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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.

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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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ARCHIVE FOR AUGUST 2005

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Admissions Tip: Defining Activities

Last week’s posting about the importance of outside activities led to several inquiries about what exactly qualifies as an activity in the eyes of an MBA admissions officer. As a means of explanation, we thought we’d use today’s posting to actually list a few of the varied activities we’ve seen over the years.

We’ve compiled this list by grouping activities into a handful of key categories. These categories apply to both collegiate and post-collegiate involvement:

1) Community/Volunteer Work. Community/volunteer work comes in many flavors. An applicant may spend time volunteering with a well-known organization (Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross, CRY, New York Cares, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, etc). There are also less formal volunteer activities, such as donating time to go food shopping for an elderly neighbor, mentoring a local high school student or working with a grassroots organization in your community.

2) Sports. Many MBA applicants enjoy participating in a range of sports. It’s not uncommon to see marathon runners, tri-athletes, golfers, cricket players, tennis players and skiers in the applicant pool. Adventure sports, such as skydiving and mountain climbing are also more and more common. Some applicants are able to combine their passion for sports with a desire to give back to their community, resulting in activities such as little league baseball coaching, charity runs and more.

3) Cultural Pursuits. It’s no surprise that applicants to the leading MBA programs are often active in arts, languages and travel. After all, b-schools are looking for well-rounded, globally-minded leaders. Membership and active involvement with a local arts organization, performance as a musician, pursuit of language coursework or conversation (via groups like the Alliance Francaise, etc) and extended travel all qualify as outside activities. So does participation in a book club, film club or concert series. Over time, we’ve seen classical violinists, rock musicians, book club founders, museum volunteers, world travelers (with expertise or passion for a specific region/culture/language) and more.

4) Professional Activities, Alumni Associations. Some applicants use their free time to engage in professional associations or stay active with their alma mata (by serving as an alumni interviewer, mentor to current students or alumni club officer). This type of involvement often allows participants to gain solid leadership and networking skills. It also suggests dedication to one’s professional field or college.

5) Other Hobbies. While many pursuits fit neatly into the various groups above, some will not. For example, a great number of applicants are passionate about gourmet cooking, international politics, rotisserie baseball, floral arrangement, religion, etc. In these cases, the actual activities will vary, but formal involvement is always helpful when it comes to supporting your interest (e.g. taking a cooking class or organizing a political discussion group is probably better than passively pursuing these interests as a consumer of fine food or reader of political publications).

We’ve no doubt left out many valid and interesting activities here, but our goal has been to merely demonstrate the range of involvements and interests that might qualify as an outside activity. As you prepare your applications, keep in mind that a strong MBA applicant will also investigate how their current or past activities might translate to involvement on the MBA campus.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

LBS Essay Topic Analysis (2005-06)

Today, we’d like to take a look at the essay questions for this year’s London Business School application. With two of the school’s five essays weighing in at a mere 100 words, it’s true that this school requires less writing than most other applications - but applicants will quickly realize that this does not translate into less thought or effort.

1. In what role do you see yourself working immediately after graduation? Why? How will your past and present experiences help you achieve this? How will the London Business School MBA Programme contribute to this goal? Finally, how do you see your career progressing five years after graduation? (600 words maximum)
See our general tips on writing the standard career goals essay for guidance in tackling this question. One thing to note is that unlike the vast majority of questions covering this topic, LBS’ framework is far from chronological. While this makes for a less linear essay, the good news is that it will be fairly easy to produce a response that is clearly tailored to the school’s question, giving applicants who take the time to do this a slight edge over others who are cutting and pasting content they’ve drafted for applications to other schools. We should also point out that LBS asks for very specific information about your short-term goal and your five-year plan (further underlining the need to be specific when it comes to career goals essays).

2. Please describe your experience of working in and leading teams, either in your professional or personal life. Given this experience, what role do you think you will play in your study group, and how do you intend to contribute to it? (500 words maximum)
While this question seems to invite a broad commentary on the history of the applicant’s leadership and teamwork experiences at or outside of the workplace, keep in mind that the most effective essays are those that provide specific details and vivid anecdotes. A general comment about the various leadership roles you’ve held is certainly in order, but this would be best used as an introduction to an example that exemplifies your leadership/teamwork skills and style. Note that the question about LBS study groups offers applicants a great chance to showcase their familiarity with the program and prove that they’ve done their homework, as well as demonstrate that they’ve thought through the contribution they would make and the strengths they could bring to the program.

3. Student involvement is an extremely important part of the London MBA experience and this is reflected in the character of students on campus. What type of student club or campus community event do you envisage yourself initiating? How would you set about organising this, and how would you communicate it to the wider School community? (400 words maximum)
This question is similar to Kellogg’s second essay, which also gives applicants a chance to discuss their unique interests and activities, and link them to a specific contribution to the community. However, it is different in that it focuses on a club or community event that the applicant would start, and asks him or her to think through the process of establishing a student organization. It’s one thing for applicants to claim they would start a club and another for them to detail how - this is another question that’s unique to LBS and designed to gauge the applicant’s level of research and sincerity. The more detailed the plan you propose, the more invested you will seem in gaining admission to LBS and leaving your mark. One final consideration is that with every applicant to the school describing a club he or she would like to start, it’s important that you proposal is both unique and with mass appeal.

