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Below are links to Clear Admit's exclusive interviews with MBA admissions directors at leading programs.
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Mary Miller (Columbia)

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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!

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Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics.
The Career Goals Essay
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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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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.

• knowledge@wharton
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ARCHIVE FOR DECEMBER 2007

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Wiki Wednesdays: Chicago GSB

Welcome to this week’s edition of Wiki Wednesdays, where we highlight new entries in the Clear Admit Wiki, a repository of MBA applicant experiences and observations.  In honor of Chicago’s Round 1 acceptance calls going out today – ahead of their initially published January 3rd decision notification date – we’re taking a closer look at Chicago GSB interviews to pass on some preparation pointers to Round 2 applicants!

Chicago grants interviews on an invitation-only basis after evaluation of a submitted application. All interview invitations are released by Chicago’s “mid-decision” deadlines, which tend to fall four to six weeks after the relative round’s deadline date. Interviews are conducted either on campus or at an alternate, more convenient location for the interviewee by admissions staff, students or alumni.

Further, all Chicago interviews are blind and, though the interviewer will have the applicant’s resume, how much he or she uses it to direct the discussion can vary considerably. According to some recent Chicago interview reports, there has been some variability among alumni-conducted interviews. For instance, one alumni-interviewed applicant in Bangalore recounts, “[the interviewer] had taken a print out [of] my resume and had thoroughly [dissected] it. I could see his notes on my resume.”

Meanwhile, in stark contrast, according to another recent Chicago interviewee in Delhi,

1. “[The alumni interviewer] didn’t write anything or [refer] to my resume once. He kept looking into my eyes while I was answering without any expression. He was straight faced with limited expressions which couldn’t communicate to me whether he was convinced or not with my answers.”

Despite the interviewer’s potential preference for an applicant’s resume as a guide, it’s always best to be prepared by knowing what Chicago tends to ask. For instance, Chicago frequently tends to ask where one has applied. One such applicant who did his homework recounts, “[the interviewer] asked why not some other school. I was prepared for this and answered.” This also drives home the necessity of school-specific knowledge for Chicago’s interview – especially as seen in most Wiki interview reports that conclude with the question, “Why Chicago?”

In regards to potential interviewer reactions per the report in Delhi above, though one may not be able to read any signals from the interviewer, it’s important to remain confident and clear. Thorough preparation and research (as could be carried out with the Clear Admit Interview Guides) would best support this attitude.

Thanks to all those who have added their experiences to the Clear Admit Wiki! As you can see in a recent entry about a visit to Cornell, it’s not just a place for applicants to post their interviews, but also their general application experiences as well as campus visits. If you have an experience you would like to share for the benefit of other applicants, you can add it to the Wiki either by creating an account or sending your reports to wiki@clearadmit.com. Happy researching and best of luck to those still preparing for upcoming MBA interviews!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 5:15 am in School: Chicago, Wiki Wednesdays

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

MIT Entrepreneurship Competition Expands Scope, Mission in 2008

The MIT Entrepreneurship Competition, together with the MIT Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship, last week announced that the 2008 competition, which kicks off in February, will feature a new award category and $50,000 in additional prize money as part of an effort to encourage participation by entrepreneurs in the social development sector.

Beginning in the coming year, the Legatum Center will award a $30,000 Legatum Prize for the “business plan that will have the most significant impact in a developing economy,” a release from the school announced on Friday. Two $10,000 Legatum Prizes for runners up in this category will also be awarded. Business plans across all tracks of the MIT Entrepreneurship Competition will be eligible for these new prizes.

The existing $10,000 prize earmarked for the development track of the competition will continue to be available for business plans exclusively within this track. This prize will be funded through a contribution from the International Development Research Center, a Canadian aid agency that works closely with the MIT Legatum Center.

By expanding the competition and significantly increasing the prize money available for development-focused business plans, MIT hopes to help accelerate the transformation of developing economies.

An enhanced commitment toward fostering entrepreneurship in the development sector is just the latest twist in an ever-evolving competition. Coined the “granddaddy” of business plan competitions by the San Francisco Chronicle, the MIT Entrepreneurship Competition got its start in 1990 as the $10K Entrepreneurship Competition, its name reflecting the $10,000 then available for the winning plan to file for a patent. By 2004, prize monies had increased to $50,000, and by 2006, to $100,000. That year marked the launch of a new Social Impact Prize, rewarding teams focusing on improving low income communities, to complement the traditional Business Venture Prize.

Last year, the scope of the competition again widened with the addition of a new $10,000 development track award. Then, in October of this year, the MIT Entrepreneurship Competition announced its alignment with the MIT Enterprise Forum’s Ignite Clean Energy Business Presentation Competition (ICE), injecting an additional $200,000 prize, called the MIT Clean Energy Prize, for energy start-ups. Finally, last week’s announcement of additional prizes for development-focused business plans further expands the competition’s mission and reach.

The structure of the competition, though, remains relatively unchanged. Teams – drawn from each of MIT’s five schools (Sloan, Engineering, Science, Humanities and Architecture) – undergo a rigorous mentoring, coaching and selection process as the competition progresses. Competition finalists are then called on to present and discuss a full business plan before a distinguished panel of judges made up of entrepreneurs, industry experts and venture capitalists.

Since the MIT Entrepreneurship’s launch 19 years ago, more than 85 companies have been formed from teams that have participated, and these companies have gone on to employ more than 1,600 people and have a valuation of more $7 billion.

The 2008 MIT Entrepreneurship Competition will culminate in a May awards ceremony, at which the new Legatum Prizes and Clean Energy Prize will be awarded for the first time.

To learn more about the MIT Entrepreneurship Competition, click here.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 5:20 pm in MBA News, School: MIT / Sloan

Trivia Tuesday: Wharton’s Lauder Program

Welcome back to Trivia Tuesday, a weekly look at the programs and resources that differentiate the leading business schools. This week we will explore Wharton’s Lauder Program, examining what it is, what completion of the program entails, and what kind of student should consider applying.

