Fridays From the Frontline » Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

APPLICANT RESOURCES

Admissions Director Q&A (New!) Below are links to Clear Admit's exclusive admissions director Q&A sessions.
Dawna Clarke (Tuck)
Rose Martinelli (Chicago)
Judith Hodara (Wharton)
Sarah Neher (Darden)
Soojin Kwon Koh (Michigan)
Randall Sawyer (Cornell)
Beth Flye (Kellogg)
David Simpson (LBS)

Clear Admit School Guides
Eighteen 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.

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.
Nov. 17: Cornell / Johnson R2
Nov. 26: INSEAD R2
Dec. 5: UNC Kenan-Flagler R2
Dec. 9: Berkeley / Haas R2
Jan. 2: Michigan / Ross R2
Jan. 6: HBS R2
Jan. 6: LBS R2
Jan. 7: Chicago GSB R2
Jan. 7: UVA / Darden R2
Jan. 7: Dartmouth / Tuck R2
Jan. 7: Duke / Fuqua R2
Jan. 7: Stanford GSB R2
Jan. 7: Yale SOM R2
Jan. 8: UCLA / Anderson R2
Jan. 8: Wharton R2
Jan. 9: UNC Kenan-Flagler R3
Jan. 12: Cornell / Johnson R3
Jan. 12: Kellogg R2
Jan. 13: MIT Sloan R2

Essay Topic Analysis
Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics.
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*
USC / Marshall*
UT Austin / McCombs*
UVA / Darden*
Yale SOM*
* denotes '08-'09 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
GMAC
Manhattan GMAT
GMAT Club
Princeton Review
Test Prep New York
Kaplan
Beat The GMAT

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
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
Texas / McCombs
Thunderbird
Toronto
UCLA / Anderson
Virginia / Darden
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
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
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

Friday, June 15, 2007

Fridays From the Frontline

Welcome back to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s weekly chronicle of recent developments in the MBA blogosphere. Despite balmy summer weather, the last days of classes for current students and the last respite before a whirlwind two years for fall ’07 matriculants, the majority of bloggers were gainfully occupied with serious activities over the past week, or with making serious plans for the future. And surprisingly, neither of these categories seemed to involve serious celebrating! Perhaps one exception here was Mbwana’s Stanford blowout, a well-deserved final week at the GSB characterized by “insane amounts of partying,” as he put it – who would’ve thought?! Let’s see if anyone else surprises us…

The Dirty Canuck stayed in character, summing up her feelings about the end of her Chicago GSB era with recourse to a terse Buffy dialogue, while the DivineMissN was also up to her usual, planning on training for a 10k race, making two or three gallery visits, going on a gourmet cooking expedition, in addition to finishing final projects and coursework, in her last two weeks at LBS. True to her adventurous nature, NoellieBellie has been enjoying her summer break from IESE in Norway, where she’s encountered true adventures from orienteering to whale meat tasting to rabid swan attacks. Back on campus, Domo Domo busied himself evaluating the pitches of seven potential INSEAD graduation speakers, assuring his readers he’ll be casting his vote based on substance, not friendship, popularity or special interests.

On the first-year horizon, there was perhaps even more activity. Back from a blogging breather, Ashwyn fills us in with a fast-paced recap of the projects that have kept him busy at IESE since mid-terms. Also returning from a virtual leave of absence, FromCali shifted into high gear, determined for her summer internship to land her a full-time offer come fall at Ross. Chasing career success from another angle, Nagendra managed to schmooze with not one, not two, but three CEOs over the past week, from the head of the 4,000 person corporation where he’ll be interning to a sprightly, garage-based entrepreneur. Not too far away, Ed Starr looks forward to not one, not two, but three tough exams, and back on an amazing LBS Admit Weekend that he helped organize. In other London News, plugging fellow LBSers’ new Wiki-You Tube venture, Jaycut, Paxti shows off his globally-infused dance moves via a clip he used the groundbreaking online video sharing/editing site to create.

On a more serious note, despite a post ostensibly centered on elective equivocations, Angel Angie ends up celebrating the highs and lows of the human experience through the lens of her tenure at McKinsey, with a little help from Charles Dickens. Leave it to Hallonman to lighten the mood, however, entertaining us with images of his weekend in Barcelona, where some of the locals are apparently not too friendly, while others are perhaps a bit too friendly. Regardless of a broken camera and claims that the Fountainbleu campus’ event trumps the glamor of the equivalent Singaporean bash, Zanat0s also managed to get some pretty noteworthy pictures of the Summer Shanghai Chic Ball at INSEAD in Singapore. And finally for the ‘08ers, while immersed in his high-intensity internship and loving it, Tim K. takes some time out to counsel fall ‘07 MBA matriculants on how to make the most of their last few months of (relative) freedom. But are they listening?

HairTwirler certainly took heed of his suggestion to do something memory making and out of the ordinary, waxing eloquent on the evidence and implications of globalization in India, from McDonald’s to Reebok ads, as she surveys the country on a 6-week journey. Also getting good mileage out of her time off, although not quite so literally, has been RusGirl, who synthesizes some pithy and easy-to-incorporate pointers from David Allen’s MBA relevant book, Getting Things Done, which she recommends as must-do reading for all entering MBAs. Perhaps UniqPath could stand to take her advice; lamenting the disorganized state of her Wharton preparations, with so many things yet to get done and no structure with which to approach them, her “wait till the last minute” mantra seems a bit risky… Perhaps she’ll have a change of heart after reading this week’s post by soon-to-be-classmate Rungee, who in her darkest hour of frantic pre-Wharton paperwork, suggests a diametrically opposed plan of action.

It seems Juggler’s found a happy medium between their extremes, quick to appreciate the freedom of formal joblessness, while still noting that what with readying herself for the transition from India to Wharton, she basically has another full-time occupation to attend to. As for crowding onto the matriculation preparation bandwagon, let’s not forget about Necromonger, who in truth got onboard quite early with the lengthy cadre of study aid gadgets he posted on a few weeks ago. In this week’s post he gives an in-depth chronicle of the options and properties of what seems to be a personal favorite device, his new Lenovo X60 Tablet PC.

Well, that pretty much wraps up this week’s edition of FFF. Hope you’ll touch base with us next Friday for the latest day-in-the-life-of-an-MBA material…

# posted by Clear Admit @ 8:36 am in Fridays from the Frontline

DISCUSSIONS / BLOGS / WIKI

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Wiki

MBA Admissions Wiki
The 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 Forums
The 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:

Beat The GMAT Forums
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StudyLink Forums
Clear Admit manages the Applying section of the StudyLink MBA discussion boards.

student 2 student
The student-2-student Discussion Boards are managed by Wharton. Here are the five most recent discussions.

Chicago Discussion Forums
The Chicago Discussion Boards are managed by the University of Chicago. 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

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.

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2004-2005 Top Ten:

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