APPLICANT RESOURCES

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

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

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

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School Rankings
Rankings are a good way to start your research on various MBA Programs. Keep in mind each uses a different methodology.
Business Week
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ARCHIVE FOR FEBRUARY 2008

Friday, February 29, 2008

Clear Admit Interview Guides Generate Buzz

From the BusinessWeek discussion forums to the Yahoo.com and Forbes.com business wires, Clear Admit Interview Guides have been getting attention in recent weeks as interview season continues at top business schools.

We think the guides are a great resource for prospective applicants who are gearing up to meet with school representatives and make a case for why they are a good fit for a given program. But of course we do – we wrote them.

Now, thanks to increasing buzz about them from more objective sources, you don’t have to simply take our word for it. Read on to see what others have had to say about our guides:

• Amid recent chatter about interviews at the University of Chicago, we spotted this post on the BW discussion thread.

Writes siggy_smalls: “if you’re concerned about the interview at all, i’d definitely recommend buying the clear admit program guide and interview guide for each school you interview with. ~$25 each. i used one for columbia, nyu and chicago and felt all of them were very helpful. no “new” info but did a good job condensing all the stuff from the website and various forums, etc into one place. perfect to print out and take on the plane to review prior to your interview.”

• And then there was this, also on the BW forum, in response to a query by an applicant who’d received an interview invite to an unnamed top school about whether he should get our school and interview guides to prepare for it.

Writes chirpy: “I highly recommend reading the Clear Admit School and Interview guide. You can buy both for a discount on their site. The School guide is good for brushing up on the program, classes, clubs, school strengths, etc, — whereas the interview guide explains their typical interview, with questions other candidates have been asked. I suggest preparing answers in advance to the questions in the guide, that way you won’t be caught off guard by anything your interviewer asks. I think it’s only around $30 or $40 for both guides, which is nothing if you’ve made it this far in the process…

• Finally, Linda Abraham of the admissions consultancy Accepted.com had these words of praise for the guides, which she recommended as a means of expanding on the information provided in her firm’s publications:

Writes Abraham: “Clear Admit has done a thorough job in comparing the schools and highlighting their differences, something the schools themselves and the various media guides don’t do nearly as well, if at all. If you want to learn how to apply effectively and present yourself well; read Accepted.com’s ebooks; if you want to research specific schools, check out these guides.”

The Clear Admit Interview Guides are currently available for Chicago, Columbia, Fuqua, Haas, Harvard, Kellogg, MIT Sloan, NYU Stern, Stanford, Tuck, Warton and Yale. Each provides school-specific interview insight and strategic advice, detailed analysis of exactly how that school’s admissions committee weighs interviews, first-hand interview accounts, information on planning a campus visit and sample questions consistently posed to interviewees at that school. In addition, the interview guides each include a section devoted to general interview preparation techniques that will be useful throughout the MBA application process.

Interview guides, which sell for $20, can be purchased in the Clear Admit Shop. Receive a $5 discount when you buy both the school and interview guides together for a given school. And if the school you are interviewing at is not listed above, please check back regularly because we intend to add interview guides for additional schools throughout the admissions season. 

Fridays From the Frontline

Welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s weekly report on the MBA blogging register.  While applicants largely blogged about interviews, first-years logged recruiting hours and offers.  Second-year bloggers remained a grab bag.  Let’s get a closer look…

In the applicant realm, Miss Curly Bee promptly offered up mixed feelings, as well as a thorough transcript, of the questions from her Wharton alumni interview; Vidiviciveni also recounted a Wharton interview this week, only of the Hub variety.  In the same vein, Mymbadream reported on a somewhat intermittent but overall solid-sounding Darden interview – now for the month-long wait to the finish!  The waiting game over, newly named JulyDream donned a thin cloak of anonymity to muse on the four coffee-less years of her financial services career and her future at Darden, where First Coffee is a way of life.  Also in the clear, although feeling a bit indecisive, B-School Bound narrowed his choices down to Harvard and Stanford, weighing the pros and cons of each.

In perhaps a more unexpected turn of events, Ross’ M@ closed out his “jobbin’” saga by settling upon internship option # 3, a small non-profit consulting firm in Chicago focused on pro bono city projects.  They’re as lucky as they are eager to have him!  On the other hand, MaybeMBA discussed feeling slightly less accommodated in the windy city, urging the Chicago GSB to amp up its motherhood-friendliness; despite the difficulties at times, she did manage to secure her first-choice summer offer – our congrats!  Looking to increase the frequency of such results, St. Gallen’s Stuart suggested a job-oriented approach to choosing the right MBA program.   Meanwhile, CS lamented the blustery backdrop at HBS and the drawn out technology recruiting process.

While a number of second years found reasons to lay low this week, Angie planned to make the best of a burst bubble – the housing bubble, that is!  Ashwyn was also in good spirits, enjoying IESE’s riotous Multi-Culti ’08, a festive celebration of international costume, food, and by the looks of it, drink!  Broadcasting from one of the world’s most multi-cultural cities himself, John extended a warm welcome to  students admitted to CBS, urging them to stop by his table at CBS’ Open House today.

