Pre-Matriculation Tips

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. 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. Factors to consider about a business school’s campus: 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 one spread over a larger campus? What about Read more

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

Sponsored Content  Two women very familiar with what it takes to be successful in MBA admissions, particularly at HEC Paris, offer advice on each stage of the admissions process at the leading program. The HEC Paris MBA Director of Marketing, Sara Vanos, and a star MBA applicant, Kendra Bills, share their experiences in this special feature. Sara Vanos (left) & Kendra Bills (right) Sara Vanos joined HEC Paris in 2014, following her roles in MBA recruiting at Toronto Rotman. Sara currently serves as the Director of Marketing, Recruitment and Sales across the MBA programs at Read more

For newly admitted MBA students, spring is a time to get to know their future campus and fellow classmates at Welcome Weekends. During these events, students as well as their spouses or partners convene on campus to begin building relationships and getting a feel for a school’s culture.  The coronavirus pandemic, however, has upended these in-person traditions this season.  In light of these circumstances, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found a new online platform for their annual Spring Welcome Weekend: Wharton HQ. Wharton HQ is an expansive online hub for new admits to Read more

Fridays from the Frontline For MBA students-to-be, the summer heat can sometimes go hand in hand with some leisure time. While the summer months are certainly useful for students of all stripes to unwind and decompress, this time leading up to the first year of business school also presents a critical opportunity for incoming MBA students to set themselves up for success in and outside the classroom. With that in mind, the Forté Read more

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.  Read more

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

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

This post is brought to you by Smartly, which has partnered with top business schools to develop interactive and mobile-friendly courses to cover everything you’ll need to know come fall. Your MBA program--one of the most exciting and intellectually stimulating experiences of your life--is starting in two months, and you’re taking some well-deserved time to relax. You might be traveling to another country, signing a lease for a beautiful new apartment, shopping for furniture at IKEA, and enjoying some quality time with your friends and family. Brushing up on pre-MBA statistics and microeconomics is probably at the bottom of your list, but we know a few reasons why you might want to take a moment here and there to ensure your skills are up to snuff: You can hit the ground running. Imagine stepping into Finance 1 and realizing that, not only have you seen this content, but you also know it like the back of your hand. You’ll definitely ace that test come mid-terms. Moreover, you can spend more time on that challenging Marketing class that you’ve heard is a major pain. Read more

For those happy applicants who now hold acceptance letters from their target business schools, there still may be important work ahead: namely, breaking the news to your current employer. In a post to the Forté Foundation’s Virtual Campus website, a Forté Fellow at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business shares some tips for telling your boss you're headed to business school. Tricia Felice, Chicago Booth MBA 2014, tells us her best practices for how to approach this task with tact and technique – maintaining valuable relationships that could serve you in the future. Felice left a full-time job in Los Angeles to start her MBA program. She is the recipient of a fellowship through the Forté Foundation, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of women in MBA programs and business leadership. “Telling my boss about my decision was difficult, but it helped to remain focused on the personal progress I knew I would experience through my MBA,” she wrote. Read more