Weekly Columns

Keep up with the latest school facts and news from your fellow MBA applicants.

Published: January 5, 2017

Fridays from the Frontline: Are You My Alma Mater?

Chicago native Sabrina Lakhani’s pre-MBA career took her—literally and figuratively—all over the map. From Babson College in Boston she headed to a small Connecticut marketing consultancy for a couple of years before volunteering as a full-time project coordinator at a hospital for children in Kabul. From there it was on to East Africa, working first on a network of hospitals and later on a network of schools. She then returned to work for her family’s businesses in Chicago before joining a decision heuristics science‒based marketing firm as director of client services. In choosing an MBA program, she wanted one that Read more

Published: December 22, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Navigating Complex MBA Decision-Making Process

Pierre Girard, a 2016 graduate of the Weekend MBA program at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, shares his tips for the complex decision-making process that can accompany choosing to pursue an MBA. For Girard, a father to two small children who planned to continue working while getting his MBA, a part-time MBA program was the best way to meet all of his goals. And some of his tips—such as hiring a maid if your budget allows it—seem perhaps less geared toward traditional full-time MBA students than others. But at its core, the bulk of Girard’s advice is applicable no matter what kind of MBA degree you’re planning to pursue. The support of your network, setting realistic expectations about your schedule, and knowing how to prioritize are just as critical for full-time, two-year MBA students as they are for full-time employees who are working toward their MBA in the evenings or on the weekends. Read more

Published: December 15, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Five Tips to Make the Most of Your Campus Visit

Perhaps you’re in the extraordinarily fortunate position of needing to choose between multiple schools that have offered you admission in Round 1. Or maybe you are furiously working on your Round 2 applications. Wherever you are in your process, campus visits can play a vital role in choosing where you ultimately decide to enroll. Today’s Friday from the Frontline post—from Natalia Suarez, a second-year MBA student at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business—provides valuable tips for how to make the most of your campus visit. Suarez, who was born in Colombia but raised in New Jersey and Georgia, Read more

Published: December 8, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Unlocking a World of Opportunities as an International MBA Student

Today’s Fridays from the Frontline contribution comes to us from Prerana Manvi, a second-year student at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. A native of India, Manvi shares in detail her experiences as an international MBA student—including the many opportunities her time at Kenan-Flagler has afforded her. For Manvi, success as an international MBA student has hinged on taking full advantage of in-class opportunities, extracurricular activities and real-world experience. Among other things, she has played an active role in student clubs, serving as vice president of international experience for the Consulting Club and president of the MBA Net Impact Club. Read more

Published: December 1, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: How Did I Get Here? The Road from Science to an MBA

Just how did Chilean native Ignacio Cabrera—with an education in molecular biotechnology engineering and bacteriology and work experience first as research scientist at BioAmber and later as a microbial applications scientist at Kerry Inc.—find his way into an MBA program at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business? Lucky for us, he candidly shared his journey—including the fact that making the choice to leave his scientific career for business school was far from easy—as part of a recent blog post on the Tuck 360 MBA blog. Luckier still, he’s given permission for that blog post to be republished here for all the Clear Admit audience to read. Read more

Published: November 17, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Harvard MBA on the Politics of Free Speech

As President-elect Donald Trump begins to establish his cabinet, many are still processing the outcome of the U.S. election earlier this month. At Harvard Business School (HBS), second-year MBA student Preeya Sud, who serves as editor-in-chief of the school's newspaper the Harbus, sought out reaction from her classmates in the days immediately following the election, only to find that few students were comfortable signing their names to their political views, regardless of what those views were. Instead, the Harbus invited students to express their reactions anonymously. Read more

Published: November 10, 2016

Friday from the Frontlines: #MBAsOpenUp at Goizueta

In the wake of an extraordinarily contentious American presidential election with a result that stunned many both within the United States and around the world, much remains uncertain. This much, though, is clear: The election of Donald Trump to serve as its 45th president has revealed the United States as a deeply divided society and underscored the vital importance of dialogue to reach a point of understanding and a path toward a future that supports and protects the rights of all the country’s citizens. Read more

Published: November 3, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: The Supply Chain Master in Your Kitchen

Most MBA students head to business school expecting to learn about management from professors, peers, class discussions, team projects and text books. Which, of course, they do. But the management lessons don’t stop there. Sagar Doshi, an MBA student at the University of Oxford’s Saïd School of Business, has been writing about his experiences on campus in a series of blog posts on the Oxford Saïd MBA Blog. “I'm in a short, one-year MBA program, and one of my goals has been to get to know the people and community around me as much as possible,” he tells us. This desire has prompted his posts, many of which focus on aspects of life at Saïd that some might take for granted or overlook entirely. We’re sharing one today that provides a glimpse into the management practices that help keep the school’s kitchens running smoothly and the students well fed. Read more

Published: October 20, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Reflecting on the HKS/HBS Joint Degree Program

