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APPLICANT RESOURCES
Admissions Director Q&A Clear Admit School Guides Clear Admit Career Guides Clear Admit Strategy Series Clear Admit Interview Guides Below are the upcoming deadlines for admission to top-tier schools. Feb 10: INSEAD R3 Mar 1: Michigan / Ross R3 Mar 3: CBS Mar 3: LBS R3 Mar 4: Kellogg R3 Mar 8: Cambridge / Judge R4 Mar 8: CMU / Tepper R3 Mar 9: Duke / Fuqua R3 Mar 9: Penn / Wharton R3 Mar 10: Berkeley / Hass R4 Mar 10: Chicago Booth R3 Mar 10: Yale SOM R3 Mar 15: NYU / Stern R3 Mar 17: UCLA / Anderson R3 Mar 19: UNC / Kenan-Flagler R4 Mar 30: Cornell / Johnson R4 Mar 31: UVA / Darden R3 Mar 31: INSEAD R4 Apr 1: UT-Austin / McCombs Apr 2: Dartmouth / Tuck R3 Apr 2: Oxford / Saїd R3 Apr 7: Stanford GSB R4 Apr 8: Harvard R3 Apr 14: CBS Essay Topic Analysis Use categories to access all that has been written on each of the topics. We have categorized by school and by subject matter.
Interview Reports MBA.com Manhattan GMAT GMAT Club Princeton Review Test Prep New York Kaplan Beat The GMAT Knewton Writing Resources Guide to Grammar and Writing The Internet Grammar of English English Usage, Style and Composition The Economist Style Guide Paradigm Online Writing Assistant School Rankings The following resources should be useful to those who want to research the careers open to them after (or before) earning an MBA. Vault.com Wetfeet
Business School Resources
If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it. Berkeley / Haas Boston College / Carroll Carnegie Mellon / Tepper Chicago Columbia Concordia Cornell / Johnson Dartmouth / Tuck Duke / Fuqua Emory / Goizueta Harvard HEC Montreal Indiana / Kelley Michigan MIT / Sloan Northwestern / Kellogg New York / Stern North Carolina / Kenan Flagler Notre Dame / Mendoza Pennsylvania / Wharton Queens Stanford Syracuse / Whitman Texas / McCombs Thunderbird Toronto USC / Marshall UCLA / Anderson Vanderbilt / Owen Virginia / Darden Washington University in St. Louis / Olin Western Ontario / Ivey Yale MBA Programs: Rest of the World As there is some variety in the length of international MBA programs, we have denoted the length of the program next to its name (1 = one year; 2 = 2 years). If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it. AGSM (Australia) 2 Cambridge / Judge (UK) 1 CIEBS (China) 2 Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (China) 1 Cranfield School of Mgmt (UK) 1 ESADE (Spain) 1 or 2 HEC (France) 2 Hult (UK) 1 IESE (Spain) 2 IMD (Switzerland) 1 INCAE (Costa Rica) 2 INSEAD (France) 1 IPADE (Mexico) ISB (India) 1 London Business School (UK) 2 Manchester Bus. School (UK) 2 Melbourne (Australia) 2 Oxford / Said (UK) 1 Rotterdam (Netherlands) 1 Tsinghua IMBA (China) 2 University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) 1 Additional Resources Here we link a host of additional resources available across the web. E-mail info@clearadmit.com to have resources added to this list. AACSB International Association of MBAs Beyond Grey Pinstripes EFMD gradschools.com (worldwide) Infozee International Student Loans mba.com (GMAT Scores) MBAInfo mbaleague.blogspot.com MBAzone MBA Jungle TOEFL Top MBA MBA Tipline We encourage admissions officers, students and applicants to alert us of interesting news and developments, please send an email to news@clearadmit.com so we can blog it. Blog Archive
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Get a $10 Amazon.com Gift Card! Contribute your MBA interview reports to the Clear Admit Wiki. Taking the GMAT? Download our free, independent guide to the leading test prep companies - includes coupons for savings at 10 leading test prep firms! ARCHIVE FOR AUGUST 2006 Thursday, August 31, 2006 Admissions Tip: Information Sessions Though we’ve always said that traveling to a school’s campus is the ideal way to get a feel for the campus and culture of an MBA program, we do recognize that this might be a viable option for applicants who are located remotely or unsure of their level of interest in a given school. For those still on the fence and located near a major city, the good news is that the schools they’re considering might very well come to them. With September just around the corner, many b-schools are getting ready to hit the road and embark on worldwide tours to dispense information and recruit qualified applicants. Such events offer a great opportunity for applicants to meet with admissions staff (and sometimes with current students and/or alumni), learn about the program and ask specific questions. Some of the top schools are already on the road, so we’d recommend looking into the travel schedules for programs of interest and planning accordingly. Here’s where to find this information in question from a number of the top programs in the U.S. and abroad: Berkeley / Haas: IESE:
