Weekly Columns
Keep up with the latest school facts and news from your fellow MBA applicants.
Published: September 11, 2014
Fridays From the Frontline: Tackling the Info Session
Fridays From the Frontline is Clear Admit’s weekly summation of posts from the business school blogosphere. This week, current applicants attend MBA-related events, while current students discuss the insights they've gained during business school.
In the applicant corner, Texaswannabecali broke down the myriad discussions that took place at a McCombs info session. She also went to another MBA event which she describes as “handshake, smile and nod on repeat.” On the other hand, Efessays, or Old Faithful as he is known in the business, offers a virtual lesson on the essay section of the GMAT.
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Published: September 8, 2014
Trivia Tuesday: INSEAD’s Wharton Exchange Program
Welcome to this week’s Trivia Tuesday, in which we examine special offerings that differentiate the leading MBA programs from their peers. Today we’re taking a look into the Clear Admit School Guide to INSEAD in order to share with you an excerpt about the school’s exchange opportunity with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
“Through an alliance with the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the leading MBA programs in the U.S., INSEAD students can also spend one period in the city of Philadelphia taking elective courses at Wharton."
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Published: September 4, 2014
Fridays From the Frontline: Douglas Adams on Deadlines
Fridays From the Frontline is Clear Admit's weekly summation of posts from the business school blogosphere. Douglas Adams once said, "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." But business school applicants aren't planning to let that happen. This week, current applicants put the finishing touches on their applications, while current students reflect on the application process, travel the world and praise their respective schools.
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Published: August 28, 2014
Fridays From the Frontline: Einstein’s Dilemma
Fridays From the Frontline is Clear Admit's weekly summation of the business school blogosphere. Albert Einstein once said that "the only reason for time is so that everything does not happen at once." Yet there is one month every year when time does not seem to fulfill its purpose. Yes, we are speaking of business school deadlines. This week, applicants kick it into high-gear as the deadlines close in, while current students enjoy the many exciting opportunities open to them at business school.
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Published: August 21, 2014
Fridays From the Frontline: Crunch Time
Welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly summation of the business school blogosphere. This week, applicants are closing in on their application deadlines, while current students enjoy the academic, professional and extracurricular dimensions of business school.
Among current applicants, Efessays gives us a virtual lesson on sentence-correction questions, while Grantmeadmission outlines how to get a perfect 6.0 on the writing section of the GMAT, and updates us on his own GMAT progress. When it comes to school selection, Pullingthatmbatrigger visited Fuqua and fell in love with the school. She has decided to apply early decision. Also, Naijambagal spoke with the Stanford admissions team and offers some specific strategies for getting into Stanford. Scottgduncan and Grantmeadmission both address another section of the application, explaining how to brief your recommenders in order to obtain the best recommendations possible. Finally, after weeks of “radio silence,” Topdogmba fills us in on his progress on his application essays.
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Published: August 7, 2014
Fridays From the Frontline: Standardized Stressing
This week in the business school blogosphere, current applicants seek out unconventional ways of improving their GMAT scores and other aspects of their applications, while current students give us a sneak peak into their time in business school.
In the applicants' corner, Grantmeadmission is preparing for the GMAT and shares his list of “exam lifehacks” which include taking study breaks, changing scenery, chewing gum to help concentrate and coming up with his own answers before looking at the answer choices. He has also been improving his GMAT score by taking practice tests on The Economist website.
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Fridays From the Frontlines: Test Obsessed
Welcome to this week's Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly summation of the business school blogosphere. We check in with applicants who are in the final, feverish stages of GMAT preparation, as well as with current students who let us in on their comparatively less stressful post-GMAT lives.
In the applicant corner, Naijambagal tells the shocking story of how an eye problem sent her to the hospital and made her miss the GMAT! She also explains how she studied for the test for about an hour everyday while in traffic on the way to work. Meanwhile, Grantmeadmission brings insights from brain science to bear on GMAT prep strategies. As he explains, the process of forming a memory comes in three stages--encoding, reinforcement, and retrieval--and there are things we can do to facilitate each stage. Meditation and eating foods like parsley, berries and dark chocolate improve encoding, whereas caffeine, sleep, and taking breaks boost the process of reinforcement.