Harvard today is hosting an information session in Budapest on its joint degree program, through which students can study at both Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and Harvard Business School (HSB) and complete both their Master in Public Administration (MPA) and their MBA in just three years. Can’t make it to Budapest but still interested in learning more about the HKS/HBS joint degree program? You’re in luck. Our Fridays from the Frontline today comes to us from Rafael Rivera, a student in the HKS/HBS joint degree program now in his third and final year. In his post, Rivera shares Read more

Published: October 13, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Catching the Political Bug at Tuck

Sure, climate factors into how some people decide which business school to attend. But usually it has to do with warm temperatures and sunshine, not elections. Not for Justen Nestico. A second-year MBA student at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, Nestico chose Tuck in part because of its location at the heart of what has proven to be one of the wildest presidential races in the nation’s history. In the post that follows, Nestico shares how he and other Tuck students who’ve caught the political bug are ideally positioned to watch the electoral process unfold first hand. Our Read more

Published: October 6, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Enhancing Diversity in Business Starting at Kelley

Indiana University's Kelley School of Business is today kicking off a two-day celebration marking 50 years of participation as a member school of the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. Kelley was one of just three founding member schools—but the Consortium’s ranks have since grown to include 18 of the best business schools in the country. In anticipation of this important milestone, Ruby Jones, a Kelley School first-year MBA student and Consortium Fellow penned a beautiful essay explaining the Consortium to those who are unfamiliar, describing her journey from a nonprofit career to business school and sharing how she hopes—with her MBA—to assist the next generation of diverse leaders. Our thanks to Jones for granting permission for us to republish her essay here. Read more

Published: September 29, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Tackling Inequality—An HBS Independent Project

"Did you know that nearly 80 percent of HBS alumni are asked to serve in nonprofit boards at some point in their lives post-HBS?” asks Harvard Business School (HBS) second-year MBA student Molly Palmersheim in a post this week on the HBS MBA Voices student blog. That statistic spurred Palmershein and other students—as part of an independent study in their EC year with HBS Professors Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Nien-hê Hsieh—to design a course that could help train students for these roles they were so likely to take with nonprofit community organizations. For Palmershein, part of being the kind of “difference-making” leader HBS students are educated toward becoming would naturally involve volunteering with community organizations. “I came to HBS knowing that community leadership would live alongside my professional and personal lives post-HBS,” she writes. But she didn’t realize how the skillset she was developing at HBS could change how she worked with nonprofits. 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 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 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

Published: September 1, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Darden MBA Student on Google’s Great Perks

This week’s Fridays from the Frontline post comes to us from Jimmy Figueroa, a second-year MBA student at UVA’s Darden School of Business just back from his summer internship at Google in San Francisco. A veteran of New York’s financial services sector prior to business school, Figueroa had a no-nonsense view of what to expect from a job and an employer. “It was always a no frills environment where you work hard, work long and perform,” he writes. And if you do well, you’ll get rewarded monetarily. Free cafes, gym classes, game rooms—the companies that have those don’t Read more

Published: August 25, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Five Questions with Kellogg Professor Blake McShane

As we wait for students to get into the swing of things at campus enough to begin blogging and applicants to really dive into the application process, we’re taking a bit of a departure from our regular Fridays from the Frontline routine to share the perspective of a business school professor. Blake McShane, an associate professor of marketing at Kellogg, teachers courses in customer analytics, marketing research and data analysis. A statistical methodologist, McShane has developed statistical models for fields ranging from online advertising and neuroscience to paleoclimatology and baseball. Below, McShane talks about this marketing research course and what he hopes students get out of it, what he loves most about teaching at Kellogg and his own research. Read more

Published: August 18, 2016

Friday from the Frontlines: From Lesotho to the Hilltop

Our Friday from the Frontlines submission comes to us this week from Tahira Taylor, a full-time MBA student at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. As you’ll read, Taylor’s path to the MBA was unlike some of her classmates. Specifically, her journey to Georgetown included prior stops in Morocco and Lesotho, where she worked with the Peace Corps. Earlier this year we reported that McDonough has been selected by the Peace Corps to join the Paul D. Coverdell Fellowship Program for returned Peace Corps volunteers. It is through this program that returned volunteers like Taylor bring the valuable learning and experience they gained through the Peace Corps to the MBA classroom. Recipients of the Coverdell Fellowship receive a minimum of $10,000 in tuition scholarship funding per year and the ability to apply for graduate assistantships. In addition, they complete internships in underserved American communities, where they can continue to put to use some of the skills they learned as volunteers while layering on some of the tools they are learning in business school. Talk about a win-win. Read on to learn about the transferable skills Taylor has discovered served her just as well in Africa as they do in the business school admissions process and the classroom. Read more

Published: August 4, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: The Pre-MBA Journey—What to Do with Your Summer Vacation

