Beyond these two detailed posts, the discussion continues to percolate in the BusinessWeek Forums, where a number of debates are currently being shaped. Here’s a sampling of interesting posts to look at:

Chicago vs. Columbia
NYU vs. Duke vs. Darden
Wharton vs. Chicago vs. Kellogg

That concludes this week’s edition of Which School Wednesdays. As always, those applicants looking for personal advice on where to apply or enroll based on their priorities and goals are welcome to contact us directly or post an inquiry in our Business Week thread or the Studylink forum. Meanwhile, those of you who have made up your mind are encouraged to contribute insights and thoughts to the School Choices section of the Wiki.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

MBA Trends: Work Experience, Going Global

There are a number of recent news items worth noting in today’s blog entry. We’ll kick things off with an interesting article that has appeared on the Wall Street Journal’s free College Journal site. The story covers the importance of pre-MBA work experience - not from an admissions perspective - but from the vantage point of MBA recruiters:

Both quantity and quality of experience are crucial. Recruiters are looking for students who have learned to cope with ambiguity, adversity and conflict in the workplace. Some M.B.A.s believe “simply working two or three years entitles them to a leadership position immediately following graduation,” says Jeff Rynbrandt, who does recruiting for Guidant Corp., a marketer of cardiovascular products. “To me, students need to have demonstrated success in their past job with positions of increasing responsibility and be able to articulate how their actions specifically contributed to those successes.”

The article goes on to strongly underline the fact that recruiters prefer MBA hires who have already made a few mistakes on the job (and learned from them). What is perhaps most interesting about this topic is the range of views exhibited by leading MBA admissions offices with regards to work experience. Where employers seem to universally support MBA hires with a fair amount of ’seasoning’, leading programs like Harvard Business School have been pushing for younger applicants - often waiving off the importance of full-time work experience if an applicant has demonstrated particular leadership strengths. Other programs, such as the Tuck School at Dartmouth continue to emphasize the importance of work experience - stating that students must have substantial experiences that they can bring to the classroom and share with their peers.

Speaking of admissions criteria, the Economist is currently running an interesting piece on a new member of the HBS class of 2008. Blake Gottesman, who will be joining Harvard this fall, is a 26-year-old college dropout who has served as President Bush’s personal aide for the last four years. He has worked in some capacity for the Bush campaign and administration since 1999. His connection to the Bush family comes via his romantic involvement with Jenna Bush, who he dated in high school. A spokesperson from HBS cited “extraordinary circumstances” with regards to the school’s decision to admit a candidate with no college degree.

In other MBA news, the FT reports that INSEAD is launching a global network of entrepreneurship centers around the world. The first center, which opened in Tel-Aviv, Israel last Friday, will research and publish case studies on Israeli entrepreneurs while also serving as a site for conferences and lectures on entrepreneurship. The school is considering China, India and California’s Silicon Valley as other possible sites for centers. INSEAD professor Phil Anderson offered the following thoughts on the program’s approach:

“Traditionally, entrepreneurship has been examined from a narrow local perspective. INSEAD will bring a fresh global perspective to entrepreneurship research and teaching drawing on examples from all over the world.”

Also in the news, Wharton is getting ready for a Global Alumni Forum which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey from June 8th-9th. This elaborate conference is one of three annual forums that the school offers to bring alumni together to discuss global business trends and network (this year’s sites also include Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro). Most impressive about the event in Turkey is the list of speakers: which includes the prime ministers of both Turkey and Lebanon, along with leading executives from multiple Fortune 500 firms.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Admissions Tip: Feedback Session Etiquette

Following up on a post from a couple weeks back describing the importance of signing up for a feedback session when planning to reapply to a program that provides this opportunity, we’d like to offer a few thoughts on feedback session etiquette.

While on one hand a feedback session marks the close of this year’s process, it’s crucial that you realize that the impression you make on the adcom member conducting the session will be added to your file and come to bear on your candidacy next year. Taking heed of the following advice could help to make your feedback session as productive as possible - both in terms of gaining information about your weaknesses that you can address now and fostering a positive relationship with the school that will pay off in the future.

