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Clear Admit is the leading resource for top-tier MBA candidates.
Published: January 5, 2014
MBA Gender Gap Attributable to GMAT Test Score Gap?
Recent data from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), which owns and administers the GMAT, has revealed that women appear to underperform men by about 20 points on the exam – a finding that has led some to question whether and how much the exam itself may contribute to the fact that women continue to remain a minority of business school students. According to GMAC’s data for the 2011-12 testing year, the mean total score on the GMAT for men was 557, compared to a mean total score for women of 536 – out of a possible 800. Lee Weiss, Kaplan Test Prep executive director of graduate programs, told the Financial Times that he thinks the 20-point difference could have a lot to do with why women are still significantly underrepresented in MBA programs (in contrast to education programs in general). Read more
Published: January 2, 2014
Fuqua School of Business MBA Demystifies Week-in-Cities
Advice to prospective MBA students: Be prepared for lots of acronyms. This from Fuqua School of Business first-year MBA student Trevor McKinnon in a recent post to the school’s Daytime MBA Student Blog. “Apparently, MBA students are so busy that we don’t have time to speak in complete sentences and rely on acronyms and abbreviations to save us precious seconds in conversation,” he writes. One such acronym at Fuqua is WIC, which stands for Week-in-Cities. WIC are mini trips organized by various student clubs to cities across the country during school breaks. Each Week-in-Cities trip is focused on a particular industry and includes scheduled visits for participating students at several companies and firms that might have internships or full-time job opportunities. Read more
Published: January 2, 2014
Fridays From The Frontline
Hello and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit's ongoing perusal of the latest happenings in the b-school blogosphere. This week applicants and students rang in the new year, and those working on their R2 applications felt the pressure rise. Domotron asserted that more went right than wrong in his 2013, and wished all his readers a happy new year. Ellie returned from a three week visit home to India and refocused her attentions on her upcoming Ross, Kelley and Kellogg applications while expressing much gratitude for the support of her husband.   TimBob also had a wedding on his agenda - his own - and outlined a few different resolutions he'd like to realize in 2014. Sarah's GMAT score improved though she realized her quant percentile might still be troublesome. ExpectingMBA wished her readers a Merry Christmas and took solace in knowing that no matter how her Haas and Anderson interviews went, she'd be attending b-school in California. Read more
Published: January 1, 2014
Registration Open for Winter Campus Visits to Stanford Graduate School of Business
Registration is now open for winter information sessions and class visits at Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB). In a recent post to the Stanford GSB admissions blog, Admissions blogger Ari Chasnoff invited prospective applicants to the MBA program to come see campus for themselves when the Class Visit Program resumes on January 13th. Weekly information sessions will resume even sooner, on January 6th. Held each Monday and Friday, these 90-minute-long sessions feature MBA admissions officials providing an overview of the Stanford GSB MBA program and admissions process. Registration for information sessions is required. Read more
Published: January 1, 2014
The MBA Tour Winter 2014 Events
If you’re considering pursuing an MBA degree, attending an MBA fair is a great place to start.  The MBA Tour is hosting six events across North America this winter.  What are the benefits of attending an MBA Tour conference? Hear from students who have attended here! The MBA Tour conferences help attendees collect information, easily compare programs, and interact with admission representatives.  The MBA Panel Presentations cover valuable business school admissions topics and answer a wide range of MBA applicant questions. The panels are hosted by professionals with expertise spanning several topics, including: Preparing Your MBA Application, Financing Read more
Published: December 30, 2013
Tax Deductions and the MBA
The U.S. Tax Court recently ruled that an MBA student who deducted $17,000 in tuition expenses from his 2009 tax return owes more than $2,500 in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports. Ouch. As follow up, Bloomberg BW offers a few things to keep in mind regarding tuition deductions. “The rules for deducting educational expenses sound simple enough: Tuition is deductible when it pays for coursework that enhances skills necessary for an established job or business, as well as any courses required by an employer,” reads the Bloomberg BW article. Of course, even the simplest rules can quickly grow complex. For instance, what if the skills you gain through an MBA not only enhance your ability to perform your current job but also qualify you to pursue a new career? Read more
Published: December 29, 2013
Latin Americans Flock to Spain to Pursue an MBA
In growing numbers, Latin Americans are turning to top business schools in Spain – notably ESADE, IE and IESE – to obtain their MBAs before returning to careers in Latin America, the New York Times reports. Spain’s own economy is still faltering, but business schools there say they are attracting more and more Latin Americans, many with international career experience, who plan to return to Latin America when they graduate, according to the Times report. They are drawn to Spanish MBA programs, according to the report, because the classrooms are more diverse than at schools in the United States and the business culture is a more familiar one.  Read more
Published: December 26, 2013
Teamwork, Listening Skills Essential for MBAs – and Prospective Applicants
Team assignments have become de rigeur as part of the MBA curriculum at many leading business schools, with some schools assigning students to teams when they first arrive and requiring them to work together in multiple classes and others having students shift between several different teams as part of a single course or semester. Why such a focus on teamwork? Experts believe that learning to work in small groups will pay off when the students graduate and look for jobs, according to a recent article in U.S. News & World Report. Read more
Published: December 26, 2013
Fridays From The Frontline
Hello and welcome to another edition of Fridays From The Frontline, Clear Admit’s ongoing dive into the depths of the b-school blogopshere. This was an especially lean week for b-school students checking in, perhaps due to the recent holiday or the winter break. Sarah shared her ideas and approach to making sure that she keeps her sanity while working on a big project. Domotron sadly reported receiving a zap from Booth, but still held out hope for his Tuck application. HammO decided where he would be attending b-school after having a mixed week of Read more
Published: December 23, 2013
Trivia Tuesday: The Berkeley MBA Leadership Development Series at Haas
Welcome to our weekly edition of Trivia Tuesday, in which we take an in-depth look at the specific offerings that differentiate the leading MBA programs from their peers. This week we’re taking a peak into the Clear Admit School Guide to the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business to share with you an excerpt about the Berkeley MBA Leadership Development Series. "As part of its BILD program (Berkeley Innovative Leader Development), Haas has implemented a series of on-campus events that offer students the opportunity to fine-tune their leadership skills outside of the classroom. The Berkeley MBA Leadership Development Series is comprised of a number of non-credit workshops and seminars, all of which allow students to gain further insight into three key areas of awareness: Self, Team and Organization. "Each of these areas of competency has its own focus and set of goals. Read more
Published: December 22, 2013
Round 2 Update from Harvard Business School Admissions
As Harvard Business School (HBS) Admissions prepares to close for the holiday season, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Dee Leopold shared some updates and reminders for Round 2 applicants working toward the January 6th Round 2 deadline. All offices at HBS will be closed from tomorrow, Tuesday, December 24th, through Wednesday, January 1st, re-opening at 9 a.m. EST on Thursday, January 2nd, Leopold shared in a post to her From the Admissions Director’s Blog. Read more
Published: December 19, 2013
MIT Sloan School of Management to Offer Data Analytics MOOC
MIT’s Sloan School of Management will offer its first massively open online course (MOOC) free to the general public in the spring semester, a data analytics class called Analytics Edge, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports. The online course will feature the same curriculum as the popular on-campus offering, which includes case studies of the Oakland A’s “moneyball” strategy, dating site eHarmony and the 2012 presidential election, according to the Bloomberg BW report. Students in the new MOOC will watch prerecorded lectures and submit assignments online. Read more
Published: December 19, 2013
Fridays From The Frontline
Hello and welcome to Fridays From The Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly round up of the latest happenings in the b-school blogosphere. This week applicants continued to get news about how their R1 applications fared while current students were finishing up their studies and jetting off to far flung destinations for their winter breaks.  TimBob questioned how he would be able to get married, decorate a house, and emigrate in only six months' time. Poetic Quant happily reported a Kellogg acceptance and generous scholarship. Sarah felt that her work creating her Fulbright application really helped her tackle her Fuqua essays. Domotron turned his attentions to Booth after getting a zap from Wharton. ExpectingMBA thought about the actions she took and choices she made that may have helped her gain an acceptance at Stanford. MBATheNonprofitWay pondered adding a few more R2 schools to her docket, including UC Davis and Ross. Read more
Published: December 18, 2013
Anonymous $6 Million Gift to Fund Student Scholarships at USC Marshall School of Business
An anonymous gift to the University of Southern California (USC)’s Marshall School of Business will support scholarships for both undergraduate and MBA students, the school announced earlier this month. The Marshall School will receive $6 million, part of a $20 million gift to the university made by a married couple described as longtime USC supports but whose identities were not revealed. The Marshall School portion of the gift will go to the James G. Ellis Endowed Scholarship Fund, a challenge fund established by Tyler Muse ’07 and his family and named for Marshall’s current dean. Read more
Published: December 17, 2013
UNC Kenan-Flagler, AACSB to Co-Host Seminar for Business Schools on Leadership Curriculum Development
The University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, together with business school accreditation organization the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB), will take the lead in helping business schools think about how best to develop a leadership curriculum as part of a seminar in late January. The Curriculum Development for Leadership seminar, which will take place January 23rd and 24th in Chapel Hill, will prepare participants from a range of business schools to tailor leadership development experiences according to their schools’ specific capabilities and resources. Read more
