Partner Content

Published: March 21, 2024

Here’s What to Consider When Financing Your MBA in 2024

Partner Content We asked our friends at Juno to share their wisdom on financing the MBA. Nicolas Echegaray, Wharton MBA 21’ and Juno’s General Manager, shared the following to help recent MBA Admits better prepare for their upcoming programs. If you haven’t done so already, consider joining Juno’s MBA student loan negotiation group (free and no commitment). We use group bargaining power to get the best deal possible on your student loans! Join here for early member benefits. What to Consider When Financing Your MBA in 2024 Nicolas Echegaray By Nicolas Read more

Published: November 27, 2023

Episode 325: Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT)

In this episode of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast, we take a deep dive into Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), an organization that provides admissions coaching, mentorship and more to MBA applicants who are underrepresented. In their own words, “MLT equips and emboldens high-achieving individuals from underrepresented communities—Black, Latinx, and Native American—to realize their full potential, to make a mark, and make a difference.” We are excited to welcome special guests Maura Clark, Director of Recruitment and Admissions at MLT, and two MBAs who have taken part in MLT’s programming, America Perez Guillen (CBS MBA) and David Harris Read more

Published: May 30, 2023

MBA Admissions Consulting: How to Choose an Advisor

An experienced MBA admissions consulting partner can: Markedly increase an applicant’s chances of MBA program acceptance and scholarship because admissions consulting firms know the applicant competition and have best practices extrapolated from volumes of past client results Give an applicant the clarity and focus around their values and career aspirations to optimize success in recruiting job offers as an MBA student How Can Prospective MBA Applicants Select the Right Advisor? Many applicants to top business school programs hire an MBA admissions consultant for their applications. Applying to business school requires a substantial amount of time and effort, and many candidates Read more

Published: February 16, 2023

Episode 275: Prepare for Your MBA with Business Fundamentals from GMAC

Are you ready for the academic rigor of an MBA program? Do you feel confident that you have the skills you need to succeed? This special edition of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast shares how GMAC Business Fundamentals, powered by Kaplan, can help you improve your foundational knowledge and skills and strengthen your journey to business school, from application through graduation. Ana Kyper, Sr. Director of GME Prep and Readiness, GMAC Here to dig into the tool and how to best prepare for business school is Ana Kyper, the Senior Director of GME Prep and Readiness at the Read more

Published: January 12, 2023

Episode 267: What’s the Secret Behind Record-Breaking Career Placements at SMU COX?

The SMU Cox School of Business MBA Class of 2022 found record-breaking success this year, thanks to an innovative approach to employment at the business school. With special guests, Judi Umali-Rajkumar and Jason Rife, this podcast episode explores the symbiotic relationship between career services and admissions that propels MBA graduates’ success. Jason Rife, Sr. Asst. Dean, Career Mgmt Center and Graduate Admissions, & Judi Umali-Rajkumar, Director, Career Programs, Full-time MBA & MBA Direct Judi is the Director of Career Programs for the Full-time MBA & MBA Direct students at SMU Cox. She is a collaborative, people-centered, career consultant and Read more

Published: June 29, 2022

Juno Hits High Goal of Guaranteed Lowest Rates for MBA Students

A message from our Partner, Juno. Nikhil Agarwal and Chris Abkarians, co-founders of Juno, recently marked a milestone for the company and its MBA student members: creating a low-price guarantee in the private student lending marketplace. Juno counts on collective bargaining to secure better MBA student loan rates for MBA candidates. By utilizing competition among banks and analyzing the subsequent deals that become available, Juno is able to get members significantly reduced interest rates and creates the most value for its student members. “When we first started Juno four years ago, our end goal was to be able to Read more

