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APPLICANT RESOURCES

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Admissions Director Q&A
Below are links to Clear Admit's exclusive interviews with MBA admissions directors at leading programs.
Dawna Clarke (Tuck)
Rose Martinelli (Chicago)
Judith Hodara (Wharton)
Sara Neher (Darden)
Soojin Kwon Koh (Michigan)
Randall Sawyer (Cornell)
Beth Flye (Kellogg)
David Simpson (LBS)
Liz Riley Hargrove (Duke)
Linda Meehan (Columbia)
Bruce DelMonico (Yale)
Peter Johnson (Berkeley)
Isser Gallogly (NYU)
Mae Jennifer Shores (UCLA)
J.J. Cutler (Wharton)
Jake Cohen (INSEAD)
Rod Garcia (MIT Sloan)
Mary Miller (Columbia)

Clear Admit School Guides
Become an expert on your target schools overnight! Get the program-specific details you need to craft essays that stand out. See how schools compare head-to-head in key areas like recruiting, curricular structure, elective offerings and more. Available for immediate download. As featured in the Economist.

Clear Admit Career Guides
Understand career-specific offerings at leading MBA programs and identify the schools that will best support your career goals with the Clear Admit Career Guides! Available for Consulting, Investment Banking, Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Healthcare.

Clear Admit Strategy Series
Craft a winning application with the Clear Admit Strategy Series! Step-by-Step guidance through the application process. Titles include a Resume Guide, Recommendations Guide, Waitlist Guide and more!

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.

Application Deadlines
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
Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics.
The Career Goals Essay
Berkeley / Haas*
Chicago Booth*
CMU / Tepper*
Columbia*
Cornell / Johnson*
Dartmouth / Tuck*
Duke / Fuqua*
Harvard*
Indian School of Business*
INSEAD*
London Business School*
MIT / Sloan*
Michigan / Ross*
Northwestern / Kellogg*
NYU / Stern*
Oxford / Said*
Penn / Wharton*
Stanford GSB*
UCLA / Anderson*
UNC / Kenan-Flagler*
USC / Marshall*
UT Austin / McCombs*
UVA / Darden*
Yale SOM*
* denotes '09-'10 commentary

Categories
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
A selection of interview field reports from fellow applicants posted to the MBA Admissions Wiki. Add your reports when you are finished with your interviews.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan / Ross
MIT / Sloan
Stanford
UNC / Chapel Hill
Virginia / Darden
Wharton
London Business School

GMAT Resources
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
Rankings are a good way to start your research on various MBA Programs. Keep in mind each uses a different methodology.
Business Week
Economist
Financial Times
Forbes
USNews
Wall Street Journal

Career Guides
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
The following are business resources offered by a variety of leading Business Schools. It's useful to subscribe to these resources, especially for the schools to which you are applying.

MBA Programs: North America
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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Friday, March 30, 2007

Fridays From the Frontline

Welcome back to Fridays from the Frontline, Clear Admit’s run-down of all the MBA blogosphere news that’s fit to blog (or at least all that fits in this week’s installment)! Recounting the thrill of admission, doling out congratulations to fellow admits and offering advice to future prospectives, applicant bloggers are on cloud nine this week, while first and second year students are celebrating a well-deserved spring break from stations around the world. Let’s take a closer look at this virtual era of good feelings.

Hardly able to believe it, AGirlsMBA chronicles the surreal feeling that accompanied her HBS triumph, while Forrest concisely conveys his success at Chicago (way to go Forrest!). We’d also like to note the sweet congratulations from Bschool Diva and a warm welcome into the class of 2009 from InBlue. In related news, Juggler had two posts of note: first, she was kind of enough to congratulate Ganja Turtle on rising from the Chicago Waitlist (via a creative WL strategy) and then she weighed in with some solid advice on how to get your money’s worth from the $250 GMAT fee. Similarly eager to be of help to future applicants, Iday offers an extensive essay writing guide, while Rusgirl provides some useful LBS R2 statistics to occupy those still projecting their possible results.

While JatWarrior may not have good news to report from Chicago, he joins the party by celebrating the fact that his future at Tuck has been ascertained. Similarly upholding an honorable attitude, Peter vows to have better luck next time, mapping out a comprehensive plan to advance to a more customer facing role, improve his GMAT, clarify his career goals and boost his extracurricular profile. This sounds like the kind of advice that any prospective applicant (or reapplicant) could do well to take! Speaking of advice, HairTwirler invokes an apt analogy from the movie Mean Girls about the outdated, irrelevant or just plain inaccurate advice that one has to navigate when talking bschool with out-of-the-know bosses and elders. On the other hand, Itobean leads by example, chronicling how her shift from volunteering at the Humane Society to helping out at a local animal rescue organization enabled her to take on the coveted leadership roles and make the demonstrable impact that b-school applicants are always after.

Looking for advice herself, Katrina ponders whether UCLA or NYU will better serve her entrepreneurial ambitions, sending out a call for suggestions. Ipoel is done with equivocation, however, confirming her matriculation at UCLA, although not without noting the opportunity cost, while defiant Necromonger warns that some MBA programs (mainly an undisclosed Indian institution) just aren’t worth it. [We'd like to direct all of our readers who are struggling with school choices to read and post to the School Choices section of the Clear Admit wiki.]

Some current business school students also felt like sharing their insights with the next wave of applicants, as Fromcali offers these tips for incoming Ross students, while Nagendra posts his views on career management before and during a Said business education. Reflecting on the influence that the b-school-related concerns he harbored as an applicant have had on his actual experiences as a student at LBS, FM suggests a positive outlook for those candidates currently obsessing over school selection, financing and immigration issues.

That said, most first-years were having too much fun living it up over spring break to be offering helpful hints. Check out Ashwyn, elated to be finished with classes, as he and friends karaoke the night away to ring in the third and final term of their first year at IESE. Karaoke is mere child’s play to MJ, though, whose wild spring break was replete with drinks, cigars and getting thrown out of bars. La Lauderia had some fun herself back in San Francisco, which left her wishing the weather in Philadelphia was this nice. Far from the sunny west coast, both in reality and musical taste, Rubeo Boy enjoyed some time off at a Snow Patrol concert in Madison Square garden, while close by, J-Term Johnny was busy presenting his quirky business ideas in Columbia’s Outrageous Business Plan Competition. Similarly hard at work, Zanat0s relays his rigorous life at INSEAD via film.

Not to be outdone, Le Voyageur spent his respite partying around the globe, hitting up such sunny locales as Israel, India and Mexico. Meanwhile, Nate has been celebrating warm weather and good times as his tenure at Ross nears completion. But Mbwana isn’t ready to throw in the (beach) towel yet – as his winter quarter at Stanford draws to a close, he takes time to analyze the coursework he’s completed so far and the potential complications with the job offer he’s accepted from Microsoft, finally noting that he might do well to enjoy life as a student a bit more himself.

Thanks to all our blogging friends for such an upbeat and entertaining week – we hope that the weekend treats our readers just as well!

# posted by Clear Admit @ 2:23 am in Fridays from the Frontline

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student 2 student
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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

MBA Students

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.com
Community 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: