Posts by Jonathan Pfeffer

About

Jonathan Pfeffer joined the Clear Admit and MetroMBA teams in 2015 after spending several years as an arts/culture writer, editor, and radio producer. In addition to his role as Contributing Writer at MetroMBA and Contributing Editor at Clear Admit, he was also a co-founder of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. He holds a BA in Film/Video, Ethnomusicology, and Media Studies from Oberlin College.

Published: June 20, 2018

Tech and Venture Capital Industries Have Real Work to Do to Hire and Retain Diverse Employees

Despite Google’s stated commitment to increasing diversity within its workforce, the tech giant is losing black and Latinx workers at nearly the same rate they are being hired. The annual Google diversity report, released last week, stresses that Google “care(s) deeply about improving workforce representation” and is “moving in the right direction.” But so far, its strategy of increased grassroots hiring of black and Latinx workers has not led to greater representation within the workforce. Google says that it wants to more accurately represent its users. However, black and Latinx workers currently only make up a combined 6 percent of Read more

Published: June 18, 2018

State-of-the-Art Marion Anderson Hall to Launch UCLA Anderson into the Future

Last fall, UCLA Anderson School of Management broke ground on Marion Anderson Hall, a new state-of-the-art facility designed as a “blueprint for the future” of the school. Developed in response to the dramatic expansion in programming, student body, and faculty that UCLA Anderson has experienced in the past 23 years, Marion Anderson Hall expands the existing cluster of five interconnected buildings that comprise the UCLA Anderson campus. As the new primary entrance to the UCLA Anderson campus, the building will serve as both a symbolic and functional gateway to the school. Its design seeks to complement the Read more

Published: June 14, 2018

Fridays from the Frontline: Top Spots to Get Work Done at Chicago Booth

Fridays from the Frontline In a world filled with distractions, it can be tough to focus and get anything done. Sometimes, the devices and platforms we invest in to make our day-to-day lives more efficient (theoretically) are the very things making it hard to concentrate. But in other instances, it’s the actual space where we sit to work that can pose the greatest challenges. If you have the luxury of working remotely, you may have discovered that you’re most productive in a crowded coffee shop. (If this is you, here’s two hours of ambient café noise.) Or Read more

Published: June 7, 2018

Fridays from the Frontline: Kelley Student Writes About GLOBASE China

Fridays from the Frontline Few would debate that one of the major perks of a business school education is the opportunity to study abroad. While many students have the ability to travel to distant lands on their own dime, the true value of business school is the framework it provides MBA students to secure a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms of international business in a specific country or region of interest. The GLOBASE program at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business is a shining example of what an MBA study abroad program can be. Read more

Published: June 3, 2018

Chicago Booth Announces Social New Venture Challenge Winners

On Wednesday, May 23rd, the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business announced the winners of its eighth annual Social New Venture Challenge (SNVC). The center awarded $70,000 total in venture funding and an additional $30,000 in specialized awards. The SNVC is open to currently enrolled Chicago Booth students. Teams that include unaffiliated individuals may apply if they have at least one current Chicago Booth student as an integral member of the team. First Prize for Autism Services The first-place winner and recipient of Read more

Published: May 31, 2018

Fridays from the Frontline: Organizing MIT Sloan’s Israel Trek

Fridays from the Frontline Today’s Friday from the Frontline column comes to us from a student at MIT Sloan School of Management who helped organize the school’s largest student trek to Israel, fulfilling a promise he made when he interviewed. The piece coincides nicely with the school’s first “Sloan on the Road” event of the season, an evening “inspired by leaders, alumni, and current students who are making their ideas matter,” which will take place in Tel Aviv on June 3rd. The evening’s TIMTalk speaker is Aaron Zucker, MBA ’09, whose distinguished career as an impact-driven leader Read more

Published: May 28, 2018

Women Leaders Headline 2018 MBA Commencement Addresses at Many Top Business Schools

Spring has sprung, which means that classes have come to an end on many leading business school campuses, and commencement activities fill weekend after weekend from now through much of June. The roster of speakers top schools invite to send their MBA graduates off into the world can be revealing. Graduation speakers are typically invited to impart hard-earned wisdom and present words of encouragement to MBA classes, and this year is no exception in that regard. More exceptional, though, is the number of women delivering the headlining speeches. Instagram COO Marne Levine at Michigan Ross One of Read more

Published: May 24, 2018

Fridays from the Frontline: Michigan Ross MM Grad to Other Grads on What Future Leaders of the World Must Consider

Fridays from the Frontline When business students travel to developing countries for the first time, they’re often struck by the vast disparities in business, cultural, and political climates. Though on first glance these differences can sometimes fluster and frustrate would-be business people, the act of doing business under vastly different circumstances is an opportunity for business school students to not only gain insight into a diverse culture but also gain a new perspective on cultivating business partnerships back home. Today’s Friday from the Frontline comes not from an MBA student, but from a Master’s of Management (MM) student at Read more

Published: May 15, 2018

Healthcare Tech Teams Dominate 2018 Wharton Startup Challenge

Just a few weeks ago, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School held its 2018 Startup Challenge, which awarded cash prizes to outstanding student entrepreneurs whose startups all have the potential to become “the next big thing.” Billed as the school’s most significant entrepreneurship event of the year, the Wharton Startup Challenge saw 27 semifinalist teams compete for $135,000 in cash prizes. Eight teams made it to the finals on April 27th, where their ideas were assessed by six top-level executives from companies including Joor, Karlin Asset Management, the Charian Group, Monetate, Examworks, and Orasure. The Read more

Published: May 10, 2018

Fridays from the Frontline: A Glimpse at Lean In at Berkeley Haas

Fridays from the Frontline The University of California at Berkeley has long had a reputation as a hotbed of activism, from the Vietnam Day Committee’s march toward Oakland Base in the 1960s to its divestment campaign from South Africa during the 1980s apartheid era to the most recent protests against ultra-conservative commentator Milo Yiannopolous’ appearance on campus last year. The commitment to social justice present on Berkeley’s campus has also been infused into the curriculum of many of its schools, inspiring students to engage in direct action to shape the world they want to live. This is certainly true at Read more

Published: May 9, 2018

Gearing Up for Orientation: NYU Stern One-Year MBA Programs in Tech, Fashion

As it prepares to welcome students for orientation next week, NYU Stern School of Business has shared preliminary class profiles for its two new specialized one-year MBA programs—the Andre Koo Tech MBA and the Fashion & Luxury MBA. Stern announced the launch of the new May-to-May programs one year ago. The inaugural classes will each be made up of approximately 30 students. Though designed for students from different backgrounds targeting diverse post-MBA career paths, the two programs do share several things in common. Each pairs traditional core Read more

Published: May 1, 2018

Action Learning: Setting the University of Illinois Gies College of Business MBA Apart

Sponsored Content Imagine you lived in a bubble and had never seen or heard of bicycles until one fateful day when someone handed you a book entitled How to Ride a Bike. After two years of intensively studying the mechanics of bicycles and the theory of balance, you’re then hand-delivered a bike and told to ride 100 miles. Regardless of how intimate you became with the theory, you’d probably fall flat on your face within seconds. This scenario is similar to the approach that many MBA programs take with their business curricula. For two years, programs pile on Read more

Published: April 27, 2018

Tuck Announces $250 Million Capital Campaign for Tomorrow’s Wise Leaders

Tuck School of Business has unveiled a new $250 million capital campaign designed to support “people, programs, and places” through increased financial aid resources for students and significant investments in the business school’s faculty, as well as program innovation and campus upgrades. Called “The Tuck Difference: The Campaign for Tomorrow’s Wise Leaders,” the fundraising campaign is part of a Dartmouth-wide initiative. Key supporters have already pledged $132 million, surpassing an earlier goal. People “Our most cherished asset is talent,” Tuck Dean Matthew Slaughter said in a press release. “The dynamism and diversity of our students and Read more

Published: April 25, 2018

HBS Crowns Its Latest New Venture Competition Winners

Last week Harvard Business School (HBS) announced the winners of its 21st annual New Venture Competition. Hosted by the school’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship and its Social Enterprise Initiative, in partnership with HBS Alumni Clubs & Associations, the NVC offers cash prizes to both students and alumni for outstanding entrepreneurial and social enterprise ventures. The competition is open to all students and alumni who aspire to start their own businesses. Since its inception 21 years ago, NVC has awarded more than $2 million in cash prizes to student and alumni business ventures and has attracted more than Read more

Published: April 23, 2018

Your Essential Guide to Pre-MBA Diversity Conferences, Boot Camps, and Forums

Several organizations are focused on helping increase the pipeline of underrepresented demographics—such as women, LGBTQ students, and those from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds—to business school and the larger business world. As part of these efforts, many host pre-MBA conferences, boot camps, and forums providing recruiting and networking opportunities to diverse admitted students headed off to business school in the fall. For eligible participants, these opportunities, designed to provide a head start for students in the MBA recruiting process before they even arrive on campus, are well worth pursuing. Forté MBA Women’s Leadership Conference The Forté Foundation, a non-profit Read more

Published: April 19, 2018

Fridays from the Frontline: Booth’s LEAD Program Goes to India

Fridays from the Frontline The Leadership Effectiveness and Development (LEAD) program at the University of Chicago Booth’s School of Business was fostered to enhance students’ self-awareness and interpersonal effectiveness when it comes to the critical aspects of leadership. One of the first programs of its kind, LEAD provides students with strategies to track and ultimately refine their abilities to work in teams, influence others, manage conflict, and communicate their ideas. In today’s Fridays from the Frontline, Booth student and second-year LEAD facilitator Alex Stratmann unpacks his experiences and the lifelong friendships the program nurtured, which precipitated a Read more

Published: April 17, 2018

Stanford GSB Announces Financial Aid Update

Six weeks into a process to revamp financial aid protocol at Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), the school has shared the most recent updates in an ongoing review and re-imagining of how financial aid is awarded. The decision to reassess the process, which we covered two weeks ago, came not long after a data breach exposed that Stanford had misrepresented how it distributed financial aid. Data analysis revealed that the school had not been been awarding scholarships exclusively on the basis of need, but rather disproportionately based on other criteria including gender, immigration Read more

