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: January 8, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 270—Unorthodox pathway. GRE of 318. Ross beats other options.

This week’s show kicks off with a quick run-down of the remaining Round 2 application deadlines; on Monday and Tuesday there are a handful of schools with apps due. Graham then highlighted an important admissions tip that Clear Admit recently published, regarding whether the optional essay should be used. He then presented the Columbia Business School 2022 employment report, which led with financial services, followed by consulting; the graduating class have a huge average starting salary of $175,000. Graham then highlighted the two deferred enrolment events that Clear Admit is hosting on February 1 and February 8 with Read more

Published: January 1, 2023

MBA Wire Taps 269—640 GMAT, is it too low? Very low GPA. Kellogg PT versus top 16 FT

Happy New Year to all of our podcast listeners! Alex, Graham, and the entire Clear Admit team wish you all the best for 2023! This episode begins with some discussion of this week’s blitz of Round 2 application deadlines; on Wednesday and Thursday there are at least 15 deadlines for the programs Clear Admit covers! Graham then highlighted the recently published Real Humans from Northwestern / Kellogg. Your hosts then moved into a discussion of the employment reports from CMU / Tepper and USC / Marshall. Being in the same tier, their average starting salaries are Read more

Published: December 25, 2022

MBA Wire Taps 268—Sloan vs Haas. Haas vs Columbia and Fuqua. Stockholm tech, low GPA.

This week’s episode kicks off with a discussion about the flood of upcoming Round 2 application deadlines, which start right after the New Year. Graham then highlighted the Real Humans stories from Manchester / Alliance and Johns Hopkins / Carey. Graham also noted a new holiday series that Clear Admit is publishing where we follow up on prior “Real Humans” with a series of holiday-related questions – a little fun, which led to Graham quizzing Alex on his Christmas traditions. We then discussed the Class of 2022 employment report from UPenn / Wharton, which was in Read more

Published: December 18, 2022

MBA Wire Taps 266—Improved GMAT, Round 2 strategy? Interesting profile, aim high. Turnaround story, tough circumstances.

This week’s show begins with a rundown of all the activity on MBA LiveWire for the last week, which included MBA admissions decisions from Berkeley / Haas, Northwestern / Kellogg, UCLA / Anderson, and UPenn / Wharton. This upcoming week will be a little quieter with Washington / Foster and Indiana / Kelley scheduled to release their Round 1 decisions, but hopefully all of those tuning into the show who are awaiting word will receive some good news before the holidays! After the opening segment, Graham highlighted the Real Humans pieces from Dartmouth / Tuck and Minnesota / Read more

Published: December 11, 2022

MBA Wire Taps 265—Army officer for 10 years. Super profile, aim higher. Communications, retaking GRE

As is customary for this time of year, this week’s podcast kicks off with a rundown of the recent and forthcoming activity on MBA LiveWire; we are in the middle of decision weeks for Round 1, so lots of Round 1 decisions are being released and reported! Graham highlighted the Real Humans pieces from Washington / Foster and Texas / McCombs; this led to a discussion on the impact of the downturn in the tech sector. Graham also highlighted the employment report for Yale SOM. Yale appears to be following a trend we are exploring, higher portions Read more

Published: December 4, 2022

MBA Wire Taps 264—Booth said no, now what? South African for next season. 720 GMAT, increased to 760

This week’s show kicks off with a discussion of the fact that 12 leading MBA programs are releasing their Round 1 decisions in the coming days, including Harvard and Stanford on Thursday. Graham then highlighted the Real Humans piece for MIT / Sloan, and shared numbers from the recently published employment report for Dartmouth / Tuck. Alex underlined the huge median starting salary of $175k, which was likely nudged upwards by a disproportionate number of students going into consulting (47%). Graham was recording this episode from sunny Barcelona, while attending the European GMAC conference on the campus Read more

Published: November 27, 2022

MBA Wire Taps 263—Accounting entrepreneur. Online degree, enlisted candidate. MBB-sponsored, is GMAT good enough?

