Business Schools, Students Stay Upbeat Despite Economic Downturn » Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

APPLICANT RESOURCES

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.

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.

Application Deadlines
Below are the upcoming deadlines for admission to top-tier schools.
Oct. 1: INSEAD R1
Oct. 3: Northwestern / Kellogg R1
Oct. 8: Columbia 2009 J-Term and ED
Oct. 9: Wharton R1
Oct. 10: Michigan / Ross R1
Oct. 15: Chicago GSB R1
Oct. 15: Dartmouth / Tuck EA
Oct. 15: Duke / Fuqua EA
Oct. 15: HBS R1
Oct. 22: Yale SOM R1
Oct. 24: UNC Kenan-Flagler R1 (Early Action)
Oct. 28: UVA / Darden R1
Oct. 28: MIT Sloan R1
Oct. 29: Stanford GSB R1
Nov. 4: Berkeley / Haas R1
Nov. 15: NYU / Stern R1

Essay Topic Analysis
Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics.
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 '08-'09 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
Cranfield School of Mgmt (UK) 2
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
Manchester Bus. School (UK) 2
Oxford / Said (UK) 1
Rotterdam (Netherlands) 2
Tsinghua IMBA (China) 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

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Business Schools, Students Stay Upbeat Despite Economic Downturn

According to a recent article in the Economist, business schools and MBA students are notably upbeat despite an economic downturn impacting organizations that are often their prime recruiters – namely those in the financial services and banking industries.

According to the Economist report, several factors fuel this unusually hopeful outlook: No one knows for sure just how bad the economic situation is (or isn’t), MBA students themselves seem more realistic and pragmatic than in downturns of the past, and though top job offers are down, MBAs have not yet faced having their internship or job offers withdrawn (save the particular case of Bear Stearns).

News from the schools and elsewhere echo the Economist report. Berkeley’s Hass School of Business Career Center reports that job opportunities for Berkeley MBA students during the 2007-2008 recruiting season actually increased by 5 percent over the year before and that salaries are holding steady.

“It is a tighter employment market, but we have seen MBA hiring continuing,” said Abby Scott, executive director of MBA Career Services. “Some of the firms who are laying off are continuing to hire fresh talent.” Summer internship hiring has also increased over last year, according to Scott.

London Business School also reported high job placement rates among its students this recruiting season. “We are thrilled to that 2007 has been another strong year for our hugely talented MBA class with an impressive 97 percent receiving an offer of employment within three months of graduation,” Diane Morgan, director of LBS career services, said in a January statement.

Findings from the annual Corporate Recruiters Survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admissions Council reflect the same optimism.

That said, there could still be hard times ahead. According to Haas’s Business Career Center, online job postings have dropped, suggesting that companies are resorting to “just-in-time hiring” as a result of weakening economic conditions. “As we look forward to next year, we’re anticipating a little bit of a downturn as we experienced during the last cycle,” said Haas’s Scott.

What impact does this have on MBA admissions? Often, business school admissions run counter-cyclical to the economy – spiking during downturns as some look to MBA programs as a place to ride out the storm. Sometimes, though, those with jobs choose to hang onto them.

Application rates so far have shown no sign of decrease. In fact, almost 60,000 students took the GMAT in the first three months of 2008, a 12 percent increase over the same period a year before.

Generally speaking, the perceived value of an MBA doesn’t usually fall even if job prospects for current MBA grads do begin to falter. In fact, the MBA degree can under those conditions be the factor that helps secure a job for candidates in an increasingly competitive market.

The Economist report praised students and schools for their level-headedness. “Overall, business schools and their students seem to be displaying a laudable maturity, refusing to panic—at least for now—and stressing that the MBA degree has long-since stopped being a golden passport to a well-paid and secure job,” read the report. “Many are well aware of the economic downturns of the past, notably the global recession of the early 1990s and the dotcom crash a decade later. Neither did much to dent the long-term attractions of the MBA.”

# posted by Clear Admit @ 1:02 pm in MBA News, General, School: London Business School, School: Berkeley / Haas

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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
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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.

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