Posts by Alex Brown

About

Alex is a co host for Clear Admit's Wire Taps podcast. He has spent 30 years in the MBA admissions industry, and authored the book: Becoming a Clear Admit: The Definitive Guide to MBA Admissions Alex also teaches digital marketing through executive education programs for London Business School, Imperial College Business School and Columbia Business School.

Published: October 22, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 318—Army to aerospace and defence. Investment banker, two years of experience. Ghanian, textile business

Weekly Roundup for Clear Admit’s MBA Podcast In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the upcoming MBA application deadlines and interview releases for this new season; for this week UPenn / Wharton and Duke / Fuqua are scheduled to release interview decisions. We are also seeing Round 1 interview invites on MBA LiveWire for Columbia, Michigan / Ross, as well as Berkeley / Haas, Stanford, Dartmouth / Tuck and Cornell / Johnson. Graham highlighted a $25 million gift that was received by Northwestern / Kellogg to add further support to its Entrepreneurial Programs, via its Zell Read more

Published: October 15, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 316—Journalism to Banking. Pakistani to the U.S. Real estate, from Peru

Weekly Roundup for Clear Admit’s MBA Podcast In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the upcoming MBA application deadlines; for this week it’s NYU / Stern and UNC / Kenan Flagler; we are also seeing Round 1 interview invites on MBA LiveWire for Chicago / Booth, London Business School, as well as Berkeley / Haas, Stanford, Dartmouth / Tuck and Cornell / Johnson. This week, Duke / Fuqua and UVA / Darden will be releasing their Early Action round decisions. We then discussed a new content series that Clear Admit launched last week, which focuses on what Read more

Published: October 8, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 313—Fintech to media. Teacher to human resources. Strategy consulting to Biotech

Weekly Roundup for Clear Admit’s MBA Podcast In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the upcoming Round 1 deadlines; for this week it’s Texas / McCombs; we are also seeing Round 1 interview invites on MBA LiveWire for Dartmouth / Tuck, Northwestern / Kellogg, Yale SOM, Stanford and Harvard, which released all its Round 1 interview invites last week. This week, London Business School and INSEAD are scheduled to release Round 1 interview invites. Graham highlighted two events Clear Admit is hosting in the upcoming weeks: one is a Real Humans event featuring MBA students from leading Read more

Published: October 1, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 311—Enlisted Helicopter Pilot. Oil and Gas to Clean Energy. First-generation Vietnamese.

Weekly Roundup for Clear Admit’s MBA Podcast In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the upcoming application deadlines; for this week Georgetown / McDonough, CMU / Tepper, Washington / Foster, Emory / Goizueta and UCLA / Anderson have Round 1 deadlines, and Cambridge / Judge has a Round 2 deadline; we are also seeing Round 1 interview invites for Dartmouth / Tuck, Northwestern / Kellogg and Yale SOM on MBA LiveWire. This week, Harvard and IESE will be releasing interview invites. Graham highlighted two recently published Adcom Q&As from Berkeley / Haas and INSEAD, and Read more

Published: September 24, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 310—Non-profit candidate. Marine Corps with Math degree. Digital trust and safety.

Weekly Roundup for Clear Admit’s MBA Podcast In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the upcoming Round 1 deadlines for this week. Dartmouth / Tuck, MIT / Sloan, Oxford / Said and Duke / Fuqua all have their Round 1 MBA application deadlines; we are also seeing Round 1 interview invites for Northwestern Kellogg and Yale SOM on MBA LiveWire. Graham highlighted our final Essay Insights series, which runs on Wednesday of this week, with UPenn / Wharton, Yale SOM, UVA / Darden and Michigan / Ross; these events are very popular and bring together the leading Read more

Published: September 17, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 309—Over-represented, but under-targeting? MBB candidate, climate focus. Super GRE, poor GPA.

Weekly Roundup for Clear Admit’s MBA Podcast In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the upcoming Round 1 deadlines for this new season; for this week NYU / Stern, IESE, Cornell / Johnson and Chicago / Booth all have their Round 1 MBA application deadlines; Duke / Fuqua is scheduled to release interview invites for its Early Action round. Graham highlighted our next Essay Insights series, which continues on Wednesday of this week, with CMU / Tepper, Columbia, Georgetown / McDonough, Texas / McCombs and UNC / Kenan Flagler; these events are very popular and bring Read more

Published: September 10, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 308—Military service, low GMAT. Military service, low GRE. Is a test waiver the right option?