Upon completion of 24 months of study, Wharton/Lauder students receive a joint MBA/MA in International Studies. Lauder participants begin classes three months earlier than students in the traditional MBA program, completing one month of intensive language study and a two-month study abroad/in-country immersion program before beginning Wharton classes in September. Once MBA classes begin, Wharton/Lauder students lead an especially busy life, since they must complete Wharton’s full core curriculum and course requirements alongside the Lauder M.A.’s language, elective and thesis requirements.

To apply to the program, prospective students must complete two additional essay questions and demonstrate near-fluent language proficiency in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Russian, Portuguese or Spanish. Because of the language proficiency requirement, the Lauder program is only appropriate for students who have already developed strong foreign language competencies (although the Arabic and Portuguese language tracks tend to be more willing to offer space to less proficient speakers). Once enrolled, the curriculum is tailored to MBA students who seek to develop the capacity to conduct high-level business in another language, whether in the U.S. or abroad.

Though demanding, the Wharton/Lauder joint degree program is an excellent way for students to prepare for global business leadership, integrating language and in-country immersion into the MBA experience. For more information on the Wharton/Lauder joint degree program, be sure to visit the Lauder Institute website, or check out the information in the Clear Admit School Guide to Wharton!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 12:43 pm in School: Penn / Wharton, Trivia Tuesday

MBA Search Survey (and iPod Touch) Reminder

Last week, we launched a survey about the factors that drive applicant’s interests and decisions in pursuing an MBA. We’ve had a strong response so far, but we still want to hear from you!

The MBA search survey should take about 10 minutes to complete, and will be available through Friday, December 21st. Once you’ve finished the questions, you may enter a drawing to win an iPod Touch or one of four new iPod Nanos as a thank you for your time and thoughts.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 2:39 am in General

Monday, December 17, 2007

Tech@Tuck Event to Examine Business Impacts of Social Networking

Is Web 2.0 changing the boundaries of business? Let’s ask Colbie Calliet (rhymes with Ballet), the until recently unknown singer-songwriter who put a couple of her own songs up on Myspace. “Nothing much happened for a few months,” she writes. “Then I wrote this song called ‘Bubbly’ and put it up there and it got this huge reaction. I mean thousands and thousands of hits every day.”

Before long, thousands of hits morphed into more than 10 million plays, with Calliet holding the title of number one unsigned artist on Myspace for a record four months in a row. A record deal followed, and today her catchy little “starts in my toes, makes me crinkle my nose” tune plays between almost every feature on the Sundance network – an anthem, if you will, for independent artists making it big.

Indeed, websites like Myspace, Facebook, YouTube and del.icio.us are fostering a new kind of innovation and information sharing that blurs the lines between producer and consumer. And the business world is taking note.

Not surprisingly, so too are business schools. In January, the Center for Digital Strategies at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business will host a Tech@Tuck event entitled “Web 2.0: Shifting Business Boundaries” to explore the many ways in which social networking sites, blogs, wikis and community collaboration are influencing business organizations and strategy.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place on January 16th at Tuck’s Hanover, New Hampshire, campus. The event will feature two programs, a hands-on expo featuring products from a range of Web 2.0 businesses and a series of panel discussions to explore the broad impact of social networking on business.

Present at the expo will be representatives from companies including Avenue A | Razorfish, Etelos, Joost, KnowNow, Nellymoser, Newsgator, Swaptree and more. Panelists will include executives from Boston Consulting Group, BT Group, Edmunds.com, Second Life/Linden Lab and Wachovia.

Together, the expo and panel discussions will explore how Web 2.0 promises to transform business-to-consumer relationships, influence marketing and brand management and challenge product development. They will also take a closer look at when and how firms decide implement these tools into their businesses and how to measure their success when they do.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 12:32 pm in MBA News, School: Dartmouth / Tuck

Campus Chronicles: MIT Sloan, Harvard

This week’s round up of campus news takes us to Boston, where students at MIT Sloan and Harvard are busy with campus events and recruiting, and are eager to share their views on the student experience through the campus papers Fifteen and The Harbus.

At MIT Sloan, the Fifteen website is sporting a new look and a new editorial staff, having transitioned from a “bastion for opinionated Indian males” to a publication led by “intelligent young females.” In their farewell article, the outgoing editors urge incoming students to get involved with the paper, saying they’ve learned more about management from running the paper than from any of their management classes. Whether it’s classes or activities that are making Sloanies better managers, the results of several recent competitions make it clear that there’s a whole lot of learning going on. For evidence, readers may look to MIT Sloan’s first place finish at the 12th Annual Carnegie Mellon Operations Case Competition, or to the school’s championship performance in the 2007 Reaching Out Case Competition, sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton. Students are also finding the job market welcoming, as seen by the warm receptions members of the Retail Club and Entertainment, Media & Sports Club received during their recent treks to Estee Lauder and New York city entertainment companies, respectively.

At Harvard, students have been busy learning from guest speakers as well as from each other. Kodak CEO Antonio Perez spoke with students in the Turnaround Club about leading Kodak into the digital age, the HBS Marketing Club brought nearly 200 people to its annual conference, and members of the African-American Student Union, the Caribbean Business Club, and the African Business Club entertained a packed house in the second annual Sankofa! performance. Finally, thanks to a first-year HBS student who once worked at the British Embassy in New Delhi, the Indian sport of Kabaddi is sweeping Harvard Business School. After several months of weekly pick-up games among the members of Section 1, the school hosted its first-ever Kabaddi tournament in early December, raising over $1,000 for a New Delhi orphanage and women’s shelter. Beyond being a fun way to spend a wintery Saturday afternoon, the Kabaddi tournament served as a wonderful reminder of the many ways in which business school classmates learn from and teach each other.

That’s the news from the students papers this week. Check back in the coming weeks for more events, activities and perspectives from the business schools, as discussed in their campus papers!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 4:29 am in Campus Chronicles, School: Harvard, School: MIT / Sloan

Friday, December 14, 2007

Waiting at Wharton, Holiday Tidings from Harvard

As today’s Fridays from the Frontlines post attests, the MBA blogosphere is all abuzz with nervous anticipation as applicants to Wharton, Harvard and elsewhere anxiously await news about round one interviews and admissions decisions.

