2008 September » Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

“Brace yourselves - because we are!” read an email to Wharton School alumni sent last week. “We expect this to be one of our highest years in terms of applications received.”

Business school application volume has historically run counter to the economy, spiking in times of financial downturn. Accounting for the increase in volume are both those seeking simply to ride out the storm in school and those viewing a slowdown as an opportune time to obtain an advanced degree to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive job market.

The past couple of years have been no exception. GMAT test registration volume, which can be a good indicator of how many people are considering applying to business school, has been rising steadily.

According to the most recent figures, year-to-date worldwide registration through the end of August was 194,946, representing a 10.98 percent increase over the number of registrations recorded during the same period in 2007. This figure represents the highest registration volume recorded for any years studied by the Graduate Management Admissions Council, which administers the GMAT exam.

While it’s too early to measure the impact of the past few weeks’ market gyrations on admissions numbers, business school admissions offices are bracing for record application volume in the cycles ahead.

The following snapshot of Wharton’s incoming class this fall gives a sense of where the school’s application cycle closed last year. With the admissions office expecting this year’s volume to be even greater, admission criteria may prove even more competitive than usual.

Wharton received 7,328 applications for the 2010 class, up from 6,649 the year before. Meanwhile, the actual enrollment size – 800 – remained constant.

Admitted students, on average, had six years of work experience (up from 5.8 the year before), a 3.5 grade point average and a GMAT score of 715 (up just a few points from last year’s 712). The average age of applicants was 28.

It’s time for another look at the programs, resources and opportunities that help differentiate the leading business schools. Today we will examine the options available to help incoming Fuqua students start the school year on the right foot.

All Fuqua first-year students participate in the recently-introduced, four-week Global Institute pre-term program. The Institute, held in August before the start of classes, consists of three core courses designed to help students gain a more nuanced understanding of the global business environment and enhance their collaborative leadership skills.

In addition to the mandatory Global Institute, Fuqua offers a Summer Math Review Course and a Language Institute in the weeks before New Student Orientation to help students build targeted skills before the start of classes. Although all students are generally invited to participate in these courses, the Admissions Office recommends or requires enrollment for particular students with weaker math or English skills. Because the programs meet during the same time period, it is impossible to complete both, but the administration reports that few, if any, entering students need extra preparation in both subjects.

The Language Institute, or LI, begins in mid-July and is designed to help international students build English speaking, writing and listening skills, orient to the academic environment at Fuqua, and begin creating friendships with other students. The LI, which costs $3,370 in the 2008-2009 academic year, is divided into four phases of teaching and support. In the optional first phase, students who would like to complete individual preparatory work with a tutor are encouraged to arrive in mid-July for tutorial sessions. The intensive two-week Language Institute makes up phase two of the program, and during this time students complete English diagnostic assessments, language tutorials, experiential learning projects and case study analyses. Classes during phase two meet from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day, with mandatory social events and team meetings often scheduled for the evenings. Phase three begins once LI participants start the Global Institute course. The LI faculty use the “live” academic setting of the Global Institute to give LI participants detailed feedback and suggestions for improvement before the first term of classes begins. Finally, entering students who participate in the LI are eligible to receive continued language support through individual counseling or small group work throughout their time at Fuqua.

For more information on pre-term and international orientation programs at Fuqua or other leading business schools, be sure to talk with current students or check out the Academics section of the Clear Admit School Guides!

Robert Joss, dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), announced last week that he will resign from his post at the end of the current academic year.

Joss, who will have served as dean for 10 years when he steps down, can claim many accomplishments during his tenure. Under his leadership, Stanford GSB developed and introduced a new MBA curriculum in the fall of 2007, planned and begun construction on a new environmentally sustainable campus expected to be complete in 2011, and nearly tripled its endowment, increasing it from $387 million in 1999 to $1 billion in 2008.

