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Clear Admit Interview Guides
Be as prepared as possible for your MBA interviews this season with the Clear Admit Interview Guides! School-specific sample questions and in-depth strategy, campus visit details and places to stay.

Clear Admit School Guides
Seventeen titles available! Understand how the leading programs compare and learn more about the MBA experience in and beyond the classroom through Clear Admit School Guides. As featured in the Economist.

Essay Topic Analysis
Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics for the 2007-2008 admissions season.
The Career Goals Essay
Berkeley / Haas
Chicago GSB
CMU / Tepper *
Columbia
Cornell / Johnson
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
IESE *
INSEAD
London Business School
MIT / Sloan
Michigan / Ross
Northwestern / Kellogg
NYU / Stern
Oxford / Said *
Penn / Wharton
Stanford GSB
UCLA / Anderson
UNC / Kenan-Flagler
UT Austin / McCombs *
UVA / Darden
Yale SOM
* denotes last year's commentary

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Rankings are a good way to start your research on various MBA Programs. Keep in mind each uses a different methodology.
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ARCHIVE FOR DECEMBER 2006

Friday, December 29, 2006

Fridays from the Frontline

It’s been a quiet week for applicants, most of whom seem to be hard at work to meet January deadlines. Several excited bloggers wrote to share news of recent admit decisions. Rungee582 and Juggler each celebrated an acceptance to Wharton, Hobbes announced acceptances at Darden and Duke, and JatWarrior took things a step farther and confirmed his spot in the Tuck Class of 2009. Congratulations to them all! In other admissions news, Iday S wrote to share his post-admissions experience with the Chicago GSB and Inblue took a break from writing Harvard and LBS essays to ponder the remaining likelihood of a nod from Tuck. For those applicants dealing with a waitlist decision from Wharton, current Wharton student LL writes to offer “living proof” that an R1 waitlist can turn into an R2 admit. Finally, AsianGal writes with reassurance that reusing and recycling those admissions essays is easier than you might have expected and Median2K9 reports on a conversation with an MIT Sloan couple — passing on some good tips for any MBA application.

In student news, there’s a lot of celebration, reflection and travel this week as the fall term wraps up and the winter break begins. Managing to combine both travel and reflection, Jacek checks in from the Barcelona airport with lessons learned from term one at ESADE. Also in Barcelona, Ashwyn shares his own lessons from the fall term at IESE and Gandaki expresses his excitement at an upcoming trip to an IESE classmate’s home in Finland. At INSEAD, students in both Singapore and Fonty celebrated the end of the term in style. Hallonman describes the enjoyable excess of the end of term party and DomoDomo shares a recommendation for a great bottle of wine. Although many students are celebrating the end to the first term, some are just getting started, and InvisibleInk wrote to announce an easier-than-expected visa process in preparation for heading to INSEAD.

One student blogger is filled with excitement about doing, well, nothing. Home in Valencia over the winter break, it seems Karlitos is just starting to realize how busy he was at LBS. Fellow LBS student AngelAngie is taking time over the break to ponder her career direction and whether the recent record bonuses paid out to investment bankers are a positive or negative sign for aspiring i-bankers. In the U.S., MBA students were headed overseas this week, with Stanford GSB student Mbwana considering the challenges to scaling a business in Tanzania and Brownoski packing his suitcase to head to Hong Kong to participate in the Yale SOM’s new first year international experience.

Finally, a few current students wrote to offer advice to this year’s group of applicants. Phantom writes from Rice to discuss the pros and cons of pursuing a dual degree MBA program, Kathleen shares her thoughts on some of the common concerns of aspiring b-school students, and finally, Wakechick announces a new blog run by the Dean’s Student Admissions Committee at the Chicago GSB (which can be found here).

That’s all for this week! Happy New Year to all our readers and bloggers - we’ll see you in 2007!