Weekly Roundup for Clear Admit’s MBA Podcast In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the upcoming Round 1 deadlines for this new season; for this week Stanford, Yale SOM, INSEAD, Columbia, Northwestern / Kellogg, Berkeley / Haas and Michigan / Ross all have their Round 1 application deadlines. Graham highlighted our next Essay Insights series, which begins on Wednesday of this week, and continues the following two Wednesdays; these events are very popular and bring together the leading MBA programs to talk about their admissions essay topics. Signups are here: https://bit.ly/cafallessays Graham then mentioned two pieces Read more

Published: September 3, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 307—Teacher, but low numbers. Chilean engineer. Full-time MBA or Part-time?

Weekly Roundup for Clear Admit’s MBA Podcast In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the upcoming Round 1 deadlines for this new season; for this week Harvard, UPenn / Wharton and London Business Schools have their Round 1 deadlines, Duke / Fuqua and UVA / Darden have their Early Action deadlines. Graham then highlighted our next Essay Insights series, which run on September 13, 20, and 27; signups for this popular series are here: https://bit.ly/cafallessays Graham then mentioned two Adcom Q&A articles, where we interview admissions directors at Georgia / Terry and Boston / Read more

Published: August 27, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 306—Peruvian with huge GMAT. Tech candidate into music. Ballerina with great potential.

Weekly Roundup for Clear Admit’s MBA Podcast In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the upcoming Round 1 deadlines for this new season, which kicks off with Cambridge / Judge this week. Graham then highlighted several events that Clear Admit is hosting over the next month. Later today, we are hosting our monthly CA+ webinar, that is open to all registered members of the Clear Admit community. This webinar will cover preparation for the forthcoming Round 1 application deadlines. We also have a Real Humans webinar, on August 30th, which includes alumni and students from Chicago / Read more

Published: August 20, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 305—Air Force pilot, 2.5 GPA. Argentinian entrepreneur. Cancer survivor, 337 GRE

Weekly Roundup for Clear Admit’s MBA Podcast In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the upcoming Round 1 deadlines for this new season, as we close out last season. Graham then highlighted several events that Clear Admit is hosting over the next month. Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 22, we host a webinar with CMU / Tepper: https://bit.ly./teppermbawebinar, on Monday, August 28, we have a Clear Admit+ webinar, and we have a Real Humans webinar which includes alumni and students from top MBA programs on August 30th: https://bit.ly/rhwebinar5. We will also be hosting our next Essay Insights Read more

Published: August 13, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 304—Aeronautics engineer, 3.0 GPA. Welsh and French, 318 GRE. British military officer, 320 GRE

Weekly roundup for Clear Admit’s MBA Podcast In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast Alex and Graham begin by discussing the upcoming Round 1 deadlines for the 2023-24 season and bid goodbye to the 2022-23 season (with students now showing up on campuses for pre-term). Graham then highlighted several events that Clear Admit is hosting over the next month. These events include a webinar with CMU / Tepper (August 22nd): https://bit.ly./teppermbawebinar, a Clear Admit+ webinar, scheduled for August 28th, a Real Humans webinar which will include alumni and students from top MBA programs (August 30th): https://bit.ly/rhwebinar5 , and our Read more

Published: August 6, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 303—Chemical Engineer from Trinidad and Tobago. Education sector, low GRE. Super profile, next season

In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast Alex and Graham began by discussing a new survey that Clear Admit has launched, which investigates the media habits of MBA candidates. All participation is greatly appreciated; the survey is here: https://bit.ly/casummarysurvey Graham then noted a new Master in Management program offered by Chicago / Booth which led to a discussion of some of the more unusual formats being offered by leading programs for graduate management education. Graham then highlighted a Real Humans piece featuring an alum of Dartmouth / Tuck at Citi, and two Adcom Q&As from MIT / Read more

Published: July 30, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 302—Strong profile, no GMAT yet. Great numbers, over-represented? 319 GRE, weakest spot.

In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast Graham led things off by discussing the MBA Essay Insights series which wraps up this Wednesday. This season’s series has seen record levels of attendees (600+ each week); our final event brings together MBA admissions leaders from Cornell / Johnson, UCLA / Anderson, Washington / Foster, INSEAD, and London Business School. Signups are here: https://bit.ly/cambaessay Graham then highlighted the recent survey Clear Admit has developed to understand the media habits of MBA candidates. These anonymous surveys allow us to gather data to really understand the behavior of the MBA applicant community, and we Read more

Published: July 23, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 301—Ex architect, now FAANG recruiting. 335 GRE, Nigerian in London. Super undergrad, one year of work.