That’s all for now, folks…  Thanks for tuning in to this week’s edition of FFF!  Enjoy the wintry weather this weekend, and don’t forget to thaw out in time for next Friday’s MBA blogging report!

Thursday, February 28, 2008

New from Harvard Business School: Round 3 Advice, 2+2 Application Release

According to Harvard Business School (HBS) Admissions Director Deirdre Leopold, the question she is asked the most these days by prospective applicants is whether they should apply for Round 3 admission. Of course she doesn’t give a yes or no answer, but she does provide some points worth considering.

For starters, she says, there are always places in next year’s class for Round 3 applicants, though certainly not as many as for those who apply in the earlier rounds. And as for financial aid, money is available to all applicants, no matter when they are accepted.

That said, there are a few things people considering Round 3 should keep in mind:

• International applicants are still encouraged to apply, but they must bear in mind that applying for a visa takes time. If admitted, they should accept quickly in order to get that process underway.
• On-campus housing, unlike financial aid, is not guaranteed for those admitted in Round 3. In fact, the housing lottery for both apartments and dormitories takes place before Round 3 notification.
• As in all other rounds, Round 3 applicants must include GMAT scores and, if applicable, TOEFL scores in order for their applications to be considered complete.

2+2 Admissions Application Released
Also out of HBS this week comes the release of the 2+2 program admissions application, including all instructions, policies and materials. The deadline for submission is July 1, 2008. To access the application, you must create a password-protected personal account, which you can do here. 

The 2+2 program is a deferred admissions program designed to attract promising college students who might not otherwise be considering business school. Basically, college students can apply for admission to HBS in their junior year and receive notification of acceptance by spring of their senior year. If accepted, a place in the HBS class will be reserved for them – which they can step into once they graduate from college and complete two years’ worth of approved work experience.

While in the working world prior to beginning coursework at HBS, 2+2 students will take part in on-campus summer academic programs that let them take classes with HBS faculty and get to know fellow classmates. All 2+2 students are also assigned a career coach and can keep connected to current HBS students as well as fellow program participants through a dedicated website.

HBS expects that 2+2 program participants with grow to make up about five to ten percent of the 900-member incoming MBA class over the next several years.

2+2 Application Essay Questions
Though you’ll have to register to begin the application process for yourself, we thought we’d post the 2+2 application essay questions so you can begin thinking about how you might answer them. Here you go:

1. What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

2. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience? (600-word limit)

3. Please answer TWO of the six questions below (400-word limit each):

a. Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development. How did this experience highlight your strengths and weaknesses?
b. How have you experienced culture shock?
c. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?
d. What global issue is most important to you and why?
e. What else would you like the MBA Admissions Board to understand about you?
f. What have you learned from a mistake?

Admissions Tip: Late Round Considerations

Nearing the end of a relatively sleepy February, March is just around the corner, bringing an extensive list of application deadlines and decision notification dates. Let’s take a look at the numerous Round 3 (or 4) deadlines spread over the next several months:

February 28: Wharton R3, UVA/Darden R3
February 29: LBS R3
March 1: Michigan/Ross R3
March 3: Duke/Fuqua R3, Columbia (international students)
March 7: Kellogg R3, UNC/Kenan-Flagler R4
March 10: CMU-Tepper R3
March 12: Berkeley/Haas R4, Chicago R3, HBS R3, Yale SOM R3
March 15: NYU Stern R3
March 19: Cornell/Johnson R4
March 21: Stanford GSB R3
April 1: UT Austin/McCombs (final)
April 2: Tuck April Round
April 3: INSEAD R4
April 4: Oxford/Said R3
April 16: Columbia (U.S. applicants)
April 23: UCLA/Anderson R4
April 25: Georgetown/McDonough Final Round
April 28: CMU-Tepper R4
May 2: LBS R4, Cambridge/Judge (final)
June 6: Oxford/Said R4

While it’s always best to apply as early as possible, the difference between applying in round one and applying in round two is, for most applicants, a marginal one. However, the later rounds are a very different game. Because most of the seats in the incoming class will have been given away by the time round two decisions are released, the acceptance rate in the third round is dramatically lower than that for the first two deadlines of the season.

To maximize your chances of a later round acceptance, demonstrating your interest in the school and submitting thoughtful and error-free written materials will be crucial. Just as applying in round one is generally taken as a sign of interest in a given program, applicants submitting their materials in a later round need to work extra hard to convince the adcom that they are genuinely interested in the school and are not simply applying as an afterthought because interview invitations didn’t come through in round two. Demonstrating that you would make a valuable contribution to the community and providing evidence that you have taken steps to engage current students and alumni will work to your advantage.

As always, we’d like to recommend the in-depth Clear Admit School Guides to those applicants who are targeting the later deadlines and just beginning to investigate certain programs, and to encourage those who’ve visited the campus and interviewed to share their experiences in the Clear Admit Wiki. Potential R3 or R4 applicants are also welcome to contact Clear Admit directly to discuss the strength of their later round candidacies and learn more about our one-on-one counseling services.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Innovation: The Buzzword at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business

According to Haas Associate Dean Steve Tadelis, the top-tier business school at the University of California at Berkeley differentiates itself by attracting and developing students who lead through innovation. This from an open letter Tadelis sent out to the greater Haas community earlier this month, which defined the school’s strategy – dubbed “Leading Through Innovation” – and provided updates on several new programs and initiatives currently underway.

“Our definition of Leading Through Innovation is a combination of two complementary elements: a mindset and a set of capabilities that together enable our graduates to create and foster business environments where innovation flourishes,” Tadelis writes. By innovation, Tadelis does not mean simply introducing the latest and greatest new consumer gizmo (read iPhone). “Innovation can, does and should happen in every part of an organization that strives to move forward: in business processes, in marketing, in finance and in procurement relationships to name just a few,” he writes.

Achieving the mindset that sets Haas apart calls for implementing cool new ways to teach and learn, drawing innovative leaders and thinkers to campus to share their ideas, and attracting diverse, brilliant students who in turn “innovate themselves” by interacting with peers whose different backgrounds, experiences and outlooks help broaden their own.

The set of capabilities Tadelis refers to is no different that those any top business school should provide, he says, but even here the Haas mindset shines through in a number of electives focused on teaching students how to help organizations succeed and grow through innovation.

Setting the Strategy in Motion
Leading Through Innovation sounds great, but does Haas really walk the walk? To exactly this end, Haas is developing a new Institute for Business Innovation designed to ensure the success of the school’s strategic plan. Led by Adam Berman, Haas’ former director of curriculum innovation, the institute will provide the necessary infrastructure to maintain and expand on the experiential learning opportunities and other events that keep Haas students at the forefront of innovation.

Tadelis highlights two programs – Haas@Work and Peers@Haas – that in the past year have taken experiential learning to a whole new level. The Haas@Work program sends teams of Berkeley students to work for local businesses, where they help design and implement innovative solutions to meet pressing business needs. Clients in the first year of the program included Hotwire, Cisco Systems and Sunpower Corporation, and Lam Research Corporation and Disney have signed on as partners for the coming year.  

Peers@Haas, meanwhile, is a semester-long peer coaching program designed to complement the core leadership course that all Haas students complete. As part of the course, students each develop their own Leadership Action Plan. Through the Peers@Haas program, students identify one specific behavior they want to change as part of implementing their leadership plan and call on fellow students to help coach them in the process.

The Institute for Business Innovation will shepherd the growth of these and other programs while also looking at ways to expand and enhance the school’s course offerings.

In the meantime, attracting speakers and conferences celebrating innovation remains a top priority. This Saturday, March 1st, Haas will host its sold-out Women in Leadership Conference featuring keynote speakers from Chez Panisse, Williams-Sonoma and Nintendo.

Alice Waters, chef, author and proprietor of Berkeley’s acclaimed Chez Panisse restaurant, pioneered the culinary philosophy, now widely embraced, of using only locally-grown, seasonal organic products. Laurie Alber, president of Williams-Sonoma, Inc., leads the global supply chain, distribution and worldwide logistics for both the Pottery Barn brands and Williams-Sonoma. And Cammiie Dunaway, executive vice president for sales and marketing for Nintendo of America, oversees the gaming giant’s sales and marketing for the U.S., Canada and Latin America.

Following on the heels of the women’s conference, Haas next week will welcome Tom Kelley, MBA ’83, who is general manager of the cutting-edge Palo Alto–based design firm IDEO, as well as the first-ever Haas Executive Fellow.

IDEO is credited with numerous landscape-changing design innovations, including the original Apple mouse and a portable defibrillator now kept on all major airlines that allows a layperson to administer a heart-resuscitating shock to victims in cardiac arrest. Kelley is the author of two books, The Ten Faces of Innovation and The Art of Innovation. Kelley will speak at Haas on Monday evening, March 3rd. 
 

Wiki Wednesdays: iTunes Gift Certificates for Wiki Contributors!

Welcome to another installment of Wiki Wednesdays, reporting the latest goings on with the Clear Admit Wiki. Firstly, we’d like to say thanks to all the applicants who’ve been submitting interview reports lately! Recent additions include an account of a pleasant interview at Yale, an accepted Columbia candidate’s thorough interview report, a Chicago applicant’s interview with an alumnus, and a rundown of Wharton interview questions.

As we’ve stressed in this blog, and as anyone who’s used the site to prepare for their interviews will attest, having access to firsthand accounts of the interview process at a given program can be invaluable in understanding what a program is looking for and arriving at a feeling of readiness. To build this resource and encourage applicants who’ve already interviewed this season to post their interview reports, campus visit accounts and school decisions, we’ll be offering an added incentive over the next few weeks.

Between now and March 14th, we’ll be awarding a $15 iTunes gift certificate to every fifth applicant who contributes content to the Wiki. For those wondering what sort of details to include in their Wiki entries, we find that the most helpful and informative reports include the following information:

1. Date/Admissions Round
2. Description of visit and/or interview atmosphere
3. Type of interview (alum vs. adcom, blind vs. application-based)
4. List of interview questions
5. Commentary (What did you think of the interview? What surprised you? What didn’t surprise you? What might you conclude about the school based on this experience?)

Beyond interview information, we’d also love to see some more detailed accounts of visits to campus and decisions among programs.

To be eligible for the prize, simply send your contribution to wiki@clearadmit.com; we’ll post it to the Wiki and notify the winners by e-mail. Thanks in advance for your reports and don’t forget to check out the Clear Admit Interview Guides for extra interview tips!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Lucky Darden Student Goes for Broke in Briefcase Contest

Wearing a cobalt-blue Oriental robe and a “Luckiest Student” medallion around his neck, University of Virginia Darden School of Business first-year student Jong-Uck (Max) Park entreated Lady Luck to shine on him once more last week as he entered the final round in a school-wide experiment dubbed a “random act of kindness.” On the line: a briefcase containing a cash prize equivalent to a full semester’s tuition.

Luck already had favored Park. He was one of five students selected earlier this month at random to take part in the random act of kindness exercise, which was designed to demonstrate the role randomness plays in business life. The event was conceived and developed by Professors Sam Bodily and Phil Pfeifer, and the prize money – $18,750 – was donated by an anonymous friend of the school.

Here’s how the “luckiest student” experiment worked. Five initial students were chose at random from their First Year Decision Analysis classes. These lucky students then advanced to a second round, in which each selected a wrapped box containing a writing instrument. Upon opening the boxes, four found Darden pens and were safe. One, Noah Hirsch, opened his box to reveal a Harvard pen and was eliminated.

These remaining four students then each selected a loaf of bread. Folded into three of the loaves were $2 bills (featuring University of Virginia Founder Thomas Jefferson), entitling the students who had selected them to advance to round number three. The loaf selected by Matt Conner, though, contained a mere $1 bill, knocking him out of the competition.

And then there were three. But luck, as it turns out, would continue to favor Park. In round four, he correctly selected an envelop containing a photo of Dean Robert Bruner, advancing once again. Round five, a coin toss, he also won. It was now official: Park is the Darden Luckiest Student of 2008.

But just how lucky he would prove remained to be seen. Darden’s Luckiest Student of 2007, Hideki Inoue (Class of ’08), had made it this far as well, only to select a briefcase full of nothing in his final round. (Contest organizers rolled the money from the briefcase Inoue didn’t choose over to this year, and Professors Bodily and Pfeifer agreed to continue their research into the vagaries of luck for another year.)

And so the final day of reckoning arrived for Park. On February 20th, dressed in his bold blue robe and sporting his good luck medal, he entered Darden’s PepsiCo Forum, packed to capacity with students and faculty eager to witness his fate.

But Lady Luck hadn’t finished quite yet. Ultimately, Park would be presented with the option of taking a guaranteed cash prize and walking away or risking it all and instead selecting from two identical briefcases, one containing a check for the full $18,750, the other empty.

Professor Pfeifer selected a ball at random from a wire cage to determine the value of the guaranteed cash payout: $3,000. The rest was up to Park. Would he take the money and run or try his luck one last time?

Amid an auditorium of fellow students chanting “Briefcase. Briefcase,” Park selected the black case closest to him. After a brief pause, he smiled, shrugged and opened the lid.

To see what he found, click here.

Trivia Tuesday: Leadership Development at Cornell’s Johnson School

In this week’s Trivia Tuesday column we turn our focus to the Johnson School at Cornell University and the program’s opportunities for leadership development.

The Johnson School’s leadership philosophy is founded on personal mastery through self-knowledge and self-development. As such, Johnson students begin their MBA experience with an intensive and interactive personal assessment and continue feedback and assessment sessions into the fall semester.

For students seeking to further develop their leadership abilities, Johnson offers a 10-credit Leadership Focus. The cornerstone of the Leadership Focus is the Goal Setting for Personal and Leadership Success course, which is centered on the idea of “leader as coach.” The course trains students to effect personal behavior change, then to develop coaching strategies that enable them to help others. Throughout the semester-long course, students practice leadership by acting as a coach for a classmate. They also regularly update the personal learning plans they made during orientation so that the plans reflect their leadership progress.

Students may fulfill the remaining 8.5 credits of the Leadership Focus by choosing among thirteen 1.5- or 3-credit leadership course offerings. They can also contribute credit from day-long Leadership Skills workshops. These workshops are part of Johnson’s Leadership Skills Program, which supplements the traditional business school curriculum through one-day workshops exploring practical skills from etiquette to Excel. The workshops range from three to eight hours in duration and are worth 0.1 elective credits. While there is no limit to the number of workshops a student can participate in, only 1.5 workshop credits may be applied toward graduation. Topics range from “Building Rapport through Applied Listening” to “Wine Appreciation.”

For more information on the leadership development programs at Cornell or other leading business schools, be sure to check out the schools’ websites or the Academics and Special Programs sections of the Clear Admit School Guides!

Monday, February 25, 2008

Spring Events at INSEAD Focus on Sustainability

Sustainable economic development is at the core of several events planned to usher in spring at INSEAD’s Fontinbleau, France, campus this year. Though they vary in scope – from campus-wide to worldwide – they share in common a commitment to providing sustainable solutions to social and environmental challenges that impact us all.

The first such event, an INSEAD Alumni Sustainability Executive Roundtable, will take place tomorrow, February 26th. The school’s 18th roundtable focused on sustainability, tomorrow’s conference will examine ways in which the private sector can more effectively engage in humanitarian operations.

The private sector certainly steps up in response to humanitarian disasters. The Asian tsunami of 2005 example, elicited an enormous outpouring of support and aid. But the response by private sector is too often limited to cash or in-kind donations – and too often focused on disaster response rather than disaster preparedness.

“Companies can add enormous value to humanitarian organizations not only by making donations but by sharing their know-how and core competencies prior to a disaster occurring,” reads the website dedicated to the upcoming executive roundtable. To illustrate this point, the roundtable will present cases from three companies – TNT, Kjaer and Roche – that have through various means engaged effectively with the humanitarian sector to raise the level of disaster preparedness and response.

Sustainability at Home
A focus on sustainability is nothing new at INSEAD. The INSEAD Social Innovation Center was established last year to bring together a diverse group of research teams in a search for innovative solutions to social and environmental problems. And even well before the center’s creation, the student-run group INDEVOR was keeping the focus on sustainability. (INDEVOR was founded in 1993 and became the INSEAD local chapter of the global non-profit Net Impact in 2003.)

In March, INSEAD will turn the sustainability spotlight on itself. The week of March 17th is GREENInsead Week, part of the Net Impact Campus Greening Initiative, in which students on campuses around the globe “put their beliefs into action through campus environmental sustainability efforts.” The week’s events include a lecture and book signing by Chris Lazlo, whose new book, Sustainable Value: How the World’s Leading Businesses Are Doing Well by Doing Good, was released this month.

INSEAD Plays Conference Host to Business Leaders, Other Campus Groups
Later this spring, INSEAD also will host the Leadership Summit in Europe 2008. The summit, which will be held on INSEAD’s campus from April 10th through 12th, will center around the theme of “Global Citizenship: A Cornerstone for Leaders.” Through speakers, panels and networking events, the summit will address issues ranging from innovation in the developing world to how responsible leaders can support sustainability while still delivering profits. For the summit’s entire four-day program, click here.

Finally, INSEAD also will help launch the first-ever Net Impact European Conference, established in response to the rapid growth of Net Impact chapters throughout Europe and elsewhere. The European conference will take place from June 12th through 14th in Geneva, Switzerland. It will be hosted by the International Organizations MBA HEC Geneve in partnership with INSEAD and Nottingham University Business School.

Campus Chronicles: Columbia and Wharton

As the end of February rapidly approaches, let’s take a look at what has been happening at Columbia and Wharton through the lens of their student publications.

Columbia Business School’s Bottomline cover story reports that a group of students returned from India as part of the Chazen Institute of Social Enterprise trip, primarily a journey in search of sustainable businesses and ideas that can improve the financial, health and education opportunities for poor and marginalized people. The group attended meetings with leaders of ICICI bank, SKS Micro finance and healthcare startups supported by Acumen Fund. Twenty students, most of whom had never been to India, experienced a daily cultural adventure, though everyone agreed that the most lasting impression was from visits to the development projects in small villages that are helping millions move out of poverty.

On page 8, another Bottomline reporter from the Investment Banking Club was asked the question, “Why don’t American bankers listen to London?” He reported on the interesting trend that finance professionals in The City (London’s Wall Street) seem more optimistic than those in New York. Among other things, the article highlighted how interesting it can be to hear thoughts from outside of your own country.

On a lighter note, the Bottomline advice column on page 4 answered a series of questions about love and dating at Business school. One advice seeker was concerned about how the Valentine’s Day issue of Business Week portrayed the dating scene as out of kilter in terms of ‘supply,’ ‘demand’ and ‘competition,’ and that study dates counted as real dates. Uncle Mark responded that while first year students might have nothing better to do than go to recruiting events, once you have locked up your job you, should make some time to lock up a fellow second year student.

Moving down the east coast to Wharton’s hallowed halls, the Wharton Journal reports that the annual performance of Follies was phenomenal. Talented Wharton students satirized everything from the love life of favorite professors to the aspirations of investment bankers and the traumas of the learning team.

Also, as the new slate of Wharton Government Association candidates are vying for election, one student looks back at the achievements of the WGA over the last academic year. The 2007-08 academic year showcased more than eight student run professional conferences on Consulting, Energy, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Health Care, Investment Management, Marketing, Media & Entertainment, Private Equity & Venture Capital, Restructuring, Technology, and Wharton Women in Business. The Council also successfully supported the revival of the West Coast Club and the formation of the Automotive Club.

Another student reported back on the adventure of visiting Anarctica as part of a group of 31 Wharton students who had the opportunity to participate in the Antarctica Leadership Venture. For eight days and seven nights, these students lived outdoors on frozen tundra, with tent-breaking wind, sideways rain, white out snowstorms, and temperatures in the low 10s. The theme of the trip was leadership, and each day a teammate was designated as the “Leader of The Day,” responsible for communicating information from the guides, ensuring people’s mental and physical well-being, and leading the group from point A to B. The entire group was able to reach the summit of a glacier during white out conditions, surely a testament to effective teams and leadership. If temperatures were not already cold enough, to celebrate, four of the participants even took a quick dip in the Antarctic Ocean!

Friday, February 22, 2008

MIT Students Learn Leadership Through Bosnian Peacekeeping Simulation

Business school students turned Bosnian peacekeepers? In fact, it’s par for the course for 50 or so MIT students who choose to participate in the Bosnian Peacekeeping Force simulation workshop, one of several experiential leadership courses offered each semester as part of MIT’s Sloan Innovation Period (SIP).

Several years ago, MIT replaced its traditional 13-week semester with a 6-1-6 arrangement, featuring six weeks of course work on either side of an intensive week of hands-on leadership development. During this week, known as SIP, students in both their first and second years can select from a range of seminars and workshops designed to give them an opportunity to do things that aren’t possible within the more rigid boundaries of ordinary classroom and coursework schedules.

“It’s an immersion experience,” says Professor Wanda Orlikowski, describing the Bosnian Peacekeeping Simulation workshop, which she helps facilitate. “It’s very realistic, complex, uncertain, and fast changing, where students are working with multiple stakeholders.”

Basically, students are assigned roles as NATO forces charged with conducting an international refugee rescue mission in a hostile environment. The setting is the 1990s during the Balkan conflict. 

“It is one thing to learn the concepts and do some practice, but here they actually have to enact,” Orlikowski explains. “They are the NATO forces; they have to go out and negotiate, and they realize that if they don’t do a good job, people end up suffering. It gets very real for them.”

Students are assigned roles in competing groups with disparate agendas. Over the course of the three-day SIP simulation, students play the parts of military forces, nongovernmental relief workers and intergovernmental agencies. They must work together – navigating through competing interests – to create a plan, take action and save those in danger.

“It’s all about learning,” says Orlikowski. But it doesn’t always go smoothly, she cautions. “We have had groups before that have gotten very angry,” she continues. “But then we debrief for three hours … and we talk about what were the consequences of getting so angry and how do they cope with very stressful situations.”

How Can Leadership Be Taught?
The larger goal of the Balkan simulation – as well as the other SIP seminar and workshop offerings – is to help MIT Sloan students develop into effective leaders. But just how best to train students to be leaders has been a subject of evolving discussion and examination at Sloan.

“Teaching leadership is very difficult, and there is a debate of whether such a thing can be taught,” Orlikowski explains. She was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the MIT Leadership Center in 2005 as well as development of the Four Capabilities Leadership Model in 2002. “We talked about what might be an effective program not just to teach leadership, but to create programs for students to learn leadership,” says Orlikowski.

The model they arrived at centers around an understanding of leadership as less a clear-cut domain knowledge and more a set of capabilities that students can develop. The specific capabilities they identified as crucial to effective leadership were sensemaking, relating, visioning and inventing.

The Bosnian Peacekeeping Force simulation and other SIP offerings are designed to help students develop these capabilities in unique learning environments that take full advantage of MIT’s faculty, research and other resources.
 
To learn more about MIT’s Sloan Innovation Period and to see a list of recent SIP offerings, click here. The next SIP will take place from March 17th through 20th. 

Fridays From the Frontline

Welcome back to Fridays From the Frontline, our regular recap of the week’s happenings in the MBA blogosphere.  We found applicants out and about this week, joining current students on business school campuses; in turn, current students extended their sights beyond their MBA settings, contemplating their next steps, not to mention their dance steps…

Despite the unwelcoming wintry mix afoot, Tinydancer had an awesome (not to mention awesomely exhausting) time in Philadelphia at Wharton’s Winter Welcome weekend.  Not too far away, Paige dished the details (which amounted to pretty much a full sized meal!) of her Day@Darden, where she got her first taste of the school’s Southern hospitality, also known as SWAG.
On the other hand, Mbabound08 quenched her thirst at Day at Kellogg – as she put it: “I’m totally drinking the (school’s) Kool-Aid”!

True to his name - or at least the lack of transparency it suggests - Hazyblur sent off his $5,000 deposit to the ISB, while prepping for his interview with Chicago’s GSB… in between foreign films, that is.  On a less opportunistic - er optimistic - note, Mymbadream entertained waning hopes of a Columbia interview invite; in a different boat, B-School Bound tried to decide between his myriad offers.

In the first-year camp, Ross’ M@ was faced with a similar conundrum: Piling a third consulting internship offer atop two previous prospects, it’s time for him to pick the best and ditch the rest.  Anand was also a winner in the summer employment game: this week he shared the uplifting tale of his on and off-campus recruiting efforts at Darden, highlighting the takeaway message of the experience for his readers in a hurry.  Reaching out to applicants, MBAstarter offered solid advice to those fortunate enough to be choosing between multiple acceptances, while MaybeMBA broached the testy topic of the existence of a gender barrier in the investment management world.  HairTwirler was more of a free spirit this week, attempting to rent out a friend at Georgetown’s Non-profit Internship Fund Auction whilst snacking on catered bacon strips and steak-on-a-stick.

As for the second years, the blogosphere was pretty quiet this week, although NoellieBellie made up for some of the overall dearth of content with an armful of shock value, surprising readers with an intimate post and an even more intimate pic (okay, not THAT intimate!).   Zanat0s’ mind was also far from his books; in between breaking it down at the club, he broke down the Tokyo nightlife scene as compared to INSEAD Singapore’s options.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s MBA blogger meet and greet! Check back with us next Friday for MBA news you can’t beat!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Test-Taking Tips from the Experts at ManhattanGMAT (Part 3)

Today we continue in our series of test-taking tips provided to us by the experts at ManhattanGMAT. Previous posts have stressed, first, the importance of the narrowing your focus to just the problem you’re working in a given moment and second, knowing when a problem has you beat and wisely choosing to move on. Today’s tip: Scratch paper is your friend.

Seem simplistic? Maybe so. But keeping things simple is a big part of mastering this exam.

“Do your work on the scratch paper, not in your head,” says ManhattanGMAT’s Chris Ryan, director of instructor and product development. This rule applies no matter how smart you think you are or how easy the problem may seem.

To illustrate the point, Ryan provides the following scenario: You get pretty straightforward-seeming problem involving evens and odds. Your mind starts going. “Okay, let’s see, x odd plus y even is odd, then I multiply that odd by this other odd and I get odd. Or I could have x be even, so then even plus even is even, then I multiply that even by odd and I get…”

“Stop,” commands Ryan. “You are setting yourself up for a fall.”

It has to do with the limits of our working memory, Ryan continues. Even under the best circumstances, our working memory can only hold a few items at a time. And taking the GMAT does not constitute the best circumstances. “Studies have shown that under test pressure, the powers of your working memory shrink even further,” cautions Ryan.

Make it easier on yourself. They give you scratch paper for a reason.

“Write out your steps. Put the scenarios down on paper,” says Ryan. There’s no shame involved. It’s just smart test-taking procedure. “Make the process as easy on your brain as possible.”

But even in your scratch work, it pays to be organized, Ryan advises. “Be a friend to your future self – the self you’re going to be in thirty seconds, when you’re looking back over all these scribbles and trying to figure out what you just wrote down.”

Our thanks again to ManhattanGMAT for sharing their expertise about this exam. More tips to come! 

Admissions Tip: Thinking About Financing

Though many business school applicants know exactly what they want to do – and how much they hope to make – after they graduate from an MBA program, a surprising number apply to school without thinking about how they’ll pay for this expensive degree. While some students do foot the entire bill themselves or receive scholarship support from the school or an outside institution, the vast majority of MBA students borrow funds to cover their tuition and living expenses. With this in mind, we wanted to cover some very basic information on loans for the benefit of both recent admits entering school this fall and early birds entry just beginning to think about their applications for Fall ’08.

The primary source of funding for U.S.-based applicants will be federal loans or alternative education loans. The main federal loans, available to U.S. citizens or permanent residents, are the Federal Stafford Loan (subsidized or unsubsidized), the Federal Perkins Loan and the GradPLUS Loan. Full-time students, usually those enrolled in two or more courses per semester, can borrow as much as $20,500/year through the Federal Stafford loan program. Perkins Loans are low-interest (5 percent) loans with a maximum annual loan amount of $4,000/year for graduate students. The Grad PLUS Loan can be used to pay for the total cost of education less any aid you’ve already been awarded. Those interested in applying for federal student aid should check out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). When federal loans are not enough, private loans can help bridge the gap in education costs. Students might contact their local bank or look into lender programs, such as SallieMae, Access Group or GradLoans, for details on borrowing eligibility.

International students are not eligible for federal loans, but may consider private loans as a financing option. The International Student Loan Program (ISLP), for instance, offers a credit-based loan of up to $45,000 to international students who are looking to finance their education in the U.S. However, as with most private loans, this loan requires a U.S. citizen or permanent resident to co-sign. International students can also visit International Education Financial Aid (IEFA) to search for funds (as can U.S. citizens planning on studying overseas). Finally, most of the leading MBA programs offer private loans to their students in partnership with a particular financial institution – some of which do not require a co-signer – so this might become an option after one is admitted.

Many need-based loans are classified as subsidized, meaning that interest does not accrue while the borrower is enrolled in a degree program (whereas interest begins to accrue immediately on unsubsidized loans). Typical timelines of loan repayment can extend from 5 to 30 years, depending on the lender’s conditions of deferral and the amount of funds borrowed. After graduation, students usually have a 6-month grace period before monthly repayment begins. While schools’ admittance packages usually include detailed information about financing the MBA, incoming students and applicants should not hesitate contact the school’s financial aid office for further information on available need- or credit-based loans.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Harvard Business School Round 2 Update + Centennial Celebration

Deirdre Leopold, Harvard Business School (HBS)’s managing director of admissions and financial aid, announced in a blog post today that most round two applicants who will be receiving interview invitations should have gotten them by now.