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Admissions Tip: Navigating the Waitlist

While the past few weeks have seen a number of admits and rejections handed down to round one MBA applicants, the fate of many remains uncertain. There is no reason for waitlisted candidates to lose hope, as the top programs admit a fair number of individuals from the waitlist in round two and thereafter, but we know that cautious optimism does not make the wait for an answer any easier. To help those in this situation make sure that they’re doing all they can, we wanted to share a few waitlist tips:

1. Know - and follow - the rules. Schools vary in their stances when it comes to interaction with those on the waitlist; some shun communication from applicants and even go so far as to discourage on-the-record campus visits, whereas others welcome correspondence and assign waitlisted candidates to an admissions office liaison. We know that the natural impulse is to reach out to the adcom and update them on that recent promotion or the final grade from that accounting class you took to bolster your academic profile. At first blush, it might seem that there’s no harm in sending a short letter or making a call, but no matter how exciting the information you wish to communicate, ignoring the adcom’s instructions is ultimately going to reflect badly on you. Though such a policy may seem frustrating or unfair, it’s important to respect and abide by the preferences of each school. 

2. Communicate if you can. For those programs that do permit or encourage contact from waitlisters, it’s absolutely a good idea to send an update. In addition to the obvious news items mentioned above, it’s beneficial to read over your essays and reflect on whether there is some piece of your background or interests that you haven’t gotten across yet. Taking the time to write about your relevant recent experiences, positive developments in your candidacy and ways that you’ve enhanced your understanding of the program is a nice sign of your interest in the program, and is a good strategy for telegraphing your commitment to attending. It is, of course, also in your interest to make sure that the adcom has the most up to date information so that they can make an informed decision the next time your file comes up for evaluation.

3. Keep in touch. Don’t disappear after an initial note to the adcom or phone call to your waitlist manager (if applicable). If you have plans to be on or near campus, for instance, send a quick email to alert your waitlist manager (or whoever you may have interacted with on the adcom) to alert them to this fact.  In many cases you’ll find that the adcom offers to have you stop by for a friendly chat about your candidacy - something that can go a long way towards helping your case.  Beyond a visit, sending a brief update every few weeks or so is another way to reaffirm your interest in the school and keep you fresh in the minds of the adcom - something that could work to your advantage in a discussion of which candidates to admit from the waitlist.  In all cases, it is important to remember that there is a fine line between persistance and pestering, so please use good judgment!

4. Have a contingency plan. While it’s important to do be consistent and enthusiastic when waitlisted and communicating with staff at your target program, it’s also wise to have a backup plan. With the round two deadlines for several top programs about 1-2 weeks away, there’s still time to put together a solid application to another school. Even if you’re waitlisted at the school of your dreams and intend to reapply if not admitted, it’s also never too early to start thinking about the coming year and what steps you might take to enhance your candidacy before next fall.

Best of luck to those of you playing the waiting game, and feel free to contact us at info@clearadmit.com to learn about our application feedback and waitlist counseling services. Hang in there!

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Wiki Wednesdays: the Harvard Interview

Welcome to this week’s edition of Wiki Wednesdays, in which we cull content from the Clear Admit Wiki to offer insight into the interview practices and admissions processes at the top MBA programs.  Following up on last week’s Stanford-specific post, we thought we’d turn this week to Harvard.  While some schools, like Wharton, have finished interviewing round one applicants and have already notified hopefuls their final decisions, both Harvard and Stanford issue invitations and conduct interviews up to their mid-January notification deadlines.

Though most HSB interviews are conducted on campus by members of the admissions committee (as the school is very focused on personality-based fit), this particular report comes from someone who met with an alum.  One distinguishing characteristic of the Harvard interview, no matter the type of interviewer, is that they are conducted by someone who has read the applicant’s essays and is in a position to inquire about specific comments or events, and even prompt the candidate to share a story not mentioned in his or her written materials.  Let’s take a look at the questions this wiki contributor was asked and consider what they might indicate about the school’s focus:

“1. How has your leadership style evolved and what leadership skills do you hope to gain from HBS?
2. What kind of international experience do you have?
3. How will you contribute to Harvard and what was your first impression of HBS when you visited the school?
4. What inspires you the most and why?
5. Who is your favorite leader? (and a lot of follow-up questions on the leader I mentioned)
6. What do you do outside work?”

The first of these prompts, paired with the school’s fourth essay question, suggests that Harvard’s interests extend beyond an applicant’s past leadership experiences and accomplishments.  The school seems to be probing to determine the candidate’s level of self-awareness in leading others, seeking students who have carefully considered and worked to enhance their leadership styles.  The question about a favorite leader also points to this emphasis and fishes for a hint at what sort of individuals the applicant aspires to emulate.

