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Published: December 28, 2014
London Business School Scores High in Terms of Research Quality
London Business School (LBS) received the highest rating ever achieved by any department of business and management for the quality of its research output, according to the UK-wide Research Excellence Framework (REF) published earlier this month. The report revealed that 55.3 percent of LBS research output received the top 4* rating, which stands for world-leading. The other ratings are 3* (internationally excellent), 2* (internationally recognized), 1* (nationally recognized) or 0 (unclassified).  Read more
Published: December 25, 2014
NYU Stern School of Business Volatility Institute Opens Extension at NYU Shanghai
A new extension of the Volatility Institute at New York University Stern School of Business is now open at NYU Shanghai, in the heart of Liujiazui, Shanghai’s financial center. Operating in close partnership with Stern’s Volatility Institute, the Volatility Institute at NYU Shanghai (VINS) is designed to provide opportunities for researchers focused on Chinese markets specifically, as well as financial markets around the world. Part of its aim is to facilitate collaboration and community-building between market participants and academic researchers within the region and beyond. The NYU Stern Volatility Institute—established in 2009 by Stern Professor Robert Engle, a Nobel Laureate and volatility expert—was created to drive research on risks in global financial markets. Engle will also direct the VINS, with generous support from the Pudong Institute of Finance. Read more
Published: December 23, 2014
Harvard Business School Names 16 New Entrepreneurs-in-Residence
MBA students at Harvard Business School (HBS) now have access to a whole new pool of entrepreneurial talent through the school’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiR) program, the school announced earlier this month. HBS has named 16 entrepreneurs to take part in the program for 2014-15, 14 of whom are HBS graduates. Sponsored by the school's Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program is now in its ninth year. Participating entrepreneurs come to campus to advise MBA students who are interested in starting their own companies. They also work with HBS faculty on research and course development. Read more
Published: December 22, 2014
Poets&Quants Spotlights “Best of” Advice from Clear Admit’s Jon Fuller
In a sequel to a piece that ran in May, Poets&Quants last week highlighted some of the best advice Clear Admit Admissions Counselor Jon Fuller has offered in response to its readers’ questions. Fuller joined Clear Admit in 2013 from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, where he was the senior associate director of admissions for four years. Since March of this year, he’s also been fielding questions as Poets&Quants’ resident expert. The most recent “Best of Jon” compilation, which ran on Poets&Quants on December 18th, features Fuller’s responses to readers’ questions tackling a wide range of topics, from how to overcome mediocre undergraduate grades to how applicants who are over 30 can best position themselves to the admissions committee.   Read more
Published: December 21, 2014
UVA Darden MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round One / AdCom / On Campus
The following is a UVA Darden MBA admissions interview report provided by a recent applicant: Read more
Published: December 21, 2014
White House Director of Social Innovation Named Senior Fellow at UPenn’s Wharton School
A leading national expert on social innovation and shared value will serve as the next Senior Fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the school announced late last week. Jonathan Greenblatt, who currently serves as Special Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, will become a Wharton Senior Fellow beginning in January, where he will work with the Wharton Social Impact Initiative and lecture on campus for the remainder of the 2014-2015 academic year. Wharton Dean Geoffrey Garrett expressed his excitement that Greenblatt would soon be on campus working with students and faculty. “He brings a unique perspective on innovation and leadership, enriched by a rare combination of experiences at the highest level of government, business and the nonprofit world,” he said in a statement. Read more
Published: December 18, 2014
Tuck School of Business Professor Releases Annual Picks for Best and Worst CEOs
‘Tis the season to reflect on the year’s best and worst CEOs. Tuck School of Business Professor of Management Sydney Finkelstein has been making a list and checking it twice since 2010, sharing with the public his picks for which CEOs have excelled in the prior year and which have tanked. This year’s losers include the CEOs of Twitter, Sears Holding, Tesco, American Apparel and Banco Espírito Santo. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is not helping the company fulfill its potential, Finkelstein says, noting that shares have dropped by 42 percent and monthly active users have slowed. Sears Holdings CEO Eddie Lampert made the list for the second year running, for what Finkelstein deemed failed strategy, arrogant leadership and Sears’ rapidly dropping stock price. Read more
Published: December 18, 2014
Fridays from the Frontline: Congratulations
Welcome back to Fridays from the Frontline, our weekly summary of happenings in the business school blogosphere. This week, Round 1 decisions came out, and several bloggers got fantastic news! We here at Clear Admit would like to extend heartfelt congratulations to everyone who was admitted this week! Read more
Published: December 17, 2014
ESADE Partners with Barcelona Digital Tech Cluster