“Back in 1999, I never could have imagined how much we would have accomplished through the creativity of our faculty, staff and alumni,” Joss said in a statement announcing his plans to step down. “When future generations look back on this first decade of the century, I hope they will see that we laid the foundation for teaching and learning for the increasingly fast-paced and integrated global economy and for the team-based, cross-cultural nature of management that will characterize the years ahead,” he continued.

Joss also led the creation of three new academic centers (the Center for Leadership Development and Research, the Center for Social Innovation and the Center for Global Business and the Economy), two new joint degrees (the MBA-MS Environment and Resources and MBA-MA Public Policy) and two new four-week summer programs (one for undergraduates and another for non-business graduate students).

He also significantly expanded Stanford’s executive education offerings and renewed and expanded efforts to recruit world-class research and teaching faculty through the addition of an associate dean for faculty recruiting and retention.

Of his decision to leave at the end of his second five-year term appointment, Joss quoted a former Stanford dean, Ernie Arbuckle, agreeing that it was “good for the individual and the institution to ‘re-pot’ every 10 years – allowing new leadership, energy, and innovation to emerge.”

With MBA schools’ R1 deadlines just around the corner, we wanted to offer some words of advice about an often overlooked element of one’s file: the application data forms. All too often, we see candidates leave these online application forms for the last minute, even rushing to enter all the required information from work on ‘deadline day’. The truth is that a weak effort on these forms can do serious harm to one’s candidacy, as it might reflect poorly on the applicant’s professional polish or commitment to the application process. This being the case, here are a few tips for those who are in the midst of completing this component of the application:

1) Don’t be lazy. We know that many applicants feel ‘burned out’ from their essays, and that it’s tempting to zip through the application forms and provide a bare minimum of information. While it’s fine to use your resume as a starting point, make sure that you think beyond this ready-made content and consider other information that might be of interest. In many cases, the forms are a great opportunity for you to list outside activities in depth, offer a quick explanation of a bad semester, share the significance of some professional awards you’ve received, and so on. In fact, your application forms will often be the starting point for the admissions officer’s review of your file. Put your best foot forward!

2) Follow instructions. If a school asks you to list activities in order of importance to you, then do not list them chronologically (as you may have done for another school). If the school asks for a contact person, title or the number of hours/week, do not leave these fields blank. Attention to detail is very important, making spell checking another important step in this process. In fact, many admissions officers have stated that they use the application forms as a way to see whether or not candidates have the ability to follow instructions and show attention to detail.

3) Make everything clear. The last thing you want is for your reader to have to play detective in understanding your career progression, making sense of gaps in employment, or evaluating your undergraduate performance. If your listings are not clear, the reader may assume you are hiding something - a conclusion that could seriously damage your chances. By the same token, you should avoid using industry jargon and be sure that all of your statements will make sense to a reader who is not familiar with your industry or function. Given the level of competition in the applicant pool, the admissions office can afford to dismiss files that are confusing or difficult to follow.

4) Don’t go overboard. Admissions officers typically review several files in a sitting - devoting much less time than you might imagine to each file. With this in mind, avoid listing 18 activities, 22 awards and 17 publications - especially if some of those items date back to high school (or are more than 10 years old). Stay focused on the elements of your background that are most relevant, while following the instructions that have been outlined. Remember that the application process is an exercise in marketing, and that the schools appreciate an applicant who is discerning about what details to share and knows how to present him or herself most effectively.

With the nation squarely focused on the state of the economy and Congressional negotiations toward a bailout plan waging on, business schools, too, have kept the financial crisis at the forefront of their communications.

Harvard Business School’s Admission Director Dee Leopold yesterday posted an entry on her blog directed toward prospective applicants wondering how the current economic situation will impact upcoming admissions volumes and cycles.

According to Leopold, the Admissions Office at HBS has been receiving a new array of questions given the climate of uncertainty in the financial markets. Questions have ranged from whether or not HBS intends to increase the size of next year’s class and/or the number of admits from financial services in light of higher application volume to whether prospective candidates who are unemployed will be at a disadvantage.

The class size next year will not increase, remaining at roughly 900 students, Leopold says. As to increasing the number of admits from financial services, Leopold’s answer was less precise. “Not necessarily,” she said. “Our goal is to compose a class which represents many different kinds of diversity, of which professional experience is only one element.” But there are not strict quotas that govern industry or geographical targets, so the overall class profile could shift some in the coming year.

Applicants who find themselves unemployed will not be at a disadvantage, Leeopold assures. “We realize that these are unusual times and that many strong contributors may find themselves in this situation,” she says.

Schools Offer Support to Alumni
MIT Sloan and Wharton, meanwhile, have each reached out to their alumni bases via email to remind them that school career services, networks and support are available to those within the alumni community who may need them.

“Whether you are employed by a fledging new venture, a not-for-profit service or one of the firms in the headlines, these services are there for you,” wrote MIT Sloan Dean David Schmittlein in an email address to alumni earlier this week. Schmittlein also encouraged alumni who are in a position to provide support to other alums in need to get in touch with the school.

Dean Tom Robertson of the Wharton School at the University of Pennyslvania issued a similar statement to that school’s alumni on Monday, listing a range of resources available to alumni in need of support and encouraging others who might be in a hiring position to post job opportunities at no cost on the Wharton Job Board.

Roberston also noted that Wharton faculty led a teach-in on campus on September 16th about the unfolding financial situation attended by more than 1,000 students. Videos of that day’s panelists are available for viewing at this link.

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business also reached out to its alumni, including convening a dinner in New York in the immediate aftermath of the Lehman bankruptcy announcement for members of the 2008 class who had accepted offers with the firm.

“As soon as we heard the news, we reached out to the ‘08s who had just graduated in June,” explained Julie Morton, associate dean of career services at Chicago GSB. According to Morton, 26 members of the 2008 Chicago class had accepted offers with Lehman, some in Chicago and New York and others in London and Asia.

Morton and Stacey Kole, dean of Chicago’s full-time MBA program, flew to New York to have dinner with the Lehman students there on September 19th. “At that point the whole Barclays deal had been announced and they were waiting to see,” Morton explained, most having just completed training a week earlier and not yet started their rotational programs.

“They were in a state of limbo, and we were really just reminding them that we were here from them,” Morton said.

“At this point quite honestly I’m not sure they are going to need a lot of new job support,” Morton said in a phone interview earlier this week. “I think for the most part they will land on their feet with the acquisition,” she said, “but I think it meant a lot to them to know that we are there.”

Partnering with the Wall Street Journal and CNBC, Yale School of Management (SOM) held a roundtable discussion Tuesday in New York on the current financial crisis, drawing together business leaders and scholars from Yale, Wharton, NYU, Columbia and Harvard to examine the state of the economy and the proposed Treasury Department bail-out plan.

“We were inspired by the outpouring of interest and the quick response to this event,” said its organizer, Yale SOM Senior Associate Dean Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. Planning began on Sunday night, and by Tuesday afternoon a staggering roster of economic thought leaders had assembled around the table to share their insights.

Among those in attendance were a former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the former executive chairman of the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, the president and CEO of Marsh & McLennan Companies, the president and CEO of Credit Suisse Investment Banking and managing directors and partners at several prominent boutique investment and private equity firms. A full list of roundtable participants is available here.

“That we could get everyone together so quickly is a signal of both their leadership and their concern in this growing crisis,” said Sonnenfeld. “Peer-driven learning is what is required, as there is no clear map to follow for navigating this worst financial crisis in 80 years,” he continued.

Yale SOM will post video of the full roundtable discussion as soon as it is available. In the meantime, you can view video from various roundtable participants:

Check back tomorrow when our continuing coverage of top business school’s responses to the current economic crisis will include outreach efforts by the Wharton School, MIT Sloan and Chicago GSB to recent alums, as well as Harvard Business School’s advice to prospect applicants on how the situation could impact future application cycles.

Admissions Director Q&A: Sara Neher of the University of Virginia’s Darden School

Sara Neher assumed the role of director of admissions at the University of Virginia’s Darden School two years ago. She came to Darden from just across campus, at UVA’s Jefferson Scholars Foundation. There, as director, she’d already been working with Darden in the course of launching the Darden Jefferson Fellowship. Now in its fourth year, the prestigious prize, awarded solely on the basis of merit, covers full tuition, fees and living expenses for the two-year MBA program for a few chosen students in each class.

Neher is no stranger to Charlottesville. She was an undergraduate there as well. But she left for long enough to get a solid grounding in the business world, including obtaining an MBA at Emory’s Goziueta Business School and working for five years at Proctor and Gamble.

Traveling extensively through the middle of October like so many other admissions officers, Sara still found time to shed a little light on what she and her team are looking for as they read prospective applicant’s essays. She also shared about some new developments at Darden, including the naming of a new director for the school’s entrepreneurship and innovation think tank, the Batten Institute, and impressive advances in campus diversity.

Clear Admit: What’s the single most exciting development, change, or event happening at Darden this coming year?

Sara Neher: The most exciting thing to happen at Darden this year is the hiring of Mike Lenox as Executive Director of Darden’s Batten Institute think tank on entrepreneurship and innovation. Mike will be on the strategy faculty and specializes in corporate environmental sustainability. In addition, he attended the University of Virginia for his undergraduate degree and during his time here was chair of our honor committee. He will be traveling to several cities this fall, so applicants may be able to meet him at our events.

We’re also very proud of our diversity accomplishments this year. The first year class has a record number and percentage of Hispanic-American students for Darden. In addition, this year we are co-hosting the LGBT Reaching Out Conference in Washington, DC.

CA: How does your team approach the essay portion of the application specifically? What are you looking for as you read the essays? Are there common mistakes that applicants should try to avoid? One key thing they should keep in mind as they sit down to write them?

SN: Our essays are meant to force applicants to be very introspective, and to use examples from work or life to illustrate their strengths or key learnings. We are hoping to identify leadership potential, intelligence, and an ability to see that there is a world beyond oneself. The questions are also meant to represent Darden to the applicant. We do believe in creativity, ethics, and the power of failure for learning as well as the case method. Our mission is to seek to improve society by developing leaders in the world of practical affairs. The essays will show us how applicants align with that mission.

In terms of things to avoid, please avoid being vague. Do enough research to know what it means to say “I want to go into private equity” or consulting, banking, etc.

Hello and welcome back to Fridays From the Frontline, your weekly Clear Admit b-school stress bail out. Summer has officially ended and many might wonder what, exactly, happened to the first half of September? MBA students and aspirants continue to find new reserves of focus, determination and drive in order to manage their workloads (be they essays or case studies), let’s see how they’ve all done over the last seven days!

As October gets closer and closer we continue to wish aspirants the best of luck in their essays, data forms and overall applications. Clear Admit also sends warm regards to current students just about to start the process of finding their ’short-term goal’ and to those simply settling after a hectic opening month.

(A) Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but statement (2) alone is not.
(B) Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but statement (1) alone is not.
(C) Statements (1) and (2) TAKEN TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.
(D) EACH statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
(E) Statements (1) and (2) TAKEN TOGETHER are NOT sufficient to answer the question.

Answer
The given information simply guarantees that n is a positive integer.

Statement (1) indicates that 3^n – 1 has three prime factors, not necessarily distinct. There is no way to intuit or derive a general solution for n; we must simply test values of n and see how many prime factors the expression has.

