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Clear Admit Insights

Published: July 31, 2024
Our Favorite MBA Admissions Essay Topics & What We Would Ask
As a team at Clear Admit, we are very familiar with the ins and outs of MBA admissions. We offer advice on essay topics, review applicant profiles and welcome admissions directors to share their insider insights – and more. As we guide MBA applicants through the admissions process, we thought it would be fun to share our favorite essay topics (in no particular order) of the season and what we would ask applicants if we were in the admissions office. Personal Favorites of the Clear Admit Team Three Votes for a Creative Essay We each Read more
Published: April 8, 2024
U.S. News 2024 Best Business Schools: Wharton & Stanford GSB Share Top Spot
The 2024 U.S. News Best Graduate Programs Rankings rolled out and we’re taking a closer look at the Best Business School list. Stanford GSB jumps five spots from last year to join The Wharton School in the top spot. These two replace last year’s #1 school, Chicago Booth, which now ranks third along with Northwestern Kellogg. Clear Admit Co-Founder Graham Richmond notes, “For the second year in a row, the US News ranking methodology favors career outcomes (salaries, rates of employment, recruiter Read more
Published: April 15, 2021
A Debrief of March Madness: Post-MBA Employer Edition
In March 2021, we selected 32 notable companies to go head-to-head in our first-ever Post-MBA Employer Edition of March Madness. These firms were selected and seeded into the bracket based on their popularity with Clear Admit’s registered users – so we had our own predictions about how things would unfold. Graham Richmond, co-founder of Clear Admit, comments on the intriguing process of watching the tournament unfold: “This was a lot of fun for those of us who are keen followers of MBA recruiting trends. It was especially fascinating to watch the three most popular domains of MBA recruiting – consulting, Read more
Published: December 8, 2020
Competition for Admission to Top MBA Programs Intensifies Amid COVID Pandemic
As if 2020 hasn’t been difficult enough, there may be some more bad news for applicants to leading business schools: Round 1 outcome data from Clear Admit’s LiveWire tool suggests that MBA applicants may be in for a tough 2020-2021 admissions season. Amid rumblings of higher application volume, we conducted a quick year-over-year analysis, looking at the percentage of total LiveWire updates represented by Rejection and Interview Invitation statuses. The rate of interview invitations and rejections at the top-16 US MBA programs suggests that schools may be handing out fewer invites – and that rejections may Read more
Published: October 26, 2020
You Could Receive $25 for Sharing Your Feedback!
The global pandemic has shut down campus visit programs and in-person admissions events, changing the ways candidates are learning about and engaging with MBA and other graduate management degree programs. Clear Admit and our partner schools want to learn about the information that’s most important to you as you’re researching graduate programs and deciding where to apply. We also want to understand where you’re looking for that information, and how business school admissions teams can best meet your informational needs. This survey will take you 10-15 minutes to complete. The questions will touch on your preferences for virtual Read more
Published: May 31, 2020
Let’s Do This: Findings from the Fall 2020 MBA Admit Preferences Survey
As Fall 2020 MBA admits have had some time to get their heads around the potential impact of COVID-19 on their MBA experience, we’ve continued to survey our audience to keep our finger on the pulse of prospective students’ preferences and plans. Today, we’re reporting the findings of our latest survey, which focused on admitted MBA students’ feelings about the possibilities of online instruction and reduced international student representation due to social distancing requirements and potential travel bans related to the novel coronavirus. Four hundred ninety people responded to this survey, which was in the field between May 4th and Read more
Published: April 27, 2020
What Are You Worried About? COVID-19 Concerns Survey Findings
Following up on our quick survey about how prospective MBA students expected COVID-19 to impact their b-school experience, we conducted some additional survey research a few weeks ago to better understand the nature of prospective students’ coronavirus-related concerns. As promised, we’ve crunched the numbers and are sharing our findings with the Clear Admit community today. The vast majority of respondents were hoping to enroll at full-time MBA programs in the United States. Because U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens are likely facing different barriers related to matriculation, all findings are presented separately for these two groups of Read more
Published: March 26, 2020
Many Factors at Play for MBA Admits: Follow-up Survey Analyses
Yesterday, we shared the results of our COVID-19 MBA Impact Survey, which asked Fall 2020 MBA admits how the novel coronavirus outbreak is influencing their decision-making about matriculating, and how much they anticipated COVID-19 to impact the educational experience and career outcomes for MBA students starting this fall. Today, we’re sharing some additional analysis to help our readers better understand the relationships among these three variables as they interpret the survey findings and what they mean for incoming students and school stakeholders. A Quick Note About Correlation Correlation is simply the relationship between two variables. For Read more
Published: March 25, 2020
To Matriculate or Not To Matriculate: COVID-19 Impact Survey Results
COVID-19 and the extreme measures required to slow its spread have had a profound impact on workers, students, families, and the global economy. With established day-to-day routines being wildly disrupted, major life changes—like enrolling in a full-time MBA program—can seem even more daunting than usual. After seeing some lively conversation on LiveWire among members of the Clear Admit community earlier this month, we put together a quick survey to get a sense of how the novel coronavirus pandemic is factoring into prospective students’ decision-making about pursuing an MBA. Most of our respondents had already applied for Read more

