MBA News
A collection of news items from MBA programs and about the business school admissions process.
Published: September 28, 2016
Mark Cuban Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Kids’ Book on Entrepreneurship
What do you wish you knew about business as a kid? Billionaire Mark Cuban, Prep Expert founder Shaan Patel and teen entrepreneur Ian McCue share their complete answers in How Any Kid Can Start a Business. According to an accompanying Kickstarter campaign, they hope to “Make Youth Entrepreneurship Go VIRAL.” To support the cause, the authors are offering inexpensive, signed copies and seeking a crowdsourced children’s business idea for credit in all copies.
How Any Kid Can Start a Business discusses the benefits of youth entrepreneurship, provides a step-by-step process for kids to follow in their early ventures and includes interviews with kid entrepreneurs featured on Shark Tank. Co-author Mark Cuban notes, “The goals are to help the kids organize their thoughts, determine the value proposition for each prospect, define a sales pitch, learn, and iterate and improve on all aspects of their businesses.” Young entrepreneurs who follow these steps will achieve success not only in their early business ventures, but throughout life. Their early business ventures help them to develop tenacity and social skills that will prove greatly beneficial in all fields of work.
Read more
Published: September 27, 2016
Admissions Director Q&A: Harvard Business School’s Chad Losee
If you’re a Round 1 applicant to Harvard Business School (HBS) crossing your fingers for an interview invitation (slated to go out in batches starting next week) or even if you’re working toward a later round deadline, what better time to get to know more about the school’s new head of admissions? Chad Losee, 32, joined HBS last May as managing director of MBA admissions and financial aid, succeeding 10-year veteran director Dee Leopold.
Losee still vividly remembers his own journey through the HBS admissions process—not surprising given that it was a mere six years ago. After earning his undergraduate degree in International Relations at Brigham Young University (BYU) in 2008, Losee set off to work in the Dallas office of Boston-based management consulting firm Bain & Company. A couple of years into the job, in part inspired by the many talented MBAs he worked with, he began to feel the pull of business school himself.
Read more
Published: September 27, 2016
Students, Faculty Stand in Unity at Ross Black Lives Matter Gathering
In silence, students, staff and faculty at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School Of Business spoke volumes. Standing together on the afternoon of Monday, September 26th, dressed in all black, the group unified behind signs of Black Lives Matter and #Ross4Change, sending a powerful, cohesive message. The moment was organized by the Black Business Student Association and the Student Government Association at Ross, which is also helping put together a Kickstarter campaign championing diversity. Perhaps most poignant were signs with hard, honest data about the number of
Read more
Published: September 26, 2016
The Freedom That Comes With an MBA from a Top School
Welcome back to our 10-part series, in which we share an excerpt from the recently published book Becoming a Clear Admit: The Definitive Guide to MBA Admissions, with added commentary from its author, Alex Brown. In this eighth part of the series, we look at one of the benefits of an MBA from a top business school, the notion of “freedom.” Book Excerpt: In general, an MBA degree from a top school will offer you more independence, more control over your career, and the ability to make your own choices, rather than being at the whim of the
Read more
Published: September 26, 2016
HBS R1 Interview Invites Will Begin to Roll Out on October 4th
Harvard Business School (HBS) Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Chad Losee took to his Direct from the Director’s blog today to share details about upcoming interview invitations for aplicants who applied as part of Round 1. According to Losee, interview invitations will go out in three batches, on October 4th, October 6th and October 12th.
“Try not to read into which date you hear from us—being invited to interview on October 4 vs. October 12 does not mean you are more likely to be accepted,” he stressed. “We spread out interview invitations to avoid congestion on the interview sign-up pages.”
Read more
Published: September 26, 2016
Admissions Director Q&A: Sue Oldham of Rice University’s Jones School of Business
“What a breath of fresh air,” Sue Oldham wrote in an email after we spoke recently. “It’s evident that you love your job.” Indeed, I do love the parts of my job that involve great conversations like the one Oldham and I shared. Read on, and it’ll be just like you were there listening in.
