The Leading Independent
Resource for Top-tier MBA
Candidates

Recent News

Published: October 3, 2017
GMAT Tip: How to Master Critical Reading Questions
When I was a kid, all I wanted was a cool mono-syllabic last name. People would fumble through my clunky last name and inevitably layer some hybrid of odd accents in all of the wrong places. I just wanted to play lacrosse and hear “Go Capps” or “Go Carp!” Since I couldn’t change my name, I wished for a good nickname instead because let’s be honest, that can be even cooler. But you can’t pick your nickname, so I ended up getting labeled “JC” (my initials). When you go to a Catholic high school and your nickname is a shared Read more
Published: October 3, 2017
Oxford Saïd Launches New Virtual Hub
The Oxford Hub for International Virtual Education (HIVE) is the first of its kind in the United Kingdom and the second of its kind in the world. Located at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School, the new virtual classroom will use technology to connect students, faculty, and participants from around the world. It’s the latest development in the school’s digital agenda. Read more
Published: October 2, 2017
Real Humans of the MIT Sloan MBA Class of 2019
Moving right along in our Real Humans student series, today we get to meet a handful of students in the MIT Sloan Class of 2019. But first a little about the class as a whole. By the numbers: the incoming class of 404 students boasts an average GMAT score of 722 and an average undergraduate GPA of 3.49. Both represent a tiny backslide from the prior year, when they were 724 and 3.5 respectively. International students make up a third of the class, which is also a decrease from 39 percent in Read more
Published: October 2, 2017
UVA Darden Opens New Facilities Overlooking Washington, D.C.
The top two floors of a 31-story building overlooking the Washington, D.C., capital region will be a new home away from home for the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. This 4,000-square-foot space—comprised of classrooms, offices, and event rooms—will afford new opportunities for the Darden School to expand its offerings in the area. Already, the school offers its Executive MBA and executive education programs in Washington, D.C., and has several staff members in the area working in admissions, executive education, and alumni career services. Read more
Published: October 2, 2017
ApplyWire Spotlight: Moving from Law to Banking
As MBA applicants report admissions news on LiveWire, they’re also taking the time to share their plans on ApplyWire, Clear Admit’s latest tool to aid in your admissions process. This week, we’re setting the spotlight on a candidate planning to change careers from law to banking. We take a closer look at an attorney’s plans in applying to Berkeley / Haas, Duke / Fuqua, NYU / Stern, U. Chicago Booth, UCLA / Anderson, and UVA / Darden. Read on for more details about the candidate’s background. Initial feedback raised concerns about the GPA: Read more
Published: October 1, 2017
False Report of Active Shooter Prompts USC Marshall School of Business Campus Lockdown
Reports of an active shooter prompted a midday lockdown of the USC Marshall School of Business campus on Monday, the day after the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history left at least 59 dead and more than 500 injured at a Las Vegas country music festival. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) responded in force to an emergency call from the Marshall School but quickly determined that the report was false. The LAPD received a 12:17 p.m. 911 call reporting a possible active shooter, and the university issued a ‘police activity/shelter in place’ alert minutes later on its Read more
Published: October 1, 2017
Admissions Director Q&A: Pascal Michels of IESE Business School
We got to know Pascal Michels, who started in his new role as head of admissions at IESE Business School this summer, as part of our Real Humans of MBA Admissions series earlier this month. Now we’re excited to feature a more in-depth interview that delves into the admissions process and team he oversees. Michels is new to admissions, but far from new at IESE. A 2010 graduate of the MBA program himself, he headed from business school to Citigroup in London, where he worked in financial management for three years. But Read more
Published: October 1, 2017
Harvard Business School R1 Interview Invites Poised to Go Out
As some of you are no doubt only too aware, Harvard Business School (HBS) is slated to begin issuing invitations to interview to Round 1 applicants within the hour. Chad Losee, HBS managing director of admissions and financial aid, told applicants in a recent post to his Direct from the Director’s Blog that interview invites will go out in two batches, the first today, October 2nd, and the second Thursday, October 5th. “We do it in two batches to spread out the traffic on the interview sign-up pages,” he wrote. Today, some applicants will Read more
Published: September 27, 2017
Real Humans of the NYU Stern MBA Class of 2019
New York University’s Stern School of Business got the party started this summer as the first leading business school to share a profile for its incoming Class of 2019. That profile, published in late July, revealed a 4 percent uptick in application volume over the prior year. At the same time, the school admitted significantly fewer students—822 this year as compared to 871 last year—which means that those who got in did so against greater odds. This increased selectivity may have contributed to the rising GMAT scores among those who got the Read more