Published: April 12, 2018

Fridays from the Frontline: 5 Reasons to Attend Tuck Military Visit Day in the Spring

Fridays from the Frontline Many business schools have stepped up their veteran outreach in recent years. In addition to government-subsidized financial aid unique to military personnel, like the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill and the Yellow Ribbon Program, a handful of schools also offer fellowships like Olin’s Veterans Association Scholarship. Conferences, events, and panels specific to military personnel are a major component of these outreach efforts. One example is the upcoming Military Visit Day at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, designed to introduce vets to school’s singular campus culture. It will take place on Sunday, April 29th and Monday, April 30th. In today’s Read more

Published: April 8, 2018

The Allure of AI: Haas Student Conference Tackles Complex Issues

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic in almost every industry in the business world today. And there’s plenty to chew on, particularly when it comes to its ethical and financial implications. Some intrepid MBA students at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business have set out to tackle a few of the biggest issues head on with an all-day conference this month called AI: Shape the Future. The April 13th event will take a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding AI, encompassing computer science, business, and policy. The day will feature presentations from industry professionals, faculty, and school administrators Read more

Published: April 5, 2018

Passion + Career? Online UNC Business Essentials Course Helps Prospective MBA Applicants Hone Future Goals

Fridays from the Frontline Somewhere in the 5th century, Confucious wrote, “Take a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” No doubt this sage advice is easier said than done, especially in this day and age. I personally find the musician Thor Harris’ take more applicable to most people’s realities: “Find work you love. If you can’t do that, then find a job where you love the people.” Ally Daws recently took part in an offering from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School that helped her—as a college student—begin to recognize the Read more

Published: April 4, 2018

Just Got into Stanford GSB? What You Need to Know About Financial Aid

If you are among the lucky applicants who got word last week that you'd been accepted to the MBA program at Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), a hearty congratulations! Surely you know that you've just gotten into THE most selective business school in the world. We hope you took a little time to bask in that. Even so, if you're like most admitted MBA students, your thoughts have probably now turned to how you're going to pay for it. We've devoted this week here on Clear Admit to financial aid—both in publishing our four-part Financing Your MBA Guide—but also in looking more closely at financial aid at a few top schools. Stanford GSB is one. Read more

Published: April 1, 2018

Thanking Your MBA Recommenders—Our Guide to Gift Giving

The process of applying to business school is a complicated beast with numerous steps to consider along the path from application to acceptance. As Round 2 decisions roll in, many applicants may find themselves approaching one of the final steps in the process: Finding an appropriate gift for thanking your MBA recommenders. While this step might seem insignificant on the surface—or at the very least merely symbolic—make no mistake: Experts hold this one in especially high esteem. Clear Admit’s DecisionWeek is brought to you by HBX. HBX brings the dynamism of the Harvard Business School classroom to online Read more

Published: March 29, 2018

Fridays from the Frontline: HBS Student Shares Why Applying in Round 3 Made Sense

Fridays from the Frontline Better late than never? For b-school hopefuls who for one reason or another let the Round 1 and Round 2 deadlines pass them by, conventional wisdom has often been to wait until next year. But most schools do feature a Round 3, and for the right applicants, applying in this late round can work out just as well. To be sure, applying to MBA programs during Round 3 has its challenges—classes have largely been filled and scholarship aid is at its most scarce. That said, Round 3 can actually have more of a strategic function than Read more

Published: March 28, 2018

Starting a Business Straight Out of Business School? How HBS Supports Student Entrepreneurship

This coming weekend, Harvard Business School (HBS) will host an annual Entrepreneurship Conference sponsored by its own homegrown Entrepreneurship Club. The conference brings together hundreds of participants including “founders, joiners, and venture capitalists,” all of whom hope to connect through a smorgasbord of lectures, panels, chats, and networking sessions. Read more

Published: March 26, 2018

April Fills Up with MBA Admitted Students’ Weekends

Spring has officially sprung, which means that business schools around the country have geared up to host their admitted student welcome events. In doing so, top schools aim to attract the best and brightest by giving them an early look at what their programs and institutions have to offer. Read more

MBA Livewire

November 17, 2024 12:58am ET

Rejected at Columbia

Round: Round 1

Received via portal on November 14, 2024

GPA: 3.49

GMAT: 740

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: India

November 17, 2024 12:46am ET

Interview Invite to Duke / Fuqua

Round: Round 1

Received via email on November 12, 2024

GPA: 3.49

GMAT: 740

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: India

November 16, 2024 12:19pm ET

Interview Invite to Northwestern / Kellogg

Round: Round 1

Received via email

GRE: 320

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Application Location: India

November 16, 2024 10:45am ET

Accepted to Boston College / Carroll

Round: Round 1

Received via phone on November 12, 2024

GPA: 3.91

GRE: 318

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Consulting

Application Location: Texaa

November 16, 2024 9:42am ET

Accepted to Ohio State / Fisher

Round: Early Decision

Received via email on November 14, 2024

GRE: 316

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

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