One applicant yesterday posted this earnest plea for information on the Wharton-hosted student2student blog. “I know that by now HBS has probably handed out 99% of its interviews for Round 1, but I am still keeping my fingers crossed. Has anyone received an interview invite since Thanksgiving?”

Hope is a good thing to have. In fact, Harvard Admissions Director Dee Leopold herself sent holiday tidings out to antsy applicants earlier this week. “We are just about finished with sending out Round One interview invitations. There may be a handful still to come — up until the last minute we are sorting and sifting and looking again and again,” she writes. Sounds kind of like Santa making his list and checking it twice.

In fact, according to Leopold, another 50 or so applicants may be placed on the waiting list without having yet been invited to interview. Developments down the line in rounds two and three will determine whether these candidates get an interview.

And just to make things even more interesting as Harvard’s January 16th notification date looms, the HBS admissions office will be closed from Friday, December 21st, at 5 p.m. until Wednesday, January 2nd, at 9 a.m.

Try to stay calm, Leopold advises. “You may be anxious about your recommenders having questions — we’ll have auto reply messages on both voice and email directing them to ApplyYourself if they have questions,” she writes. After all, even admissions staff deserve a winter break, right?

The Waiting Game
Meanwhile, at Wharton, applicant anticipation has almost reached full boil as the countdown to decision day dwindles. With just six days to go until Wharton’s round one decision announcements on December 20th, some applicants are sweating the small stuff.

This posted by 6LongDays: “I recently checked my status page after the interview and noticed that the link inviting me to interview has disappeared. Also, my status still says “Complete” and not “Invited to Interview.” Why is there inconsistency between people’s status? I know, I’m probably worrying about nothing but I needed to make sure.”

Another applicant, WSI Hopeful, chimed in quickly with reassurance, writing, “That happened to everybody. Don’t worry about it.”

Meanwhile, others want to know what time, exactly, round one decisions will be announced on Thrusday. “Should I keep awake for checking e-mail?” asks one applicant in another time zone. Students2student’s Sirish Rao needles him gently in response. “Just a passing thought,” Rao writes. “I’m sure the Admit will not expire by the time u wake up…”

Student2student’s Alex Fleming, a self-avowed proponent of not having too much application angst, fesses up to having been a bit of a wreck himself the night before decisions were announced. “Even when I was applying, the night before decision release it was impossible to sleep or sit still,” he writes.

So come be neurotic in good company, he advises. Student2student hosts an annual all-night chat that begins the Wednesday before decisions are announced and continues all the way through until notifications go up at 9 a.m. (EST). “We have trivia, games and general entertaining time wasting until the wee hours…” Fleming offers. Oh, and senior admissions officials have even been known to pop in and say hi.

We here at Clear Admit know that the waiting is hard. Here’s hoping you can manage to enjoy at least a little bit of your weekends in the meantime…

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 12:30 pm in General, School: Harvard, School: Penn / Wharton

Fridays From the Frontline

Welcome back to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s weekly chronicle of what’s new and notable in the MBA blogosphere.  For applicants, this mainly consisted of earnest interview hopes and speculations, while current students awaited the onslaught of finals with noticeably less anticipation.  Let’s check in with our bloggers for some firsthand accounts…

Our congratulations go out to B-School Bound, whose interview ordeal with Stanford ended in the best possible way – an invite, of course!  He also tucked a strong Wharton interview under his belt, accompanied by an admirably calm mindset with which to await their final decision.  Meanwhile, Wannabe restlessly waited for an interview decision from Tuck, briefly entertaining frazzled fears that it may have accidentally been snatched by his spam filter, interspersed with fickle hopes that perhaps he’d be among the lucky few rumored to receive an admit without a face-to-face meeting.  Bokaa was also hip to the spam filter situation, checking his junk mail early and often.

Achilles stepped in to offer some comic relief, posting an amusing run down of the pros and cons of the top b-schools, complete with which Office Space character each could most conceivably lay claim to.  Perhaps it was this scathing write-up that finally convinced Mbabound08 to throw in the towel on Columbia, capping her application short list at four (or maybe it was the Kellogg admit already in her pocket)…

On campus, first-years had their hands full with finals this week.  After a last ditch studying effort, Asiangal was just about ready to head into her first Wharton exam – Operations and Information Management – although she didn’t necessary feel quite ready.  Over in Fountainbleu, Necromonger succeeded in securing the coveted Negotiations elective, but even still he couldn’t talk his way out of tomorrow’s accounting and strategy tests at INSEAD.  In windy Chicago, Iday breathed an uncommon sigh of relief and offered a run-down of GSB’s finals week (finally over!), his post-finals partying schedule and winter break plans. Nearby, MaybeMBA also seemed pretty relaxed, finding the time to extol the virtues of life in Hyde Park for prospective GSBers.  In the same vein, Forrest served up some good sense interview advice that surely found a large and appreciative audience.

La Laudiaria found herself in the thick of it at Wharton, gloating about the ease of her second-year exam schedule, which has allowed her to get away with a week of hard Follies-style partying, until she realized that she actually still has quite a bit of work to do, come to think of it. Enviable Nagendra retained a more celebratory spirit, soaking in the beauty of Christmastime in Slough.  And finally, ever informative, John filled us in on the Media Learning Teams program offered by Columbia’s Media Management Club – it creates support networks for Media-inclined students to draw upon in doing industry research and finding job leads.

That’s the news from the MBA blogosphere this week!  Best wishes for a wonderful weekend, and don’t forget to share your thoughts in the Clear Admit MBA Search Survey over the next few days (survey takers are eligible to win an iPod Touch or new iPod Nano). 

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 2:08 am in Fridays from the Frontline

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Cambridge’s Judge School of Business Launches New Master of Finance Degree

The University of Cambridge’s Judge School of Business announced last week the creation of a new Master of Finance (MFin) degree, to debut in autumn 2008. The degree comes as part of an ongoing effort by the school to elevate the level of its finance teaching and research.

