2004 February » Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

APPLICANT RESOURCES

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Admissions Director Q&A
Below are links to Clear Admit's exclusive interviews with MBA admissions directors at leading programs.
Dawna Clarke (Tuck)
Rose Martinelli (Chicago)
Judith Hodara (Wharton)
Sara Neher (Darden)
Soojin Kwon Koh (Michigan)
Randall Sawyer (Cornell)
Beth Flye (Kellogg)
David Simpson (LBS)
Liz Riley Hargrove (Duke)
Linda Meehan (Columbia)
Bruce DelMonico (Yale)
Peter Johnson (Berkeley)
Isser Gallogly (NYU)
Mae Jennifer Shores (UCLA)
J.J. Cutler (Wharton)
Jake Cohen (INSEAD)
Rod Garcia (MIT Sloan)
Mary Miller (Columbia)

Clear Admit School Guides
Become an expert on your target schools overnight! Get the program-specific details you need to craft essays that stand out. See how schools compare head-to-head in key areas like recruiting, curricular structure, elective offerings and more. Available for immediate download. As featured in the Economist.

Clear Admit Career Guides
Understand career-specific offerings at leading MBA programs and identify the schools that will best support your career goals with the Clear Admit Career Guides! Available for Consulting, Investment Banking, Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Healthcare.

Clear Admit Strategy Series
Craft a winning application with the Clear Admit Strategy Series! Step-by-Step guidance through the application process. Titles include a Resume Guide, Recommendations Guide, Waitlist Guide and more!

Clear Admit Interview Guides
Be as prepared as possible for your MBA interviews this season with the Clear Admit Interview Guides! School-specific sample questions and in-depth strategy, campus visit details and places to stay.

Application Deadlines
Below are the upcoming deadlines for admission to top-tier schools.
Feb 10: INSEAD R3
Mar 1: Michigan / Ross R3
Mar 3: CBS
Mar 3: LBS R3
Mar 4: Kellogg R3
Mar 8: Cambridge / Judge R4
Mar 8: CMU / Tepper R3
Mar 9: Duke / Fuqua R3
Mar 9: Penn / Wharton R3
Mar 10: Berkeley / Hass R4
Mar 10: Chicago Booth R3
Mar 10: Yale SOM R3
Mar 15: NYU / Stern R3
Mar 17: UCLA / Anderson R3
Mar 19: UNC / Kenan-Flagler R4
Mar 30: Cornell / Johnson R4
Mar 31: UVA / Darden R3
Mar 31: INSEAD R4
Apr 1: UT-Austin / McCombs
Apr 2: Dartmouth / Tuck R3
Apr 2: Oxford / Saїd R3
Apr 7: Stanford GSB R4
Apr 8: Harvard R3
Apr 14: CBS

Essay Topic Analysis
Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics.
The Career Goals Essay
Berkeley / Haas*
Chicago Booth*
CMU / Tepper*
Columbia*
Cornell / Johnson*
Dartmouth / Tuck*
Duke / Fuqua*
Harvard*
Indian School of Business*
INSEAD*
London Business School*
MIT / Sloan*
Michigan / Ross*
Northwestern / Kellogg*
NYU / Stern*
Oxford / Said*
Penn / Wharton*
Stanford GSB*
UCLA / Anderson*
UNC / Kenan-Flagler*
USC / Marshall*
UT Austin / McCombs*
UVA / Darden*
Yale SOM*
* denotes '09-'10 commentary

Categories
Use categories to access all that has been written on each of the topics. We have categorized by school and by subject matter.

Interview Reports
A selection of interview field reports from fellow applicants posted to the MBA Admissions Wiki. Add your reports when you are finished with your interviews.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan / Ross
MIT / Sloan
Stanford
UNC / Chapel Hill
Virginia / Darden
Wharton
London Business School

GMAT Resources
MBA.com
Manhattan GMAT
GMAT Club
Princeton Review
Test Prep New York
Kaplan
Beat The GMAT
Knewton

Writing Resources
Guide to Grammar and Writing
The Internet Grammar of English
English Usage, Style and Composition
The Economist Style Guide
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant

School Rankings
Rankings are a good way to start your research on various MBA Programs. Keep in mind each uses a different methodology.
Business Week
Economist
Financial Times
Forbes
USNews
Wall Street Journal

Career Guides
The following resources should be useful to those who want to research the careers open to them after (or before) earning an MBA.
Vault.com
Wetfeet

Business School Resources
The following are business resources offered by a variety of leading Business Schools. It's useful to subscribe to these resources, especially for the schools to which you are applying.

MBA Programs: North America
If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
Berkeley / Haas
Boston College / Carroll
Carnegie Mellon / Tepper
Chicago
Columbia
Concordia
Cornell / Johnson
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Emory / Goizueta
Harvard
HEC Montreal
Indiana / Kelley
Michigan
MIT / Sloan
Northwestern / Kellogg
New York / Stern
North Carolina / Kenan Flagler
Notre Dame / Mendoza
Pennsylvania / Wharton
Queens
Stanford
Syracuse / Whitman
Texas / McCombs
Thunderbird
Toronto
USC / Marshall
UCLA / Anderson
Vanderbilt / Owen
Virginia / Darden
Washington University in St. Louis / Olin
Western Ontario / Ivey
Yale

MBA Programs: Rest of the World
As there is some variety in the length of international MBA programs, we have denoted the length of the program next to its name (1 = one year; 2 = 2 years). If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
AGSM (Australia) 2
Cambridge / Judge (UK) 1
CIEBS (China) 2
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (China) 1
Cranfield School of Mgmt (UK) 1
ESADE (Spain) 1 or 2
HEC (France) 2
Hult (UK) 1
IESE (Spain) 2
IMD (Switzerland) 1
INCAE (Costa Rica) 2
INSEAD (France) 1
IPADE (Mexico)
ISB (India) 1
London Business School (UK) 2
Manchester Bus. School (UK) 2
Melbourne (Australia) 2
Oxford / Said (UK) 1
Rotterdam (Netherlands) 1
Tsinghua IMBA (China) 2
University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) 1

Additional Resources
Here we link a host of additional resources available across the web. E-mail info@clearadmit.com to have resources added to this list.
AACSB International
Association of MBAs
Beyond Grey Pinstripes
EFMD
gradschools.com (worldwide)
Infozee
International Student Loans
mba.com (GMAT Scores)
MBAInfo
mbaleague.blogspot.com
MBAzone
MBA Jungle
TOEFL
Top MBA

MBA Tipline
We encourage admissions officers, students and applicants to alert us of interesting news and developments, please send an email to news@clearadmit.com so we can blog it.

Blog Archive

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ARCHIVE FOR FEBRUARY 2004

Thursday, February 26, 2004

“D-day” for Duke

Today is the ‘Round 2′ notification date for the Duke/Fuqua MBA program. For relevant discussion with other Duke R2 applicants, check out the BW Thread: http://forums.businessweek.com/bw-bschools/messages?msg=50749.1

The Clear Admit team would like to congratulate all those admitted to the class of 2006! Your hard work has truly paid off! We would also like to offer our support to those of you who did not make the cut this time. We encourage you to keep in mind the following points:

1) If you absolutely must go to b-school this fall, there are many other top schools with late round deadlines forthcoming (see our posting from Tuesday for details). Given the shift in application volume, this may be one of the few years to actually consider late applications.

2) Duke is very re-applicant friendly. In fact, feel free to send us any brief questions you may have about your odds as a re-applicant or plans going forward (be sure to provide relevant stats/background info). We’re happy to offer an initial assessment.

0 Comments »

# posted by Clear Admit @ 7:38 pm in School: Duke / Fuqua

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Wharton and Pearson (Financial Times, Penguin, etc.) Launch Wharton School Publishing

Interesting news. For details, check out the following: http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/whartonfacts/news_and_events/newsreleases/2004/p_2004_2_138.html

0 Comments »

# posted by Clear Admit @ 7:22 pm in School: Penn / Wharton

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Important Dates

While many of you are awaiting word on ’round 2′ applications, there seems to be some interest in the late deadlines this year (perhaps spurred on by the decrease in application volume and subsequent solicitation by the schools). Here is a quick guide to several important deadlines that are approaching:

Feb-27: London Business School
March-1: U. Michigan
March-1: Columbia (international applicants)
March-3: IESE
March-5: UNC and UC Berkeley
March-11: Harvard
March-12: Kellogg and Yale
March-15: NYU and Cornell
March-16: Stanford
March-18: Wharton
March-19: U. Chicago
March-22: Carnegie Mellon and Duke
March-24: Insead*
March-31: UVA

and in April, there are deadlines for Dartmouth, IMD and UCLA….(amongst others).

* Insead’s deadline is for their January start date.

0 Comments »

# posted by Clear Admit @ 6:17 pm in Deadlines

Friday, February 20, 2004

Feedback from our clients…

This is the time of year when clients send us their thoughts on the services we provide. One client recently sent us this email to Eliot Ingram (co-founder of Clear Admit):

—– Original Message —–
From:
To: eliot@clearadmit.com
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2004 12:52 AM
Subject: testimonial

Dear Eliot,

I wanted to thank you for your help and write a testimonial that you can use (see below). I will not hesitate to recommend Clear Admit or serve as a reference.