In this week’s MBA Admissions podcast Alex and Graham begin by discussing some recent waitlist admissions posts on MBA LiveWire; for those still on waitlists, there is still some hope! Your hosts then discussed the recent updates to the Clear Admit website, which should make the user experience better. The new website also means that all the features that were previously only accessible to Clear Admit+ subscribers are now available to all registered users, for free! This includes the Admissions Academy video series, Clear Admit’s LiveWire Data Dashboard (which allows users to parse the data from MBA LiveWire), and Read more

Published: July 9, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 299—770 GMAT and 2.9, does that work? Targeting 680 – 700, is that enough? History major, strong work experience.

This week’s show begins with Alex quizzing Graham about his recent trip to San Diego for this year’s GMAC conference, followed by a mention of some limited waitlist movement seen on MBA LiveWire. Graham and Alex then pivoted to a discussion on the recent supreme court decision that has a large impact on how admissions can consider race in their admissions decisions. Your hosts believe that while this will necessitate some changes to the admissions process, there will still be processes that can be adopted to ensure diverse business school classes that represent all. Graham then highlighted the July Read more

Published: July 2, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 298—LIVE from the GMAC Conference with Yale, Berkeley, Georgetown, and CMU!

Welcome back to another edition of Clear Admit’s weekly MBA admissions podcast. This week’s episode can hardly be described as just ‘another edition’ of the show; that’s because it was recorded live in San Diego, California, at the annual GMAC conference and includes special guest appearances from admissions directors at Carnegie Mellon Tepper, Georgetown McDonough, Berkeley Haas, and Yale SOM! Before bringing on the string of special guests, host Graham Richmond (who did his best without co-host Alex Brown this week) ran down the latest news and notes. This began with some discussion of continued waitlist movement visible on LiveWire, Read more

Published: June 25, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 297—Test Scores. 2.3 GPA, any chance? 2 years of work experience, is it enough?

As summer heats up, Graham and Alex are back with another episode of WireTaps, and a slightly new format! After some quick discussion about lingering activity on LiveWire (which is now slowing down as the season gets closer to its end), Graham highlighted our July ‘Essay Insight’ virtual event series. This series, which begins on July 12th, brings MBA admissions officers from top programs to discuss their essays for the upcoming application cycle. This is a very popular series – signups are here: https://bit.ly/cambaessay Graham then mentioned an Adcom Q&A from Michigan Ross; these new Q&As for the Read more

Published: June 18, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 296—Environmental candidate, retaking the GMAT. MBB back office, wanting front office. Nigerian in London, at 32

We’re back this week with another episode of WireTaps, and Alex and Graham get the show started with their usual discussion of activity on LiveWire. While the LiveWire updates have slowed down as the 2022-23 admissions season comes to its end, there was a little movement on the Chicago Booth waitlist last week. Graham then shifted gears to highlight two events Clear Admit is hosting. The first is a Real Humans event which brings students and alums together to discuss their experiences with candidates. This event includes students and alumni from UPenn / Wharton, NYU / Stern, MIT / Sloan, Read more

Published: June 11, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 295—Asset manager, 760 GMAT. Data scientist, poor GPA. Marketer, Europe vs US

Another week, another Wiretaps! As usual, this episode begins with Alex and Graham discussing activity on LiveWire which is now slowing down as the 2022-23 admissions season gets closer to its end. Next week, Chicago / Booth will be releasing its decisions for its Booth Scholars program. Graham highlighted two events Clear Admit is hosting: The first is a ‘Real Humans’ event which brings students and alums together to discuss their experiences with candidates. It will be held on June 20 at 12 pm ET, and you can signup here: https://bit.ly/realhumansmba The second is a set of events focused Read more

Published: June 4, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 294—Two-time Olympian, part-time vs full-time. Pilot with a 690 GMAT. Marketing career, 321 GRE

Alex and Graham’s first WireTaps episode for June gets rolling with the usual review of activity on LiveWire, which includes waitlist decisions and final decisions from Rounds 3 and 4. This upcoming week should feature final decisions from UVA / Darden and MIT / Sloan (for their deferred admissions programs) and for Texas / McCombs and London Business School. Alex and Graham then had a brief discussion about the still-vacant admissions director seats at HBS and Stanford GSB admissions. It looks like both programs will head into next season with leaders in interim roles as their searches continue. Graham highlighted Read more