The new one-year finance program is designed for people with at least two years’ experience in the finance and banking world who wish to accelerate their careers. It will round out the school’s other offerings, which include both a respected pre-experience, research-oriented Finance MPhil and a post-experience MBA.

Significant industry research helped guide the creation of the new program. Dr. Simon Taylor, who will serve as the program’s director, together with Judge Business School Director Arnoud De Meyer, spent the spring and summer of 2007 meeting with senior staff at investment banks, hedge funds and private equity firms to gather input regarding the new program’s syllabus, structure and goals.

“One consistent message emerging from this consultation process was that there is a shortage of people who can combine a thorough technical foundation in finance and financial products with a good understanding of the business context of finance,” Dr. Simon said in a release announcing the new program.

Many candidates have either good technical skills or a good set of communication and business skills, but too few have both, Simon continued. “It is becoming evident that you need both to reach the highest levels in a financial career,” he said.

The program will combine intensive academic instruction with a high level of practical content from professionals in the finance world. Students will have the opportunity to apply their new skills through a range of projects and internships.

Additionally, following the recommendations made by several banks, the program will also include short, focused reviews of related subjects designed specifically to provide context for the use of finance in business organizations. Among the topics to be explored in these mini-courses are corporate strategy, marketing, oranizational behavior and business ethics.

The new degree has received endorsements from several leading financial institutions as well as seed funding in the form of gifts exceeding £2.5 million.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 4:30 pm in General, MBA News, School: Cambridge, Uncategorized

Admissions Tip: The Long Essay

Essay content you’ve polished for one school often serves as a great starting point for the next application, but as we’ve often said, customizing this text for the school in question is key. One particular challenge we see applicants struggle with each year is effectively expanding a short essay they’ve written for one program (such as Harvard’s 400 word “career vision” document or Kellogg’s two-page, double-spaced essay about one’s career to date, goals and interest in their MBA) in responding to a question on the same topic but with a longer limit (like Stanford’s topics and Chicago’s 1500 word goals/why MBA essay). With this in mind, we’d like to offer some pointers on converting condensed comments to more extensive remarks.

1) Expand in proportion. When taking an existing response as a starting point for crafting a longer document, one good rule of thumb is to build upon each subject to more or less the same extent. While elaborating on your work to date might involve less time and work than the more research-intensive ‘why School X’ discussion, it’s generally prudent to maintain balance among subjects and provide all of the major pieces information a school requests in equal measure.

2) Maintain focus. One frequent issue with long essays is that they sometimes lack a clear sense of direction. To ensure that the reader is able to understand the relevance of your remarks and follow the connections among the various ideas, it’s a good idea to include transition sentences at the beginning of each paragraph that tie the subsequent remarks and examples to the topic of the essay and clearly state how certain statements relate to the question. This exercise also serves as a check for the applicant in making sure that all of the details in the essay are related to the subject.

3) Finish when you’re finished. While it’s important to take advantage of the opportunity that each essay presents to share information about your candidacy, you shouldn’t feel obligated to reach the upper end of a suggested page limit if you feel that you’ve already addressed the question and presented a full picture of your interests and background.

Good luck to everyone composing essays with an eye to R2 submission! For more tailored guidance on essays in particular or the application process in general, feel free to contact us at info@clearadmit.com.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 7:41 am in Admissions Tips

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Recruiting the Recruits: GMAC, Military.com Launch “Operation MBA”

In an effort to make military officers and senior enlisted personnel aware of the impact pursuing a graduate business education can have on their careers, the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) and Military.com joined forces in late November to launch an initiative called Operation MBA.

Working together, GMAC, which owns the GMAT admissions exam, and Military.com, a division of Monster Worldwide and the world’s largest military and veteran member organization, make a case for why members of the military are particularly well suited for business education and then provide a range of resources to help guide them through the admissions process.

A new website, www.mba.com/military, established as part of the initiative, ticks off the reasons members of the military should consider an MBA. “You have a jump on the competition,” the website reads. “You know leadership. You understand responsibility. You possess strategic skills.”

The website includes a range of resources for military personnel. The first, the MBA Planner, is a 16-page brochure developed specifically for members of the armed forces considering an MBA. Included in the brochure are an overview of the various types of graduate business degrees, profiles of real-life military personnel who have pursued MBAs and frequently asked questions about financial aid, admissions requirements and how to gauge the quality of a particular school’s programs.

The brochure also provides a two-year timeline intended to guide prospective applicants from the earliest stages of the application process (assessing whether an MBA is right for them, making contact with their base Educational Service Office) through the final details (understanding financial aid packages, drawing on established mentor and other networks). And sprinkled throughout are valuable tips for applicants. For instance, DANTES (the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support) will reimburse GMAT exam fees for active military members.

In addition to the MBA Planner, the website also includes a list of military-friendly business schools. From Arizona State to Yale, the list includes more than 70 schools, each of which provides financial aid to qualified military personnel who have transitioned from the service in the two years prior to enrollment and will grant a one-year deferment if a student’s plans are delayed by his or her service branch. In addition, when allowed by state and university regulations, the schools on this list will waive the application fee for anyone who has been on active duty within three years of applying.

“Creating access to quality graduate business education is our mission, and we are always seeking new and more effective ways to help people connect with the information they need about the MBA,” said Susan Motz, vice president of client services at GMAC, in a statement announcing the initiative. “We are excited about this partnership and about opportunities to serve military personnel by helping them find a graduate business program that meets their educational and professional needs through Operation MBA,” she continued.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 12:36 pm in General, MBA News, Uncategorized

Wiki Wednesdays: The HBS Interview

Welcome back to Wiki Wednesdays, where we take a peek at particularly poignant posts to the Clear Admit Wiki! With Harvard in the midst of of conducting Round 1 interviews and releasing additional invitations through January 16th, we thought we’d put the Wiki Wednesday spotlight on that school this week.

