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: London Business School
• School: Michigan / Ross
• School: MIT / Sloan
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• School: NYU Stern
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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 APRIL 2008

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Kellogg School of Management Hosts Women’s Leadership Workshop

The Kellogg School of Management this past weekend hosted its second annual Women’s Leadership Workshop, targeting high-potential women who might not otherwise be considering an MBA as part of their traditional career path. Presented by the Women’s Business Association and Kellogg Admissions, the two-day event drew 100 attendees averaging three to six years of work experience in a variety of industries.

“We hope to build on the success of last year and help you assess who you are as leaders through experiential learning opportunities,” said event co-chair Raquel Lachman, Kellogg ’08, in a statement. This year’s conference extended last year’s theme, “Unlock your potential. Shape your future.” Lachman, together with co-chair Dana Dimitri ’08 and 12 other Kellogg students, organized the leadership workshop’s programming, which included activities focused on self exploration, networking and personal and professional development.

Participants brought work experience from a range of fields, including media, technology, healthcare, manufacturing and the public sector, and traveled from both near and far to attend. Approximately 25 percent came from the West Coast, 30 percent from the East Coast and the remainder came from the surrounding Chicago area.

Many of Kellogg’s most distinguished faculty took part in workshop events. Friday’s portion of the event featured classroom-like settings with Victoria Medvec, the Adeline Barry Davee Professor of Management and Organizations; Michael Mazzeo, associate professor of management and strategy; and Julie Hennessy, clinical professor of marketing.

Medvec’s presentation challenged women to more effectively negotiate for themselves, providing 10 key strategies including the importance of being both prepared and flexible. “I think the reason women are having such an issue with [work-life] balance is because they’re not asking” the questions that can result in more manageable professional circumstances, Medvec told her audience. So she drew on relevant examples from her personal and professional life to help illustrate her points while leading the women through a relevant case study.

Speakers at the workshop’s various lunches and dinners, meanwhile, talked up the value of an MBA degree. During Friday’s lunch, Kara Palamountain ’04, executive director of Global Health Initiative, talked about her role at Kellogg and about the impact that other graduates have made with their MBA degrees. Ruth Ann Gillis, president of Exelon Business Services Co., shared her thoughts on what makes an MBA valuable at the Friday dinner reception, hosted at a downtown Chicago restaurant.

The workshop’s second day line-up kept the focus squarely on leadership. David Austen-Smith, the Peter G. Peterson Professor of Corporate Ethics, delivered a lecture entitled “Values-Based Leadership,” which used a case study based on the issues Ford Motor Co. faced with its Pinto line in the 1970s to delve into the topic.

Michelle Buck, clinical associate professor of management and organizations, followed Austen-Smith’s lecture with a session entitled “Leadership as a Relationship: Dynamics of Leading and Following,” which extended the metaphor of leadership to dance and jazz. 

Keynote speaker Betsy Holden ’82, senior adviser to McKinsey and Co. and former co-CEO of Kraft Foods, rounded out Saturday’s events. In an address entitled “Creating Career and Personal Success: Building 3-D Leadership,” Holden shared her career journey, pinpointing what she thinks has been central to her success. Key, she said to the women assembled, is following your passions and setting a personal mission statement to arrive at goals.

“The Women’s Leadership Workshop represents many key elements of the Kellogg School culture, particularly our commitment to female leadership development and the role that business schools play in championing the advancement of women in the workplace,” Kellogg Dean Dipak C. Jain said.

Wiki Wednesdays: School Choices

Welcome to another edition of Wiki Wednesdays, where we highlight some particularly poignant posts from the Clear Admit Wiki, a repository of MBA applicants’ experiences with the admissions process. While spring is in full swing, some candidates are still undergoing interviews (as can be seen in the recent UCLA / Anderson and INSEAD reports added to the Wiki) while prospective applicants are giving the GMAT a go.

During the fall and winter, however, many applicants dread answering the question “why this school instead of that one?” in their essays and interviews. Now that admissions notifications are out, the question is resurfacing once again. Some admitted applicants are choosing between multiple offers, while others are considering attending a school that they researched only briefly in the fall. And of course, many applicants are now debating the pros and cons of relocating with their significant others.

One applicant, as shared on the School Choices page of the Clear Admit Wiki, approached this debate based on criteria such as geographic location, weather, class size and international opportunities, among several other points.

Another candidate broke down her choice among eight schools according to the individual programs, which can lead to a much more detailed and nuanced argument, not to mention a potentially dizzying list of preferences! This candidate, however, approached the debate head-on with a succinct list of perks and pitfalls. For example, when identifying the pros and cons of a few programs, she wrote:

1. “IESE: I was really excited about the possibility of studying in a dual language MBA program. The IESE program is a two year U.S. style MBA program top ranked globally but with a smaller class size compared with similar U.S. schools.
2. + : international experience, foothold into European job market, Barcelona, case study method, very American friendly program.
3. - : name recognition in US not very strong though increasing, exchange rate makes it a “very expensive language class” to quote one of my bosses.