Published: December 17, 2013
The Opportunity Cost of Hiring an MBA from the Employer Perspective (Part 2)
Last week’s column considered the relative value-add of hiring full-time MBA candidates, as opposed to high-achieving undergraduates or Executive MBAs. The goal in adopting a wider horizon regarding the recruiting playing field and a greater appreciation of the alternatives and constraints employers face when hiring MBAs, is not to draw inferences about which professional profile or type of degree program is better, but to help MBAs understand employers’ decision drivers better, and thus to be more effective in the job search process. In my experience, one area in which MBAs often have a blind-spot is the extent to which companies weigh their per-school or per-capita costs of the recruiting process as part of the expense of bringing an individual student on board. Business school students, primed by their negotiation classes, by news stories about gender wage disparities in the job marketplace, and by the ever-present feeling that another student may be getting a better deal, often take it as a given that they must negotiate their job offers … that they will be doing themselves a disservice if they don’t “drive a hard bargain.” This perspective might be tempered somewhat by an appreciation of the fact that by the time an MBA student receives a full-time offer, the company hiring him or her has already spent roughly the equivalent of a full-time MBA salary to identify, evaluate, and narrow the pipeline down to that single person. Read more
Published: December 16, 2013
Tuck School of Business Professor Ranks Year’s Best and Worst CEOs
For the fourth year running, a professor of strategy and leadership at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business has released his picks for worst CEOs – adding a new twist this year by also sharing the five CEOs he deems the best of 2013. Tuck Professor Sydney Finkelstein has become an expert on CEO failures. Since 2010, he has provided an annual roundup of the world’s five worst top executives, and he has also published a book on the same topic, Why Smart Executives Fail: And What You Can Learn from Their Mistakes. Read more
Published: December 15, 2013
Job Market Looks Good for MBAs, GMAC Employer Survey Finds
 More than three-quarters of employers that plan to hire business school graduates in 2014 expect to maintain or increase their hiring levels over last year, according to a year-end survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). Annual base salaries will also rise, GMAC reports. “Actual hiring for 2013 and projected hiring for 2014 are much improved from a few years ago, despite persistent uncertainty in the global economy,” GMAC Survey Manager Rebecca Estrada said in a statement. “In addition, between 45 percent and 58 percent of employers plan to increase annual base salaries at or above the rate of inflation, another indicator that demand for talent remains strong.” Read more
Published: December 12, 2013
Try a Taste of UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School with A Class in Portuguese or Mandarin
The University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School will offer two new online courses for business professionals and MBA students, on in Portuguese and another in Mandarin, the school announced last month. “Working Portuguese” and “Working Mandarin,” each taught at the beginner level, will be offered Jan. 27-April 7, 2014. The fee for MBA students will be $575; working professionals will pay $775. The cost will cover 10 weekly online sessions with the professor and a weekly online conversation hour with native speakers of the languages being studied. For prospective applicants with an interest in languages who are Read more
Published: December 12, 2013
Fridays From The Frontline
Hello and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly blog post focusing on the frights and triumphs of the b-school admissions and student experience. This week found applicants reporting even more news from their R1 schools, both positive and negative.  Poetic Quant didn't have to wait long to learn his LBS fate, which was a place on the waitlist. Expecting MBA received a Stanford acceptance and knew that she and her family would be heading west, but planned on waiting to make a decision until after her Haas interview and hearing back from Anderson. With no news of his own, Domotron's latest post simply congratulated other bloggers on their latest MBA news. TimBob also received positive news from HBS, but planned on completing his MIT LGO application because it was the one school that might take precedence over Harvard. Sarah discussed some of the challenges she faced in scheduling a GMAT in a foreign country when also asking for additional accommodations for her dyslexia. HammO advised friends and family of MBA applicants not to call them during the 24 - 48 hour period when they were expecting school news ... and got a Johnson admit! MBA The Nonprofit Way described the anxiety and feeling of not being in control that comes with a waitlist notification, which she experienced firsthand when hearing from Yale. FromGMATtoMBA reported two zaps from Wharton and Columbia respectively. Read more
Published: December 11, 2013
Columbia Business School Announces New Dong-Bin Shin Fellowships