Oldham went to Rice for undergrad, where she majored in English, before spending a couple of years working in marketing. Business school beckoned the St. Louis, Missouri native and off she went to Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management to get her MBA. A jet-setting IT consulting career followed, one that involved stints in Los Angeles, Charlotte, Dallas, Richmond and Houston and exposed her to industries ranging from healthcare to CPG to transportation to insurance. After 10 years of that, she went in-house at Enron and expanded her breadth of knowledge to the energy industry.
Read more
Published: September 25, 2016
Harvard Business School Announces Newest Entrepreneurs-in-Residence
Harvard Business School (HBS) has announced its 2016-17 Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiRs) at the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. The program—which brings founders, investors and industry experts from across industries, many of them HBS alumni, to work directly with current students—is now entering its 12th year.
Entrepreneurship has been a cornerstone of the Harvard MBA program since the late 1940s when it became a part of the required course load for first-year students. As well, the school’s MBA program offers numerous entrepreneurship electives for students to further expand their understanding of what it takes to run your own business. The Rock Center, the intellectual epicenter of the Harvard Business School’s study on entrepreneurship, provides foundation for innovation in the field, helping refine the goals of its students.
Read more
Published: September 22, 2016
Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Harvard Business School’s Chad Losee
Harvard Business School (HBS) made waves in the graduate management admissions arena last fall with the announcement that Dee Leopold, who led admissions at one of the most selective business schools in the world for the past decade, would be leaving her post. Then, spring brought the announcement that she would be succeeded by an HBS grad just three years out of school. Chad Losee, 32, is that fresh-faced alumnus. And indeed, just a couple of years as a consultant at Bain & Company stand between him and his last stint on campus.
Losee has kept something of a low media profile since assuming his new role in May—which HBS Director of Media and Public Relations Jim Aisner takes responsibility for. “I wanted to give Chad some time to do the things that he has to do as he assumes this role,” Aisner said, adding that the first few months should not be taken as any kind of sign that Losee will be inaccessible going forward.
Read more
Published: September 22, 2016
Fridays from the Frontline: A CBS First-Year MBA Student Reacts to Police Shootings
Columbia Business School (CBS) was one of the first schools to join students at Wharton earlier this week in response to the recent deaths of black men at the hands of police in two U.S. cities. Soon, students at six or more schools had come together, dressed in black, both to mourn the losses but also to let those deaths serve as a rallying cry for dialogue both at business school and in the business world beyond.
Adding to the dialogue, this week’s Fridays from the Frontline is a thoughtful, candid essay from CBS first-year MBA student Lyndon Mouton. In it, Mouton provides the poignant and at points painful perspective of an African-American male faced with continuing issues of race and policing that interfere with the business school education he is working so hard to obtain.
Before matriculating at CBS over the summer, he worked in private equity in Chicago and New York. Our thanks to Mouton for sharing his thoughts here with the Clear Admit audience.
Read more
Published: September 22, 2016
Police Shootings Galvanize Students at Wharton, Stern, CBS, Kellogg, HBS, Haas
In the wake of police shootings in Tulsa and Charlotte—leaving two fathers dead—African-American business school students and their allies have come together at leading MBA programs to grieve the loss of life and invite discussion around issues of race and policing.
A small group of students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School gathered Tuesday evening (Sept. 20th) following the release of video of Terence Crutcher, 40, being shot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on September 16th. In the video, Crutcher appears to be walking away from police with his hands in the air.
Read more
Published: September 20, 2016
Stanford GSB Introduces USA MBA Fellowship, Inaugural Year to Focus on Midwest
Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) this year has launched a new USA MBA Fellowship program, which will provide financial assistance to MBA students committed to improving economically impoverished areas in the United States.
In its inaugural year, the fellowship will focus on the Midwest, covering tuition and associated fees (amounting to approximately $160,000 over two years) for students who demonstrate both financial need and a strong connection to at least one Midwestern state (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota or Wisconsin). Applicants whose level of need exceeds the fellowship amount may also be eligible for additional financial assistance to cover the full amount of the program. (Attendance for a first-year MBA student this year, inclusive of tuition and all other expenses, is an estimated $109,218.)