The insights that one can derive from just a list of questions - and their relevance in preparation for an interview - really illustrate the value of sharing one’s experiences with others through a resource like our wiki.  This is why we urge those of you who have interviewed at a top program this season to contribute a brief description by creating an account or emailing your text to us at wiki@clearadmit.com.  Meanwhile, those with interviews in the coming weeks are welcome to contact us at info@clearadmit.com for more information on our in-depth School Guides, general and school-specific interview guides, and mock interview services.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Search Survey Wrap-up

We wanted to take a moment today to post a quick thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in our MBA Search Survey earlier this month. Thank you! By sharing their impressions of a number of top programs and their overall priorities and interests in school selection, participants have provided us with insight that will undoubtedly prove invaluable as we continually aim to offer timely advice and relevant information to business school applicants.

We’ve contacted the lucky winners of the video iPod and 10 iPod shuffles, and will be able to share some data from the survey in late January. In the meantime, we wish everyone targeting round two deadlines the best of luck!

Trivia Tuesday: Choosing Electives - The Auction System

Welcome back from the long weekend! Now that the first semester of the academic year has come to a close, many first- and second-year MBA students will be exploring elective courses. Therefore, we thought this would be a good time to highlight the elective selection processes used by the leading business schools.

We’ve often recommended in our admissions tips that MBA applicants cite their interest in school-specific elective courses in their application essays, since this can reveal specialized academic interests while demonstrating that one has thoroughly researched the school’s academic program. In the next two Trivia Tuesdays we’ll look at how the different processes MBA programs employ for coordinating elective registration impact the odds that students will end up in the courses they desire.

Today we’ll focus on the auction system, which is the most popular of the elective enrollment systems. Schools using this system include Columbia, Chicago, Kellogg, MIT and Wharton. Using MIT Sloan’s auction system as an example we can examine the typical structure of an auction course selection process.

Course selection at Sloan is organized through an online bidding system. Students receive 1,000 points at the beginning of each semester and use those points to place bids on the elective courses in which they wish to enroll. Spaces in the class are filled starting with the highest bidder, though students are only “charged” the points bid by the lowest bidder who won a spot in the course. Following two rounds of bidding, students are given another 1,000 points to use to bid for a spot on the waitlist of courses they did not win entry to in the regular rounds. Finally, in the weeks before classes start, Sloan holds one final round of bidding, allowing students to swap sections of the same course in order to optimize their class schedules.

Although Wharton uses an auction system for both pre-term activities and elective course selection, the organization of their system is slightly different. First, instead of being given new points each semester, Wharton students are given an “initial endowment” of points that they must use across their time in the program. This adds an extra layer of strategy to the course selection process, since students must think ahead about when the most-desired electives will be offered and budget their points accordingly. This system also has the added twist of allowing students to accumulate large point balances through “selling” spots in popular courses to other students at premium prices. By making shrewd sales, some Wharton students are able to collect enough points to ensure that they get all of their top-choice, high-demand classes in the final semester.

For students with a background in trading or strategy, online bidding systems may prove to be a fun, easy way of registering for classes. However, for those students who enter the MBA program without much trading experience, the auction system may be more challenging. However, it’s important to remember that the auction systems are used primarily to assign spaces in the most sought after courses with the most popular professors - students who are willing to explore a broader range of courses should be able to register for electives painlessly, spending very few bid points in the process.

For more on the elective selection process at the leading MBA programs, tune into this column next week or check out the Clear Admit School Guides!

Monday, December 25, 2006

Happy Holidays!

Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday season!

-The Clear Admit team

Friday, December 22, 2006

Post-Wharton Result Reflection

Now that Wharton’s D-day has come and gone, we wanted to extend our congratulations to those applicants who gained admission, and extend our sympathy to those who received less favorable decisions. For those applicants smarting from a waitlist decision or a ding, we wanted to point out the silver lining from a few different angles:

1) Timing is everything. The fact that Wharton releases R1 decisions weeks before most schools’ R2 deadlines provides applicants with a chance to reevaluate their approach and regroup with time to apply to other programs. If you didn’t get the news you were hoping for, it may make sense to consider adding a few schools in R2 (there are dozens of deadlines in January).

