According to a report this week in the Chronicle of Higher Education, business schools – including some of the very best – are beginning to rethink whether requiring several years of prior work experience on the part of applicants should be de rigueur. While corporate experience is certainly still valued, some schools are opening up admissions to a younger set as well in an effort to reel in promising students early before they get sidetracked by careers or head off to other professional schools.
Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford and the University of Texas at Austin have all started programs geared toward students who are coming straight from undergraduate programs or are just a year or two out. Doing so, the schools hope, will also help to diversify their student body with more women and minority students.
Having younger students in the classroom brings a fresh perspective to discussions, according to some admissions officials. “Students who come in without a lot of experience are asking the questions that illuminate class discussions for everyone, and they’re questioning the assumptions that many others have taken as a given,” Derrick Bolton, director of MBA admissions at Stanford Graduate School of Business told the Chronicle. About 5 percent of Stanford’s MBA students come straight from college, up from 1 to 2 percent a few years ago.
But the decision by Stanford and other schools to admit younger students with less experience has been met by criticism by some schools and alumni. “Experienced students have more war stories to share and can often enrich classroom conversations,” Beth Flye, director of admissions at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management told the Chronicle. “A big part of what students learn comes from what they absorb and take away from their classmates,” she said. According to Flye, Kellogg still prefers applicants with significant work experience – an average of five years.
Despite the criticism, Stanford stands behind its decision to admit younger students in increasing numbers. According to Bolton, younger students make up a disproportionate number of the school’s top students and leaders. Deferred
Admissions Programs Catching On
Other schools have followed suit. In September, Harvard launched a deferred admissions program aimed at high-performing college graduates. The program guarantees these students a spot in the Harvard MBA class once they’ve gotten two years of approved work experience. The goal is to catch promising students in engineering, science and the arts who might be considering other graduate study.
“We’re trying to reach out and attract undergraduates who may be majoring in fields that are not typically viewed as feeder majors into business schools, but who see themselves as future potential leaders,” W. Carl Kester, deputy dean for academic affairs at Harvard, told the Chronicle.
The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business runs a similar deferred-admissions program, and Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business has a five-year combined undergraduate and MBA program that targets mainly engineering students.
By opening admissions to younger students, business schools also hope to attract more women. In contrast to the traditional business school timetable, earlier admissions could prove more palatable to female students who want to spend their later 20s and 30s starting families. At the country’s most competitive law and medical schools, which allow students to enter straight out of college, women represent about half of the entering class, compared to less than 30 percent of the students in the 30 top business schools, the Chronicle reports.
Statistics from the Graduate Management Admissions Council, which owns the GMAT examination required for admission at many business schools, bear out this growing trend. The number of students under 24 taking the exam jumped by 71 percent from 2005 to 2007, from 34,334 to 58,687. Overall test registrations grew only 9 percent in the same time period. The under-24 category now represents more than a quarter of all test-takers, up from 17 percent two years ago.
Posted by Clear Admit on January 23, 2008, at 4:32 am
Posted in:  School: MIT / Sloan , School: NYU Stern , Wiki Wednesdays Welcome to another installment of Wiki Wednesdays, where we take a peek at the latest posts to the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Wiki! While last week we took a look at how an applicant’s résumé forms the foundation for the Yale School of Management interview, this time around we’re looking at what one might expect from interviewers that have intimate knowledge of one’s entire application before conducting the interviews. Interviewers at MIT Sloan School of Management and NYU Stern School of Business, the programs we’ll focus on this week, ask questions with full awareness of candidates’ background, goals, essays and other information shared in the application.
Both MIT Sloan and NYU Stern offer interviews by invitation only. Sloan interviews take place at MIT or other global locations, but can sometimes be conducted by phone. Meanwhile, candidates invited to interview by Stern should plan on traveling to New York City, as only a limited number of off-site interviews are conducted in China, India and the United Kingdom, usually in March. Alumni and phone interviews are extremely rare.
As one can see in Sloan’s PDF on their interview process, the adcom believes that past behavior is a reliable predictor of future performance. One Sloan candidate recounts in the Wiki:
- [The interviewer’s] first question was about a story I used in one of my essays. She basically asked me about the challenges in managing this project and specific difficulties.
- I have an office overseas which I manage remotely; [the interviewer] spent a lot of the interview asking specific questions about the challenges in managing the offshore staff. She wanted specific examples of issues I’ve faced and how I handled them.
While many MBA admissions interviews kick off with a stroll through a résumé, it is worth noting that this Sloan interviewer stepped into the essays first; applicants should be prepared to start their discussion from any point and poised to field an in-depth opening question. As can also be seen in the questions above, applicants should be prepared to go beyond quantified results and into descriptions of personal reactions given MIT’s deep interest in past behavior. It’s also worth noting what the Sloan adcom didn’t ask. As the Sloan candidate noted,
- [The interviewer] didn’t ask my Why Sloan? – Why an MBA? – Goals? or any of the other standard interview questions.
The possible omission of such questions from the interview only leaves the Cover Letter to discuss one’s goals and motivation for pursuing an MBA at Sloan. This, again, drives home Sloan’s interest in the hard facts of an applicant’s past behavior and experiences. Of course, MIT interviewers usually ask if a candidate has any questions, so applicants can seize this opportunity to showcase their passion for the program by inquiring about specific features of MIT Sloan.
As for NYU, Stern’s interviewers also possess background information on its candidates, but tend to pose more standard queries, covering topics such as career goals and “why Stern?” In addition to these typical questions, a recently interviewed Stern candidate reported being asked the following:
- If you get into all the schools you applied to, which will you choose?
- Compare Stern’s culture to your company’s culture?
- How would your current colleagues describe you? How do you want your classmates to describe you when you graduate?
There are certain nuances to these questions that candidates should be prepared to address. Interested in current fit and how an applicant hopes to grow in the context of the Stern environment, the adcom asks how others currently perceive the candidate and inquires about future contribution to the school. While applicants could cover a range of topics, this question seems geared toward personal characteristics. Furthermore, a query such as this provides a chance to demonstrate one’s knowledge of the Stern program, as applicants could identify specific clubs through which they hope to interact with their potential classmates and, consequently, make an impression. To prepare such school-specific comments, applicants can check out the school’s website or Clear Admit’s School Guides. The Clear Admit Interview Guides also offer extensive tips on both MIT Sloan’s and NYU Stern’s interviews.
As always, we’d like to thank everyone who has posted their interview reports to the Clear Admit Wiki – most recently to Tepper and HBS. If you have an experience you would like to share for the benefit of other applicants, you can add it to the Clear Admit Wiki either by creating an account or sending your reports to wiki@clearadmit.com. Best of luck to those still preparing for upcoming MBA interviews!
Harvard announced late last week that it will begin sending out interview invitations for its round two applicants this Friday, January 25th. “While we will continue to invite applicants to interview until the Round 2 deadline, the majority of invitations will be out by mid-February,” HBS Dean Dee Leopold wrote on her blog.
Round two interviews will begin on Tuesday, February 5th, and Harvard expects the bulk of them to be complete by mid-March. Members of the Harvard MBA Admissions Board are scheduled to visit Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas, Chicago and the Bay Area (both San Francisco and Palo Alto) to conduct interviews. International interview trips are also planned to London, Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, mainland China (either Beijing or Shanghai) and Hong Kong.
“It may be helpful to take a moment to think about where you might like to interview should you be invited!” writes Leopold encouragingly. For applicants living abroad in areas where admissions officials are not able to visit, phone and alumni interviews also will be available.
Round Two Sets a Record at UCLA
The round two waiting game is well underway at other schools as well. At UCLA Anderson, no one seems to have received an invite yet. According to a post on the BusinessWeek discussion forum by an applicant who attended a campus information session last week, the Anderson admissions office is reporting that this year’s second round set a record for applicants in a single round – 1,800 – and that overall applications are up 22 percent.
One enterprising applicant has taken it upon himself to compile a spreadsheet of stats for UCLA round two candidates as they have been provided to him through the BW thread. Check it out here.
Meanwhile, at Berkeley’s Haas School, round two applicants are settling in for a comfortable wait, with word that invites don’t start going out until February and will continue to be sent through mid-March.
