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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.

Clear Admit School Guides
Seventeen titles available! Understand how the leading programs compare and learn more about the MBA experience in and beyond the classroom through Clear Admit School Guides. As featured in the Economist.

Essay Topic Analysis
Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics for the 2007-2008 admissions season.
The Career Goals Essay
Berkeley / Haas
Chicago GSB
CMU / Tepper *
Columbia
Cornell / Johnson
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
IESE *
INSEAD
London Business School
MIT / Sloan
Michigan / Ross
Northwestern / Kellogg
NYU / Stern
Oxford / Said *
Penn / Wharton
Stanford GSB
UCLA / Anderson
UNC / Kenan-Flagler
UT Austin / McCombs *
UVA / Darden
Yale SOM
* denotes last year's commentary

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School Rankings
Rankings are a good way to start your research on various MBA Programs. Keep in mind each uses a different methodology.
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ARCHIVE FOR APRIL 2004

Friday, April 30, 2004

‘World MBA Tour’ Discussion Boards and Live Chats

While most of our readers are familiar with TopMBA for their World MBA Tour (comprehensive ‘MBA fairs’ in major cities across the world), the company has a solid web presence as well. In fact, TopMBA launched their own discussion boards and online chats during the past admissions season.

Although the threads are still building up steam, the World MBA Tour team is doing a good job of responding to postings. In addition, their series of live chats (featuring a variety of hosts) have been archived for your perusal at any time.

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

A New Kind of Ranking: ‘Feeder Schools’

Several months ago, the Wall Street Journal surveyed students at the top business, law and medical schools to find out where they had pursued their undergraduate studies. They then used this information to develop a list of ‘feeder schools’ - e.g. undergraduate programs that have strong representation at the top professional schools.

While the survey is far from perfect (it blends law, MBA and medical programs, chooses only the top 5 programs in each field and has not looked at multiple years of data) it is still quite interesting. The main area of note is the relative power of the Ivy League and the small liberal arts programs when compared to larger schools and state schools.

The article is at the following address: http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/college/feederschools.htm#rankings

The ‘feeder rankings’ (in PDF format) is also available: http://wsjclassroom.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Admissions Tip: Crafting your resume…

The resume (or CV) is typically the best starting point for someone embarking on the MBA admissions process.

This is true for the following reasons:

1) Nearly every top school requires a resume. This is usually requested as part of the written application. Candidates are also required to bring a resume to their admissions interviews.

2) Crafting a resume can often serve as the creative starting point for candidates who are trying to develop their positioning strategy and career goals for the MBA admissions process. Distilling all of your experiences (educational, professional and extracurricular) into a coherent document can often be an eye-opening exercise.

3) Since MBA admissions officers are often asking themselves whether or not a candidate seems likely to gain employment upon completion of the MBA program, the resume can be a great barometer of your potential to market your skills and experiences. Obviously, the MBA itself will add to your resume, but the adcom is still curious to see how you market your experiences prior to earning the degree.

For those ‘early birds’ who are beginning to think about the admissions process, the resume is a great place to start. Contact us now to learn more about the Clear Admit Resume Guide and style templates.

Monday, April 26, 2004

Article: Job Search Differences at First- and Second-Tier Schools

Sunday’s New York Times ran an interesting article on the recruiting process for MBA graduates from various schools (ranging from Wake Forest to Wharton):

“As the tight job market accentuates the advantages that graduates of Harvard or the University of Pennsylvania enjoy even in the best of times, students from lower-tier schools must hustle even harder.”

Full text of article: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/25/edlife/EDMBAT.html?pagewanted=1

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Movement on the INSEAD waitlist…..

Good news for applicants on the INSEAD waitlist for the September start date! The school has recently begun digging into their waitlist!

INSEAD is not alone in this trend, and we expect to see movement on waitlists at many of the top schools. This stems from reduced application volume and the increased competition amongst schools to lure top candidates. Contact us via phone (215-772-1750) or email to learn more about proactively managing your waitlist status.

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Admissions Tip: Wharton Interviews

A key aspect of any Wharton interview is something the admissions committee refers to as ‘goal articulation‘. What is goal articulation? Obviously, it has something to do with the ‘career goals’ that applicants typically discuss in the essays, but there is actually much more to it. The best way to describe this is to understand the various questions that the interviewer will be trying to answer by meeting with you:

1) Can the candidate clearly articulate a set of long-term career goals?
2) Does the candidate have a short-term plan that fits with their long-term goals?
3) Does the candidate have reasons for the choices they have made in life? In other words, can the applicant explain why they attended school ‘x’, why they pursued a certain course of study, why they took their first job, why NOW is the best time for the MBA, why they are passionate about the activities they participate in, etc.

While this seems like a fairly basic concept, many candidates are unable to verbally articulate their goals and the reasons for the choices they have made. The key to success in this area is preparation and practice. Candidates should know the answers to the types of questions that are posed, then practice their delivery.

Contact us to learn more about our mock interview services and Wharton interview guide.

Monday, April 12, 2004

Business Week Editorial: “Why Harvard and Wharton Are Wrong”

Business Week has printed a second editorial on the recent HBS and Wharton decisions regarding rankings and the magazine’s access to current MBA students. The editorial, entitled Why Harvard and Wharton Are Wrong makes a strong argument for the Business Week survey and sharply criticizes the decisions made by the Dean’s Harker and Clark.

Here’s a small excerpt:

“At a time when the public demands accountability from its business leaders and institutions, Harvard’s and Wharton’s attempts to curb the most comprehensive, independent source of student opinion about the quality of their education is shameful. Harvard Dean Kim B. Clark and Wharton Dean Patrick T. Harker are trying to deny people around the world who seek a B-school education the independent information they need to make intelligent decisions.”

For full text of the editorial as well as a discussion surrounding it, click here.

Something tells me that we have yet to see the last of this issue…

Friday, April 09, 2004

False Alarm for Wharton R3 Interview Decisions

Earlier this week, the Wharton admissions committee indicated that the interview invitation deadline for ‘Round 3′ had been moved up to April 8th from the original deadline of April 14th. Then, as the new deadline was approaching, word came out that the school had fallen back to its original schedule of releasing all interview invites by April 14th (along with denial letters to those who are not invited to interview). Essentially, what this means is that there are still interview invitations going out to R3 applicants, and that they will continue to go out until the 14th. Hopefully, those of you who are waiting haven’t been too confused by this move!

For those of you who have already received an interview invitation, feel free to contact Clear Admit to learn more about our mock interview services and to gain access to our 2004 Wharton Interview Guide, sample questions, etc.

Thursday, April 08, 2004

HBS/Wharton and Business Week Continued…

Yesterday, this blog covered the news of the Wharton/HBS announcement regarding participation in the Business Week rankings. We posted the initial news (as covered in a Business Week Online letter to readers) and the official stance offered by Dean Harker at Wharton (see his email below). As discussion on this matter continues, there are a few other items that our readers may want to look into:

1) Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal published an article on the news (Elite Schools Move Against Rankings). Check out the Journal’s site (subscribers) or the following BW posting for the full text. This article suggests that other schools (like Chicago) may soon follow HBS and Wharton’s lead.

2) Business Week also responded to some questions about how the rankings survey will proceed in light of the HBS/Wharton news.

3) Finally, here is a link to the text of the memo that was sent out to HBS students, explaining the administration’s stance.

Thanks to those of you who have emailed us with pertinent information! We’ll continue to track developments here.

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Wharton’s Official Statement on the BW Rankings Issue

Here is the full text of Dean Harker’s statement:

—–Original Message—–
From: Dean Harker
Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2004 9:59 AM
Subject: Important announcement regarding rankings

The Wharton School, after very careful consideration, has decided that we will not be distributing our student or alumni e-mail lists for surveys from commercial enterprises in the future, including the upcoming MBA BusinessWeek survey. The Board of Overseers endorsed this course of action at its recent meeting in San Francisco.

Harvard Business School will announce today that it has made the same decision.

REASONING
Currently, there are many external surveys conducted by commercial publications that rank business schools - more than a dozen annually, in fact. This plethora of rankings, and the wide variety of results they produce, yields little useful data for the schools in shaping their strategic agenda. There is also a widely growing consensus, not only among business schools, but also among colleges and universities, that rankings can be misleading to consumers. Many in the academic community have questioned the methodologies employed in some rankings, as well as the fact that some publications change methodologies from year to year, leading to speculation that some rankings are driven more by editorial agendas than by objective data. We share these concerns, as do our Harvard Business School counterparts.

With regard to collecting useful data to shape our strategic direction, we conduct annual stakeholder surveys of our students, and are about to launch a similar type of annual stakeholder survey of our alumni network of nearly 80,000 graduates. The multiple requests for survey data for outside rankings not only diminish the return rate of the surveys conducted by the publications, but also reduce the response rate on the more critical internal stakeholder surveys. It is critical that the return rates on our internal stakeholder surveys are high to reflect the broadest possible range of views from our students and graduates.

A final reason for not providing e-mail addresses for this purpose is our growing concern for the privacy of our alumni and students, and preventing the possible misuse of our e-mail lists.

ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF USEFUL DATA
We recognize that applicants need information from which to compare business schools so that they can make the best choice about which program is right for them. Recruiters, as well, must have thorough information about each school’s programs to help determine whether students are the right fit for their companies. We believe the external rankings fall far short of supplying the type of objective comparative material from which prospective students or recruiters can make the most informed choices.

