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

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.

Application Deadlines
Below are the upcoming deadlines for Fall 2008 entry to top-tier schools.
Apr. 1: UT Austin McCombs R3
Apr. 2: Dartmouth / Tuck R4
Apr. 3: INSEAD R4
Apr. 4: Oxford / Said R3
Apr. 23: UCLA / Anderson R4
Apr. 28: CMU / Tepper R4
May 2: LBS R4
Jun. 6: Oxford / Said R4

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

Categories
Use categories to access all that has been written on each of the topics. We have categorized by school and by subject matter.

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

GMAT Resources
GMAC
Manhattan GMAT
GMAT Club
Princeton Review
Test Prep New York
Kaplan
Beat The GMAT

Writing Resources
Guide to Grammar and Writing
The Internet Grammar of English
English Usage, Style and Composition
The Economist Style Guide
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant

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

Career Guides
The following resources should be useful to those who want to research the careers open to them after (or before) earning an MBA.
Vault.com
Wetfeet

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

MBA Programs: North America
If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
Berkeley / Haas
Carnegie Mellon / Tepper
Chicago
Columbia
Cornell / Johnson
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Emory / Goizueta
Harvard
HEC Montreal
Indiana / Kelley
Michigan
MIT / Sloan
Northwestern / Kellogg
New York / Stern
North Carolina / Kenan Flagler
Pennsylvania / Wharton
Queens
Stanford
Texas / McCombs
Thunderbird
Toronto
UCLA / Anderson
Virginia / Darden
Western Ontario / Ivey
Yale

MBA Programs: Rest of the World
As there is some variety in the length of international MBA programs, we have denoted the length of the program next to its name (1 = one year; 2 = 2 years). If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
AGSM (Australia) 2
Cambridge / Judge (UK) 1
CIEBS (China) 2
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (China) 1
ESADE (Spain) 1 or 2
HEC (France) 2
IESE (Spain) 2
IMD (Switzerland) 1
INSEAD (France) 1
IPADE (Mexico)
ISB (India) 1
London Business School (UK) 2
Oxford / Said (UK) 1
Rotterdam (Netherlands) 2
University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) 1

Additional Resources
Here we link a host of additional resources available across the web. E-mail info@clearadmit.com to have resources added to this list.
AACSB International
Association of MBAs
Beyond Grey Pinstripes
EFMD
gradschools.com (worldwide)
Infozee
mba.com (GMAT Scores)
MBAInfo
mbaleague.blogspot.com
MBAzone
MBA Jungle
TOEFL
Top MBA

MBA Tipline
We encourage admissions officers, students and applicants to alert us of interesting news and developments, please send an email to news@clearadmit.com so we can blog it.

Blog Archive

Submit a report to the Clear Admit Wiki, win $10 to iTunes!

Friday, February 08, 2008

Fridays From the Frontline

Welcome back to this week’s Fridays From the Frontline, the next installment in the chronicles of academia – er business school! Applicants went through the wardrobe this week, preparing to put their best feet forward in the interviews ahead. First-years greeted the lion and the witch of the recruiting process head on, while second years enjoyed a happy ending. Let’s check out the plot twists for ourselves…

Congratulations to Bokaa, who celebrated his 50th blog post this week, recounting a redeeming Yale interview invite after a disappointing Round 1 turnout. Now to get back into the b-school mindset, ASAP! Perhaps Miss Curly Bee can help him - she’s rarely been out of it… Then again, even she sent out a recent call for help, imploring students or alums willing to assist her with preparation for her upcoming HBS and Kellogg interviews. B-School Bound faced yet another dilemma this week: Are application expenses eligible for tax write-offs?? Speaking of the IRS, he too found himself in a position of enforcement authority, refusing to share pirated versions of our Clear Admit School Guides with those who solicited them from him!

After a ding from Darden, it appears Dreamer will have to dream on to the next admissions season; on the bright side, another year of experience can only help his profile. Paige was luckier in the near term (not to discount her hard work, too!), basking in a Darden admit – her number one choice, no less. But does she have any idea of what’s in store?!

Anand does. He fills her (and the rest of us) in on what life is like in Charlottesville: Last week’s “5 day, 15 case week” at Darden, where recruiting season remains in full swing, should be a good clue! M@ is feeling similarly chastened by the dog-eat-dog aspect of elections, interviews, and job offers that is slowly consuming his Ross experience. On a lighter note, Iday is uplifted by an interaction via the Chicago GSB’s “Craigslist” that promises to bring him back to his roots. Meanwhile, as promised, INSEAD’s Necromonger gets down to business deconstructing the Financial Times’ 2008 MBA Rankings while CS begins a list of the books included in one’s first-year at HBS – gratuit! (tuition not included…).

In second-year territory, Mbagladiator described the “all-star lineup” of classes he’s enjoying in his last semester at the Yale SOM. In Madrid (although you wouldn’t guess it from the pictures he’s posted), Ashwyn enjoyed the IESE Asian Business Club’s first informal get-together at nearby good, but not that good, Shanghai30. Following the blogging trail northward, in London, Karlitos seeks out an American or European business headed ’southward’ for analysis in his LBS Valuation class; sadly, the problem isn’t finding one so much as choosing one from among the many… Nagendra’s put such worldly business concerns behind him for now, however, extolling his good fortune as only a proud father can: “Blessed with a baby girl.”

That’s the story for this week! Come check out the group’s latest adventures in next week’s installment of FFF…

# posted by Clear Admit @ 9:26 am in Fridays from the Frontline

DISCUSSIONS / BLOGS / WIKI

Clear Admit's Most Recent Entries

Wiki

MBA Admissions Wiki
The Clear Admit Wiki is designed to allow b-school applicants to share their experiences through the application process. You can learn from others' experiences and contribute your own reports to the community. Below are the five most popular pages in the wiki:
Wharton Interview Field Reports
HBS Interview Field Reports
Kellogg Interview Field Reports
Chicago Interview Field Reports
Columbia Interview Field Reports

Discussion Boards

BusinessWeek Forums
The BusinessWeek Discussion Boards are a great way to learn about the issues applicants face. Recently BusinessWeek updated their interface, here is a link to the original interface. Also, Clear Admit hosts the Ask Clear Admit thread, which should help answer your questions. Here are the five most recent discussions.

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

student 2 student
The student-2-student Discussion Boards are managed by Wharton, but include discussions about all of the top schools. Here are the five most recent discussions.

Chicago Discussion Forums
The Chicago Discussion Boards are managed by the University of Chicago. Here are the five most recent discussions.

School-Hosted Blogs

Straight from the source: aggregated posts from students and administration. Below are the seven most recent posts in school-hosted blogs.

Individuals' Blogs

A selection of the latest updates to MBA blogs compiled by Hella.
MBA Applicants

MBA Students

Bloggers by School

The following are links to bloggers at each of the schools listed.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan
MIT / Sloan
New York / Stern
North Carolina / Chapel Hill
Stanford
Virginia / Darden
Wharton
Yale
ESADE
IESE
INSEAD
London Business School

Community Blogs

Bshoolers.com
Community blog with MBA student and alum contributors.

Forté Foundation MBA Diaries
Video blog entries posted by women MBA students.

Owen Bloggers
Independent blog with content by Vanderbilt MBA students.

Best of Blogging

2007-2008 Top Ten:

2006-2007 Top Ten:

2005-2006 Top Ten:

2004-2005 Top Ten:

Blog Information Profile for clearadmit