Recent News

Published: March 18, 2015

Another Shake-Up in the Works for Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s MBA Rankings

When Duke’s Fuqua School of Business shot to the top of Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s 2014 rankings, Fuqua celebrated, but many others in the admissions world scratched their heads. How could a school ranked 22nd in student satisfaction kick long-standing, top-ranked schools to the curb? (FYI : Duke had only ever finished in BW's top five once, 14 years ago, when it came in fifth.) Amid widespread questions of credibility regarding the new methodology that led to the 2014 results, Bloomberg BW this week (March 16) emailed business school officials to say that it has plans for yet another overhaul of its rankings methodology and plans to publish a new ranking incorporating new and differently weighted core metrics next October. It also announced that beginning with the October publication, its MBA rankings will now be published annually, a major shift from the biennial schedule it has upheld since the BW rankings launched in 1988. Read more

Published: March 18, 2015

Oxford Saïd MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 3 / AdCom / Off Campus

The interview took place at a business in downtown San Francisco with a member of the admissions teams. It was clear they had read my entire profile and knew my post-grad goals well. It was a formal interview but it was also very conversational and welcoming; you can tell the admissions team wants to engage with you on a deeper level to see if you are a good fit for the program. I had a low GMAT Quant score that the interviewer asked about, which I had been expecting, so I had an answer prepared in regards to how I'd still succeed in the program. I was asked about my experience with Oxford, the Open Day I attended, my work experience, my goal organizations and what I had done to research my post-grad goals/ career path. Be prepared to explain what unique qualities you'd bring to the program. Read more

Published: March 18, 2015

#MBA Top Tweets of the Week: the US News MBA Rankings

Welcome back to #MBA Top Tweets of the Week, in which we share selected tweets about important MBA Admissions News. US News & World Report just released its 2016 Ranking of Top Business Schools, and journalists, schools, applicants, alumni, and even cities took to Twitter to discuss the news. Twitter lit up with the news that the 2016 Top Business School rankings were out: Aspiring CEO? Set your sights on these #BestGradSchools for MBAs: http://t.co/tbD5ETuaaj pic.twitter.com/X83l7nPdFT — U.S. News & World Report (@usnews) March 14, 2015 Read more

Published: March 17, 2015

Clear Admit Becomes All Content All the Time, Announces Plans to Expand Media Property

Clear Admit today announced plans to expand its presence as a leading source of high-quality content about MBA admissions and top-tier MBA programs through its digital media property, ClearAdmit.com, and its suite of digital publications. To focus exclusively on creating valuable content resources for graduate business school applicants, Clear Admit will exit the MBA admissions consulting space. Founded in 2002 by Wharton graduates, Clear Admit.com has been recognized by Google, the Economist and leading industry associations like the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) for its superb coverage of MBA admissions and leading MBA programs. Hundreds of thousands of prospective applicants have relied on Clear Admit digital content each admissions cycle to help them navigate the admission process. Throughout, Clear Admit has worked closely with leading business schools, including UVA’s Darden School, Cornell’s Johnson School, HEC Paris and Georgetown McDonough, among many others, to ensure that the information posted about MBA programs is accurate and timely. With this expanded focus on content, readers of Clear Admit’s website and publications should expect even greater depth and breadth in the coverage provided. Read more

Published: March 16, 2015

Berkeley / Haas Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / On Campus

The following Berkeley / Haas interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them! I received an invitation to Haas’ February Super Saturday on-campus event back in January. The current students who facilitated the various sessions throughout the day were very outgoing, friendly and engaged. It felt like a very inclusive, collaborative campus filled with students who truly enjoyed and believed in the school and program. It was very intimate; Haas’ small size is no secret, so that was no surprise. Due to the volume of students visiting for the event, we were separated into four Read more

Published: March 16, 2015

UPenn’s Wharton School Announces New Partnership for Student-Led Impact Investing

