Keep in mind that most applicants enter the MBA interview process over-confident and under-prepared. Be sure to do your homework, practice your delivery and go into the interview with the right approach.

Monday, February 14, 2005

Europe vs. the USA, One Year or Two?

Business Week has published an interesting article about the increased competition between European and American MBA programs, citing the rising popularity of several 1-year European MBA programs as well as the recent declines in international application volume seen at the top schools in the United States (particularly among Indian and Chinese applicants). Clear Admit’s Graham Richmond is quoted in the article:
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/feb2005/bs20050211_8028_bs001.htm

While the Business Week piece tends to suggest substantial momentum on the European side, we’d like to caution our readers when it comes to comparing the two degrees. Here are a few reasons why:

1) Academics. From an academic standpoint, the 1-year MBA experience is quite different from the 2-year option. While 1-year programs often boast of nearly equal course hours in comparison to 2-year options, we’re not convinced that course hours are the only indicator. Simply put, the shorter programs often provide less opportunity for learning outside the classroom (via extensive student clubs, conferences and academic programs). Also, since much of the learning takes place as students informally share their diverse experiences during their spare time, a shorter program (with a more intense schedule) typically offers less opportunity for this type of exchange.

2) Career Transition. Since the 1-year options rarely include an internship, it is often more challenging for career-switchers to jump into a new field. In addition, the sheer speed of the 1-year option makes it harder for students to adjust their goals or explore opportunities that they may not have considered upon entering the program. [We’d also like to point out that the summer internship feature of the 2-year programs offers an excellent chance for students to put their core MBA coursework to use and gain additional perspective while preparing for elective classes in the second year.]

3) Network. Many of the 1-year options available in Europe are relatively new. This not only means that employers are less familiar with the schools, but it also means that their are fewer graduates out in the workforce. Schools like Wharton boast of over 34,000 MBA graduates in their alumni database - offering a valuable professional network to members of their community. By comparison, INSEAD, has about 14,000 living alumni, IMD has roughly 2,400 and Oxford 612.

We’re obviously quite pleased to see a number of high quality MBA offerings in Europe and across the globe. We also recognize the cost advantage of the shorter, 1-year MBA options and the strength that these programs typically have in their home markets. We just want to be sure that prospective students are carefully considering and comparing their options as they move forward in the MBA admissions process.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Yale, HBS and Wharton on Fiorina Firing

The New York Times has published an interesting article about the dismissal of Carleton S. Fiorina as CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

What makes the New York Times article of note for the MBA community is that the journalist asked leading professors like Mike Useem (Wharton) and Rosabeth Kanter (Harvard) to weigh in on the news, along with Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, the Associate Dean at the Yale SOM.

For those of you who are curious, Fiorina has an MBA from the University of Maryland and a master’s of Science in Management from MIT. She pursued her undergraduate studies in medieval history and philosophy at Stanford University.

Link to the full text of the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/technology/10carly.html?

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Research Productivity Rankings

As many of our peers in the world of MBA blogging have noted, the University of Texas at Dallas has published a new ranking of MBA programs based on the number of publications a school’s faculty has produced for leading academic journals in recent years.

While we always recommend that rankings be taken with a grain of salt (particularly if they have a narrow focus), this is an interesting and almost refreshingly simple way to look at the academic strength of the leading programs. It is also a ranking that is seemingly devoid of opinion (student, recruiter or otherwise)…

Let’s take a look at two date ranges for the publication rankings:

MBA Rankings 2000-2005
University of Pennsylvania (The Wharton School)
Harvard University (Harvard Business School)
New York University (Leonard N. Stern School of Business)
Columbia University (Columbia Graduate School of Business)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan School of Management)
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA Anderson School of Management)
University of Chicago (Graduate School of Business)
Stanford University (Graduate School of Business)
Northwestern University (Kellogg School of Management)
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (Ross School of Business)

MBA Rankings 1990-2005
University of Pennsylvania (The Wharton School)
New York University (Leonard N. Stern School of Business)
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (Ross School of Business)
Columbia University (Columbia Graduate School of Business)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan School of Management)
University of Chicago (Graduate School of Business)
Harvard University (Harvard Business School)
University of Texas at Austin (Red McCombs School of Business)
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA Anderson School of Management)
Northwestern University (Kellogg School of Management)

What’s interesting about these two time periods is the rate at which HBS seems to have increased their number publications in recent years. In addition, if one looks at the numbers behind the ranking (see the UT Dallas site), it becomes very clear that Wharton is nearly doubling the publication output of their nearest peer. This is truly impressive.

Of course, it should be noted that larger schools (with greater numbers of professors) are presumably at an advantage in this survey. A publications per capita ranking might be worth exploring, of course, it depends what one is looking for in this sort of exercise. For example, Stanford may have a higher per capita publication rate than some of its peers, which would tell us that their professors are more inclined to publish on average - but that doesn’t necessarily help the Stanford brand if they simply have too few publications overall. In addition, I should remind our readers that quantity of publications may indicate ‘thought leadership’ in the academic community, but will not necessarily equate with quality of teaching skill in the MBA classroom.

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

From the Clear Admit Mailbag

There is a distinct advantage to getting a head start in the MBA admissions process. This is why so many of our clients come to us well in advance of the application deadlines. Here is a testimonial we just received from a client that began working with us nearly a year before applying:

—– Original Message —–
From: xxxxx
To: Clear Admit
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 11:49 AM
Subject: Testimonial

Hi Graham,

I put together a brief testimonial for the website (and it’s all completely true!!)…..