This week’s episode kicks off with an update on admissions decisions and all the latest MBA LiveWire activity. This includes Round 1 admits being released early for London Business School. Alex and Graham then moved into a quick conversation about top law schools leaving the U.S. News rankings, and whether that will happen with the MBA rankings; your hosts are not convinced. Graham highlighted the Real Humans pieces recently published for IESE and for Georgetown McDonough, and then ran down the latest employment reports for MIT / Sloan and McDonough. Alex points out that there were Read more

Published: November 20, 2022

MBA Wire Taps 262—Female Asian attorney. Hispanic in Private Equity. Phoenix-bound

This week’s episode of the podcast kicks off with Graham and Alex discussing the latest activity on MBA LiveWire which included interview invites from Berkeley / Haas and Stanford. Graham then highlighted his recent tour of leading MBA programs on the east coast, including Harvard, Dartmouth / Tuck, MIT / Sloan, Yale SOM, NYU / Stern, and Wharton; he noted the energy and diversity of the student bodies he observed on the campuses. Graham and Alex also reviewed the employment reports for Harvard and Duke / Fuqua. Both programs released strong numbers, including increases in average starting salaries. Read more

Published: November 13, 2022

Wire Taps 261—Nigerian M.D., next season. Indian, family business. Central Asian, in the U.S.

This week’s episode kicks off with the usual rundown of recent activity on MBA LiveWire, which included admits for Cornell / Johnson’s Round 1 and interview invites for Berkeley / Haas. In terms of upcoming dates of note, this week INSEAD has its Round 2 deadline. Graham highlighted the Real Humans pieces for INSEAD, Haas, and Boston College / Carroll as well as a recently published focus on two veterans at NYU / Stern and an interview with Georgetown / McDonough’s Career Services Director. Alex and Graham then discussed the recently published employment report Read more

Published: November 6, 2022

Wire Taps 260—Health care data scientist. 15 years of experience, low GPA. First generation, energy career

This week’s podcast kicks off with a look at the latest activity on MBA LiveWire, which led to a disussion about the anxiety the interview invite process creates for candidates. Graham highlighted the recently published Real Humans pieces for Toronto / Rotman and SMU / Cox before calling listeners attention to the congested application deadlines for Round 2; on January 4 and 5, there are 16 top MBA programs with Round 2 deadlines! Graham also highlighted this Tuesday’s webinar with Georgia / Terry, focused on Experiential Learning, signups are here: https://bit.ly/experientialmba Graham also reminded listeners of Read more

Published: October 30, 2022

Wire Taps 259—Military candidate, dings at Harvard and Wharton. Waitlisted last season, waiting this season. Stanford or bust?

Happy Halloween! This week’s podcast starts off with a truly spooky tale about the “Infamous HBS 119″…a story that didn’t end well for MBA applicants back in 2005. On more of an upbeat note, Alex and Graham congratulated Stanford GSB alum, Rishi Sunak, on his new role of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Activity on MBA LiveWire was very busy last week with many candidates reporting interview invites including UPenn / Wharton and MIT / Sloan candidates – Alex and Graham mentioned that they anticipate the same for this upcoming week. Graham then highlighted the new Real Humans pieces Read more

Published: October 23, 2022

Wire Taps 258—Columbia ED ding, what now? Sports management in London. Economics faculty in India.

This week’s episode of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions podcast kicks off with a review of the upcoming admissions deadlines, including R1 interview invites for UPenn / Wharton and Duke / Fuqua. Your hosts also discuss the wave of Early Action decisions out of Darden and Fuqua. Graham then highlighted the Real Humans pieces for Vanderbilt / Owen and Ohio State / Fisher as well as a recent adcom Q&A with Fuqua’ Shari Hubert, noting that half their incoming class receives some form of merit-based scholarship. Graham also presented NYU / Stern’s recently released employment report, Read more

Published: October 16, 2022

Wire Taps 257—13 Applications in one round? Pivoting to investment banking. Start-up experience to tech product management

This edition of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions podcast kicks off with a quick review of the upcoming MBA admissions deadlines for this week, including final decisions from both Duke / Fuqua and UVA / Darden for their Early Action rounds. Alex and Graham then discussed the considerable activity last week on Live Wire in terms of interview invites for several top MBA programs. Graham highlighted three Real Humans pieces for Cambridge / Judge, CMU / Tepper and Rice / Jones and also noted the new adcom Q&As for INSEAD and CMU / Tepper. Your Read more

Published: October 9, 2022

Wire Taps 256—London-based finance guy. Tech applicant seeking entrepreneurship. Indian lawyer, next season.

This week’s action-packed episode runs the gamut from admissions gossip to HBS interview invites, and from Fortune’s MBA ranking to candidate profile reviews… Alex and Graham kick things off by reviewing the upcoming MBA admissions deadlines, including UNC / Kenan Flagler, Texas / McCombs and USC / Marshall. They also discuss the activity on MBA LiveWire as Harvard released its Round 1 interview invites. This led to a segment on the forthcoming departure of Chad Losee from Harvard, who joins admissions directors from Stanford, Columbia, Michigan, Tepper, and more as part of an admissions exodus. Graham then highlighted Read more

Published: October 2, 2022

Wire Taps 255—Nigerian with 338 GRE. Female engineer, solid numbers. Indian in Canada

This week’s show begins with a review of the upcoming MBA admissions deadlines for this week, including UVA / Darden, UCLA / Anderson, and Emory / Goizueta. Graham and Alex then turn their attention to the recent announcement of the departure of Kirsten Moss from Stanford (the Chad Losee departure from Harvard was not yet announced at the time that we recorded the podcast). These are indeed very interesting times. Graham highlighted the Adcom Q&A for IESE, while also noting their keen focus on purpose-driven business goals, including sustainability issues. Graham also highlighted the Real Humans stories Read more

Published: September 25, 2022

Wire Taps 254—Pakistani banker, 15 years out. Software engineer, good numbers. Australian, stand out numbers

Our latest podcast begins with Alex looking at the upcoming MBA admissions deadlines for Duke / Fuqua, Dartmouth / Tuck, Columbia ED and Georgetown / McDonough; interview invites are also scheduled for Oxford / Said. Graham then makes a final plea for a new survey we have published which asks about brand perceptions for each of the top programs. More details are here: https://bit.ly/mbabrands Amazon gift cards are available to some respondents! Beyond deadlines and surveys, Graham and Alex highlighted the new class profile for Northwestern / Kellogg, which fell in line with similar programs within the “M7”. Read more

Published: September 18, 2022

Wire Taps 252—South African candidate, strong numbers. Nigerian candidate, works in London. Higher-ed candidate, may seek impact investing role.

This week’s episode of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast begins with a peek at the upcoming deadlines for this week, which includes Michigan / Ross, Chicago / Booth, Berkeley / Haas and Cornell / Johnson; interview invites are also scheduled for Duke / Fuqua and IESE. Graham then makes a plea for a new survey we have published which asks about brand perceptions for each of the top programs. More details are here: https://bit.ly/mbabrands Amazon gift cards are available to some respondents! Graham also highlighted the new class profiles for Harvard, Haas, and Dartmouth / Read more

Published: September 11, 2022

Wire Taps 251—690, should they retake? Indian corporate lawyer. Targeting the trilogy (HSW)

Our latest episode of the Clear Admit podcast begins with Alex reviewing the upcoming MBA admissions deadlines for this week, which include Stanford, Yale SOM, Northwestern / Kellogg and NYU / Stern. Graham then makes a plea for listeners to take a new survey we have published which asks about brand perceptions for each of the top programs. More details are here: https://bit.ly/mbabrands (Note: Amazon gift cards are available to some of the respondents!) Graham then highlighted the new class profiles for Columbia and Duke / Fuqua, which led to your hosts debating some of the Read more

Published: September 4, 2022

Wire Taps 250—319 GRE, Round 1 vs Round 2. Apply this year or next year? African entrepreneur

This week’s show kicks off with a short “celebration” of the 250th episode of Clear Admit’s podcast. Over 3+ years we’ve had 264,000 listens, with listeners tuning in from nearly every corner of the globe! Alex then discussed this week’s upcoming deadlines, which include Harvard, UPenn / Wharton, UVA / Darden and Duke / Fuqua. Graham highlighted the Real Humans piece recently published for Michigan / Ross MBA students, and your hosts discussed the value of these pieces for understanding fit for each of these programs. Graham also highlighted the Adcom Q&As from Vanderbilt / Owen and Read more

Published: August 28, 2022

Wire Taps 249—Eastern European with low GRE score. Retaking the GMAT, modest GPA. Strong numbers, strong profile

This week’s episode kicks off with a look ahead to this week’s admissions deadlines for Oxford / Said and ISB. Graham and Alex also discussed the current activity on MBA LiveWire from those applying to Columbia Early Decision and J-Term rounds. Graham noted two recently published Adcom Q&As, from the ISB and UC Irvine; he then brought up the recent publication of a ‘Real Numbers’ piece on the percent of students who are US minorities at the top programs in the United States. This led to a discussion regarding the important distinction between being an under-represented minority Read more

Published: August 21, 2022

Wire Taps 248—Indian EdTech entrepreneur. Aerospace and Defense engineer. Enlisted Army linguist.

This week’s podcast kicks off with a discussion of the recently released class profiles for UCLA / Anderson and Cornell / Johnson. Both programs showcase impressive incoming students and stats overall, but there are some notable trends to observe around application volume and an uptick in the percentage of international students. Alex and Graham wonder if this potentially leads to some downward pressure on gender diversity, as the international pool traditionally has fewer women (as a percentage) than the domestic pool. Alex noted the fast-approaching R1 deadlines for this season, and Graham highlighted the Adcom Q&As that Read more

Published: August 14, 2022

Wire Taps 247—Super GMAT modest GPA conundrum. Hungarian consultant. Brazilian banker

This week’s episode of WireTaps kicks off with a discussion on the percentage of international students at the top US MBA programs. There is quite a difference in the numbers at Stanford and Columbia versus Wharton and Harvard. Alex and Graham speculated as to the reasons. Your hosts also noted the upcoming MBA admissions deadlines for Round 1, which begin at the end of August. Graham then highlighted an upcoming webinar (August 17) featuring alumni who appeared in our Real Humans series to discuss their career paths. You can sign up here: https://bit.ly/realhumanswebinar Graham also highlighted the Read more

Published: August 7, 2022

Wire Taps 246—Over-represented, retake the GMAT? Professional gambling pastime. Military candidate, seeking deferral.

This episode kicks off with a brief conversation about Alex and Graham’s first webinar for Clear Admit+ subscribers. It was a fun and intimate event, allowing Alex and Graham to provide direct feedback on specific subscriber questions. The second Clear Admit+ webinar is scheduled for Monday, August 29. More details on Clear Admit+ are here: https://www.clearadmit.com/clearadmit-plus/ Beyond ClearAdmit+ news, Graham highlighted the recently published UPenn / Wharton class profile. Wharton is the first school to announce their class profile this season, and it certainly includes some impressive numbers. One element that your hosts neglected to mention is the drop Read more

Published: July 31, 2022

Wire Taps 245—Space career to help differentiate. Lots of potential, for next season. Using the MBA to help relocate?

This week’s episode of WireTaps kicks off with some discussion about the recent rollout of Clear Admit+, our new subscription service (which we are very excited to have launched!). Clear Admit+ comprises more than 4 hours of proprietary video content that Graham and Alex recently recorded in London. The subscription also includes access to our data dashboard, unlimited access to Clear Admit publications, and a monthly webinar series, the first of which is scheduled for today. More details are here: https://www.clearadmit.com/clearadmit-plus/ Beyond chatting about Clear Admit+, Graham highlighted the recent Adcom Q&As with Stanford and Arizona State / Carey. Read more

Published: July 24, 2022

Wire Taps 243—Belgian who flies. Electrical engineer, targeting reach schools. Policy advisor, aiming high.

The latest episode of the podcast begins with an exciting announcement about Clear Admit+, our new subscription service! Clear Admit+ provides subscribers with exclusive content and tools. It includes access to the Admissions Academy, a digital course consisting of more than four hours of proprietary video content that podcast hosts Graham and Alex recently recorded in London. It’s designed to move you through the admissions process, from researching the right programs, developing your “personal inventory”, tackling each element of the written application, and preparing for the interviews. The subscription also includes access to the Clear Admit Data Dashboard (a tool Read more

MBA Livewire

December 23, 2024 10:00am ET

Accepted to Northwestern / Kellogg

Round: Round 1

Received via email

GMAT: 695

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: Taiwan

December 22, 2024 9:40pm ET

Applied to Berkeley / Haas

Round: Round 2

Received via portal

GPA: 3.85

GRE: 339

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Finance

Application Location: Brooklyn, New York

December 22, 2024 1:36pm ET

Accepted to UT Austin / McCombs

Round: Round 1

Received via email on December 16, 2024

GRE: 319

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: United Kingdom

Note:

$20k merit scholarship offer.

December 22, 2024 12:04pm ET

Accepted to Stanford GSB

Round: Round 1

Received via phone

GPA: 3.7

GMAT: 750

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Technology

Application Location: Asia

December 22, 2024 4:59am ET

Accepted to UPenn / Wharton

Round: Round 1

Received via portal

GMAT: 730

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Finance

Application Location: Southeast Asia

Note:

Elated and did not expect it!

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