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Published: February 10, 2014
Ross MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Second-year student / On-Campus
I was interviewed by a second year MBA student in Ann Arbor, MI. The student had his laptop for the interview and was working off of a set of questions and topics in order to steer our conversation. After going through my resume he asked a few typical questions on leadership, teamwork and achievements. He then went on to ask about “Why MBA,” “Why Ross,” and “Why now.” He had a lot of follow up questions to my answers regarding my MBA school and timing. It was apparent he was really trying to make sure I felt Ross was a Read more
Published: February 3, 2014
Berkeley-Haas Case Series Expands to Wider Audience via Harvard Business Publishing
Case studies from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business will now reach a wider audience of business professors, practitioners and policymakers – not to mention students and alumni – thanks to a new distribution agreement with Harvard Business Printing. Twenty cases from the Berkeley-Haas Case Series have already been added on the Harvard Business School Publishing website, including cases providing insights into Netflix’s pricing strategies, Genentech’s use of culture to drive business and a startup’s search for the right market for its new technology. Read more
Published: January 15, 2014
Background Checks Not Always Standard Practice at Some Top Business Schools
The process top business schools use to screen candidates is coming under greater scrutiny in the wake of the revelation that an MBA student was admitted to Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) after having been expelled by Harvard Law School for falsifying his transcript. A Wall Street Journal article this week reveals that while thorough background checks have become more the norm at top business schools in the past decade, not all schools have a formal process in place. This newfound focus on what protocols MBA admissions offices use to verify information on candidates’ applications comes amid the trial of Mathew Martoma for alleged insider trading at SAC Capital. Martoma, it turns out, was admitted to Stanford’s MBA program not long after being expelled from Harvard Law School for falsifying his transcript to try to obtain a judicial clerkship. He graduated from Stanford in 2003 and joined SAC in 2006. Read more
Published: December 19, 2013
MIT Sloan School of Management to Offer Data Analytics MOOC
MIT’s Sloan School of Management will offer its first massively open online course (MOOC) free to the general public in the spring semester, a data analytics class called Analytics Edge, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports. The online course will feature the same curriculum as the popular on-campus offering, which includes case studies of the Oakland A’s “moneyball” strategy, dating site eHarmony and the 2012 presidential election, according to the Bloomberg BW report. Students in the new MOOC will watch prerecorded lectures and submit assignments online. Read more
Published: December 16, 2013
Tuck School of Business Professor Ranks Year’s Best and Worst CEOs
For the fourth year running, a professor of strategy and leadership at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business has released his picks for worst CEOs – adding a new twist this year by also sharing the five CEOs he deems the best of 2013. Tuck Professor Sydney Finkelstein has become an expert on CEO failures. Since 2010, he has provided an annual roundup of the world’s five worst top executives, and he has also published a book on the same topic, Why Smart Executives Fail: And What You Can Learn from Their Mistakes. Read more
Published: November 10, 2013
Tuck School of Business May Add New Master’s in Management Program
The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College is exploring adding a new master’s in management program for undergraduates with liberal arts degrees, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports. The proposed program, which could launch by September 2016, was announced by Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon in a speech to faculty last week. The one-year master’s program would be open to anyone with an undergraduate degree and would provide a “high-level introduction to business,” Tuck Dean Paul Danos told Bloomberg BW. Dartmouth is currently examining a range of factors that will determine whether or not the school moves forward with the plan, including market data, student interest and logistical considerations, Danos added. Read more
Published: October 20, 2013
Round 1 Interview Invitations Go Out for UMichigan’s Ross School of Business