“There is absolutely NO way I would have been accepted to three highly ranked business schools had I not used Clear Admit’s services. They not only helped me narrow down my list of schools, but were able to help me market myself in a consistent, unique, and competitive manner that I believe allowed me to stand out. As a ‘nontraditional’ applicant I was worried that I didn’t have a good enough story. Clear Admit helped me tell my story and turn my perceived weakness into a definite strength. They also helped me to decide whether or not to take the GMAT again, edited my essays, and prepared me for my interviews. In fact, at three interviews, I was not asked a question that my Clear Admit consultant hadn’t already asked me during our mock interview! Although my GMAT score was close to 40 points below the average of the schools at which I was accepted, Clear Admit did an amazing job of helping me highlight the strengths of my application. I would recommend Clear Admit to anyone applying to B school. They will help you get in to schools that may at first seem out of your league. It is great that I now get to pick where I want to go. Eternal thanks to the entire Clear Admit staff.”

0 Comments »

# posted by Clear Admit @ 11:35 am in General

Thursday, February 19, 2004

Sample Interview Questions for HBS

Here are a handful of sample questions for those of you preparing for your ’round 2′ HBS interviews. These are taken from our database of HBS-specific questions, but they should be of use for anyone approaching an MBA interview.

Clear Admit’s HBS Interview Questions, Section 1: Leadership

1. Tell me about a recent leadership experience since submitting application (e.g. not in your essays).
2. Expand on the leadership essay #1.
3. Tell me about a leadership experience with a college activity and a community activity.
4. What is your leadership style? What qualities should a good leader possess?
5. What is your best leadership example?
6. What have you learned from good leaders? Who is your hero?
7. Have you ever had a bad manager? Why was he/she bad? What did you do about it? What were the results of your actions?
….

Contact Clear Admit for more information about our HBS mock-interview services. We’ll review your HBS file and develop a custom non-blind interview that helps you focus on the areas that HBS is likely to probe.

0 Comments »

# posted by Clear Admit @ 4:46 pm in School: Harvard

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

HBS interviews trickling out!

HBS has begun inviting ’round 2′ applicants for interviews. HBS’s ‘non-blind’ interview style is very different when compared to schools like Kellogg, Wharton or Stanford. As such, it requires careful preparation. Contact us for details and access to our HBS sample questions and interview strategy guide.

0 Comments »

# posted by Clear Admit @ 5:54 pm in School: Harvard

Wharton interview invitations, rejection letters

February 19th is the last day that Wharton will be releasing ’round 2′ interview invitations. They will also notify all ’round 2′ candidates who did not receive an invite to inform them that they have been denied admission to the school.

While tomorrow will undoubtedly be difficult for many applicants, the benefit of this early notification is that it gives candidates a chance to regroup and assess their profile/positioning strategy prior to the ’round 3′ deadlines for other schools. In many cases, this ‘early feedback’ from Wharton can serve as a turning point – enabling an applicant to have a greater impact in the late rounds (or as a re-applicant).

0 Comments »

# posted by Clear Admit @ 5:17 pm in School: Penn / Wharton

Thursday, February 12, 2004

Schools soliciting ‘Round 3′ applications?

A few Clear Admit clients have alerted us to an interesting phenomenon of late. A handful of top-15 schools are actually emailing candidates to encourage late season applications (Columbia, Tuck and Fuqua are the names that have come up most frequently). As we have reported here over the past few months, many top schools are looking at substantial decreases in application volume (anywhere from 15-25%). Based on this, many admissions committees are still searching for highly qualified applicants to help ’round out’ their classes. As such, it still makes sense for solid applicants to consider late applications this year.

0 Comments »

# posted by Clear Admit @ 6:44 pm in MBA News

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Getting Ready for the Interview

Now that the ’round 2′ interview invites are being handed out, many of you are turning your attention towards preparing for your interview(s). Here are a handful of basic tips that should help you prepare:

1. Find out who conducts the interviews. If possible, you should always go into an interview with an understanding of who might be sitting opposite you. Will it be a second year MBA student? A seasoned admissions officer? The admissions director? A professor? An alum? In each of these cases, you might build a different approach. For example, an alumni interview might be fairly casual – over a lunch meeting or coffee – whereas a sit-down with the admissions director on the MBA campus should have a fairly different feel.

2. Find out what type of interview the school typically conducts. Will your interview be ‘blind’ (based solely on a resume that you bring with you)? Will it be non-blind (consisting of targeted questions based on a thorough review of your MBA application)? Semi-bind? Will it be a ‘fit’ interview? A ‘behavioral’ interview? A ’stress’ interview? Will it last 30 or 60 mintues? All of these details are crucial as you prepare. The more you know about the interview’s structure, the more comfortable you will be when it’s time to step up to the plate.