Published: May 28, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 293—Female lawyer, from Nigeria. Blackhawk pilot, 720 GMAT. International student, lower GRE

Happy Memorial Day! On this episode of WireTaps, Alex and Graham officially open BBQ season with a look at what’s been cooking on LiveWire, including waitlist decisions and final decisions from Rounds 3 and 4. Alex reminds listeners that we also should see final decisions coming out for Georgetown / McDonough, Cornell / Johnson and CMU / Tepper (for its Future Leaders program) in the coming week. Alex also pointed out that new deadlines and essay topics are starting to be unveiled by the top MBA programs for next season; this led to a discussion regarding Clear Read more

Published: May 21, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 292—Social impact goal. Switching west for east coast. South African, poor GPA

Spring is in full bloom in Cornwall, England and Paris, France, as Alex and Graham check in for the latest episode of WireTaps! This week’s show begins with a discussion of activity on LiveWire, which includes waitlist decisions (all rounds) and final decisions (from Round 3). This upcoming week, Alex anticipates R3 decisions coming out for UNC / Kenan Flagler, Stanford, Chicago / Booth and Michigan / Ross. Graham highlighted the announcement of a new dean at Cornell / Johnson, Vishal Gaur, who comes in with an illustrious academic pedigree. Graham also commented on a “Friday’s from the Frontline” Read more

Published: May 14, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 291—Law school or MBA? Naval pilot, great numbers. GRE jumps from 302 to 337

Alex and Graham are back with another episode of WireTaps, kicking things off with a rundown of the latest activity on LiveWire – which includes wait list decisions and final decisions from Round 3. Alex mentioned that this upcoming week should feature final decisions coming out for USC / Marshall, IESE, UCLA / Anderson, Oxford / Said, MIT / Sloan, Yale SOM and Washington / Foster. Graham highlighted four Real Humans Alumni stories: an Indiana / Kelley grad at Apple, a Cornell / Johnson grad at Bain, a Foster grad at Accenture and a Stanford grad Read more

Published: May 7, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 290—Wine Guy, 770 GMAT. 322 x4, one more try? Fuqua vs Haas.

Another, week, another episode of WireTaps! Alex and Graham began the show with the usual discussion around activity on LiveWire, which now includes decision deadlines for the shorter Round 3 application cycle and some deferred enrollment interview invites. Graham then highlighted three Real Humans Alumni stories, an INSEAD grad at Accenture, a CMU / Tepper grad at Amazon and a UPenn / Wharton grad at Pfizer. Graham also mentioned a recently published admissions tip that covers scholarship negotiation. He then reminded listeners about the MBA admissions event series that Clear Admit is hosting in May, which Read more

Published: April 30, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 289—323 GRE, from Colombia. Health care, no test score. Tuck vs Kellogg

This episode begins with an in-depth review of the 2024 U.S. News full-time MBA rankings, which were released last week after a delay. U.S. News has changed its ranking methodology which caused some shifts in their ranking, but Chicago / Booth did retain the top spot! Alex and Graham share thoughts on the rankings changes, and continue to assert the reality that a tiered ranking system is always better than an ordinal one. Graham noted that 5 of the top MBA programs now have a median GMAT score of 740, which is pretty crazy. Your hosts then speculate that Read more

MBA Livewire

March 30, 2025 3:28pm ET

Rejected at Berkeley / Haas

Round: Round 2

Received via portal on March 26, 2025

Standardized Test: GRE

GPA: 3.61

GRE: 327

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Non Profit / Social Impact

Application Location: North Carolina

March 30, 2025 3:16pm ET

Accepted to Berkeley / Haas

Round: Round 2

Received via portal on March 26, 2025

Standardized Test: GRE

GPA: 4.0

GRE: 340

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Finance

Application Location: Boston

March 30, 2025 2:00pm ET

Rejected at Berkeley / Haas

Round: Round 2

Received via portal on March 26, 2025

Standardized Test: GRE

GPA: 3.58

GRE: 326

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Marketing

Application Location: USA

March 30, 2025 12:17pm ET

Accepted to Harvard Business School

Round: Round 2

Received via email on March 25, 2025

Standardized Test: GMAT

GPA: 88/100

GMAT: 750

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: General Management

Application Location: China, Shanghai

March 30, 2025 2:19am ET

Interview Invite to Dartmouth / Tuck

Round: Round 3

Received via email March 29, 2025

Standardized Test: GMAT

GMAT: 685

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

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