This week’s Fridays from the Frontline comes to us from a soon-to-be first-year student at MIT Sloan School of Management. Jayesh Kannan, a member of Sloan’s Class of 2018, reflects on the happy news of his acceptance (which conveniently came on his birthday!) before diving in to outline all that he hoped to accomplish before getting to campus. If you’re gearing up to apply to business school this fall, tuck this away for suggestions of how to spend next summer. If, like Kannan, you’re coming to the end of that summer before business school, how many of the things Read more

Published: July 28, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: What It’s Really Like to Work at Amazon

Our Fridays from the Frontline this week comes from an MBA student at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business who has spent the summer interning at Amazon’s Seattle offices. A New York Times article last summer described the Amazon workplace in harsh terms, a “bruising” place where one employee reported seeing nearly every person he worked with cry at their desks. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is known for his allegiance to data-driven management and regular culling of staff that aren’t delivering results. But what’s it really like to work at Amazon? Darden first-year Linden Read more

Published: July 21, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: How to Know When You’re Ready for an MBA

Knowing whether now is the right time for an MBA depends on a host of variables that are unique to each individual trying to make the decision. We were struck by a recent post on the MBA blog for the UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business that gets at a few of the different answers that helped recent MBA students there decide that the time was right. Read on to hear how students from each of the three Berkeley-Haas programs (Full-time MBA,Evening & Weekend MBA, MBA for Executives) knew they were ready. The following post has been republished Read more

Published: July 14, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: One Week in Bangkok

This week’s Fridays from the Frontline has it all. A Shark Tank‒like pitch performed on live national television, a plan to help India’s smallholder farmers meet growing demand for local, fresh produce and even a Thai massage. Even though the team at its center—five MBA students from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Business—didn’t take home the very top prize, we think the story’s a winner. Thanks to Jeremy Kuhre (MBA ’16) for sharing it with us! The following post has been republished in its entirety from its original source, Johnson’s Student Blogs page. One Read more

Published: July 7, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: An Open Letter to Donald Trump from Members of Wharton’s Community

As anyone who has had even half an ear open to U.S. politics knows, presidential candidate Donald Trump has been quick to cite his affiliation with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In an open letter to Trump shared via Facebook recently, a contingent of Wharton students, alumni and faculty chose to express their thoughts on Trump’s candidacy as it relates to the school’s diverse community. Please note that the following sentiments reflect the views only of the 600 signatories to date—they are not affiliated with the Wharton School. Clear Admit also does not take a stance with regard to politics, national or international. Read more

Published: June 23, 2016

Friday from the Frontline: First-Year Project for PayPal France

This week’s post comes to us from Tuck rising second-year Ashley Cahill, a Connecticut native who spent the five years before business school working in Shanghai, China, in public relations roles for the American Chamber of Commerce, Weber Shandwick and a sustainable agriculture startup. As you’ll read, her international experiences have extended right into the MBA program thanks to Tuck’s First-Year Project, which Cahill completed in Paris as part of an assignment for PayPal France. Our thanks to her for agreeing to share her experience with Clear Admit’s audience. This post has been republished in its entirety from its Read more

Published: June 16, 2016

Friday from the Frontlines: How to Be an Ally After the Orlando Tragedy

The devastating attack on an Orlando nightclub earlier this week drew responses of support and unity from MBA students and professionals around the globe, as showcased in yesterday’s Top MBA Tweets of the Week. We also took note of this insightful piece on LinkedIn posted by NYU Stern alumna Rachel Hurnyak (MBA ’15), who now works as a project manager for Tesla. We first connected with Hurnyak last May, just after she was honored by Stern Dean Peter Henry for her work to promote inclusion and diversity within Stern’s MBA class. Hurnyak was instrumental in helping lead Stern’s Read more

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MBA Applywire

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.

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

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).

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?

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

View or Submit Entries

MBA LiveWire

November 22, 2024 12:14pm ET

Accepted to NYU Stern

Round: Round 1

Received via phone November 22, 2024

GPA: 3.91

GRE: 328

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: General Management

Application Location: NYC

Note:

Received the phone call this morning around 10 AM. Submitted app 9/3, interviewed 10/29. 11 years of experience.

November 22, 2024 11:27am ET

Accepted to Cornell / Johnson

Round: Round 1

Received via phone on November 20, 2024

GPA: 3.97

GRE: 324

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Healthcare

Application Location: United States

November 22, 2024 11:27am ET

Accepted to NYU Stern

Round: Round 1

Received via phone November 22, 2024

GMAT: 655

Program Type: One Year Program

Target Career: Technology

Application Location: Brazil

Note:

Tech MBA, interviewed on 10/31

November 22, 2024 10:54am ET

Accepted to NYU Stern

Round: Round 1

Received via phone November 22, 2024

GMAT: 675

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Application Location: Taiwan

Note:

Interviewed in late Oct, really excited to get the call!

November 22, 2024 8:08am ET

Accepted to Cambridge / Judge

Round: Round 2

Received via email November 22, 2024

GMAT: 695

Program Type: One Year Program

Application Location: Asia

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