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 UNC / Kenan-Flagler Essay Topic Analysis 2006-2007 Following up on our post announcing Kenan-Flagler’s essay topics for the coming admissions season, we wanted to offer our thoughts on each of the program’s inquiries for this year. Rather than either extreme of reserving its optional essay for explanation of extenuating circumstances or inviting all applicants to include whatever additional information they choose, UNC includes two optional essays that might only be applicable to a portion of the applicant pool. Though the 2000 total words across the two required essays don’t put the school’s topics too far below the average in terms of total application length, most applicants will have to cover their entire candidacies in response to just two fairly narrow questions – a task that will require some considerable reflection and strategic thinking. Essay 1: Describe your career progression to date, highlighting leadership and management positions and reasons for changing jobs or career paths, if applicable. Tell us how your experience, coupled with an MBA degree from UNC, will lead you to your short-term and long-term career goals (1200 words maximum). Essay 2: Describe the major obstacles or challenges you have faced in pursuit of your goals. Tell us how you addressed these challenges and how they have shaped you (800 words maximum). Essay 3 (Optional): Tell us about any international experience you have, either living or working abroad. Tell us how it has impacted your global perspective (400 words maximum). Essay Four (Optional): UNC Kenan-Flagler seeks to enroll students from a variety of undergraduate majors. Regardless of your major, we strongly recommend that all students enter the program with some background in calculus, microeconomics, statistics and financial accounting. If you have not studied one or more of these subjects in college or university, please tell us how you have developed proficiency in these areas. If you have not been exposed to one or more of these subjects, please tell us how you will prepare yourself prior to entering UNC Kenan-Flagler (400 words maximum).
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 Yale Deadlines and Essays 2006-2007 Yale University’s School of Management recently released its deadlines and essay questions for this admissions season. The school’s essays are nearly identical to last year’s with just one interesting change that we’ll cover in our upcoming analysis of these topics (stay tuned). Looking at the deadlines, another important thing to consider is that R1 applicants won’t hear of the adcom’s decision until well after the R2 deadlines for most top schools. This means that even if the Yale SOM is an applicant’s first choice, he or she will need to prepare applications to a number of other schools to maximise his or her chances of admissions this year. Deadlines Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Essays The two required essays provide an opportunity for you to tell the Admissions Committee about your life, your career, and your goals. Because we are interested in learning as much as possible about you, your essays must be entirely your own work. Although you may ask others for general feedback on your essays, you may not allow anyone else to edit them for you. We suggest that anyone reviewing your essays do so without a pen in hand. Why An MBA? (Required) Personal Statement (Required) Some example questions/topics include: Optional Essay
MBA Podcast: Admissions Essays The good folks over at MBA Podcaster have just released a new podcast titled “Your Application Essays: Strategic Recommendations for Writing Your Admission Essay.” The piece offers advice about how to approach one’s essays and some insight into what the schools are looking for – from multiple perspectives. In addition to interviews with Thomas Caleel, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at the Wharton School, and Brian Lohr, Director of MBA Admissions at Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business, the podcast also features input from the admissions consulting end of things – including Clear Admit’s Graham Richmond. Though they come to this discussion from different places, the admissions officers reinforce the advice of the admissions consultants on several points. For instance, Thomas Caleel echoes Graham Richmond’s point about the importance of the career goals essay in telling the school where one has been and where one is now trying to go, adding that they look for well-written and thoughtful questions that speak to the point. Meanwhile, both Graham Richmond and Brian Lohr warn against recycling content from responses to another school’s questions and stress the merits of providing concise answers that directly address all elements of a given program’s essay questions. For applicants who are just beginning to approach the writing process, this piece is highly recommended as a way to gain some high-level perspective and arrive at the right mindset for cultivating a compelling set of essays. Note: You can download the podcast on admissions essays at this link, or subscribe to MBA Podcaster via iTunes and add it to your library.
