Welcome to the first edition of FFF2006 – or as we like to say at Clear Admit HQ, “New year, same riveting content.” [OK, we haven't actually said that before, but it sounded good....] Without further ado, let’s see what’s been happening in the b-school blogging community over the past few days.
As MBA student-bloggers have been enjoying their hard-earned winter break, we turn to the applicant-blogger community to support this week’s report from the blogging front lines. Several applicant bloggers were busily submitting applications to leading programs this week and offering their take on the admissions process as they clicked ‘submit’. Bbirds had some truly helpful tips on the ISB application, reminding readers that word counts aren’t always what they seem. FooBarMe happily reports of his submission to CMU/Tepper while describing how difficult it can be to distill a lengthy career into b-school application essays and forms. Meanwhile, Anand and PupStar78 reported on submitting their Wharton applications – the former 75 hours before the deadline and the latter on limited sleep. Other application-submission posts came from Nagendra (who applied to Yale), Vatsa (who submitted at Chicago and had some great thoughts on the writing process) and PupStar78 (who followed his Wharton application with a Kellogg submission). One of the funnier posts this week came from LaserLikeFocus, who submitted both Wharton and Stanford applications but admits to being a bit tired of all the ‘self-promotion’. We wish LaserLike all the best as he musters up the energy to work on his MIT/Sloan application this weekend.
While some applicants were applying, others took a moment to reflect on the essay writing process. Moe, a recent LBS admit, was kind enough to offer a detailed analysis of his approach to the LBS application essays (timely reading for those of you who were aiming for this week’s LBS deadline). In a similar vein, current Stanford student Cliff-Clavin offers a helpful short-hand analysis of Stanford’s application essays and Loki chimes in with a humorous summary of the key steps involved in applying to business school and planning your applications.
With many R1 decision release dates on the horizon, the blogosphere featured a good number of updates and news of results. Brownoski offered an interesting exploration of Wharton’s waitlist policy and RedWolf described how a combination of his R1 Wharton result and HBS’ new grading policy led to his decision to remove Harvard from his list. Krazy Ivan also examined his future plans in light of a R1 rejection from Wharton, but pushed forward with his R2 Stanford application. Finally, Ty Coon reported a decision from Yale (kinda) and Marina reported negative results from Kellogg (not to worry – she’s already accepted her spot at CBS!).
Not everyone was submitting applications or hearing of final results this week. Nagendra took some time to report on his Michigan interview experience and SgHama checked in with a summary of his nerve wracking Tuck interview. We expect there to be more interview reports in the coming weeks as more and more applicants enter that phase of the process. Don’t forget to request your free Clear Admit Wiki account in order to share your interview experiences.
To wrap up the first edition of FFF’06, we’d like to call your attention to a few more bits of news. First, BeatTheGMAT reports that he will be launching a GMAT-focused discussion forum to complement his GMAT-blog. Stay tuned! And finally, GSBMennonite reports from the first day of post-break classes at Chicago while the adcom hints that application volume is up at the GSB…
