Commerce, Weber Shandwick and a sustainable agriculture startup. As you’ll read, her international experiences have extended right into the MBA program thanks to Tuck’s First-Year Project, which Cahill completed in Paris as part of an assignment for PayPal France. Our thanks to her for agreeing to share her experience with Clear Admit’s audience. This post has been republished in its entirety from its Read more
Published: June 22, 2016
Summer Reading: 10 Essential Books About Leadership
Some say leaders are born, not made. But any successful entrepreneur will tell you that a deep knowledge of how to engage and inspire a team trumps innate charisma more often than not. Read more
Published: June 21, 2016
MBA Veterans Find Jobs Thanks to the MBA Veterans Network
Veterans and business school go hand in hand. While it might not be the most obvious connection, the truth is that military applicants tend to blow their competitors out of the water regarding experience, leadership skills and other unique qualifications. Read more

MBA Applywire

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April 2, 2025 1:21pm ET
Applying: Columbia, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, Emory / Goizueta, Georgia Tech / Scheller, Michigan / Ross, Northwestern / Kellogg, U. Chicago Booth, UVA / Darden
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Pharmaceutical Operations
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Pharmaceutical Companies: Bain , BCG , McKinsey , Johnson & Johnson , Merck
GRE: 321
GPA: 3.7
Years of Work Experience: 15
Location: Mumbai
Post MBA Location: NYC
14
March 30, 2025 10:53am ET
Applying: Columbia, Duke / Fuqua, ESADE, IESE, INSEAD, London Business School, MIT Sloan, NYU Stern, Other, Penn State / Smeal, U. Chicago Booth, UCLA Anderson, UPenn / Wharton, Yale SOM
Intake Year: 2026
Pre-MBA Career: Banking and technology
Post-MBA Target Industry: Technology, Commercial Banking Companies: Other , Other
GMAT: 710
GPA: 3.1
Years of Work Experience: 7
Location: Brazil
Post MBA Location: Brazil
Notes:

I am a 29 yo black brazilian woman. I am civil engineer by the oldest civil engineer school of Brazil with full scholarship. I have been working with data since 2015 and now I am coordinator of a data team I the biggest Latin American Bank. Currently I am studying for toefl and improving my English. My main purposes joining a top tier mba are to improve my leadership skills and to learn with different people from different backgrounds (I am working in the same business since 2017).
13
March 30, 2025 10:29am ET
Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Columbia, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, INSEAD, Michigan / Ross, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton, UVA / Darden, Yale SOM
Intake Year: 2026
Pre-MBA Career: Fintech, Morgan Stanley
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Technology Companies: Accenture , Bain , BCG , McKinsey , PWC , Amazon , Apple , Facebook , Google , Microsoft
GRE: 322
GPA: 3.39
Years of Work Experience: 5
6
March 27, 2025 2:54am ET
Applying: Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, Stanford GSB, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: DA/DS; Family Business
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Technology, Family Business, Entrepreneurship
GRE: 330
GPA: 3.5
Years of Work Experience: 4
Location: Malden, MA
8
March 25, 2025 7:42am ET
Applying: Columbia, Harvard Business School, Michigan / Ross, Stanford GSB, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton, UVA / Darden, Yale SOM
Intake Year: 2026
Pre-MBA Career: Real estate acquisitions and development
Post-MBA Target Industry: Investment Banking
GMAT: 675
GPA: 3.1
Years of Work Experience: 4
Location: Mid-atlantic
Notes:

I am originally from the UK (now a permanent resident) and went to community college (3.6 gpa), then transferred to a top 25 undergrad and severe health issues due to a disability causing me to get a 3.1 gpa. I then stayed there and did a master’s in finance with a 3.8 gpa. I am very passionate about giving back, especially about the homelessness epidemic. Before college I spent a year in Switzerland volunteering at homeless shelters. During college I led a campus ministry with a focus on helping the unhoused. After my experience with my disability, I started a nonprofit that has consulted with several shelters and foodbanks to help those with similar health issues as myself. I also personally raised capital to purchase and preserve an affordable multifamily property. My career has been in real estate since I graduated, but I have job hopped. My first job was 5 months, then I moved to be closer to family. My next job was for 7 months, but I quit as they were taking actions to make housing unaffordable for first time buyers. My next job was in acquisitions but I was laid off with about half the company due to the rising interest rates that affected the industry. I have been at an impact real estate private equity firm for almost 2 years in an acquisitions, development, and asset management role with a promotion. All my roles have been for REITs or PE firms. My post-mba goal is banking to better learn capital markets and long term to start an affordable real estate investment firm, perhaps in London. I would love to be a wire tap candidate, fingers crossed.
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MBA LiveWire

April 3, 2025 3:14pm ET
Accepted to Cornell / Johnson
Round: Round 2
Received via email April 3, 2025
Standardized Test: GMAT
GPA: 3.7
GMAT: 705
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Entrepreneurship
Application Location: China
Note:

Interview invite on Jan 25, interview on Feb 5, w/ scholarship
April 3, 2025 2:20pm ET
Rejected at Stanford GSB
Round: Round 2
Received via email April 3, 2025
Standardized Test: GRE
GRE: 330
Program Type: Deferred Enrollment
Target Career: Healthcare
Application Location: Palo Alto
Note:

Rejected post interview. Congrats to all who got in!
April 3, 2025 2:16pm ET
Accepted to UVA / Darden
Round: Round 2
Received via phone on March 10, 2025
Standardized Test: GMAT
GMAT: 730
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Technology
Application Location: India
April 3, 2025 2:15pm ET
Accepted to Carnegie Mellon / Tepper
Round: Round 2
Received via phone on March 03, 2025
Standardized Test: GMAT
GMAT: 730
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Technology
Application Location: India
Note:

Admit with $$
April 3, 2025 2:03pm ET
Interview Invite to IESE
Round: Round 3
Received via email on March 31, 2025
Standardized Test: GMAT
GMAT: 565
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Application Location: Chile
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