MBA News
A collection of news items from MBA programs and about the business school admissions process.
How This Stanford GSB Prof Hopes to Get the VC Industry to Spill Its Secrets
To many outside the business world, venture capitalism (VC) is shrouded in mystery. The general public occasionally gets fleeting glimpses behind the curtain through podcasts like The Pitch, but sometimes these microscopic views only serve to generate more confusion. Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor Ilya Strebulaev founded the Stanford Venture Capital Initiative (SVCI) to help provide some clarity. Given that VC makes up a substantial part of the business and research and development worlds, the fact that so little is known about the industry’s internal mechanisms is disconcerting. The goal of the SVCI is to make
Read more
Veteran Chicago Booth Admissions Dean Moves into New Role
Kurt Ahlm
Since 2011, Kurt Ahlm has served as the associate dean of full-time MBA admissions and the executive director of marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Within his roles, Ahlm has been in charge of everything from candidate evaluation to marketing, operations, and communications. Due to his exceptional work in these roles, he has been promoted to a new role as the chief marketing and communications officer (CMCO) for the school.
Read more
Forté Announces New MBAExplore Program for Pre-MBA Women
Deciding whether or not you want to go to business school to earn your MBA is not usually a spur-of-the-moment decision. There are a lot of questions you need to answer first. Is an MBA the right degree for you? How will it impact your career? Does it make sense financially? To help women who may be considering these and other questions, the Forté Foundation recently launched its new MBAExplore program. The deadline to apply is July 8th.
Read more
Our Latest Podcast: Admissions Director Q&A with MIT Sloan’s Dawna Levenson
After a brief hiatus, we are delighted to resume the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast series with a terrific interview with Dawna Levenson, who was just promoted to assistant dean of admissions at MIT Sloan School of Management. Describing herself as a “true, blue Bostonian,” Levenson holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT. (Her advanced degree is not an MBA, but that’s only because the school didn’t yet offer one when she was a student.) She has worked full time in admissions at Sloan for the past six years and read applications on a part-time
Read more
Cornell Johnson Women Turn Out in Droves at Forté Conference
Each year, the Forté Foundation hosts the two-day MBA Women’s Leadership Conference. This year's event was held in Atlanta at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business, and a record number of women MBA students from Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Business attended. Not only did Johnson have its most impressive conference showing to date, but it also had the second-highest number of representatives in attendance.
Read more
Renowned Economics Professor Laura Tyson to Serve as Berkeley Haas Interim Dean
Economics Professor Laura D’Andrea Tyson will serve as interim dean of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business starting July 1st, Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ announced yesterday. Tyson, who joined the Haas faculty in 1990, succeeds Dean Richard Lyons, who is stepping down after 11 years in the role. Tyson is no stranger to the role of dean, having served at Haas’s helm from 1998 to 2001 and as dean of London Business School from 2002 to 2006. She will serve as interim dean while the chancellor’s office continues to seek a permanent replacement for
Read more
Dean Judy Olian Leaves UCLA Anderson
Dean Judy Olian conferred degrees upon graduating MBA students at UCLA Anderson School of Management earlier this month, marking the end of an era. Beginning July 1st, Olian will step into a new role as president of Quinnipiac University. Describing her time at UCLA Anderson as “a privilege and a joy,” Olian addressed the crowd of 800 graduates, family, and friends. “These last 12-plus years at UCLA have been the best years of my life,” she said. The Australian-born Olian studied psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and industrial relations at the University of Wisconsin before beginning her
Read more
UVA Darden Announces New Early Action Round, Expanded Scholarships, and More
This week, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business announced the kick off of its 2018 application season for the full-time MBA Class of 2021. Along with this announcement, the school unveiled a new admissions calendar and several updates to the admissions process. There’s now a new early action round with an open interview process as well as additional opportunities to interact with the school.
Below are the updates that MBA applicants can expect for the 2018-2019 application season.
Read more
MBA Applicants Hold High Expectations for Business School Admissions Process, Survey Finds
According to the 2018 MBA Applicant Survey conducted by the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC), MBA applicants expect a lot from business schools as they make their way through the admissions process. Not only do they want the schools themselves to be more transparent—including providing status updates, feedback, and earlier wait list decisions—they also want more consultant advice and interaction.
“More transparency in terms of the status of the application will be appreciated,” wrote one survey respondent. “Leading schools like [schools] were notoriously quiet about the application for more than 5 weeks..”
Even applicants whose bids for admission were unsuccessful want more from schools. "Feedback at some point would be fantastic," wrote one. "At least some indication of what portion of an application was below expectation would be helpful even just for personal development.”
The latest annual AIGAC survey drew almost 2,000 responses from applicants to more than two dozen leading business schools. Results were released as part of the admissions consultant group's annual conference, which took place last week at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management.