1. UCLA: I applied to UCLA to give myself a west coast option and to throw in a wild card to see how my profile would be accepted at a slightly larger program with a less specialized program. I was attracted to the international focus and exchange opportunities afforded to students.
2. + : west coast school, international focus
3. - : state school, comparatively limited resources”

For this candidate’s observations on the six other programs, be sure to check out the School Choices page. No matter the approach to trimming one’s short or long list of choices, it can always help to organize one’s thoughts, priorities and data points in writing. The School Choices page can be a great forum for breaking down one’s decisions, so we encourage candidates to share their debates by creating an account or sending their thoughts to wiki@clearadmit.com.

As a final reminder for those still interviewing or interested in sharing interviews from this season, it’s the last day to win a $10 iTunes gift certificate for an interview report for the following schools: Berkeley / Haas, Cornell / Johnson, MIT / Sloan, Stanford GSB, Dartmouth / Tuck, UCLA / Anderson, Yale SOM, INSEAD and LBS (limit one gift card per applicant). To be eligible for the prize, simply e-mail your interview report to wiki@clearadmit.com.

We’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to the Clear Admit Wiki this season! We look forward to awarding some last minute iTunes gift cards as well as reading some dynamic debates about programs. Happy deliberating!

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Full Fellowship for Indian MBA Students Created at Stanford Graduate School of Business

The Stanford Graduate School of Business, together with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), last week announced the creation of a new education fund to provide full financial support for promising Indian students with demonstrated financial need to complete the Stanford two-year MBA program.

Through the new Reliance Dhirubhai India Education Fund, Stanford will award up to five Reliance Dhirubhai Fellowships each year. The fellows will receive full financial support, including tuition, course-related fees, a living stipend and a travel allowance – amounting to an estimated $83,000 total value per fellow per year.

“A global perspective is essential to successful management,” Robert Joss, dean of the Stanford Business School, said in an April 23rd statement announcing the new fellowships. “This fellowship program, made possible by a generous gift from Reliance Industries Limited, allows the Stanford MBA Program to extend its outreach within India to the best and brightest MBA candidates,” he continued.

Funding is automatically renewed for the second year to all students who maintain good academic standing and community citizenship. In accepting the fellowship, Reliance Dhirubhai Fellows agree to return to India for a minimum of two years to work in either the private or public sector.

“With India now a truly globalized and rapidly growing economy, good management talent developed at both India’s top universities and at institutions abroad will be essential to supporting future innovation and growth,” said Mukesh Ambani, RIL chairman and managing director, in a statement.

RIL, India’s largest private sector company, is the country’s first and only private sector company to be featured in the Fortune Global 500 list of ‘World’s Largest Corporations’ and ranks among the world’s Top 200 companies in terms of profits.

Prospective fellowship recipients are invited to complete a two-stage application process. The first stage calls for completion of the Reliance Dhirubhai Fellows application between May 15 and July 15, 2008. Finalists in this stage will be selected based on merit, commitment to developing India and documented financial need.

Applicants advancing to the second stage must then complete the standard application process for the Stanford MBA Program by October 2008. Stanford – employing its primary admission criteria of intellectual vitality, demonstrated leadership potential, and personal qualities and contributions – may select up to five Reliance Dhirubhai Fellows per year.

For complete details on the Reliance Dhirubhai Fellows application process, click here.

Best of Blogging 2007-2008 Results!

After weeks of waiting and blogosphere buzz, we’re pleased to end the suspense and announce the results of our fourth annual Best of Blogging Awards! For the uninitiated, the aim of this event is to recognize those bloggers who have made an appreciable contribution to the online community, and to identify valuable sources of information and advice for incoming students and the next round of applicants.

We arrived at the ranking for both the applicant and student categories after careful evaluation of the eligible blogs by Clear Admit staff and consideration of input from the nominated bloggers and celebrity judges Bruce DelMonico of Yale SOM, Carly Chynoweth of The Times career blog Snakes and Ladders, Linda Abraham of Accepted.com and Brad Garrison (a.k.a. Hella). Below are the hotly anticipated listings of the top ten applicant and top ten student blogs overall, as well as the winners in a handful of more specific categories.

In the interest of time and ease of reading, please hold your applause until all the winners are announced …

Top 10 Applicant Blogs
1. July Dream - http://julydream.blogspot.com
2. Miss Curly Bee - http://missmba.blogspot.com
3. VidiViciVeni - http://oopsagain.wordpress.com
4. B-School Bound - http://bschool-bound.blogspot.com
5. Tinydancer - http://tinydancermba.blogspot.com
5. gltnforpnshmnt - http://gltnforpnshmnt.wordpress.com
7. mbabound08 - http://mbabound08.wordpress.com
8. Achilles - http://theachillesworld.blogspot.com
9. Eight Schools - http://sustainedagony.blogspot.com
10. MBA Runner Girl - http://mbarunnergirl.blogspot.com

