3) Follow the waitlist rules.

CASE A: Schools that accept supplemental materials. If a school hints that you may want to provide a supplemental essay or recommendation letter, then by all means, take this offer seriously and get something together for them. Approach these materials in the same way that you would approach the application process (e.g. do not just send along something that you dash off in a matter of minutes). If you have several items you wish to send, it may make sense to spread them out over the course of a few weeks to demonstrate steady interest.

CASE B: Schools that do not accept supplemental materials. This may sound obvious, but if a school indicates that they do not want supplemental materials, then you should respect their guidelines. In other words, do not send along a new recommendation or an essay if the program has clearly indicated that you should not do so. There may be exceptions to this - for example, if a dramatic change has taken place in your candidacy - but in most cases, you should simply follow the rules. [Contact us to learn about other ways to improve your waitlist status with schools that frown on supplemental materials.]

4) Consider a school visit. It may make sense to visit the school, particularly if you have not been before. So many different things can happen on a visit:

a) You never know when you’ll have that chance meeting with an admissions officer who is willing to give you a little feedback (and who through the process of meeting you face to face might get a better sense of your candidacy)

b) A school may take note of your visit (if you sign in with the admissions office) and view it as a potential sign of your interest

c) You may interact with students or professors who can better inform you of opportunities at the school and provide you with helpful ‘content’ for any waitlist materials you go on to submit

d) By visiting, you may find out that school X is really not for you, enabling you to move on and remove yourself from the waitlist

Just as there are a number of waitlist to-do items, there are also countless things to avoid doing. We’ll devote another post to that at a later date. Please contact the Clear Admit offices for questions about waitlist strategy and our related services (info@clearadmit.com, +1 215-772-1750).

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Stanford, Chicago, Wharton

Stanford has started calling R1 applicants who have been admitted! Derrick Bolton, Director of Admissions, has contacted applicants across the globe - but given the frenzy of postings in the BW discussion forums, he’s far from finished making all the calls. Our fingers are crossed for those of you who are still awaiting word!

According to this blog, Chicago is fully poised to notify their R1 admits. It appears that a R2 applicant (who happened to be interviewing on campus) witnessed the admissions staff preparing admit packs for R1 applicants. The phone calls should begin shortly. Check in here with other Chicago R1 applicants.

With Wharton’s first round of admissions complete, we thought we would offer some interesting statistics on how things have been going on their end. According to an email that went out to alumni, the admissions office visited 75 cities in 48 countries around the world this year. Attendance at these events was up 60% over last year (this may explain why the school is holding strong with their application volume). In addition, R1 saw over 400 students admitted to the program. For those of you doing the math, Wharton admitted 1219 students in total last year, which means that they still have 800 offers left to make (assuming a similar predicted yield). Of course, keep in mind that a percentage of those offers will go to R1 waitlisted candidates.

Finally, we’d like to draw your attention to the most recent Wharton MBA Admissions Blog posting about visiting schools. It should be of interest to class of ‘08 early birds as well as R3 candidates.

Monday, January 17, 2005

Key Deadlines and Decisions

This week features the following MBA application deadlines for top programs:

Dartmouth/Tuck - Monday, January 17th (today!)
INSEAD - Wednesday, January 19th (R3 of four rounds)
MIT/Sloan - Wednesday, January 19th (final round)
UC Berkeley - Friday, January 21st (R3 of four rounds)

There are also several decision deadlines for R1 applicants. Here are the schools that will be delivering news as the week progresses:

MIT/Sloan - Tuesday, January 18th
Stanford - Tuesday, January 18th
Harvard - Wednesday, January 19th
Chicago - Friday, January 21st

Best of luck to those of you racing for the deadlines or anxiously awaiting decisions!

Friday, January 14, 2005

More Deadline/Policy Changes?

This season has been marked by an unusual amount of mid-season deadline policy changes on the part of top MBA programs.

In the first round, we saw schools like Chicago, Michigan and Darden bump their deadlines back to give applicants more time (and to address technical problems with online systems). In recent weeks, a similar shift occurred for the R2 date at Chicago and the rolling/fellowship deadline at Columbia (again, due to systems issues). Similarly, Dartmouth/Tuck extended their on-campus interview deadline through the end of January.

Beyond deadline changes, this blog has also noted that Columbia began reviewing rolling applications earlier than their published date of January 10th.

Finally, INSEAD has just added a fourth admissions round to their September 2005 intake. While the third and final round had previously been slated for next week (January 19th), the school is now offering a fourth round with a deadline of March 23rd, 2005. The most recent edition of the INSEAD newsletter cites feedback from applicants as the primary cause for this change in policy, although we also think it makes sense for INSEAD to offer a late round that is more or less timed with final rounds at Harvard, Kellogg, Wharton, Stanford and Chicago.

