Posted by Clear Admit on July 31, 2006, at 10:02 am
Posted in:  Deadlines , School: Duke / Fuqua Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business has just released its application deadlines for the coming admissions season:
Round 1 Application Due: November 1, 2006 Interview Deadline: November 21, 2006 Decision Notification: December 19, 2006
Round 2 Application Due: January 8, 2007 Interview Deadline: February 23, 2007 Decision Notification: March 8, 2007
Round 3 Application Due: March 21, 2007 Interview Deadline: April 17, 2007 Decision Notification: May 4, 2007
Applicants should note that interview dates reflect the timeframe for on-campus sessions, which are strongly encouraged but not strictly required (the program also offers alumni interviews to west coast and international applicants). The website promises that the program’s essay questions will be announced and online application launched early in the coming month.
Posted by Clear Admit on July 28, 2006, at 1:55 pm
Posted in: School: CMU / Tepper We’ve just received a press release that was issued by CMU / Tepper and covers the latest recruiting figures. As expected, the current students are doing well – with rising salaries and healthy numbers in both the banking and consulting sectors.
Tepper School of Business Students Report Strong 2006 Recruiting Season Increased Demand, Higher Salaries Cited for MBA and MSCF Students
PITTSBURGH – Both newly minted MBAs and first-year graduate studentsat Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business report a strengthening market for jobs and summer internships, with increased offers overall and more offers being made earlier than last year. Salaries for full-time positions and internships are also up compared to 2005, according to student surveys.
About 83 percent of graduating MBAs had offers in hand – and about 75 percent of those had accepted their first job – at the time of their graduation, said Ken Keeley, executive director of the Tepper School’s Career Opportunities Center. Graduates of Tepper’s Master of Science in Computational Finance (MSCF) program reported exceptionally high demand for their blend of strong quantitative, computing, statistical and finance skills. All MSCF graduates accepted a job within a month of graduating, up from 71 percent during the same period a year ago. The numbers were nearly as good for internships: 99 percent of first-year students received at least one internship offer for the summer, up from 95 percent last year. Salaries for 2006 MBA graduates also continued to climb. The average salary reported by MBA students who graduated in May was $94,935, nearly seven percent higher than last year. The average starting salary for MSCF grads was $90,118, down slightly from 2005′s average of $93,510. “Across the board, the economy has definitely emerged from the hiring downturn we saw two years ago,” Keeley said. “This year’s strong recruiting season speaks directly to the value that recruiters place on the analytical skills and interdisciplinary education our students receive here at Tepper.”
An increase in the amount of recruiters visiting the Tepper School is another indication of growing demand for graduate business majors. The number of companies interviewing on campus increased by about 31 percent from 2005, and students also traveled to locations such as New York and Silicon Valley, making use of Tepper’s existing satellite classrooms there for interviews and information sessions with recruiters.
Top Industries Employing Tepper School of Business Graduates and Graduate Interns in 2006
INDUSTRY: (MBA/MSCF %) (Graduate Interns %) Financial Services: (28.41) (36.67) Consulting: (23.86) (10.67) Technology: (11.93) (14.67) Consumer Products: (5.68) (7.33) Petroleum / Energy: (4.55) (2.67) Information Systems / IT: (3.41) (2.67) Other: (22.16) (25.32)
Posted by Clear Admit on July 28, 2006, at 1:14 pm
Posted in: General The Clear Admit team has a busy month of August ahead! We’re reaching out to applicants through participation in several exciting free events. While plans continue to be finalized, here’s an initial schedule to help our readers stay on top of two August offerings:
Tuesday, August 1st. 8:00 – 9:00 PM (ET) [online] Virtual GMAT Preview and MBA Admissions Strategy Session Our friends at Manhattan GMAT will be offering a free online workshop that reviews GMAT test basics and preparation essentials. Attendees will learn four practical strategies to use on the test! Clear Admit’s Graham Richmond will join the workshop to offer strategic advice on the role of the exam in the admissions process, covering answers to key questions like: How many times can I take the exam? How do admissions officers view multiple scores? How can one compensate for a low GMAT score?, and more general questions about the admissions process at the top MBA programs! Register for the event here.
Thursday, August 17th. Evening/TBA (ET) [138 West 25th St., NYC] In-person GMAT Preview and MBA Admissions Strategy Workshop This session will be very similar to the event mentioned above – with the exception being that it’s an in-person event at the offices of Manhattan GMAT in New York City. Once again, our friends at Manhattan GMAT will be offering a free workshop that will review GMAT test basics and include Q&A with Clear Admit’s Brett Haber to address attendees questions about the MBA admissions process and the role of the GMAT. Registration details will be announced next week for this event! Space is limited.
Posted by Clear Admit on July 28, 2006, at 9:07 am
Posted in: Fridays from the Frontline Welcome to another edition of FFF, our weekly recap of the goings on in the MBA blogosphere. A look at what student bloggers have been up to really highlights the range of different considerations and activities that come up during business school summers. For starters, the LBS blog featured the diary of a student out on a unique shadowing project while his classmate rsr.pt is planning on having a productive summer and bidding on classes at Columbia in preparation for an exchange term. Brit-chick, meanwhile, recounts a harrowing visa problem and plans to offer a word of advice to incoming international Wharton students and jp recaps his interactions with some members of the Houston Class of 2008. Marquis also recounts his participation in the LEAD conference and remarks that he enjoyed meeting some future MBAs. Mbwana, on the other hand, spends time looking back on his own first year and provides a review of his Stanford experience to date, and Le MBA reflects on his motivations for pursuing the degree in Europe. Finally, KV is looking forward to the coming year at LBS and entertaining some compelling housing options in England and elsewhere.
Which roof to have over one’s head is a concern that incoming b-school students share as well. Angel Angie bid an illustrated farewell to Hamburg this week on her way to LBS (via Switzerland), MBA Spanky succeeded in finding an apartment by Anderson and MJ is moved in and explorin’ Durham before things kick off at Fuqua. Speaking of farewells, FM will soon be on his way to the UK now that he’s gotten his visa, some family members threw a party for DomoDomo to wish him luck at INSEAD, while fellow admit InvisibleInk experienced the other end of this journey at a BCG reception. In more academically-focused admit news, Axechick has just a month left of her internship before starting at Columbia and is feeling indecisive about her b-school path, Marina wonders how many classes to try her hand at waiving through the upcoming CBS exemption exams, and Rahul tries his hand at couse registration at Kellogg.
One final activity of students slated to begin school in the fall has been sharing their insight with the next wave of applicants. Axechick offers some high level essay advice and Been There Done That posted his AGSM responses, Oxford-bound Nagendra tries to alleviate some common concerns, and Rupin shares the viewpoint he developed while applying to Chicago last year. As for the applicants themselves, FSM shares his GMAT prep approach and Kent learns that he’s a consistent test-taker, while Suser McLoser braces herself for the oncoming exam; others, like GuyMBA, have quite a while to go before test day. We were glad to hear that Juggler is making progress with her Harvard essays and feeling positively about the process again, and that GuyMBA . . . → Continue Reading
Posted by Clear Admit on July 27, 2006, at 8:42 am
Posted in: General As those who follow this blog closely are already well aware, one of our aims is to track the latest trends in the MBA admissions world and keep readers abreast of breaking business school news. Today, we’d like to introduce a new feature that we hope will make this site an even more comprehensive source of b-school information: the Clear Admit Tipline.
If you’re an admissions officer who wants to put the word out about a new development in your program, a student with inside information about the goings on at your particular school, an applicant with an inside track on admissions updates, or someone who just happens to have come across an interesting article about the MBA space, consider yourself encouraged to send an email to news@clearadmit.com at any time. We’ve always enjoyed receiving notes from our readers, and are pleased to offer this opportunity for members of the community to join us in building this resource. Hope to hear from you soon (and often)!
Posted by Clear Admit on July 26, 2006, at 9:03 am
Posted in: General Though many applicants for the fall 2007 b-school entry have already committed to the process and are working full tilt on their application materials, there are many that are still on the fence about whether an MBA program makes sense. For many such would-be applicants, one of the greatest factors in this decision is the financial viability of an MBA, which involves not only sacrificing one or two years of income (depending on the program), but also incurring a considerable amount of debt to cover the cost of tuition.
For those individuals who are leaning toward business school but finding the money issue to be the major sticking point, we wanted to highlight an ongoing series in The Times that promises to cover MBA funding options in six weekly installments. The philosophy behind the articles is summed up in a quote from David Simpson, London Business School’s senior manager of MBA marketing and admissions, found in the article announcing the feature:
“We advise prospective students to really plan ahead and build a funding portfolio from as many different sources as possible. There is money out there and they should take advantage of the opportunities.”
The first installment, which came out last week, covers the topic of sponsorship and offers a few words of advice to those hoping for financial (among other kinds) of support from their employer. Because employers that sponsor students expect some return on their investment, this topic is most relevant to those seeking part-time or executive MBAs and planning on staying with their current company for at least a few years after graduation. This week’s article, covering the topic of scholarships and due out tomorrow, promises to be more broadly applicable to all business school aspirants.
Posted by Clear Admit on July 25, 2006, at 9:00 am
Posted in: General Kellogg announced last week that it will be launching a new executive program catering to what was previously a largely untapped segment of the business education market: individuals who already hold MBAs. Kellogg’s Renaissance Program is intended for seasoned managers who completed their degrees before 1995, and is designed to bring students up to speed on new developments and issues that have become increasingly significant over the past decade. Here’s a comment from the school’s press release announcing the new course offering:
“We asked ourselves a simple question — what are we teaching now that we did not teach a decade ago?” said Stephen Burnett, associate dean of executive education at the Kellogg School. “We asked our colleagues to look back over their teaching notes and course outlines and identify concepts, tools, and best practices that today are considered essential but were not a part of the classroom a decade ago.”
With the undeniable utility of such a curriculum given the rapid pace of technological innovation and the growing impact of trends such as globalization and outsourcing, it will be interesting to see whether other business schools follow suit by offering similar programs.
More information is available on Kellogg’s site at: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/execed/programs/MGMT08/index.htm
Posted by Clear Admit on July 24, 2006, at 11:27 am
Posted in: Essay Topic Analysis , School: Dartmouth / Tuck Because we posted Tuck’s essay questions last week, we wanted to follow up with some comments and tips covering each of the program’s prompts.
There’s been relatively little change across Tuck’s set of questions; the fourth is worded slightly differently from last year’s inquiry about what the applicant most wants others to know about him or her, but the angle of community contribution remains the same. The only entirely new question is the third, replacing the subject of a “significant nonacademic failure” with a query about an instance of constuctive criticism.
In addition to asking a set of questions that are very similar to last year’s, the program’s instructions with respect to length are also much the same, stating that there are no formal length limits, but that most applicants use 500 words per essay “on average.” This provides a bit more leeway than schools whose essays have explicit word counts, but it would still be wise to avoid exceeding or coming short of this mark by very many words.
Let’s take a closer look at each of the school’s essays:
Essay 1: Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA program for you? This is a rather straightforward career goal essay. The one way that it differs from those of most other schools is that rather than simply inquiring about the basis of an applicant’s interest in the program, Tuck wants to hear the reasons it might be the best of the candidate’s options. Navigating this issue will require a fair amount of research, as it will be important to identify some features that are truly unique to Tuck and very relevant to one’s goals, background and/or interests.
Essay 2: Tuck defines leadership as “inspiring others to strive and enabling them to accomplish great things.” Describe a time when you exercised such leadership. Discuss the challenges you faced and the results you achieved. What characteristics helped you to be effective, and what areas do you feel you need to develop in order to be a better leader? This is a tall order for an (approximately) 500 word essay, as applicants are asked not only to recount a situation in detail, but also to reflect on the strengths behind the success and comment on areas for potential improvement. In order to keep the details and length under control, a sound approach would be to make sure that the characteristics you intend to cover in response to the follow up question are clearly illustrated in the initial story, as this would enable you to refer to the events in passing at the end of the essay rather than introducing completely new ideas.
Essay 3: Discuss the most difficult constructive criticism or feedback you have received. How did you address it? What have you learned from it? Though this question will elicit a different sort of story than last year’s prompt about a failure or setback, . . . → Continue Reading
Posted by Clear Admit on July 23, 2006, at 12:40 pm
Posted in: General If there is anyone in the Washington DC area, who is blogging his / her MBA experience, or application experience, and would consider participating in a “class” that Clear Admit’s Alex Brown is teaching for GMAC’s Professional Development Program, please e-mail him ASAP at: alexbr@clearadmit.com. Our apologies for the late notice, but the class is this Tuesday afternoon, July 25!
Posted by Clear Admit on July 21, 2006, at 9:07 am
Posted in: Fridays from the Frontline With another week comes another installment of FFF! Fittingly enough for this time of year, things are heating up in the MBA blogosphere as admitted students get closer to the start of school and the new crop of applicants gears up for the task ahead. Let’s take a look at the latest developments and goings on in the lives of our blogger friends:
Though several applicants are still focused on conquering the GMAT – Kent Torokvei will be giving the test another go today (good luck!) and Suser McLoser is still in the early preparatory stages – essays have become a more popular topic among the candidate crowd. This is hardly suprising, given the number of schools that have released their questions over the past weeks in a move that some view as more benevolent than others, as ScareCrow equates it with the weather while Forrest Gump treats it more as a declaration of war (not too hard to tell who’s the reapp here). While UniQpath ponders the best frame of mind from which to approach her essays, Juggler is thinking about the ways her story might fit the questions asked by each of her target schools, MaelstromX is still hashing out his school selection, and GuyMBA is nearly finished with his Columbia essays and seems more focused on the issue of recommendations. Similarly, Median2K9 learned a valuable lesson about managing recommenders and StressTensor finally shared his b-school plans asked his boss for a letter (and, just to bring things full circle, hopes to get his input on his essays).
Fortunately for those diligently working on their application materials, a number of current and admitted students have shared their essay-related insights this week. Brit-Chick notes a change in this year’s Wharton essays and Benny tracks adjustment’s to Tuck’s questions, while Angel Angie shares her secrets of success in getting into LBS and MBAXploit publishes what must have been an effective Darden essay. In other tips, InvisibleInk has pledged to share the lessons he learned in the process of getting into INSEAD (beginning with the GMAT), FooBarMe offers some thoughts on how to get the most out of info sessions, and DomoDomo weighs in on additional ways to get a feel for INSEAD.
Those admits who aren’t offering advice are looking ahead to the start of school. Some are mired in specifics – MJ is buried under a mound of pre-Fuqua reading, FM is selling furniture and filing paperwork before heading to London, Rahul is thinking about Kellogg classes and Marina is getting ready to ship (things) off to Columbia – while others are facing broader concerns. DomoDomo shares his four step plan for getting settled in Fontainebleau, MGalBlue has mixed emotions about leaving work for Michigan, and Paxti is formulating a plan to hit the ground running at INSEAD and meeting some fellow . . . → Continue Reading
Posted by Clear Admit on July 20, 2006, at 12:15 pm
Posted in: Essay Topic Analysis , School: Northwestern / Kellogg Rounding out what’s been an essay-focused week here in our corner of the blogosphere, we wanted to offer some commentary on the recently released set of Kellogg essay questions.
Whereas some programs (like Kellogg’s regional rival Chicago) have unveiled drastic changes to their essays this season, there hasn’t been too much change to this set at all, as the school has decided to stick with its usual format of three required questions followed with the applicant’s choice of three of six shorter response options. The questions themselves are also much the same as last years, with just one new inquiry among the six shorter prompts and a slight change to another.
Essay 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 (1-2 double-spaced pages). This is another fairly standard career goals/why MBA essay. As usual, it’s important to remember that specificity of goals is key, and keep in mind that the school prides itself on its collegial culture when addressing the ‘why Kellogg’ issue. One more 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.
Essay 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 (1-2 double-spaced pages). 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.
Essay 3: You have been selected as a member of the Kellogg Admissions Committee. Please provide a brief evaluative assessment of your file (1-2 double-spaced pages). This is one of the trickier questions out there in the MBA admissions world, 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 . . . → Continue Reading
Posted by Clear Admit on July 20, 2006, at 11:17 am
Posted in: Admissions Tips As July moves quickly towards August, it’s critical for applicants to finalize school selection and develop a personal schedule based on published application deadlines. Today’s post focuses on those applicants who are considering first round applications and offers some basic advice on how to approach this process.
Let’s start by taking a quick look at the published Round 1 deadlines for the top MBA programs:
Oct. 11: Harvard Oct. 11: Columbia (ED)* Oct. 12: Dartmouth / Tuck (EA)** Oct. 12: Penn / Wharton Oct. 18: INSEAD Oct. 18: Chicago Oct. 19: Darden (EA)** Oct. 20: Northwestern / Kellogg Oct. 20: London Business School Oct. 25: Stanford Oct.25: UCLA / Anderson Oct. 27: UNC / Kenan-Flagler (EA)** Nov. 1: MIT / Sloan Nov. 1: Michigan / Ross Nov. 6: Berkeley / Haas
While there are still a few schools that have yet to report deadlines (NYU and Cornell are two that come to mind), the R1 landscape is nearly set. In light of this, most applicants should be wondering how to effectively plan their time and submit strong applications. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when creating your personal timeline:
1) Plan to be busy in August and September so that you have time to apply in the first round. This may go without saying, but thousands of MBA applicants squander the month of August only to wake up in September and realize that they cannot make their target deadlines. We know it’s tempting to work on your tan at the beach, but given that most office environments are relatively calm in August, it can also be a great opportunity to curtail your hours and spend some serious time working on your MBA applications in the evenings. Don’t forget that your time may be split between resume drafting, essay writing, recommendation coaching, GMAT prep, school research, visits and more…
2) Think carefully about the timing of various R1 deadlines. Looking at the deadlines above, it becomes clear that some deadlines may be easier to make than others. For example, candidates with an interest in both Harvard and Wharton (R1 deadlines of October 11th and 12th respectively) will be faced with the challenge of juggling two deadlines that sit right on top of each other. In contrast, a candidate targeting Wharton and MIT (with its first deadline perched on the 1st of November) should have a bit more time to prepare their files. This does not mean that one cannot attempt to apply to both Wharton and HBS in the first round. It simply requires that applicants build a schedule that offers them ample time to complete these files in August and September rather than waiting until the last minute.
3) Consider taking some time off from work. While we realize that many of you work 70 hours/week and haven’t had a day off in months, you may seriously benefit from taking a day . . . → Continue Reading
Posted by Clear Admit on July 19, 2006, at 4:15 pm
Posted in: Essay Topics , School: Dartmouth / Tuck While we posted the deadlines back in early June, we wanted to let our reader’s know that Tuck’s essays for the coming season are now available. We’ll follow up with our Clear Admit essay tips in the near future, but for now here are the school’s questions for this season:
Tuck Essay Topics 2006-07 Please respond fully but concisely to the following essay questions. Compose each of your answers offline in separate document files and upload them individually in the appropriate spaces below. Although there is no restriction on the length of your response, most applicants use, on average, 500 words for each essay. There are no right or wrong answers. Please double-space your responses.
1. Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA program for you? (If you are applying for a joint or dual degree, please explain how the additional degree will contribute to those goals.)
2. Tuck defines leadership as “inspiring others to strive and enabling them to accomplish great things.” Describe a time when you exercised such leadership. Discuss the challenges you faced and the results you achieved. What characteristics helped you to be effective, and what areas do you feel you need to develop in order to be a better leader?
3. Discuss the most difficult constructive criticism or feedback you have received. How did you address it? What have you learned from it?
4. Tuck seeks candidates of various backgrounds who can bring new perspectives to our community. How will your unique personal history, values, and/or life experiences contribute to the culture at Tuck?
5. (Optional) Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere that may be helpful in reviewing your application (e.g., unusual choice of evaluators, weaknesses in academic performance, unexplained job gaps or changes, etc.). Complete this question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application.
6. (To be completed by all reapplicants) How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? Please reflect on how you have grown personally and professionally.
Posted by Clear Admit on July 19, 2006, at 9:21 am
Posted in: Essay Topic Analysis , School: Penn / Wharton Following on last week’s announcement of Wharton’s essay questions for the coming admissions season, here are some thoughts on each of this year’s inquiries:
While there is only one question that is completely new when compared to last year’s set of questions, several of the questions that had become somewhat standard elements of the Wharton application have been subtly adjusted to include a new focus on learning, growth and contemplation of the way certain experiences have influenced the applicant as a person. This is a noteworthy change: the program has always been somewhat interested in hearing applicants reflect on their experiences (this is an area in which we’ve heard many reapplicants being told they fell short during feedback sessions), and it’s interesting to see the adcom articulating their interest in this a bit more explicitly than in prior years.
Essay 1: Describe your career progress to date and your future short-term and long-term career goals. How do you expect an MBA from Wharton to help you achieve these goals, and why is now the best time for you to join our program? (1,000 words) The school’s career goal essay has remained fairly constant from year to year, and the thousand word limit provides applicants with a good deal of room to work with in describing their professional progress and aspirations, and their motivation for pursuing an MBA. One thing to note is the strong emphasis on the “why now” element of the prompt, which indicates that the timing of the application with respect to one’s current job and future plans will be a very important idea to address.
Essay 2: Describe a failure or setback that you have experienced. How did you respond, and what did you learn about yourself? (500 words) While Wharton has been asking a failure-themed question for the past few years, it was previously focused on teamwork and one of several options. This year, the program has moved this inquiry about setback and subsequent growth to the fore, displacing the previously required question about making a positive impact on a person, group or organization, an adjustment that might indicate a new interest in an applicant’s maturity (as evidenced by ability to learn from mistakes and handle disappointment) in addition to his or her achievements. The range of potential topics is also broader than previously, with the wording leaving applicants open to discussing a topic from the professional, academic or extracurricular realm.
As is always the case, it’s important to focus on the positive elements of this scenario. A sound approach to any essay that explicitly asks applicants to recount a time when things went less than well is to summarize the failure itself briefly, spending the bulk of the essay relating his or her response and lessons learned. Also along these lines, rather than commenting that he or she learned about a weakness as a result of the failure, it would be ideal for an applicant to select a situation in which something positive . . . → Continue Reading
|
