Planning Tips
Tips on how to structure your time and tackle the challenging process of applying to business school.
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
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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
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Published: March 26, 2023
Does It Matter Where You Get Your MBA?
Does it matter where you get your MBA? The short answer is: Yes! The Master of Business Administration (MBA) is one of the most popular graduate degrees in the world. Business professionals seek this degree to enhance their business and management skills, boost their career prospects, or transition into a new field. With so many business schools and programs available, several factors matter when it comes to where you get your MBA. First, it must be said that any reputable MBA program must be accredited by organizations such as AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate
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Published: February 22, 2023
How to Get into Business School
Have you reached a crossroads in your career and aren’t sure where to go next? Are you looking for a new profession or want to bring your idea for a business to fruition, but aren’t sure how? If so, going to business school for an MBA might be your best next step. An MBA gives you a deeper understanding of practices and strategies that can enhance your leadership skills and grant an advantage in career advancement. Business schools provide opportunities to network with other professionals and alumni, creating valuable connections and job opportunities. If you are
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Published: February 13, 2023
Sweethearts & Success: Applying for an MBA as a Couple
In light of Valentine’s Day, we’re taking a look at applying for an MBA together as a couple. For career-minded couples, it sometimes happens that an MBA makes sense for both partners, often at the same time. And because attending the best business school in one’s field can often mean relocating, it’s natural to want to attend the same program as your love. But how do you navigate this in the admissions process? Applying for an MBA as a couple may come with its challenges – including compromising if you aren’t both admitted to your shared
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Why Now is a Great Time to Apply to Business School
Through the toughest of times, business education can provide answers and solutions that not only heal economies, but uplift societies. The skills offered through an MBA—from finance and analytics, to leadership, management and more—can also empower you to be nimble in times of uncertainty, and prepare you for any business career of your choice. The journey to and through an MBA begins with reflection: Personally or professionally, what is your destination? An MBA can help you develop your skills, provide freedom in your job and career choice, and expand your network. Due to COVID-19, many MBA programs have extended
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Published: February 18, 2020
Episode 83: Application Strategies – Deferred Enrollment MBA Programs
The list of requirements for MBA admissions can be extensive—test scores, recommendations, essays and, of course, work experience. College seniors and graduate students may be well on their way to checking off all the boxes for an application to business school, but missing that final piece of full-time professional work experience. Enter: Deferred enrollment MBA programs. If you are a college senior or graduate student without work experience, you can apply to leading business schools through their deferred enrollment MBA programs. These offerings allow students to enroll two to five years after they graduate from school,
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Published: November 26, 2019
Episode 25 Replay: 8 Tips You Need to Succeed in Round 2
The wave of Round 2 deadlines may look like it's on the horizon, but, based on what goes into applying to business school, those deadlines are closer than they appear. Whether you’re just kicking off your MBA applications or have some experience knowledge from Round 1, this podcast episode will help you succeed in Round 2.
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Three Ways to Use MBA DecisionWire in the Summer
At this point in the summer, many MBA applicants are prepping for the GMAT, reflecting on potential recommendation-writers, and deciding which schools to target in the fall. Some are even getting some initial feedback on their candidacies via MBA ApplyWire. Our team of experts loves hearing about your plans and sharing their thoughts on your schools and application strategy. We have another Wire tool that can be tremendously helpful to MBA hopefuls who are just starting their application processes – though its usefulness may be a bit less obvious. MBA DecisionWire allows
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Podcast Episode 35: 7 Tips for Those Applying to Business School in Two Years
You asked for it, and we delivered! Per a request on Reddit, our latest podcast offers guidance to those with MBA applications in their sights, two years down the road. Clear Admit co-founder Graham Richmond and resident admissions expert, Alex Brown, provide seven tips about what you can do now and over the course of the next couple of years to improve your chances when you’re ready to apply.
Topics covered include testing and supplemental coursework, maximizing your professional experience and time outside of the office, cultivating recommenders and much more. They even discuss how to kick off the school selection process, so you can be confident in your shortlist of MBA programs when the time comes.
The first step to getting ready for MBA admissions? Listening to our podcast, of course:
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Published: January 13, 2019
Jumpstart your MBA journey: The MBA Tour North America
The MBA Tour North America: MBA & Business Master’s Conferences Our friends over at the MBA Tour are back on the road again. Meet University of Southern California, Boston University, University of Cambridge, IESE, HEC Montréal, & more top Business Programs! Join them in a city near you: Los Angeles: Saturday, January 26 San Francisco: Monday, January 28 Boston: Wednesday,
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Published: December 10, 2018
Podcast Episode 26: Round One and Done?
Did you make it through Round 1? First, congratulations! But next, where did you end up and where do you want to go from here?
Whether you’re dealing with lots of dings or have the luxury of choosing where to attend, or if you received a few acceptances, but think you can aim higher, our latest podcast is for you.
In Episode 26: Round 1 and Done?, Clear Admit resident admissions experts, Alex Brown and Graham Richmond, break down the possibilities for candidates who applied in Round 1 and discuss how they should (or shouldn't) approach Round 2. They also talk about scholarship support, and how they can influence one's approach.
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Published: November 19, 2018
Podcast Episode 25: 8 Tips You Need to Succeed in Round 2
Many MBA hopefuls may see Round 2 deadlines looming in the distance, but, based on what goes into applying to business school, those deadlines are closer than they appear. Whether you’re just kicking off your MBA applications or have some experience knowledge from Round 1, our podcast this week will help you succeed in Round 2.
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Published: September 5, 2018
Podcast Episode 20: Should You Apply in Round 1 or Round 2?