Whereas most schools conduct blind interviews, Harvard’s interviewers are very familiar with one’s entire file, and will often have specific questions prepared in light of their review of the essays and other materials.

Let’s set the stage by taking a look at the list of questions that one interviewee described as “straightforward:”

1. 1. Tell me your past, present and future.
2. 2. What’s your career goal? What would you do if it doesn’t work out?
3. 3. What’s the most common misconception about you?
4. 4. What’s the biggest challenge you might be facing at HBS?

The first question is rather expansive, and certainly offers an opportunity to highlight a range of experiences and subjects that might not have made their way into the written application. In the face of such open-ended inquiries, though, it’s important to think strategically. As another Wiki contributor writes of his HBS experience:

1. “…they WILL press you [on] anything you say…so don’t bring up extraneous topics or examples unless you’re willing to go in-depth on them.”

As our opening report also indicates, the concept of one’s career vision is also of interest to the HBS adcom. Other recent HBS interview reports further support this with the inquiries “What industry do you NOT see yourself in?” and “What is your dream job?,” spurring applicants to provide a few possibilities – and exclusions – for the future.

Meanwhile, the request to identify a “common misconception” about oneself illustrates that the adcom carries the themes of self-assessment and self-awareness through the entire application process, complementing the program’s essay questions about a past mistake and a leadership experience that illuminated a weakness. Finally, the question about a pending challenge at HBS looks to the applicant’s preparedness for and fit with the Harvard Business School experience. Additional interviewees reported related questions, such as “How do you want your HBS classmates to remember you?” and “Why do people accept your leadership?,” cueing applicants to discuss their potential impact.

As you can probably see, mental preparation is an important element of a successful HBS interview experience. Visiting the Clear Admit Wiki for further firsthand insight into Harvard’s process is a great starting point! Meanwhile, the Clear Admit Interview Guide to HBS offers detailed analysis and advice for candidates who are preparing for an interview.

As always, we extend our gratitude to those who have already published their reports to the wiki (the latest reports were from Kellogg and HBS). We also encourage additional content contributions from applicants either by creating an account or sending your reports to wiki@clearadmit.com. That wraps up this week’s edition of Wiki Wednesdays. We’ll be back next week with further highlights from the wiki!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 7:09 am in Admissions Tips, Interview Guides, Interview Tips, School: Harvard, Wiki Wednesdays

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Take the MBA Search Survey!

Over our 4+ years of blogging, applicants have turned to the Clear Admit blog as a source of reliable information and valuable advice on the MBA admissions process. Because we want to ensure that we are providing content that is as relevant as possible, we are conducting a survey to help us better understand our readers’ goals and needs. We’d like to invite all of our readers to share their school selection priorities and views on the leading MBA programs.

This online survey should take just 10 minutes to complete. We would love to receive as many responses as possible before the closing date of Friday, December 21st – and will be giving away an iPod Touch and four iPod Nanos as a token of our appreciation!

Simply click here to begin. Thanks in advance for your participation!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 4:02 pm in General

Market a Great Product, Get a Good Grade

Build a better shopping cart and the world will beat a path to your door. Oh, and your grade depends on it.

That’s the concept behind the Integrated Product Design (IDP) course at the University of Michigan, which brings together students from the Ross School of Business, the School of Art and Design and the School of Engineering to work in teams developing and marketing a new consumer product. This year, the challenge was to create an eco-friendly urban carrying device that can be used to transport heavy objects long distances without a car.

As the final component in the semester-long course, the IDP Trade Show was held late last month on the University of Michigan campus. Here, seven teams displayed their take on the urban transport pod. All had to be built to meet certain specifications. They had to be collapsible, lightweight and carry up to 30 pounds – even up stairs – and be constructed using 100 percent sustainable materials.

The similarities ended there, though, as each team then brought its own unique combination of cross-disciplinary talents to the fore to create wildly different contraptions made of fabric, metal and plastic, all with differing levels of sophistication and functionality.

But concept creation – informed by market research – was just the beginning. Teams were also responsible for technical development, production process design, pricing, inventory stocking and advertising.

“Students compete in a real market with real products, and the result is a course that has surprising chemistry, unleashing strong passions, allegiances and great energy among students and faculty alike,” William Lovejoy, the Raymond T. Perring Family Professor of Business at the Ross School of Business, told Michigan in the News. Lovejoy teaches the class jointly with Shaun Jackson, associate professor at the School of Art and Design and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

The on-campus trade show follows an initial online trade show, in which more than 1,800 votes were gathered this year. The online voting results provided teams with valuable feedback that they could then use to refine their sales pitches and re-evaluate their inventories for round two.

Armed with this initial customer response information, teams tried out creative marketing strategies on customers at the campus trade show. Meanwhile, the customers themselves tested out the actual products by loading them up with canned goods, sacks of potatoes and other perishable items.

According to Lovejoy, who developed the IDP concept 17 years ago with colleagues from Stanford, the fact that students produce fully functional prototypes and face real-world economic challenges makes the class unique.

Indeed, both the winner of the competition and the students’ grades for the course are determined by profit rankings, based on hypothetical cart sales, both online and in person, with actual budgets and costs factored in.

In terms of market share, Team Folio led in web sales, and Team On y va dominated at the in-person trade show. But Team Velocity, which promoted its cart as being built to withstand extreme weather conditions and carry heavy loads, was the overall winner once costs and margins were taken into account. Its profits were almost $5 million, with Folio and On y va coming in at $2.4 and $2.3 million respectively. Inventory stock-outs also played a role in the final outcome.

Winners and losers alike saw value in the experience. “I believe that this experience is the best one I’ve had in terms of simulating the process of starting a business from the ground up,” said MBA candidate Amar Ravi, whose De Kar team came in fourth. “From the tactical, strategic process to the execution of the design, it was amazing,” he said.

Now the question is will he be as satisfied with his grade?