Be pleasant. Though the admissions process is a highly emotional one and to have invested time, effort and money in an application without having an acceptance to show for it is undoubtedly very frustrating, receiving the adcom’s comments in an appreciative - not defensive - manner is of the utmost importance. While it might be tempting to argue with the adcom’s criticisms of your file or counter their comments about your weaknesses with steps you’ve taken to address them, this is simply not going to be productive. You should view this as an exercise in listening and an opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to the school. No one ever converted a rejection to an admit by merely arguing their case in a feedback session.

Take what you can get. Because time is so limited, we often encourage clients to approach the adcom member conducting their session with pointed questions about specific elements of their application and ideas for improvement. However, you need to remember that there is some information they are simply not at liberty to divulge. If you’ve waived your right to view your recommendations, for instance, they might not be able to speak on this subject, and they might also hesitate to go into detail about your interview as well (for fear that you’ll track down an alumni or student interviewer to complain about their review). When you meet a roadblock like this, the best strategy is to leave it at that, letting the adcom member share what he or she is comfortable saying rather than pressing or probing for more information.

Follow through. If you take down the name and email address of the person conducting your feedback session, it would be a nice touch to send this person a brief thank you note after your meeting. Further, by keeping in touch with this individual and updating him or her of your progress over the months leading up to your application and decision, you can make that person your advocate by demonstrating that you’ve been following their advice (an email or two between April and November is sufficient).

Of course, the schools are not always able to tell an applicant the whole story; for instance, it’s difficult to tell an applicant who comes from an oversubscribed group and had fine numbers and essays that the class simply didn’t need another banker by the time he applied in round three. For this reason, it’s important to seek feedback from other sources, such as current students or colleagues. If you’d like an objective and informed assessment of your candidacy and previous application, feel free to contact us for information about our comprehensive feedback reports.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Fridays from the Frontline

Another Friday has arrived, and with it another edition of FFF! Continuing the trend established last week, many Class of 2009 applicants are chronicling their progress - UniQpath relates visits to the Stanford and Haas campuses while MaelstromX remains determined to draft essays in spite of having made little progress recently - while current and future students offer their advice to those just embarking on the application process. Jacek continues to share his application essays (this time those for IESE, Imperial and Georgetown) for the benefit of others and MBA Jackass offers a recap of his Kellogg essay advice, while mbaxploit provides some pointers on school selection, Andrew Pickett highlights some general web resources for applicants, and INSEAD student L’Optimiste shares some admissions insights he gleaned through his own application experience.

Also on the applicant front, accepted students beginning school this fall continue their preparations, with others still waiting on decisions. Accepted student Ash sat in on a Stanford class and shares his impression with the rest of the blogosphere, Benny describes the contents of an admit package from Tuck, and Hallonman recounts an outing with some future INSEAD classmates. Thinking about financing his Austin MBA, Kilgore Trout considers taking on some part-time consulting with his current company. Law student Lindsey, meanwhile, needs to contend with finals before focusing on her upcoming Kelley studies. On the school decision front, we were happy to read that MBAyisyen is in at IESE and Jacek is excited about entering ESADE. Not everyone’s fate is so certain, though: I_Will_Make_It remains on the Stanford waitlist and LaserLikeFocus was dinged by Tuck but is still holding out for Kellogg. Opting for a more definite path, Anand has withdrawn from the Tepper waitlist in favor of reapplication. Best of luck to all those still waiting on decisions or planning to reapply!

Among current students, there’s been an interesting mix of beginnings, middles and endings this week. L’Optimiste and classmate Olivier are both on INSEAD’s Fontainebleau campus for the start of P5, one having come from the Singapore campus and the other from exchange at Wharton. Also speaking of starts, MarketWizWannabe is looking forward to the start of an internship during his summer break from UW-Madison. In intermediate stages, Noelle is in the thick of exams at IESE and fellow student George endeavors to recount some on-campus happenings in Barcelona, while Sourabh is in the middle of term 3 classes and recruiting at Cranfield and Marquis describes his mid-week struggles and Stanford (followed, at least, by a restful weekend). Finally (in several senses), Buckyhoo’s India trip has come to an end and he’s headed back to UNC, JB is done with his first year at Yale and we were thrilled to read that FutureMBAGirl made it through some post-beach week stress to deliver a speech at Wharton graduation!