Spain’s ESADE will become the business school partner of Ecommerce & Tech Barcelona, an initiative bringing together leading digital companies in and around Barcelona, the school announced today. The new agreement, signed yesterday by ESADE Director General Eugenia Bieto, strengthens the school's ties to the digital business community and its support for the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. ESADE is dedicated to “guiding digital entrepreneurs throughout the growth process and strengthening their executive and leadership skills,” Bieto said in a statement. The alliance between the business school and the Ecommerce & Tech cluster will facilitate both a study of the impact of the digital entrepreneurial initiative in Spain and the development of academic case studies featuring projects undertaken by the cluster’s entrepreneurs. Read more
Published: December 16, 2014
HEC Paris to Launch Second MOOC Series in 2015
Pleased with the success of its first Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which debuted on Coursera in January 2014, HEC Paris plans to release a second series of online courses in 2015, the school announced yesterday. These new MOOCs will address topics related to organizations, social entrepreneurship an technology-based startups. HEC Paris Dean Bernard Ramanantsoa views the school’s partnership with Coursera as an opportunity to open its courses to students who might not otherwise have access to higher education due to practical or economic constraints. “Sharing our faculty’s expertise with the general public at no cost is a truly exciting and meaningful challenge," he said in a statement. Read more
Published: December 15, 2014
$3.8 Million Donation Will Help Fund New INSEAD Leadership Development Center in Singapore
A leading Indonesian family has donated approximately $3.8 million USD ($5 million SGD) to help fund INSEAD’s new Leadership Development Center, which is scheduled to open on INSEAD’s Singapore campus in January 2015. The new building will be home to the “William and Lily Soeryadjaya Amphitheater,” in honor of the gift from the Soeryadjaya family. The opening of the new Leadership Development Center next month marks “Phase Three” in INSEAD’s Asia expansion, which is designed to significantly increase the number of students, executives, leading scholars and practitioners who will be on site in Singapore. INSEAD also features campuses in Fontainebleau, France, and Abu Dhabi. Read more
Published: December 14, 2014
How to Choose the Right MBA Program
Perhaps you’re at the beginning stage of the important process to identify which MBA programs you’ll apply to. Maybe, with multiple acceptances in hand, you have the exciting and life-altering task of deciding where you ultimately want to enroll. In either case, Ann Richards, interim director of admissions at Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, has valuable insight to help you make the most informed decision possible. “There are a handful of key elements that are essential when trying to choose the right MBA program for you,” Richards says. “Research, visit and conduct a self-assessment to understand what’s important to you,” she advises. Read more
Published: December 11, 2014
Cambridge Judge MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Faculty / On-Campus
The following Cambridge Judge MBA admissions interview report was provided by a recent applicant:  Cambridge always puts on a good show for the interview day and today was no different. The day started off with preliminary remarks from the Director of the school and the director of the MBA program, and then we split off into our individual interviews. Interviews are done by faculty, including even the director of the MBA program. Read more
Published: December 11, 2014
Harvard MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / AdCom / On Campus
The following Harvard MBA Admissions Interview summary was provided by a recent applicant: My interview was very pleasant. It was quite rapid, though, and the 30 minutes were over before I knew it. As others have stated, there was one main interviewer asking the questions and another who was taking notes. I purposefully engaged them both when answering, rather than ignoring the notetaker. The interview was very congenial, with a lot of non-verbal feedback (smiles and laughter) throughout. The questions I was asked are below: Read more
Published: December 11, 2014
Kellogg Admissions Director Shares How School Assesses Candidates’ Interpersonal Skills
The director of admissions at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management has devoted a series of recent blog posts to demystifying the admissions process at the school. Her most recent post shares what she and her team are looking for as they assess candidates’ interpersonal skills. How well a candidate fits with the school’s MBA program is a significant consideration for the Kellogg admissions team, as it is at many top programs. “Our community values collaboration, involvement and giving back, and we look for that in our applicants as well,” wrote Admissions Director Beth Tidmarsh in a blog post earlier this week. Candidates who thrive in team-based environments will fit in well at the school, she continued. Read more
Published: December 11, 2014
Fridays from the Frontline: Beginnings and Endings
Welcome back to Fridays from the Frontline, our weekly summation of goings-on in the business school blogosphere. This week is a week of beginnings and endings, as some applicants work on their final list of schools and begin the application process, while others are anxiously waiting for news from their top choice schools. Read more
Published: December 10, 2014
London Business School Awards Two £30,000 Scholarships to Female Business Execs