Most Entertaining Applicant Blog
VidiViciVeni

Best GMAT Preparation Advice
vectorSpace - http://vectorspace101.blogspot.com

Best School Selection Advice
B-School Bound

Best Essay Advice
Jaguar Paw - http://thejaguarpaw.blogspot.com

Best Interview Advice
mbabound08

Best Single Post by an Applicant (tie)
Miss Curly Bee - “Bee’s Ideal Application Timeline”
Ameya - “the Board”

Top 10 Student Blogs
1. m@ (Ross) - http://speedywithchicken.wordpress.com
2. MaybeMBA (Chicago) - http://tombaornot.blogspot.com
3. Hair Twirler (Georgetown) - http://mbajamey.blogspot.com
4. Iday (Chicago) - http://i4iday.blogspot.com
4. John (Columbia) - http://j-term-johnny.blogspot.com
6. La Laudiaria (Wharton) - http://heiressmba.blogspot.com
7. MBA Gladiator (Yale) - http://mbagladiator.blogspot.com
8. Angel Angie (LBS) - http://angelangie2008.blogspot.com
9. Necromonger (INSEAD) - http://onwardtomba.blogspot.com
10. Christof Meyer (Darden) - http://www.squaremethod.com/blog

Most Entertaining Student Blog
m@

Best Resource for Applicants
Iday

Best Job/Internship Advice
MaybeMBA

Best Representation of Academics (tie)
MaybeMBA
Shahid (Kellogg) - http://www.shahidhussain.com/blog/

Best Representation of Student Life (tie)
MBA Gladiator
Mandy (Darden) - http://mandylozano.blogspot.com

Best Single Post by a Student (tie)
m@ - “Prologue: 2008”
MaybeMBA - “The Working vs. Stay at Home Mom Myth”

Our congratulations go out to everyone whose blog has been recognized! We’ll be getting in touch with the top-ranked bloggers this week to iron out prize selection and distribution. Top-ranked bloggers July Dream and m@ will have their pick of an 8GB iPod Touch or a $300 Amazon.com gift certificate, and Miss Curly Bee, VidiViciVeni, MaybeMBA and Hair Twirler can opt for a subscription to either Business Week or The Economist: a token of our gratitude for the time and effort they’ve put into creating interesting and informative accounts of their MBA-related experiences.

Finally, we’d like to thank the celebrity judges and voting bloggers who made the BoB awards possible, as well as the blogging community at large who make this exercise worthwhile. We’re constantly impressed with the depth and breadth of material that MBA applicants and students share with each other, and with the supportive atmosphere this fosters. We’re looking forward to another great year of content detailing the application process and MBA experience - happy reading and writing!

Monday, April 28, 2008

GMAT Registration Volume Continues to Climb

The latest stats from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), which owns the GMAT exam, are in – and registration volume continued to climb through March, though at a slightly slower clip. Worldwide, registration volume through March 31, 2008, was 71,776, up 11.09 percent from the same period last year, but down just a bit from the year-over-year growth reported at the end of February (11.82 percent).

As was the case in February, the growth in GMAT registration volume was most noticeable outside the United States, where it increased 22.20 percent year over year. Within the United States, GMAT registrations during the first three months of calendar year 2008 also increased, though at the more measured pace of 5.25 percent.

Though the rate of registration volume increase dropped just a bit both within and outside the United States in the month of March, current year-to-date registration across geographic categories was still greater than comparable figures for any year previously studied. 

The number of GMAT exams taken likewise grew both within the United States and internationally. (Note: GMAT tracks the number of tests, not the number of test takers. In a given year, more than a fifth of GMAT exams are taken by people who have tested more than once that year. Test takers can take the GMAT exam up to five times in a 12-month period.)

Like registration volume, the number of GMAT tests taken worldwide through March 31, 2008, also rose. The number of tests taken in the first three months of the year was 59,612, an 11.45 percent increase over the same period in 2007. Within the United States, tests taken through the end of March increased 7.58 percent over 2007. Internationally, the number of GMAT tests taken grew by 18.78 percent in that time.

To learn more about recent GMAT research and trends, visit the GMAC website.

Campus Chronicles: Northwestern / Kellogg and Chicago GSB

It is the last Monday in April, which means that cross-quarter day is arriving soon: the official mid-point between Spring and Summer. For some students, as finals and graduation approaches, summer may seem even closer, but for many, this is a time to reflect on the challenges and accomplishments of the semester.

At Northwestern/Kellogg, one student reflected on her March experience in which she and 35 fellow MBA students met with Lee Myung-bak, president of South Korea, as part of the school’s Global Initiatives in Management (GIM) program. GIM is a global business leadership course designed by Kellogg students, in conjunction with faculty advisers, as a way to provide first-hand knowledge of the culture, economics and governance of foreign countries.

All told, more than 500 Kellogg School students traveled to locales such as Argentina, Botswana, Brazil, Dubai, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uruguay, Vietnam, and Zambia. During the trips, the students met with business leaders, government officials and Kellogg graduates for an intimate look at the global landscape and to complete primary research for an array of projects.

Another student-led success was Kellogg’s 2008 Greater China Business Conference, which brought together faculty, students and alumni with executives who shared their experiences about building companies throughout that nation.