Wharton, Harvard and many other business schools are actively working with the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) to develop a service that will provide objective, comparative and audited data to prospective students, recruiters and the media. The project’s primary goal is to enable individuals to examine and analyze information of interest to them personally, from which they can draw their own conclusions.

In addition, there are many opportunities for students and alumni to share their experiences at their schools - and for potential applicants to ask questions of specific interest. Discussion boards, such as our own student2student discussion board, are open and unfiltered. These resources are profoundly helpful in enabling applicants to make the right decision regarding where they would most like to study and which school will help them achieve their professional goals.

DEFINING OURSELVES AND OUR BRAND
In some ways, we, along with our peer institutions, have allowed rankings to define us, not only to the outside world, but to ourselves as well. It is time to measure our institution’s excellence, not from rankings, but by the achievements of every program and by the accomplishments of our students, faculty, staff and alumni.

It is our most fervent hope that we can move forward secure in the knowledge that we have reached an extraordinarily high level of excellence and will continue to lead business education in the years ahead. We will project this image into the world, defining our brand by the true quality of our community.

Patrick T. Harker
Dean
The Wharton School
The University of Pennsylvania

Harvard and Wharton Alter Policy on Business Week Rankings Survey

According to an article just published on BW Online, Harvard and Wharton business schools will no longer be furnishing Business Week with access to their current students for the MBA rankings survey. In the past, the two schools have provided the magazine with the email addresses of current students in order to facilitate polling for the ’student satisfaction’ component of their MBA rankings survey. The student satisfaction rating has been a key aspect of the BW rankings over the years, since it is the differentiating feature of the magazine’s survey.

In the article/letter to readers, Jennifer Merritt (Business Week’s B-Schools Editor), mentions that HBS and Wharton cited ‘privacy concerns’ along with ‘other reasons’ when explaining the change in policy. The BW article stresses that over 100 schools continue to cooperate and that the survey will go forward (it is typically released in October). BW also calls for current HBS and Wharton students to contact them independently in order to participate in the student component of the survey. Wharton’s official statment on this matter is also worth reading.

In light of this news, a few questions come to mind:

1) Will other top schools follow suit based on HBS and Wharton’s decision? Do some schools have more to gain from the rankings than others?

2) The Business Week article cites the fact that Wharton and Harvard both experienced substantial drops in student satisfaction between the 2000 and the 2002 surveys. Could this have something to do with the school’s decisions or are the programs simply growing tired of ‘rankings saturation’ (Forbes, Economist, FT, WSJ, US News, BW, etc.)?

3) Will students at HBS and Wharton contact BW on their own? If so, will this be viewed as going against their administrations’ wishes? Will enough students contact BW in order to provide a statistically significant set of data?

There are many other questions that come to mind, so feel free to email us with your thoughts on this topic…

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

MBA Advice from MBA Applicants

A group of recent MBA applicants who will be joining the ‘Class of 2006′ at a variety of top schools have recently started a wonderful blog. It’s called “MBA Advice” and the tag-line reads: “Class of 2006 giving honest advice to future MBA hopefuls”.

Thus far, there have been a number of excellent articles posted in the blog - along with a solid listing of vital web links. Subjects include all aspects of the MBA admissions process (budgeting, selecting recommendation writers, choosing schools, application strategy, etc.).

Although it is important to keep in mind that ‘MBA applicants’ only offer one side of the admissions equation (since they are applicants, not admissions officers), we are impressed with the content that this site has published to date. Certainly a ‘bookmark-worthy’ site for any future applicant!

http://mbaadvice.iqexchange.com/

Monday, April 05, 2004

MIT Decisions

April 5th is the decision date for MIT/Sloan’s ‘Round 2′ applicants. Check out the latest MIT/Round 2 news on the BW Online discussion boards. In addition, for those of you who have not yet seen it, MIT has launched a new version of their home page, which predictably uses the latest in web page technology. Definitely worth a visit.

Best of luck to everyone waiting on news from MIT!

Friday, April 02, 2004

U.S. News and World Report Rankings

US News has issued their annual ranking of MBA programs. You can view the basic listing online but need to subscribe for the details. The magazine should hit newsstands on Monday as well.

The top 10 for 2005 are as follows: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Northwestern, Columbia, University of Chicago, UC Berkeley, Dartmouth and Michigan.

No earth-shattering changes, although there are a few things to note:

1) Duke has tumbled from #7 to #11 this year.
2) Michigan has cracked the top 10 after ranking #13 last year.
3) Chicago moves from #9 into a tie for #6 with Columbia.
4) Wharton moves from a 2nd place tie with Stanford to third place.
5) Starting salaries appear to be down a tick across the board. For example, HBS’ average starting salary for the class of 2002 was close to $110,000/year. The same figure for the class of 2003 is roughly $106,000/year.