Published: September 27, 2017
Fridays from the Frontline: 7 Lessons from My Time at HBS
As Round 1 applicants to Harvard Business School (HBS) know only too well, next week is a big one, with invitations to interview scheduled to go out in two batches on Monday (October 2nd) and Thursday (October 5th). Since we know some of you have HBS on the mind, we thought you might appreciate hearing from recent HBS alumnus Marco De Curtis on what he learned while there. In the following post, he offers seven tips for work and life that he learned while an HBS MBA student. And for anyone who doesn’t get an interview invitation Read more
Published: September 27, 2017
Northwestern / Kellogg Interview Questions & Report: Round 1 / Adcom / On-Campus
The following Northwestern / Kellogg interview questions and report were submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant. Good luck to them! Ad-com interview on campus. Conversational atmosphere. Emphasis on why I had made the choices in my career so far. Fairly straight forward and expected, no real curve ball questions. 1. Walk me through your résumé. 2. Why MBA 3. Why Kellogg? 4. What’s your dream job? 4. What’s the most challenging team you have been on? 5. What’s your leadership style? 6. What do you do outside of work? 7. Is there anything Read more
Published: September 27, 2017
LBS Opens New Sammy Ofer Centre Expanding Its Teaching Space by 70 Percent
On September 26th, the London Business School opened its new, state-of-the-art teaching hub: the Sammy Ofer Centre. Located in Old Marylebone Town Hall, the new center will increase teaching space at LBS by 70 percent. It includes 37 seminar rooms, six new lecture theaters, a new library, and multiple breakout areas. The center also features a mix of classical 1920s structure with the latest in architectural design for a beautiful aesthetic. Read more
Published: September 27, 2017
What to Expect at the 2017 NBMBAA Conference in Philadelphia
Tuesday, September 26th, marked the first day of the annual National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) Annual Conference & Exposition, held at the Philadelphia Convention Center. The five-day event, stretching to Saturday, September 30th, brings together entrepreneurs, business leaders, students, and other seasoned professionals into an immense, collaborative atmosphere that helps introduce next-level vision to the business world. The centerpiece of the event is the two-day Career Exposition. Touted as the “largest diversity career fair in the country” by the NBMBAA, the event brings together more than 300 companies, government entities, nonprofits, and more to take part in on-site stations and Read more
Published: September 27, 2017
Tuck Welcomes New Director of Alumni Engagement
In an effort to engage and connect alumni in even more creative ways, Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business welcomed a new director of alumni engagement: Renee Hirshberg. Hirshberg comes to Tuck from the MIT Sloan School of Management where she served as senior associate director of alumni relations for the school’s approximately 24,000 alumni. In her new role at Tuck, Hirshberg will be in charge of the 10,000-strong Tuck alumni network, which spans the globe. Read more
Published: September 26, 2017
Long-Time Tuck Admissions Director Returns to Darden
The Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia will welcome Dawna Clarke, who led admissions at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business for more than a decade, as its new executive director of admissions and financial aid on October 15th, the school announced yesterday. It’s a return to Darden for Clarke, who worked there from 1990 to 2005 in a range of leadership roles, including five years as admissions director and as director of alumni relations. The offer to return to Darden drew Clarke away from her most recent position as chief MBA Read more
Published: September 26, 2017
Live Chat with Prodigy Finance: Funding Your International MBA
This chat has ended.  Are you attending business school outside of your home country and looking for a way to fund it? Join Prodigy Finance’s Zack Hirschfeld for a live online chat on how you can best finance your graduate management education abroad. Wednesday, October 4, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern In the live discussion, the following questions will be covered: How can I pay for an MBA as an international student? How does the Prodigy Finance process work? How much can I borrow? What will my rate be? Do I need a co-signer or guarantor? What is Read more
Published: September 26, 2017
GMAT Tip: Decoding Data Sufficiency
There’s probably no other GMAT question type that instills more fear in candidates than data sufficiency. It’s unique to the GMAT and evaluates a candidate’s ability to discern when s/he has enough information to come to a conclusion. And those who are able to efficiently and successfully tap into those higher-order reasoning skills are ultimately rewarded accordingly. Let’s take a look at a few tips to help you decode data sufficiency: Familiarize yourself with the answer choices.   Just like the AWA and every other section, the instructions and more importantly, answer choices for data sufficiency don’t change. Your inclination Read more
Published: September 26, 2017
UW Foster Welcomes Its Inaugural Hybrid MBA Class
Last week the UW Foster School of Business welcomed its inaugural Hybrid MBA class. During the kick-off week, 47 students from all over the United States came to campus for a three- to five-day, in-person immersion experience that included networking opportunities, diving into the first quarter’s curricula, and developing a study team. Read more