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Fridays from the Frontline: It was the best/worst of times
This week in the business school blogosphere, MBA students travel the world and embark on promising business ventures, while applicants continue wading through the complex and often mysterious process of applying to business school.
Many applicants are doling out advice about how to navigate the MBA admissions game. First, Texaswannabecali recommends getting “behind the scenes info” on your target schools by contacting alumni, current students, and visiting campus. She also stresses the importance of researching your schools before visiting: “Don’t you just hate the person who asks a question in class that the teacher LITERALLY just answered 3 seconds ago? Yeah, don’t be that person.”
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Trivia Tuesday: Public Management and Social Innovation at Stanford GSB
This week in Trivia Tuesday, in which we highlight the distinguishing aspects of top business schools, we’re opening up our Stanford School Guide for a closer look at their Public Management and Social Innovation Program.
"The Public Management Program (PMP) was founded in 1960s by then-dean Arjay Miller to promote communication and collaboration between leaders of government and business. His experience as president of Ford Motor Companies provided the impetus for this initiative; in this role, he witnessed firsthand the misunderstandings between politicians and those in the private sector. The PMP became part of the Center for Social Innovation in 2000, and today the Center has the broader mission of preparing students to address social and environmental problems.
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Fridays from the Frontline: GMAT Anticipation and Regret
This week in the business school blogosphere, applicants are gearing up to take the GMAT or contemplating what went wrong for them last time. Meanwhile current students prepare to enter the business world, and alumni look back on their time in business school.
Scheduled to take the GMAT next week, Naijambagal shares his advice on GMAT test-taking, which comes down to knowing the material, doing practice questions, reviewing your mistakes and not getting nervous. The last one is easier said than done!
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Fridays From the Frontline
Hello and welcome to Fridays from the Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly exhaustive enumeration of the enterprising entries in the b-school blogosphere. This week, current applicants are in full GMAT prep-mode, contemplating choice of schools and full versus part-time programs, while the Class of 2016 is looking forward to starting their MBA programs in just a few short weeks, and all the life and career changes that will bring. This week we also welcome blogger QuietTiger81, who is sharing his perspective as a second year student at Oxford.
MBAonMyMind has added YaleSOM to the tally board, given the school's focus on social impact businesses, and with three weeks into GMAT prep, all is going according to plan. With a GMAT prep plan of his own, GrantMeAdmission is gaining on his 760 goal with three life hacks to help him stay focused and positive. GrantMeAdmission also takes some time to discuss the pros and cons of doing a part-time MBA, and why he chose to go the full-time route.
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Fridays From the Frontline – News from the B-School Blogosphere
Hello and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly roundup of the ruminations of the b-school blogosphere. This week, we continue to meet UCLA Anderson's entering class of MBA bloggers, welcome a new applicant blogger to the weekly round-up, as well as check up on the hard-working current applicants already kicking off round 1 applications, even as summer is just beginning to heat up. Zubin Davar '15 is a second year Anderson student, who is sharing his experience as a summer intern at Google. Despite his first day nerves, Zubin is relying on key takeaways from his first year. Those who are looking forward to their first year at Anderson include Mike Leve who recounts the true cost of an Anderson acceptance letter, of which the actual application fee is a very small part. Piyush Jain shares his excitement at joining the Anderson community, and explains his unique international perspective, as he prepares to leave his current location in the Middle East for California's West Coast.
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Trivia Tuesday: Master Classes at Columbia Business School
This week in Trivia Tuesday, where we highlight the distinguishing aspects of top business schools, we’re opening up the Clear Admit School Guide to Columbia Business School to learn more about Columbia's Master Classes.
