Clear Admit, Author at Clear Admit

Published: May 21, 2013

GMAT Tip: The Top 5 Strategies for GMAT Critical Reasoning (Part 1)

Today’s GMAT tip comes from Manhattan Review UK, a provider of GMAT Prep courses in London. In this article, Manhattan Review reveals 5 strategies for successfully tackling GMAT Critical Reasoning questions. In fact, the tip has so much detail that we had to split it into two parts. More than any other part of the GMAT, Critical Reasoning needs to be approached strategically. Each of the four Critical Reasoning question types—Assumption, Inference, Explanation/Paradox and Method of Reasoning—has its own corresponding strategy. Four question types—four strategies. Let us deal first with Assumption questions, because they account for something like 70% of all of the Critical Reasoning questions. Moreover, something like 60% of the Assumption questions consist of so-called Weaken questions; that is, questions that require you to weaken/undermine/challenge the argument’s conclusion. Here are five tips on how to attack Weaken questions: Read more

Published: May 20, 2013

New Online Magazine Focuses on the MBA

If you’ve been scanning Apple’s newsstand recently, a new title may have caught your eye. MBA Intelligence is an online magazine for current and prospective MBA students that debuted in December 2012. Currently available on the iPad, the new publication has been attracting most of its readers from the United States, the United Kingdom, China and other parts of Asia, according to publisher Redwood Apps. The magazine features a mix of content, ranging from pieces geared toward prospective applicants on topics like preparing for the GMAT to articles written by current MBA students showcasing the analysis they have performed around current companies and issues as part of their work in actual business school classes. Read more

Published: May 19, 2013

University of Chicago Booth School of Business Throws Annual PINK Party

Students at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business were seeing pink last week thanks to the annual school-wide PINK party, an initiative designed to raise awareness about the LGBTQ community at Booth. Sponsored by OUTreach, a Booth student organization for gay and lesbian members of the community and their allies, the PINK party took place this year at SPIN nightclub in downtown Chicago on Saturday, May 18th. Booth students were encouraged to dress in pink and come out to support the LGBTQ community as part of what was billed as “the absolutely biggest Booth party of the year.” Wearing pink got you a free drink at the party; dressing in drag as part of the Drag Contest 2013 got you free admission and unlimited free drinks all night. Read more

Published: May 16, 2013

UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business Welcomes Inaugural Executive MBA Class

Members of the first class of the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program will take in majestic views of San Francisco Bay tonight while enjoying dinner and hearing from a Nobel Laureate, all part of orientation for the new 19-month program, which began on Wednesday. Haas launched the new program after reaching a mutual decision last year with Columbia Business School to end the joint Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program. Based in Berkeley, Haas’s new program will include three off-site blocks, one in Washington, DC, one in Shanghai and one in Silicon Valley. The school's Berkeley Innovative Leader Development (BILD) curriculum, introduced as part of the full-time MBA program in 2010, will serve as the basis for the new executive MBA program. Read more

Published: May 16, 2013

Fridays From The Frontline

Hello and welcome to Fridays From The Frontline, Clear Admit’s weekly roundup of business school bloggers. This week, while the blogosphere buzzed with excitement regarding our announcement of the 2012-2013 Best of Blogging nominees, we checked in on bloggers who are preparing to begin their business school careers in the Class of 2015 and gleaned inside perspectives from current students. HammO chronicled what it took to withstand a 15 month war of attrition with the GMAT. Sassafras reflected on leaving San Francisco and savors being free of the anxiety of the application process. PPandey discussed a new project management tool he created in MS Excel after getting fed up with Microsoft Project, the industry standard project management software. MBAover30 reminds readers to vote for this season's BoB nominees. Read more

Published: May 15, 2013

USC Marshall School of Business Looks to Raise $400 Million for Scholarships, Capital Projects, Programming

The Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (USC) last week launched a campaign to raise $400 million, funds that will support student scholarships, faculty research and teaching, capital projects and more, the school announced. Marshall kicked off the initiative with a gala event on May 8th, drawing 300 donors, faculty, students and others to Warner Bros. Studio. Marshall’s mission is grand, USC Marshall Dean James Ellis told the assembled guests. “We are altering the business landscape across Southern California and beyond,” he said. Read more

Published: May 13, 2013

NYU Stern School of Business Dean Bowls, Publishes

In the midst of leading one of the top MBA programs in the world, Dean Peter Blair Henry of New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business somehow also finds time both to publish and to unwind with students. A recent tweet from the school (#Stern2013) leads to photos of Henry just after he’s released a bowling ball down the lane. While scores aren’t revealed, he has the look of a cranker with a smooth delivery. Let’s just say, he didn’t throw a powder puff. Besides offering up an opportunity to show off their bowling lingo, MBA Bowling Night 2013 also gave Stern students a chance to unwind and celebrate the final weeks before graduation with both Dean Henry and Stern President John Sexton. Check out the slideshow for yourself. Read more