London Business School (LBS) has awarded two female business executives £30,000 scholarships for the school’s Senior Executive Program, concluding an initiative launched in August with the 30% Club, an organization devoted to increasing female representation in the C-suite of leading corporations. Andreea Moldova, general manager (Czech Republic and Slovakia) at Avon Cosmetics, and Yasmin Becker, assistant director at the Nursing and Midwifery Council, so impressed the judging panel that LBS increased its commitment and provided two scholarships, though the completion was originally intended to have a single winner. Read more
Published: December 9, 2014
Duke Fuqua MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 /Second Year Student / On Campus
The following is a summary of a Duke Fuqua MBA admissions interview provided by a recent applicant:  True to Fuqua's reputation, the interview was friendly and straight-forward. The interviewer began by sharing his background prior to Fuqua and his post-MBA goals. He emphasized that the interview was meant to be conversational, which I found to be an accurate portrayal. The interview lasted about an hour, including questions I asked at its conclusion. The interviewer received a copy of my resume, but was otherwise blind to my application materials. Read more
Published: December 9, 2014
Construction Begins on $60 Million Student Building at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business
A magnificent new building devoted entirely to student learning and interaction is now under construction at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, scheduled to open in fall 2016, Berkeley Dean Rich Lyons announced last week. Called the North Academic Building, the six-story, 80,000-square-foot structure will cost $60 million, funded with private donations from alumni and friends of the school. Designed to serve as a “learning laboratory,” the new building will feature state-of-the art technology, flexible spaces, many group study areas and a large event space with views of the San Francisco Bay. The student-centric facility will hold no administrative offices. Read more
Published: December 9, 2014
UC Berkeley Haas MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off Campus
The following UC Berkeley Haas MBA admissions interview questions were provided by an applicant:   I was set up with an Alum in NYC via email and coordinated a time/date/location that worked for both of us.We met for lunch a a quiet restaurant in the neighborhood I work in at her request.  Read more
Published: December 9, 2014
UT Austin McCombs MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Second-year student / Skype
The following is a description of a recent UT Austin McCombs MBA interview provided by an applicant:  The interview was over Skype. I got a chance to select a preferred interview date and time. Read more
Published: December 8, 2014
Darden School of Business MBA Students Host Events to Discuss Sexual Assault
Amid controversy stemming from a Rolling Stone article describing the alleged sexual assault of a University of Virginia (UVA) undergraduate student at a campus fraternity party, students at UVA’s Darden School of Business have chosen to host special events to educate the Darden community on the school’s sexual assault policy. The Darden School Association (DSA) organized a “Not on Our Grounds” First Coffee – using the informal community gathering that takes place in Darden’s PepsiCo Forum each morning after the first class of the day as an opportunity to discuss the case in the news as well as the Not on Our Grounds campus initiative to end sexual violence. Read more
Published: December 7, 2014
MIT Sloan MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / AdCom / On Campus
The following is a recent applicant's description of their MIT Sloan MBA admissions interview:  The interview was very casual and friendly. The interviewer never made me feel uncomfortable or tried to trip me up and the time flew by. It seemed like she just wanted to get to know a little more about me and how I carry myself in various situations.Interviewers: 1Location: On campusLength: ~40 minutesQuestions:Tell me about a time when you said “no” to someone at work. How did it turn out?Why MBA? Why Sloan? Read more
Published: December 4, 2014
McDonough School of Business MBA Student Shares Career Search Experience
What does the career search process really look like when you’re an MBA student? Vanessa Dumonet, a second-year MBA student at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, generously took time out of her Thanksgiving break to share just how things unfolded for her. Dumonet entered Georgetown having worked for five years in marketing and business development for a large international law firm. Drawing on a range of resources at McDonough – including career coaches, career-focused student groups, peer advising and the alumni network – Dumonet has already received multiple full-time offers for next fall and is looking forward to beginning her post-MBA career at luxury beauty company Estée Lauder. In the interview that follows, you’ll hear from Dumonet herself about which resources proved most valuable in landing her dream job. She’s also got some great advice for prospective applicants on how to jump-start a career search even before arriving on campus, so take note! Read more
Published: December 4, 2014
Fridays from the Frontline: Resources for Applicants
Welcome back to Fridays from the Frontline, our weekly summation of happenings in the business school blogosphere. As applicants begin working on their Round 2 applications in earnest, MBA applicant bloggers are sharing several resources for other applicants. Current students are reflecting on their MBA experiences so far and turning their attention to another application process: the job search. Read more

MBA Applywire

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.
5
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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