Career Guides
Clear Admit Career GuidesUnderstand 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.

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

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.

Program 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

B-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.
knowledge@wharton
INSEAD Knowledge
Harvard Working Knowledge
Knowledge @ Emory
Columbia Ideas @ Work
knowledge@ W. P. Carey
Stanford Knowledgebase
Ross Thought in Action

MBA Programs: The 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.

Additional Resources

Archives

In the News…

A number of interesting news items have been published over the last few days:

We start with the Economist, which has just released a special report on higher education, focusing on the internationalization of university offerings and the future of what has become a rapidly growing, increasingly competitive education market. In addition to this extensive report, there is an opinion piece about the Larry Summers situation at Harvard University.
(a subscription is required to access these two articles)
http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3690585
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3695933

Speaking of the competitive and increasingly innovative market for higher education, there is an interesting article in Forbes about a new type of action-based MBA program on offer. The program puts students in real situations – forcing them to run a company, launch a . . . → Continue Reading

Article: Tech Industry Recruiting

CBS MarketWatch has published an interesting article about the increase in hi-tech job offers for MBA graduates. The author of the article spoke with representatives from MIT/Sloan, Stanford, Harvard Business School and Berkeley/Haas and found that all of these programs are seeing a strong level of interest from firms including Google, Yahoo!, Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems.

Here are a few key points from the article:
1) Harvard has seen the number of tech-industry job postings double this year
2) Berkeley’s career office has noted the return of firms like Hewlett-Packard and Xilinx after several years of absence
3) Yahoo has made a push into the world of MBA recruiting, visiting MIT/Sloan for the first time ever

For the full text of the article: click . . . → Continue Reading

Article: Heard on Campus

Business Week’s Francesca Di Meglio has launched a b-school news/tidbits column for the online edition of the publication. The latest edition, published yesterday, covers some interesting news items, such as Chicago’s decision to relocate their European campus from Barcelona to London, changes in career services leadership at Wharton and e-bay bidding for a spot in business school.

For the full text of the column: . . . → Continue Reading

Feed Your Mind

While many of our readers follow this and other MBA-related blogs, we’d like to highlight two publications that are worth tracking along with some tips on how to maximize your blog-reading efforts:

HBS Working Knowledge
This online publication follows trends in the business world and offers new articles on a weekly basis (many of which are culled from the Harvard Business Review). The latest issue includes articles on whether or not business management should be a licensed profession (Is Business Management a Profession?), retail (Zara’s Secret for Fast Fashion) and the surplus of VC funding (The VC Quandary: Too Much Money).
web site: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/index.jhtml
RSS feed: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/rss/rss.xml

Knowledge@Wharton
As one of the first publications of it’s kind, this bi-weekly offering . . . → Continue Reading

School for Scandal?

The Economist has published an excellent article about corporate scandals and the role of the MBA in training future leaders. While many publications have been playing the blame game – using the MBA degree as their scapegoat – the Economist takes a refreshing approach on the topic, pointing out that the vast majority of those business leaders who are in trouble never pursued an MBA education.

For the full text of the article as well as links to related stories on the . . . → Continue Reading

MIT Waitlist Update

In a rather unusual move, MIT/Sloan has decided to pare down their waiting list this week. They will be reviewing the list over the next few days and notifying candidates of a change in status by Monday, February 28th. Waitlisters will either find out that they have been removed from the list and denied admission from Sloan, or that they will remain on the list for consideration later in the admissions season.

Why is the adcom making this move now?
In prior years, the waitlist was essentially left alone until April (post-R2 decisions). This year, our understanding is that the school placed a fair number of R1 applicants on the waitlist (due to slightly lower than expected admissions volume in R1) only to . . . → Continue Reading

A New Kind of MBA Loan Forgiveness?

For many international students considering a top MBA program in the United States, the major obstacle is cost. This is particularly true if one applies from a developing country and intends to return home to a low salary post-MBA. An article in today’s India Times highlights this difficulty and talks about several new loan forgiveness programs that are in the works at the top schools:

“The idea is of encouraging and being open to people going back to their country of origin and (they) being able to afford that choice” – Daniel N Rudolph, senior associate dean of Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB)”
For the full article: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1024323.cms

In other news, a couple of bloggers have been doing a wonderful job of . . . → Continue Reading

GMAT Volume on the Rise

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) has just reported that the number of GMAT tests taken in January of 2005 is higher than the number of tests taken in January of 2004. This is the first up-tick in volume since the 2001-2002 timeframe. If this trend continues, one should expect increased application volume in the coming admissions cycle.

According to the report, overall GMAT volume in January increased by 4.8%, with a 5.5% increase in the US and a 3.5% increase outside of the US. India registered a 12% increase, while France was up 14% and Taiwan up 37%. For the details of the study as well as 4-year trends in test-taker volume, visit the GMAC site:
http://www.gmac.com/gmac/ResearchandTrends/GMATStatistics/CurrentGMATVolume.htm

In related news, GMAC’s Graduate . . . → Continue Reading

Article: HBS Goes Long, Interview Resources

According to the Harvard Crimson, HBS has just hired Andy Wasynczuk, the senior vice president and COO of the New England Patriots, as a senior lecturer for their MBA program. He is the first sports executive to join the HBS faculty and will begin co-teaching a negotiations course this spring.

For the full text of the article: http://www.thecrimson.com/today/article505724.html

In other MBA news, Wharton, HBS and Stanford interview invites continue to go out to R2 applicants. For relevant interview-prep discussions and tips on these and other invite-only programs, use the links below. You may also contact Clear Admit directly to learn about our school-by-school 2005 interview guides and mock-interview services.

Wharton
http://forums.businessweek.com/bw-bschools/messages?msg=60749.1
http://www.clearadmit.com/2005/01/admissions-tip-wharton-interviews.html
http://s2s.wharton.upenn.edu/wh-wharton/messages?msg=9101.1
http://adcomblog.wharton.upenn.edu/admissions/2005/01/interview_invit.html

Harvard
http://forums.businessweek.com/bw-bschools/messages?msg=60301.286
http://www.clearadmit.com/2004/11/admissions-tip-hbs-interview.html
http://www.clearadmit.com/2004/12/admissions-tip-hbs-interview-report.html
http://www.clearadmit.com/2005/01/admissions-info-harvard-notes-deadline.html

Stanford
http://forums.businessweek.com/bw-bschools/messages?msg=61228.5
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/connect/newsletter/04_10_director.html

MIT
http://forums.businessweek.com/bw-bschools/messages?msg=61111.1
. . . → Continue Reading

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 . . . → Continue Reading

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: . . . → Continue Reading

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 . . . → Continue Reading

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 . . . → Continue Reading

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 . . . → Continue Reading

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 . . . → Continue Reading

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 . . . → Continue Reading