Students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School will have new opportunities to gain hands-on experience with impact investment thanks to a innovative partnership with an online crowdfunding platform and an investment firm founded by Wharton MBAs, the school announced earlier this month. The Wharton Social Impact Initiative (WSII), which coordinates the school’s social impact activities, research and opportunities, has partnered with equity-based online crowdfunding platform OurCrowd and investment firm Locust Walk Impact Partners to create what the school touts as the “largest and most active student-run impact investing fund in the world.” The new collaboration greatly expands the student-run Wharton Social Venture Fund (WSVF), which is operated under the WSII. Read more

Published: March 16, 2015

Duke / Fuqua Interview Report: Round 2 / Adcom / Skype

The following Duke / Fuqua interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by an Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them! Due to weather restrictions, I did not want to gamble with traveling to Fuqua on the days they offered for my interview, so I elected to Skype instead. My interviewer was an AdCom member, and was one of the nicest and most authentic people I have had the pleasure of speaking with in any interview, ever, to be quite honest. I felt at ease immediately. I was offered admission and a significant scholarship a few weeks later. Caveat: Though I Read more

Published: March 15, 2015

Admissions Tip: Feedback Sessions for Denied Applicants

As many of our readers know, a small number of leading MBA programs offer admissions feedback sessions to applicants who did not make the admissions cut in a given season. Though we’ve touched upon this subject before, we’d like to use today’s blog entry to underline the importance of these feedback sessions for those of you who are considering reapplication. Read more

Published: March 15, 2015

SXSW Conference Spotlights Business School Students’ Embrace of Design

Student-led design clubs can be found at 70 percent of the top-ranked MBA programs both in the United States and globally, an indicator that MBA students are embracing design wholeheartedly as part of their general management education, according to a presentation yesterday at the SXSW Conference in Austin. The presentation, entitled “Design in Tech,” was delivered by John Maeda, former president of the Rhode Island School of Design who last year joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) as its first “Design Partner.” As part of the presentation, Maeda provided a data-driven examination of the intersection of design and technology. Reporting on the findings of his inaugural “Design and Technology Trends Report,” Maeda highlighted the rising importance of design in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, noting the acquisition of design firms by tech companies like Facebook and Google, as well as the trend toward venture capitalists funding startups that have designers as co-founders. Read more

Published: March 12, 2015

Yale School of Management Announces New LGBT Scholarship

Class of 2017 students at the Yale School of Management who demonstrate both strong academic skills and a capacity for leadership within the lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and queer (LBGT) community will now be eligible for a new scholarship opportunity, the school announced this week. Through its partnership with Reaching Out MBA, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering LBGT MBA students, Yale SOM will award two Reaching Out LGBT MBA Fellowships to incoming Yale SOM students. Recipients of the fellowships will receive a minimum of $10,000 in scholarship aid for each academic year, as well as access to a range of Reaching Out programming, mentoring and leadership opportunities, including some developed especially for the Fellows. Read more

Published: March 11, 2015

Applicants to UMichigan’s Ross School of Business Begin to Receive Admissions Decisions

Some of those anxiously awaiting word from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business began to receive phone calls yesterday letting them know they’d been accepted, which we saw reflected on the Clear Admit LiveWire. Ross Admissions Director Soojin Kwon confirmed in a post to her Admissions Director Blog that she and her team were set to begin calling U.S. applicants yesterday and will make international calls today. “All decisions will be posted online at 12 p.m. EST on Friday, March 13th,” she wrote. Kwon didn’t share updates sooner, she says, because her team was making final decisions right up until the last minute in a year when choosing who to admit proved particularly tough. “Not only did we receive more apps, the quality of the apps was higher all around,” she wrote. “I’m not just talking GMAT scores, but also the experiences and skills that applicants have. It was extremely hard to not admit more than we did.” Read more

Published: March 10, 2015

Stanford MBA Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-campus

The following Stanford MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them! General process – I met my interviewer at his office and walked to a close-by Starbucks for the interview – He explained that he had a certain set of questions to ask me and he had to identify certain behaviors, so not to be surprised if he needs to interrupt me while speaking – he did not have a copy of my CV (I brought one for him) nor did he take any notes. Throughout the Read more

Published: March 10, 2015

Stanford GSB Edges Out HBS, Wharton in 2016 U.S. News & World Report Rankings

Stanford’s Graduate School of Business took the number one spot in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings of the nation’s best MBA programs, released yesterday, knocking Harvard Business School (HBS) to second and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School to third. Last year, the three powerhouse schools tied for first place, but slight differences on core metrics caused HBS and Wharton to slip this year. U.S. News uses multiple core measurements to compile its rankings, with the greatest weight given to quality assessments by deans and MBA directors at peer schools and corporate recruiter survey scores. Wharton’s scores slipped in both these regards, as well as in average pay for its MBA graduates, precipitating its drop this year in the rankings. Read more

Published: March 9, 2015

UPenn’s Wharton School Names Insider as New Director of MBA Admissions

The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School has named a new director of admissions, the school announced to students last week. Frank DeVecchis will work closely with existing Deputy Vice Dean of Wharton MBA Admissions, Financial Aid and Career Services Maryellen Reilly Lamb to oversee the entire application process, from recruitment through matriculation. DeVecchis knows the Wharton MBA program like few others. He joins the Admissions team from Wharton’s MBA Program Office, where he served most recently as director of MBA Academic Operations. In this role, he led all operations and daily management of the MBA program, including successfully implementing Wharton’s new Course Match course registration program. He also advised more than 800 students during his tenure as the senior member of the MBA academic advising team and helped plan and implement Wharton’s three-week orientation for incoming students. Read more

Published: March 8, 2015

Who Makes a Good Applicant to Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management?

With the Round 3 deadline for applications to the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University just a few days away, are you busy putting the finishing touches on your application? Maybe you are just beginning to consider applying in the year ahead. In either case, if Johnson at Cornell is on your radar, read on to learn more about just what the school is looking for in its applicants. We recently spoke with Eddie Asbie, Associate Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, who joined Johnson in 2013 to help develop the Two-year MBA in Ithaca class. In our interview, Asbie took time to share some of what makes a good applicant in the eyes of the Johnson Admissions Committee, beyond the obvious solid entrance exam scores and strong academics that are par for the course with a top-tier Ivy League school. Read more

Published: March 8, 2015

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! The interview went by very quickly. There were no other candidates in the waiting area. I arrived a few minutes early and waited until my exact scheduled time. The questions I received were all discussed in blogs. We spent the first half of the time talking through my most recent work history and explaining my roles and accomplishments that I had discussed in my application. As others have mentioned, transitions and clarity in your explanation are key. Read more

Published: March 6, 2015

U. Chicago Booth Interview Report: Round 2 / Second-year student / On-Campus

The following U. Chicago Booth interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them! This may have been my favorite interview out of the 4 that I have completed! Booth did a great job of having making interviewees feel very comfortable prior to the interview, by having 1st year students in the waiting area to casually chat with interviewees. I would highly recommend this to all prospective students because it really does put you at ease. The interview was blind, with the interviewer only having seen my resume in advance. Questions included the following: Read more

Published: March 5, 2015

UCLA Anderson School of Management Releases Early Batch of Round 2 Decisions

At the start of the week, UCLA Anderson School of Management released an early batch of Round 2 decisions. We saw it reflected in the Clear Admit LiveWire, with multiple reports of acceptances by phone through the week. Anderson’s MBA Insider’s Blog confirmed in in post as well, stating on Monday that the school would release a batch of early Round 2 decisions that night and that admit calls would follow throughout the day. Congrats to the applicants who received acceptances, either by phone or with an official decision letter by email on Tuesday. If you applied to Anderson and have not yet heard, don’t despair. “We are still in the thick of evaluating Round 2 applications,” wrote Associate Director of Admissions Jessica Chung on the MBA Insider Blog. “As mentioned in my post in January the vast majority of interview invitations were sent through the end of February, but we are continuing to send some invitations out this month, though the volume will be very light,” she added. Read more

Published: March 4, 2015

IESE Becomes Latest Business School to Ink Deal with Prodigy Finance for International MBA Loans

Spain’s IESE Business School has reached an agreement with U.K.‒based Prodigy Finance that will enable it to offer a new loan to international MBA and Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) students to help them finance their studies, the school announced this week. In other words, financing an IESE education just became much easier for students who live outside of Spain. The new deal expands IESE’s existing loans and scholarships, which help students cover tuition fees and living costs. International students, though, have faced hurdles because existing loan programs offered by IESE have required co-signers. Read more

Published: March 3, 2015

HEC Paris Launches First-of-Its-Find Fundraiser to Support Entrepreneurship

HEC Paris is more than halfway to its goal of raising €150,000 in 50 days to help further an entrepreneurial boom underway at the school. The HEC Foundation launched the school’s first-ever fundraising campaign focused entirely on entrepreneurship earlier this year. Today, 23 days into the campaign, 61 donors have pledged a combined €80,427, putting the school well on track to meet its goal. Interest in entrepreneurship at HEC Paris has soared over the past decade, with entrepreneurial-focused students representing 25 percent of the class today, up from only 4 percent in 2004, the school reports. The HEC Foundation’s recent fundraiser was launched to support the growing entrepreneurship goals of HEC students. “Our goal is to make the Entrepreneurship Centre a showcase of the commitment to openness and diversity of HEC, to increase the rate of student success in creating their business, and to facilitate integration of technological resources of the Saclay cluster into student projects,” the school said in a statement. Read more

Published: March 2, 2015

Oxford / Saïd Interview Report: Round 3 / Adcom / San Francisco

The following Oxford / Saïd interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant. The interview took place at a business in downtown San Francisco with a member of the admissions teams. It was clear they had read my entire profile and knew my post-grad goals well. It was a formal interview but it was also very conversational and welcoming; you can tell the admissions team wants to engage with you on a deeper level to see if you are a good fit for the program. I had a low GMAT Quant score that the interviewer asked about, Read more

Published: March 2, 2015

Consulting Projects Take Tuck School of Business Students around the Globe

MBA students at the Tuck School of Business have been putting what they learn in the classroom to work in the field as part of a global onsite consulting program that debuted in 1997. To date, they have completed more than 194 projects in more than 50 countries, the school reports. The program, called Tuck OnSite Global Consulting, or OnSite for short, is available as an elective to second-year MBA students. As part of the experiential learning opportunity, MBAs hone their skills by providing professional quality consulting services to worldwide clients. The clients benefit, too – OnSite provides a cost-effective solution for corporations, nonprofits and governments for which time, money or manpower is in short supply. Read more

Published: March 2, 2015

Harvard Business School Interview Report: Round 2 / Adcom / On-Campus

The following Harvard Business School interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant who was admitted. Good luck to them! I had my interview with an AdCom committee member and one observer on campus. The interview was 30 minutes long and was a very good conversation rather than an interview in a strict sense. The interview member comes to fetch you and then told me that there are no right answers and its just a conversation to get to know me better. We dove right in and was asked a lot of questions Quick background : Read more

Published: March 1, 2015

Harvard Business School Names New Innovation Lab Director

If Harvard Business School (HBS) is in your cross hairs, and if innovation and entrepreneurial pursuits are what rev you up, you may be interested to learn that Harvard’s innovation lab will soon have a new commander in chief. Jodi Goldstein, a long-time investor and entrepreneur, will become Harvard i-lab’s new Evans Family Foundation Managing Director beginning this June, responsible for leading the university-wide facility that brings students, faculty, alumni and the community together for team-based and other entrepreneurial activities. Goldstein, who replaces outgoing Managing Director Gordon Jones, is no stranger the i-lab, Indeed, she’s been part of its management team since the lab’s 2011 launch, coming up with and implementing much of the top programming and resources it’s been able to offer. Just last year she spearheaded the Launch Lab, a business incubator for Harvard alumni, which is putting Allston, MA—where the i-lab is located—on the map as a solutions-centered hub swirling with interdisciplinary collaboration. Read more

Published: March 1, 2015

Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2

The following is a report from an applicant who was invited to interview at Chicago Booth. The applicant shares their Booth MBA admissions interview questions: I just finished up with my Booth interview. The conversation was very informal. In addition to the regular resume review, career goal, and why Booth questions, I was asked the following behavioral questions: Read more

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MBA Applywire

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

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

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

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.