4. Describe any experiences outside of your home country. What did you gain from these? (100 words maximum)
Similar to INSEAD’s fifth personal essay, this question is probing the applicant’s ability to navigate unfamiliar terrain and resolve cross-cultural issues, and our comments on the first of INSEAD’s two options apply to this question as well. You have only 100 words in which to demonstrate your ability to conduct business in an international setting, so brevity will be key.

5. Please explain if you have been involved in charity/volunteer and/or entrepreneurial activities, giving examples of your involvement, the amount of time you gave to each activity and why you chose to get involved. (100 words maximum)
Because you are only given 100 words to work with here, this response will likely look more like a list than an essay (depending on how much you have to work with in this category). It’s important to detail all of the pertinent elements of your file here, so economy of language will again be important.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Importance of College?

The academic component of one’s MBA application typically consists several broad categories (undergraduate education, GMAT score, graduate education, TOEFL, continuing/supplemental coursework, certifications, etc). From this group, one of the most important categories is undergraduate education. Breaking down the undergraduate education category into all of its component parts reveals some interesting aspects of the evaluation process:

Undergraduate Education: component parts
1. Overall performance (GPA, class rank, percentile)
2. Quality of program
3. Difficulty of subjects studied (intellectual and quantitative rigor)
4. Trends in performance (upward trend vs. senior slump, etc)
5. Extenuating circumstances (worked part-time to fund studies, first in family to college, etc)
6. Special awards, scholarships and honors
7. Level of involvement in extracurricular activities

Today’s posting focuses on #2: quality of program. The MBA admissions officers often look at an applicant’s undergraduate academic performance in light of their general impression of the school attended. As such, the recent US News undergraduate rankings may be of interest to the MBA applicant pool:

Best Universities: 1. Harvard, 2. Princeton, 3. Yale, 4. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 5. Duke, 5. Stanford, 7. Cal-Tech, 7. MIT, 9. Columbia, 9. Dartmouth

Best Liberal Arts Colleges: 1. Williams, 2. Amherst, 3. Swarthmore, 4. Wellesley, 5. Carleton, 6. Bowdoin, 6. Pomona, 8. Haverford, 8. Middlebury, 10. Claremont McKenna College.

Perhaps more intriguing is a ranking that the Wall Street Journal put together some time ago and entitled ‘feeder rankings’. The newspaper took a careful look at students attending leading professional schools and then attempted to compile a list of where these students had attended college. Although imperfect due to the inclusion of all professional schools (business, law and medical), this ranking offers an interesting look at which undergraduate schools seem to give their students an edge when it comes time to apply to the leading MBA programs.

Feeder Rankings: 1. Harvard, 2. Yale, 3. Princeton, 4. Stanford, 5. Williams, 6. Duke, 7. Dartmouth, 8. MIT, 9. Amherst, 10. Swarthmore.

For a full listing of the top 50 feeder schools at the Wall Street Journal’s site, click here.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Fridays from the Frontline

This edition of Fridays from the Frontline is packed with great content from bloggers who are documenting their experiences in business school. With orientation in full swing for most first-year MBA students, there seems to be no shortage of postings regarding life on campus.

Many of our readers may be wondering why they should bother to spend time reading blog entries from current students; after all, most applicants have GMAT exams to take, essays to write, recommendation letters to request, etc. The reason it makes sense to read these posts is because they will give you a glimpse into life on campus - the sort of glimpse that you will not get from published brochures or campus tours. Gaining this perspective can help on two fronts: 1) It will make your application essays more informed (resulting in more favorable admissions decisions), and 2) It may help you to decide which schools are right for you (for those of you who are still looking to reduce the number of schools on your list).

We’ll start with this week’s b-school orientation star, MargaritaLuvr, who has set out to fully blog-ument her first-year orientation experiences at Columbia Business School. Think we’re kidding? Check out her entries for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4! Moving down the Atlantic coast, we find Simba, who is a first-year at Duke and has been offering her thoughts on life in the Fuqua MBA program (with photos). Other bloggers who are getting into the orientation blogging business include Lady Rattler from Stanford (who is feeling a bit overwhelmed at the outset of math camp), MBAEurope from London Business School (who documents loans, LBS orientation, apartment hunting and the weather), and Jewellsnake who has just started at NYU’s Stern school.

After last week’s speed bump, we were relieved to read that Best of Blogging silver medalist, Brit-Chick felt better about her second take of the dreaded math exam at Wharton. Meanwhile, we turn to the Midwest and check in with MarketWizWannabe at U. Wisconsin - Madison for details on orientation and Andy at University of St. Thomas - Minneapolis for an excellent run down of his Fall 2005 course selection.

Second year student Mark, studying at HBS, has unveiled photos of the newly-renovated Baker library, while veteran blogger Harry Potter describes what it is like to be on the other side of orientation at Duke (where he is kindly helping first year’s settle into life in Durham). Georgetown second-year, Jason offers an in-depth review of his internship with Unilever in Sri Lanka which should be an excellent read for CPG applicants considering a move to McDonough. Moving from Sri Lanka to India, we turn to Vijay and Bharanidharan- current students at the Indian School of Business (ISB) - for their thoughts on Grade Non-disclosure (GND) and enhanced customer service for ISB applicants.

We’d like to conclude this week’s edition of Fridays from the Frontline, with some excellent entries drafted by current MBA applicants. John Galt and Vatsa offered their thoughts on school selection, while SgHama had some good news on the essay-drafting front and franky4mba was kind of enough to share his deadline-tracking spreadsheet. Finally, our kudos to Eric from the BeatTheGMAT blog, who not only offered a great overview of his GMAT prep strategy, but also introduced a BeatTheGMAT scholarship that he’ll offer to a lucky MBA applicant next year! Perhaps we’ll need to add a new category to the 2006 Best of Blogging awards: Most Philanthropic Blogger?

Thursday, August 25, 2005

INSEAD Essay Topic Analysis (2005-2006)

Given the increasing number of applicants targeting full time MBA programs in Europe, we’d like to spend some time today offering tips on approaching INSEAD’s essays. This school is unique in its division of questions into “job essays,” which are looking for a factual account of your current position and overall professional progression, and “personal essays,” which invite the sort of reflection and exposition to which MBA applicants are accustomed.

Job Essays
1. Please give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities; and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved. (250 words)
While the essays for most programs begin by addressing the overall progression of your career up to this point, INSEAD’s first question is requesting a snapshot of your career at this moment. Even if you have held a number of positions within the same organization, your focus should be your current position and responsibilities. Keeping in mind that this will be the adcom’s introduction to your materials, it’s important that you provide the context necessary for the reader to understand your place within the organizational structure and the work that occupies your days. While there is some room to talk about “results achieved,” don’t get bogged down in the specifics of certain projects or engagements - you’ll need to keep your comments fairly general (and focused on the present) here, and incorporate some more specific information about your career’s “greatest hits” later on in response to other questions.

2. Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)
This is a tall order for a 250 word essay, so brevity and efficient use of language will be key here. The adcom is looking for an applicant who can present her career as a coherent whole, and demonstrate that she has been on an upward trajectory since the outset. While it would be ideal for you to include some comments on lessons learned and skills gained over the course of your career, the primary focus should be touching upon each full time post you’ve held, explaining the reasons behind each move you’ve made and commenting on increases and changes in responsibility.

Personal Essays
1. Give a candid description of yourself, stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary. (400 words approx.)
This essay is actually very similar to Harvard’s “strengths and weaknesses” question, and the same general approach applies - applicants will want to lead off with two or three positive qualites (grounded in specific illustrative examples) and then comment on one or two weaknesses that they’ve taken steps to address. INSEAD’s framework gives applicants free reign to select personal, professional or extracurricular examples, so make sure that you select your examples with an eye to presenting a balanced picture of your interests and experiences.

2. Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words approx.)
This is another fairly straightforward question. We would recommend that one, if not both, of the examples you use in this essay cover your professional achievements. Remember that it will be important to ground your comments in specific details and fully explain why these achievements were significant, both in terms of the results you produced and the lessons you learned.

3. Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words approx.)
This failure essay has a particularly restrictive word limit, making it all the more important for applicants to summarize and explain the failure as concisely as possible. Make sure that you avoid ending this essay on a negative note. While not meeting a personal objective would undoubtedly have some negative repurcussions, it’s likely that “the effect” included a valuable lesson learned.

4. Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career. (500 words approx.)
This is the standard career goals essay, with an interesting focus on skills as they relate to INSEAD classes and future goals. The phrasing of this question might indicate that the school is looking for applicants who have really thought through the limitations they face given their current skill sets, and have a clear sense of what they need to learn (and how they will do so through an MBA) in order to be successful in a very specific career path. This just goes to underscore the fact that well-defined goals and school-specific detail are essential to a successful application.

5. Please choose one of the following two essay topics:
a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words approx.), or b) What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words approx.)
This sort of question is designed to gauge applicant’s cultural sensitivity and ability to conduct business in an international setting. It should come as no surprise to applicants who are familiar with INSEAD’s reputation as a highly international program (73 countries are represented in this year’s class). The first option asks applicants to recount a trying experience in another country or environment, and to explain the resulting personal growth and process of adjustment. Meanwhile, the second asks applicants to reflect on the unique characteristics of his or her own culture and anticipate the issues that a visitor might encounter. In both responses, the successful applicant will manage to demonstrate cultural flexibility, offering evidence for his or her ability to operate as a global citizen and work in diverse teams. Of course, many of the best essays will manage to incorporate a healthy dose of lessons learned, indicating that cultural adjustment can be fraught with trial and error rather than sugar-coating a response and failing to outline the struggles or periods of adjustment. As always, vivid anecdotes will be more supportive of your candidacy than broad claims.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Admissions Tip: Outside Activities

Today’s admissions tip focuses on extracurricular activities, community work and hobbies. While it is fairly obvious why academics (GMAT, GPA, etc) and work experience play a central role in the MBA admissions process, many applicants are puzzled when they discover that it may matter what they do in their free time as well.

Why it’s important to the adcom
One reason why extracurricular activities are a factor is the vital role that current students play in maintaining the MBA community at a school. Much like the structure of life at college, the clubs, conferences, sporting and social events, and other activities at business school rely on students to propose, plan, run, and attend them. As half to all of the student body is replaced each year, the health of a business school community depends on the new students’ enthusiasm to participate. Admissions committees therefore need a way to assess the extent to which applicants would become involved in their MBA community and, as prior behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, they use applicants’ former and current activities as a barometer to measure the probable extent and nature of their involvement in a business school’s culture.

This aspect of extracurricular activities is likely to have a greater significance for those applying to full-time programs than for applicants to part-time or executive programs. As this latter group is expected to spend only a limited time on campus each week, there tends to be much less emphasis on what takes place outside the classroom. At the same time, all applicants should express interest in building relationships and exchanging ideas with their future classmates as this is always an important aspect of the business school experience.

Another reason why admissions committees consider applicants’ outside interests and activities is as a judge of natural leadership ability and potential. Wharton business school used to explain this connection through the concept of the Renaissance leader: like the original Renaissance man, such a leader has a broad range of skills, interests, and talents. A true leader, this theory holds, is someone who can find something interesting to discuss with anyone, whether that person in interested in art, golf, economics or country music. While having diverse activities and interests by no means creates this type of conversational ability, it can be seen as an indication that an applicant might have the potential for such leadership.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, outside activities give the admissions committee a certain amount of access to your personality, such that they can determine whether you seem like an interesting person whom others would appreciate having around.

Room to stand out
Outside activities provide the one metric where it is still relatively unusual for an applicant to shine. There are plenty of applicants with outstanding professional experiences, academic records, or test scores, but relatively few people have found an extracurricular activity which reflects their passion and which they pursue with vigor. If you have such a pursuit, you will be able to stand out in an area where most applicants are unremarkable.

Even if your extracurricular involvements will not revolutionize your application, they may provide the material you need to fill in any gaps in your message left by your academics and work experience. Outside activities are often useful in this sense because they provide examples of leadership, teamwork, communication skills, or unique talents and interests for applicants who have difficulty locating such examples among their professional experiences. For example, an applicant who has had little opportunity to gain managerial experience at work could call upon his time coaching a lacrosse team to show that he has what it takes to be a leader.

Presentation and positioning
Assembling and presenting one’s activities is a vital aspect of the admissions process. For assistance in this area, contact Clear Admit to learn more about our counseling services.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

MIT/Sloan Essay Topic Analysis (2005-06)

As promised in a prior posting, here is our analysis of the MIT/Sloan essay topics for this year. One interesting aspect of MIT’s application are the similarities across the four essay topics - or in particular the potential for grouping essays 1 and 2 (impact/going above and beyond) and essays 3 and 4 (difficult interaction/obstacle). Despite these similarities, it will be crucial for the MIT/Sloan applicant to maintain a balance across topics in order to best showcase each aspect of his or her candidacy.

Cover Letter: The application asks for a cover letter, which should be up to 500 words. This is your first and best opportunity to make a strong, positive impression on us, so take the time to infuse this letter with your personal energy and character. Through what you write we hope to discover whether you will thrive at MIT Sloan, and how you can contribute to our diverse community.
Some time ago, Rod Garcia (Director of Admissions at MIT/Sloan) likened the MBA application process to the recruiting process. The philosophy he expressed was quite simple: MBA applicants need to demonstrate that they know how to market themselves - just as they might have to do so when applying for a job. This is why the school requires a cover letter as part of their application.

As you approach this assignment, keep in mind that many of the standard cover letter themes need to be discussed - your attributes, why you like the ‘firm’ (MIT/Sloan), and what you will bring to the ‘firm’. Although you may be tempted to simply reuse a career goals essay, tacking on a greeting at the beginning, if the letter reads exactly like a career goals essay the admissions committee will know they are seeing second-hand material. Therefore you should think of it the way you would a regular cover letter for a job, perhaps with a bit more of a focus on your career history. A potential outline for this essay would start out with a ‘greeting’ to the committee: a statement of your interest in MIT and what you would bring to the school; then a short statement of your career goals, with a summary of your background leading you to the goals, then an MIT section, showing why it is the best place for you - both what you need from MIT and what you will contribute; then a conclusion with a thank you.

Essay One: Please tell us about a time when you had an impact on a person, group, or organization. Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did. (500 words or less.)
The essay should start with a description of the situation, and the ‘problem’ - the issue on which you will have an impact. Then you should provide a window into your thinking and decision-making, how you acted on the situation, and what happened as a result (note the emphasis on this in the second part of the question). You should be able to quantify or at least concretely describe the impact on the person or organization, and provide a structure for the impact - How would you characterize the impact you had on your organization? Of what importance was it? What are you proud of? This essay, as others, should highlight your personal and professional strengths as much as possible, and should emphasize the importance of the impact, both on your development and on the organization, group or person in the situation.

Essay Two: Please tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, expected, established, or popular. How did others react? Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did. (500 words or less.)
Use the beginning of the essay to set the stage and describe what you did - leaving plenty of room to actually get into the detail of how it happened, what you felt, various decisions you made and options you considered. As for the “how did others react?” component, it’s ok to show that their were mixed opinions - or even initial resistance to your role. The key is to be honest and reflective while demonstrating that you went above and beyond (without sounding arrogant or dismissive of those around you). As far as subject matter is concerned, the question is open-ended enough to allow applicants to pull from any sort of experience (professional, academic or otherwise). Just keep in mind that you should strive for a balance of topics across the set of essays as a whole.

Essay Three: Please tell us about a time when you had a difficult interaction with a person or group. Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did. (500 words or less.)
This interaction could be from any situation (professional, extracurricular, community, academic, etc). Of course, many difficult interactions often arise in workplace environments, so a good percentage of applicants will likely end up drawing on their professional career. Discussing the way you handled a difficult interaction at work can reveal your skills in diplomacy, tact, and communication within the confines of your professional position. Although an argument or conflict may be the most obvious example of a difficult interaction, this interaction could be any example of a time when your interests/ideas were at odds with someone else’s in a misunderstanding, for example. As the question says, you should be sure to include your thoughts, feelings and motivations, and what you learned from the experience.

Essay Four: Please tell us about a time when you overcame an obstacle. Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did. (500 words or less.)
The format for this essay should follow a kind of narrative structure: describing 1) the obstacle - make sure to choose one that is really challenging and difficult to solve with conventional methods; 2) your thought process and decision-making with respect to the obstacle - how did you come up with the solution? What other potential solutions did you reject first?; and 3) your actions that resulted from overcoming the obstacle. Be sure to provide some kind of ‘lessons learned’ section at the end that makes it clear the value of the experience to your life/career in general. Although many of MIT/Sloan’s topics allow for a broad interpretation as far as subject matter is concerned, we want to once again remind readers that they should be seeking a balance of subjects across the essays.

Monday, August 22, 2005

MBA Trends

When it comes to business school statistics, several interesting themes have emerged in recent months:

1) More Jobs. The job market is looking up for graduates from the leading MBA programs. The various blog entries and article links below attest to this phenomenon.
B-School Boon (blog entry on New York Post article)
Brightening Job Prospects (blog entry on Boston Business Journal piece)
Hotter Jobs, New Faces, More Cash (BusinessWeek)
Rising Salaries for 2005 Graduates (Sacramento Business Journal)
MBA Recruiters Return (Wall Street Journal)

2) More Test-takers. GMAT volume is increasing for the first time in three years. The number of tests taken during the first six months of 2005 is slightly ahead of the figure for the first six months of last year. While staying a bit ahead may not seem important, it’s actually big news. At this time last year, GMAC was facing a 7% drop in test-taker volume. At this time two years ago, the drop was 14%. Judging from the rebound in international volume, we expect this season to be one of the last ‘flat’ seasons for some time (since GMAT volume correlates quite closely with applicant volume at the top schools). The last couple of years have clearly been great for applicants (acceptance rates have increased steadily since 2002) - but it would seem that increased applicant volume (and lower acceptance rates) may be on the horizon.

3) More Options. Part-time and 1-year programs are getting more and more attention in the press. Perhaps as a result of rough patch for MBA graduates (see the years 2001-2003), some current business professionals have been reluctant to forego two years of salary in exchange for the large chunk of debt that typically comes with a prestigious two-year degree. Of course, the irony of this is the fact that this trend may be arriving a bit late. For example, while a part-time or 1-year program would have made great sense in 2002 or 2003 (tough years for the MBA job market), the current climate would suggest that making a full-time, two-year commitment isn’t a bad bet. Of course, beyond price/opportunity cost, we haven’t compared the fundamental differences in part-time vs. full-time options (stay tuned for a blog posting on that subject in the near future).

Overall, there are clear signs that the ‘MBA economy’ has begun to bounce back. Luckily for those of you who are applying this fall, there is often a delay in terms of this data filtering out into the larger business world. In other words, this may be a great year to apply before the next wave of applicants hits the shore…

Friday, August 19, 2005

Forbes ROI Rankings

Forbes has just released their biennial ranking of MBA programs. This somewhat unorthodox ranking is 100% based on ROI (return on investment). In other words, Forbes looks at the cost of the various MBA programs, the foregone income on the part of students and the wages of graduates to determine where MBAs get the most bang for their buck.

Check out their web site for a complete list of rankings and a host of related articles and interviews.

The top 10 full-time programs are as follows:
1. Darthmouth/Tuck
2. Wharton
3. Chicago GSB
4. Columbia
5. Yale SOM
6. Stanford
7. Harvard
8. Virginia/Darden
9. Cornell/Johnson
10. Kellogg/Northwestern

Top 10 part-time MBA programs:
1. NYU/Stern
2. UCLA/Anderson
3. Kellogg/Northwestern
4. Chicago GSB
5. Michigan/Ross
6. Minnesota/Carlson
7. Maryland/Smith
8. CMU/Tepper
9. Fordham
10. SMU/Cox

Top 10 non-US:
1. INSEAD (France and Singapore)
2. London Business School (England)
3. IMD (Switzerland)
4. IESE (Spain)
5. SDA Bocconi (Italy)
6. Instituto de Empresa (Spain)
7. Oxford (England)
8. Cranfield (England)
9. Cambridge (England)
10. York/Schulich (Canada)

Fridays from the Frontline

As many applicants in the blogosphere move forward in the admissions process the quantity of great posts available for perusal has rapidly increased. As usual, in this installment of Fridays from the Frontline, we’ve tried to highlight a handful of informative posts for your reading pleasure.

On the GMAT prep front, two bloggers have now put the test to rest. After some truly unfair troubles with scheduling/rescheduling, Beat the GMAT has completed the test, scoring a 720. As usual, his blog offers a wealth of detailed advice for test takers and is not to be missed. Similarly, Anand Rao has completed his exam - scoring a 700 - and offering some solid reflections on the breakdown between his math/verbal sections. Our congratulations to both bloggers for hitting the 700 mark!

As many applicants (and reapplicants) are knee deep in the essay-writing process, we’d like to call your attention to a post from Redwolf who offers an extensive breakdown of the essay writing process along with some detailed tips for how he’s approached things as a reapplicant. Similarly, Vatsa tries to unpack the famous ‘why MBA’ question, cautioning those who “look at the MBA from a purely a financial perspective”. Ty Coon offfers a good overview of his planning for essay drafts, transcript requests, and general application details while Franky4MBA struggles with juggling work and MBA applications and seems to be comtemplating a R2 strategy.

As many of you know, letters of recommendation are a critical aspect of the MBA admissions process. Perhaps more importantly, they are a part of the admissions equation that rests in the hands of the applicant (unlike an old GPA that is impossible to change). Thanks to a terrific posting from Simba Roars, those of you cruising the blogosphere should have no excuse for falling short in this area. Combine his tips with those that we’ve posted in this blog, and you should be off on the right foot. Contact Clear Admit directly to learn more about our recommendation guides (for both applicants and recommendation writers).

Finally, this week, we turn to the bloggers who are embarking on their MBA degrees. First, we check in with Bskewl and Brit-chick who are rolling through orientation as Wharton first year students. Brit-chick describes a minor speed bump, while Bskewl continues to offer his unique sense of humor on all-things Wharton-admin. Moving over to Yale, we find FlatpointMBA offering a blow-by-blow of orientation for first-year MBAs. Across the US, reality has set in for Farmadmit (an incoming Stanford GSB student) with regards to the math requirements and general pre-term activities. Closing out the MBA-student entries for this week are Damali, who offers some interesting commentary on loyalty at Tuck and Surviving Hermes, who breaks down the class bidding process at Columbia.

Congratulations to Power-Yogi who was easily awarded a visa for study at the Chicago GSB.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

NYU Deadlines and Essays

New York University’s Stern School of Business has recently come out with its deadlines and essay questions for the coming year:

Deadlines

Round One
Deadline: December 1, 2005
Decision: February 15, 2006

Round Two
Deadline: January 15, 2006
Decision: April 1, 2006

Round Three
Deadline: March 15, 2006
Decision: June 1, 2006

Essay Questions

1. Professional Aspirations (2 pages maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)
Think about the decisions you have made in your life. Describe the following:
(a) What choices have you made that led you to your current position?
(b) Why pursue an MBA at this point in your life?
(c) What is your career goal upon graduation from NYU Stern? What is your long-term career goal?

2. Fit with Stern (2 pages maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)
The NYU Stern community is one of our strongest assets. Please answer the following questions about community:
(a) What is your personal experience with the Stern community? What actions have you taken to learn more about us?
(b) How would you contribute to our community as a student?
(c) How will you benefit personally and professionally from the Stern community?

3. Personal Expression
Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use any method to convey your message (e.g. words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative. If you submit a written essay, it should be 2 pages maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font.

This last question is a particularly difficult one for most applicants, as it’s often tricky to determine what constitutes “creatively.” Some applicants have tried to use some sort of list of attributes, activities or interests to describe themselves, but this is not creative. A better plan would be to use this inventory of your experiences and characteristics as a starting point for something like a poem or a story, a journal entry, or a dialogue. Alternatively, you might describe an ideal or even a typical day - anything that really conveys your personality, interests, values, or passions.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Wharton Online Application

The Wharton Admissions blog announced earlier this week that the MBA program’s online application would be available for use at 9am today. It actually went live late Tuesday and has been up and running all day, so all seems well (as usual). While applicants are welcome to sumbit their applications as early as today, the adcom also commented that review won’t begin until mid-September, with interview invitations being issued (in no particular order) from October 20th through November 17th.

Interested applicants can get started on the online forms here. Good luck!

Business Week Online Chat Transcript

A few weeks ago, Clear Admit’s Graham Richmond and Alex Brown participated in an online chat hosted by Business Week online, fielding admissions questions from MBA applicants and offering general and school-specific advice. Those of you who missed the live event can now view an edited transcript of the discussion. Here’s one particularly interesting insight from the Q&A:

NathanGen: In your opinion, what is the single most important factor in an MBA application?
Alex Brown: The weakest element of your application is the most important factor. The admissions process takes a holistic approach and looks at many variables, so you really cannot identify one critical variable.

You can check out the rest of the transcript at:
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/aug2005/bs20050816_1191.htm

Kellogg Essay Topic Analysis (2005-06)

While Kellogg’s online application hasn’t yet gone live, they’ve posted their essay questions for the coming year in the admission website’s FAQ. The program has again opted to retain its format of three 1-2 page responses and three shorter essays of 2-3 paragraphs each, and there have been only minor changes made to the latter set. Even though the questions look much the same as they did last year, we’d like to offer applicants some fresh tips on tackling each of the topics:

1. Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing a graduate degree at the Kellogg School. (one to two pages double-spaced)
This is another fairly standard career goals/why MBA essay. Again, remember that specificity of goals is key, and keep in mind that Kellogg prides itself on its collegial culture when addressing the ‘why Kellogg’ issue. One thing to note is that the request that applicants “assess” their progress to date is unique to Kellogg’s version of this question. This would suggest that it might be appropriate to incorporate a few reflective or even evaluative comments into your discussion of your professional path in order to tailor your perspective to Kellogg’s question.

2. Each of our applicants is unique. Describe how your background, values, academics, activities and/or leadership skills will enhance the experience of other Kellogg students. (one to two pages double-spaced)
You’re being given the opportunity to do two very important things in this essay. The first is to share a good deal of interesting information about your interests and experiences in order to distinguish yourself from other applicants and help the adcom get to know you. Second, this essay is the perfect forum for you to demonstrate your research on and fit with the program by explaining the ways your involvements and experiences to date translate to a number of specific contributions to the Kellogg community. Whether it’s a class to which your insight would prove especially relevant or a function you could organize as a member of a certain club, the more detail you can provide about the impact you would make, the more reason you’ll give the adcom to admit you.

3. You have been selected as a member of the Kellogg Admissions Committee. Please provide a brief evaluative assessment of your file. (one to two pages double-spaced)
This is one of the trickier questions out there, as the request that applicants take a third-party perspective on their own applications virtually prohibits them from introducing any new information in this essay. The key is to use this response to draw the inferences that you would hope the reader to make based on your file, perhaps explicitly commenting on themes that run through your experience or drawing connections between your goals and some aspect of your background. This is also a great place for you to address weaknesses in your file - for instance, commenting that while your GPA is below the school’s average, it seems clear that you had one rough semester and that your performance in later years is more indicative of your abilities. [There are number of additional strategies that work for this essay, and we encourage Kellogg applicants to contact us directly for further information about our counseling services in this regard.]

4. Complete three of the following six questions or statements. (two to three double- spaced paragraphs each)

A. What have been your most significant leadership roles to date? What was the most valuable lesson learned?
B. Describe an ethical dilemma that you faced and how it was resolved?
C. Outside of work I…
D. In your professional experience, what do you consider to be the area of greatest growth?
E. I wish the Admissions Committee had asked me…
F. Since your previous application, what are the steps you have taken to strengthen your candidacy? (required of reapplicants)
Because essays 1-3 require you to write somewhat generally about your experiences and candidacy, these shorter responses are a great place to share some vivid anecdotes that support your overall positioning and really bring to life aspects of your background that you’ve only mentioned in passing. You have a lot to work with here - question A offers you a chance to showcase your leadership skills, B and D provide a chance to comment on your integrity or development in a work-related context, and C and E give you free reign to discuss your interests and involvements beyond the professional sphere. Be sure to select which questions to answer and which stories to tell with an eye to presenting a balanced picture of your background and covering a number of impressive aspects of your profile.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

LBS Deadlines and Essay Topics 2005-06

On the heels of our INSEAD posting, we’ve included the relevant deadlines and essay questions below for another leading European program: London Business School.

Although many of the MBA programs in Europe offer a 1-year degree, LBS follows the more traditional two-year format (with some flexibility for candidates who wish to complete their studies more promptly).

Deadlines for September 2006 intake
Round 1: October 21st, 2005
Round 2: January 6th, 2006
Round 3: February 24th, 2006
Round 4: April 28th, 2006

Essay Questions
The essays are an opportunity to tell us more about yourself. Use the essays to detail your interests, values and goals. We are interested in what motivates you, evidence of leadership and team work, why you are looking to pursue an MBA at this point in your life, and what you will bring to the London Business School Community. The essays are a vital part of your application and thus we recommend that you spend a significant amount of time in their preparation.

Question 1 (600 words max)
In what role do you see yourself working immediately after graduation? Why? How will your past and present experiences help you achieve this? How will the London Business School MBA Programme contribute to this goal? Finally, how do you see your career progressing five years after graduation?

Question 2 (500 words max)
Please describe your experience of working in and leading teams, either in your professional or personal life. Given this experience, what role do you think you will play in your study group, and how do you intend to contribute to it?

Question 3 (400 words max)
Student involvement is an extremely important part of the London MBA experience and this is reflected in the character of students on campus. What type of student club or campus community event do you envisage yourself initiating? How would you set about organising this, and how would you communicate it to the wider School community?

Question 4 (100 words max)
Describe any experiences outside of your home country. What did you gain from these?

Question 5 (100 words max)
Please explain if you have been involved in charity/volunteer and/or entrepreneurial activities, giving examples of your involvement, the amount of time you gave to each activity and why you chose to get involved.