Published: May 13, 2013

Yale SOM MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 3 / Video interview

Last week, I did the video interview. Here are the questions as I remember them: What would your colleagues and friends say are your strengths and weaknesses? Please describe a creative solution that you have come up with for a problem. With businesses becoming more global, does the importance of local culture decrease or increase? Read more

Published: May 12, 2013

Top Business Schools Report Healthy Application Volume Increases

When GMAT test-taking volume jumped by 11 percent for the year ending last June, those watching the MBA admissions space had reason to suspect that application volume at top schools might follow suit. Recent articles from Bloomberg BusinessWeek and Poets & Quants reveal exactly that, with Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, the University of Virginia’s Darden School and the University of Chicago’s Booth School all reporting double-digit increases in the number of students applying to their two-year, full-time MBA programs. Bloomberg BW last week surveyed its top-10 ranked business schools, discovering that half were reporting significant increases in application volume, ending a three-year decline. Johnson led the pack, with an increase of 12 percent, followed by Darden, at 11 percent, and Chicago Booth, at 10 percent. P&Q reports that Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business blew even those numbers out of the water: Applications to that school’s two-year MBA program swelled by 25 percent after it moved up the Bloomberg BW rankings four places, to 15th, last year. Read more

Published: May 9, 2013

University of Chicago Booth School of Business Shares Waitlist Admissions Updates

Round three interviews wrapped up last week at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, which means the Admissions Committee is now busy making final decisions about recent interviewees, as well as about candidates who remain on the waitlist from earlier rounds. May 23rd is decision day. “For all candidates, we know that the waiting period is difficult, and for those on the waitlist, there may also be some questions about what happens between now and the decision deadline,” wrote Associate Director of Admissions Carrie Lydon in a recent post on the Booth Insider Blog. She and her team will be reviewing waitlisted candidates’ applications, as well as any additional materials they may have submitted since originally applying. Candidates are also still welcome to submit additional updates through the Booth admissions application system. “However, since we are in the final review process, we unfortunately cannot guarantee that they will be received in time to be included,” Lydon cautioned. Read more

Published: May 9, 2013

Fridays From The Frontline

Hello and welcome to Fridays From The Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly blog posting focused on the ups and downs of the b-school blogging world. While last week was rather quiet on the applicant front and far more busy as far as student postings, this week saw a resurgence of applicants checking in to share their campus visits or their preparations for transitioning to student status. On the heels of our recent BoB nominees announcement, we're glad to see a few of our nominees in the mix. HammO expanded on his last post, which focused on financing the MBA. Sassafrass thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with future classmates and getting even more of a sense of what it means to be a Yale SOM student during a weekend visit to New Haven. The Poetic Quant outlined his plans to address concerns the adcom might have about his undergraduate GPA, which included enrolling in summer courses. Unclearadmit discussed the possibility of his MBA being sponsored, had his last day at work, improved his golf swing, and praised the Tuck approach to international loans. PPandey visited the HBS campus and sat in on a class, praised the student who led his campus tour, and valued certain insights he gained from attending an information session. Read more

Published: May 8, 2013

Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management Sees Application Volume Rebound

After a 7 percent drop in applications to its two-year, full-time MBA program last year, Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management saw double-digit application volume increases this year to all of its MBA programs, according to a recent article in Poets&Quants. Interest in the school’s one-year MBA program for undergraduate business majors was especially great, with 30 percent more applicants this year over last, Kellogg Dean Sally Blount told P&Q. Blount bragged about the school’s waitlist, calling it “awfully beautiful” and noting that it is filled with candidates with GMAT scores of 720 and higher. She credited the school’s new senior leadership team – as well as its strategy to build enrollment in its one-year program while shrinking its traditional two-year program – for the application volume growth. Kellogg last year increased the size of its one-year program by 15 percent, to 100 students. Read more

Published: May 7, 2013

Interest in Social Entrepreneurship Rises Among MBAs, Creating Some Challenges for Business Schools

As interest in social entrepreneurship has swelled among MBA students in recent years, top business schools have responded by developing new programs, centers and scholarships for students pursuing a field that was relatively unheard of a few decades ago. But as the Financial Times reported in a recent article, the trend toward social entrepreneurship, as well as shifts in the structure of organizations social entrepreneurs seek to join upon graduation, presents a new set of challenges for top MBA programs. “In the 1980s there was almost no talk at all in business schools about anything that we might now call social entrepreneurship,” Peter Tufano, dean of Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, told the FT. “I think we’ve seen an explosive growth in demand for social entrepreneurship in the last 10 years,” he added. Read more