Monday, August 28, 2006 Admissions Tip: Financial Forethought Last week’s edition of Fridays from the Frontline demonstrated that this year’s crop of applicants are busy thinking about GMAT prep, school selection and essay composition, but one thing that we haven’t heard many prospective students considering lately is the topic of financing their studies. While it’s reasonable that gaining admission is the primary focus and that many plan to cross the monetary bridge when they come to it, we wanted to remind readers of an ongoing London Times series that we mentioned last month about strategies for paying for an MBA. Though geared toward British applicants, the general principles in these articles are applicable to anyone considering an MBA. In addition to considering the topic of bank loans, recent installments have covered bursaries and scholarships, touching upon the subjects of what a schools or company has to gain from awarding funds to students with no strings attached – and what sort of information applicants need to provide about their potential contribution to a school when applying. Our advice to those working on applications this time of year is to take some time to see what options are available in terms of scholarships and make note of the deadlines. It would be wise to build time for this research and paperwork into your timeline for the admissions season. While it does mean a bit of extra work at an already hectic time of year, it will likely pay off (quite literally) this time next year.
Friday, August 25, 2006 Fridays from the Frontline Welcome to another edition of FFF, our weekly survey of the newest and most noteworthy happenings in the MBA blogging world. Let’s begin this week by checking in with our friends in the applicant crowd. Juggler has returned from a trip and is already back in the midst of the application process, dealing with data forms and starting her Stanford essays. On the subject of writing, StressTensor is, well, stressed about MIT’s narrow word limits, but we’re glad to hear that Scarecrow feels good about his progress – which, with three schools’ essays finished, he certainly should – and that Brian is in good shape with his planned Thunderbird application. Forrest Gump (who we hope will note that we’ve refrained from using the v-word) expressed some concern about his progress with respect to those applicants who already seem to be flying through multiple applications, but not everyone is quite so far along. FSM is only beginning to consider his Chicago essays, Suser McLoser just tackled the GMAT (with 700+ results!), and Jatwarrior and Median2k9 are still ironing out their school selection. Anand is still planning his visits to Tuck and Darden, while Reveur recounts his trip to the midwest and his very different impressions of Kellogg and Chicago. As busy as this the applicant bloggers have been this week, there’s been even more activity on the first-year student front. UCLADawg just picked up some Anderson gear for himself and his recommenders, NoKeating offers the scoop on Bloomington before beginning school at Kelley, Jacek is counting down until his start at ESADE and MJ offers a great, detailed account of orientation at Fuqua. While some are just settling, others are already in the midst of academics. MGalBlue flew through a week-long crash course in accounting at Ross (hopefully with enough success to test out this coming semester), SharkB8 is loving Wharton pre-term, DomoDomo offers a positive review of the faculty teaching INSEAD’s pre-term, and FooBarMe also sounds pleased with his classes at Haas. Finally, LBS has been a well-represented school in the blogging community, and this year’s incoming class is no exception: Paxti is bracing himself (and his readers) for a heavy workload, FM takes time to share some London sights, Karlitos is keeping busy and having fun, and Angel Angie has found a flat(!) and is finally getting to relax before the start of classes. While this crew is just getting settled in the city, the second-year LBS blogger posts have all been focused on leaving. KV is nearing the end of his internship and wondering about a post-MBA job offer. Meanwhile, a few others are thinking about immediate futures in another city; Natasja sounds excited about her upcoming exchange at Stern and the Divine Miss N, also NY-bound, is still busy running down a very comprehensive pre-departure checklist. That’s it for this week. Best of luck to everyone, and have a great weekend!
Thursday, August 24, 2006 MBA News: Advice from the Adcom There have been two interesting and informative pieces in Business Week over the past few days, both dealing with the topics of what the leading business schools are – and aren’t – looking for in an application student, drawing upon input from the admissions officers themselves. The first is the transcript from an online chat with Kellogg’s Beth Flye that took place a few weeks back. Over the course of the discussion, Flye fields questions from anxious applicants, assuring chat participants that while Kellogg does require some full-time work experience, the school is concerned with depth, breadth and quality over quantity, and naming intellectual ability and leadership potential as two of the things the program prizes in potential students. The subject of visiting to attend an information session and speak with students also comes up several times, underscoring the importance of demonstrating that one has done his or her homework and is committed enough to make the trip to the school’s campus. While the Kellogg chat covers some of the things that Kellogg likes to see, the second item deals with the sort of things that admissions officers hate to hear. A nice complement to the advice we recently offered on what one might discuss in an optional essay, adcom members from a number of schools weigh in on the do’s and don’ts of addressing a liability in one’s application, selecting recommenders, sharing personal information and marketing oneself in the application process. Here’s an excerpt that covers some great ground on the topic of explaining a shortcoming in one’s candidacy: In explaining inconsistencies in your application, use the old writing teacher’s cliche, “Show, don’t tell,” as your guide. Daniel Garza, assistant dean at the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business, encourages taking a “journalistic approach”: sticking to the facts, rather than editorializing. In other words, “Don’t have a pity party for yourself in your application,” says Ballenger. “What I look for is complete honesty,” says Brian Lohr, director of admissions at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “There’s an ethical component there, too.” If you say you’re “not a good test taker” – and admissions officers say lots of people do – demonstrate how you’ve taken steps to deal with it in the past. (”And you can’t tell me that if you only took the test once,” [Chicago's Associate Dean of Student Recruitment and Admissions Rose] Martinelli adds.) Low GPA? “Make a case for how it will be different this time around,” says Anne Coyle, director of admissions at the Yale School of Management. No quantitative courses on your transcript? Talk about the statistics class you’re taking now to catch up, says Kellogg’s Flye. The full text of the article is available here.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006 Class of 2009 Bloggers! Though we’ve begun to feature applicants applying this fall in our weekly Fridays from the Frontline column, we wanted to take a moment today to officially welcome the Class of 2009 to the blogging community! The list of bloggers who have announced their candidacy for this fall’s admissions season is already close to 40 strong, and likely to grow as the deadlines approach. It’s great to see that there are so many applicants in this group, as these individuals will serve as a great source of information and moral support for each other throughout the application season. And now, without further ado, here are the Class of 2009 Bloggers (along with a brief summary regarding location and professional industry – when available): aDreamMerchant – (works in IT, lives in the US) Newcomers to this group might look to the archives of veteran reapplicants Anand, Forrest Gump and Pupstar78 for pointers as they gear up for this undertaking. Given the time of year, it’s no surprise that many of these blogs are currently focused on GMAT prep and school selection – but as time passes we look forward to seeing a good deal of insight into the entire application process. Good luck!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006 Admissions Tip: The Optional Essay We realize that the questions of whether to answer an optional essay and, if so, what to say are ones that loom large for many applicants at this time of year. While we’ve offered a great deal of school-specific essay advice over the past few months, we wanted to take some time to suggest a few considerations that applicants might want to take into account when making this call. Is it relevant? Is it requested? Also along the lines of what information is requested, it’s wise to think carefully about a school’s other essay questions before deciding to use an optional essay or provide additional information, as each of these topics affords applicants a chance to introduce the information about their background and interests that they consider to be most important. Your objective should be to provide as complete a picture of your candidacy as possible within the framework of a school’s required essays (as these are a good indication of what a given program is most interested in hearing about) and to only introduce information in an optional essay that you could not have covered elsewhere without sacrificing something more essential. Is it constructive? Is it concise? We hope that these general guidelines have helped to clear up some confusion and shed some light on the optional essay issue. For more tailored feedback on your personal situation, feel free to send your resume or CV to info@clearadmit.com for a free initial consultation.
