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.

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

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

Monday, June 30, 2008

Kellogg Essay Topic Analysis 2008-2009

Kellogg’s essay questions have undergone a few notable changes this year. In a decision to include two entirely new questions, the adcom has done away with the open-ended essay topic focusing on outside work experiences (last year’s prompt simply stated “Outside of work I…” and asked applicants to complete the thought), and has replaced it with a question inviting applicants to explain what they believe others admire about them. Kellogg has also replaced last season’s question regarding a challenging personal relationship with a topic asking applicants to describe a time when they had to motivate a reluctant individual or group. Kellogg continues to require its essays to be double spaced.

Here are some suggestions to consider when tackling the essay topics for Kellogg’s 2008-2009 application season:

Essay 1: Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing a graduate degree at Kellogg (1-2 pages).
This is another fairly standard career goals/why MBA essay. As usual, it’s important to remember that specificity of goals is key, and keep in mind that the school prides itself on its collegial culture when addressing the ‘why Kellogg’ issue. One more thing to note is that the request that applicants “assess” their progress to date is unique to Kellogg’s version of this question. This would suggest that it might be appropriate to incorporate a few reflective or even evaluative comments into your discussion of your professional path in order to tailor your perspective to Kellogg’s question.

As is the case with most schools, demonstrating an understanding of the unique merits of Kellogg’s program is crucial to an effective response to this question (as well as the second essay about one’s potential contribution). Taking the time to learn about the school’s curriculum, special programs and extracurricular activities - whether through a visit to campus, conversation with alumni or reading the Clear Admit School Guide to Kellogg - will pay dividends.

Essay 2: Describe how your background, values, academics, activities and/or leadership skills will enhance the experience of other Kellogg students (1-2 pages).
You’re being given the opportunity to do two very important things in this essay. The first is to share a good deal of interesting information about your interests and experiences in order to distinguish yourself from other applicants and help the adcom get to know you. Second, this essay is the perfect forum for you to demonstrate your research on and fit with the program by explaining the ways your involvements and experiences to date translate to a number of specific contributions to the Kellogg community. Whether it’s a class to which your insight would prove especially relevant or a function you could organize as a member of a certain club, the more detail you can provide about the impact you would make, the more reason you’ll give the adcom to admit you.

Essay 3: Describe your key leadership experiences and evaluate what leadership areas you hope to develop through your MBA experience (1-2 pages).
This essay is a great opportunity to showcase your various leadership roles in college and afterwards. Given the number of subjects that need to be covered in this response, it would be wise to focus your discussion on two or three leadership examples rather than a laundry list of positions held. Of course, it’s also important to take note of the Kellogg-specific slant of this inquiry. In addition to touching on situations in which you’ve taken the lead and the skills gained and lessons learned from these experiences, you’ll want to think through the ways that you could apply these to the benefit of the Kellogg community, as well as how you could enhance your leadership approach during your time in business school.

Essay 4. Applicants must answer 2 of the below essays (2 paragraphs per question). (Re-applicants must answer question 4D and 1 other essay).
4A - Describe a time when you had to motivate a reluctant individual or group.
4B - I wish the Admissions Committee had asked me…
4C - What do others admire about you?
4D - For re-applicants only: Since your previous application, what are the steps you’ve taken to strengthen your candidacy?

Both Essay 4A and Essay 4C are new ones for Kellogg this year. With each passing year, MBA programs seem to become increasingly interested in the interpersonal relationships of its applicants. This trend is reflected in the new questions posted by Kellogg which asks candidates to consider their most admirable attributes and qualities, as well as their abilities to be both an effective leader and team member. Question 4A expects applicants to highlight not only their leadership skills, but also their capacity for using their own enthusiasm to encourage and excite others. Question 4C gives candidates a degree of freedom with this topic, as the focus of the essay could be either positive personal or work-related attributes, although applicants will ideally select a balance of the two to address. In approaching these essays, applicants should remember the strong emphasis Kellogg puts on teamwork and cooperation in both its curriculum and extracurriculars.

The other two questions, meanwhile, are tried and true elements of the Kellogg application, with option B giving applicants ample opportunity to share information about their involvements and interests outside of the professional realm or comment on subjects not mentioned elsewhere in the application. The reapplicant essay has also been a standard question for years running, giving returning candidates a chance to highlight the improvements and progress they’ve made since Kellogg heard from them last.

Chicago GSB Deadlines 2008-2009

The deadlines for Chicago GSB’s 2008-2009 application season have just been released!