Published: September 25, 2017
Wharton Tops Forbes Rankings for the First Time with Highest Compensation World Wide
The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School claimed the number one spot in Forbes’ 10th biennial ranking of U.S. business schools, released yesterday. The Philadelphia school shot up six spots from its seventh-place 2015 finish to claim first for the first time ever in a ranking that focuses primarily on return on investment for MBA graduates. Wharton did rank second twice before, in 2001 and 2005.  Read more
Published: September 25, 2017
Admissions Director Q&A: Luke Anthony Peña of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business
Luke Anthony Peña joined Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business this past summer from Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), where he’d worked as part of the admissions team for five years, since graduating with his own MBA from the Palo Alto school in 2012. In coming to Tuck, Peña fills the role of executive director of admissions and financial aid left vacant when Dawna Clarke, who had headed Tuck admissions for more than a decade, set out to establish her own admissions consulting firm last fall. In fact, Peña’s admissions expertise dates back to before attending business school himself. Prior to enrolling at Stanford GSB, he also worked for four years as assistant director of admissions at the USC Annenberg School of Communication. But it’s not just his long career in higher education admissions that makes clear his passion for education. The internships he pursued while a business school student were also both education focused.  Click here to learn more about Dartmouth Tuck's MBA Program. Read more
Published: September 25, 2017
MBA ApplyWire Spotlight: Applying to Business School After the U.S. Army
As MBA applicants ready their essays and data forms, many are sharing their plans on ApplyWire, Clear Admit’s latest tool to aid in your admissions process. This week, we're setting the spotlight on a candidate from the U.S. Army looking to enter the consulting industry. We take a closer look at a post from an applicant targeting CMU / Tepper, Duke / Fuqua, Georgetown / McDonough, UPenn / Wharton, and UT Austin / McCombs. Read on for more details about the candidate’s background. Initial feedback was positive, but understandably concerned about the stats: Read more
Published: September 24, 2017
Real Humans of the Berkeley Haas MBA Class of 2019
The Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley welcomed its largest ever class—284 students—into a brand-new facility that promises to be one of the greenest academic buildings in the country. Not only is the incoming class larger than any before it, it is also one of the strongest academically, according to Peter Johnson, assistant dean for the full-time MBA program and admissions. Average GMAT scores and GPAs have risen over each of the past three years. The average GMAT score this year was 725—a jump from last year’s 717—and the average GPA Read more
Published: September 24, 2017
UNC Kenan-Flagler Welcomes Seven New Professors
To kick off the 2017-2018 academic year, the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School welcomed seven new faculty members. Each new faculty member is known for his or her thought leadership, research, and excellence in teaching. Yunzhi Hu Finance Professor Yunzhi Hu studies financial intermediation, macro finance, and corporate finance. His research and work delves into economic recoveries patterns, particularly in regards to bank lending standards and entrepreneur entry. Hu earned his PhD in financial economics from Chicago Booth. Kristopher Keller Marketing Professor Kristopher Kelly has expertise in private label marketing, retailing, branding, marketing-mix effectiveness, and Read more
Published: September 21, 2017
Celebrating American Business Women’s Day with Gender Equity in the MBA
More women are heading to graduate business programs than ever, according to the latest research from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). Today, women represent 42 percent of all applicants to business school graduate programs participating in the Application Trends Survey Report 2017, a 5 percent increase from 2013. Among full-time MBA programs, female representation is even higher. In 2017, 49 percent of applicants were women, compared to 42 percent in 2013. Women are also finding value in their business educations. Seventy percent of all female MBA graduates report improved job satisfaction, and 84 percent enjoy greater earning power. In honor of American Business Women’s Day, September 22nd, we thought we’d take a look at what some of the leading MBA programs in the United States are doing to encourage gender equity. Read more
Published: September 21, 2017
Fridays from the Frontline: A Tuck Student Examines Evolving Media Landscape Through NPR Internship
Admittedly, the media and entertainment industry is not a primary destination for freshly minted MBAs. UCLA Anderson School of Management and NYU Stern School of Business sent more of their Class of 2016 grads into the field than any other leading schools, at just 6.5 and 4.3 percent respectively. And yet, the vastly evolving media landscape calls for innovative thinking, strategic new approaches, and reinvented business models as never before. Meghan McDavid, a student at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, spent her summer interning at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of National Read more