To view complete results of the IDP challenge, click here.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 1:01 pm in MBA News, School: Michigan / Ross, School: Stanford

Trivia Tuesday: Structuring the Student Body at Yale SOM

The structure of the first-year class tends to shape the MBA experience, affecting the friends students make, the teamwork skills they learn, and the peer support they receive. In past Trivia Tuesday columns we’ve considered the ways in which Harvard and Kellogg structure their first year classes; this week we turn our attention to the class structure at the Yale SOM.

Yale’s first-year class is divided into three cohorts, referred to as Blue, Silver and Green. Students report that the bond within these groups is usually strong, and since students take all of their core courses with their cohort, inside jokes and camaraderie tend to develop throughout the year. In addition to classroom and group work, cohorts band together for good-natured extracurricular competition. For instance, in the fall of 2006, first-year cohorts participated in a very successful fund-raising drive for SOM’s non-profit internship fund, and in a less constructive but equally competitive keg war.

Within Yale’s cohorts, students are assigned to seven-person learning teams. As is the case at most business schools that break their student bodies into smaller units, both these teams and the larger cohorts are constructed with an eye to capturing the diversity of the class and ensuring that students are introduced to others with varying backgrounds and areas of expertise.

Two points of divergence with the approach of other business schools are the relatively large size of Yale’s teams – most schools cap their Learning Teams at 5 or 6 students – and the minimal scope of their formal role. The only official role of Yale’s learning teams is in the first-semester course Interpersonal Dynamics, in which students work with their groups on role plays and class projects. This is something of a contrast to the role of Learning Teams at leading schools such as Tuck or Wharton, which require that students collaborate with their assigned teams in each core course. Instead, Yale students tend to work in smaller, self-selected study groups in most of the core courses. Though the cohorts spend significant time together in and outside of the classroom during the first year, students report that cohort culture does not continue into the second year. By this point, students’ coursework consists entirely of electives, and new social networks form around shared professional and academic interests.

For more information on Yale’s first-year experience or the class structure of other leading business schools, be sure to check out the schools’ websites or the Academics section of the Clear Admit School Guides!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 4:11 am in School: Harvard, School: Northwestern / Kellogg, School: Yale, Trivia Tuesday

Monday, December 10, 2007

MIT Sloan Releases Employment Report for 2007, 2008 MBA Classes

Granted, your biggest concern right now may be getting in to business school, but employment prospects once you graduate are also an important consideration. Put another way: Is all this work and worry really worth it?

MIT Sloan School of Business recently released its MBA Employment Report, providing a revealing glimpse of the full-time positions its 2007 graduates accepted and the summer positions its class of 2008 held.

Calling it an “outstanding recruiting year” for Sloan MBAs, Career Development Office Director Jacqueline Wilbur reports that 97 percent of the class of 2007 had a job offer within three months of graduation. Service industries – specifically financial services and consulting – continue to attract the vast majority of Sloan graduates for both full-time and summer positions.

Increasingly, though, Sloanies also are gravitating toward the manufacturing sector. Nineteen percent of 2007 graduates took jobs in related fields, including computers and electronics, biotechnology and aerospace. And 22 percent of the class of 2008 took summer positions within manufacturing.

“We also continue to see a growing interest in sustainability, with more students choosing to accept full-time opportunities in areas such as energy and nonprofit work than in prior years,” writes Wilbur.

Consulting firm McKinsey & Company was the overwhelming leader in terms of employers hiring Sloan students. Of the 2007 class, 27 took jobs with McKinsey upon graduation. Summer interns, meanwhile, numbered 23. Other top employers include Bain & Company, BCG, Google and Goldman Sachs. The mean base salary for 2007 graduates was $107,990, and summer interns from the class of 2008 earned an average of $7,136 per month.

To view the entire report in PDF form, click here.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 12:37 pm in MBA News, School: MIT / Sloan

Campus Chronicles: MIT Sloan, NYU Stern

With the Thanksgiving break a fading memory on U.S. business school campuses, students are racing towards the winter break that marks the end of the first term. Let’s check in on what students at MIT Sloan and NYU Stern have been doing recently, as reported in the schools’ campus papers.

At MIT Sloan, success was this week’s theme, with the Fifteen offering several stories of recent campus triumphs. To start, the MIT Energy Club’s annual Energy Night was a rousing success, bringing 40 campus presenters to the MIT Museum to share their work with nearly 1,200 attendees. The event is a wonderful opportunity for students, faculty, and members of industry to share exciting new ideas and network over appetizers and drinks. Another, much newer event also went off with a bang recently, as the MIT Sales Club hosted the first graduate division contest of the National Collegiate Sales Competition. Over 20 MBA students from leading business schools competed in the event, with students from Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan garnering the top three prizes. Based on feedback from participants, judges, and sponsor Microsoft, the MIT Sales Club hopes to make the competition an annual event. MIT Sloan students took part in yet another big event recently – the 2007 Play Digital Media Case Competition, hosted by UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business as part of the annual Play Conference. As defending champions, expectations for the MIT team were high going into the competition, and Team Delta lived up to them, taking home the $10,000 grand prize. Team members credit the “pragmatic” lessons learned in Sloan classes for their success, and drew on theories from their regular courses as well as their SIP (Sloan Innovation Period) courses in designing the winning strategy.

At NYU Stern, the fall’s events are in full swing, and the Stern Opportunity is there to cover them. Several campus groups recently spent time reaching out to groups under-represented in business, with AHBBS members hosting ninth-graders from Hostos Lincoln Academy, a specialized high school in the Bronx, and SWIB and MBA Admissions hosting the annual Opening Doors for Women program. While on campus, the Hostos students participated in brainstorming and problem-solving sessions, talked with Stern students about challenges that may arise in college, and toured the school’s dorms, library and gym. Meanwhile, participants in Opening Doors took advantage of the event to learn about Stern’s admissions process and student culture, while also having the opportunity to hear Sheila Wellington, a favorite Stern professor, discuss the “glass ceiling” woman may face in the business world. As in years past, both prospective and current students who participated reported leaving the event more excited about both Stern and their own career aspirations. In addition to these energetic outreach events, NYU Stern students have taken on several challenges and competitions this fall. A Stern team reached the finals of the Chicago GSB’s National IPO Challenge, participated in the National MBA Real Estate Case Challenge in Austin, and came in second in the 4th Annual Hispanic American Business Leaders Association case challenge. Congratulations to them all!