Published: May 6, 2013

Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management Wins Top Accolades for Diversity

The Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management got an A+ for diversity in recruitment practices as part of a recent benchmark study conducted by Diversity MBA Prep, an online community offering resources to women and minorities considering an MBA. Of 50 top MBA programs included in the study, only Johnson received the top grade. As part of the MBA Advantage: Diversity Outreach Benchmarking Report, schools were evaluated based on the diversity of perspectives provided to candidates via their Web and social media presence, the range of activities and outreach directed toward candidates of diverse backgrounds, diversity at the school leadership level and the effectiveness of diversity recruitment initiatives. Read more

Published: May 5, 2013

Inaugural Class Graduates from University of Michigan’s Master’s Degree Program in Entrepreneurship

The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, together with its College of Engineering, awarded its first master’s degrees in entrepreneurship last week, the university announced. Degrees were conferred upon 17 students as part of the joint program, which draws upon the strengths of both schools to help students transform business ideas into market-ready ventures within 12 months. "The University of Michigan is ideally positioned to deliver such a program," Ross Dean Alison Davis-Blake said in a statement. "Our top-ranked business and engineering schools have a long history of successful collaborative ventures,” she continued. Read more

Published: May 2, 2013

Harvard University Receives $50 Million to Increase Collaboration between Life Sciences and Harvard Business School

A family foundation headed by a Harvard Business School alumnus has donated $50 million to launch an initiative designed to speed the development of early-stage scientific discoveries into patient therapies and cures for diseases, Harvard announced earlier this week. The gift also will fund a new fellowship in life sciences entrepreneurship. The Blavatnik Family Foundation, headed by Len Blavatnik (HBS MBA ’89), provided the generous gift, which will establish the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator and the Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship Program at HBS. Read more

Published: May 2, 2013

Fridays From The Frontline

Hello and welcome to Fridays From The Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly dive into the highs and lows of the b-school applicant and student experience. With Round 3 deadlines in our rear view mirrors, the applicant blogger community was rather quiet while current students had more to day about everything from exciting trips to the financial realities of b-school. HammO delved deep into the question of financing an MBA, which involved a fair amount of research and copious tabs on an Excel spreadsheet. Tuck '14 The Senator was the first to admit that he'd been a bit MIA as far as his blog was concerned, but made up for it by sharing the experience of applying for a fellowship at his summer internship employer while also commenting on delays at the airport and the weight of taking on too many leadership positions on campus. MBA Manchester '14 happily announced that he secured a summer internship at Google's London and Manchester locations. LBS '14 Gayathrisai compared the weather of her hometown - Chennai - with London meteorology, with one prevailing lesson: check the weather hourly. Read more

Published: May 1, 2013

Landmark $100 Million Gift to Columbia Business School Will Create Second New Building on Manhattanville Campus

Columbia Business School (CBS) announced big news today: The Ronald O. Perelman Center for Business Innovation will rise on the school’s Manhattanville campus, opposite the Henry R. Kravis Building. Perelman, a longtime member of the CBS Board of Overseers and chairman and CEO of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc., has pledged $100 million to create the new facility, which will be named in his honor. Perelman’s gift matches the largest gift in the school’s history, which CBS alumnus Henry Kravis, the namesake of the Manhattanville campus’s other building, made in 2010. “The Perelman Center will allow Columbia Business School to continue pioneering breakthroughs in management education, such as moving beyond functional expertise or siloed learning and ensuring a more integrated curriculum for our students,” CBS Dean Glenn Hubbard said in a statement. “It will help us create the classrooms of tomorrow and foster an even greater collaborative spirit among recruiters, students, alumni and faculty members, paving the way for a stronger network and more meaningful outcomes for our community,” he continued. Read more

Published: April 30, 2013

Apply to the Practice MBA Summer Forum by May 10

For our readers who are matriculating to business school this fall, we wanted to let you know about a new two-week pre-MBA bootcamp. The Summer Forum offered by Practice MBA is specifically designed to place non-traditional MBA students on an equal footing with their more experienced peers in the incoming class and to bridge the language and culture gap for international students. The two-week program was created to give you a competitive edge in three areas: Career Development – Develop strategies to navigate the MBA recruiting process and secure a competitive summer internship after your first year and convert it to a full-time offer. Academic Preparation – Get the foundational business skills to achieve strong academic results in your first semester, even if you have minimal prior commercial experience or exposure to fundamental business concepts. Language & Culture Orientation – Learn tips for successfully transitioning into a new linguistic and cultural environment. Arrive on campus knowing how you conduct yourself in a new professional, academic, and social setting. Beyond what you learn in the classroom, you will have the chance to network with students going to other leading business schools. Read more

Published: April 30, 2013

UPenn’s Wharton School Awards $100,000 Social Impact Prize to Rural Education and Development Program in South Asia

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania awarded its second annual Barry & Marie Lipman Family Prize last week to an international non-profit dedicated to creating lasting change in rural South Asia by providing education, enterprise and community development through libraries, the school announced. READ (Rural Education and Development) Global was chosen from more than 115 organizations worldwide to receive the Lipman Family Prize, a $100,000 annual award established last year to recognize initiatives that help create sustainable solutions for social and economic challenges. READ is based on the idea that a critical component of alleviating global poverty involves empowering rural communities. To do so, READ partners with rural villages in Bhutan, India and Nepal to build community library and resource centers that provide educational and economic opportunities to impoverished villagers. For-profit enterprises are paired with the READ Centers to generate revenue that can support the center over time. To date, there are 67 READ Centers supported by 98 for-profit enterprises – providing access to 1.95 million rural villagers. Read more

Published: April 29, 2013

Tuck Associate Dean Leaves to Lead Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management

The associate dean for the MBA program at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business has been named the new dean of the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management, Tuck announced last week. M. Eric Johnson, a fixture in the Tuck community for the past 14 years, will assume his new post in Nashville on July 1st pending approval by Vanderbilt’s Board of Trust. “During his time at Tuck Eric was truly an academic leader at the school and an outstanding teacher,” Tuck Dean Paul Danos said in a statement. “He has been much beloved by students for his flair in the classroom and dedication to their personal transformation and by faculty and staff for his collegiality and wisdom," Danos continued. Read more

Published: April 29, 2013

Access MBA to Host One-to-One Event in New York City

Created ten years ago, the renowned Access MBA Tour travels to 65 cities every year with a hundred international business schools. Access MBA gives selected candidates the chance to meet individually with admissions directors of top-tier MBA programs. MBA candidates have twenty minutes to convince admissions representatives of their strengths as a candidate as well as to determine which MBA program is the best for them. Representatives of full-time, part-time and distance learning programs will be present at the sixth annual New York City One-to-One event taking place Wednesday, May 22nd 2013 from 4pm to 9:30pm at the Warwick New York Hotel. Read more

Published: April 28, 2013

Tepper School of Business FlexMBA Online Offering Draws Interest from Prospective Applicants Nationwide

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)’s Tepper School of Business will debut a new online MBA offering next fall, and prospective applicants from across the United States – as well as Europe and Asia – have shown interest and/or submitted applications, the school reports. FlexMBA – a new online MBA offering that will offer the same curriculum, faculty and access to services to online students that they would receive on campus as part of the traditional MBA program – differs from the MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) model by creating small class sections of roughly 20 students and maximizing interaction between students and faculty, Tepper notes. Students will take part in weekly live online classes with Tepper professors and attend approximately five “access weekends” each year in which all FlexMBA students will travel to a CMU campus for intense classwork and professional development programs. Read more

Published: April 25, 2013

Stanford Graduate School of Business Announces New Africa MBA Fellowship Program

Citizens of African countries who are admitted to the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) MBA program and can demonstrate financial need are now eligible for a new $140,000 fellowship, the school announced earlier this month. The Stanford Africa MBA Fellowship Program is part of an effort by the school to contribute to Africa’s human and economic development by educating leaders who are committed to making an impact on the continent, according to a recent post on the Stanford MBA Admissions blog. “This fellowship program is a critical step toward removing any financial barrier,” wrote admissions blogger Victoria Hendel de la O. Read more

Published: April 25, 2013

Fridays From The Frontline

Welcome to Fridays From The Frontline, Clear Admit's ongoing chronicle of the b-school blogosphere, from those just starting their application process on through second year students enjoying their last months or weeks of school. This week the applicants were a relatively quiet bunch while first and second year students had more to report and reflect upon as the days left of their school year began to dwindle. HammO visited Ross campus and enjoyed walking around campus, getting a sense of the student body and sitting in on a class. Sanket once again turned his attentions to studying for the GMAT and was loving it. Chicago Booth '14 Cheetarah took on a number of common assumptions about the program that she thought were more like myths, including the kind of community vibe the school provides, as well as where the majority of students lived. McCombs '14 Curtis returned from a week-long trip to Southeast Asia and described some of the career management tools available to students at the Dallas/Fort Worth campus. INSEAD '13D learned valuable lessons about how to juggle responsibilities and commitments as her second period at INSEAD drew to a close. McCombs '14 Shelby asked her friends for possible topics for her blog post, but decided that recounting the looming departure of the second years was too sad, choosing instead to elaborate on other more upbeat events and activities. Read more

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