If n = 1, then 3^n – 1 = 2, which has just one prime factor. N cannot be 1.
If n = 2, then 3^n – 1 = 8, which has three non-distinct prime factors (8 = 2^3). N could be 2. However, we should not stop here. We need to see whether other values of n generate expressions that have three prime factors.
If n = 3, then 3^n – 1 = 26, which has two prime factors: 2 and 13. N cannot be 3.
If n = 4, then 3^n – 1 = 80, which has six prime factors: 2 (counted five times) and 5, since 80 = (5)(2^5). N cannot be 4. There does not seem to be a simple pattern in the number of prime factors, so we should suspect that for some other value of n, the expression has three prime factors, but we need to prove it. Let’s try one more.
If n = 5, then 3^n – 1 = 242. 242 = (2)(121) = (2)(11^2). 242 has three prime factors, 2 and 11 (counted twice). N could be indeed be 5. Since n could be 2 or 5 (at least), we do not know what n is. INSUFFICIENT.

Statement (2) indicates that n^2 = 2^n. By testing small numbers, we see that n could only be 2 or 4. For values of n above 4, the right side of the equation grows faster than the left side; for instance, if n = 5, then n^2 = 25, but 2^n = 32. The powers of 2 grow faster than the squares. So n cannot be any larger value. However, we do not know whether n is 2 or 4. INSUFFICIENT.

The correct answer is C: Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are sufficient, but neither statement ALONE is sufficient.

The Kelley School of Business at Indiana University next week will host its first CFO roundtable, drawing chief financial officers from top global companies to discuss how they manage financial risks.

CFOs from FedEx, Whirlpool, Ernst & Young LLP, John Deere and six other companies are scheduled to attend the October 3rd event, and faculty from Kelley and the IU School of Law—Bloomington will moderate 12 panel discussions. More than 500 Kelley School students are expected to participate.

I”I think most students don’t have a good idea about what chief financial officers do and the challenges they face,” David Greene, a clinical professor of accounting at Kelley, said in a statement.

“This event will provide our students with an understanding that what they are studying in the classroom is relevant,” Greene said. ”It will provide them with new perspectives through which they can view the problems they’ve been learning about, particularly through the way CFOs think and react to them and to each other.”

Sponsored by Ernst & Young, the conference also will include sessions on corporate governance and ethics, corporate finance, investor relations, international financial reporting standards, legal issues and career advice.

Greene expects the conference to be highly interactive and valuable for both students and executives. Polling a number of CFOs, he found that many hoped to find generational diversity as an item on the day’s agenda.

“The CFOs are all baby-boomers and they find they don’t understand, motivate and incent Generation Y as effectively,” Greene said.

In response, one of the conference sessions will focus on exactly that topic. “That session is going to be as much about the students presenting to them as them presenting to the students,” Greene explained. “The idea is that they’ll both come up with a better understanding of each other.”

Another hope for the conference is that it will help CFOs learn how to access academic research that before seemed inaccessible and turn theoretical information into practical business tools.

“When I was a CFO, I ignored academic research, largely because there wasn’t any easy way to access it,” said Greene, who held that position at Young & Rubicam before joining the Kelley School. “We’re going to give them a better understanding of what the process is, in a way that will make it more user-friendly and transparent to them going forward,” Greene said.

To learn more about the upcoming CFO Roundtable at the Kelley School, click here.

Oxford/Said’s essay topics remain unchanged this year. With a total of 3000 words between two essay topics, Oxford presents a unique challenge in terms of sharing important and relevant information about one’s candidacy while staying on topic. For this reason, careful reflection and outlining is even more important when approaching this sort of application than one with a long series of shorter answers.

Essay 1: Explain why you chose your current job. How do you hope to see your career developing over the next five years? How will an MBA assist you in the development of these ambitions? (1000 word maximum)
This is a very standard career goals/why MBA essay. Note the explicit five-year goals timeline; while it’s certainly fine to look beyond this is in your essay and cover longer-term objectives, it will be important to develop the five year plan in depth to tailor your response to the question. As is the case with any essay of this sort, you’ll also want to comment on the specific merits of the Said Business School even though the question doesn’t mention this directly.

Essay 2: Which recent development, world event or book has most influenced your thinking and why? (2000 word maximum)
This question, which covers the range of world geography and topics factual and fictional, is about as broad as they come. The rather high word limit makes responding to the question all the more challenging, as many applicants find it difficult to sustain a coherent and relevant discussion over 2000 words. In selecting a topic, think carefully about what your event or book selection will tell the reader about your concerns and priorities, ideally selecting a subject that is in keeping with the positioning established in the first response. In terms of structuring the discussion, it might be helpful to think about ways that this book, development or event has influenced your actions as well as your thinking; this could provide a way to introduce a fair amount of information about your experiences and candidacy while keeping to the topic.

For more guidance on how best to present yourself to Oxford or other programs with upcoming deadlines, feel free to send your CV to info@clearadmit.com for a free initial assessment.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Workbook Wednesdays! As always, we’d like to thank our friends at ManhattanGMAT for providing this week’s Challenge Problem. Check back tomorrow for an in-depth look at the answer!

The Economist called it “an insightful portrait of HBS life.” HBS Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs Carl Kester said, “The book contains numerous factual errors and mischaracterizations that range in nature from minor to egregious.” BusinessWeek crowned it an “excellent book [that] only deepens the puzzle” of how so many Americans at once resent and revere the ivy-draped Cambridge, Massachusetts, institution. Adam Ireland, a contributing writer to HBS’s student paper, meanwhile, concluded after an arguably quite balanced review, “When it comes down to it, this isn’t a particularly good book.”

Perhaps on this we can all agree: Philip Delves Broughton’s tell-all tale of his two years at Harvard Business School has created quite a buzz. The Economist and BW were joined by the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, Bloomberg and others in reviewing the pithily titled Ahead of the Curve (a reference to HBS’s grading system). To say nothing of the ongoing discourse it spurred in the pages of HBS’s own Harbus.

Sad for Broughton that his resume wasn’t quite as attention-grabbing. (He interviewed at Google and McKinsey but ultimately graduated from HBS without a job offer.)

Some speculate that Broughton, who left a position as Paris bureau chief at Britain’s Daily Telegraph to attend HBS, only ever really did so with the intention of writing about it. As has been noted, he certainly might have increased his odds of getting a fantastic job out of school if he’d spent his summer interning, as his classmates did, rather than writing his exposé.

Many reviewers have opined on what they say the book reveals about what Broughton gained or missed from the HBS experience. Specifically, several have pointed out that Broughton entered HBS without a clear sense of what he wanted out of the experience and thus emerged with equally hazy takeaways.

At the same time, his overview of the basic literature of HBS’s MBA program got praise from several sources. “He has put his class notes to good use by providing an excellent layman’s guide to the big ideas of the literature,” writes the Economist.

Not surprisingly, HBS’s case method gets prominent play, which alone will make the book a useful read to applicants who want to get more of a glimpse of just how the signature teaching method is employed there. “It’s a testament to the method of the Harvard faculty that Broughton managed to become conversant in the language of business with so little prior exposure to it,” writes BusinessWeek.

Of course, it’s Broughton’s outspoken criticism of HBS as a place full of overbearingly entitled and/or ethically challenged spreadsheet makers and PowerPoint presenters that has spawned its own sharp criticism – from current students, alumni and the HBS adminstration.

So, prospective HBS applicants want to know, is Ahead of the Curve worth the investment – either of the $25.95 retail price or the time reading it could take away from writing inspired application essays?

As we say about all of the various information sources on the top business schools – including the ever multiplying school rankings – Broughton’s memoir, in that it provides insight into the student experience at HBS, can be used as one of many tools in evaluating your options for business school.

Of course, Broughton’s memoir is just that – the personal experiences of a single HBS graduate. So if you do choose to add his voice as a resource in your HBS exploration, be sure that his is but one of many view points you consider.

Clear Admit has been invited to serve as a ‘featured expert’ in the highly popular Beat The GMAT forums. Starting immediately, Clear Admit’s Graham Richmond and Eliot Ingram will be responding to queries from MBA applicants in the forums and moderating the ongoing discussion.

As our long-time readers know, Beat The GMAT originally started as a blog written by Eric Bahn back in 2005. Eric was devoted to beating the test and opted to chronicle his experiences preparing for it - with the aim of helping others do the same. In fact, Clear Admit’s Fridays From the Frontlines column followed Eric as he posted information about the test and the Beat The GMAT scholarships he raised for fellow test-takers. Over the last three years, the Beat The GMAT blog has transformed into a full-fledged discussion forum that is frequented by applicants from across the globe.

Needless to say, it is a pleasure to be invited to serve as experts in such an important MBA applicant community. Our thanks to Eric and his team for making this possible!

Darden’s application essay topics this year mark a rather large departure from those of the prior years. Last year, Darden posed rather narrow questions that seemed designed to force applicants to self-select and cultivate a certain type of community. Meanwhile, this year’s essays have swung back toward a more mainstream focus, making them somewhat easier to answer. Let’s take a closer look at each of these questions:

Essay 1: What pivotal choices have you made in your life that have influenced your decision to pursue an MBA? (500 words)
Whereas last year’s ‘why MBA’ question was framed in terms of what mattered most to them both professionally and personally, Darden has reworked this question to focus instead on specific, significant choices rather than enduring priorities. The fact that the prompt sets the applicant’s life as the scope indicates that the school still invites personal reflection, though the main focus should likely be on professional turning points, given the end result of seeking an MBA in pursuit of specific career goals. In approaching this question, you should thus think about the motivation behind your career goals and what has encouraged you to develop these objectives. The choices that you discuss should be ones that had, and continue to have, ramifications for your career development and growth.

Essay 2: From the following categories, describe the one that has taught you the most: a creative challenge, an ethical dilemma or an experience of failure. Why? (250 words)
Here, applicants have the opportunity to discuss leadership capacity within the context of confronting a creative challenge, professional and personal integrity in working through an ethical dilemma, or maturity and growth in overcoming a failure or a setback. The three options presented by this prompt allow applicants to draw on a wide range of situations and contexts in selecting a topic for this essay, though the rather narrow word limit will require that they pare whichever story they choose down to its core. In addition to simply sharing the relevant details of the story, candidates will need to discuss what they learned as a result and, ideally, also touch on how they have continued to draw upon these lessons since.

Essay 3: Describe how you are a fit with the case study method. (250 words)
Darden’s focus on the case method of instruction has long been one of the program’s major selling points, and in turn, the school is now asking applicants to sell the adcom on their preparedness for this unique classroom environment. In thinking about how to address this question, it might be fruitful to reflect on your leadership, teamwork, and general interactive approach. You will want to highlight examples from your past experiences that demonstrate your ability to think creatively, assert your opinion, reconcile differing points of view, and define and work towards goals. Of course, any firsthand knowledge of the case method gained through class visits or discussions with current or former Darden students would strengthen your case. Candidates may also wish to investigate the Clear Admit School Guide to Darden for further insight into the learning environment.

As many of you may know, former Wharton Admissions Director Thomas Caleel stepped down in June, and a search for his replacement is currently underway. Of course, the important work of the admissions office cannot be put on hold. Anjani Jain, vice dean and director of Wharton’s Graduate Division, has stepped in as interim director until Caleel’s successor is named. He is supported by a veteran staff of senior and associate admissions directors led by Judith Hodara, who joined the Wharton Admissions Committee in 2000.

Amid a busy season of travel to admissions events around the globe, we managed to catch up with Judith last week on the road. She shared enthusiastically about the new accelerated three-year JD/MBA program that the Wharton School will offer in collaboration with the Law School of Pennsylvania beginning next year.