2) R1 waitlisters often get admitted in R2. If you were waitlisted, fear not! Historically, we’ve seen a very high percentage of R1 waitlisters gain acceptance to Wharton before the season is over. This is looking particularly likely this year, as the buzz on the BW forum and student-2-student forum indicates that the school handed out a rather high number of WL decisions. Of course, it may make sense to explore other options (see #1 above), but there is no reason not to remain hopeful about your chances at Wharton.

3) Wharton is reapplicant friendly. If your heart is still set on Wharton despite a denial of admission, it may make sense to consider reapplication next year. If this is your plan, you should get started immediately on your strategy by thinking about the areas you could improve. Also, keep in mind that Wharton is one of the few MBA programs that offers applicants a feedback session to explain where the application fell short. These sessions typically take place in the late spring and summer months. Check the Wharton web site to learn more about signing up for a feedback session (sign-ups usually take place in April or May).

4) One result does not determine your MBA fate. Although getting a decision from Wharton can serve as a great measure of your chances with other top schools, it is also important to remember that one data point does not define your fate. This is why it is so critical to target several top schools: there is a certain amount of randomness in the process, and even the most impressive candidates rarely get into every school they consider.

Best of luck to everyone in your ongoing application efforts!

Fridays from the Frontline

With admissions decisions rolling out to round one applicants and the fall term at most schools coming to an end, it’s been an eventful week in the MBA blogosphere.

Let’s start off this week’s installment of FFF with a look at the news on the applicant front.  Though there’s been some less-than-joyful sentiment - Hobbes is suffering from application burn-out and fears that his Haas application reflects this, the stress of waiting for a Kellogg decision is getting to MBA babe, Iday also eagerly awaits word from that program after his phone interview and Median2k9 is in the same boat after interviewing with Columbia - this week has been dominated by celebration.  It’s been an Illinois kind of week for Juggler, who proudly and excitedly shared some positive news from Kellogg and Chicago, and is joined in the latter by Iday, who welcomes the end of his essay-writing days, and by Inblue, who shares her GSB notification saga.  Meanwhile, RusGirl was thrilled to learn of her acceptance to LBS, and Rungee counts herself lucky to have both London and Duke as options for next year.  We’d like to join AsianGal in offering our congratulations to all our blogger friends whose hard work has been paying off of late!

Of course, not all the news can be completely positive, and a number of bloggers will have to wait a bit before hearing definitively from their target programs.  Taking a stoic stance on his Tuck waitlist decision, Anand analyzes the adcom’s comments and is maintaining hope for an admit, while Jatwarrior is disappointed and surprised that he’s stuck in limbo at both Darden and Chicago.  If the sample of bloggers are any indication, the GSB’s been handing out a number of waitlist decisions, it seems, as ScareCrow and Forrest Gump both joined the waitlisted ranks as well.

It’s finals season at a number of schools, so exams have been a very popular topic of conversation among the student crowd.  Hallonman has been making steady progress in his end of term work at INSEAD and classmate Zanatos crosses days of his calendar and items off his finals checklist, while LL works to maintain as positive an attitude as possible with respect to finals at Wharton, MBA Gladiator takes readers through his procrastination play-by-play at Yale and Jacek deconstructs his exam performance at ESADE.  Over at IESE, second-year student Noelle is finished with her single exam, comments on her preference for papers and presentations, and expresses her sympathy for first-year students - like Ashwyn - who are working their way through a test-heavy week.  Basking in the light at the end of the tunnel, UCLADawg recounts the heroic efforts of the Student Association’s “Finals Rescue Squad” at Anderson, Paxti rejoices over his LBS finance exam results,  Tim is finally making time to relax now that he’s finished the term at Austin, and Angel Angie runs through the list of tell-tale signs that first term is over at London and gets ready to travel home for break.

Also on the topic of travel, Mbwana is looking forward to going home to Tanzania over Stanford’s winter break, while both the Divine Miss N and rsr.pt recount the pros and cons of their exchange experiences at Stern and Columbia, respectively, before heading back to London.  Meanwhile, Auris prepares to say a more emotional farewell as graduation from INSEAD approaches.  Also on the INSEAD experience, DomoDomo took some time this week to offer a great reflection on his journey so far during P1 and P2 in Fontainebleau in addition to sharing the details of finals and plans for P3.

