Posts by Graham Richmond

About

Graham has over 25 years of experience in MBA admissions. As co-founder of Clear Admit, he has pioneered applicant tools like LiveWire and provides enrollment management services to business schools globally. Graham holds a BA from Swarthmore College and an MBA from Wharton.

Published: December 19, 2024

GMAC Common Letter of Recommendation Analysis for MBA Applicants and Recommenders

Applying to business school entails a great deal of work for prospective students – and almost as much effort for the people writing their letters of recommendation. An effective MBA recommendation provides rich information about the candidate’s strengths, key accomplishments, and leadership abilities. It’s also important that a recommendation fully address every question that is asked by the admissions committee. So, when an applicant is targeting six schools that ask different questions across their recommendation forms, this can translate to a great deal of time and effort for already-busy recommenders. To alleviate some of this pressure, Read more

Published: December 17, 2024

MBA Admissions Tip: Avoid the Comparison Trap

In this MBA Admissions Tip, learn how to avoid the comparison trap in your application essays. In their desire to make their case to their target MBA programs, many applicants devote sentences and even paragraphs to explaining why the school in question is their “first choice” and arguing its superiority over other schools. Though certainly understandable, this is actually not a very productive exercise. Let’s consider a few reasons why from the schools’ point of view: Tell me something I don’t know. A popular strategy – and not always bad one – for applicants seeking to demonstrate their fit with Read more

Published: December 17, 2024

MBA Admissions Tip: Addressing Unemployment or Gaps in Employment

Given the emphasis that schools place on a candidate’s work experience, it is important to be proactive in addressing unemployment or gaps in employment. When applying to business school, many candidates worry about how the adcom might perceive gaps in employment. Read our ‘MBA Admissions Tip: Addressing Unemployment Gaps in Employment’ to learn strategies for effectively managing unemployment and employment gaps during your MBA application process. Gaps in Employment It’s not unheard of for an MBA candidate to have a gap in employment, and this will not necessarily make a negative impact on someone’s candidacy. Gaps might be due to Read more

Published: December 12, 2024

A Guide to Test Waivers: Should You Request a Waiver for Submitting a GMAT or GRE Score?

It is no secret that standardized tests are not the part of the MBA application process that applicants most cherish. Some applicants simply aren’t good at standardized testing; others feel they do not have the time to invest in studying properly. With competition for applicants continuing to rise among schools, test waivers became a more prevalent option in b-school admissions. Whether you’re hesitant or excited about the GMAT or GRE, what are valid reasons to request a test waiver? Even if you have a valid reason, does it make sense to request a test waiver? In this piece, we take Read more

Published: December 10, 2024

MBA Admissions Tip: Defining Your Post-MBA Career Goals

Having clear and realistic post-MBA career goals is essential to the business school application process. Though essay prompts tend to vary year to year, the two things that nearly every prospective student can count on being asked are “What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals?” and “How will Business School X help you achieve these goals?” Even if this sort of question doesn’t appear in the essay portion of the application, rest assured that you’ll be asked this question in the data forms and/or during your interview. Identifying clear post-MBA career goals will help in everything from Read more

Published: December 10, 2024

Digging Deep with Your MBA Program Research: Anecdotes & Advocates

Communicating with insiders (current students, alumni, and faculty members) can be beneficial to your MBA applications for a number of reasons. In addition to learning about a given school and your potential fit, you’ll also generate material for your essays, demonstrate your interest in the program, and perhaps even make an ally or two. As you aim to go beyond the schools’ websites and promotional materials, we specifically recommend reaching out to individuals in a few key groups: Current Students People who are currently enrolled in a given program can obviously provide the clearest picture of the present state of Read more

Published: December 5, 2024

MBA Admissions Tip: Can I Negotiate a Scholarship for Business School?

In a follow-up to our Admissions Tip “Should MBA Scholarship Money Impact Your Choice of Business School?” earlier this week, we explore how to negotiate a scholarship for business school. When decisions are released, excitement among the applicant pool can be palpable. After months of hard work and significant introspection, many candidates are rewarded with offers from their dream programs. Some of those offers come with scholarships; money that helps defray the significant financial burden of taking two years away from work, while also paying considerable tuition costs and living expenses. If Only My Top-Choice Had Read more

Published: November 28, 2024

MBA Admissions Tip: Video Essays

It’s no secret that the use of video in the MBA application is becoming increasingly popular among top business schools. Typically you will be provided with a question, then a short amount of time to think about the question (30 seconds for example) and then a limited amount of time to provide your recorded answer, typically 60-90 seconds. In the tips that follow, we’ll explain the origins of video essays and provide a series of practical and strategic pointers to ensure that you ace this aspect of the admissions process. Why B-Schools Use Video Essays So why did some schools Read more