CMU / Tepper Deadlines and Essays 2006-2007 Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business’s deadlines and essays for the coming season are now available. One point to note is that this program’s first deadline falls several weeks after those of most top MBA programs, making a round one application to this school a very viable option. Stay tuned to this blog for some commentary on Tepper’s essay topics. Deadlines Round One Round Two Round Three (last deadline for international applicants) Round Four* *Unlike many leading MBA programs, CMU continues to accept applications after its fourth round deadline, releasing decisions on a rolling basis according to availability of seats in the class. Essays Required Essays (Suggested length – 2 double-spaced pages per essay.) B. How will your academic and professional background, personal characteristics and life experiences contribute to the diversity of the Tepper C. Please answer three of the following five questions or statements (your three answers should equal a total of two pages). Additional Essays One further thing to note is that the school’s essays are optional for reapplicants, with the requirement instead being:
Monday, August 21, 2006 Michigan / Ross Essay Topic Analysis 2006-2007 As promised last week, we wanted to share some thoughts on how one might approach Michigan’s essay questions for this season. The theme of directed and deliberate action with an eye to some particular goal runs through each of Ross’s required essays this year, something that might be telling of the program’s focus and the sort of student it is seeking. Here is some more specific advice on navigating this particular application: Essay 1: We believe one of the keys to effective leadership is the ability to transform ideas into action. Describe a time within the last three years in which you exercised such leadership. What did you learn about your leadership strengths and development needs? (500 words maximum) Essay 2: What are your career goals? How will a Ross MBA help you achieve your goals? How might the action-based learning aspects of the Ross curriculum make a difference? (500 words maximum) Essay 3: Describe the initiatives you have taken over the past two years to develop professionally and personally. What motivated you to take those initiatives? (500 words maximum)
Friday, August 18, 2006 Fridays from the Frontline Another week has passed us by, but at least we have seven days of great blogging to show for it! Though the weather is starting to cool down (here in Pennsylvania at least), the latest installment of FFF will attest that things are slowly heating up for students and applicants alike. On the applicant front, Kent has narrowed down his school selection and is mentally preparing himself to ask his boss for a recommendation, whereas Anand’s major concern seems to be finding time to visit campuses and schedule interviews within a busy work schedule. Whereas GuyMBA isn’t yet feeling the heat and is at a bit of a standstill with his GMAT preparation, Juggler proved to be a veritable dynamo of productivity this week; in spite of a slow start, she plowed through her final two Kellogg essays early this week and made significant progress on her Wharton responses as well (color us impressed!) She also took the time to share some humorous conclusions she’s drawn about the application process in general. Meanwhile, Reveur might not have started his own Haas essays yet, but did find some inspiration from Berkeley student FooBarMe. Speaking of FooBarMe, who’s currently working on some post-orientation reading for class at Berkeley, let’s take a look at what this year’s incoming students have been up to. Angel Angie is getting settled in London and gearing up for the flathunt, which is soon to be joined by Karlitos and scores of other LBS students. From the sound of Kilgore Trout’s description of his first day at UT Austin, first-years are being gently eased into student life in Texas, while LL reports on Wharton’s pre-term process (and a Phillies win!). Finally, Been There Done That is already excited about business school after hearing an exciting guest speaker at NUS. Many second-year students are also finding themselves in a transitional phase. J$’s internship is also winding down and he’s looking forward to a vacation before the coming semester at Haas. Unfortunately, not everyone in California is quite so laid back at the moment; Mbwana is about halfway through his intern experience and already thinking about recruiting at Stanford next semester, as well as the challenges of being on the younger end of the student body. Across the pond, The Divine Miss N was good enough to share some of her wisdom with those just starting an MBA program, and we were glad to hear that she was successful in securing a visa for her upcoming U.S. exchange. Futureguru and KV have a few things in common: both are nearing the end of their internships and have acquired a liking for Pimms during their summers in London. That’s all for this week; keep that great blog content coming, and have a great weekend!
Clear Admit featured in GMAC Conference Highlights! The Graduate Management Admissions Council has just released the latest installment of its newsletter, with this edition focusing solely on highlights from June’s GMAC conference, an industry event attended by admissions officers of the leading MBA programs. As we mentioned at the time, Clear Admit’s Graham Richmond was invited to participate in a panel on admissions consultants, and we’re thrilled to see that the presentation has been listed as one of the high points of this three-day event!Though both sessions of the panel were well attended at the event itself, we hope that GMAC’s comprehensive recap will help even more admissions officers understand how reputable consultants work and where they fit into the process. Here’s an example of the sort of points raised during the discussion: “Graham Richmond of ClearAdmit encouraged the audience to work with consultants as a ‘part of the equation.’ Consider them in the same light as guidance counselors who prepare high school students for college and college students for law or medical school, he said. Traditional candidates for graduate management programs don’t have the same resources as current students; most are already in the workplace.” The full text of GMAC’s summary of the panel is available here.
Thursday, August 17, 2006 UNC / Kenan-Flagler Essays 2006-2007 We posted this year’s deadlines for the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a while ago, and the MBA program’s essay questions recently came out as well. Stay tuned for a few comments and and tips on these inquiries in the coming days. Essays for Fall 2007 Entry Questions 1 and 2 are required of all applicants. Questions 3 and 4 are optional. Essay One (Required) Essay Two (Required) Essay Four (Optional)
Wednesday, August 16, 2006 Free Seminar in NYC, Tomorrow at 6:30pm Thursday, August 17th. 6:30 – 8:30 PM [138 West 25th St., NYC] Come out to the workshop and learn the answers to the following questions: Space is still available – but limited – so interested applicants should register for this free event here.
Cornell / Johnson Deadlines 2006-2007 Though not yet officially available on the program’s website, the deadlines for Cornell’s full-time, two-year MBA program are as follows: Round One Round Two Round Three Round Four The admissions committee has scaled the process back from five deadlines to four this year, eliminating a round in December. Applicants should note that the January round three deadline is the last for scholarship and financial aid eligibility, and that international applicants are strongly encouraged to apply by this time.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006 Duke Essay Topic Analysis 2006-2007 As promised when we posted Fuqua’s essay questions last week, here are some thoughts and pointers for applicants preparing to tackle this particular program’s application. Duke’s questions this year are fairly straightforward, covering common topics such as ethics and a past failure. It’s also important to note, however, that each of the program’s inquiries contains two or more questions, and that it will be important to explicitly address each in order to tailor these essays to Fuqua’s questions. Short Essays Essay 1: Please discuss your career path, your short and long-term goals. Essay 2: Why are you interested in The Duke MBA program and how will it help you achieve your goals? If you are interested in the Health Sector Management concentration or a joint degree program, please address in this essay. These two questions combined constitute the fairly standard career goals/why MBA question posed by most programs. Because the program requests that applicants answer each of these short questions in a single page (1.5 spaced), you may have to arrive at a condensed narrative of your career to date but should fortunately have a fair amount of room to fully articulate your interest in Duke’s program. Long Essays Essay 1 (required): How has your personal history and family background influenced your intellectual and personal development? What unique personal qualities or life experiences might distinguish you from other applicants? How will your background, values and non-work related activities enhance the experience of other Duke MBA students and add to the diverse culture we strive for at Fuqua? Note: The goal of this essay is to get a sense of who you are, rather than what you have achieved professionally. This is quite a tall order for the 500-750 word prescribed length for this essay (though there is no formal word limit, the instructions hint that most applicants find this sufficient), as there are several lines of questioning and potential topics here. The key will therefore be spending a fair amount of time reflecting on the question and identifying the most important and interesting aspects of one’s personality to cover in this response. One approach might be to identify two or three characteristics that have influenced your activities and interactions and to trace their development from your early days, comment on the role they play at present, and suggest how they might come to bear on the Fuqua community. Essay 2: Please respond fully and concisely to one of the following essay questions, identifying clearly which question you have selected. A. To be a good team player, one needs to be an effective individual leader and vice-versa. Describe an example of where you were challenged to become a leader in a team-oriented context. What was the challenge you faced, how did you address it, and what did you take away from the experience for your future development as a leader? This essay presents a great opportunity to showcase a leadership success that includes the angle of personal or professional growth as a result of a challenge. In addition to a detailed description of the situation, an account of your thoughts and actions throughout and a discussion of the lessons you learned, it would also be great to comment on the outcome of the situation and the impact you were able to have on the team and whatever larger context the story might involve. To distinguish this response from an answer to the classic “impact” essay posed by many schools, though, applicants might consider building this desired outcome into their introduction rather than the conclusion as an explanation of the importance of their ability to rise to the challenge. B. Describe a situation in which your ability to perform ethically was challenged. What was the issue, how did you handle it, and what did you learn from it? For a detailed discussion of the elements to consider when responding to a question about an ethical dilemma, see our take on Wharton’s similar question. C. Describe a significant leadership failure in your life. What did you learn from this failure? How has it impacted who you are today and the kind of leader you would like to be? When responding to a question about a time when you performed less than optimally, it’s best to select a story from which you have some distance; a college extracurricular could be a viable topic, as could an early professional experience. As is also the case with any failure essay (again, see our thoughts on this year’s Wharton essays for an explanation of these general principles), the key will be to summarize the situation as briefly as possible in order to allot a good number of words to a discussion of the lessons you learned from this experience, how they have served you since that time, and how they will continue to influence your leadership style.
Monday, August 14, 2006 Michigan / Ross Essay Topics 2006-2007 This year’s essay questions for application to the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business were released last week. We’ll follow up a bit later with our customary analysis, but in the meantime, here are this season’s inquiries: Ross Essay QuestionsRespond to the three required essay questions, typed on separate sheets. Please limit yourself to the number of words noted, using a minimum of 11 point font with 1.5 line spacing. Required QuestionsYou must answer all parts of the three questions below. 1. We believe one of the keys to effective leadership is the ability to transform ideas into action. Describe a time within the last three years in which you exercised such leadership. What did you learn about your leadership strengths and development needs? 2. What are your career goals? How will a Ross MBA help you achieve your goals? How might the action-based learning aspects of the Ross curriculum make a difference? 3. Describe the initiatives you have taken over the past two years to develop professionally and personally. What motivated you to take those initiatives? Optional Question Is there anything else you think the Admissions Committee should know about you to evaluate your candidacy? (500-word maximum)
Friday, August 11, 2006 Fridays from the Frontline Welcome to this week’s edition of FFF! While last week was an exceptionally sleepy one, we’re glad to see that our blogger friends are back in action and documenting their MBA-related endeavors. One very popular topic among incoming students this week has been housing; Paxti arrived in London rather early for flat-hunting at LBS, and Angel Angie is about to join the apartment search fray after a minor travel debacle. Meanwhile, Marina is slowly getting settled in NYC, DomoDomo enjoyed his final farewell party and is on his way to INSEAD, and Brownoski is counting down to his arrival in New Haven. Axechick has just finished up her pre-Columbia internship and we’re glad to hear that she feels well served by the experience. FooBarMe, on the other hand, is just getting started part-time at Berkeley and finds himself reeling at the cost (he might want to read up Angel Angie’s recap of a particularly creative MBA financing strategy); it sounds like he’ll decide it’s worth it, though, based on his comments about Haas orientation. Joint degree student Rahul is already in the midst of accounting at Kellogg, and new FFF addition Perpetual Motion has just started at Wharton and has hit the blogging ground running with some thoughts on the program’s admissions policies. Speaking of admissions, Tuck-bound Vatsa took some time this week to share five tips for IT applicants and veteran blogger Forrest Gump commented about the benefits of introspection in the application process. While a select few have received positive waitlist news lately, all is said and done for last season as far as most applicants are concerned, and a number of bloggers are turning their attention to reapplying. Based on