MBA News
A collection of news items from MBA programs and about the business school admissions process.
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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Washington Foster Joins the Consortium
The University of Washington Foster School of Business will become the 20th school to join the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, an organization dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion in business education and corporate leadership. The Foster School’s first official day of membership will be July 1, 2018.
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HBS Will Close Its NYC Startup Studio
Two and a half years after Harvard Business School (HBS) launched its Startup Studio in New York City, the Boston school has announced its plans to close the Manhattan working space by the end of September. According to an HBS press release, the decision to shutter the Startup Studio did not come easily. But ultimately "experiential insights" revealed that demand was limited.
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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
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Wharton MBAs, Including Former NFL Player, Challenge Classmates to Pledge One Percent to Charity
“If every MBA pledged just 1 percent of their post-MBA salary to charitable giving, what might be the potential social ramifications?” That was the question Kate Epstein and Josh McCann sought to answer when they were MBA students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. The 2014 graduates would go on to found One for the World in an effort to make philanthropic giving easier. McCann first proposed the idea as part of speech assignment, and Epstein came on board to help grow it into an organization with chapters at universities all over the country
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If Your MBA Program Doesn’t Offer Pre-MBA Travel Opportunities, BSchool Travel Has Got You Covered
Sponsored Content The following content was submitted by Dale Jarosz, a first-year MBA student at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and co-founder of BSchool Travel. The MBA application journey is a grueling one, marked by countless essays, campus visits, and interviews. The opportunity to reflect was certainly rewarding, but even more valuable were the relationships I built with my fellow students via interviews and MBA admitted student events. Our personal network helped us find our footing in nearly every aspect of our business school journey, from securing business partners to
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New Edition of Becoming a Clear Admit, Now Available, and FREE!
The third edition of Becoming a Clear Admit: The Definitive Guide to MBA Admissions, written by Clear Admit’s Alex Brown is now available. We have also made this edition FREE, for the months of May and June; simply use the coupon code: Freefor2019Applicants at checkout Brown brings nearly 26 years of experience in MBA admissions industry, as an admissions officer, teacher and consultant, including 7 years as senior associate director of admissions at the Wharton School. With Becoming a Clear Admit, he has crafted a concise, insightful book that provides fascinating background and an in-depth overview of why
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Our Latest Podcast: HBS MBA Student Team Venture to Combat Insect-Borne Disease Takes Top Honors at New Venture Competition
Last week’s episode of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast was focused on the winner of the student social enterprise track of Harvard Business School (HBS)’s New Venture Challenge (NVC). This week, as promised, we’re following up with an episode dedicated to the winner in the student business track. This year, the $75,000 grand prize in the student business track went to Hour 72+, which proposed a non-toxic, odor-free insect repellent that lasts for three days instead of just a few hours. The Hour 72+ team articulated its product’s goal as fighting insect-borne illness across the globe.
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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
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The Financial Times List of Top MBAs for Finance 2018
While big tech has started to attract top MBA talent over the last few years, the finance sector is still holding its own. Although the types of jobs students are gravitating toward within the industry has shifted some. While banking is still a big draw, there are also new opportunities to work for fintech companies or as part of in-house teams developing digital strategies. And so the question on many prospective applicants’ minds remains: What’s the best MBA program for a finance-minded student? And the second annual Financial Times ranking of Top MBAs for Finance 2018, released last week,
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Harvard Business School Drops Round 3 for MBA Admissions
Beginning this application season, Harvard Business School (HBS) will no longer feature a Round 3 for applicants to its MBA program, the school’s admissions director announced in a post to his blog this morning. “After careful consideration, we have decided to focus our MBA application process on two rounds—with deadlines in September and January—and to focus our spring round on 2+2 applications,” Chad Losee, HBS managing director of admissions and financial aid wrote on his Direct from the Director blog. “To be considered for the Harvard Business School Class of 2021, you need to apply
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Real Humans of the Columbia Business School MBA Class of 2019
As first-year MBA students at Columbia Business School (CBS) finish up their finals and head off to their summer internships, we’re excited to feature a handful of the MBA Class of 2019 reflecting on what led them to choose CBS for business school and how their experience so far has met—or exceeded—their expectations. Though still in Uris Hall on the main Columbia University campus, CBS will occupy state-of-the-art facilities as part of the Manhattanville campus currently under construction a little farther uptown within the next few years. But even with its new home still a few years
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Lessons Shared and Learned at the Kellogg Global Women’s Summit
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management hosted its first-ever Global Women’s Summit last week on May 8th and 9th. This landmark event brought more than 800 Kellogg alumni, students, guests, and community members together to discuss the numerous obstacles that women face in the corporate world—and how to overcome them.
What set the summit apart from similar women-focused events was its unique structure. While many such events present attendees with a random, often chaotic buffet of activities, the Global Women’s Summit was deliberately organized into three career tracks corresponding to different stages of a woman’s career. Each session was labeled based on what a group at a particular career stage would find most valuable, which made it easy for women to attend sessions that fit their specific professional needs.
From more than two dozen different sessions, we've highlighted a few of our favorite topics as well as two of the events we were able to live stream.
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Our Latest Podcast: From HBS to Saving Lives—an MBA Student’s Venture to Help People Breathe
Last month, Harvard Business School (HBS) announced the winners of its 21st annual New Venture Competition (NVC), which has attracted more than 5,000 participants and awarded more than $2 million in cash prizes to student and alumni startups over the past two decades. Hosted by the school’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship and its Social Enterprise Initiative, in partnership with HBS Alumni Clubs & Associations, the NVC features three separate tracks, a student business track, a student social enterprise track, and an alumni track. The social enterprise track has attracted more
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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
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Dartmouth Tuck Unveils New Inclusive Leadership Initiative
Increasing inclusion and diversity has been a decade-long mission at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. Now, Director of Strategic Initiatives Dia Draper is broadening the scope of that work with the launch of the Inclusive Leadership Initiative (ILI). The new framework will bring together principles of diversity and inclusion to educate leaders across the university.
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Why McKinsey & Company Loves Hiring MBAs
McKinsey & Company is considered one of the most prestigious management consultancy firms in the world, with a clientele that includes 80 percent of the world’s largest corporations, along with an extensive list of governments and non-profit organisations. The firm is also a prestigious landing spot for MBAs following graduation. About McKinsey Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinsey, the firm developed an “up or out” policy, where consultants who are not promoted are asked to leave, developed by Marvin Bower. He served as managing director of McKinsey from 1950 to 1967, and remained a leadership figure at the
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Our Latest Podcast: Reapplying to Business School
If your dream of attending a top-tier business school was dashed by a rejection this year, we know how hard that can be. To work so tirelessly toward a goal that you don’t achieve can be spirit-crushing. And yet, we’re here to tell you that it does happen. You are not alone. We’re also here to tell you that you might want to think about reapplying. Did you know—one out of every 10 students in most Harvard Business School MBA classes applied more than once and was rejected the first time. That’s right. On average, a tenth of the HBS
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Kellogg Hosts Landmark Global Women’s Summit
Women now make up more than half of all incoming students to the top U.S. universities, but only a small fraction of those women go on to work as CEOs, board directors, or NGO and government leaders. To start to tackle the problem, next week, Northwestern Kellogg's School of Management will host the first-ever Global Women’s Summit on May 8th and 9th. The landmark event will bring together more than 800 alumnae, students, guests, and community members to spark meaningful conversations about the roadblocks that women face on their way to the C-suite.
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Record-Breaking LiveWire Discussion Highlights Room for Improvement in Johnson Adcom Process
Cornell’s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management has the dubious distinction of producing some of the longest discussion threads in the history of Clear Admit’s MBA LiveWire. Last month, one thread drew more than 100 comments and another racked up 82. What gives? Johnson’s admissions process is divided into four rounds, with application deadlines in October, November, January, and April. But unlike many of its peer schools, which issue decisions by round in accordance with stated notification deadlines, Johnson informs its applicants of final admission decisions on a rolling basis. Early Round Applicants Kept
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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
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