“In the fall of 2006, Columbia introduced Master Classes, a new type of elective course. Each Master Class is organized around a theme, such as Operations Consulting or Private Equity & Entrepreneurship in Africa, and incorporates a semester-long experiential project. The projects are designed in conjunction with partner companies or organizations and conclude with students making a managerial recommendation to the partner organization. The Master Class program utilizes alumni and practicing professionals as teachers and mentors to ensure that students are exposed to both theory and practice within the MBA curriculum….
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Fridays From the Frontline
Hello and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly summation of the best of the b-school blogosphere. This week, UCLA Anderson welcomes a group of incoming MBA students and bloggers, and current applicants discuss what's involved in staying focused on the admissions process during the summer.
Zafeer Khan Anderson '16 shares his journey from Bangladesh to pursuing the MBA in Sunny California. Classmate Asher Kurland is enjoying happy hours with fellow admits in Brooklyn. Nikhil George Punnoose '16 is moving away from living on oil rigs, to learning about the business side of production, and James Huntington rounds out the introduction of Anderson '16 bloggers by describing his reasons for selecting Anderson. Chief among them are the school's family friendly policies, and the Joint Ventures Club. We wish all of these new student bloggers all the best as they embark on their MBA journey together!
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Fridays From the Frontline
Hello and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly summation of the best of the b-school blogosphere. As the school year has finished, current students have taken the opportunity to reflect on the experience of first year, while MBA hopefuls are putting together a plan of action to ensure a successful application process. Those Round 1 deadlines are not that far off! (Check the Clear Admit blog for up to date deadlines and essay information.)
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Trivia Tuesday: Tuck’s Pre-Term
Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday, where we highlight special programs and policies at top business schools. This week, we're opening up the Clear Admit School Guide to the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth to learn about the school's pre-term:
"Tuck offers two weeks of diverse pre-term programming, both academic and non-academic, before the start of orientation. Incoming Tuck students, particularly those from non-business backgrounds, may be invited to enroll in a one-week Pre-Enrollment program, affectionately known as “math camp,” that provides classroom instruction in finance, accounting, statistics, decision science and other quantitative topics.
"As part of the online MBA Math course, students must complete at least the eight lessons designated as mandatory among the 24 lessons offered. These include topics such as Basic Descriptive Statistics, Income Statement, and Excel Basics, and incoming students are typically given access to their accounts in the January prior to their matriculation. Developed by Professor Peter Regan, the math course includes pre- and post-quizzes on each topic so that students can best determine the kind of progress they need to make before their fall classes begin.
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Fridays From the Frontline
Hello and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s weekly summation of the soliloquies of the b-school blogosphere. This week, even as we are about to announce the winners of the Best of Blogging 2013 contest, we have two new bloggers to feature with interesting and thoughtful updates on the application and admissions process, while current students and recent graduates also share their perspectives. GrantMeAdmission starts off a busy week by outlining how he carefully selected the schools to apply to, along with a list of 8 questions every application should ask before applying. Once finished with that
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Trivia Tuesday: The Yale SOM Grading System
It’s time again for Trivia Tuesday, in which we examine the distinctive elements that separate the leading MBA programs from their peers. This week, we’re taking a peek into the Clear Admit School Guide to the Yale School of Management in order to share with you an excerpt about the program’s grading policies and grade non-disclosure.
“Rather than using numerical or letter grades as a measure of a student’s performance in a course, Yale SOM’s grading system is more closely akin to a pass/fail model. Professors can assign students one of the following four grades: Distinction, Proficient, Pass or Fail. The highest, Distinction, is reserved for unusually high-quality work and is awarded to no more than 10 percent of students taking the course. Meanwhile, Proficient denotes a normal level of achievement in coursework and comfort with the subject matter. Though a grade of Pass is a positive signal at most schools, Yale’s reflects performance that did not meet the level of proficiency, yet was not so lacking that it warranted a failing grade. Finally, the grade Fail reflects a level of
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Fridays From the Frontline
Hello and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly roundup of the ruminations of the b-school blogosphere. This week, several of our 2016 applicants weigh in with recommendations, from audio books to MBA programs, while current students take stock of the MBA experience, including the challenges and rewards of transitioning from the military to pursuing an MBA.