Columbia Business School (CBS) has announced four two-year, full-tuition fellowships open to international students entering in August 2014. Announced late month, the Dong-Bin Shin Fellowships will be awarded, one each, to students from four different regions: the Middle East or Africa, Europe, Latin America and South Korea. Applications are due by January 6, 2014. The fellowships are named for CBS alumnus Dong-Bin Shin ’81, chairman of the Lotte Group, a diversified company based in South Korea and Japan that includes more than 70 companies across a range of industries. Shin, who also serves as a member of the CBS Board of Overseers, recently made a $4 million gift to the school, part of which will support the fellowships. Read more
Published: December 10, 2013
McKinsey Outpaces All Other Employers in Hiring MBAs from Kellogg, Chicago Booth
Consulting firm McKinsey & Co. hired more 2013 MBA graduates from both Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business than any other employer, Crain’s Chicago Business reports. Forty-six of Kellogg’s 750 graduates headed to post-MBA jobs at McKinsey, and 41 of Booth’s 579 graduates did the same, Crain’s reported, citing annual employment records from the schools. McKinsey has been the largest employer of Booth graduates for five years running. Kellogg can almost make the same claim, except that Boston Consulting Group hired three more graduates than McKinsey in 2010. Read more
Published: December 10, 2013
The Opportunity Cost of Hiring an MBA, from the Employer’s Perspective (Part 1)
Last week’s column highlighted the extent to which having a ‘hard work’ ethos and a mindset focused on seeking out tough challenges after graduation (rather than expecting immediate gratification and a big payout from one’s business school efforts) can be a driving factor in students’ post-MBA success rates. As part of that focus on appropriate mindset, it’s worthwhile to expand MBA candidates’ awareness and field of vision to include some of the opportunity costs of recruiting MBAs that play a role in employers’ decisions and expectations with respect to hiring business school candidates. There are, of course, other 'flavors' of MBA than the traditional two-year programs that often comprise a company’s recruiting mix and serve as additional competition for full-time MBAs. (See The Best Business Schools of 2013: Part-Time and Executive MBA for BusinessWeek’s latest ranking of leading programs.) It’s noteworthy that as business schools have grown and diversified their service portfolios to reflect their own competitive landscape (e.g., by offering specialized, one-year degree programs, in addition to undergraduate business degrees as well as Executive MBA and Part-Time degrees), they’ve created attractive pools of candidates that, from an employer’s perspective, bear the same educational imprimatur and can offer distinct advantages. For example, one advantage of specialized programs is that they can provide employees with deeper technical expertise, something not always associated with the general management focus of most full-time MBA programs (see The Business of Zeroing In and The Booming Market for Specialized Master’s Degrees for additional perspectives). Read more
Published: December 9, 2013
Yale School of Management Expands EMBA to Include Asset Management, Sustainability Focuses
Students in Yale School of Management (SOM)’s Executive MBA (EMBA) program will soon be able to select asset management or sustainability as a focus for their studies, the school announced yesterday. Yale SOM is now enrolling students interested in either of these specialties for fall 2014. The EMBA program at Yale launched in 2005, initially targeting students from the healthcare sector. The program is designed to provide students with a strong business foundation complemented by in-depth study of a particular industry or sector. Read more
Published: December 8, 2013
Updates from Ross School of Business Director of Admissions Soojin Kwon
Prospective applicants to the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business are busy working toward Round 2 and 3 deadlines, and Director of Admissions Soojin Kwon has been sharing lots or relevant information on her Director’s Blog recently. In a post late last week, she reminded second- and third-rounders not to miss a Webinar she and her colleague, Senior Associate Director Diana Economy, hosted online on December 4th. Anyone can access the recorded presentation, which includes a range of advice and tips on the Ross MBA application, including specific information useful Read more

MBA Livewire

December 17, 2024 3:47am ET
Accepted to USC / Marshall
Round: Round 1
Received via email on December 14, 2024
GPA: 8.52/10
GMAT: 715
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Finance
Application Location: India
Note:

Admitted with $$
December 16, 2024 9:52pm ET
Accepted to NYU Stern
Round: Round 1
Received via phone on December 05, 2024
Program Type: One Year Program
Note:

9/6 - Applied
10/21 - Interview Invite
11/11 - Interview
12/6 - got a call but missed it, email and portal updated by end of day.
No scholarship but beyond excited!

Wishing you all the best!
December 16, 2024 9:50pm ET
Accepted to USC / Marshall
Round: Round 1
Received via email December 16, 2024
GPA: 3.6
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Consulting
Application Location: Bay Area
Note:

While the deadline was yesterday, I received email about admission today! Granted full-tuition scholarship via Consortium. Hold on to hope for the folks awaiting decisions!
December 16, 2024 9:45pm ET
Waitlisted at Dartmouth / Tuck
Round: Round 1
Received via portal
GPA: 4.0
GMAT: 655
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Application Location: Houston
December 16, 2024 9:43pm ET
Accepted to Northwestern / Kellogg
Round: Round 1
Received via portal
GPA: 4.0
GMAT: 655
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Application Location: Houston
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