some feedback from Duke and a list of potential improvements, Bschool Diva is pushing her application back to class of 2010, but most – including fellow reapplicant Rusgirl – are planning their to do lists for fall 2006 application. Nivi is another one working at whittling down her checklist for Duke reapplication and UniQpath has refined her roster of target schools and is taking stock of the work this will entail, while a more relaxed Hallonman is taking in the sights. GuyMBA also seems to be in good shape given that he’s finished a full set of essays and is now focusing on the GMAT, a task that Brian plans to tackle as soon as he’s finished with undergrad. Current students and recent grads have been comparably quiet. Al Martine checked in from an internship in India and offers his thoughts on the summer away from LBS. FutureMBAGirl (time for a new name, Wharton grad!) said her farewell to Philadelphia and arrived in California, and Marquis surfaces to document Phil Knight’s big gift to Stanford and offers ongoing case interview assistance to MBA students with their eyes on careers in consulting. That does it for this week! We hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Thursday, August 10, 2006 MBA Trends: This Year’s Youth Movement BusinessWeek Online has just published an article on the youth movement in MBA admissions, interviewing admissions directors from leading schools like Wharton and Stanford and highlighting what would appear to be the latest trend: younger b-school students. According to the article, top MBA programs are increasingly considering candidates who apply directly from college/university or with 1-3 years of experience. Needless to say, this trend often inspires heated debate. Some argue that expanding the applicant pool to include young or ‘early career’ applicants allows the schools to build a more diverse class while snatching up the true superstars earlier in the process. At the same time, current MBA students and professors often complain that younger students with limited work experience have very little to offer in the classroom. Of course, the admissions teams point out that the students who are admitted straight from college are truly exceptional and have worked part-time jobs, held leadership posts, etc. Brit Dewey (of Harvard Business School) has often said that “it’s all about what an applicant has done with his or her time on the planet” – whether that’s 21 years or 28 years. Then again, there are programs that still insist on full-time work experience (such as Tuck and Kellogg). In any event, before our readers in the 26-35 age group begin to panic, we should remind you that interest in ‘early career’ applicants seems to have emerged around the same time that application volume dipped in 2003 and that such students typically comprise less than 5% of the student body at leading programs. Here are a handful of articles to help our readers follow this trend:
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MBA Twitter Index! We've created the MBA Admissions Twitter Index, a directory of applicants, current MBA students and b-schools on Twitter.Wiki MBA Admissions WikiThe Clear Admit Wiki is designed to allow b-school applicants to share their experiences through the application process. You can learn from others' experiences and contribute your own reports to the community. Below are the five most popular pages in the wiki: Wharton Interview Field Reports HBS Interview Field Reports Kellogg Interview Field Reports Chicago Interview Field Reports Columbia Interview Field Reports Discussion Boards BusinessWeek ForumsThe BusinessWeek Discussion Boards are another way to learn about the issues applicants face. Clear Admit hosts the Ask Clear Admit thread, which should help answer your questions. Here is a link to the original interface (for those of you who didn't like the recent upgrade). Also, here are the five most recent discussions taking place in the forum: Clear Admit is a featured expert in the BeatTheGMAT forums, answering questions from applicants across the globe. Feel free to ask us your questions in this forum! Here are the most recent posts: Clear Admit manages the Applying section of the StudyLink MBA discussion boards. Below are the five most recent posts to the GMAT Club message boards.
The student-2-student Discussion Boards are managed by Wharton. Here are the five most recent discussions. School-Hosted Blogs Straight from the source: aggregated posts from students and administration. Below are the seven most recent posts in school-hosted blogs. Individuals' Blogs A selection of the latest updates to MBA blogs compiled by Hella.MBA Applicants Bloggers by School The following are links to bloggers at each of the schools listed.Chicago Columbia Dartmouth / Tuck Duke / Fuqua Harvard Kellogg Michigan MIT / Sloan New York / Stern North Carolina / Chapel Hill Stanford Virginia / Darden Wharton Yale ESADE IESE INSEAD London Business School Community Blogs Bshoolers.comCommunity blog with MBA student and alum contributors. Forté Foundation MBA Diaries Video blog entries posted by women MBA students. Owen Bloggers Independent blog with content by Vanderbilt MBA students. Best of Blogging 2008-2009 Top Ten:
Best of Blogging 2007-2008 Top Ten:
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