Published: November 28, 2024

MBA Admissions Tip: Round 1 B-School Rejection Reflections

While we always hope reports of success will dominate MBA LiveWire, the reality is there are only so many seats in a class and leading business schools need to dole out more rejection notices than admits. This MBA Admissions Tip is here to help you move forward in the admissions process if you did not receive good news in Round 1. Reconfiguring Following Rejection If there is any good news when it comes to being rejected in the first round, it’s that it’s still early in the application season, and not too late to readjust your Read more

Published: November 26, 2024

MBA Admissions Tip: Choosing Between Business Schools

Many successful MBA applicants face the enviable – but often agonizing — decision of choosing between programs. Though we know that those of you in this position will already be juggling an overwhelming amount of information about the schools on your short lists, we wanted to offer a few pointers to consider as you identify and evaluate the most important facts and factors in choosing between business schools. Immerse yourself. If you have not yet visited campus, go to the school and see what you think of the environment. Be sure to attend classes, talk with students, tour the facilities, Read more

Published: November 21, 2024

MBA Admissions Tip: Five Tips for Making the Best of the MBA Waitlist

Being placed on an MBA waitlist puts applicants in a challenging limbo state. While it’s disappointing not to get a “yes,” many applicants are glad that they’re still in the game. To make the best of the situation, you’ll need to know how to play it. In this admissions tip, we offer guidance for waitlisted candidates – and some context on why schools use a waitlist in the first place. Why Schools Use the Waitlist First and foremost, while schools now know the quality of their Round 1 pool, they don’t yet know how strong the remainder of their applicants Read more

Published: November 19, 2024

MBA Admissions Tip: Making Your List of Business Schools

You’ve decided the MBA is the next stop on your career path. What now? The smartest applicants are those who take the time to create an informed MBA application strategy—a well thought-out game plan that can help you obtain your goals as effectively as possible. This includes making a list of your target business schools. One of the first tasks you’ll need to tackle is school selection: strategically choosing which schools to apply to, while considering how your experience and stats compare to those of current students (or, how “competitive” your application will be at each program). How many MBA Read more

Published: November 19, 2024

MBA Admissions Tip: Business School Recommendation Letters & Writers

Your letters of recommendation are a critical variable in the business school admissions equation. They allow the MBA admissions committee to get an outside perspective on your skills and strength, and to learn about your work experience beyond that’s covered in your essays and resume. Who Should Write my Business School Letters of Recommendation? First, your recommenders should hold a position that is senior to yours – unless the school specifically asks for a peer recommendation. The adcom gives greater weight to statements made by your superiors rather than by a peer because a peer is assumed to be essentially Read more

Published: November 5, 2024

MBA Admissions Post-Interview Next Steps

To help applicants navigate the often stressful MBA interview process, we turn to post-interview next steps, e.g. the development and submission of a ‘thank you’ letter (or in the case of Harvard Business School, a post-interview reflection). Timing A ‘thank you’ note is an important next step to the MBA interview, and should be sent to the interviewer, ideally within 24 hours of the interview itself. As a reminder, this entails collecting the contact information from the person with whom you are interviewing. In the rare case that you fail to get your interviewer’s email address, Read more

Published: October 29, 2024

MBA Admissions Interview Tip: Questions for the Interviewer

In this MBA Admissions Tip, we highlight the importance of thinking about what questions you might ask your interviewer when you’re interviewing. Virtually all business school interviewers conclude their discussion by offering the applicant a chance to ask some questions about the program. While it might be tempting to claim that you’ve already learned all you need to know about the school, this is actually a great opportunity to gain additional insight, show your enthusiasm about a specific element of the curriculum or community, and demonstrate that you appreciate the opportunity to learn from your interviewer’s Read more

Published: October 22, 2024

MBA Admissions Interview Primer: Unusual Interview Practices

In this piece of our MBA admissions interview series, we’re taking a closer look at some unusual practices. We’ve tackled open versus invitation-only, resume- versus application-based and the team-based discussion interview. Let’s review which schools go beyond the typical admissions interview, whether by format or additional requests. Advice on how to tackle these unusual MBA interview practices is integrated into these summaries. HBS and the Post-Interview Reflection Though it’s been over a decade now since Harvard Business School (HBS) introduced its post-interview Read more

Published: October 10, 2024

MBA Admissions Interview Primer: Group Interviews

In this, our third installment of our interview series, we’ll take a closer look at an MBA interview permutation—the team-based interview or group discussion. You can view the first two parts of this interview series here: open versus invitation-only interviews and application-based interviews versus resume-based interviews. What Is the Team-Based Discussion for the Wharton MBA? Several years ago, the admissions office at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School partnered with the Wharton Innovation group to launch a new evaluation method, the team-based discussion (TBD). As its name Read more