MBA Applywire

4
November 29, 2024 6:18am ET
Applying: Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton
Pre-MBA Career: Investment Analyst Endowment
Post-MBA Target Industry: Investment Banking, Asset Management, inc. HF Companies: JP Morgan , Morgan Stanley , Blackrock , Goldman Sachs
GMAT: 760
GPA: 3.44
Years of Work Experience: 3.5
Location: Chicago
Post MBA Location: Chicago/NYC
Notes:

I currently do direct startup investments and M&A for a healthcare system, and lead coverage of equities in their endowment $15B AUM. I want to peruse an MBA to do a PE secondaries or emerging market research. I have a CFA level 2 so I feel like the former is more doable than the latter.
1
November 28, 2024 10:49pm ET
Applying: Arizona State / W.P. Carey
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Accountant
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting Companies: Booz Allen Hamilton , Ernst & Young
GRE: 311
GPA: 3.22
Years of Work Experience: 2.5
Location: Ghana
Post MBA Location: Accountant/Public
6
November 28, 2024 8:12am ET
Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, Stanford GSB, UPenn / Wharton
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Consulting
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Technology
GMAT: 645
GPA: 84%
Years of Work Experience: 3
Location: Brazil
5
November 27, 2024 5:44pm ET
Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Duke / Fuqua, MIT Sloan, Stanford GSB, UPenn / Wharton
Pre-MBA Career: Corporate Communication Specialist
Post-MBA Target Industry: Other
GPA: 3.9
Years of Work Experience: 6
Location: Indonesia
4
November 27, 2024 12:00pm ET
Applying: Berkeley / Haas, London Business School, Northwestern / Kellogg, Stanford GSB
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Eingeneer
Post-MBA Target Industry: Other
GMAT: 675
GPA: 3,5
Years of Work Experience: 4.8
Location: Chile
View or Submit Entries

MBA LiveWire

November 29, 2024 5:22pm ET
Accepted to NYU Stern
Round: Round 1
Received via email on November 25, 2024
GPA: 3.65
GRE: 339
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Non Profit / Social Impact
Application Location: USA
November 29, 2024 1:53pm ET
Accepted to London Business School
Round: Round 1
Received via email on November 25, 2024
GPA: 3.8
GRE: 333
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Finance
Application Location: New York
November 29, 2024 9:05am ET
Accepted to Cornell / Johnson
Round: Round 1
Received via phone on November 25, 2024
GPA: 3.52
GMAT: 635
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Consulting
Application Location: Northeast
Note:

Received a call on Nov. 26. Prior background is work in communications/marketing.
November 29, 2024 5:15am ET
Accepted to UVA / Darden
Round: Early Decision
Received via phone on October 15, 2024
GPA: 67%
GMAT: 705
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Consulting
Application Location: India
November 29, 2024 2:45am ET
Accepted to Cornell / Johnson
Round: Round 1
Received via email on November 26, 2024
GMAT: 740
Program Type: One Year Program
Target Career: Entrepreneurship
Application Location: India
View or Submit Entries
Live
Wire