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Article: Connecting Outside the Classroom

The Wall Street Journal’s College Journal has just published an interesting article about how MBA students team up with their classmates in order to connect with CEOs and high level executives. The story focuses on a student at MIT/Sloan who, along with a group of classmates, organized a networking event with media executives from Miramax, Bertelsmann AG and other top media firms.

Read the article here:
http://www.collegejournal.com/jobhunting/searchstrategies/20050112-needleman.html

While this story focuses on the media and entertainment sector, there are two very valuable lessons that can be taken away for MBA applicants:

1) Students who collaborate under the marquee of a top MBA program have the power to reach out to companies in a way that no individual can replicate. This is part of the appeal of attending business school.

2) Most of the top MBA programs play host to dozens of conferences, forums and executive speaker series each year. These events offer students tremendous opportunities to learn while making the kinds of connections that can further their career. Although MBA rankings tend to focus on the caliber of learning that goes on inside the classroom, it’s often these extracurricular events that can really shape a student’s experience in business school.

This is why it pays to do your homework as an MBA applicant and reach out to the current students who are organizing events in your field of interest. You can do this by contacting the head of the student club that interests you (most clubs have web sites with email contact info for club officers). The more you know about the program, the more likely it is that you will submit informed essays. Learning about these extracurricular events will also help you to refine your school selection.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Admissions Info: Kellogg News

The last week has been very active for the Kellogg School of Management, as the school has released more R1 decisions. We’d like to congratulate those of you who received the good news! We’d also like to offer some words of encouragement to those of you who were waitlisted - since history has shown that R1 waitlisters have fairly good odds of ultimately making the cut. The nice thing about Kellogg’s WL process is that it allows applicants to add information to their file and take steps to improve their chances.

For those of you who were not offered a spot at Kellogg this year, we encourage you to regroup and stay focused on your remaining schools (or any plans you have for reapplication). The following blog, by Wakechick, has taken a positive and humorous approach to dealing with a negative decision.

In other Kellogg news, there is a lot of good discussion in the BW Forums about the decisions that have been coming out. Finally, Business Week recently published an interview with Dipak Jain, the school’s dean, about his experiences in Phuket, Thailand during the tsunamis.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Admissions Info: Application Volume; Columbia Explained

With R2 numbers now tallied, the Wharton adcom is reporting stable application volume for the season thus far. The school received 3300 applications in R2, to go along with the 1750 received in R1. This totals 5,050 apps for the year, just 572 applications shy of last year’s total for the three rounds (5,622). See the Wharton admissions blog for details.

While this a good sign for Wharton (since they’ve maintained volume despite the decline in the number of GMAT test takers), our sources indicate that other programs may not be having such solid years. We’ll have to wait until the end of the season to know for sure, but we expect things to remain flat or down a tick across the board. With recruiting signs in the positive, but the 2001-2003 recession still in memory, we’re clearly seeing the “market-lag” admissions effect that we’ve described in this blog before.

On another front, there seems to be a great deal of confusion about Columbia’s admissions process in recent days. Essentially, Columbia has a very simple process, that is somewhat clouded by several caveats and recent changes in policy. Here’s our attempt at demystifying their process:

Basic Process
Columbia offers rolling admissions to their 2-year MBA program. This means that they continuously admit people over the course of the season, as opposed to dividing the admissions period into rounds. This season, candidates can submit their applications anytime from October 12th, 2004 - April 20th, 2005 for consideration in the class of 2007. Applications are processed in the order in which they are received, with applicants receiving decisions within 12 weeks of applying.

Caveats
1) Although applicants can apply anytime from October 12th, 2004 - April 20th, 2005, the school claims that they do not begin reading files until January 10th, 2005*. However, they do stipulate that applications will be processed in the order they are received.
2) International applicants must apply before March 1st, 2005.
3) Any applicant wishing to pursue a merit-based fellowship must apply by January 10th.**
4) The school encourages people to apply sooner rather than later, since the likelihood of admission in March or April decreases (as fewer spots remain in the class).
5) The school also offers a binding early decision (ED) option for applicants who apply between August and early October. Given the time-frame, this option is no longer available this season.

* This year, Columbia began reading applications a bit earlier.
**Due to online application issues, Columbia has extended this deadline until January 12th, 2005.

Monday, January 10, 2005

Admissions Info: Chicago R2 Deadline

For those of you who didn’t see this on Friday….

Chicago GSB
Full-Time Program Second-Round Application Update
Due to a tremendous amount of user traffic in the past 48 hours, our system has been significantly slowed in its ability to process all the demands of such high user volume. We are working closely with our external vendor to improve system response, but we have not yet been able to decrease the response time to an adequate performance level. Therefore, we have extended our second round deadline to noon (CST) on Wednesday, January 12. Thank you for your patience.

Admissions Info: Columbia Reading Before the 10th?