Moving on to the Midwest, some round two applicants at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business have already interviewed, while others are still waiting to hear. Chatter on the BW discussion forum ranged from a back and forth about a deadline extension (now irrelevant) to what questions those who have already interviewed were asked. To those frantic about not having yet received an invite, discussion board participant michimoby had these calming words: “Guys, guys….seriously, you need to settle down a little bit. It’s only been two weeks since the deadline – they’re going to be interviewing upward of 500-800 people…they can’t do all this in the course of 14 days while reading thousands of applications!”
Still Waiting at Wharton
Turning back to the East Coast again, Wharton reportedly began sending interview invites out late last week. Several applicants report that they received the following information in the mail: “The Admissions Committee will begin to release interview invitations on Thursday, January 17th and will continue to release invitations on a daily basis until 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thursday, February 21st.” The communication went on to say that invitations are released in no particular order, and that the committee will also on February 21st share the bad new with all applicants who are no longer being considered for admission. So far, not a peep on either the BW Wharton round two thread or Wharton’s own student2student discussion board about anyone receiving an invite.
Don’t forget: The Clear Admit MBA Admissions Wiki is a great resource for anyone currently awaiting admissions news. In addition to five pages where applicants can post their own information – one for interviews, one for applications, one for visits, one for the experiences of current students, and one for blog links – the Wiki also features a Current State section, updated weekly, reflecting the latest news regarding admissions.
And once you receive those interview invites (fingers crossed!), remember to take advantage of the Clear Admit interview guides, which offer school-specific strategy, first-hand interview accounts and tips for planning a visit. Interview guides are currently available for Chicago, Columbia, Haas, Harvard, Kellogg, MIT Sloan, NYU Stern, Stanford, Tuck and Wharton, and more will be added throughout the admissions season.
Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday, a weekly column that examines the opportunities and resources available to students at the leading MBA programs.
The high cost of attending a full-time MBA program means that graduates often carry significant educational debt. Although repayment is generally not an issue for students going into high-paying jobs in the private sector, repayment can be difficult for those who choose public or non-profit sector employment.
Recognizing the need for experienced, well-trained managers in the public and non-profit sectors, many business schools have created loan repayment assistance programs for graduates going into these fields. Today we’ll highlight some of the assistance available.
Since 2002, Wharton students who make a commitment to engaging in non-profit or public-sector careers after graduation may apply for the John M. Bendheim Loan Forgiveness for Public Service program. The program provides up to $10,000 a year of loan forgiveness for up to five years after graduation. Recipients must re-apply annually for the grant and provide a biannual update of their activities. At Kellogg, alumni are eligible to receive assistance through the Collins Family Loan Assistance Program for up to ten years, but must reapply for the award each year. Precise award amounts are dependent upon the graduate’s own salary, immediate family resources and loan payment obligations.
Meanwhile, the Stanford GSB offers two separate loan assistance programs. The first is the Non-profit/Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which provides selected alumni with an average of $4000 a year towards their loan payments. Graduates can apply for the program at any point in their careers, as long as they are employed in public service and still making loan payments. Globally, the GSB International Loan Forgiveness Program supports recent graduates who are non-U.S. citizens and are working for organizations in developing countries. Now in its pilot year, the program offers selected students up to $7,500 a year for up to three years following graduation.
For students interested in applying their MBA skills to public service work, loan assistance programs may be a valuable source of financial support post-MBA. Applicants would do well to inquire about the availability of loan assistance programs at their target schools, as well as the regulations governing such awards. More detailed information on the loan programs at these and other MBA programs may be found through the schools’ websites or in the Financial Aid section of the Clear Admit School Guides. Happy researching!
Posted by Clear Admit on January 21, 2008, at 12:23 pm
Posted in: MBA News , School: Oxford Through the establishment of satellite campuses, regional fellowships and new centers for the study of particular business regions, top business schools have steadily been increasing their offerings in the area of international business. The most recent evidence of this growing trend: Oxford University today announced the creation of its new India Business Centre at the Saïd School of Business.
Dr. John Hood, Oxford’s vice chancellor, announced the creation of the new center and the establishment of a new chair of Indian business studies during a visit to New Delhi.
“The primary objective of this research centre is to learn from India’s business success,” he said. “A clear understanding of the issues faced by India and their innovative solutions, as India transitions from poverty to prosperity, will form a guide to future generations of countries attempting similar transitions.”
The creation of the new center is being underwritten by the Lavasa Corporation Limited, a company formed to undertake a 10,000-acre planned community development between Pune and Mumbai. As part of its support, Lavasa has endowed the Ajit Gulabchand Professor of Indian Business Studies at the University of Oxford, named after Lavasa’s chairman.
Fostering collaborative inter-disciplinary research between academics at Oxford, in India and around the world will be the center’s primary focus, according to Colin Mayer, dean of Oxford’s Saïd School of Business. The university will actively engage practitioners and policymakers to ensure that the center’s research agenda is both relevant and significant, he continued.
Beyond its stated research goals, the center will also focus on teaching – providing doctoral programs for students and scholarships for degree programs at Oxford. “We will also develop a range of executive education programs for practitioners to be delivered in India,” Mayer said. These programs will be delivered in a new facility in Lavasa, near Pune – part of a new development by Lavasa Ltd. A scoping study has been launched with companies in India and elsewhere to inform the development of the programs, which will be offered beginning in early 2010.
Lavasa Chairman Ajit Gulabchand expressed his enthusiasm for the new venture. “This will open new paradigms of educational and managerial excellence for students in both countries,” he said.
Gulabchand and Hood will sign an official agreement establishing the new center at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 25th.
Posted by Clear Admit on January 21, 2008, at 4:09 am
Posted in: Campus Chronicles , School: Harvard , School: Michigan / Ross Students are back on campus for the second half of the school year, and lucky for us, they’re chronicling their experiences in the MBA student newspapers. Let’s take a look at the news coming out of Harvard and Ross in the latest editions of those school’s papers.
At Harvard, the Harbus editor welcomed students back with a reminder to make the most of their “fleeting” time on campus. The rest of the issue shows that HBS students have taken this advice to heart and are exploring numerous academic, professional and social opportunities. Several groups of students rang in the new year in Argentina, and one shares his list of 50 Thing to Do in Argentina, including #24: “Meet up with one of the other six groups of HBS people that are in Argentina (because vacations are all about broadening your horizons, right?).” For people looking to explore colder environs, the Harbus helpfully provides a summary of the best ski deals in the surrounding area. On campus, students are exploring a range of professional options through the annual Harvard Business School Finance Conference, which brought Wall Street professionals to campus to speak with current students, and through the Venture Capital Coffee Series, whose last event brought 54 students out to talk with senior members of IDG Ventures. And for those Harvard students who made the most of their time on campus and managed to receive several job offers as a result, one student offers some humorous advice on how to turn down your suitors.
Meanwhile, students at Ross have been extending their action-based learning into crisis management through the school’s first Leadership Crisis Challenge. Two teams of four from each first-year section participated in the competition, which grew out of a student suggestion that a press conference event would help Ross students become “articulate” and “mentally agile.” The teams were presented with a complex, ambiguous crisis and spent 40 minutes taking questions from professors and media professionals. The next day, the top three teams faced another round of questioning from a panel of local and national business leaders with experience in crisis situations, with the winning team receiving $500 scholarships and a whirly ball party for their section. Overall, participants found the event to be a great learning experience, and from the Career Development Office’s update, it looks as though Ross students will have an opportunity to put their MBA educations into practice after graduation. A full 59% of the Class of 2008 reported that they have already accepted a full-time offer! We offer our congratulations to them, and with the rest of the second-year class luck as they continue the recruiting process.
Posted by Clear Admit on January 18, 2008, at 4:41 pm
Posted in: Events If you live in the greater Philadelphia area, be sure to mark your calendars for the first-ever Clear Admit and ManhattanGMAT mixer on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.! Attendees will have the opportunity to network with other young professionals while enjoying beer, wine and tasty treats. As if that wasn’t enough, Clear Admit co-founder Graham Richmond and ManhattanGMAT instructor Brian Lange will be on hand to share tips on the MBA admissions process and demystify the GMAT. And finally, attendees will be eligible to win one of several great prizes, with Clear Admit raffling off School Guides and Interview Guides, and ManhattanGMAT offering a set of their course books and a free 9-session GMAT course.
Space is limited, so be sure to reserve your spot now!
Posted by Clear Admit on January 18, 2008, at 12:46 pm
Posted in: MBA News , School: Northwestern / Kellogg Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business this week kicked off its new Venture Lab course, inviting private equity expert and Kellogg alum T. Bondurant French (’76) to speak on the venture capital industry. The class is designed as an experiential learning opportunity for students who want to explore the investment landscape firsthand.
According to French, the key ingredients for a successful private equity firm are partners with mutual respect, a mix of experience and energy, independent thinking, sound investment strategies, an international network and knowledge of their own brand.
His insights come from decades in the industry; he currently serves as chief executive and chief information officer for Chicago-based Adams Street Partners. But he got his start straight out of Kellogg, during a strong bear market. “Everybody thought I was nuts to go into investing,” he recalled, according to a report in the Kellogg School of Management News.
French’s lecture – along with others that will follow – is intended to help show Venture Lab students how the theories they are taught in class get applied in practice. “There is no substitute for giving them exposure to someone who is in the trenches, doing this every day,” said professor Yael Hochberg, who teaches the new course with Mitchell Petersen, Kellogg’s Glen Basel Professor of Finance. “It helps to hammer home why the things we teach them are going to be so important,” Hochberg told the News.
Adams Street, which began as First Chicago Bank in 1972 and went through a couple of acquisitions before spinning off in 2000, now manages $15 billion in private equity assets as a boutique firm. Concentrating on startups and early-stage funds, Adams Street has more than 450 fund investments, 140 direct investments and 100 secondary transactions in 27 countries and has enjoyed a 23.8 percent compounded rate of return since 1979 and 39.4 percent in the last 10 years, French told the Venture Lab class.
“There are a lot of high-quality companies around, and a lot of interesting things happening,” he said, pointing to online growth, clean energy and unmet health needs as being particularly worthy of investors’ attention. “It’s a great time to be an entrepreneur.”
Private equity holds tremendous promise even though it only represents only 0.4 percent of the total investable capital market right now, according to French. Global venture capital fundraising is beginning to stabilize after a crash earlier this decade, with China and India leading the growth and Europe not far behind, he said.
Throughout the ups and downs, Adams Street has consistently outperformed the industry mean. “He’s been on all the roller-coaster rides,” Hochberg said about French to the News. “It’s a great thing for the students to hear from somebody who has a proven model.”
The winter 2008 quarter marks the first time the Venture Lab course has been offered to Kellogg students. As part of the class, students will design projects in conjunction with Kellogg professors and actual venture capital firms. The class is intended for students with little prior VC experience, although some pre-requisite coursework is required and students will undergo a several-hour primer course before starting work with a VC firm. In addition to the class project, students also will be expected to complete a set of required readings over the course of the quarter. To learn more about Kellogg’s Venture Lab, click here.
Posted by Clear Admit on January 18, 2008, at 3:32 am
Posted in: Fridays from the Frontline Welcome to this week’s installation of Friday’s From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s recap of the latest breaking news in the MBA blogosphere. Winter weather didn’t manage to freeze up applicant or current student activity this week; in fact, there were a number of exciting developments! Let’s get a closer look at those hard at work, and those with good reason to be partying hard…
RunningTurtle lived up to his name this week, sprinting to finish McCombs, with Kelley and Rice the next stops in his application relay. Gltnforpnshmnt was also in the dog days of application writing – literally! On the flipside, Miss Curly Bee reveled in a much needed break, soaking up all the prime time drama she’s been missing and brushing up on her GAT (not to be confused with GMAT!) acumen. She also sent fortuitous well wishes to B-School Bound, who shortly after reeled in an HBS admit! Furniture fears and case method qualms aside, he may have a hard time passing this ticket up… Good news also greeted Tamasin, for whom a Columbia interview invite finally rolled in, not to mention a Ross admit.
In the thick of recruiting at Wharton this week, first-year Asiangal looked to the Rolling Stones for comfort: You can’t always get the internship you want… but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get one you need! Oh yeah! This struck a chord with Ross’s M@, although it’s debatable how much he really wanted what he didn’t get… Extending a warm welcome to all those who did get what they want, AGirl’sMBA congratulated those soon to be joining her at HBS.
Back from a well-deserved break, Hairtwirler recently re-launched her life at Georgetown – running for SGA President, kicking off her internship search and spending some quality time with the bf, of course. Oh, and let’s not forget her wild Karaoke plans for this Friday. And oh… second semester classes! Necromonger’s focus also resided just left of the classroom; he chimed in with some helpful tips for keeping your digital life lean and mean (there’s no spam is his laptop’s diet!).
As for the second-years, Stern’s RubeoBoy checked in from HongKong, recounting a warm holiday with family and friends back home, while Le blog hog celebrated a new beginning on INSEAD’s Singapore campus, prepared to head out on an independent path, not to mention a few weekend treks. And last but not least, over in London, Fran recollected a goosebump-inducing brand management course at LBS, lamenting how fast it flew by.
That’s the news from Fridays From the Frontline! Come back and see us next time for the latest and greatest news in the MBA blogosphere…
Posted by Clear Admit on January 17, 2008, at 12:34 pm
Posted in: MBA News , School: Virginia / Darden In a recent blog post, Dean Robert Bruner of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business encouraged current and prospective MBA students to hold fast to their long-term career goals even as the U.S. financial crisis continues to make headlines.
“The future of this crisis will be like the present, only longer,” writes Bruner, paraphrasing a Woody Allen quote. Put another way, Bruner doesn’t know when it will end and he doesn’t think anyone else does either. “However, based on an understanding of previous financial crises, I don’t think that we are close to the inflection point at which the good times resume,” he writes.
What do previous financial crises have to teach us? According to Bruner, the key thing to keep in mind is that crises are systemic. “Trouble breaks out somewhere and spreads rapidly because of complexity in markets and the absence of adequate shock absorbers,” he writes. “The trouble stops when there are no more losses to be taken, mainly because there are no more assets or institutions at risk (that is, the worst have been dissolved and the others have the capacity to withstand the crisis).”
Having said that, studies of recent crises show that they are growing more complex than crises of the past. Citing research by Richard Bookstaber and Paul Blustein, Bruner suggests that this greater complexity – which results from the instruments, institutions and trading strategies in today’s markets – has diminished our ability to make sound assessments. The only safe assumption, Bruner posits, is that this crisis will not be brief.
So, what’s an MBA student – or prospective MBA student – to do? Stay the course, says Bruner. “My advice to MBA students and applicants is still to pursue your long-term career vision,” he says.
Maybe in the short term you should be a little less picky about employment offerings, he suggests, even take on some missionary selling to show what you’re made of. But the World Bank forecasts 5.1 percent GNP growth by 2009, made possible by the converging forces of technological and demographic change and trade and market liberalization. “The odds seem strong that a new graduate from a top MBA school will face reasonably good demand for his or her skills over the long run,” Bruner concludes.
Hmmm. Maybe that’s why GMAT registrations continue to climb… (Registration volume for 2007 was up 12 percent over 2006.) Good luck with those applications and interviews!
Yesterday was a big day for many; as those candidates who applied to HBS in October know all too well, Harvard released its final decisions to round one applicants. We’d like to offer our congratulations to those who were admitted, and extend our condolences to those whose news was not as positive as they’d hoped. Hopefully the release of remaining round one decisions and recently submitted round two applications will provide some other options for school this fall. Finally, for those whose Harvard hopes are being kept alive by a spot on the waitlist, support from applicants in the same position can be found on the HBS Waitlist thread on the BW forum.
Tomorrow UCLA, Duke and Yale will follow suit in releasing their R1 notifications, with Stanford and MIT tagging along in the following weeks. Congrats to those who have already heard favorably, and best of luck to everyone eagerly awaiting the news!
Posted by Clear Admit on January 16, 2008, at 12:47 pm
Posted in: MBA News , School: Columbia , School: MIT / Sloan , School: Oxford Columbia Business School (CBS) has officially joined the world of user-generated content with the launch earlier this month of Public Offering, a school-run blog featuring submissions by students, faculty and graduates on more than a dozen topics ranging from accounting to world business.
In an introductory post, CBS Dean Glenn Hubbard mused about the remarkable pace at which the World Wide Web has evolved over the past decade but faulted academic institutions for being slow in general to embrace interactive online communication tools as a way to further their work.
“I am proud that Columbia Business School is using technology to foster exchange in our community, which includes students, faculty members, and alumni in every part of the world,” he wrote. “Moreover, it is my hope and expectation that this blog will eventually grow to serve the wider business community.”
Public Offering’s “About Us” page calls the blog “a natural extension of Columbia Business School’s longstanding tradition of innovation and entrepreneurship” that aims to cover the “stories of achievements, research, ideas and adventures” circulating through the halls and elevators of CBS. The blog is produced with support from the CBS Office of Communications.
Comments on blog posts are welcome from within or outside the CBS community. Those submitted by readers with a CBS account will be posted immediately, and all others will be queued for moderation and approval. Comments will not be edited for content or grammar, but they will be limited to 450 words or less and cut to fit as necessary.
Hubbard’s initial entry, posted yesterday, has generated a flurry of responses, the vast majority of which commend CBS for being at the forefront of educational institutions taking steps to promote platforms for open dialog.
“This is a wonderful initiative,” writes Rajeev Kohli. “Universities are in the business of knowledge creation and dissemination, in the market of ideas and opinions. Efforts like these – blogs, wikis and open course initiatives like those at MIT – can shift dialog and ideas in education to yet another level.”
Kohli’s sentiments were echoed by Osifo Akhuemonkhan, who writes, “Once again Columbia Business School under your direction has shown that it can talk the talk and walk the walk in terms of identifying and capturing opportunities. Providing a means of interaction between the business school community at Columbia and the rest of the world will keep Columbia a step ahead of its peers.”
Not all comments, though, were quite as glowing. “Better late than never,” writes Selden. “Columbia may think it is first, but only in the context of those at the back of the pack in terms of adopting new technology. Blogging is 4 years old. I guess if you are far enough behind, you think you are ahead.”
As recent posts here on Clear Admit have shown, Columbia is not alone in opening up the dialog. Oxford’s Saïd Business School launched its own blog this past December, MIT has long been an innovator with its open course initiative and schools around the globe are embracing YouTube and other user-generated content platforms with increasing vigor.
Ultimately, whether CBS deserves praise for being among the first or criticism for being slow to the game is your call to make. With initial posts ranging from an economic policy analysis of why dancers smoke to a defense for having a messy desk, Public Offering certainly provides us with something new and interesting to read. But don’t take our word for it – check it out for yourself and join in the dialog.
Posted by Clear Admit on January 16, 2008, at 3:52 am
Posted in: School: Yale , Wiki Wednesdays Welcome to this week’s edition of Wiki Wednesdays, where we highlight new and informative interview reports posted to the Clear Admit Wiki. This week, we’re setting the spotlight on the Yale School of Management. Yale requires an interview for admission to the program, and interviews applicants by invitation only. Applicants may receive an interview invitation by email at any point up to the final notification date of the round in which they applied. While Yale prefers that candidates meet with an adcom member or a second-year student on campus, they allow interviews with a local alumnus or alumna. Should an applicant be unable to travel to the U.S. or if there are no local alumni, the SOM does sometimes arrange for the candidate to travel to a nearby city for an interview with an SOM graduate.
While the Yale SOM interview could be considered rather standard with questions such as “why MBA” and “why Yale,” a closer look reveals a rigorous consideration of an applicant’s resume. As one Yale candidate noted,
- “In the “walk me through your resume” part of the interview, the interviewer started by asking why I took the particular job that I took coming out of college, and then we went through in depth each job I’ve had in my six years of work experience.”
Another applicant reports:
- “The interviewer really drilled down into almost every aspect of my resume including individual line items on my resume…I’m an entrepreneur. She asked me how many clients I had, she asked me about a line on my resume where I mentioned optimizing my organizational structure, she asked what the business would do while I was gone, etc.”
Given these queries, applicants should enter the interview with a thorough grasp on the information presented in their resume. Of course, while these prompts may create a sense of pressure to memorize one’s bulleted resume points, it’s important to go beyond simply reciting the details of one’s professional progress. Candidates should be ready to offer in depth explanations and background information because the resume is just a starting point for the interview.
The Yale SOM adcom also likes to probe outside of the “Work Experience” section of one’s resume. Other questions based on candidates’ resumes included:
- Why did you choose your college?
- Tell me about [a certain extracurricular activity on my resume]
While the Yale adcom tends to use an applicant’s resume to structure the interview, questions unrelated to this document can also come up. For instance, a Yale SOM applicant who was interviewed in Europe was asked, “Have you visited the school?” Other candidates reported the questions, “What do you do in your free time?” and “How would you contribute to Yale?” So, applicants should be ready to round out their career comments with notes on their other interests and an eye towards how those interests could relate to activities at Yale.
That wraps up this week’s edition of Wiki Wednesdays. Thanks for joining us on this exploration of the Yale SOM interview process! We also extend our gratitude to those who have posted in the Clear Admit Wiki over the past few weeks – from Sloan, Stern, Yale, Kellogg to CBS! If you would like to add your experience to the Clear Admit Wiki, simply create an account or send your reports to wiki@clearadmit.com. Remember to check out the Clear Admit School Guides as well as our Interview Guides for key points on preparation. Best of luck to those gearing up for Round Two interviews!
Posted by Clear Admit on January 15, 2008, at 1:43 pm
Posted in: General , MBA News , School: Dartmouth / Tuck , School: Duke / Fuqua , School: Harvard , School: IMD , School: Oxford , School: Penn / Wharton , School: Stanford Be it through their own channels on YouTube, podcasts posted through iTunes or the advent of new video-sharing sites like BigThink (founded by ex-Harvard President Larry Summers as a “YouTube for ideas”), business schools and business thinkers are finding even more of a presence on the Web as they begin en masse to embrace streaming video.
An article yesterday in the Chronicle of Higher Education (itself highlighted on the BizDeansTalk blog) called attention to YouTube’s latest video phenomenon – professors posting lectures. “Web video opens a new form of public intellectualism to scholars looking to participate in an increasingly visual culture,” read the article.
According to the Chronicle, several colleges and universities have signed agreements with YouTube to set up their own official channels on the video-sharing site. The deals, which do not involve any monetary exchange, allow the schools to brand their section of the site with school logos or colors and to upload longer videos than allowed by typical users.
“We expect that education will be a vibrant category on YouTube,” Obadiah Greenberg, strategic partner manager at YouTube, told the Chronicle in an e-mail interview. “Everybody loves to learn,” he continued.
It’s hard to provide an exact count of how many business schools have established YouTube channels. As noted in the Chronicle article, YouTube doesn’t make it easy to quickly find its educational offerings. So far, the site’s education category offers up as many videos seemingly unrelated to education as videos that are on topic.
Some schools, though, are taking steps themselves to help users find them on YouTube. In an announcement last week, the Saïd School of Business at Oxford University directed prospective students to its new YouTube channel – set up in mid-December – which includes two new promotional videos outlining the benefits of studying at Oxford and of the Oxford MBA. In addition to these promos, the Saïd YouTube channel currently features 12 other videos, including several interviews with individual students and alumni as well as one video devoted to campus life.
Other universities and colleges also have YouTube channels, including the University of California at Berkeley, Vanderbilt University and the University of Southern California. But though each of these institutions boasts its own business school, only USC’s Marshall School of Business seems to have established its own YouTube channel.
iTunes Podcasts, Feeds and More
Even schools that haven’t yet set up their own YouTube channels are embracing podcasts and streaming video in ever-growing numbers. Dan Colman, director and associate dean of Stanford University’s continuing-studies program, runs a blog tracking podcasts and videos made by colleges and professors, an entire section of which is devoted to business schools.
More top business schools are listed here than aren’t, offering video and audio content that ranges from the school’s latest research results (IMD) to digital interviews with top business leaders (Tuck, Harvard, Wharton) to how to optimize your b-school applications (Stanford). According to Colman, Duke’s Fuqua School of Business offers “one of the richest collections out there.”
As mentioned in recent Clear Admit posts, podcasts from students and alumni can help provide applicants with a fuller sense of the schools they are considering and can round out more traditional admissions material from the schools themselves. Increasingly, schools’ YouTube channels may make it into the mix of must-consult resources when applying to business programs. Finally, sites like BigThink suggest that video sharing may soon change even the way the larger business world functions. More on that in an upcoming post…
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