That’s it for this week.  We hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend and happy holidays!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Wharton R1 Decision Process

It seems that Wharton is following a slightly new approach in delivering their final decisions to R1 applicants.  In past years, the committee ‘flipped a switch’ at 9 AM on the nose.  This enabled all applicants to see their results by logging into their online application.  It also meant that admits, waitlists and rejections all went out simultaneously as applicants gathered in front of their computer screens in the morning hours, frantically hitting ‘refresh’ until the nine o’clock hour had arrived…

This year, the committee has promised decisions “by 5 PM” today, and it seems they’ve opted to reach out to some admits by telephone in the early morning hours (as of this post, the adcom had been calling admits from approximately 9 AM - 10 AM ET). 

Just a few minutes ago, a post in the student-2-student forum from Mae Shores indicated that the adcom had flipped the switch as of 9:58 AM.  Our understanding is that all decisions should now be available - but this initial delay seems to have caused confusion in some circles, so we wanted to get the word out to our readers. 

Best of luck to everyone!  Hang in there!

Wharton Decisions / Round One Notification Calendar

The waiting game has come to an end for many first-round applicants, as a number of leading programs - Chicago, Tuck, Cornell, Duke, UNC, Darden, Kellogg, Yale, Columbia and LBS among them - have been releasing admissions decisions over the past few weeks.  With Wharton releasing final decisions today to all round one applicants who were invited to interview, we thought this would be a good occasion to say good luck to everyone eagerly expecting news from that and other schools!

For those keeping track, here’s what the final notification calendar looks like for those programs that have yet to release all of their admissions decisions to this crop of applicants:

January 8: Kellogg
January 15: Michigan
January 17: Harvard
January 18: Stanford
January 19: INSEAD, UCLA, Yale SOM
January 29: Haas, MIT Sloan

Again, best of luck to those waiting to hear, and congratulations to those who’ve already received some positive news!  Stay tuned to this blog in the coming weeks for advice on a range of topics such as deciding between schools, dealing with a ding, and navigating the waitlist.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Wiki Wednesdays: The Stanford Interview

Welcome to Wiki Wednesdays, where you’ll find updates on new and notable additions to the Clear Admit Wiki, our repository of firsthand information about the MBA admissions process.  We’ve received new interview reports this week for ever-popular programs like Harvard, Kellogg and Wharton, but in this WW installment, we’d like to highlight a recent contribution to the Stanford interview page.

Among the rarest of invitations due to the school’s small class size and high selectivity, all Stanford interviews are conducted by alumni.  The benefits of an alumni interview are that applicants gain exposure to a member of the Stanford community who has been through the GSB experience.  Of course, since your interviewer will be a knowledgable business person, you’ll need to be prepared to speak specifically about your career plan, industry focus, etc.  A look at the questions one applicant was recently asked is also telling of a unique element of the GSB admissions process:

-10 minutes of icebreakers/small-talk.

-When did you realize you needed an MBA?

-Time when you saw poor leadership at work?

-Time when you did something that impacted people (in or outside work).

-Why Stanford?

-Favorite course at school, and why?

Stanford is known for its emphasis on academic aptitude in the admissions process, and seeks students who are intellectually curious and engaged learners.  The question about a favorite course points to this, as does the other popular Stanford interview question “What are you reading at the moment?”

If you’ve interviewed at a top program this season, have some thoughts on the application process at a particular school or would like to recount a campus visit for the benefit of other applicants, you can add your content to the wiki yourself by creating an account, or simply email your contribution to wiki@clearadmit.com.  Meanwhile, those with interviews in the coming weeks are welcome to contact us at info@clearadmit.com for more information on our in-depth School Guides, general and school-specific interview guides, and mock interview services.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Trivia Tuesday: Kellogg’s Teams

Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday, our weekly examination of the distinguishing details of MBA programs. Last week we took a look at the first year learning team and study group systems at Wharton and Tuck, which are representative of the small group learning arrangements used at many of the leading business schools. However, we hinted that not all MBA programs use static, assigned study groups to cultivate team-based learning in the first year. This week we follow up by taking a closer look at Kellogg, a school known for its focus on teamwork, yet one of the only leading MBA programs not to assign first-year study groups.

Like other b-schools, Kellogg does split its entering class into smaller sections, usually consisting of approximately 65 students each, and students in each section take all of their core courses together. (Fun fact: Kellogg’s section names are among the most unusual of any b-school’s, with the eight sections called Big Dogs, Bucketheads, Bull Frogs, Cash Cows, Highlanders, Jive Turkeys, Moose and Poets.)

Despite not breaking down the sections into smaller study groups, Kellogg students do work in teams throughout the curriculum. Students report that most of their class assignments require small group work, with the group assignments usually made by individual professors. Because Kellogg students may be in different study or project groups for each course, they miss out on the experience of sustained interaction with a single group of peers, but instead gain experience in working with a broad range of personalities. This system also hones students’ time management skills, since scheduling a group meeting for 5-6 people who are in 4-5 other small groups (while also working around classes, clubs, and recruiting activities) requires a sophisticated ability to juggle schedules!

Overall, most Kellogg student praise the school’s choice to use a dynamic team structure, feeling that this organization mimics teamwork situations in the professional world. However, since students at Wharton, Tuck, Columbia, and other schools often believe that their long-term group assignments best prepare them for teamwork in the business world, applicants should think carefully about the type of teamwork experience they are looking for, as well as the kind of group work they expect to encounter after graduating from business school.

To find out more about the team-based learning at the leading MBA programs, be sure to check out the schools’ websites or the Clear Admit School Guides, including the brand-new guide to Kellogg!

Monday, December 18, 2006

Last Chance to Take the Survey!

We just wanted to remind our readers that today is the last day to take the MBA Search Survey to share your views on the top programs and offer insight into your school selection process and priorities. This online questionnaire, which closes tomorrow, should take just 10 minutes to complete. In addition to assisting us in our ongoing efforts to provide interesting and helpful content, you can also help yourself out by entering to win one of 10 iPod Shuffles or even a 30GB Video iPod!

We hope to hear from you!

MBA News: Business Plan Competitions and Luxury Designs

Welcome back from the weekend! Today we’re highlighting two recent news stories featuring the activities of current MBA students and recent graduates.

To start us off, BusinessWeek recently ran an article investigating the fate of business plan competition winners. Business plan competitions, which are held at most of the leading MBA programs, encourage teams of students (and sometimes professors) to develop and present a viable, compelling idea for a new business. These competitions tend to award anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000 to the winning business plan, which often enables the winning team to translate their concept into reality. The popularity of business plan competitions has increased dramatically from 2002 to 2006, but little systematic follow-up has been done to gauge the impact of these competitions (and the prize money) on the success of start-up ventures. Although BW’s article is not a full accounting of the effect of business plan competitions, it does provide an interesting overview of the experiences of winning teams at schools such as Wharton, Chicago, Darden, Haas and others, that is sure to be of interest to any current students or applicants considering participating in a school’s competition.

Although not part of a business plan competition, students from Columbia Business School and Parsons The New School for Design are collaborating to design and market luxury goods as part a project sponsored by the Luxury Education Foundation. Currently in its 12th year, the project seeks to bring Columbia and Parsons students together with top executives from companies such as Louis Vuitton, Lalique and Saks Fifth Avenue to design successful luxury products. The project is a way for students from both schools to exercise their specialized skills while learning about the luxury busines from highly successful designers and executives. To read more about the project, be sure to check out the article on the Interior Design newswire.

Friday, December 15, 2006

MBA News: Rosy Hiring Prospects for the Class of 2007

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) recently released their Job Outlook 2007 report, which indicates that employers are planning to hire 22% more MBA graduates from the Class of 2007 than they did from the Class of 2006.

MBA grads interested in manufacturing will enter a particularly strong job market, with employers in that sector planning a 32.4% hiring increase over last year. Employers in the South and Midwest are also planning particularly busy hiring seasons, with expected increases of 59% and 51%, respectively. In contrast, while employers in the Northeast U.S. and Western U.S. are also planning to hire more MBAs, their planned increases are far more modest, at 14.6% and 13.5%, respectively.

The organization says that these trends are in line with hiring patterns across the job market, with overall recruitment of college graduates expected to climb 17% over last year.

The report holds another piece of good news for the MBA Class of 2007 - over 40% of employers responding the NACE’s survey reported that they will offer MBA graduates a base salary of more than $75,000, which should help graduates get started paying back those education loans!

Fridays from the Frontline

Welcome to this week’s edition of FFF! Let’s take a look at what’s been going on this week in the MBA blogging world.

Our applicant friends have truly been running the gamut of emotions and application experiences this week. Working in reverse, let’s take a look at things from the admissions decision angle. From a slightly removed perspective, Uniqpath sums up the latest news on school decisions and updates fellow applicants on Stanford’s interview timeline, whereas others share more personal news; JatWarrior is elated by a Tuck admit and Rohit shares the happy news of a Notre Dame fellowship, while righty and B-School Diva are singing the waitlist blues about Mendoza and Wake Forest, respectively. Backing up to the pre-decision, post-submission stage, Iday sounds pleased to have been contacted for a phone interview with Kellogg, and we were happy to hear that Necromonger has been having a very postive experience with his INSEAD alumni interviewers. Of course, others are playing the waiting game, with varying degrees of tranquility, as Juggler has been indulging her love of reading as she waits for news from the schools (having resolved not to post any more application advice until she’s sure that it works) and StressTensor writes of being teased by MIT’s update letter as he eagerly awaits an interview invitation. Moving even earlier in the process, MBA babe celebrates her Haas submission, while inblue is working on working on her Wharton essays (with varying success) and AsianGal notes that her recommenders are moving right along with their HBS and Wharton letters.

It’s clear from students’ blog entries this week that the end of the fall term is fast approaching. At INSEAD, Hallonman is looking for motivation to study for his three P2 finals, while DomoDomo worries about sliding towards the Left-tail of the curve this term because there’s just so much happening around campus. Meanwhile, over at INSEAD’s Singapore campus, Zanat0s celebrates the end of P2 and the approach of his trip to China and Japan.

Gandaki is finishing up classes at IESE, but still working on an extra 4,500 word report for Finance, assigned when 20 students all happened to miss class on the same day! In addition to studying, the end of the semester seems to inspire reflection, as NoellieBellie took the opportunity to reflect on her experience at IESE, giving thanks that she was stubborn enough to return to campus last year after a tough first term, and NintendoWidow shared her thoughts on the first quarter and plans for the coming terms. Jacek’s update on the end of the semester at ESADE reflects how tough the first term of b-school can be, as he stresses out about finals, including one that 25-80% of the class is said to have failed last year (that’s quite a range of reports!). In non-finals news, Benny celebrated his team’s win at Tuck’s UBS Case Competition last week, and LL shares some fun pictures of her Thanksgiving in San Francisco, as well as the Wharton Follies Writers Holiday Debacle 2006. The Divine Miss N also included a photo this week, this one taken of a strange sign at Stern’s reception for departing international exchange students. George is also preparing to finish up his U.S. exchange, bidding farewell to Columbia (and wishing someone had told him earlier that his Columbia grades wouldn’t be noted on his IESE transcript!).

That’s the news for this week! We wish applicants well as they wait to hear from schools, and congratulate students on finishing up the fall term!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Survey/iPod Reminder

We just wanted to remind our readers of the opportunity to complete our online survey about their views on the leading MBA programs and factors that influence their school selection decisions.  We’re seeking this information so that we can better understand how the different schools are perceived and to take an inventory of what information applicants value and feel they need in the application process.

In addition to helping us continually aim to offer relevant advice and resources on business school admission, participants also stand to benefit from our survey giveaway; those who take the ten minutes needed to respond to our questions can enter to win a prize.  With 11 gifts available - 10 iPod shuffles and a 30GB video iPod - respondents have a great chance of winning a sleek new toy for themselves, or a great holiday gift for someone else!
Thanks in advance for your help!

Admissions Tip: Essay Basics

We often stress that, to present oneself effectively in one’s application essays, it is critical to think carefully about what a given question is asking and what this might indicate about a specific school’s admissions priorities.  Of course, it’s also imperative to communicate clearly and appropriately regardless of the target program or particular inquiry.  Today, we’re going back to basics and offering a few broadly applicable tips on tone and style to keep in mind when drafting written materials for your applications.