MBA Applywire

5
December 21, 2024 12:13pm ET
Applying: Dartmouth / Tuck, Northwestern / Kellogg, UPenn / Wharton, UT Austin / McCombs, UVA / Darden
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Military/Corporate Logistics
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting Companies: Bain , BCG , McKinsey
GRE: 302
GPA: 3.63
Years of Work Experience: 9
Notes:

Submitting for R2, but retaking GRE after application deadline. Military Vet with Corporate experience.
8
December 20, 2024 5:17pm ET
Applying: Columbia, Duke / Fuqua, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, Stanford GSB, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Healthcare
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting Companies: Bain , BCG
GRE: 332
GPA: 3.5
Years of Work Experience: 3
Location: Florida
Post MBA Location: Consulting
Notes:

25F, lgbtq, 3 years as a registered nurse. also have started working for an early stage VC in the past several months.
2
December 19, 2024 4:44pm ET
Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Stanford GSB
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Insurance
Post-MBA Target Industry: Entrepreneurship
GRE: 318
GPA: 3.59
Years of Work Experience: 3.5
Location: Georgia
Post MBA Location: Southeast
Notes:

Looking to launch a tech startup post MBA, without any background in tech. Come from a quant heavy background and undergraduate coursework. I regularly attended admissions events, in person and online at my schools. I hope that focusing energy on my few top schools and spending a lot of time on essays will help me overcome the less than average test score (164 quant 154 verbal) and GPA.

Serial entrepreneur with a history of profitable small businesses. Was promoted twice in 3.5 years. Involved in many extracurricular activities in and outside of work. My background is very centered around financial services/insurance, is this a red flag for a pivot to Tech Entrepreneurship?

Transferred between two state schools in the southeast. School I graduated from is a top 25 undergrad business program. Obtained a few professionals designations post grad.
3
December 18, 2024 11:38am ET
Applying: Michigan / Ross, UNC Kenan-Flagler, Vanderbilt / Owen
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Held various positions in Finance and Accounting in a healthcare institution
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Other Companies: BCG , Deloitte , Other
GPA: 3.0
Years of Work Experience: 11
Location: International
Notes:

I am passionate about healthcare enhancing patient quality care. So exploring in that field is what I would love. Got a 72k scholarship from Vandy and named Forte Fellow. UNC 50k. I'm having a hard time deciding though my heart is leaning towards Owen
3
December 18, 2024 10:23am ET
Applying: Arizona State / W.P. Carey, Indiana / Kelley, Ohio State / Fisher
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Facility management
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting
GRE: 309
GPA: 2.8
Years of Work Experience: 3
Notes:

Graduate GPA -3.869
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MBA LiveWire

December 21, 2024 8:37am ET
Accepted to Duke / Fuqua
Round: Round 1
Received via phone on December 11, 2024
GMAT: 675
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Consulting
December 21, 2024 2:38am ET
Waitlisted at Duke / Fuqua
Round: Round 1
Received via phone on December 10, 2024
GPA: 3.27
GMAT: 760
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Finance
Application Location: CA
December 20, 2024 11:16pm ET
Accepted to Babson / Olin
Round: Round 1
Received via email on December 17, 2024
GPA: 3.9
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Consulting
Application Location: South Asia
December 20, 2024 7:50pm ET
Accepted to Columbia
Round: Round 1
Received via portal on December 10, 2024
GMAT: 750
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Application Location: India
Note:

$100k scholarship
December 20, 2024 3:21pm ET
Accepted to Yale SOM
Round: Round 1
Received via email December 20, 2024
GPA: 4.0
GMAT: 750
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Note:

100% scholarship
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