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Published: June 14, 2016
Stress Around Standardized Tests, Tuition Costs Looms Large for Current MBA Applicants
Entrance exams generate more angst than any other part of the MBA admissions process for the majority of applicants to business schools, according to a survey released today by the Association of Independent Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC). Sixty-one percent of respondents cited standardized tests as the most challenging application component, while 46 percent pointed to written essays and 20 percent indicated interviews. Interestingly, newer additions to the application process—such as videos and group exercises implemented in recent years by schools like Kellogg and Wharton—seem to incite less anxiety, with only 19 percent of applicants saying these were especially challenging. In fact, Read more
Published: June 13, 2016
A Look at MBA DecisionWire Data for NYU Stern, Yale SOM, Cornell’s Johnson School
Welcome back for the sixth in our series of posts offering analysis of the data we are receiving on MBA DecisionWire. MBA DecisionWire is a resource that allows candidates to share where they’ve decided to attend business school based on the offers they received. If you have made your final decision in terms of where you will attend, please share on MBA DecisionWire. You can also use the filter options to see how other candidates have made their choices. In this installment of our ongoing series, we’re exploring a New York/Metro-North theme by examining three schools in Read more
Published: June 12, 2016
MBAs and Google: How to Get an Inside Track
We all know about Google. We use it in our everyday lives to accomplish all sorts of tasks. Finding out what time the NBA Finals are on tonight, discovering a new recipe to cook or learning more about an interview subject all are made possible thanks to the world’s most powerful and user-friendly search engine. But what about all the time, effort and business-savvy that goes into a company like Google? Plenty of that comes from new MBAs hired by Google each year. Read more
Published: June 12, 2016
Michigan / Ross MBA Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-campus
The following Michigan / Ross MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant who was admitted. Congratulations to them! This interview made me understand what a conversational interview really means! And I also realized it is very important to have all points ready in your mind! The alumnus had been interviewing since 12 years, and it really showed through in the interview! He was a pro – and it was my most fast-paced and thorough interview experience compared to my 3 other interviews. my alumnus-interviewer was already seated in a corner of the cafe in the hotel. I Read more
Published: June 12, 2016
UCLA Anderson Interview Report: Round 2 / Second-year Student / Skype
The following UCLA Anderson interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant who was admitted. Congratulations to them! My MBA2 interviewer described the interview timeline to me – about 30 minutes for him to ask me questions and 5 minutes at the end for me to ask him questions. Walk me through your résumé. I gave an overview of my work at the companies I’ve worked at and my non-profit experience I can read what you’ve written, but give me some more flavor of your work at X (my 1st company). Described work responsibility, impact, and initiatives I drove. Read more
Published: June 12, 2016
Northwestern / Kellogg Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-campus
The following Northwestern / Kellogg interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them!  I got my interview invite around Jan 25 and I scheduled it for the furthest possible date…14 days after the invite. I drove to my alumnus interviewer’s startup within my city and reached there 45 mins before time in the afternoon. It was pretty hot in my vehicle especially in business formals so I thought I’ll go up to his company and sit at the reception for 45 mins instead of sitting in my vehicle. Well, we instead started my Read more
Published: June 9, 2016
Two Rotman MBAs Named as Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneurs
The PROFIT/Chatelaine W100 ranking of Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneurs has recognized two Rotman School of Management MBA graduates. A third Rotman MBA was ranked as a rising entrepreneur to watch and a fourth company, co-founded by a Rotman MBA, placed #1 in the ranking. The PROFIT/Chatelaine W100 ranking and awards program is Canada’s largest celebration of women entrepreneurs. Each year, it ranks the top 100 female entrepreneurs by a score that takes into account the size, growth rate and profitability of the companies they own and manage. Winners are honored in the June 2016 issue of Canadian Business magazine, as well as throughout the year on Read more
Published: June 9, 2016
USC Marshall MBA Interview Report: Round 3 / Adcom / Skype
The following USC Marshall MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant. Good luck to them! I was invited to interview after being placed on the waitlist originally at the decision nofitication date. I submitted supplementary application materials and was contacted about 10 days later. I am not sure if this means they are still having movement from the waitlist. It was a straight forward interview application based but mostly just judging on experiences and your view of the MBA. Asked you the standard MBA questions you will come to expect (why mba, why now, why here? ) Read more
Published: June 9, 2016
Friday from the Frontlines: Pride@Kellogg Celebrates LGBT Ally Week
It’s June, and that means it’s also LGBT Pride Month. June was chosen to celebrate the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan considered to be a pivotal moment in the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. In honor of LGBT Pride month, we’re pleased as this week’s Friday from the Frontlines to feature a piece about student group Pride@Kellogg and its second annual LGBT Ally Week, which took place last month when students were all still on campus. The piece was written by Kyle Burr, a second-year student in Kellogg’s full-time two-year MBA program. Read more
Published: June 9, 2016
Harvard Business School Interview Report: Round 2 / Adcom / Off-campus
The following Harvard Business School interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them! This interview was different from what I had previously done in that it was 2 people interviewing me, both whom where members of the admission committee. One had read all application materials vs. other had only seen my CV. Started with questions about professional experiences in different sectors? Why the change from one to the other? Did you want to remain in the same sector post-MBA or are you looking to switch again? Why are you looking to switch again? Read more
Published: June 9, 2016
INSEAD Interview Report: Round 3 / Alumni / Off-Campus
The following INSEAD interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant. Good luck to them! Interview took place in a coffee shop and my interviewer came dressed in a suit and tie. I luckily had erred on the side of caution and had worn a suit as well. This is one of my final interviews and I was very relaxed and felt that the interview was very conversational and not so formal as I thought it might be, especially since it was with alumni (but I guess this can vary depending on the person who is interviewing you). The alumni Read more
Published: June 8, 2016
Consortium Alumna’s Parents Establish $1 Million Endowment in Daughter’s Memory
It takes a special family to turn tragedy into hope and opportunity for others, but that’s exactly the kind of family Leslie Elise Adkins had. Adkins, an MBA student at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and a fellow of the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, died on May 5, 2015, due to complications from chronic diabetes. Last week, her parents, Lynette and Kedrick Adkins, established a $1 million scholarship endowment through the Consortium in her memory. Read more
Published: June 8, 2016
How These Haasies Landed Jobs at McKinsey, BCG, Apple, Facebook and Google
UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business hasn’t yet released employment statistics on its Class of 2016 graduates, which makes sense since barely a week has passed since they walked across the stage to collect their diplomas. Like most peer schools, Haas’s Career Management Group will share those details in the fall when they have complete data. Source: UC Berkeley Haas, Class of 2015 Employment Statistics In the meantime, we’ve got something perhaps even more valuable than a long list of statistics. Namely, personal stories from actual Haas students who have landed jobs at some of the hottest hiring firms around—and how they did it. Read more
Published: June 7, 2016
USC Marshall MBA Interview Report: Round 3 / Adcom / Skype
The following USC / Marshall MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant. Good luck to them! Pretty straight forward interview which I was invited to after being waitlisted without interview. Was a skype interview with member of adcom and was blind interview (only had seen my résumé). Standard questions: • Why MBA? Why now? Why Marshall? • Short / Long Term goals • Team-work experiences / anecdotes • How would your peers/colleagues describe you? • Examples of leadership in the workplace Gave me about 5-10 minutes to ask any questions/follow-ups Read more
Published: June 7, 2016
IESE Interview Report: Round 4 / Adcom / Skype
The following IESE interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant. Good luck to them! Very informal interview, probably the most comfortable of all the interviews I have done. Started off with some small talk and background on my interviewer and then switched over to my experiences and extra-curriculars. • Asked the standard why mba? why now? why european mba vs. USA? • Professional experiences and career goals (short/long term) and how the european mba plays into that? • Leadership examples / problematic experiences in the workplace • Family background questions / family dynamics Read more
Published: June 6, 2016
Why McKinsey and Company Loves to Hire MBAs
When it comes to careers MBAs are likely to land, working for a management consulting firm like tops the list. McKinsey and Company is one such firm that conducts qualitative and quantitative analysis for companies around the world in order to evaluate management decisions across the public and private sectors. McKinsey is considered one of the most prestigious management consultancy firms globally and the firm’s clientele includes 80 percent of the world’s largest corporations, along with an extensive list of governments and non-profit organisations. More current and former Fortune 500 CEOs are actually alumni of McKinsey than of any Read more
Published: June 6, 2016
Cornell’s Johnson School Becomes Latest Leading Business School to Name a New Dean
The Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management today announced that its next dean will be accounting scholar Mark Nelson, who has been teaching accounting at the school since 1990 and also spent three years as associate dean for academic affairs. Nelson will begin his five-year term on July 1st, becoming the school’s 12th dean. He will succeed Soumitra Dutta, who will step down from the post June 30th. On March 22nd, Dutta was appointed to serve as dean of the nascent College of Business, which will bring together Cornell University’s three accredited business schools: the School Read more
Published: June 5, 2016
LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman Donates $1M, Expertise to Support Entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and partner at Greylock Partners, yesterday announced that he will give $1 million to support entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School and across the University of Oxford. In addition to the generous monetary gift, Hoffman will also serve as senior advisor at “The Oxford Foundry,” a new dramatically increased space for entrepreneurship designed to serve not only Saïd but the larger university and the local community. In this role, Hoffman will give his time and advice to help start and scale new ventures. Read more
Published: June 5, 2016
INSEAD Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-campus
The following INSEAD interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them! First interview was with an ex-BCG consultant who graduated from INSEAD 20+ years ago. The interview took place at a local coffee shop near his office. Although he showed up in suits but the entire interview was very relaxed, and felt more like a conversation. The entire interview lasted about 90 minutes. Some of the questions that I could recall: What do you think about online market research? What role does (my ex-company) play when there’s already so many free online Read more
Published: June 2, 2016
Friday from the Frontlines: Tuck’s Global First-Year Project
This week’s Friday from the Frontlines comes to us from Nicholas Ritter, a second-year MBA student at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business who is spending the summer interning with IBM Watson’s Life Sciences team in New York. Prior to business school he worked as an electrical and product engineer for Nabsys, a biotech startup developing genomic sequencing technology. In his free time he is a Tripod Hockey Captain, a Revers Energy Fellow, an admissions associate and hard at work to form a Tuck Toboggan Club. In the post that follows, Ritter shares about his global first-year project with scaffolding manufacturing firm Read more
Published: June 1, 2016
UC Berkeley’s Haas School Appoints New Assistant Dean of Full-Time MBA Program and Admissions
Changes in the MBA admissions office are not unique to Harvard Business School (HBS), where last month longtime reigning managing director Dee Leopold departed, replaced by HBS alumnus Chad Losee. This week, the news comes out of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where Peter Johnson has been appointed the new assistant dean of the full-time MBA program and admissions. “Love when we lure a former member of the team back to Haas,” Dean Rich Lyons tweeted out yesterday. “Pete Johnson is back to head our full-time MBA program.” Indeed, Johnson knows Haas well, having Read more
Published: June 1, 2016
Stanford University MBA Applies Peer-to-Peer Model to Small Business Lending
A Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) MBA saw a great opportunity to apply the efficiency of the sharing economy to an area into which it hadn’t yet emerged—small business lending—through Funding Circle. Sam Hodges, along with a group of Oxford University grads, teamed up to form the company in 2010. Read more