MBATheNonProfitWay has made a resolution to switch her audio-book listening habit away from fiction to various business related books. The first selection, "The McKinsey Mind" did not fare so well in review. JourneyOfaGMATer took some time to share insights on the definition of 'problem', while Sarah'sMBAJourney hasn't given up on the idea of pursuing the MBA, and is now looking at a Cranfield MBA, although she does have some concerns and is open to other options as well.
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Fridays From the Frontline
Hello and welcome to Friday From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s weekly perusal of the ponderings of the b-school blogosphere. This week, we welcome a new contributor to the FFF blogging family, and hear updates from current students about exciting campus events and activities.
Brian Scott is an American about to embark on the MBA journey at INSEAD Fontainebleau. He's launched a blog to document the experience by giving an interesting and informative account of tips he's learned for INSEADers looking to work in the States, post MBA. JourneyofalowGMATer has a post on additional books to read, in order to enhance the classroom experience.
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Published: April 24, 2014
Fridays From The Frontline
Hello and welcome to Friday From the Frontlines, Clear Admit's weekly account of the adventures of the b-school blogosphere. This week marks a lull in applicant updates as most notifications have gone out for R2, and now its a matter of waiting for final decisions, preparing for matriculation, or starting the application process again for next year. Current students however, have taken time to reflect on the quickly approaching end of the MBA journey, as well as discuss the experience of being a veteran at Wharton and give an interesting insight into Harvard Business School's newly launched HBXCORe.
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Published: April 21, 2014
Trivia Tuesday: McCombs’s Venture Fellows Program
Welcome back to Trivia Tuesday, where we profile special offerings that help distinguish the top business schools from each other. Today we're sharing an excerpt from the Clear Admit Guide to UT Austin / McCombs about the school's Venture Fellows program.
"Founded in 1999 by a first-year McCombs student seeking to make inroads into the extremely competitive venture capital industry, the Venture Fellows (VF) program extends the school’s venture capital curriculum by providing hands-on internship opportunities with top funds in the industry. The Venture Fellows exist as an organization independent of the McCombs MBA program, sourcing their own funds and working to foster communication between Texan venture capital professionals and interested students. Each year, competition among first-year applicants is intense for one of the program’s 15 to 20 seats, and students should begin the application process itself by September.
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Published: April 17, 2014
Fridays From the Frontline
Hello and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly canvassing of the confabulations of the b-school blogosphere. This week, our class of 2016 continues to ruminate on the experience of the past few months, while current students take some time during spring break to update readers on the whirlwind of activity that is the MBA.
MBAMyWay has a few new developments to report, as staggered school decisions continue to trickle in. An admit from Ross and waitlist notification from Fuqua gives MBAMyWay an opportunity to reflect on the Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda, but without much regret, since a matriculation at Johnson awaits. In fact, MBAMyWay has even more great news, with a bump off the waitlist and an admit offer to Yale SOM, as well as some great suggestions and ideas as to why the offer came through. While MBAMyWay is clearly decided on pursuing the MBA at Johnson next year, SarahsMBAJourney is using this time to reflect on what she really wants, and is asking herself three important questions about the MBA in order to help determine the answer to that.
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Published: April 10, 2014
Fridays From the Frontline
Hello and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit's weekly summation of the soliloquies of the b-school blogosphere. This week, our stalwart scribes continue to look ahead to matriculating in 2016, while current students focus on metamorphosis, whether it be into spring, or into the post-MBA world.
MBAGirlJourney has a very useful and exhaustive list of Top Twenty Tips for New MBA Students from a former UCLA Anderson student. Domontron has a great summation of his own, of top MBA schools he applied to and why, and reasons why he didn't apply to ALL the top MBA programs in the States or UK. Overall, Tuck was definitely the right choice for him!
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