It’s clear from both of these papers that business school students have far more than classwork and recruiting to keep them busy. For more information on challenges, competitions and events highlighted this week, be sure to check out the full articles!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 3:14 am in Campus Chronicles, School: MIT / Sloan, School: NYU Stern

Friday, December 07, 2007

Graduate Business Education Programs Go Global

From Africa to China to the Middle East, business education is gaining ground around the globe as the reputations of newer MBA programs in regions not as long associated with business education grow, and as established schools in Europe and North America expand their reach through satellite campuses and fellowship programs.

BusinessWeek this week devoted an article to the rise of Chinese business schools, reporting that graduates from these schools are being hired in greater numbers and at higher salaries than ever before. According to a survey of recruiters from companies hiring graduates from schools in China – conducted this year for the third time in a row by BusinessWeek China – 34 percent of respondents characterized the supply of high-quality talent from these MBA programs as “excellent” or “good,” up from 19 percent last year. The quality of MBAs “is becoming better and better,” Mike Wang, human resources manager at Morgan Stanley in Beijing, told BusinessWeek.

A country where nine universities began accepting students to business school programs just 16 years ago now boasts 96 universities offering 230 MBA and executive MBA programs, BusinessWeek reports. Next year, the Chinese government plans to increase MBA enrollment by 24 percent and accredit an additional 30 programs.

Curricula at these schools are evolving as well. Increasingly, Chinese students are focusing on case studies about Chinese businesses as often and in some instances more often than on case studies about European or U.S. businesses, as was more the norm in the past. As the studies become more relevant, and as the schools’ reputations grow, more Chinese students are opting to stay home rather than go abroad for an MBA, according to BusinessWeek’s report.

African Faculty Fellowship Program Launched at INSEAD
In an effort to increase the establishment of African business schools and bring about greater awareness of African business issues, INSEAD last week announced the creation of the INSEAD African Faculty Fellowship. The fellowship is open to two faculty members of the Global Business School Network’s African member schools.

These fellows will spend two months as “visiting scholars” during the 2008/9 academic year at either of the school’s two campuses in Fontainebleau, France, or Singapore. Part of the INSEAD African Initiative, the fellowship will enable visiting faculty to attend workshops and seminars and be eligible for grant money to fund research and case writing projects with INSEAD faculty. The fellows also will contribute to INSEAD classes as guest speakers.

“As the business school of the world, we want to play an active role in helping with the capacity building of Sub-Saharan African business schools,” Frank Brown, dean of INSEAD, said in a statement announcing the fellowship. The program is designed to be both professionally rewarding to the participating fellows and enriching to the INSEAD campus as a whole, he continued. INSEAD expects the program to raise the school’s visibility in Africa and increase the flow of African applicants to its programs.

LSB Opens Dubai Center
London Business School (LSB), too, has expanded its footprint to other parts of the globe, officially opening its Dubai Centre at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) last week.

The center’s inaugural ceremony was led by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and ruler of Dubai. Other distinguished guests included HE Mohammed Al Gergawi, minister of state for cabinet affairs and chairman of the executive office in Dubai; HE Abdul Rahman Mohammed Nassir Al Owais, minister of culture, youth and community development; HE Dr. Omar Bin Sulaiman, governor of the DIFC; and HRH Prince Faisal Al-Hussein. LSB Dean Robin Buchanan also attended, as did several other members of the LSB faculty and administration.

“We are delighted to be the home of the Dubai Centre of London Business School,” Dr. Bin Sulaiman said at the event. “The Dubai-London Executive MBA is a valued addition to the region, particularly the United Arab Emirates.”

In fact, the LSB inaugural Dubai-London EMBA program got underway in early September, welcoming a class of 78 students representing 30 different nationalities.

Professor Zeger Degraeve, faculty director of the new Dubai center, is thrilled by the level of interest in the new program. “We recognise that the learning experience in Dubai – an international economic center – is a natural fit with the experience provided to our students in London,” Degraeve said. “We are pleased to be the first leading business school to offer a program of this kind in the region.”

LSB hopes to expand the program in the future, including adding an executive education component to serve employees at businesses in the region.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 2:07 pm in MBA News, School: INSEAD, School: London Business School

Fridays From the Frontline

Welcome back to Fridays from the Frontline, our weekly whirl through the MBA blogging world.  Caught in limbo between Round One and Round Two this week, applicants managed interviews, applications and expectations, aligned notifications with aspirations and variously awaited Christmas vacations.  With finals and formals to attend, current students found their plates full as well.  Let’s check in with our bloggers for a sampling…

According to Bschool Diva, Chicago applicants will have reason to relive the eager anticipation of childhood Christmases this year, although it appears the big day has been moved up to December 19th …  Wannabe’s sure hoping for a gift from the GSB under his tree, deciding that a renewed focus on quality, not quantity, however, is the best strategy toward receiving one.  Meanwhile, B-School Bound is surprised by the news that Kellogg has begun to render Round One admits; Mbabound08 is living proof of that – he rode the relief line all the way from JFK to Washington Heights after receiving a much anticipated phone call from admissions.

By the way, anyone know what the difference is between Wharton and Haas?  According to Mbabound08, it adds up to about $45 k over two years.  Despite the drawback, Vidiviceni hopes to count himself among the Wharton camp, although it’s just setting in that with that and four other top-flight apps due in the next 30 days, the pressure is on!  Bsch00l4sp!rant has been feeling more than just pressure lately, representing the varied emotional tolls the application process has exacted upon him in a graph fit for a king… or at least a consultant…

The first-years seem a bit more practically-oriented at this juncture.  Necromonger offered up advice relevant to applicants and fellow students alike: don’t underestimate the effort it takes to craft a winning CV!  In fact, his consumed 20 hours.  Neither is MaybeMBA scared of a little hard work; she’s  even welcoming finals week at Chicago, which she reasons can’t be too stressful compared to the week she just had.  With the first snowfall at Georgetown, HairTwirler’s thoughts are far from exams, though; she feels more than a flurry of nostalgia for Boston as she recalls trudging through the Common in the snow.  Speaking of being all dressed up in white, Christof posts some snazzy pics of Darden’s Winter Formal, accompanied with a some heartfelt musings on married life.