Round 1 applicants to the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business can expect to receive invitations to interview today, according to Ross Director of Admissions Soojin Kwon. In a recent post to the Ross Admissions Blog, Kwon shared that all Round 1 interview invitations will go out today, including for those applying through the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Management. The school’s associate admissions directors spent the past weekend completing their review of applicants, and the students who conduct interviews on behalf of the school entered their availability into the interview scheduler. Applicants will be able to schedule an interview time as soon as they receive their invitations, Kwon added. Ross this year is officially debuting a new team-based activity as part of the application process, an optional component designed to give the admissions team more insight into how candidates engage with other people. This was something Kwon and her team felt they didn’t get enough of a sense of from the one-on-one interviews. For the first 10 minutes of the half-hour exercise, candidates will each be given two random words to weave into a story to share with their group. (The groups are made up of four to six candidates.) Working together as a group, participants then spend the remaining 20 minutes connecting their word pairs into a business challenge and solution to present to an observer. Read more
Published: October 13, 2013
Chicago Booth, Yale SOM Professors Awarded Nobel Prize in Economics
Two professors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, together with a third professor from Yale School of Management (SOM), have been awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2013. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored Booth Professors Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen and Yale SOM Professor Robert Shiller for their research helping to explain how and why the prices of stocks and bonds change over time. The Nobel honors the three professors’ empirical analysis of asset prices, which began with Fama and collaborators in the 1960s demonstrating that stock prices are very difficult to predict in the short run, in part because new information is very quickly incorporated into the prices. “These findings not only had a profound impact on subsequent research but also changed market practice,” notes the Nobel announcement for the 2013 prize. As an example, the announcement cited the emergence of index stocks in markets around the globe.  Read more
Published: September 19, 2013
Fridays From The Frontline
Hello and welcome to another edition of Fridays From The Fronline, Clear Admit's ongoing observation of the outstanding lives of b-school student and applicant bloggers. This week found applicants putting their HBS applications to bed while students continued to enjoy getting into the swing of all things MBA. MBAReapplicant made progress on his Yale and Sloan essays and promised an update once they were finalized. TimBob submitted his Harvard application and set his sights on the Wharton and Haas deadlines. HammO powered on in his goal of submitting six applications in the first round, noting that he was alive...insane, but alive. Domotron also submitted his HBS application, which was followed by a mini-celebration before getting serious and hunkering back down to work on Wharton. MBAGirlJourney submitted her HBS application a little early and while she wasn't 100% convinced it would lead to an interview, she felt confident that she had done the best she could. Sarah  moved to save money, prepared to retake the GMAT and wrote her first essay. Cambridge '15 Laurent continued his story of meeting the founder of Linksys. Read more
Published: August 27, 2013
Columbia Business School Launches Redesigned Core Curriculum Emphasizing Entrepreneurship, Leadership
Incoming first-year MBA students at Columbia Business School (CBS) will discover a redesigned core curriculum, part of the school’s efforts to keep pace with a changing business marketplace. The school unveiled 12 new videos today explaining the changes, which include a greater emphasis on entrepreneurship and leadership. Students in the Class of 2015 will encounter one of the most significant changes to the core beginning in orientation. As part of the redesign, the core’s leadership course will be pushed forward, to take place in the weeks before regular classes start, rather than in the first semester, as has been the case in the past. Students will also have more electives to choose from during the first year, a shift intended to give them greater ability to customize their MBA course to fit individual career goals and better prepare for summer internships. Read more
Published: August 11, 2013
Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business Launches New Energy Finance MBA Concentration
The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University last month approved a new MBA concentration in energy finance, further expanding the resources it offers prospective MBA students interested in the energy and environmental sectors. The school also features an MBA concentration in energy and environment. The new energy finance concentration is designed to give participating students a foundation in the specifics of global energy markets while allowing them to explore in greater depth issues of project finance, markets and trading, corporate finance and risk management, the school announced. Read more

MBA Applywire

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November 20, 2024 9:42pm ET
Applying: Babson / Olin, , Carnegie Mellon / Tepper, Emory / Goizueta, Rice / Jones, Rochester / Simon, SMU Cox, UCI Merage, Washington U. / Olin
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Technology - Entrepreneurship
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Technology, Entrepreneurship
GRE: 333
GPA: 2.56
Years of Work Experience: 5
Location: Lagos
Notes:

I just got rejected for WashU Olin and I have an interview invitation with Questrom. GPA continues to bother me but I addressed it in my supporting essays.
11
November 19, 2024 12:51pm ET
Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Cornell / Johnson, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, INSEAD, Michigan / Ross, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton, Yale SOM
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Tech in government
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Entrepreneurship Companies: Bain , McKinsey
GRE: 319
GPA: 2.9
Years of Work Experience: 7
Notes:

I got cancer when I was undergrad that's why my undergrad GPA is low. After MBA I want to work in consulting then make a social impact in Africa through entrepreneurship
10
November 19, 2024 12:06pm ET
Applying: Duke / Fuqua, Harvard Business School, Michigan / Ross, Northwestern / Kellogg, Stanford GSB, U. Chicago Booth, U. Washington / Foster, UNC Kenan-Flagler, UT Austin / McCombs, UVA / Darden
Pre-MBA Career: Wealth Management and Military
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Asset Management, inc. HF, Other Companies: Bain , BCG , Deloitte , McKinsey , Goldman Sachs , JP Morgan Asset Management , State Street , Vanguard
GPA: 3.80
Years of Work Experience: 7
Location: San Diego
Post MBA Location: Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis, Charlotte
Notes:

UG Degree: BBA Financial Markets at an Accredited Institution.

Civilian Work History: 3 years as Wealth Advisor under an RIA in Minneapolis and Denver. Total AUM of ~$350-400M, served as a salaried advisor in a primary and secondary capacity. Holistic services to include investment management, estate planning, retirement planning, insurance planning, tax planning, etc.

Military History: 4 years as a supply/logistics officer heading efforts for air/ground mobility, defense contracting, supply and procurement, and fiscal budget management while located at various bases within CONUS and multiple forward deployed locations.

Professional Certifications: Obtained Certified Financial Planner designation (2022) and Series 65 (2019).
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November 18, 2024 12:50am ET
Applying: Columbia, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, Emory / Goizueta, NYU Stern, UNC Kenan-Flagler, Yale SOM
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Consulting
Post-MBA Target Industry: Investment Banking Companies: Bank of America , Barclays , Citibank , Credit Suisse , Goldman Sachs , JP Morgan Chase
GRE: 323
GPA: 3.32
Years of Work Experience: 7
Notes:

Education:
- Combined Major in Economics and Statistics
- CFA Charterholder (passed all three levels on the first attempt)

Professional Experience:
- Manager at a Big 4 firm Specializing in capital projects and infrastructure, with a role similar to investment banking
- Seven years of experience, mainly in financial services in Ghana

Extracurricular Activities:
- Pro bono capital-raising services for SMEs
- Aspiring to run a full advisory firm for SMEs in the future
- CFA exam coaching and tutorial classes for candidates
- Founder of a travel and tour club offering affordable trips to explore beautiful and historic scenes in Ghana

Will being 32 years old affect the attractiveness of my candidacy?
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November 17, 2024 9:24am ET
Applying: Columbia, , Georgetown / McDonough, Harvard Business School, INSEAD, NYU Stern, Oxford / Saïd, Stanford GSB, UCLA Anderson, Yale SOM
Pre-MBA Career: Higher Education
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Technology, Investment Banking, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Media, Undecided Companies: Bain , BCG , McKinsey , JP Morgan , Morgan Stanley , JP Morgan Chase , Apple , Google , Microsoft , Andressen Horowitz , Charles River , Sequoia Capital , Blackstone , KKR , 21st Century Fox , Comcast , Walt Disney
GPA: 3.97
Years of Work Experience: 5
Location: Denver, Colorado
Post MBA Location: New York City
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MBA LiveWire

November 22, 2024 1:39am ET
Rejected at Columbia
Round: Round 1
Received via portal on November 14, 2024
GMAT: 695
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Consulting
Application Location: India
November 22, 2024 1:07am ET
Interview Invite to Carnegie Mellon / Tepper
Round: Round 1
Received via email
Note:

Interview with admissions team member
November 22, 2024 1:02am ET
Accepted to Rochester / Simon
Round: Round 1
Received via phone November 21, 2024
GMAT: 625
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Entrepreneurship
Application Location: India
November 21, 2024 6:44pm ET
Accepted to Rochester / Simon
Round: Round 1
Received via phone November 21, 2024
GPA: 3.82
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Operations Management
Application Location: Nigeria
Note:

Application submission was on the 14th of October. Interview was on the 7th of November. Admitted with scholarship.
November 21, 2024 5:41pm ET
Accepted to Rochester / Simon
Round: Round 1
Received via email November 21, 2024
GPA: 7.4/10
GRE: 321
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Healthcare
Application Location: India
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