Read more
Published: September 19, 2016
Developing a Personal Inventory
Welcome back to our 10-part series, in which we share an excerpt from the recently published book Becoming a Clear Admit: The Definitive Guide to MBA Admissions, with added commentary from its author, Alex Brown. In this seventh part of the series, we look at the importance of developing a “personal inventory,” a document that you can then use for each of your applications. Book Excerpt: To develop and implement your application strategy, it will be helpful to create a working document that you can refer to throughout the admissions process. We will call this document a “personal
Read more
Published: September 19, 2016
Cornell’s Business, Medical Schools Debut EMBA/Healthcare Leadership Masters Program
It can be nearly impossible for today’s medical students to stay up to date with the ever-evolving healthcare industry. Now, a new two-year executive MBA/M.S. healthcare leadership dual-degree program offered by the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management and the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences offers a way to meet that challenge. “This new program will enable medical professionals to innovate as hospitals and healthcare systems face increasing challenges to their business model,” Cornell College of Business Dean Soumitra Dutta said in a statement. “The key lies in providing a unique blend
Read more
Published: September 19, 2016
GMAC Application Trends Survey Reveals Mixed Picture for Business Schools
Almost half (49 percent) of graduate business programs saw an uptick in application volume in 2016, according to the 17th annual Applications Trends Survey, released today by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). The gains, though, were chiefly among European programs, full-time one-year MBA, executive MBA and online MBA programs. Full-time two-year programs, along with part-time and flexible MBA programs, in fact, reported declines compared with 2015.
GMAC President and CEO Sangeet Chowfla put a positive spin on the news, underscoring that business degrees continue to be among the most desirable educational credentials. “With the creation of more tailored business programs such as the Master in Data Analytics, the demand for entrance into business school is spreading across a growing supply of programs,” he said in a statement. “With the competitive landscape changing, applicants have more options from which to choose, creating a mixed picture for business schools today.”
Read more
Published: September 18, 2016
Top MBA Recruiters: Apple
Okay, let’s take a second to think about something: How many Apple products do you own? Macbook Pro, check; iPhone, check; Apple Watch, check; the list goes on and on.
Apple has created, produced and innovated such great products over the years that the company has really changed the face of the consumer electronics industry. The late Steve Jobs—a college dropout—gets a lot of the credit for Apple’s industry success, but there’s also a team of MBAs working for the Cupertino-based company, each making sure that the innovation doesn’t stop.
Read more
Published: September 18, 2016
Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Kellogg School of Management’s Melissa Rapp
With the Round 1 deadline approaching for Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management later this week, we're pleased to feature the school's Melissa Rapp as our Real Human of MBA Admissions this week. Rapp joined Kellogg in 2012. She most recently served as director of admissions for the Evening and Weekend Program before becoming director of full-time MBA and Master of Science in Management Studies (MSMS) admissions in January 2016.
She loved the Evening and Weekend MBA Program, including being on its Chicago campus, but she jumped at the opportunity to head to Evanston and head up Full-Time MBA admissions because it presented an opportunity to have new challenges as far as recruitment goals and to work with a new population of applicants, she says.
Read more
Published: September 15, 2016
Fridays from the Frontline: Chicago Booth Admissions Director on the Impact of Booth’s Flexible Curriculum
Last week we featured a student blogger from Harvard Business School (HBS) explaining why, for him, that school’s required curriculum provided the business foundation he believes will best prepare him for a seat at any business table. This week, our Fridays from the Frontline comes from Kurt Ahlm, associate dean of student recruitment and admissions at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. On the “Booth Insider” blog, Ahlm recently extolled the virtues of that school’s extraordinarily flexible curriculum—though the timing was simply to coincide with Booth’s upcoming Round 1 deadline and was certainly not
Read more
Published: September 14, 2016
Business Ethics at Darden: Learning from the Volkswagen Emissions Scandal
When word of German car giant Volkswagen’s inconspicuously-titled “Diesel Dupe” broke in late 2015, it was hard to imagine anyone spinning it into a positive teaching opportunity.
The scandal erupted when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discovered that the manufacturer had implanted what it called a “defeat device” that altered the performance of its diesel engine vehicles during emission testing in an effort to improve results. Those results, which Volkswagen later admitted were manufactured, were a core of the company’s marketing strategy for its diesel vehicles. Around 11 million cars were implanted with the device, including eight million in Europe, which disguised hazardous gas emissions that were often 40 times the legal U.S. limit.