Feel free to post it to your site.

Thanks again!

-xxxxx

–TESTIMONIAL–
“I was the typical ‘early bird’ candidate: I wanted to start as early as possible but was completely overwhelmed by the challenge. Luckily, a year before my applications were due, I stumbled across the Clear Admit website. I purchased the initial Candidate Assessment, and it was obvious that money spent at Clear Admit would be worth every penny. My consultant then laid out a 12-month game plan that would allow me to strengthen my candidacy while applying to multiple schools in the first round the following fall. He stayed with me every step of the way - encouraging me to take evening coursework, reminding me of deadlines, editing my embarrassingly poor first drafts, and preparing me for interviews. Last month, I was accepted at HBS, Stanford, Wharton and University of Chicago! There is no doubt that much my success was the result of Clear Admit’s wonderful coaching. Clear Admit can’t change an applicant, but they can help every applicant choose the best way to position him or herself. The money I spent at Clear Admit was the best investment I’ve ever made”.

Monday, February 07, 2005

Admissions Tip: Interview Preparation

At this time of the year, many of our readers are beginning to prepare for their MBA admissions interviews. Schools like Wharton, NYU (Stern) and Columbia have begun issuing invites, and programs like Harvard, MIT, Stanford will be doing so in the coming weeks. In light of this flurry of interview activity, here are a few simple tips to help you prepare:

1) Know your audience. Who will interview you? A second-year MBA student? Admissions officer? Alum? In many cases, applicants have some degree of control over their audience (by selecting on-campus vs. local interview options, etc). Either way, it pays to think about who will be conducting the interview.

2) Know the ground rules. Is the interview blind (resume-based), or will your interviewer have read your application and prepared specific questions? How long will the interview last? Does the school conduct behavioral interviews? Fit interviews?

3) Make sure your resume shines. The vast majority of MBA applicants walk into an interview with a mediocre resume. Spend the time to polish your 1-page resume and highlight the key aspects of your profile in a coherent and concise manner.

4) Practice. It’s not enough to merely review your resume, think about your career goals or research the school. You need to ensure that your presentation of information is sound when you are forced to deliver in an interview! So many applicants shoot themselves in the foot by rambling through their responses and failing to develop structured answers to the questions posed. This is directly related to a lack of formal practice.

While these basic tips merely scratch the surface, we encourage you to push yourself and prepare as thoroughly as possible. It can be very hard for applicants to take interview prep seriously after spending so much time on essays and application forms, but it is vital.

Contact Clear Admit directly for information about our school-by-school interview guides (with sample questions), mock-interview services and resume review offerings.

Thursday, February 03, 2005

The Role of the GMAT

Many of our blog readers and clients come to us with questions about the GMAT:

1) How many times should one take the exam?
2) Is it worth retaking a score of 700?
3) Are international students expected to do as well on the test as domestic applicants?
4) How does the GMAT relate to one’s GPA?
5) Why do the schools use the GMAT?

There are now two chances this week for our readers to learn more about the role of the GMAT in MBA admissions and get the answers to these questions.

1) If you live in the New York City area, sign up for tonight’s free GMAT and MBA admissions seminar in Manhattan. Grace Wang, an HBS graduate and Manhattan GMAT instructor will be leading the session. Graham Richmond, co-founder of Clear Admit, will also be on hand to answer questions and discuss the role of the exam in the MBA admissions process. The program will run from 6:30 - 8:30 PM.

2) If you cannot make the event in New York, we’d like to alert you to a free virtual/online seminar taking place this Sunday from 10 AM - 11 AM (EST). The online seminar will be led by Zeke Vanderhoek (founder of Manhattan GMAT) and Graham Richmond. Sign up for this event now: http://www.manhattangmat.com/EventShow.cfm?EID=3&eventID=310

Early bird applicants for next fall should be sure to take advantage of these free offerings and learn more about the role of the test as they approach the admissions process.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Harvard Interview Invites

Since many of you are nervous about your R2 Harvard Business School applications, we wanted to let you know that interview invites have not yet gone out. In fact, last season, the invites did not begin going out until mid-February. While the waiting period is always very trying, we encourage everyone to hang in there!

In other HBS news, the Harvard Crimson has published an article about their program’s rise to the #1 slot in the Financial Times rankings. http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=505451

Finally, the Wharton admissions blog has a wonderful posting on the R3 dilemma. As their posting indicates, there are in fact several advantages to considering a late round application. For those of you thinking about this sort of thing, here are the key deadlines to consider:

UCLA (today!)
Georgetown (February 11th)
University of Maryland (February 15th)
USC/Marshall (February 15th)
London Business School (February 25th)
Michigan (March 1st)
UVA/Darden (March 1st)
Wharton (March 3rd)
Berkeley/Haas (March 4th)
UNC/Kenan-Flagler (March 5th)
Harvard (March 9th)
Northwestern/Kellogg (March 11th)
Cornell/Johnson (March 14th)
Duke/Fuqua (March 15th)
NYU/Stern (March 15th)
Yale SOM (March 16th)
Stanford (March 17th)
Chicago (March 18th)
Carnegie Mellon (March 21st)