November 27, 2024 6:51am ET

Applying: Dartmouth / Tuck, Harvard Business School, Stanford GSB, UPenn / Wharton, Yale SOM

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Program Manager, Humanitarian INGO

Post-MBA Target Industry: Entrepreneurship, Non Profit/SI

GMAT: 685

GPA: 3.27

Years of Work Experience: 4

Location: US Citizen (positioned abroad)

Notes:

Long time listener first time caller. Love the podcast! Adding my profile just because I want to be part of the community.

R2 applicant for Fall 2025 entry.

Background: mid-to-late 20s US citizen, lower-income single parent upbringing.

Work experience: currently a manager at a humanitarian INGO in active / post-conflict settings (think Afghanistan, Yemen, etc.) with several million in project budget under management and overseeing multiple teams. Will have been in emergency aid for 2 years upon matriculation, career before that was 1 year quantitative analyst ---> 1 year teaching English abroad. High impact job, recently promoted.

Academics: 3.27 cumulative. Small state school for first year with a 4.0. Transferred to an Ivy, but had to work full time to support family, had just above a 3.0 at the Ivy. I've also done a masters since at a top 5 UK (shout-out to Alex!) with distinction (3.9+ equivalent). Additionally, took Calculus this year (got an A-) to give schools a bit more reassurance on quant abilities since my quant record in college had its ups and downs, and to demonstrate respect for the rigors of the Y1 MBA curriculum.

Test: took the GMAT only once, 685 (86V 82Q 84D). First mock exam was a 625 with a terrible quant score, but brought quant up to 76th percentile with a couple months of study. Internet is too slow to take online, so only had one chance to do it in-person while I was on leave -- retake physically impossible even if I wanted to.

ECs: Very focused on social entrepreneurship. Have also been helping teach / support one of the foreign language programs at the state school I originally went to and transferred out of. Community service award as well, and mountain climber.

Post-MBA goal is social entrepreneurship that can help people in crisis contexts.

I've listened to enough Wire Taps to guess exactly what the advice will be: "You might want to cast a wider net due to the lower GPA, right now you're only targeting top schools." -- Absolutely fair call. However, what I want to do is extremely difficult and will require a ton of resources. I've selected the programs I think best fit my goals / have a strong social and entrepreneurial mission. I don't particularly mind getting dinged everywhere and reapplying next year if need be.

Long post, thanks for reading! Have a great holiday!

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MBA LiveWire

November 27, 2024 8:22pm ET

Accepted to Cornell / Johnson

Round: Round 1

Received via email November 27, 2024

GRE: 327

Program Type: One Year Program

Target Career: Technology

Application Location: San Francisco

November 27, 2024 1:46pm ET

Rejected at Washington U. / Olin

Round: Round 1

Received via portal November 27, 2024

GPA: 3.9

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Operations Management

Application Location: Asia

November 27, 2024 12:44pm ET

Accepted to Washington U. / Olin

Round: Round 2

Received via phone November 27, 2024

GPA: 3.75

GRE: 330

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: Phoenix

Note:

Consortium and received a full-ride plus a stipend. Interviewed on November 10th and received offer today, November 27th.
I feel very optimistic for Booth and Yale results next week.

November 27, 2024 12:29pm ET

Accepted to Cornell / Johnson

Round: Round 1

Received via portal November 27, 2024

GPA: 3.94

Program Type: One Year Program

Target Career: Technology

Application Location: India

Note:

Interviewed for Cornell Tech MBA program on 13th Nov. GMAT/GRE test waiver.

November 27, 2024 10:41am ET

Accepted to NYU Stern

Round: Round 1

Received via email on November 25, 2024

GMAT: 715

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Finance

Application Location: India

Note:

Interview on 7/11. Received email regarding a status update. No scholarship

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