There has been an interesting development at Columbia Business School. Last week, the admissions committee began issuing interview invites to applicants applying in the rolling decision period (RD). This is notable, since according to their web site, the application review period for rolling admissions does not start until January 10th (today). Obviously, with the committee issuing invites pre-January 10th, it’s clear that they have gotten a bit of a headstart on the RD review process…

In other news, the January edition of Stanford’s Admissions Newsletter is now available online. Of particular note is the Director’s Corner, where Derrick Bolton discusses the meaning of diversity at Stanford.

Finally, this week looks to be another busy one, with deadlines for CMU, UVA/Darden, Yale, UNC/Kenan-Flagler, Cornell and NYU. Best of luck to everyone working on their applications!

Friday, January 07, 2005

The MBA Recruiting Scene

Since we’ve been running Clear Admit for several years, we have a sizeable group of former clients who are either currently attending the top MBA programs or already back out in the work force post-MBA. One of the greatest aspects of our contact with Clear Admit alumni is that they help us to keep our finger on the pulse of the job market.

In assembling the various tidbits we’ve picked up in recent weeks, one thing has become clear: recruiting at the top b-schools is taking off. One of our alums described the scene at Wharton, emphasizing that all the banks and consulting firms are recruiting big time, signing bonuses are back and many second year students have multiple offers.

This sentiment has recently been reflected in the following articles:
MBAs Are Rebounding in a Major Way - Arizona Business Gazette
Recruiting Is on the Rise at Many Top B-Schools - WSJ College Journal
Consulting Firms Court New M.B.A. Recruits - WSJ College Journal
MIT Sloan MBAs Feeling Better About Job Prospects - MIT Press Release
Starting M.B.A. Salaries Are on the Rise Again - WSJ College Journal
MBA Recruiting Has Evolved with the Times - Consultant News

Although we’re not yet seeing the boom years of the late 90’s, it’s safe to say that the world of MBA recruiting has pulled itself out of the 2001-2003 slump. Best of luck to all the Clear Admit alumni who are currently going through the recruiting process!

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Article: Reverse Rankings?

Although several business school ranking surveys rely heavily on recruiter opinion (WSJ, BusinessWeek, etc.) the Stanford GSB students have potentially turned the rankings system inside-out by developing their own ranking of recruiters. Here’s the explanation from the school’s site:

“Student members of the Career Management Center Committee created the Recruiter Excellence Award this year to honor companies that have shown a high degree of professionalism, creativity, and responsiveness in recruiting Stanford MBAs. Any company that recruited Stanford MBA students, on or off campus, was eligible to receive the honor, which will be awarded annually.”

According to the ranking, PepsiCo, Inc., The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Eli Lilly and Company claimed top honors. Perhaps this is the start of a new trend across the top MBA programs? Stay tuned.

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/2004cmcrecruiteraward.shtml

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Admissions Info: Harvard Notes, Deadline Delays

HBS Interview Questions
We’ve had more of our clients report back to us on the latest interview questions in use at Harvard Business School. Here is a sample of some of the questions they’ve seen:-Why do you like doing what you do?
-Why did you take your current position?
-What is your main challenge in your current post? Why?
-Tell me about a recent project at work.
-Where did you learn how to succeed in your current role?
-How do you motivate people to work for you?
-What are your management weaknesses? How will HBS help you with them?
-What challenges might you face at HBS?
-What book have you recently read?
-What motivates you?
-What question do you wished that I had asked?

Deadline Delays for Tsunami
Nearly all of the top MBA programs are offering some deadline flexibility to applicants who have been affected by the terrible events in southern Asia. In most instances, the schools request that applicants contact them directly to obtain permission on a case-by-case basis. Stanford sent an email to applicants offering an extension to January 27th, Chicago also sent out the following email:

—– Original Message —–
From: Ahlm, Kurt
To:
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 3:32 PM
Subject: Chicago GSB Application Reminder

Dear xxxxxxx,

Thank you for your interest in Chicago GSB. This e-mail is just a reminder that our second round application deadline is this Friday, January 7th (11:59 PM, CST). If you are applying for this round we look forward to receiving your application and would like to wish you the very best in this process. Should you have any last minute questions or concerns about your application please contact the admission office at (773) 702-7369 or by e-mail at admissions@ChicagoGSB.edu

Also, in light of the recent events in Southeast Asia, Chicago GSB will be accepting petitions for deadline extensions. These petitions will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and will only be granted to those who were unable to complete their applications as a direct result of this past week’s events. If you wish to submit a petition please e-mail your request to the admissions account listed above. We will evaluate these requests in the order which they were received.

Best wishes on your application and please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Kurt Ahlm

Kurt Ahlm
Director, Full-Time Admissions
Chicago GSB

We strongly recommend checking in with the schools and asking for an extension before their official deadlines pass.

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