1. Be Professional. While a number of schools ask fun questions and most urge applicants to be themselves rather than submitting “overly polished” materials, it’s important to remember that this is a graduate school application and you should approach your essays with a degree of formality.  You do want your unique narrative voice to come through, but even professional writers know to vary their tone based on their audience.  As such, you should avoid using slang and conversational speech patterns in your writing.

2. Emphasize Action. A common pitfall for many applicants is lapsing into the passive voice, constructing sentences about how some unseen force or agent acted upon something or someone else (e.g. “we were required to” or “the project was completed”) rather than putting their own thoughts and actions at the fore.  By making a conscious effort to write “I/he/she did x” rather than “x was done to y” you can make your comments more informative, dynamic and, often, more concise.

3. Avoid Repetition. It’s often a good idea to give the reader a sense of an essay’s direction through an introduction and to sum up the key ideas through a conclusion, but ideally each sentence of an essay will add some new information to the document or build the reader’s understanding of what you’ve already written.  Keeping this rule in mind as you revise can help trim a response down to the word limit and ensure that you are including as much relevant information about your candidacy as you can within the allotted length.

Best of luck!  For more information about how Clear Admit might assist you in communicating your experiences and goals to the adcom in a way that will be engaging and well received, contact us at info@clearadmit.com to set up a free initial consultation.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Easy Reference Essay Topic Analysis

For those applicants targeting January deadlines and hard at work on their essays, we wanted to put together a quick list of links to our Essay Topic Analysis. We’ve arranged the list by the date of each deadline, which might also help those having difficulty deciding which program to tackle first.

January 3: Harvard, UCLA
January 4: Wharton
January 5: Kellogg, LBS
January 7: Michigan
January 8: CMU, Duke
January 9: Cornell
January 10: Chicago, MIT Sloan, Stanford, Yale
January 11: Darden, Tuck
January 15: Stern
January 31: Berkeley

Happy writing! To complement these school-specific insights, stop by this blog tomorrow for some broadly applicable essay advice on tone and style.

Wiki Wednesdays

Welcome to another edition of Wiki Wednesdays, our consistent column highlighting new and notable content from the Clear Admit Wiki.  As many applicants have learned, even the schools that notify first round applicants of interviews relatively late in the season - namely, Harvard, Stanford and MIT - have begun releasing invitations.  As interview season kicks into high gear, more candidates than ever are considering the differences between programs’ interview styles and reflecting on how to present themselves most effectively.

For instance, this post from a recent HBS interviewee does a great job alerting other applicants to the nature and necessary preparation for a meeting with Harvard’s adcom, nicely illustrating the value of a resource like our wiki:

My questions were quite specific to my application but not quite in the way I had imagined. My interviewer used what I had in my essays as a springboard to delve further into certain aspects of my candidacy, but she didn’t reference any of the items I had written about at any point. In fact, she asked that I stay away from those examples and provide new ones during the course of our discussion (which was a little difficult even though I had thought about it).

Meanwhile, a very recent addition to the Yale interview page also sheds some light on the school’s process and the merits of knowing what to expect: a lesson that, unfortunately, seems to have been learned the hard way for this applicant (we hope that it went better than he or she thought!):

My interview was with an admissions officer in November. She was incredibly nice. The atmosphere was relaxed. It completely threw me off. I went in expecting a hard grilling session and had studied tons of interview questions. That was a mistake. The interview started with a “walk me through your resume” question. Basically, I think I blew it because I was deconstructing other answers in my head and re-forming it as I talked. Not smart on my part because it came out jumbled, or at least I thought so…

Applicants have come to rely on the Wiki as a source of up-to-date information on this season’s interview trends, so we hope that our readers will continue to share their experiences and add to this resource!  For those with interviews in the coming weeks, feel free to contact us at info@clearadmit.com for more information on our in-depth School Guides, general and school-specific interview guides, and mock interview services.

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DISCUSSIONS / BLOGS / WIKI

• Top Bush Education Official Leaves to Lead Business School Consortium
• Fridays From the Frontline
• Harvard Business School Deadlines and Essays Topics 2008-2009
• Tuck School of Business Auction Supplements Nonprofit, Public Sector Summer Internship Salaries
• Admissions Tip: Round 3 Results

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