In the MBA admissions world, this week holds some of the first application deadlines for candidates looking to apply to business school for the 2019-20 academic year. Completed applications for early action at IESE were due in by Tuesday, Harvard Business School (HBS) Round 1 applications were due yesterday, and the deadline for the new Early Action round at UVA’s Darden School is tomorrow. Applications for the earliest rounds at Oxford’s Saïd Business School and Cambridge’s Judge Business School are also due tomorrow. Things are
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Published: August 12, 2018
Savvy MBA Application Strategy: How Many Apps, Which Schools, When to Apply
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 efficiently and effectively as possible. One of the first challenges you’ll face is school selection—strategically choosing which schools to target, bearing in mind the competitive mix of those schools. In recent years, MBA applicants appear to be trending downward in terms of the total number of schools to which they apply. Research we have undertaken on data
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Published: August 5, 2018
Admissions Tip: Applying to Business School as a Younger Applicant
As many of our readers know, it has become increasingly common for younger individuals to apply to MBA programs. Whereas the average age and years of work experience at the leading business schools has traditionally hovered at around 28 and five respectively, many programs are now carefully considering the more youthful end of the applicant pool. Of course, the fact that admissions officers are taking a closer look at younger applicants does not mean that getting accepted to a top program is easy for this group. In fact, it may be difficult for younger applicants to present themselves as fully
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Get and Give Inside Advice for Great Business School Campus Visits
We’re hard at work on our next new applicant resource—the Clear Admit VisitArchive—which is designed to help MBA candidates learn more about their target schools by reading about the campus visit experience of others. Though VisitArchive is still only in beta testing—look for an official launch later in the 2018-2019 admissions cycle—we have already received great responses from early users sharing tips guaranteed to inform future visits. For example, one visitor who took an Uber to Georgetown’s McDonough School campus offered this advice: “On a hot day, do not let them drop you at the main gate. It’s a
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Admissions Tip: Time-Saving Tools for School Targeting
A critical key to success in the MBA admissions process is targeting the right MBA programs for application. When commencing the MBA admissions process, it can be difficult to immediately identify which programs might be most suitable and where you might be most competitive. A quick survey of MBA rankings may provide clues – and our own tiered ranking system provides additional guidance in terms of which programs are similar from a competitive standpoint – but beyond those basic resources, Clear Admit also has two unique tools to help you quickly arrive at your list of target MBA programs: MBA
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Meet Leading Admissions Directors, Clear Admit Editor-in-Chief at May 16th Event in Washington, DC
Admissions directors from seven leading business schools will convene for a second multi-school MBA admissions event on Wednesday, May 16th, in Washington, DC. Moderated by Clear Admit Editor-in-Chief Jeanette Brown, the DC event will feature representatives from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Cornell’s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, Duke’s Fuqua School, Michigan’s Ross School, NYU Stern School, UVA’s Darden School, and Yale School of Management (SOM).
The first event, which took place in San Francisco on May 10th, filled up completely. Dozens of alumni from participating programs now working in the Bay Area were also on hand to share their first-hand experiences as students with participants.
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Financing Your MBA, Part 4: International MBA Student Loans
In our previous post on financing your MBA, we covered loan programs for MBA students from the United States. Today, we’ll take a look at loans through the lens of international students, who face some different restrictions but who are also eligible for special programs tailored to their unique requirements. By law, federal loans can only be distributed to U.S. citizens or permanent residents. This means that international students must put extra work into finding financial aid and loan programs to support their education if they choose to pursue a U.S. MBA program.
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Financing Your MBA, Part 3: Loans for U.S. MBA Students
Moving right along in our multi-part series on financing your MBA, we’ll take a look today at some of the options prospective MBA students have for obtaining loans to finance their time at business school. For the purposes of this post, we will focus primarily U.S. MBA student loan programs. International students, stay tuned for subsequent posts that will go into greater detail about loan programs tailored for your needs. Of course, because loans must ultimately be repaid—unlike scholarship or fellowship aid—deciding how much you should borrow is as important as understanding how much you can borrow. To make an
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Financing Your MBA, Part 2: Where to Look for Funding
In the first of our multi-part series on financing your MBA, we took a look last week at the costs involved in attending a top-tier business school. Now, with a better handle on how much money you’ll need, let’s start looking at where that funding will come from. Students typically rely on a mixture of savings, fellowships and scholarships, employer or outside assistance, and loans to meet the cost of an MBA program. According to the GMAC 2017 Prospective Student Survey, the most recently surveyed group of prospective students expected to finance almost half their education
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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.
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Published: March 25, 2018
Financing Your MBA, Part I: What’s an MBA Going to Cost
As more and more of you are receiving your admissions results from all your hard work during the MBA application process, we wanted to turn our attention to how you’ll manage financing your MBA. If you’ve got a spare couple hundred thousand dollars in your bank account, then you can probably skip this series. For everyone else, read on. In this post and a handful to follow, we’ll provide a broad overview of the various costs a typical MBA student faces and the types of funding opportunities currently available. Down the line, we’ll take a closer look at the financial aid processes at
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Published: March 11, 2018
Three Reasons to Apply to MBA Programs in Round 3
As we move through March, the Round 3 deadlines of leading MBA Programs are drawing near. Conventional wisdom in the MBA admissions world suggests it’s best to avoid the final rounds when applying to top business schools, but sometimes circumstances dictate otherwise. One thing to keep in mind is that all indications suggest that this year could actually be a good one in which to apply in R3. This is because a strong global economy and job market (particularly in the US and Europe) have led to declines in MBA application volume at many business schools. As such, several top programs will likely
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