Read more
Published: September 12, 2016
Book Excerpt: The Importance of MBA Essays
Welcome back to our 10-part series, in which we share an excerpt from the recently published book Becoming a Clear Admit: The Definitive Guide to MBA Admissions, with added commentary from its author, Alex Brown. In this sixth part of the series, we look at the importance of MBA essays in the business school application process. Book Excerpt: Essays The essays are your chance to shape and tell your story. Make sure to answer each of the essay questions fully. Different schools may ask similar questions but in slightly different ways, so it is important for you to read the
Read more
Published: September 12, 2016
Do You Know the Names of the Wharton MBA Clusters?
For most, the images of a lion, dragon, bee and tiger probably aren't the first thing that come to mind when thinking of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. But for first-year MBA students arriving on campus, they quickly become central.
The incoming MBA class at Wharton is comprised of 860 students, divided into four 210-student clusters. The names of the clusters? You guessed it. Lion, dragon, bee and tiger. The clusters are further divided into 12 cohorts of 72 students and then further again into 144 “learning teams” made up of five or six students.
Read more
Published: September 11, 2016
Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Dawna Levenson of MIT Sloan School of Management
If you’ve got the MIT Sloan School of Management in your sights for the coming application season, you’re very likely busy putting the finishing touches on your Round 1 application—due Thursday. What better time to get a glimpse into the woman who heads MBA admissions for the school?
Dawna Levenson has been in her current role as director of MIT Sloan Admissions since March 2013, but she’s been at the school for much longer than that. When she arrived in November 2007, it was as associate director of academic programs for the School of Engineering, and she had been reading MBA applications for the past year. She moved over to admissions in 2012, where she’s since stayed, but her combined experiences really help her know the MBA program inside and out.
She also knows the school as a student, having obtained her B.S. in management science at MIT and her M.S., also in management science, at MIT Sloan. And she spent 18 years working for Andersen Consulting, now Accenture, as a consultant. All that experience gives her amazing insight into the goals and aspirations of prospective Sloan applicants and helps her know who will fit best with the school’s signature MBA program.
Read more
Published: September 11, 2016
Yale SOM Waives Application Fees For Forté MBALaunchers, MLT MBA Prep Fellows
In the days leading up to Wednesday's first round MBA application deadline for the Yale School of Management (SOM), the school has announced a unique opportunity for all Forté MBALaunchers and Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) MBA Prep Fellows. All application fees for corresponding applicants will be waived for the 2016-17 cycle.
Forté MBALaunch is a 10-month preparatory program for women applying to business school, designed to help participants build a stronger support network and create a more direct path toward a successful career. Yale SOM has been a proud partner of the Forté Foundation since its founding in 2001. Since then, Forté has helped more than 5,000 women obtain more than $110 million in fellowships to apply toward business school tuition.
Read more
Published: September 8, 2016
New Court Decision Allows MBA Tax Deductions
Thanks to a recent court decision in the case of Kopaigora v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, students enrolled in an MBA program—particularly an Executive MBA (EMBA)—can now deduct more education expenses from their taxes. While the case can’t be appealed or formerly cited as precedent, there’s no doubt that the outcome will be influential for the IRS and MBA students all over the United States.
Read more
Published: September 8, 2016
UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator Gains Heavy Support
Since 2004, the Ojai Valley Century annual bike ride has fostered a growing appreciation of the beauty and serenity of the Los Padres National Forest northwest of Los Angeles. The alluring mountain views and unique opportunity have helped the popularity of the event the grow steadily over the course of the last 12 years. As more routes have been added, the bike ride has drawn national praise. But aside from the view and journey itself, the bike ride has also fostered growth within the nearby community. This year, the event served as an incubator of sorts. By the
Read more
Published: September 8, 2016
Fridays from the Frontline: Everything You Need to Know About the HBS Required Curriculum
As Stefan Coburn, Harvard Business School Class of 2017, looks back on what he learned in his first year of business school, it’s clear that he is a satisfied customer. “I never could have imagined the extent to which the required curriculum (RC) would deliver so much knowledge in nearly every essential aspect of business, from marketing to finance to operations to leadership,” he writes. If you have HBS in your sights, don’t miss this comprehensive analysis of the school’s signature first-year required curriculum. And if you just hit submit in time for the Round 1 deadline, best
Read more