Published: October 8, 2024

5 MBA Interview Questions You Need to Ace (And How to Do So)

We take a closer look at five frequently asked MBA interview questions and how to answer them in this MBA Admissions Tip. Interviews, interviews, interviews…they are the post-essay hurdle to gaining admission. Instead of driving yourself crazy with worry, why not buckle down and perfect your answers to the questions you are most likely to be asked? To help you prepare, we’ve scoured our Interview Guides and Interview Archive to compile our very own list of 5 MBA interview questions you need to ace. These questions are among those that most often make their way Read more

Published: October 1, 2024

MBA Admissions Tip: Interview Etiquette 101

Whether your admissions interview will be online or in-person, resume- or application-based, or one-on-one or with a group, we want to share tips that comprise MBA Interview Etiquette 101. Though the content of your application materials and comments during the interview are of paramount importance, it’s also crucial to put your best foot forward and make a positive initial impression. Here are a few guidelines for interviewing applicants to keep in mind: Be early. Plan to arrive at least 15 minutes ahead of your interview. This will help remove the stress you Read more

Published: September 19, 2024

MBA Admissions Tip: Letters of Support

While business schools require candidates to submit anywhere from one to three recommendations as part of the regular admissions process, we’re devoting this admissions tip to a lesser known relative of the formal MBA recommendation: the letter of support. The letter of support is very different from a typical letter of recommendation, in ways that we will detail below. In fact, we’ll use this admissions tip to share the following information: What is a letter of support? Who can author and submit such letters? When should a letter of support be submitted? What should a letter of support cover in Read more

Published: June 11, 2024

MBA Admissions Tip: Considering the Campus

There are many factors that go into deciding whether to apply to a specific school, one of which is the physical place where you’ll be spending 1-2 years, which is why we’ve rounded up some campus visit tips. Whether speaking with current students or touring the campus for yourself, it’s helpful to approach these information-gathering experiences with as clear a sense of what matters to you as possible. Campus Visit Tips: Factors to Consider 1. Facilities Are state-of-the-art classrooms and impressive new architecture a priority for you? Would you prefer a school that is headquartered in a single building to Read more

Published: June 27, 2023

MBA Admissions Tip: Volunteer Experience

While there are many elements to the MBA application, there is one that candidates often underestimate: volunteer experience. Why volunteer experience is important in your MBA application In order to understand why this category is important, candidates should keep in mind that the adcom is responsible for crafting a dynamic class each year. The aim is to admit individuals who will support a vibrant campus community and step into leadership positions. In other words, as admissions officers consider each applicant, they ask themselves, “What’s in it for our school?” An applicant who has previously demonstrated a talent Read more

Published: June 7, 2023

Admissions Tip: Making Your List of Business Schools

Published: May 31, 2023

Admissions Tip: Consider Pre-MBA Courses Before Applying

Pre-MBA courses offer applicants a chance to bolster their academic records, prepare for the rigor of business school and more. As you prepare for the MBA admissions process, you might want to consider whether you should undertake additional undergraduate-level coursework before you apply. Who Should Take Additional Pre-MBA Courses? There are two reasons that it might benefit a candidate to complete additional coursework as part of their MBA application strategy. If your undergraduate transcript is devoid of quantitative coursework, the admissions committee might be concerned about the lack of data points as they assess whether you’re prepared for an MBA Read more

Published: March 16, 2023

Admissions Tip: Choosing Between Business Schools

Many successful MBA applicants face the enviable – but often agonizing — decision of choosing between programs. Though we know that those of you in this position will already be juggling an overwhelming amount of information about the schools on your short lists, we wanted to offer a few pointers to consider as you identify and evaluate the most important facts and factors in choosing between business schools. Immerse yourself. Due to COVID-19, business schools moved most of their admissions events and student chats online. However, some have started welcoming visitors back to campus. If you have not yet participated Read more

MBA Livewire

December 19, 2024 10:03pm ET

Accepted to NYU Stern

Round: Round 1

Received via portal December 19, 2024

EA: 165

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Finance

Application Location: Brazil

December 19, 2024 7:32pm ET

Interview Invite to NYU Stern

Round: Round 1

Received via email December 19, 2024

GMAT: 645

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Application Location: Texas

Note:

Invited for virtual interview. Applied as part of round 1 Consortium. Had sort of written it off as a rejection after hearing nothing from them since submitting on Oct 15th

December 19, 2024 6:11pm ET

Accepted to NYU Stern

Round: Round 1

Received via email December 19, 2024

GPA: 3.8

GRE: 329

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Marketing

Application Location: Italy

Note:

Interviewed 11/24 and got the email today. Reapplicant after being waitlisted last year. Yay!

December 19, 2024 3:42pm ET

Accepted to Yale SOM

Round: Round 1

Received via phone on December 04, 2024

GPA: 3.83

GRE: 326

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: CA

December 19, 2024 3:25pm ET

Accepted to NYU Stern

Round: Round 2

Received via email December 19, 2024

GPA: 3.8

GRE: 319

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Marketing

Note:

Received application status update email with link to updated portal

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