INSEAD Deadlines and Essay Topics 2005-06

For those of you looking at INSEAD for your MBA studies, here are the relevant deadlines and essay questions. Keep in mind that INSEAD offers a 1-year program with two intakes every year (September and January). They also have two locations: Fontainbleau, France (about 45 minutes from Paris via train) and Singapore.

Deadlines for September 2006 intake
1st round: October 5th, 2005
2nd round: December 7th, 2005
3rd round: February 1st, 2006
4th round: March 22nd, 2006

Deadlines for January 2007 intake
1st round: March 22nd, 2006
2nd round: May 10th, 2006
3rd round: July 5th, 2006

Essays
(Job Essays)
1. Please give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities; and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved. (250 words)

2. Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)

(Personal Essays)
1. Give a candid description of yourself, stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary. (400 words approx.)

2. Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words approx.)

3. Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words approx.)

4. Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career. (500 words approx.)

5. Please choose one of the following two essay topics:
a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words approx.), or
b) What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words approx.)

6. Is there anything that you have not mentioned in the above essays that you would like the Admissions Committee to know? (200 words approx.) This essay is optional.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Free MBA Forum Tomorrow Night!

We’d like to call your attention to an upcoming MBA Forum that has been organized by the Princeton Review in Philadelphia. The event, which will take place tomorrow evening, should be of interest to anyone in the Philadelphia-area who is considering an MBA. There will be a GMAT presentation (with some tips on how to tackle the exam), a free networking session (with wine and hors d’oeuvres provided) and a panel discussion about the admissions process, MBA experience and value of the degree. Clear Admit’s Alex Brown will be in attendance as a guest speaker/panelist.

Registration is required for this free event. Here are the details along with a description from the Princeton Review:

The Greater Philadelphia Area Business School Admissions Forum
Tuesday, August 16th, 2005 from 7:00-9:30 PM
The Inn at Penn, 3600 Sansom St., Philadelphia, PA 19104

Attendees will have an opportunity to meet a Princeton Review GMAT instructor who will offer a presentation on the ins and outs of the GMAT. Applicants will also have a chance to network with other professionals and business admissions personnel over complimentary wine and hor d’oeurves.

During the panel discussion, find out what the experts have to say about getting into business school, the value of an MBA, life as a business school student and career opportunities for MBA graduates. Panelists include Alex Brown, former Senior Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School and current Senior Admissions Counselor for Clear Admit; David Stewart, Senior Director of Graduate Programs at the LeBow College of Business (Drexel University); Chris Butto, Director of Graduate Admissions for The Fox School of Business (Temple University) and Paul Chi, a 2002 Wharton MBA graduate.

This event is open to the public, so be sure to bring a friend! Advance registration is required. Call Abby Yingling at 215.790.1400 or e-mail AbbyY@review.com including “MBA Forum” in the subject line. Please include your complete address in the body of the e-mail.

Michigan Essay Topics 2005-06

Michigan’s new application is now available online. While things have pretty much stayed the same with regards to the essay topics (there is only one new question), it is worth noting that the admissions office has made their questions a bit leaner this year - eliminating much of the background/required context about the school’s action-based learning process that served as a preface for last year’s questions.

Without further ado, here are the essay topics:

Required Essays
1. We believe one of the keys to effective leadership is the ability to transform ideas into action through people. Please describe a professional leadership accomplishment in which you transformed an idea into action. How did your leadership impact your organization? (500-word maximum)

2. Describe the initiatives you have taken over the past two years to develop professionally. (500-word maximum)

3. What career goals have you set for yourself and how will a Ross MBA support the achievement of these goals? How will you utilize the opportunities at Michigan to co-create an MBA experience that is right for you? How will you enhance the experience of other members of the Ross community? (500-word maximum)

4. Describe a situation where your professional ethics were challenged and how you came to terms with the situation. What did you learn from this? (500-word maximum)

Optional
You may answer one, both or neither of the following questions:

1. Describe a situation where others with whom you were working on a project disagreed with your ideas. What did you do? In retrospect, is there anything you would have done differently? (500-word maximum)

2. Please feel free to elaborate on any other information that you believe is important for the admissions committee to assess your candidacy. (500-word maximum)

Friday, August 12, 2005

Fridays from the Frontline

Following up on the last installment of Fridays from the Frontline, which was largely GMAT-focused, we’d like to send our best to Anand Rao and Eric, who will be done with the exam by this time next week, and wish all other test takers luck.

A number of bloggers have been focusing on essays this week, both in terms of the writing process and the content of their responses. Vatsa works to formulate a positioning for Tuck, while Axechick comments on her progress and offers some essay tips, and Redwolf ponders the topic of lessons and learning and wonders what the schools are looking for in asking such questions. ISB student I, the Absolute reflects on the importance of having a clear conception of one’s goals and future direction in terms of a broader scope that reaches beyond the application process. Completing the spectrum and writing from the viewpoint of a business school graduate, Chicago MBA Steve Shu offers some interesting comments on the real motivations behind people’s professional objectives and the importance of determining one’s fit with a firm and field during the interview process.

While many are moving ahead with their applications at full speed, others are still thinking about the financial ramifications of a business education. Santa Clara Rick Upton offers some thoughts to potential applicants on the cost and benefit of full vs. part time programs, and the blog What’s Happening… considers the same issue from the perspective of a career switcher.