Again, nothing too surprising here. The interesting thing will be to see how these rankings look next year, as acceptance rates inevitably climb, and statistics like ‘yield’ and ‘average GMAT score’ seem likely to decrease.

Thursday, April 01, 2004

Admissions Tip: Get Their Attention

Given the level of competition in the MBA admissions process, it often helps to think creatively about ways to ensure that your candidacy gets the needed attention. Along these lines, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

1) Use brightly colored paper for all written correspondence with the school (transcripts, supplemental materials, etc.). If possible, spray the paper with perfume or cologne prior to sealing it in the envelope.

2) Bring a crisp $50 bill to your interview and casually drop it on the floor when pulling out your resume. While winking, insist that the $50 must belong to the interviewer. Once the interviewer takes the cash, say the following: “So how do my chances look now that this just happened?”

3) Instead of applying online, just fill all the forms out in pencil and send them in to the committee along with photos, a homemade CD-ROM about yourself, and a video tape of your wedding, Bar Mitzvah or any other milestone events.

4) Once you’ve applied, call the admissions office at least once a week to verify that your file is complete. Then ask when they think you might hear back.

5) Bring your parents when you visit the school’s campus. Mention them frequently in your essays and interviews too.

6) When asked “Why school x?” in your essays or interviews, give this sort of response: “First and foremost, I am drawn to this program because of the ranking it received in both US News and Business Week. Second, I am looking to make some serious cash and the starting salaries for grads seems to indicate that I’ll be in good shape. Third, it’s either law school or business school and b-school seems cheaper and faster.”

7) Mention that your GMAT score is as high as it is because of the prep course you took.
April Fool’s,

Clear Admit

Business School Rankings

On the eve of the US News annual b-school rankings (which are due out this Friday), we wanted to direct your attention to an excellent academic site with links to several business school rankings. The site, run by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, compiles links to all the key MBA rankings (Business Week, US News, FT, WSJ, Economist, etc..). It also includes a number of slightly lesser known surveys that assess the schools in a variety of ways. The address is as follows:

http://www.library.uiuc.edu/edx/rankbus.htm

DISCUSSIONS / BLOGS / WIKI

• Top Bush Education Official Leaves to Lead Business School Consortium
• Fridays From the Frontline
• Harvard Business School Deadlines and Essays Topics 2008-2009
• Tuck School of Business Auction Supplements Nonprofit, Public Sector Summer Internship Salaries
• Admissions Tip: Round 3 Results

Wiki

Discussion Boards

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

Bloggers by School

Community Blogs

Best of Blogging

• Top 10 Applicants:
• July Dream
• Miss Curly Bee
• VidiViciVeni
• B-School Bound
• Tinydancer
• gltnforpnshmnt
• mbabound08
• Achilles
• Eight Schools
• MBA Runner Girl

• Top 10 Students:
• m@ (Ross)
• MaybeMBA (Chicago)
• Hair Twirler (Georgetown)
• Iday (Chicago)
• J-term Johnny (Columbia)
• La Laudiaria (Wharton)
• MBA Gladiator (Yale)
• Angel Angie (LBS)
• Necromonger (INSEAD)
• Chrisof Meyer (Darden)

• Top 10 Applicants:
• Rungee582
• Iday
• Juggler
• Asiangal
• Forrest Gump
• RusGirl
• Hair Twirler
• JatWarrior
• MBA Babe
• Anand

• Top 10 Students:
• Angel Angie (LBS)
• The Divine Miss N (LBS)
• From Cali (Ross)
• Tim K. (McCombs)
• Noelle (IESE)
• Jerry Blank (Yale)
• Benny (Tuck)
• La Laudiaria (Wharton)
• Karlitos (LBS)
• MBA Gladiator (Yale)

• Top 10 Applicants:
• MBA Jackass
• Marina
• Forrest Gump
• Pupstar78
• Axechick
• Sorebrek
• Angel Angie
• I_Will_Make_It
• Redwolf056
• Vatsa

• Top 10 Students:
• Marquis (Stanford)
• Poweryogi (Chicago)
• KV (LBS)
• FutureMBAGirl (Wharton)
• The Divine Miss N (LBS)
• Vijay (ISB)
• Wakechick (Chicago)
• NoelleBellie (IESE)
• Jerry Blank (Yale)
• Olivier (INSEAD)

• PowerYogi
• Brit-Chick
• bskewl
• WakeChick
• Dave
• Iceman07
• iwhoElse
• Atta Girl
• Aregon23
• Classy

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