Published: March 22, 2022

Episode 224: Case Study Method Primer

Get your MBA toolkit ready with this special podcast episode on the case study method, which you are sure to encounter in your b-school classrooms. The “Case Study Method” is a form of instruction used widely across top MBA programs. But what does it entail, and why do you need to know about it as you embark on your MBA applications or plan to matriculate? To answer this and a host of related questions, we welcome James Quinn to the podcast. James Quinn, Founder, CaseStudy Co. Jim has 15 years of experience as a Read more

Published: March 15, 2022

Episode 222: Women’s Path to Leadership and the Power of the MBA

In this edition of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast, we welcome two special guests from the SMU Cox School of Business to discuss women’s path to leadership and the influence of an MBA. Women hold just six percent of CEO roles at F500 companies (that’s 31 women vs. 469 men); of those 31 women, nearly half have MBAs. In 2005, zero business schools reported more than 40% female enrollment, but that number jumped to 19 business schools in 2019. Clearly, there is still much work to be done in this domain. To talk about what’s happening on the Read more

Published: March 7, 2022

How to Decide Between Federal and Private Student Loans

My name is Nikhil Agarwal. I graduated from Harvard Business School in 2020 and have helped thousands of students with more than $500 million of student loans over the last three years through Juno, an organization that negotiates the lowest rates for MBA student loans. Read on to learn more and decide if federal, private, or a mix of federal and private student loans are the best fit for your MBA student loans. The TL;DR Version Reasons to Select Federal Loans You are pursuing Read more

Published: March 7, 2022

Choosing Between Fixed and Variable Interest Rate Loans

My name is Nikhil Agarwal. I graduated from Harvard Business School in 2020 and have helped thousands of students with more than $500 million in student loans over the last three years through Juno, an organization that negotiates the lowest interest rates for MBA student loans. When it comes to private student loans, you usually can choose between fixed interest rates and variable interest rates. Most people choose fixed interest rates and have a negative opinion of variable interest rates. Sometimes, that negative opinion is not justifiable. When Read more

Published: March 7, 2022

Optimal Strategies for MBA Student Loans

My name is Nikhil Agarwal. I graduated from Harvard Business School in 2020 and have helped thousands of students get the best deals on more than $500 million in student loans over the last three years through Juno, a startup that negotiates lower rates for MBA student loans. When you’re choosing an MBA student loan, you can customize the following: The loan term (generally five to 20 years) The repayment plan (how much you want to pay while you’re in school) The type of Read more

Published: March 7, 2022

A Guide to MBA Student Loans

You’re excited. You just got into your top picks for business school and are deciding which one to attend. One thing you should keep in mind while you’re comparing is how much each school will cost. Here’s a guide to MBA student loans, from start to finish, brought to you by Juno, an organization that helps you navigate student loans for free. Step 1. Analysis What sort of financial aid package did you receive from each school? Do you want to appeal to get more aid? Read more

Published: March 7, 2022

Budgeting for Business School

My name is Nikhil Agarwal. I graduated from Harvard Business School (HBS) in 2020 and have helped thousands of students with more than $500 million in student loans over the last three years through Juno, an organization that negotiates the lowest rates for MBA student loans. When it comes to attending business school, one of the best ways to minimize your cost is to learn how to budget and manage your money. Read below for considerations when budgeting for business school. Don’t Blindly Follow the Cost of Attendance Read more

Published: March 7, 2022

How Two HBS Students Changed The Student Loan Market

Juno’s Origin As my co-founder and I started at Harvard Business School, we decided the student loan market was absurd. We also knew that we could get lower rates if we negotiated as a large group of MBAs, as opposed to applying for loans by ourselves. So we formed a collective bargaining group and successfully managed to get a bank to offer loans with very low interest rates to us and our friends who were attending various MBA programs. Pretty much everyone who heard about the deal took advantage of it. Read more

Published: March 7, 2022

Episode 220: Taking a Serious Look at the Online MBA

Most of our regular listeners know our podcast tends to devote 99% of recorded time to traditional, full-time, in-person MBA offerings, but several factors have combined to merit some serious discussion of online offerings. Those factors are: Technology The caliber of institutions increasingly active in this space The pandemic’s ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ doctrine Special guest Dr. Carolyn Goerner joins host Graham Richmond to discuss the online MBA landscape. Dr. Goerner, the Aldi, Inc. Distinguished I-Core Clinical Professor at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business in Bloomington, Indiana, teaches in the #1 online MBA program Read more

Published: February 8, 2022

Episode 214: A Crash Course in MBA Program Types–Which Format Is Right for You?