Second-year Angie and friends also got dressed to the nines –  with Santa hats on heads and beers in hand, as a part of LBS’ annual Santa Claus Pub Crawl.  Meanwhile, La Laudiaria found her own reason to celebrate, after some intense job searching and some difficult soul searching, she was kindly rewarded with a job offer at Apple, no less.  Way to go!  Returning from an extended, but by no means idle absence, Ed Starr summarizes the three memorable months of his LBS-to-Kellogg exchange, while John swears that not everyone at CBS is an entrepreneur, although you’d be hard pressed to find evidence of that on his blog.  Finally, Fran meditated on the clash between advertising and strategizing over a colorful English breakfast.

And that pretty much sums up this week’s adventures!  Come back and see us next Friday for a fresh crop of MBA highlights.

0 Comments »

# posted by Clear Admit @ 9:30 am in Fridays from the Frontline

Thursday, December 06, 2007

CFO Optimism Plunges, Capital Spending and Hiring to Stagnate, Survey Says

Baby, it’s cold outside. True in a meteorological sense for those of us in the northeastern United States today. True in a metaphorical sense for CFOs around the globe, as far as the outlook for the U.S. economy is concerned. This according to a survey conducted jointly by Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and CFO Magazine, the results of which were released yesterday.

Optimism among CFOs at a broad range of global public and private companies plunged to a record low this quarter, driven by concerns over weak consumer demand, high fuel and labor costs, and credit market turmoil, according to the year-end 2007 Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook survey. These pessimistic CFOs say they expect slow growth in earnings, hiring and capital spending as a result.

The survey has been conducted for the past 47 quarters consecutively. Starting six years ago, its results have been used to calculate a “CFO optimism index” that evaluates how CFOs’ outlooks for the future compare quarter to quarter. Results from the most recent survey, which concluded November 30th and generated responses from more than 1,200 CFOs around the world, show the lowest optimism index level on record. Pessimists outnumber optimists by an eight-to-one margin, with 72 percent of CFOs more pessimistic and only 9 percent more optimistic about the U.S. economy than they were last quarter.

CFOs Call for Fed to Act in Credit Crisis
According to CFO responses, credit conditions have directly hurt one-third of companies. Among these firms, 47.6 percent say they have experienced an increased cost of credit (median increase of 50 basis points) and 49 percent say credit has become less available.

“Most disturbingly, one-third will cut capital spending plans as a result of the conditions and one-quarter indicate that hiring plans will be scaled back,” said Duke international business professor Campbell Harvey, founding director of the survey. “These actions are detrimental to economic growth,” he continued.

The CFOs in the survey support – by a 2 to 1 margin – a cut of 25 basis points at the December 11th meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, though a significant number indicated that they worry about the potential negative impact on the dollar.

Impact on Employees, Capital Spending, Outsourcing
CFOs indicate that their employees are already being impacted by the current economic conditions. At nearly one in five companies, employees have increased hardship withdrawals from their 401(k) accounts, in many cases to make mortgage payments or ward off personal bankruptcy. Year-end bonuses, too, are expected to take a hit, by as much as 10 percent relative to last year.

Firms with more than a quarter of sales in foreign locations, meanwhile, are reacting to the depreciated U.S. dollar. Of these firms, more than 60 percent have expanded the range of their investments to reduce risk or changed the location of investments and outsourced employment.

Capital spending is only expected to increase by 4.1 percent, and domestic employment, by only 0.5 percent. Outsourced employment, though, could rise by 5.6 percent.

The CFO Crystal Ball
According to the survey’s director, understanding CFO optimism is akin to gazing into a crystal ball with regard to the future of the economy. “CFO optimism is spiraling downward, surpassing the record low for optimism set last quarter,” said John R. Graham, director of the survey and a finance professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. “This is dramatic because CFOs have a track record of accurately predicting future economic activity, and their predictions run one or two months ahead of other common economic indicators.”

Of CFOs surveyed, nearly 40 percent believe a recession will begin in 2008.

What This Means for Business Schools
Historically, in times of recession, business schools have offered a haven to professionals looking to ride out the rocky economic storm. BusinessWeek reported on this phenomenon in its September 2007 article, “Bad Times Can Be Good for B Schools.”

“We’ve seen trends that indicate that when there’s a downturn in the economy – especially if people are laid off – that people always consider that a good time to go back for more education,” Debbie Berechman, executive director of the MBA program at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, told BusinessWeek. As a case in point, business school applications surged as the tech bubble burst in the late 1990s and early 2000.

Current statistics from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) – which owns the GMAT, the standardized test required of applicants to the vast majority of business schools worldwide – suggest that a similar surge is taking place now. In August, GMAC reported that applications to business schools had increased by 17 percent or more across all but PhD programs this year over last. Part-time MBA programs showed the greatest increase in applicant volume, 58 percent.

More recent statistics regarding GMAT volume bear this out as well. Year-to-date test-taking volume as reported through the end of October was 188,856 worldwide, representing a 13.45 percent increase over the same period in 2006 and a greater volume than any year previously studied.

Just as seeking a business degree can begin to look more attractive to employees during an economic downturn, job applicants who already have one begin to look more attractive to employers faced with hiring cutbacks. See our November post on this.

The rub in all of this, of course, is that as more people apply to business schools and more employers seek business school grads, getting in gets that much more competitive…

Good luck with those interviews!

0 Comments »

# posted by Clear Admit @ 12:36 pm in MBA News, School: Duke / Fuqua, School: MIT / Sloan

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Mandy (Darden)

M@ (Ross)

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