In her answers below, she also helps demystify the application process for prospective applicants and offers some advice on how applicants can let their true voices come through in their essays. So read on!

Clear Admit: What’s the single most exciting development, change, or event happening at Wharton this coming year?

Judith Hodara: As we recently announced, the Wharton School and the Law School at the University of Pennsylvania are launching an accelerated three-year program leading to both the JD and MBA degrees. We’re really excited about this new opportunity to add to our joint and dual degree programs.

Students in the new program will spend the first year in Law School and the following summer in four Law and Wharton courses designed specifically for the three-year JD/MBA. The second and third years will include a combination of Law and Wharton courses, including capstone courses in the third year and work experience in law, business, finance, or the public sector in the summer between the second and third years.

Applicants must be admitted by both schools in order to enroll in the three-year program. Students in the joint program will be required to meet the Law School’s mandate to perform 70 hours of supervised legal work in a pro-bono setting in order to graduate.

CA: Walk us through the life of an application in your office from an operational standpoint. What happens between the time an applicant clicks ‘submit’ and the time the committee offers a final decision (e.g. how many “reads” does it get, how long is each “read,” who reads it, does the committee convene to discuss it as a group, etc.).

JH: Once an application is processed by members of our operations team, it is assigned to one of the student readers who are members of the admissions team. This first read is then shared with members of the admissions committee who re-read the file and make further recommendations on extending an invitation to interview.

If the invitation is offered, the application waits for another read once the interview report is recieved. The interviews are blind, so the interviewer will not have had access to the application beforehand. All of these applications with interview reports are then discussed in a series of committee sessions, and the final decisions are sent out 10 weeks after the deadline date.

JH: We are hoping students will be true to themselves when they write about the things that matter to them. They should keep in mind that we really do read the WHOLE application from start to finish. The essays do tell us so much about the applicant, both in terms of the content they choose and how they are able to express themselves.

There are not really common mistakes beyond assuming that the reader WANTS or NEEDS to read something specific; these become the applications where the applicant does not allow his or true voice to come out and leaves us wishing we knew more.

It’s time again for another edition of Trivia Tuesday, our weekly examination of the programs and opportunities that differentiate the leading MBA programs. This week we turn our attention to UCLA Anderson and an unusual feature of their second-year academic program: the Applied Management Research Project.

As second-years, Anderson students test their business skills in a practical setting by partnering with organizations to address complex internal business problems or evaluate strategic opportunities. Some students opt to put their entrepreneurial abilities to the test, fulfilling the two-quarter Applied Management Research Project (AMR) requirement by establishing their own ventures. Many students cite the AMR as one of their most rewarding and confidence-building experiences at Anderson.

Students choose their own AMR teams, which are comprised of three to five people guided by a faculty advisor. Teams have significant latitude in defining their projects, beginning with a choice between completing a Management Field Study, creating a business or pursuing a special project. In choosing a Management Field Study, as the vast majority of students do, a team either completes a strategic project for a company as arranged by Anderson, or independently secures a partner company, which is subject to program approval. Approaching the partnership like a consulting engagement, Management Field Study teams collaborate with company executives to identify and offer solutions to organizational and competition-based problems. Recent student teams have worked for such companies as Yahoo, Wells Fargo, Kendall Jackson Wineries, Phoenix Realty Group and the L.A. Times. Teams seeking experience in smaller businesses have joined with the online start-up Savings.com, and worked with a local cooking show host to help her launch her own line of cooking products.

In addition to freedom in choosing the industry and function of their partner companies, Management Field Study teams also select partner companies based on location. Those desiring international business exposure are matched with international partners, regularly communicating with these firms via teleconferencing, though some companies may choose to fly their student teams on-site for special meetings and debriefings. Teams who prefer consistent face-to-face meetings select business partners nearby, or opt for regional partners and split the travel obligations amongst team members.</