Published: May 30, 2016
NYU Stern Interview Report: Round 3 / Adcom / On-campus
The following NYU / Stern MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant who was admitted. Congratulations to them! Prior to the interview I was told that Stern’s interview style was very much a two-way street between interviewer and interviewee. In other words it was very conversational. Luckily I still did my homework as this was not at all my experience. Although the admissions counselor was gracious and polite her questions were formal and pointed and were certainly not conversational. Some questions I was asked: What is a typical workday right now at my Read more
Published: May 30, 2016
Clear Admit Launches New Strategic Partnership with MBA Mama
Clear Admit’s own roots stretch back to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School—where co-founders Graham Richmond and Eliot Ingram both received their MBAs and Richmond went on to work in the Wharton Admissions Office. Continuing to hone their expertise in the MBA admissions process at top-tier schools, the two Wharton MBAs would soon launch Clear Admit, the leading independent resource for top-tier MBA candidates. MBA Mama Co-Founder and CEO Divinity Matovu (Wharton MBA 2017) Meanwhile, another Wharton MBA student has been hard at work on her own business concept. Wharton rising second-year MBA student Divinity Matovu is co-founder and CEO of MBA Mama, an online platform providing ambitious women with tools and resources to leverage an MBA and strategically navigate family/career planning. Together with co-founder Nicole Pontón, an MBA student at Duke's Fuqua School of Business, the two have been making the MBA Mama name known far and wide. The things the duo had been working on caught our eye, and we reached out to Matovu last fall to ask if she would share some of her experiences as an MBA mom in our Fridays from the Frontline column. She graciously agreed. Read more
Published: May 30, 2016
MBA DecisionWire Data Analysis Examines Yields for HBS, Chicago Booth and Fuqua
Welcome back for the fifth in our series of posts offering analysis of the data we are receiving on MBA DecisionWire. MBA DecisionWire is a resource that allows candidates to share where they’ve decided to attend business school based on the offers they received. If you have made your final decision in terms of where you will attend, please share on MBA DecisionWire. You can also use the filter options to see how other candidates have made their choices. Read more

MBA Applywire

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
4
November 27, 2024 9:07am ET
Applying: Duke / Fuqua, Michigan / Ross, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Finance Manager
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting Companies: Accenture , AT Kearney , Bain , BCG , Deloitte , Ernst & Young , McKinsey , PWC
GMAT: 690
GPA: 3.79
Years of Work Experience: 2
7
November 27, 2024 9:07am ET
Applying: Carnegie Mellon / Tepper, Duke / Fuqua, Michigan / Ross, Notre Dame / Mendoza, UNC Kenan-Flagler, UVA / Darden, Vanderbilt / Owen
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Banking
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Commercial Banking Companies: Accenture , AT Kearney , Bain , PWC , Bank of America
GRE: 306
GPA: 3.64
Years of Work Experience: 5
Location: Africa
Notes:

Recently wrote the GRE. It's not a super score but I will probably apply with it anyway. I am still considering retaking the test, as the next time I can take it is around the Round 2 deadline.

My educational background is in social sciences, so wasn't very quant-heavy. Looking at taking an additional quant course to back up my GRE score as the exam fee is about 10x the minimum wage in my country. Any suggestion is welcomed.
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MBA LiveWire

November 28, 2024 4:55pm ET
Applied to Emory / Goizueta
Round: Round 2
Received via email
GPA: 3.19
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Finance
Application Location: Nigeria
November 28, 2024 1:14pm ET
Interview Invite to Berkeley / Haas
Round: Round 1
Received via email on October 27, 2024
GPA: 84%
GMAT: 645
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Technology
Application Location: Brazil
November 28, 2024 10:17am ET
Interview Invite to Indiana / Kelley
Round: Round 1
Received via email on October 16, 2024
GPA: 83%
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Finance
Application Location: Nigeria
November 28, 2024 10:15am ET
Interview Invite to Emory / Goizueta
Round: Round 1
Received via email on November 07, 2024
GPA: 83%
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Finance
Application Location: Nigeria
November 28, 2024 9:53am ET
Interview Invite to INSEAD
Round: Round 2
Received via email on November 26, 2024
GMAT: 655
Program Type: One Year Program
Target Career: Consulting
Application Location: France
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Wire