That does it for this week’s look at the world of MBA blogging. Have a great weekend!

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Admissions Consulting Demystified

It’s a busy time at Clear Admit headquarters, as we’re involved in some exciting industry events this month and next. While a handful of schools have gone on the record as being opposed to admissions consultants, many others are friendly or at least receptive to learning about the role that we play in the space, and have invited us to participate in these activities for the sake of mutual information and ultimate benefit.

Acknowledging the potential of admissions consultants to offer valuable advice to applicants and have a positive impact on the process, Tuck invited a number of admissions consultants to visit campus this week, attend a class, and learn more about the way that particular program’s admissions office works. Wrapping up today, the International Educational Consultants Conference has been tremendously informative, leaving our Admissions Counselors better equipped to speak about Tuck’s program and what the school is looking for in prospective students.

On the other side, Clear Admit’s Graham Richmond will be participating in a panel next month (along with Linda at Accepted.com, Maxx Duffy of Maxx and Associates and Ricardo Betti of MBA Empresarial) at this year’s GMAC conference, an annual forum for admissions officers of business schools all over the globe. The session, titled “Admissions Consultants: Love ‘em, Hate ‘em, Use ‘em,” will aim to clarify the objectives, process and role of reputable consultants in the space, clearing up misconceptions and helping business school admissions staff better understand this growing industry. Kellogg’s Beth Flye (Director of Admissions) will moderate this exciting panel.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Which School Wednesdays

Welcome back to Which School Wednesdays, a column meant to highlight content from blogs, our wiki and various discussion boards in which applicants, students and even alums are sharing their reasons for applying to or attending various MBA programs. Our objective is to identify valuable sources of school-specific information and help prospective students better understand the factors they should consider in making their decisions.

For many admitted students choosing which offer to accept and even applicants deciding which programs to target, a school’s ability to provide preparation and the necessary networking for success in one’s future goals is the primary consideration. In a recent business week post about choosing between Duke and NYU, one banking-bound applicant lists this as the most important factor and possibly the most significant difference between the two programs:

“Stern has got a better reputation for Finance. Duke scores in the overall reputation and is excellent for marketing. Even from the recruiting stand point, you can see that the top 41 recruiters at Duke offered around 180 full-time offers last year out of which only around 40 were in Finance field and 40 in Technology/Consulting. Rest of the offers were mostly in Marketing.

One of the current Indian students at Stern has informed me that this year, all the Indian students were successfully placed including many engineers who have got into I-banking. Banks are on the campus during pre-term itself. So if you want to get into Finance, Stern is the school for you.

On the other hand, one negative aspect with Stern is that despite the school‘s best efforts, Stern is still known as a Finance school and this may be a problem if you plan to get into Consulting at a later point in time… Mckinsey gave out about 3 to 4 offers and other consulting firms such as Deloitte, Booz Allen gave out totally about 10 offers… Marketing, Technology and Media & Entertainment are the other strengths. Duke on the other hand is a well-rounded school and can open doors in any field you wish to get in.”

As this discussion shows, conducting some research on which firms hire at which schools - and to what extent - can be a very important consideration when thinking about the feasibility of securing a certain type of job out of a particular program. Meanwhile, applicants who are confident that they could achieve their career goals by attending any of their options are in a less black and white predicament. One business week poster, responding to a plea for input on a Michigan vs. Duke dilemma, poses some great questions that, given careful consideration, might point an admitted student toward an answer:

-Which school will YOU want to stand up and sell as a student and alum? What are your main selling points going to be (magazine rankings, # of McK hires, environment, alumni network, etc.)?

-Hopefully you’ve met students and alums from each program by now…which group would you rather have as team members, employers, or employees?

-Which program makes you more enthusiastic and will inspire you to perform?

-In which environment will you prefer spending the next two years?

-How important is a school’s ranking/prestige to you? Will it matter to you personally in 1, 2, 5, 10, or 20 yrs if the school you declined is now 1, 3, or 5 spots higher than your alma matter in US News/BWeek/Forbes/etc?

That concludes this week’s edition of Which School Wednesdays. As always, those applicants looking for personal advice on where to apply or enroll based on their priorities and goals are welcome to contact us directly or post an inquiry in our Business Week thread or the Studylink forum. Meanwhile, those of you who have made up your mind are encouraged to contribute insights and thoughts to the School Choices section of the Wiki.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

INSEAD Deadlines and Essays 2006-2007

In addition to the third and final deadline for January 2007 intake, on the horizon on July 5th, deadlines are now available for applicants targeting INSEAD’s September 2007 start date.

Round 1
Application Submitted: October 18, 2006
Interview Decision: November 24, 2006
Final Decision: January 19, 2007

Round 2
Application Submitted: December 6, 2006
Interview Decision: January 26, 2007
Final Decision: March 16, 2007

Round 3
Application Submitted: January 31, 2007
Interview Decision: March 9, 2007
Final Decision: May 4, 2007

Round 4
Application Submitted: March 28, 2007
Interview Decision: April 27, 2007
Final Decision: June 8, 2007

This twice a year intake model lends versatility to INSEAD’s one year program. Applicants who are seeking to move forward along their current career path at an accelerated rate can complete an MBA in just 10 months with the September option. Meanwhile, those students who are aiming to change their industry and/or function - and need a summer internship to do so - can take advantage of the summer break afforded by the January intake while still completing their degree in about a year.

It’s interesting to note that the program’s essays for the coming admissions season are identical to those for the past year. Because a school’s essay questions are often a good barometer of the sort of student it is looking for, this would seem to indicate that in spite of the program’s new leadership, INSEAD is still seeking applicants with the same level of self-awareness and international exposure as always. The essays are as follows:

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.

7. In case of reapplication, please use this page. Your essay should state any new aspects of professional, international, academic, or personal development since your last application. We would also like you to explain your motivation for re-applying to INSEAD. This essay should not exceed 400 words.

An analysis of each of the school’s required questions as well as some general pointers is available here:
http://www.clearadmit.com/2005/08/insead-essay-topic-analysis-2005-2006.html

Monday, May 15, 2006

Chicago GSB Deadlines 2006-2007

Chicago’s Graduate School of Business recently released its deadlines for the 2006-2007 admissions season:

Round One
Submission Date: October 18, 2006
Notification Date: January 4, 2007

Round Two
Submission Date: January 10, 2007
Notification Date: March 28, 2007

Round Three
Submission Date: March 14, 2007
Notification Date: May 16, 2007

Stay tuned to this blog for a full analysis of Chicago’s essay topics once they are announced in early June. In the meantime, we encourage applicants to research the program, speak with students and alumni, and think about the elements of their backgrounds they would most like to discuss in their essays.

Admissions Tip: Round Three Results

With last week’s release of Harvard and Stanford’s decisions for round three applicants and notification from Tuck, Chicago, Wharton, Yale and UCLA coming up in the next few days, the 2005-2006 admissions season is coming to a close for the vast majority of MBA aspirants. We’d like to offer our congratulations to all those who have gained admission to one of more of their target schools, and wish good luck to waitlisted applicants whose fate is presently a bit less certain. For all those who submitted their applications in the final round and received an unfavorable decision, we’d like to share a few tips that we hope will make the process of facing rejection as productive as possible:

1) Understand the odds and consider reapplying in the early rounds next year. If you failed to gain admission to a school in its final application round, you should not give up hope or instantly assume that your profile contains some glaring weakness that will forever bar you from acceptance. Because relatively few spots in the incoming class are available by the time of the Round 3 deadlines, it is always most difficult to get into a school at this point in the year. In many cases, an earlier application is all that you need to find success in the process.

2) Get feedback from the admissions committee. As we commented in a post last week, many of the top programs allow unsuccessful applicants to sign up for a feedback session with an admissions officer (sessions typically take place over the summer). This is a unique chance for you to learn how the committee perceived your application. Keep in mind that your audience with the adcom will be brief - try to approach the meeting with pointed questions about your candidacy in order to ensure that the feedback session is as productive and informative as possible.

3) Get feedback from other sources. Although a number of schools do not offer feedback, there are other ways to learn about where you may have fallen short. For starters, you should read over your file with a critical eye and try to identify and understand your weaknesses. Take a step back from the process and be objective about your shortcomings. You might also share your file with colleagues who have been to business school. While this can be enlightening, you should also be careful about the feedback you collect on these fronts, since not all of it will be accurate (or consistent). Finally, you might seek feedback from an MBA admissions consulting firm. Clear Admit offers complete feedback sessions, including detailed written reports that construct an individualized road-map for reapplication.

4) Plan for a productive summer. Although it’s tempting to simply take a break from the admissions process after receiving a rejection letter, it is imperative that reapplicants use the summer months to address the weaknesses in their profiles. In many cases, reapplicants need to pursue outside coursework, retake a standardized test (GMAT/TOEFL), increase involvement with outside activities or take on new responsibilities at work. All of these tasks take time and cannot be addressed in the fall when application forms and essays should be the priority. By being proactive about improving your candidacy now, you will put yourself in a much better position to apply next year.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Fridays from the Frontline

Welcome to this week’s edition of FFF, bringing you news of the latest happenings in the MBA blogosphere. It’s been a relatively quiet week, as class of 2009 applicants are just getting warmed up. Reapplicant Chillpill is eager to be through with the GMAT (though he thinks it’s the easiest part of the process), while median2k9 has thought better of retaking and is instead focusing on designing a systematic school selection process. Thinking about the coming year in a context broader than the admissions process, LaserLikeFocus is waiting on Tuck and Kellogg while taking steps to advance his career just in case things don’t work out with the waitlist, and brownoski considers the pros and cons of working for another year when offered the opportunity to defer his Yale entry due to over-enrollment.

While this is an interesting and unexpected option, most recent admits are moving forward without hesitation. Some are spending time on campus - Alex reports back on Days at Haas and Angel Angie in on her way to London’s admit weekend - but most are tying up loose ends. Ty Coon has given notice and plans to get his move to Emory underway and Columbia-bound Axechick is finally getting her mind around her upcoming move to New York, Nagendra’s deposit is in at Oxford, Wheels is elated to have received sufficient funds to attend LBS and I_Will_Make_It has even composed a Chicago-inspired poem out of enthusiasm for the program. It’s great to see that those applicants who are looking back are generally doing so with an eye to helping future applicants: MBAJ provided some great general tips and information on his personal approach to his successful Kellogg essays, admitted applicant Jacek comments on his strategy with ESADE’s essays and relates a hard-learned lesson from his IESE interview, and Berkeley-bound FooBarMe continues to chronicle his work on a colleague’s INSEAD recommendation.

Though Noelle is in the thick of midterms at IESE, Al Martine is busy with third term and extracurriculars at LBS and Death Spiral is just beginning P5 at INSEAD, things are winding down for most student bloggers. Jeff has one more class until he’s finished his first year at Brandeis, Phantom reflects on a completed project as things wrap up at Rice, MarketWizWannabe celebrates the end of his final Wisconsin exam of the year while classmate Keven reflects on the end of an especially enjoyable class. Similarly, Tom looks back on a favorite class at Sloan and H. Caulfield describes the way his favorite program highlights Anderson’s entrepreneurial focus. Finally, second year student Harry Potter shares his feelings about and plans after graduation from Duke and Hella comments on Wharton’s grading system (we were glad to see that he ended up on the “pass” side of all of his classes) and provides a list of his favorite Philadelphia destinations.

That does it for this week. We hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend (and stops by to vote on Beat the GMAT’s scholarship finalists in the process)!

Thursday, May 11, 2006

MBA Trends: Executive Options

In the same vein as last week’s post about the business education options available to undergraduates, we wanted to comment today on a new offering available to individuals on the other end of the career spectrum. Yesterday’s edition of the Wall Street Journal included an interesting article about top schools that are beginning to offer executive education programs to individuals who have taken a break from their careers for personal reasons and are aiming to return to the workforce. These new offerings are presently geared toward professionals who have already obtained a certain level of career success and even an MBA, but who need to come up to speed on the latest industry developments or gain additional training in one specific area in order to make their desired transition.