Many speakers highlighted the legal, economic and cultural hurdles that must be considered when operating in China. Yen Chun Lin ’08, executive chair for the conference, said “This [conference] is particularly pertinent as an increasing number of global companies are entering China, and as Chinese companies are going global.”

“It’s no secret that China is transforming the global economy,” said Michael Ducker ’99, president of the FedEx Express international division. He also noted that China’s “rapidly growing middle class” and its shift to encourage consumer spending brings the country closer to becoming the third-largest consumer market by 2025.

In Chicago, the Chibus reported much excitement in Barcelona, Spain, as a team of four Chicago MBA students won the 13th annual Roland Berger IESE Business School international case competition. This year’s competition required teams to analyze the financial performance of Hong Kong Disneyland and provide recommendations to the company going forward. In addition to submitting a written report, each team participated in two rounds of oral presentations.

Also in the news is the largest GSB charity event of the year, the Annual Charity Auction, organized by Giving Something Back. The event raises funds by auctioning off items donated by students, faculty, staff, and corporations. However, the biggest draw for this year’s auction was not the fine wine, spa gift certificates, or iPods. Instead, the first ever Charity Date Auction generated the most excitement among participants. Bidding was very active as students competed for the chance to accompany certain classmates to this year’s Spring Fling. Apparently the auction information students learn in Microeconomics actually does come in handy!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Emory’s Goizueta Business School Names New Dean of Full-Time MBA Program

Earlier this month, Emory’s Goizueta Business School named J. B. Kurish to serve as the associate dean of its full-time MBA program. Kurish, a finance professor, was selected for the role after a comprehensive national search.

“We wanted the best, and we weren’t going to settle for anything less,” said Larry Benveniste, dean of Goizueta Business School, of the appointment. “The committee interviewed four finalists, and the person encompassing all of the qualities we wanted was our own J.B. Kurish,” he continued.

Goizueta engaged executive search firm Egon Zehnder to conduct a national search. Tom Key, a Goizueta alumnus, served as principal on the search committee, which was made up of current and former students, faculty and staff. Among the qualifications the committee looked for in candidates were visionary leadership, respected academic credentials, great communications skills and selfless commitment.

Kurish will replace Steve Walton, Goizueta associate professor of information systems and operations management, who has served as interim associate dean for more than a year. Walton will return to full-time teaching.

Kurish came to Goizueta in the fall of 2006. He is an expert in the field of municipal debt issuance and municipal debt market practices, having managed public debt offerings for more than 15 cities and states throughout the United States. Before joining Goizueta, he taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, ran his own firm and worked as a public finance investment banker for Credit Suisse First Boston.

Kurish’s appointment was met by a standing ovation from an audience made up primarily students. Kurish acknowledged the warm reception with humor, saying, “I am aware that there are about 120 of you who are still awaiting your grades.”

“I have a lot of ideas,” Kurish continued on a more serious note. “I also know that everyone else has good ideas. My job is to take those good ideas and make them work.”

In just two short years at Goizueta, Kurish has taken and active role in developing the new curriculum for the full-time MBA program. In addition to teaching in the full-time program, he also has taught in the evening MBA and the W. Cliff Oxford Executive MBA programs.

Fridays From the Frontline

Welcome back to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s regular recap of life on the MBA dime (or paying it!). This week boasted an array of active applicants and spirited students. Let’s hear what’s been going on with each of them…

Between flowers and chocolates, DVD box sets and concert tickets, it sure felt good to be one of B-School Bound’s recommenders this week, even if their recommendations didn’t ultimately bind him to b-school! Next door in the material world, Vidiviciveni found himself finally hooked by London Business School’s swanky admit package – just the nudge this ambivalent blogger needed to bite the (most likely silver) bullet and matriculate. Eight Schools was also ready to narrow it down to one school - Tuck - but can’t quite seal the deal until she’s comfortable that her housing in Hanover housing will be, well, comfortable.

Having already sealed the deal with Ross, Gltnforpnshmnt compiled a hefty list of how he plans to gainfully occupy every day of his pre-MBA summer, from unwinding to updating his network. In the same vein, Miss Curly Bee lent a hand to soon-to-be matriculating students who aren’t sure how to proceed through the mass of forms and informing they’ll need to do in the coming months.

In the first-year arena, M@ watched Ross’ second-years get ready to graduate and came to the surreal realization, admist the flowering backdrop of Ann Arbor, that he’d soon be filling their shoes. In balmy D.C., Georgetown’s finals drove usually level headed HairTwirler up the wall, while her crazed neighbor waited outside her door – either that or played songs on repeat next to it! That’s city living for you, she acquiesced. Anand was ready to chime in on that front. Contemplating the pros and cons of attending business school in a smaller town versus a big city, he decided that Darden’s Charlottesville bucks the system and offers the best parts of both. Also feeling school-spirited, Maybe MBA dispelled some myths about Chicago’s GSB, while Stuart was busy snagging incriminating footage of St. Gallen-MBA-Academic-Director–turned-White-Stripe Winfried Ruigrok.

Second-year Mbagladiator also had a brush with fame, catching an erstwhile idol of his who came to speak at the Conference of Governors on Climate Change at Yale. Angie continued her tenure as London Business School’s poster child, giving the lowdown on her “final LBS showdown,” also known as her last term there. Feeling her pain, John celebrated the conclusion of a storied CBS career, having saved the best for last - his Economics of Strategic Behavior class.

Thanks for stopping by our Friday event! Check FFF next week for all the MBA news that came and went…

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Tuck School of Business Discussion Series Looks Toward the Future of Recruiting

As part of its ongoing Tech@Tuck Web 2.0 Speaker Series, Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business earlier this month hosted a conference examining the changing landscape of career management. The event helped uncover the ways in which Web 2.0 is reshaping not only how business school graduates build and shape their careers but also how companies recruit employees and build their workforces.

“Web 2.0 and Career Management,” which took place on April 10th, was organized by the Tuck Center for Digital Strategies and the Thayer School of Engineering. Keynote speaker Surya Yalamanchili, director of marketing for social-networking community LinkedIn, helped galvanize the day’s discussion, explaining the ways in which social-networking sites help bridge the gap between members of the millenial generation and the older generations that are competing to recruit them.

Yalamanchili’s address was followed by a student competition entitled “The Future of Recruiting,” in which teams of Tuck and Thayer students were called on to help solve some of the greatest recruiting challenges facing companies today.

In advance of the competition, Tuck’s career services department surveyed recruiters at a range of Fortune 1000 companies, including Wachovia, Amazon, PetSmart, Harrah’s, Fidelity and General Mills, to name a few. According to recruiters, the hardest parts of their jobs involve competing for a limited pool of talent, tracking candidates, recruiting in parts of the world where their companies aren’t well known and simplifying the job search process.

Once the competition got underway, student teams set out to help companies address these challenges using Web 2.0 technologies. Competing for $2,000 in prize money (provided by competition sponsor IBM), student teams came up with creative ways for companies to embrace social networking, blogs, wikis, avatars and RSS feeds to revolutionize their hiring practices. They presented their solutions in a series of three- to five-minute web-ready podcasts to a panel of judges made up of executives in the space.

Wachovia and PetSmart each listed competing for a limited pool of talent and getting students interested in their companies as among their greatest challenges. PetSmart, in particular, hoped to find ways to increase the acceptance rate among business school students to whom they extend job offers.

One student team suggested a two-pronged solution for PetSmart. The first part of the strategy involved creating a website that would give prospective applicants more of an inside look at the company through posted bios and interactivity with current employees about company culture, what they like about their jobs, etc.

The second component would be to create a web board similar to one that is now used by students who are admitted to Tuck. Basically, all admitted students go onto the web board, where they get to know one another and begin to create a bond with the school – which can help be the deciding factor as they choose among several MBA programs.

The same concept could be used for job offers, the student team proposed. Because companies haven’t yet employed this kind of tool, students receive job offers in a vacuum. They don’t get to connect with others who will be joining the company from other MBA programs. Establishing such a web forum could be just the connection that would convince prospective hires that they would be joining an exciting team and organization.

“With Web 2.0 you could build that community so that the applicants themselves could convince one another to accept,” says Teran Martin, a first-year Tuck student on the team.

Martin was paired with a Thayer engineering student for the competition, which he says was one of the most rewarding aspects of the experience. “For me it is great when you can work with other MBA students, but it’s really unusual when you can actually go outside of your school,” he said. In the course of this competition, engineering students helped business students bring concepts into reality, he said, building actual applications from the business solutions the teams developed.

Another company, Eaton, a leading manufacturer of electrical and powertrain systems, indicated that its greatest recruiting challenge is screening candidates for ethics. Rather than simply asking how students handle ethical decision-making in the course of job interviews, one student team proposed that Eaton use Second Life, an internet-based virtual world, to present interview candidates with an actual ethical situation. Through this Web 2.0 technology, the company will get to see how the candidate would react, rather than just asking about it.

“Until now, Eaton has worked on the assumption that the best indicator of how you’ll perform in the future is how you performed in the past,” said Rebecca Joffrey, Tuck associate director of career services and an organizer of the event. “This student team called for a paradigm shift, pointing out that observable behavior is also a very good way to judge candidates’ ethics,” she said.

Joffrey, too, cited the pairing of engineering and business school students as one of the competition’s greatest strengths. “This is the first time that I know of that we’ve done a joint collaboration between Tuck and Thayer, and the pairing of students from both schools was really powerful in terms of the project outcome,” she said. “Both sides bring completely different skills,” she says.

The other aspect of the competition that really set it apart from other events was the active dialog created between the judges, the students and the professors, Joffrey said. “In a sense it was a very Web 2.0 way of exploring an issue because it was completely collaborative on every level,” she said. “Students would present, judges would ask questions – it was really a back and forth.”

And the dialog will continue. “This project has a longer life that just here at Tuck,” Joffrey said. Companies named their problems, students gave their solutions, and in June she will attend a recruiter conference where she will report back to the companies. “It’s really the continuation of the dialog in a more Web 2.0 way,” she said.

For a listing of future Tech@Tuck Web 2.0 Speaker Series events, click here.  

Admissions Tip: Avoiding Red Flags

When applying to the top schools, it is important to avoid “red flags” in your application. For the uninitiated, red flags are negative items that stand out in your file and may result in rejection from business school. While most applicants understand the basic red flags, like a 2.4 GPA or a recommendation letter that raises serious concerns about the candidate’s maturity, there are many less obvious triggers.

Some time ago, an Admissions Director Symposium organized by the Graduate Management Admissions Council produced an interesting publication on the subject of admissions policy and red flags. Here is an excerpt from their report:

Identifying ‘Red Flags’ in the Application Process

The Directors Symposium participants found that many of the markers of less successful students can be identified in the application process but are often overlooked - everything from numerous job changes in a short period of time to strange personal interactions or difficulty communicating. These signals should not be ignored, said participants. It may be useful to discuss any ‘red flags’ with other colleagues, to determine which shortcomings can be mitigated by other qualities and which should be reasons not to offer admission.

One red flag that is often ignored but should be taken seriously, said some symposium participants, is excessive contact with the admissions office. Termed “Hassler Syndrome” by one participant, extreme dependency on the admissions office may signal a lack of self-confidence that manifests itself as neediness. This trait may show up later in the learning environment, when the student is unable to contribute meaningfully to classes and work groups and becomes known as a “net taker”. The same person may be a drain on career services, unable to take initiative in a job search.

Although the article was aimed at the admissions community, this information is recommended reading for applicants to the top schools. At minimum, it should make applicants think twice before placing repeated phone calls to the admissions office!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Harvard Business School Looks Ahead to the Class of 2011

In one of her periodic blog posts regarding the HBS admission process, Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Deirdre Leopold revealed that her office is already giving plenty of thought to prospective applicants for the class of 2011.

“We hope to have our new essay questions posted by mid-May and we’ll certainly alert you through the blog about the actual date,” she writes. The department is also planning an outreach event in New York City in May to kick off the new season. The date and venue for this event has yet to be determined.

But wait! For those of you still anxious to hear about the class of 2010, Leopold had some news for you as well. Round 3 notification is scheduled for May 14, and the admissions department is actively managing its wait list. Speaking of the waitlist, the deadline for responses from Round 2 admits is May 9, after which her office will have a clearer sense of how things will go for those on the waitlist. “Please don’t take this too literally,” she cautions. “We won’t have perfect clarity on May 9 – but I want to share with you how the timeline works.”

May 9 is also the last day of class visits for the year for those hoping to sit in on HBS classes. Class visits don’t resume in the fall until October.

That said, information sessions will be held throughout the summer. The schedule is as follows:

• May 1, 2, 5, 8, and 9 from 3 to 4 p.m.
• May 12, 15, 16, 19, 22, 23, 26, 29, and 30 from 1 to 2 p.m.
• Mondays and Fridays through June and July from 1 to 2 p.m.

Detailed information about visiting campus is available on the HBS website.

Leopold closed her post with some practical advice about claims of “inside information” from former members of admissions boards.

“Applicants are certainly smart to explore the admissions processes at different schools but, speaking for HBS, be careful about very specific advice that may not reflect current practices,” she warns. “I’ve been on the HBS Board for a (very!) long time and I can’t begin to tell you how much has changed.”

Even the most well-meaning advisors and alumnae may not be aware of the most recent updates to admissions practices, she says, so consider anything you learn from these and other sources as just part of the big picture.

Good luck to those still waiting to hear about 2010, and happy exploring to those considering HBS for the class of 2011.

Best of Blogging Celebrity Judges 2008!

The nominees have been announced and deliberations have begun in this year’s Best of Blogging event. Complementing the perspectives of the Clear Admit staff members and bloggers who will be weighing in, we’re pleased to announce the panel of celebrity judges for the 2008 BoB ranking!

Linda Abraham: The founder of Accepted.com, Linda likely needs no introduction to those with an interest in MBA and graduate school admissions.  As a fellow blogger and b-school expert,  Linda is in a great position to weigh in on each of our nominees’ contributions to the MBA blogosphere.

Carly Chynoweth: Carly blogs about management, job hunting and what it takes to get ahead at work for The Times at timesonline.co.uk/snakesandladders. Having recently ranked the Clear Admit Blog among the top ten workplace and career-related blogs on the web, she clearly has an eye for quality content! But seriously…

Bruce DelMonico: Director of Admissions at the Yale School of Management, Bruce even does a little blogging of his own on the SOM community blog, a shared forum where students and other members of the SOM community share their experiences. We’re very pleased to have him on board this year to bring a school-side perspective to the BoBs!

Brad Garrison (a.k.a. Hella): Lending his thoughts on the BoBs for a fourth consecutive year, Brad is a veteran of the MBA blogging space. He blogged his way through his own Wharton MBA (he graduated in 2006), and continues to hosts aggregated lists of the latest posts by MBA applicant, student and alum bloggers on his site.

We’re looking forward to getting the input of our celebrity judges (and, ahem, any nominated bloggers who haven’t yet returned their ballots) and seeing how the ranking shakes out this year!  Stay tuned for the announcement next Tuesday …

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Continued Shake Up at the Top: High B-School Dean Turnover Attributed to Increased Fundraising Pressure

The Wall Street Journal yesterday re-ran a story originally published four years earlier – but somehow the subject matter remains current. The search for b-school deans is on around the country, as the pressure to fundraise continues to increase, longstanding deans retire and business schools look outside of academia for leaders with real-world experience.

“All deans face harder challenges today,” Lloyd Armstrong Jr., provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at University of Southern California (USC), told the Journal in 2004. “In addition to the enormous pressure to raise money, the curriculum is changing as ethics and global business become more important. At the same time, many schools are ramping up their executive-education and executive M.B.A. programs,” he said.

During a two-year search, USC looked at both business executives and academics to fill its top post, ultimately turning outside its ranks to recruit Yash Gupta from his post as dean of the University of Washington Business School. “We preferred someone with a strong scholarly background who understands the academic world,” Armstrong told the Journal.
It was a choice that seems to have paid off. According to USC, Gupta has boosted fundraising by 400 percent, the Journal reported.

Columbia Business School (CBS), too, went with an academic – naming its own finance and economics professor Glenn Hubbard, who also had served as chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, to replace Meyer Feldberg, who had held the helm at CBS for 15 years.

But other schools are opting for business executives and even government officials and politicians to take the lead, in the hopes that they may bring greater strategic planning, marketing and fundraising experience, the Journal reported.

For example, the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley named Tom Campbell, a former U.S. congressman and law professor, as its dean in 2002.

“Tom Campbell’s previous experience as a congressman is a good fit because he has done fundraising and worked with many different constituencies, [and he] understands a political environment,” John Fernandes, then-president and chief executive officer of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International, the premier accrediting body for business education programs, told the Journal in 2004. But he warned then that the jury was still out on business executives.

“Some corporate managers find the academic atmosphere difficult to handle because it’s harder to make changes,” he told the Journal. “They have been used to saying this is going to happen — and it does. But faculty members are very strong-willed and independent and won’t respect that approach. Deans from the corporate world have to be well aware that gaining champions on the faculty is critical to their success.”

Prescient, perhaps, given that Campbell announced in August that he will step down this summer, and Haas has now launched a search for a new dean.

Another dean drawn from the business world, UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Steve Jones, seemed to see both the advantages of his previous experience and the challenges he would face in his new role. “Practitioners of business can make good deans because they have hired business-school graduates and understand what it takes to educate students to be successful at companies,” the former chief executive officer of Suncorp Metway Ltd. in Australia told the Journal in 2004.

But to truly make it work requires a strong senior associate dean drawn from the faculty who can help deal with professors and academic issues, he continued. “When I took this job, I knew I wanted strong academics who would be the day-to-day leaders of the faculty and the M.B.A. program,” he said.

Shorter tenure among b-school deans is becoming more the norm than the exception, according to some surveys. AASCB found that on average, deans have been in their positions only about five years and more than a quarter, for less than a year.

Frequent change-ups at the top aren’t all bad, though, say some. “It’s good for institutions and for people to change; I believe in the five-to-10-year rule for a dean,” Mark Zupan, dean at the Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester, told the Journal. Zupan was named Simon’s dean in 2003, having served as dean at the University of Arizona’s business school before that. “A friend once told me you don’t want to leave the same way you came in — fired with enthusiasm,” he said.

Trivia Tuesday: Global Initiatives in Management at Northwestern / Kellogg

Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday! This week let’s take a look at Kellogg’s popular Global Initiatives in Management, or GIM, program.

Kellogg’s international programs are coordinated by the International Business & Markets Program, which runs the Global Initiatives in Management course, one of Kellogg’s most popular electives. Over two-thirds of Kellogg students enroll in the course each year, usually during the winter or summer quarters. Each class section chooses a country of focus and individual students choose target industries or economic sectors to study. Recent courses have focused on countries on six continents, with students studying industries ranging from e-commerce and pharmaceuticals to ecotourism and microenterprise. The class then works with a faculty advisor to plan the 10-week curriculum, invite relevant guest speakers from the country and from campus, and organize an intensive 2-week study trip to the country at the end of the quarter. During the study trip, students meet with business and government leaders, conduct research on their target industry in preparation for a final presentation, meet Kellogg alumni in the region, and are immersed the local language and culture. Kellogg views the program as a cornerstone in its efforts to build students’ awareness of the global business environment.

In the summer of 2007, Kellogg ran several GIM trips. Among them, the GIM-South America class visited Argentina, Brazil and Chile to explore the forces driving South America’s economic and political development. The trip’s tagline: “Business by day, Samba & Tango by night.” Another 2007 GIM class traveled to Turkey and Dubai, enabling students to gain an invaluable understanding of two countries that will be critical to the expansion of European business in the years to come.

For more information on Kellogg’s international opportunities and special elective options, be sure to check out the school’s website or the Academics & International Focus sections of the Clear Admit School Guide to Kellogg!

Monday, April 21, 2008

Aspen Institute Survey Finds MBA Students Increasingly Focused on Corporate Social Responsibility, Less So on the Environment

The results of a survey of MBA students at top business schools released today reveals that a business’s commitment to positively impacting society is rising as a top concern for students seeking employment upon graduation, especially among women. That said, a full 83 percent expect that their values will sometimes conflict with what they are asked to do in business, and of those, only 45 percent see themselves speaking up to express their objections.

The survey, conducted in 2007 by the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education, included interviews with 1,943 students at 15 top business schools around the world on a variety of issues, ranging from business ethics to business school coursework to the corporate recruiting process. Survey results help identify changing attitudes among MBAs since the survey was last conducted in 2002.

“In a broader sense, the most important finding is that students seem to be taking a more holistic view of the role of business in society,” Nancy McGaw, deputy director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, said in a statement announcing the report’s release. “But the findings also suggest that while students may have these values, many of them sense those beliefs are not valued by employers or linked to career opportunities.”

Here McGraw refers to findings that only 50 percent of students surveyed felt that recruiters placed a high value on personal integrity, and only 7 percent think recruiters value their understanding of sociopolitical issues.

Though students at all the schools surveyed – from Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania to the London School of Business to Berkeley’s Haas School, to name a few – expressed stronger interest in a job that will positively impact society in this year’s survey than five years ago, this priority decreases in importance for men as they move through their MBA program.

According to the survey findings, only 29 percent of men place high importance on this issue by the time they graduate, down from 43 percent in their first year. Women’s commitment to positive social impact was higher to start and remained relatively constant, according to survey results, with 52 percent of women naming it as a top priority in their first year and 50 percent holding the same view as they near graduation.

Interestingly, while values, ethics and corporate reputation are increasingly important to MBAs, environmental issues are not yet considered as important to a majority of students.

“We would have expected a large percentage of students to say that a company’s environmental practices are very important to them when choosing an employer,” McGaw said, especially given the emphasis that companies themselves are placing on green initiatives. But not according to the survey. “At this point, only one-third of students say so,” she said.

To view an executive summary of the survey, entitled “Where Will They Lead?
MBA Student Attitudes About Business & Society (2008),” click here.

Campus Chronicles: The Wharton Journal and Harvard’s Harbus

Welcome back to Campus Chronicles, our weekly look at the b-school campus press. This week we turn our focus to the Wharton Journal at the University of Pennsylvania and to Harvard Business School’s Harbus.

The Wharton Journal was excited to report last week that a team of five MBA students won the Graduate Business School Financial Engineering Competition organized by the Tepper School at Carnegie Mellon. The competition included Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Chicago, Columbia, NYU, Princeton, and Wharton. The seven teams were given a case on commodities and then had to come up with an appropriate financial engineering solution to satisfy the clients’ needs.

The competition was an intense 6-hour exercise during which teams burnt both brain cells and Excel cells to come up with an analysis that involved part structuring, part valuation, and part hedging. In the 11-year history of the competition, Wharton and the Haas School have each won the competition four times.

Another team of Wharton students triumphed at the 3rd Annual Sustainable Venture Capital Investment Competition hosted by the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. This competition was a whirlwind of activity, forcing students to make thoughtful investment decisions in a 24-hour time-span. Teams played the role of venture capitalists, evaluating business ideas using a triple bottom line of financial profitability, environmental integrity, and social equity to determine whom to support. They interviewed the entrepreneurs under the watchful eye of VC judges, and were assessed based on team dynamics, insight into the financials, and rapport with entrepreneurs. Each group of would-be venture capitalists then developed an investment framework, wrote a term sheet, and created a PowerPoint presentation to share their vision for these companies.

In addition to expertise in financial engineering and venture capital, Wharton students this month also brought together a show of their cultural wealth during the eighth annual Wharton International Cultural Show. The audience of 500 was led through the sights and sounds of China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, India, Israel, Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Both audience members and participants touted the show as a huge success. Many said they took home a little more knowledge about the true richness of the cultures on campus.

Moving up the coast from Pennsylvania, the Harbus reported that over 300 Harvard Business School students attended the annual HBS Spring Fashion Show. The HBS fashion show was started by the HBS Retail & Apparel club a few years ago. Its goal is to provide a platform for the student body to discover the latest fashion trends, and to dress for internships, swanky weekend events, and everyday glamour throughout the summer. The show’s other purpose is to raise money for a local charity. This year’s grateful recipient was the Boston arm of Dress for Success, which promotes economic independence by providing professional attire and career development support to disadvantaged women.

One big announcement in recent Harbus was that the HBS Class Day committee confirmed Ann Moore, Chairman and CEO of Time Inc., and HBS alumus, as the keynote speaker of this year’s HBS Class Day.

Ann Moore’s many accolades include her recognition as one of Fortune’s “50 Most Powerful Women in American Business,” a distinction she has earned each year since the list was created in 1999. In addition, Moore was honored last year with the