Read more
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
Kellogg Admissions Director Shares Insights on 2019 MBA Application
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management is one of several leading business schools to release its 2019-2020 MBA application online within the last week. At Kellogg, deadlines for the upcoming admission season are as follow: September 19, 2018 January 9, 2019 April 10, 2019 To help you get started, Director of Admissions Melissa Rapp provided insight into the 2019 MBA application along with some great advice on how to prepare. We’ve shared some of the most pertinent details below. Written Essay Questions Remain Unchanged The Kellogg written essay questions remain the same this year as last. Applicants will need to
Read more
Leading Business School Admissions Directors Share Pro Tips for Applicants in Unique May Events
Admissions directors from seven leading business schools convened last month for MBA admissions events in San Francisco and Washington, DC, giving prospective applicants an unusual opportunity to learn more about how to navigate the admissions process directly from the people who know best. Clear Admit Editor-in-Chief Jeanette Brown peppered representatives from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, Duke’s Fuqua School, Michigan’s Ross School, NYU Stern School, UVA’s Darden School, and the Yale School of
Read more
UPenn Collaborates with Ripple on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
To support academic research, technical development, and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and ledger technology, the University of Pennsylvania earlier this month announced the launch of the Ripple Project at Penn. The project is a new collaboration between the Wharton School, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Ripple, a blockchain-based global payments leader.
Read more
These Four Attributes Will Help You Get into Tuck’s MBA Program
Nice guys finish last? Not so if you’re an applicant to the MBA program at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. Tuck’s admissions director yesterday outlined new, simplified criteria for evaluating MBA applicants—part of the school’s continuing commitment to being as open and transparent in its admissions process as possible. When it comes right down to it, Tuck wants students who are a combination of the following four attributes: nice, smart, accomplished, and aware. As part of a news story on the school’s website outlining the new evaluation criteria, Tuck Executive Director of Admissions and
Read more
NYU Stern Reinstates November Deadline Amid Other Slight Shifts, Maintains Popular “Pick Six” Essay
NYU Stern School of Business today becomes the latest school to share its 2018-2019 MBA admissions deadlines and essay questions, including a few changes from last year. We caught up with Isser Gallogly, Stern associate dean, MBA admissions and program innovation, to get the latest. Here’s what we learned. For starters, Gallogly and his team have decided to reinstate the November deadline they eliminated last year for the full-time, two-year MBA program. This means a return to a four deadlines: October 15th, November 15th, January 15th, and March 15th. “Last year we gave it
Read more
Wharton: New Essay, New MBA Admissions Director?
Late last week, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School revealed its essay questions for the 2018-19 MBA admissions season, including a change to the second prompt. Instead of the prompt it has used for the past several years—in which candidates are asked to describe how they will contribute to the collaborative Wharton community—Essay 2 this year is more specific. “Describe an impactful experience or accomplishment that is not reflected elsewhere in your application. How will you use what you learned through that experience to contribute to the Wharton community?” Clear Admit will soon release its
Read more
How These Stanford GSB Students Broke the Rules with Their MBA Summer Internships
For many business school students, there’s a simple formula where summer internships are concerned. Target a company where you aspire to work, recruit successfully for a summer internship, perform well and show your smarts. Voilá, come summer’s end, you’ve landed your post-MBA job. Especially in some industries—consulting and investment banking, for example—the path from summer internship to full-time offer is certainly the most common and, in some instances, all but required. But what if you want to find out what it’s like to work for a startup? Or for a nonprofit focused on social impact? Or to try to get
Read more
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
Georgetown McDonough Increases Veterans Graduate Program Scholarships
Starting in fall 2018, Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business will increase its funding for veterans enrolled in graduate programs as part of the Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program. The increase will provide students with $15,000 per year from Georgetown McDonough (up from $10,000 in previous years), resulting in a total of $30,000 annually thanks to a matching gift from the Department of Veterans.
Read more
Kellogg Introduces New Blog Series Featuring Female Kellogg Entrepreneurs
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management recently put together a blog series to address the multifaceted experience of female entrepreneurs.
Over the course of four weeks, a team of female entrepreneurs unpacked what it meant for them to pitch, launch their ventures, and more. Two blog entries have already gone live on Inside Kellogg and readers can expect two more entries in as many weeks.
Read more
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
Chicago Booth Alumnus Gives $10M to Support Priority Initiatives
University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumnus Dave Liguang Chenn (MBA ’00) recently donated $10 million to support several priority initiatives at Booth. Chenn's donation will go toward Booth's new Hong Kong Center, scholarships for both graduate and undergraduate students, and the UChicago Innovation Fund managed by the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Read more