At this point, most of the participants in these new courses are women who have taken time off from work in order to focus on their families. Based on a Center for Work-Life Policy study cited by the article that found that only 74% of the 93% of highly-qualified women who desire to resume their careers after taking such a break are able to do so, it seems that there is a definite demand for this sort of program. However, there are presently restrictions of eligibility and cost:

“The programs are open to a range of professionals. Dartmouth accepts women and men who have obtained M.B.A.s or have M.B.A.-equivalent experience in a ‘high-potential career.’ While it has received inquiries from men, most participants will likely be women who stopped working for personal reasons, including raising children. Harvard’s pilot, which had 18 participants, was open only to female graduates of Harvard Business School, though there are plans to expand access.

One concern school administrators face is whether women who aren’t working can pay thousands of dollars for a course that will take them away from their families for an extended period of time. In traditional executive-education programs, an employer is usually paying the way.

Executive-education tuition at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School ranges from $7,000 to $10,000 a week, says Monica McGrath, a management professor who is looking into developing such a program at Wharton. ‘Are there enough women that will be able to afford this?’ she asks.”

Though this training is currently available only to a select group of qualified individuals, it’s great to see business schools taking steps to meet this need and foster alumni relations. Given the above mention of Wharton’s developing such a program, it sounds as though a number of other top schools will follow suit in expanding their offerings to reach a wider range of individuals in various circumstances.

The full text of the article is available here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114722288644848460.html

Program Sites:
HBS - A New Path: Setting New Professional Directions
Tuck - Back in Business: Invest in Your Return

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Which School Wednesdays

Welcome to another installment of Which School Wednesdays, your weekly window into the facts and factors behind the deliberations and decisions of applicants and admits. Put more simply, our aim is to highlight insightful and relevant web content in which aspiring or existing members of the business school community share their considerations and thought process as they decide which schools to target or attend, thereby helping prospective students better understand the factors they should consider in making their decisions.

We’ve had a great addition to the School Selection section of the Clear Admit wiki this week from an applicant deciding between Tuck and Chicago. Keeping in mind the important factor of the way a school’s setting can influence the strength of relationships with classmates and former students (one that we highlighted in a recent blog post about campus-specific considerations), this individual has decided that Tuck is tops in the close-knit community category:

Tuck alums seem to be unanimously positive about the alumni network. Finally, Tuck wins hands down for location and fit for me. This is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to live in such a rural environment. The “fishbowl” environment ensures that I will have deeper relationships with my classmates compared to at a huge city like Chicago, and building lifelong friendships is something I really want to get out of bschool because 5-10 years down the road, that’s all that’s really left.

While it’s true that relationships with fellow graduates will be immensely important down the road, many applicants’ consider academic preparation for their short-term career goal to be of the utmost importance when initially determining which schools to target. Taking a look at a given program’s curricular offerings is often a great start, and we’d like to highlight one particularly insightful comment from a Chicago vs. Columbia thread on the business week forums. This poster does a nice job of articulating the depth of research that is necessary to really understand one’s options and make informed comparisons among programs:

First, when you are comparing the two schools’ classes, be aware that not all equivalent classes at the two schools will be categorized the same way. Some finance classes at one school may be categorized as economics classes or accounting classes at the other. Figure out what you want to learn and carefully read the course descriptions if you want to make a true comparison. Also, while some GSB classes are theoretical, others are entirely practical. A classic example is Financial Instruments vs. Futures, Forwards, Options, and Swaps. Both classes cover derivatives, but teach them in very different ways. My point is, looking at the names is a good starting point, but additional digging is required if you want to really understand what your choices are.

We hope that this great advice will help to jump start the school-specific research of early bird applicants. As always, those applicants looking for personal advice on where to apply or enroll based on their priorities and goals are welcome to contact us directly or post an inquiry in our Business Week thread or the Studylink forum. Meanwhile, those of you who have made up your mind are encouraged to contribute insights and thoughts to the School Choices section of the Wiki.