“While interview invitations will continue to be issued up until notification date, it is fair to say that the vast majority have been sent,” she writes. “I hope that this measure of transparency is helpful,” she continued.

Its helpfulness, it would seem, depends on whether or not you’ve received said invite. According to blogger Sustained Agony, the verdict is not so helpful. “I have given up hope on Harvard,” she writes, citing Leopold’s post. “At this point I am a little angry at Harvard. Yes, that’s irrational, but it is what it is,” she added.

In her blog post, Leopold goes on to say that members of the admissions board are getting ready to travel to Europe, Asia and the West Coast to conduct interviews and that some Round 2 applicants – both those who have and haven’t received interview invites – will be invited to join the wait list on March 26th, the deadline for Round 2 notifications.

Round 1 applicants who were waitlisted will continue to receive periodic updates from the admissions department, Leopold added.

For all of you lucky Round 2 applicants who received an interview invite, don’t miss the Clear Admit Harvard Interview Guide, which offers valuable insight on how to prepare.

HBS Heralds Upcoming 100th Birthday With New Centennial Website
In other HBS news, the school has launched a new website to celebrate its centennial celebration, taking place this year. The school’s actual birthday is April 8th, which this year will mark 100 years to the day since the Corporation of Harvard University voted to establish the business school and appointed Edwin F. Gay its first dean.

In addition to details about planned centennial celebration events, tidbits of school trivia and lore and news from the faculty, the new website also features a component called the “Conversation,” a question- or topic-based dialogue between two conversation leads and visitors to the site. Each month or so, the conversation leads – professors, faculty members and others – will pose a question to site visitors on specific issues in the world of business and invite responses and discussion.

Current questions, posted by Baker Foundation Professor Joseph L. Bower and Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration Herman B. (Dutch) Leonard relate to the future of market capitalism. Check it out here to follow the developing discussion or weigh in on the conversation yourself.

Fuqua Interview Guide Released!

Following up on Monday’s post covering the ongoing development of a new round of Clear Admit Interview Guides, we’re pleased to announce another addition to the roster: the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Visit the Clear Admit Shop to purchase the Fuqua Interview Guide (or any of Clear Admit’s available publications), and stay tuned for more Interview Guides news in the coming days!

Wiki Wednesdays: Chicago GSB, INSEAD and NYU Stern Interview Reports

Welcome to this week’s installment of Wiki Wednesdays, where we highlight new and informative reports in the Clear Admit Wiki, an MBA applicant-driven resource of firsthand experiences with the admissions process. We’ve had a number of great contributions this past week, including interview reports from Chicago GSB, INSEAD, and NYU Stern! Let’s take a look at what the various MBA applicants noted.

One Chicago candidate shared a variety of questions from the interview experiences of his/her friends:

1. If you could compare GSB to a top company, which one would it be and why?
2. Here’s a marker. There’s the board. Go and teach me about something for the next 2 minutes.
3. What undergraduate course that you took changed the way that you think? Talk about a course that is not related to your profession.
4. Give me a list of websites that you read regularly.
5. Give me an instance of something where you put in a lot of effort and things did not work out.
6. What course would you definitely want to take at the GSB and why?

While this list of potential questions may seem a bit daunting, it’s perfectly acceptable to take a moment or two to collect one’s thoughts and compose a thoughtful and concise answer when facing a difficult question. In fact, this is always more effective than blurting out the first thing that comes to mind or stumbling around with filler words like “uh”, “um”, “er”, etc.

Swinging over to Stern, a recent career-switching candidate noted some hard-hitting questions about potential tough times ahead:

1. What will be the biggest obstacle [you] will face in getting to [your] short term goal/making the career switch?
2. If you are selected by several top schools how will you make your final decision?

Should the first question arise, it would require some practical reflection on one’s planned path to demonstrate self-awareness - ideally with a healthy dash of resolve and dedication to the goals in question. Reasons like strength in academic focus area, location, degree of curricular flexibility, or style of teaching are all good options for the latter question – depending on the applicant’s stated strengths and goals. In addition to the academic and extracurricular fit, it’s also fine to introduce personal elements. For instance, an interviewer at Stern would take note of an applicant whose spouse is already working in New York City, etc.

Having a handful of compelling reasons why a program is best suited to one’s goals and criteria could come in handy for the above as well as several other school-centered questions. For example, a recent INSEAD applicant reported the following questions:

1. Which campus - Singapore or Fontainebleau? And why?
2. Why INSEAD? Why not American schools? Why not Indian Schools?

Reports of questions such as these should cue applicants to do their homework on INSEAD’s program, whether through exploring the school’s website or going that extra mile to an information session.

That concludes our tour of the Wiki for this week! As always, we’d like to thank everyone who has posted to the Clear Admit Wiki this season and we look forward to more contributions! If you would like to add your experience to the Clear Admit Wiki, simply create an account or send your reports to