The deadlines are as follows:

Round 1
Application Deadline: October 15, 2008
Mid Decision: November 12, 2008
Decision Notification Date: December 18, 2009

Round 2
Application Deadline: January 7, 2009
Mid Decision: February 18, 2009
Decision Notification Date: March 25, 2009

Round 3
Application Deadline: March 11, 2009
Mid Decision: April 22, 2009
Decision Notification Date: May 13, 2009

The application for Fall 2009 will not be available until late July.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Reminder: Clear Admit Consulting Services Early Bird Discount

We hope everyone is having a wonderful (and productive) weekend!  For those of you buried in GMAT study guides or initial essay topic outlines, we wanted to send a quick reminder about Clear Admit’s “early bird” discount.  The discount will only be available through July 1st, so please contact us ASAP if you are interested in locking in our admissions consulting services at the lowest rate! 

Up until midnight on Tuesday, applicants can make purchases at a reduced rate of $200 per hour - a discount normally reserved for only those purchasing 10-hour blocks of consulting time.  In addition, the $200/hour rate will no longer be availble once our 2008-09 prices go into effect on July 2nd, so this is really a great opportunity to sign up for our services at a significant discount.  All hours purchased at the disocunt price are valid for use throughout the 2008-09 admissions season!  Transactions can be made easily with a credit card through PayPal on our web site.

In order to gain access to this discount, please contact us for a free initial assessment!  Just send in your resume and we’ll put you in touch with one of our counselors for a discussion about your candidacy.  Don’t miss this chance to get a free review of your background and lock in our services at last season’s lowest rate.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Clear Admit Staff Update: Alex Brown Works to Combat Horse Slaughter

A few weeks ago we announced that Stacey Oyler, former Tuck assistant admissions director, would be joining the Clear Admit staff. She’s settling in nicely and already working with clients for the upcoming application season. In other staff news, we wanted to take a moment to provide an update on a former Clear Admit staffer, Alex Brown.

Brown, who continues to serve in an advisory role while on sabbatical from Clear Admit, has turned most of his focus in the past year toward the important issue of horse slaughter. What began as a sideline blog about racehorse Barbaro’s preparations for the Preakness grew into a full-time crusade against unnecessary horse slaughter after Barbaro’s subsequent injury and death. 

Through his website, www.alexbrownracing.com, Brown is working tirelessly to educate the public about the issue of horse slaughter, which also includes many racehorses once they are no longer able to race. Driven by a demand for horsemeat in other parts of the world, somewhere in the region of 100,000 horses who could live long, happy lives instead find themselves bound for slaughterhouses each year, Brown tells us. 

Some are unwanted, but many are simply unlucky. As part of his efforts to promote horse welfare, Brown is helping support legislation that would make horse slaughter – including transportation of horses to slaughter in other countries – illegal at the federal level. Recent efforts of the anti-slaughter community have helped lead to the successful closure of three U.S. slaughterhouses, two in Texas and another in Illinois.

Brown has now moved his base of operations to Canada to help support horse welfare there, because as progress is made at the legislative level in the U.S., animals are being shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter instead. (In Canada, Brown also works as an exercise rider for trainer Steve Asmussen.)

While the shift from admissions counselor to horse welfare advocate may seem a strange one, it made perfect sense to Brown. Many in the business school admissions world know Alex Brown well. For seven years he worked on the Wharton Admissions Committee, serving as the senior associate director of admissions. He left Wharton to join us here at Clear Admit, where he worked for two years counseling prospective MBA applicants.

What some may not know is that all the while he was waking before the sun to put in several hours every week at a track in Maryland galloping horses before heading into Clear Admit’s Philadelphia office. In fact, Brown came to the United States 20 years ago from his native United Kingdom as a horse racer. His MBA – at the University of Delaware – and subsequent work in MBA admissions and as an internet marketing professor - were initially all mere sidelines to galloping horses.

As fate would have it, Brown’s current endeavors allow him to combine his passion for horses with his prowess for internet marketing and his other MBA-related strengths. “The project basically combines all of my interests,” he says.  “From a management perspective it’s interesting in how the community has grown and how we’ve been able to raise a bunch of money without being an official enterprise or even an official nonprofit,” Brown continues. “We are very well organized on the horse slaughter issue. I do think we would be a terrific case study for Knowledge @ Wharton.” 

To date, his site has helped raise more than $900,000 to rescue 2,300 horses from the slaughter pipeline. Brown continues, “I had spent the better part of ten years interacting with awesome people who have done great work in their communities, MBA applicants and students alike. This was an inspiration for me to work on this project full time.”

Not at all unlike the admissions committees at the world’s top business schools, Clear Admit seeks well-rounded candidates with diverse interests to serve on our staff. Who better to help prospective business school applicants convey to schools their own multi-faceted personalities and unique offerings? We congratulate Alex Brown for following his passion for horse welfare in the past year. At the same time, we feel fortunate that he continues to lend us his expertise in the arena of MBA admissions.

To learn more about Alex Brown’s work on behalf of horse welfare, visit www.alexbrownracing.com. You may also be interested in this Q&A with Brown published by Bloodhorse.com yesterday, in which he discusses horse racing, horse rescue, horse slaughter and other issues relevant to general horse welfare.

Fridays From the Frontline

Welcome back to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s familiar foray into the MBA blogging fray.  Final festivities ushered out the last summer graduates this week, while able applicants angled to populate the places they’d vacated.  Let’s hear about it firsthand…

Soni got psyched for this year’s essay writing season upon seeing the recent release of Kellogg’s latest batch of questions.  His thorough essay approach involves outlining a response to each prompt, then narrowing down which he’ll choose to write on by assessing what he has to work with.  Noses to a more standardized grindstone, Omne and Journey 2BSchool honed their GMAT strategies this week, agreeing that faster isn’t always better.  While Journey 2BSchool warned against rushing into the GMAT, however, Omne resolved not to rush through it.  Actual application considerations aside, Missionmba bemoaned the fact that some U.S. b-schools require international students to have a cosigner in order to secure loans, which sadly puts some of the institutions he’s long been fantasizing about out of his reach; this caused him to adopt the jaded mantra “Check your pockets and the loan conditions even before you start researching a program.”  Almost-Darden-matriculant JulyDream was also feeling at a loss - for her iPod, Coach purse, designer sunglasses and soccer bag, to be exact…  All signs point to an unfortunate friend who repaid her favor of lending out her car with the gift of carelessness.

Half-MBA Iday was welcomed to his internship in Santiago this week by a ring of snow capped mountains and a first day on the job so interesting, he managed to stay awake all throughout, despite having just deplaned from a 40-hour flight.  Now he just needs to muster the energy to navigate the city, learn the language and forge a few friendships (in Spanish, of course)!  Balancing a bit less on his plate, M@ took a time-out to contemplate what the soundtrack to the movie of his life might be like, considering the high and low notes of his future career as a manager and the ever-confounding ability humans - himself included - have to hurt those around them.  Back to the here and now, Necromonger concluded his MBA chronicle with statistics (but no cartoons!?) on his recruiting experiences at INSEAD, while fellow INSEADer Marc Zornes renamed his blog in honor of the serendipitous “In The Forest of Fontainebleau” exhibit he recently saw at the National Gallery in Washington D.C., where he’s stationed on his summer internship.

Again, not quite all was quiet on the Western front, where the class of 2008 continued to walk slowly off into the sunset.  Back in Fontainebleau, Res I(p)sa shared some fairytale pictures of INSEAD’s Montmelian Ball, (hosted by the student residents of the Montmelian Chateau) and the school-wide Summer Ball and INSEAD cabaret.  Turning the page (or perhaps proceeding to the next slide?) CBS grad John mused on the importance of strong presentation skills, admitting that PowerPoint presentations, in particular, are a rare person’s (or even Jedi’s) forte.

That’s all the b-school blogging news for now, folks!  To be continued next week, only on FFF!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Association of International Graduate Admissions Counselors (AIGAC) Hosts First Annual Conference in Chicago

Last week, the Association of International Graduate Admissions Counselors (AIGAC) hosted its first annual conference in Chicago, drawing together AIGAC members from around the world to share experiences and best practices with fellow admissions counselors and speak directly with admissions officers from top graduate schools.

The two-day conference, held on June 18th and 19th, featured panel discussions on a range of topics related to the graduate admissions process and the role of admissions counselors, as well as tours of area business schools, meetings with admissions officers and valuable networking events for AIGAC members. The inaugural conference was organized by Clear Admit’s own Graham Richmond, who serves as AIGAC’s Treasurer and Chairman of the Events Committee.

AIGAC was established in 2006 as a not-for-profit association dedicated to setting industry standards for graduate admissions consultants and increasing public understanding of the important role admissions consultants play. Jointly founded by Clear Admit, Accepted.com, Maxx Associates and MBA Empresarial (Brazil), AIGAC’s membership now comprises more than 50 consultants from nine countries, including the United States, Japan, Mexico, China, Korea and Israel.

A strong line-up of compelling events helped make the inaugural AIGAC conference a huge success, with registration volume exceeding AIGAC’s initial goal by more than 200 percent.

“When embarking on the organization of this event, the AIGAC Events Committee frankly wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of interest, but we decided to follow a ‘If you build it, they will come’ philosophy,” said Richmond. The philosophy seems to have worked.

The conference’s first day included campus tours of the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business in Hyde Park, led by GSB Dean of Admissions Rosemaria Martinelli, and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in Evanston. As part of these visits, AIGAC members also had the opportunity to meet with admissions officers at each school. To conclude the day, conference attendees gathered for a private dinner at a downtown Chicago Restaurant.

The conference’s second day featured a full roster of panel events, including speakers from other top-tier business programs such as the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, the London Business School and UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.

Conference attendees also had the opportunity to meet with representatives from other schools as part of a joint cocktail hour hosted by AIGAC at the annual Graduate Management Admissions Council conference, taking place the same weekend.

“Over and over again we heard from the schools that they really liked the fact that we formed AIGAC and that they were thrilled that we were having our first conference and reaching out to them,” Clear Admit’s Richmond said.

Through these and other interactions with admissions officials, AIGAC learned that both Kellogg and Chicago are planning to release essay topics in the next couple of weeks (Kellogg has just done so), that Kellogg’s new facilities are now expected to be ready in 2012, that career placement this year has been superb and that application volume is up across the board, with schools reporting increases of anywhere from 10 to 30 percent.

While in Chicago, Richmond also gave a lecture to a group of about 45 prospective MBA applicants — standing room only! — at the Manhattan GMAT center in Chicago. As part of his presentation, he covered the basics of MBA admissions and answered numerous questions about the application process.

Fellow AIGAC members expressed enthusiastic appreciation for Richmond’s organization of this first annual conference.

“We toured great universities, met formally and informally with
admissions officers, learned from excellent panels, ate delicious food
and enjoyed meeting with, and learning from, our peers,” said Stacey Blackman, adding that the only complaint she heard was “I wish it was longer!!”

Calling it “a great step forward for the industry,” Accepted.com’s Paul Bodine expressed interest in helping to organize next year’s event. Consultants from several other firms also said they look forward enthusiastically to future years’ conferences, noting that the inaugural event helped them learn more about their profession and their colleagues, including that that they face many of the same challenges.

Hats off to AIGAC and our own Graham Richmond for a terrific conference kick off!

Berkeley / Haas Essay Topics 2008-2009

The Berkeley/Haas essay topics have been released for the upcoming application season! Listed below are the short answer questions, required essays, and optional essays for the Fall 2009 application.

Short Answer:

1. If you could change one thing you’ve done in your life, what would it be, and how would you do it differently? (250 word maximum)

2. Tell us about your most significant accomplishment. (250 word maximum)

3. At Haas, we value innovation and creativity. Describe an innovative solution you have created to address a specific challenge. (250 word maximum)

4. What steps have you taken to learn about the Berkeley MBA program, and what factors have influenced your decision to apply? (250 word maximum)

Required Essays:

1. Give us an example of a situation in which you displayed leadership. (500 word maximum)

2. What are your short-term and long-term career goals? How do your professional experiences relate to these goals? Why do you want an MBA from Berkeley at this point in your career? (1000 word maximum)

Optional Essays:

1. Please feel free to provide a statement concerning any information you would like to add to your application that you haven’t addressed elsewhere. (500 word maximum)

2. If you wish to be considered for the Haas Achievement Award (for individuals who have achieved success in spite of significant economic, educational, health-related and/or other obstacles), please use this space to address the obstacles you have overcome. (750 word maximum)

Workbook Wednesdays: Fifty Factorial Answer

Pencils up! Here is the answer to yesterday’s Manhattan GMAT challenge problem.

Question

What is the greatest integer m for which the number

50!

10^m

is an integer?

(A) 5
(B) 8
(C) 10
(D) 11
(E) 12

Answer

A quotient of two integers will be an integer if the numerator is divisible by the denominator, so we need 50! to be divisible by 10^m. To check divisibility, we must compare the prime boxes of these two numbers (The prime box of a number is the collection of prime numbers that make up that number. The product of all the elements of a number’s prime box is the number itself. For example, the prime box of 12 contains the numbers 2,2,3).

Since 10 = 2 × 5, the prime box of 10^m is comprised of only 2’s and 5’s, namely m 2’s and m 5’s. That is becaues 10^m = (2 × 5)^m = (2^m) × (5^m). Now, some x is divisible by some y if x’s prime box contains all the numbers in y’s prime box. So in order for 50! to be divisible by 10^m, it has to have at least m 5’s and m 2’s in its prime box.

Let’s count how many 5’s 50! has in its prime box.
50! = 1 × 2 × 3 × … 50, so all we have to do is add the number of 5’s in the prime boxes of 1, 2, 3, …, 50. The only numbers that contribute 5’s are the multiples of 5, namely 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50. But don’t forget to notice that 25 and 50 are both divisible by 25, so they each contribute two 5’s.

That makes a total of 10 + 2 = twelve 5’s in the prime box of 50!.

As for 2’s, we have at least 25 (2, 4, 6, …, 50), so we shouldn’t waste time counting the exact number. The limiting factor for m is the number of 5’s, i.e. 12. Therefore, the greatest integer m that would work here is 12.

The correct answer is E.

Kellogg Essay Topics 2008-2009

The Kellogg essay topics for the 2008-2009 application season have been posted! The adcom will again expect applicants to complete three mandatory questions and then select two more from a list of four. This year, the Kellogg adcom still requires its essays to be double-spaced. Although the two-page limit for the mandatory essays remains unchanged, the adcom now asks that applicants limit their additional two essays to no more than two paragraphs, a change from last year’s 2-3 paragraph guideline.

Here are the official Kellogg essay topics for the upcoming season:

1: Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing a graduate degree at Kellogg (1-2 pages).

2: Describe how your background, values, academics, activities and/or leadership skills will enhance the experience of other Kellogg students (1-2 pages).

3: Describe your key leadership experiences and evaluate what leadership areas you hope to develop through your MBA experience (1-2 pages).

Choose two of the following three essays:

4. Applicants must answer 2 of the below essays (2 paragraphs per question). (Re-applicants must answer question 4D and 1 other essay).

4A - Describe a time when you had to motivate a reluctant individual or group.

4B - I wish the Admissions Committee had asked me…..

4C - What do others admire about you?

4D - For re-applicants only: Since your previous application, what are the steps you’ve taken to strengthen your candidacy?

Welcome Class of 2011 Bloggers!

Though we’ve begun to feature applicants applying this fall in our weekly Fridays from the Frontline column, we wanted to take some time today to officially welcome the Class of 2011 to the blogging community! The list of bloggers who have announced their candidacy for this fall’s admissions season is over two dozen strong, and likely to grow as the deadlines approach. It’s great to see that there are so many applicants in this group, as these individuals will serve as a great source of information and moral support for each other throughout the application season.

Without further ado, here are the Class of 2011 Bloggers (along with a brief summary of their professional industry and location, when available):

Adekku - (works as an auditor in South East Asia)
http://blog-adekku.blogspot.com/

chaZer - (based in Cincinatti, OH)
http://theultimatedestination.blogspot.com/

Do I Really Need a MBA?
http://masterinbureacraticadminstration.wordpress.com/

fishee - (in advertising/marketing, based in Los Angeles, CA)
http://swimtomba.blogspot.com/

HappyBunny - (works in engineering, lives in the U.S.)
http://happybunnymba.blogspot.com/

Journey2BSchool
http://journey2bschool.blogspot.com/

maktub - (works as an engineer at a systems company in the U.S.)
http://alchemistmba.blogspot.com/

Maverick - (works in software product development)
http://mbastory.wordpress.com/

Maxwriter - (works in engineering in Bangalore)
http://max4mba.blogspot.com/

MBA Class of 2011
http://mbaclassof2011.blogspot.com/

MBA Hunter
http://mbahunter2011.blogspot.com/

MBA Monk - (works with technology in San Francisco, CA)
http://mbamonk.blogspot.com/

mba musings
http://musings360.blogspot.com/

Mba2011
http://mba2011.wordpress.com/

mindruna
http://mbaaspirations.wordpress.com/

Omne - (works in database marketing, lives in Ohio)
http://omnemba.blogspot.com/

Papillon - (works in IT)
http://alldreamz.blogspot.com/

Progress in Life
http://pulyanithinks.blogspot.com/

Samantha - (work relates to healthcare, based in New York City, NY)
http://bestmbablogever.blogspot.com/

Sameer - (Indian consultant currently working in Toronto, Canada)
http://chanakya.wordpress.com/

Off Course - (a couple, Portuguese pharmacists)
http://offcourse.wordpress.com/

Shobhit Sinha - (an engineer in India)
http://missionmba.wordpress.com/

Soni - (works with technology, based in Baltimore, MD)
http://sonismbaadventure.blogspot.com/

The.Grey.One - (works as a senior analyst in New York, NY)
http://thegreyone.blogspot.com/

TienyChesney - (a consultant that bounces between New York, NY, and Washington, D.C.)
http://mbaveggie.blogspot.com/

V2B-School - (a chemical engineer based in New Jersey)
http://masterinbureacraticadminstration.wordpress.com/

As might be expected at this time of year, many of the bloggers are focused on prepping for the GMAT and creating an initial list of target schools. Some, however, are already getting started on their essays and we look forward to following their stories throughout the application season (and into business school)!

For those blogging about their MBA application process in the fall of 2009, we encourage you to add your blog to the Applicant Bloggers page of the Clear Admit Wiki, a repository of information learned by applicants as they progress through the MBA admissions process. To add your address, simply create an account or send your information to wiki@clearadmit.com.

Once again, welcome Class of 2011 applicants and happy blogging!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

GMAT Scandal: The Saga Continues

We just wanted to provide our readers with a quick update on developments in the blogosphere since our post yesterday about the GMAT/Scoretop.com saga.

With the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) now in possession of the hard drive belonging to Scoretop’s founder, Lei Shi, test-takers revealed to have paid a subscription for access to actual GMAT test questions through Scoretop stand to have their test scores canceled and to be barred from taking the GMAT exam again.

Without a score to submit for the admissions exam favored by many of the top business schools in the world, the application process for these prospective applicants promises to be anything but easy. Scoretop customers who have yet to send scores to schools will have nothing to send. And for those whose scores have already been sent, GMAC says that it intends to notify schools of the cancellations.

But what about students who are already enrolled? Or who have already obtained their MBAs? As a BusinessWeek.com story on Monday pointed out, Scoretop has been operating since 2003. According to several schools contacted for comment, the fate of current or prospective students whose scores are canceled is still unknown. “It’s impossible to say at this point what that means,” Ed Anderson, Duke’s associate director of admissions, told BW.

According to Joe Fox, director of MBA programs at Washington University’s Olin Business School, a lot will have to do with how much information GMAC can provide about individual students – particularly about how frequently they used the Scoretop site. 

“We could do anything we wanted—from a slap on the wrist to expulsion from the program—and we’d be well within our rights,” Fox told BW. As a cautionary tale, Fox reminded readers that when a Chinese national was caught taking the GMAT for dozens of prospective students several years ago, one Olin student who had the test taken on his behalf was dismissed before he could complete his degree.

Which brings us to the point made by MBA blogger TinyDancer in a recent post. “It seems like every year there is a scandal in the MBA world,” the Wharton student writes. She goes on to remind us of a few from recent years, including the Harvard application decision “hacking” scandal, where students who followed the advice of a BW poster were able to modify the Apply Yourself website to see their decisions early, and last year’s Duke cheating scandal. 

Of course, we’ve covered each of these scandals over the years right here on the Clear Admit blog. So, while we can’t claim to be able to predict the exact flavor of next admission season’s scandal, we do promise to keep you informed.

Workbook Wednesdays: Fifty Factorial

While we took a look at some GMAT Strategies for the Verbally-Concerned last week, it’s time to sharpen those pencils again for this week’s challenge problem, courtesy of Manhattan GMAT! As always, start your calculations now and be sure to check back in with us tomorrow for an in depth look at the answer!

Question

What is the greatest integer m for which the number

50!

10^m

is an integer?

(A) 5
(B) 8
(C) 10
(D) 11
(E) 12

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Clear Admit’s “Early Bird” Discount!

Clear Admit is pleased to announce a discount for all applicants who sign up for our consulting services on or before July 1st!

Up until midnight next Tuesday, applicants can make purchases at a reduced rate of $200 per hour - a discount normally reserved for only those purchasing 10-hour blocks of consulting time.  For a limited time, instead of paying our full rate of $240 per hour, anyone interested in trying out our services can purchase smaller amounts at the discounted price! All transactions can be made easily through PayPal.

Contact us for a free initial assessment and more information on this great opportunity!  Just send in your resume and we’ll put you in touch with one of our counselors for a discussion about your candidacy.  Don’t miss this chance to get a free review of your background and lock in our services at last season’s lowest rate (2008-09 rates will take effect on July 2nd).

GMAT Corner Cutters Could Pay Dearly, According to Recent Court Ruling

The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) announced Friday that is has been awarded $2.3 million in damages in a copyright-infringement lawsuit against the operator of a website that posted real questions and unauthorized study materials to help prospective business school applicants pass the GMAT business school entrance exam.

Lei Shi operated www.scoretop.com, which for a $30 subscription provided users with actual GMAT questions. Shi, who was living in the United States when the suit was filed by GMAC, has returned as a fugitive to his native China, where he is the focus of a criminal investigation by the F.B.I.

In a seizure of his assets as part of the court ruling, GMAC has obtained the hard drive to Shi’s computer, which contained “substantial information about the individuals who participated in Scoretop’s unlawful activities either as employees or agents of Shi or as ‘members’ of the Scoretop site,” according to a release issued by GMAC.

GMAC has begun the process of reviewing materials on Shi’s hard drive to assess whether individuals have violated its testing policies through participation in Scoretop. The test scores of any that are deemed to be in violation will be canceled, and business schools will be notified of those cancelations.

In his own blog this week, Dean Robert Bruner of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business praised the court ruling and warned GMAT corner-cutters of the consequences they could face at his and other institutions.

“Darden and its peer schools will brook absolutely no cheating,” Bruner wrote. “The integrity of the GMAT is vital to the discovery and admission of real talent,” he continued.

Ironically, accessing the content available from sites such as Scoretop does not guarantee a higher score on the GMAT, according to Larry Rudner, GMAC vice president for research and development.

“Even if a site is illegally able to obtain some ‘real’ questions, it is extremely unlikely that a test taker will see the same questions on the live exam,” Ruder explains. A computer-adaptive test, the GMAT sifts through a bank of thousands of questions in the course of administering each individual exam.

Be that as it may, GMAC is “committed to reporting to schools any unethical behavior that we uncover regarding our testing policy and lack of compliance with that policy by candidates for admission who are sending their scores to schools,” GMAC President Dave Wilson said in a statement. “This case is just one example of our continued pursuit of those who fail to respect our intellectual property rights and our testing policies,” Wilson continued.

Darden’s Dean Bruner echoed this sentiment on his blog. “It is not unreasonable to assume that if you cheat, GMAC will discover it and come after you,” he wrote. “Applicants are well-advised to write an honest test. Cutting corners doesn’t pay.”

Clear Admit School Guides 2008-2009: Columbia, Harvard, Kellogg, NYU Stern, Stanford and Wharton

We’re pleased to announce the release of the 2008-2009 versions of six of our 17 Clear Admit School Guides, our line of informative reports about the top business schools. For those who might be unfamiliar, the School Guides offer in-depth information on all elements of the student experience at a leading MBA program, and compare the schools side-by-side in areas such as student demographics, curricular structure and employment statistics. In the Guides, we distill the MBA programs’ marketing messages and delve into the facts to deliver an objective and comprehensive overview of what each school offers and what makes each unique.

We’ve received a great deal of positive feedback from applicants about the usefulness of the School Guides. Here’s one bit of praise that illustrates the mileage one can get out of the information the School Guides provide:

The Clear Admit School Guides have been a great help throughout the application process. I first referred to them when selecting the schools to which I wanted to apply, and have kept referring back to them while writing my essays and preparing for interviews. They have helped make a sometimes overwhelming process easier with their clear and concise summaries and analysis on the top MBA programs.

The 2008-2009 versions of six of our School Guide titles - Columbia, Harvard, Kellogg, NYU Stern, Stanford and Wharton - feature the most current information from the programs, and offer some insight into year-by-year trends. More information about the Guides’ contents and order information is available in the School Guides section of our website.

We plan to re-release the remaining 11 School Guides (Anderson, Chicago, Darden, Fuqua, Haas, Johnson, LBS, MIT Sloan, Ross, Tuck and Yale) over the course of this summer, so stay tuned to the blog for more details!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Forte Foundation New, Returning Board Members Include Administrators from NYU Stern, MIT Sloan, CMU Tepper, UT-Austin McCombs, Kellogg and UVA Darden

The Forté Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping women assume leadership roles in business and enabling corporations to more effectively reach and retain top female talent, announced the election of new and returning board members this month.

This year’s roster includes administrators from several of the nation’s top business schools, as well as representatives from some of the world’s leading multinational corporations.

Forté, a consortium of 27 leading multinational corporations, 37 top business schools in the U.S. and abroad and the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), provides a national infrastructure for women at all stages of their careers to access the  information, scholarship support and networking connections they need to succeed in business.

Joining Forte’s board this year from the academic side is Anika Davis-Pratt, assistant dean of MBA admissions and financial aid for New York University’ Stern School of Business. Davis-Pratt joins several representatives from other top-tier business schools who are returning this year as board officers. They include

• Cindy Benton, director of student services at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business;
• Colleen McMullen Smith, director of diversity strategies and programs atCarnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business;
• Julie Strong, senior associate director of MBA admissions at MIT’s Sloan School of Management;
• Roxanne Hori, assistant dean and director of career management, Kellogg School of Management;
• Stacy Poindexter Owen, director of admissions, Wake Forest University, and
• Wendy Huber, assistant director, admissions, University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

From the corporate side, representatives from Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers and Avon joined the board as newly elected officers this year. Returning corporate officers this year include representatives from Deloitte and Touche, Citi, the Ernst & Young Foundation and Eli Lilly and Company.

To learn more about the Forté Foundation, visit www.fortefoundation.org. 

Admissions Tip: Crafting Strong Essays - The Rewards of Reflection

With several of the leading schools having already released their essay questions for this admissions season, we’re sure that quite a number of early birds are eager to get a jump on the process in order to complete as many applications as possible by round one. As applicants find themselves brainstorming for essay topics, we wanted to offer a few tips on presenting yourself and your experiences as advantageously as possible.

1) Take time to reflect. Before diving in and beginning work on a draft of any one essay, it’s often fruitful to think carefully about all of the stories and accomplishments at one’s disposal. These can include experiences from the professional realm, formal outside activities, college clubs and even more casual hobbies and interests. A comprehensive, reflective approach should enable you to arrive at the essay topics that are most impressive and in line with your overall positioning.

2) Establish balance. It is crucial that your essays work together to present a consistent and compelling picture of who you are, what you’ve done, and what you bring to the table; the adcom is looking for students who are interesting, well-rounded, and likely to make a contribution to the school both in and out of the classroom. In selecting topics for your essays from your list of possibilities, remember that it’s ideal to have a balance of stories covering your full career and to introduce your interests and involvements outside of work.

3) Keep it relevant. While it’s important that you have a wide range of stories to tell and positive characteristics to convey, there are a few things that you shouldn’t mention in your essays. In terms of chronology, remember that you are applying to graduate school and that the adcom is primarily interested in your experiences since the time you began college. There are of course some exceptions to this (such as questions that ask you to recap your life story or discuss what matters most to you), but as a general rule it’s best to avoid writing at length about your high school accomplishments or your upbringing, as this can make an applicant sound immature or stuck in the past. Other topics of which you should steer clear are those that are potentially sensitive or emotionally charged, such as politics and religion.

4) Show, don’t tell. Keep in mind that a given adcom reader often spends only fifteen or twenty minutes on each application. As a result, it is imperative that you make an impression and give the reader a clear sense of who you are and what you’ve done. Specific anecdotes and vivid details make a much greater impact than general claims and broad summaries. Be sure to quantify your impact, fully explain your actions, and provide illustrative examples to produce a set of engaging essays.

Happy writing! Stay tuned to this blog throughout the summer for additional essay-specific tips and guidelines.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Changes Afoot on Wharton’s Admissions Committee

According to job listings on the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) website, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business is seeking a new director of admissions and financial aid. The director, who reports directly to the Wharton Graduate Division Vice Dean, is responsible for designing and implementing a strategic global marketing plan for the MBA program, as well as creating and implementing an admissions and assessment process designed to “yield a diverse and academically superior class,” according to the listing.

According to the GMAC listing, Wharton also hopes to fill an associate director position in the MBA Admissions office that has been open since May 9th.

The director position, which oversees 16 full-time and numerous part-time and student positions, is listed as open as of June 4th, although our sources tell us that the current director or admissions and financial aid, Thomas Caleel, will continue in his present role for the next week or two.

Caleel, a Wharton alum, assumed the role of admissions director in March 2005, following an extensive search. Prior to joining the Wharton Admissions Committee, Caleel worked at Cagan McAfee Capital Partners, a private equity firm in California’s Silicon Valley, where he performed financial analysis for portfolio companies and raised public and private funds across the energy, recycling and life sciences sectors.

As always, we’ll do our best to keep you informed of any new information regarding admissions committee changes as it becomes available.

Fridays From the Frontline

Welcome back to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s clip through the MBA blogging community. Internship reporting was the name of the game among current students this week, while applicants and graduates diverged in an array of charged directions. Let’s assess the positives and negatives firsthand…

JulyDream returned from a photographically memorable trip to St. Thomas to find a Darden welcome packet in her mailbox and the transition to Charlottesville nearly upon her, while Tiny Dancer remained tantalizingly close to the finish line at work, but still not quite over it. Mustering up the wherewithal to refuse a barrage of last minute requests, she planned to meet her ever-extending departure deadline this last time… Here’s hoping she prevailed! Conversely, inspired by Hillary Duff, class of 2011 applicant Samantha came clean about running dangerously low on gainful employment gas this week; at least she’s developed a plan to ensure that her future subordinates aren’t caught in a similar energy crisis!

Other class of 2011 hopefuls surfaced, as well, like the aptly named Journey 2BSchool, who rebounded from a disappointing GMAT performance with renewed vigor, thanks to the support of friends in the blogosphere. Opening up a whole new can of worms, so to speak, TienyChesney hailed the advent of the Columbia ED 2009 BusinessWeek forum thread - for now, at least! Getting back on track, Missionmba examined the Indian School of Business’ unconventional essays - which even include a case study - and what he’s dubbed their “stingy” word limits.

Finally back from abroad, soon-to-be-second-year Anand prepared to… leave again! But this time he’ll