MBA offerings come in all shapes and sizes—from full-time to part-time, at a candidate’s personal pace, over the course of a year or two or more. It sounds simple, but the landscape is admittedly quite complex. In this podcast episode, host Graham Richmond and special guest Chris Healey demystify the types of MBA programs out there to help you figure out what works best for your educational and career needs. Chris Healey, Head of MBA Marketing & Recruitment, Alliance Manchester Business School Chris Healey is the Head of MBA Marketing & Recruitment at Alliance Manchester Business School. Chris has Read more

Published: January 31, 2022

Episode 212: An Admissions & Career Services Merger at SMU Cox

This special podcast episode covers the importance of career goals in both the MBA admissions and post-MBA career placement domains. In particular, with the help of two special guests, we dive into an innovative approach being taken at one leading business school, where the MBA admissions and career services teams are truly working in tandem. Host Graham Richmond welcomes Lisa Tran and Jason Rife from the SMU Cox School of Business to explore the symbiotic relationship that propels MBA graduates’ success. Jason Rife, Sr. Asst. Dean, Career Mgmt Center and Graduate Admissions, & Lisa Tran, Managing Director, Read more

MBA Applywire

December 18, 2024 2:57am ET

Applying: IESE, INSEAD, MIT Sloan, U. Chicago Booth

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Engineering

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Technology, Undecided Companies: Amazon

GMAT: 690

GPA: 3.26

Years of Work Experience: 4

Location: Chile

December 17, 2024 6:19am ET

Applying: Columbia, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, Georgetown / McDonough, Harvard Business School, Michigan / Ross, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton, UT Austin / McCombs

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Registered Nurse

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting Companies: Bain , BCG , McKinsey

GRE: 326

GPA: 3.5

Years of Work Experience: 3

Location: Colorado

Post MBA Location: Chicago/NYC

Notes:

25F, lgbtq
Education: Bachelor's degree in Nursing (GPA: 3.5) from a top 2 nursing school
Work Experience: 3 years as a high-risk OB Registered Nurse at a major hospital, with leadership roles in various healthcare initiatives and patient care management.
Additional Experience: Currently working as a GP
Operations Specialist at an early-stage healthcare/tech-focused venture capital firm, where I optimize operational processes and support investment decisions in the healthcare sector.
I understand my background is somewhat non-traditional for an MBA program and that my stats are about average for these schools, but I believe my experience in healthcare and VC provides a unique perspective and skill set. Which M7 or T15 schools do you think I should realistically target, especially those known for strong consulting programs? With my stats and experience do I realistically have a shot at admission to a top program? I have a particular interest in Kellogg and Booth, as I'm planning on pursuing a career in healthcare consulting.
Additionally, I would love any guidance on how to present myself as a competitive candidate and effectively showcase my strengths and experiences in healthcart and venture capital. Thank you for your help!

December 17, 2024 12:03am ET

Applying: Columbia, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, NYU Stern, UCLA Anderson, UVA / Darden, Yale SOM

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Worked in Tech vertical at Barclays

Post-MBA Target Industry: Investment Banking Companies: Goldman Sachs , JP Morgan , Merrill Lynch , Morgan Stanley

GRE: 335

GPA: 3.2

Years of Work Experience: 2.5

Location: India

Notes:

With an experience of 2.5 years and a promotion to mid-managerial level as a data analyst, I look forward to MBA for a broader global exposure and be in the decision making position to see how my work brings a real time impact for the organisation.