3. Practice. Get your hands on sample interview questions via web sites, discussion boards or any of the quality publications out there. Practice your responses to the questions – keeping in mind that the only way to prepare is to actually work on your answers with another person. Reading over sample questions and convincing yourself that you’ve got an answer is simply not enough. Hearing how your answers sound is key.

4. Work on your resume (if needed for the interview). Get your vital information onto a single page that is very easy to follow (in some cases, two pages may be acceptable – but this is extremely rare).

These basic tips merely scratch the surface. Contact Clear Admit to learn more about our school-by-school interview guides, resume editing help and mock interviewing services. We’ve helped hundreds of applicants improve their interviewing skills and find success in an often decisive aspect of the admissions process.

0 Comments »

# posted by Clear Admit @ 11:04 am in Admissions Tips

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Background Checks

As some of you may know, many of the top MBA programs engage in a verification/fact-checking process for those candidates they admit. This involves finding out whether the applicant worked where they claim to have worked, earned the salary they listed in their application, received recommendations from the people cited on the application forms (rather than making them up), etc.

The purpose of this exercise is to protect all stakeholders of the MBA program (students, faculty, staff, alumi) from those who would seek to falsify their background and pervert the admissions process. It goes without saying that background checks are a good idea, yet there have been varying levels of protest from applicants on the Business Week b-school discussion boards.

In particular, there has been an interesting debate about Wharton’s charging admitted students $73 for the verification/background check. See the thread for the entire discussion. Also, here’s the Wharton Admissions Director’s official response on the matter.

0 Comments »

# posted by Clear Admit @ 3:25 pm in General

Monday, February 09, 2004

How we’re doing…

Clear Admit clients continually update us with their results in the MBA admissions process. Now that the first round of MBA admissions is rapidly disappearing in the rear-view mirror, here’s a partial listing of the schools that our clients have been admitted to thus far:

Berkeley/Haas, Cambridge/Judge, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth/Tuck, Duke/Fuqua, Emory, Harvard, HEC, IESE, Insead, Kellogg/Northwestern, London Business School, Michigan, MIT, NYU/Stern, Oxford/Said, Rotman, Stanford, UCLA, UNC, USC, UVA/Darden, Wharton, Yale SOM.

Once again, we’re having a strong showing across the board. We’ll be adding to this list as we get more news from our clients.

0 Comments »

# posted by Clear Admit @ 11:22 am in General

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Wiki

MBA Admissions Wiki
The Clear Admit Wiki is designed to allow b-school applicants to share their experiences through the application process. You can learn from others' experiences and contribute your own reports to the community. Below are the five most popular pages in the wiki:
Wharton Interview Field Reports
HBS Interview Field Reports
Kellogg Interview Field Reports
Chicago Interview Field Reports
Columbia Interview Field Reports

Discussion Boards

BusinessWeek Forums
The BusinessWeek Discussion Boards are another way to learn about the issues applicants face. Clear Admit hosts the Ask Clear Admit thread, which should help answer your questions. Here is a link to the original interface (for those of you who didn't like the recent upgrade). Also, here are the five most recent discussions taking place in the forum:

Beat The GMAT Forums
Clear Admit is a featured expert in the BeatTheGMAT forums, answering questions from applicants across the globe. Feel free to ask us your questions in this forum! Here are the most recent posts:

StudyLink Forums
Clear Admit manages the Applying section of the StudyLink MBA discussion boards.

GMAT Club Forums
Below are the five most recent posts to the GMAT Club message boards.

Error: Feed has a error or is not valid

student 2 student
The student-2-student Discussion Boards are managed by Wharton. Here are the five most recent discussions.

School-Hosted Blogs

Straight from the source: aggregated posts from students and administration. Below are the seven most recent posts in school-hosted blogs.

Individuals' Blogs

A selection of the latest updates to MBA blogs compiled by Hella.
MBA Applicants

MBA Students

Bloggers by School

The following are links to bloggers at each of the schools listed.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan
MIT / Sloan
New York / Stern
North Carolina / Chapel Hill
Stanford
Virginia / Darden
Wharton
Yale
ESADE
IESE
INSEAD
London Business School

Community Blogs

Bshoolers.com
Community blog with MBA student and alum contributors.

Forté Foundation MBA Diaries
Video blog entries posted by women MBA students.

Owen Bloggers
Independent blog with content by Vanderbilt MBA students.

Best of Blogging

2008-2009 Top Ten: