APPLICANT RESOURCES

Admissions Director Q&A (New!) Below are links to Clear Admit's exclusive admissions director Q&A sessions.
Dawna Clarke (Tuck)
Rose Martinelli (Chicago)
Judith Hodara (Wharton)
Sarah Neher (Darden)
Soojin Kwon Koh (Michigan)
Randall Sawyer (Cornell)
Beth Flye (Kellogg)
David Simpson (LBS)
Liz Riley Hargrove (Duke)
Linda Meehan (Columbia)
Bruce DelMonico (Yale)
Peter Johnson (Berkeley)
Isser Gallogly (NYU)
Mae Jennifer Shores (UCLA)

Clear Admit School Guides
Eighteen 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*
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Columbia*
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IESE*
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London Business School*
MIT / Sloan*
Michigan / Ross*
Northwestern / Kellogg*
NYU / Stern*
Oxford / Said*
Penn / Wharton*
Stanford GSB*
UCLA / Anderson*
UNC / Kenan-Flagler*
USC / Marshall*
UT Austin / McCombs*
UVA / Darden*
Yale SOM*
* denotes '08-'09 commentary

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ARCHIVE FOR NOVEMBER 2008

Friday, November 28, 2008

Stanford Graduate School of Business Launches New Social Innovation Fellowship for MBA Grads

A post on the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) Admissions blog earlier this week provided information about a new fellowship for social entrepreneurs created by the GSB’s Center for Social Innovation. Called the Social Innovation Fellowship Pilot Program, it is designed for graduating Stanford MBAs who demonstrate a well-defined vision for a new social venture they intend to dedicate the year after graduation toward launching.

The blog post recapped a conversation between Rita Winkler in the GSB Admissions Office and Janet Abrams, director of Stanford GSB’s Public Management Program.

According to Abrams, the Center for Social Innovation is piloting the new fellowship program over the next three years. Beginning next spring, a limited number of second-year students will receive a stipend for the following year along with access to additional resources at the center, including information, professional networks, etc.

“Many students come to the GSB with great motivation to make a difference in the world,” Abrams told Winkler. “While at Stanford, some develop specific ideas for how they might apply the knowledge and skills they’re gaining here to solving serious social problems.”

The fellowship, Abrams continued, will allow MBAs who are starting a new nonprofit venture upon graduation to focus all of their energies on securing funding, personnel, partners, and other assets crucial to success.

According to Abrams, second-year Stanford MBA students in good academic standing – both individuals and teams of two – are eligible for the new fellowship. Interested applicants must submit a detailed proposal for their social venture in April. Those whose applications show real promise will be invited to present their ideas to the fellowship selection committee in May.

The fellowship selection committee – made up of GSB faculty and staff, experienced social entrepreneurs and philanthropy professionals – will consider each candidate’s degree of commitment to social entrepreneurship, the thoroughness of his or her plan and the likelihood that the envisioned nonprofit will make a significant impact.

The Center for Social Innovation will announce the new fellows in mid- to late-May. To learn more about the Social Innovation Fellowship Pilot Program at Stanford GSB, click here.

Fridays From the Frontline

The day after Thanksgiving, for those who celebrate the holiday now better known for its foodstuffs than its history, is generally a time to recuperate from the previous day’s feasting. That, and a day to scrub that roasting pan, put away all those dishes, make nine million turkey sandwiches (or a big vat of curry) and surreptitiously eat just one more piece of that delicious pumpkin pie. We, at Clear Admit, in addition to many of these activities, have not ceased paying attention to the b-school blogosphere. This week continued the mixed trend of disappointment (in the form of ‘zaps’) and thankfulness (for those receiving interview invitations or even acceptances) that makes up the application season. As November wraps up,  current students voiced their relief at the brief respite the holiday presents them.

Darden ‘10 Oren survived ‘Black November’, went to his first UVA basketball game and planned to have his third Thanksgiving dinner with family in Manhattan. Fellow Darden classmate, JulyDream, also attended multiple Thanksgiving dinners, including one hosted by second year students, she also participated in Darden’s annual Finance Conference and discussed the recruiting season. BSchool Diva, after a lengthy absence, returned to share the news of her impending motherhood and plans to join Chicago Booth’s class of 2011.

It was a mixed bag for aspirants this week, some sharing their interview experiences, others their heartache over never having the chance to dazzle a school’s adcom. In terms of interviews, Samantha shared her Tuck interview experience, and seemed to be a little more enthusiastic about the school than in past posts. Soni gave a very detailed account of his Chicago Booth campus visit/interview experience, while MissionMBA was happy to receive invitations to interview from Emory and Fuqua. On the flip side, there was a slew of sadness emanating from many who had applied to ISB. Ahembeea received a zap from ISB, but had an interview with Emory to soften the blow. Maverick also got the zap news and couldn’t help but acknowledge the sting before moving on. MBADreamer, too, was zapped and began to feel the pressure. ISB wasn’t the only school sending its decisions out, Charu received an unanticipated zap from Vanderbilt. 

In other news, MBAMonk was back with his GMAT prep news and decision to apply this year and plans to see a rose colored city. D.G. went to a Chicago Booth event focused on entrepreneurial ventures and was very impressed. On the far side of this process, Maxwriter tried to figure out how to handle Columbia’s verification process and loan applications, while hanging back on letting his employer know of his eventual departure.

Those in their second, and final, years were a mix of professionalism and fun this week. Darden ‘09 Mandy attended a bike prom and shared her Twilight watching experience. McDonough ‘09 HairTwirler attended a Corporate Responsibility Symposium. And Ross ‘09 M@ shared a Ross Follies video.

And that is the long and short of the blogosphere news for the week. Hopefully, if you celebrate Thanksgiving, you’re getting over your food comas, and if you’re abroad perhaps you have exciting plans for the weekend. Regardless of your location, we hope the next week goes by swiftly and that you’ll come back to catch up with the brave stories of and amazing feats of those with their eyes on the MBA prize.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Campus Chronicles: Wharton’s Journal

Happy Thanksgiving!  There is more to be excited about than just turkey, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes on this special day: it is time for another edition of Campus Chronicles!  Today we turn our attention back to the Wharton campus, checking out the latest through the student publication, The Wharton Journal.

The African American MBA Association hosted the 35th Annual Whitney M. Young Memorial Conference (WMY) at Wharton this past weekend, drawing hundreds of students, alumni, scholars, and business leaders to reflect and discourse on the theme “Charting your course: Navigating through the Winds of Change.”  Celebrating the life of the late statesman and educator Whitney M. Young Jr., the three-day event generated thought leadership around the economic development of the Black community.  Valerie Mosley, Partner at Wellington Management; Raymond J. McGuire, Global Co-Head of Investment Banking at Citi; and James H. Lowry, Senior Advisor at The Boston Consulting Group graced the event as keynote speakers.  More than sixteen panels complemented the keynote lectures, delving into topics such as philanthropy, real estate, and the business surrounding sports.  A great number of alums participated in the event due to the Conference Planning Committee’s effort to engage alumni through an energetic outreach program which included programming, networking functions, and social events.

Due to the current economic situation, the WMY focused on providing new ideas and means of approaching the crisis as well as illuminating opportunities for advancement – a focus that allowed for meaningful interactive discussion.  The Conference’s innovative outlook was further augmented by the new role that employers played in the conference: the traditional Career Fair was replaced by the Dedicated Educational Event in which the recruiter-job seeker relationship transcended a simply conversational form to become educational in an interactive module.  Such a shift reflected the Conference Planning Committee’s “newly revived dedication to career education.”   The WMY was a great success, for as the Wharton Journal staff writers concluded, “Attendees left facing the ‘winds of change’ with unified insight, hope, and fortitude.”

On the social side of things, The Wharton Journal reports the excitement that surrounded the Wharton Wharthogs (the “Hogs”) participation in the 12th Annual Thunderbird Rugby Invitational in early November.  As two-time defending champions, the Hogs had to preserve their strong reputation, and they went at it with great energy, literally barreling down any team that crossed their path.  The Invitational began with a great success for the Hogs, as they solidly defeated Columbia, not letting injuries hinder their game.  However, Kellogg narrowly beat the Wharton B team, yet the Wharton A team reclaimed victory in a game against Northern Arizona.  Nevertheless, the dedicated Hogs found a win slip away from their fingertips when Stanford beat them on the second day of the Invitational, making it so that the Hogs finished in a respectable third place for the tournament.  Though the Hogs did not finish as high as they would have hoped, they look forward to the spring season and a potential World Championship at Duke in April.  We wish them all the best.

Stay tuned next week for another edition of Campus Chronicles!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Wiki Wednesdays: iTunes Gift Certificates for Wiki Contributors!

Welcome to another installment of Wiki Wednesdays, reporting the latest goings on with the Clear Admit Wiki. Firstly, we’d like to say thanks to all the applicants who’ve been submitting interview reports lately! Recent additions include an account of an Early Decision interview at Columbia, a Wharton applicant’s interview with a second-year student, a report on a relaxed UCLA / Anderson interview and blogger Hakuna Matata’s Michigan / Ross interview experience!

As we’ve stressed in this blog, and as anyone who’s used the site to prepare for their interviews will attest, having access to firsthand accounts of the interview process at a given program can be invaluable in understanding what a program is looking for and arriving at a feeling of readiness. To build this resource and encourage applicants who’ve already interviewed this season to post their interview reports, campus visit accounts and school decisions, we’ll be offering an added incentive over the next few weeks.

Between now and December 19th, we’ll be awarding a $10 iTunes gift certificate to every fifth applicant who contributes content to the Wiki. For those wondering what sort of details to include in their Wiki entries, we find that the most helpful and informative reports include the following information:

1. Date/Admissions Round
2. Description of visit and/or interview atmosphere
3. Type of interview (alum vs. adcom, blind vs. application-based)
4. List of interview questions
5. Commentary (What did you think of the interview? What surprised you? What didn’t surprise you? What might you conclude about the school based on this experience?)

Beyond interview information, we’d also love to see some more detailed accounts of visits to campus and decisions about where to apply.

To be eligible for the prize, simply send your contribution to wiki@clearadmit.com; we’ll post it to the Wiki and notify the winners by e-mail. Thanks in advance for your reports and don’t forget to check out the Clear Admit Interview Guides for extra interview tips!

What Do You Consider To Be The ‘Upside’?

For those of us located in the United States, tomorrow is the annual turkey, mashed potato and pie festival that many know as Thanksgiving. In honor of the holiday, we thought we would ask MBA aspirants for a positive perspective on the whole application process.

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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Johnson School MBA-Managed Hedge Fund Outpaces the Market

At Cornell’s Johnson School of Business, MBA students put theory into practice in a very real way – managing $14 million of other people’s money. And according to a recent article in the Cornell Chronicle, the student-managed Cayuga Fund consistently beats the market, returning 5.95 percent to investors in 2007.

The hedge fund counts between 40 and 50 investors, primarily Cornell alumni, who have entrusted their money to students to manage as part of a year-long course called Applied Portfolio Management. Sanjeev Bhojraj, Johnson associate professor of accounting, teaches the course.

With 32 students, this year’s class is the largest yet. And for the first time, first-year students are working as analysts to assist the second-year portfolio managers.

The Cayuga Fund is a market-neutral equity hedge fund, which means it is shielded from market volatility and the dramatic swings of an index-tracking fund.

“If the market goes up 30 percent, we might be up only 10 or 15 percent,” Bhojraj told the Chronicle. “But if it’s down 30 percent, we still want to be up, but maybe only 5 or 10 percent,” he continued. “We want to generate steady returns.”

From 1998 to 2002, the Cayuga Fund was an index-tracking fund, tracking closely with the S&P 500. But after the burst of the dotcom bubble and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the school decided to go market neutral.

The fund’s 2007 returns were down from previous years – 14.2 percent in 2006 and 10.4 percent in 2005 – but its fourth-quarter recovery still placed is ahead of major market indices, according to the Chronicle article. Performance is measured against the Hedge Fund Research Equity Hedge and Equity Market Neutral indices.

So, just how does it work? Basically, students in the Applied Portfolio Management class are divided into teams, each of which is responsible for managing the stocks of an individual sector, such as energy, semiconductors or retail.

An initial 3,000 or so stocks are run through a computer program that screens them quantitatively to determine those that might be over- or under-valued, narrowing the list to about 500.

These 500 or so stocks are then divvyed up by sector. Each week, the student groups responsible for each sector must then propose a list of about four stocks they feel might be worth buying or selling.

“Essentially the idea is that you have stocks in the fund, and you buy them and sell them based on what you think is going to happen to the price,” Sasha Kaganas ‘09, co-portfolio manager of the healthcare group, told the Chronicle. Kaganas and her group handle about 15 healthcare stocks while keeping abreast of overall healthcares stock performances.

But the students’ work does not stop there. Class meets each Monday and Wednesday, at which point students pitch their chosen stocks to their classmates, who vote as a group on whether to buy or sell. A two-thirds majority must vote in favor of any given move the fund makes.

“Half the battle is communicating well,” Bhojraj noted about the students in his class. “They stand up and learn how to present, and how to hone down their idea to key details.”

Even if a particular action wins the class vote, the potential transaction must still survive a thorough risk management process led by a specialized student trader and supervised by Bhojraj.

With these appropriate safeguards and oversight in place, Johnson students get to enjoy a significant degree of decision-making responsibility while learning in the best way possible – by doing.

To learn more about the Cayuga Fund, click here. For more on Johnson’s Applied Portfolio Management course, click here.

Admissions Director Q&A: Columbia Business School Assistant Dean Linda Meehan

Before joining Columbia University in 1989, Linda Meehan’s pursuits included teaching and running a home business, among others. She moved to Columbia Business School (CBS) in 1993, where she serves as Assistant Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid.

Dean Meehan recently took time out of her busy schedule amid CBS’s rolling admissions process to answer a few of our questions. Read on to learn about some of the interesting new elective courses the school will offer this spring, as well as just how the admissions process unfolds for CBS applicants.

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

Linda Meehan: Columbia Business School is leading the charge in this new era of business school education, starting with some of our natural advantages: our cutting-edge faculty research and a focus on experiential learning, a powerful alumni network and our location in the city of New York.

Our rigorous core curriculum provides not only the business essentials, but also the leadership skills and networking opportunities that last a lifetime. The following are two elective courses, available to students in spring 2009, which exemplify the innovative offerings of our robust curriculum:

“The Future of Retirement Wealth”
Retirement wealth, including 401(k) and IRA balances and assets in corporate and state and local pension plans, represents a significant fraction of global financial wealth. The United States and many other countries around the world have been undergoing fundamental change in this arena. In addition, the economic crisis of 2008 is introducing a new set of challenges for the retirement wealth system. This course will use the tools of economics and finance to analyze important questions about the future of retirement wealth.

“The Marketing of a Nation: Israel”
In this hands-on, project-based course, students will be given the frameworks and tools necessary to create a marketing campaign to increase American audiences’ awareness of all that Israel has to offer. The course will present a variety of conceptual frameworks from marketing, branding and strategy; offer relevant case studies and background research; and cover relevant industries such as hi-tech, tourism and lobbying. Class time will be divided between lectures, industry guest speakers and intensive group work. Teams of three to five students each will work throughout the week to develop the goals, strategy and implementation for their marketing campaigns. In the final class session, students will present their campaigns to members of the Israeli consulate.

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.)?

LM: An individual application may be reviewed independently by two to three individual members of the admissions committee before the application is presented to the larger admissions committee for a final decision to be rendered.

At any given point during the reading process, the first reader, the second reader or the third reader may request for an interview invitation to be extended, but the application also may make its way to the final admissions committee before an interview invitation is extended. Interviews are generally conducted by alumni in the applicant’s local area. Interviews are blind so the only information an interviewer has about the applicant is that which is shared by the applicant. Generally, an applicant will send a resume to the interviewer.

Once the application has been reviewed, the larger admissions committee, which I chair, will render a final decision on an application.

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?

LM: Essays are one portion of the application over which the applicant has complete control. It is important that the essays are constructed carefully and thoughtfully. Be sure to answer the question we have asked. There is no magic formula that, if you plug in the answers, will provide you with the perfect essay. Tell your story. Be genuine and be passionate. If you are excited and genuinely enthusiastic about what you are writing, your story may inspire the reader of your application. Remember what you choose to write about tells us as much or more about you as your answer itself does.

A pitfall applicants may encounter is trying to look for that magic formula mentioned above. Be true to yourself and your story. Our students don’t come from a cookie cutter. Each one is unique, and so are you.

Trivia Tuesday: Chicago Booth’s International MBA

It’s time once again for Trivia Tuesday, our weekly examination of the programs, policies and possibilities at the leading business schools.

As business goes global, business leaders are increasingly expected to understand the nuances of doing business on the international stage. For prospective students interested in a career in international business, Chicago Booth’s IMBA offers an intriguing option. Chicago Booth is one of the few leading MBA programs to offer students an opportunity to pursue a specialized International MBA (IMBA) degree. To receive the IMBA, full-time MBA students must study abroad for one academic term, demonstrate proficiency in a non-native language and complete a concentration in international business.

The concentration in international business consists of at least five courses in international business, at least three of which must be from Chicago Booth. While students must demonstrate non-native language proficiency, they do not need to do so in the language spoken while studying abroad. For instance, international students may fulfill the program’s language requirement through demonstrating proficiency in English and their native language.

In keeping with Chicago Booth’s reputation for academic flexibility, students do not need to apply to the IMBA program until the first quarter of the MBA. In contrast, candidates for specialized degree and certificate programs at many other business schools must declare this during the general admissions process.

For more information on Chicago Booth’s International MBA option or the international offerings at other leading business schools, be sure to visit the schools’ websites or check out the International Programs/Special Programs sections of the Clear Admit School Guides!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Darden Teams Clean Up at 2008 Innovation Challenge

The sixth annual Innovation Challenge, billed as the world’s largest business innovation competition for MBA students, took place this past weekend in Charlottesville, and hometown teams from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business beat out international competitors to win each of the three prizes in the event’s final round.

Darden teams took three of the ten spots in the final competition, out of an initial field that included more than 260 entering teams representing 55 schools and 48 countries. Competing teams have nine days to write a concept plan to address one of five real-world challenges facing the competition’s corporate sponsors. Twenty-five teams advance to the semi-final round to pitch sponsors directly with their plans, and ten teams meet face to face for the final round. 

Examples of the types of challenges MBA teams are invited to respond to as part of the competition include the following:
• How might Hilton foster a thriving service culture among employees?
• How might IBM market itself to businesses in China and India as the leader in creating value in business process innovation?
• How might Sprint create an innovative product or service, greatly increasing the subscriber’s quality of life, using Wide Area Wireless High Speed technologies?

Darden’s clean sweep included the “Most Innovative MBA Team in the World” title, which went to Team Wildhoos. Wildhoos also won the American Express OPEN Award and the $20,000 competition overall prize. Another Darden team, Team Alchemy, won the Hilton Award, the challenge’s third prize.

Other schools that made it to the final round this year included Manchester Business School, with two teams; Australian School of Business; Chinese University of Hong Kong; University of California-Davis Graduate School of Management; University of Washington Business School; and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Brand Center.

The Innovation Challenge was launched in 2002 by Idea Crossing, a Los Angeles start-up built around the idea that organizations can capture the collective ideas of crowds to help solve crucial strategic challenges. This year’s corporate sponsors were American Express OPEN, Hilton Hotels, the Navy Federal Credit Union, RBC Bank and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

To learn more, visit the Innovation Challenge website or watch competition-related videos on YouTube.

Admissions Tip: The Long Essay

Essay content you’ve polished for one school often serves as a great starting point for the next application, but as we’ve often said, customizing this text for the school in question is key. One particular challenge we see applicants struggle with each year is effectively expanding a short essay they’ve written for one program (such as Harvard’s 400 word “career vision” document or Kellogg’s two-page, double-spaced essay about one’s career to date, goals and interest in their MBA) in responding to a question on the same topic but with a longer limit. With this in mind, we’d like to offer some pointers on converting condensed comments to more extensive remarks.

1) Expand in proportion. When taking an existing response as a starting point for crafting a longer document, one good rule of thumb is to build upon each subject to more or less the same extent. While elaborating on your work to date might involve less time and work than the more research-intensive ‘why School X’ discussion, it’s generally prudent to maintain balance among subjects and provide all of the major pieces information a school requests in equal measure.

2) Maintain focus. One frequent issue with long essays is that they sometimes lack a clear sense of direction. To ensure that the reader is able to understand the relevance of your remarks and follow the connections among the various ideas, it’s a good idea to include transition sentences at the beginning of each paragraph that tie the subsequent remarks and examples to the topic of the essay and clearly state how certain statements relate to the question. This exercise also serves as a check for the applicant in making sure that all of the details in the essay are related to the subject.

3) Finish when you’re finished. While it’s important to take advantage of the opportunity that each essay presents to share information about your candidacy, you shouldn’t feel obligated to reach the upper end of a suggested page limit if you feel that you’ve already addressed the question and presented a full picture of your interests and background.

Good luck to everyone composing essays with an eye to R2 submission! For more tailored guidance on essays in particular or the application process in general, feel free to contact us at info@clearadmit.com.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Oxford’s Saïd Business School Hosts Annual Entrepreneurship Forum

In a post earlier this week, we looked at the ways in which administrators and alumni at top schools are encouraging business students to channel their entrepreneurial energies amid the current financial crisis. Entrepreneurship is in the headlines at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School this week as well, as the school prepares to host its 8th annual Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford conference.

This year’s forum, “A 360-Degree View of the Valley,” is designed to offer students just that. Luminaries from across Silicon Valley will join leading European entrepreneurs and Oxford faculty and MBA students for an array of masterclasses and panel debates focused on the big issues and future directions of innovation. The conference will take place on Monday, November 24th.

Smart search engines, intelligent databases, open source software, social networking and web TV will be among the various technologies and trends explored by the forum and its participants. Meanwhile, a keynote panel entitled “The Universe, the Brain and Second  Life” will attempt to contrast these trends against longer term, more visionary elements of technology. The global recession and its impact on entrepreneurship, too, will be a subject of discussion as part of a welcome plenary.

Speakers and panelists at this year’s Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford will include Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn; Elon Musk, co-founder of Space X and PayPal; Chris Sacca, former head of special initiatives at Google and adviser to Skype; Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life; and Biz Stone, founder of Twitter, among others.

The forum is hosted by the Oxford Centre of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which provides a range of programming and resources to MBA and undergraduate entrepreneurs. To date, more than 100 MBA entrepreneurship projects have evolved into successful new ventures and collectively raised more than $1 billion in venture finance.

To learn more about the Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford conference, click here. For more on entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School, click here.

Fridays From The Frontline

And welcome back to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s ongoing dive into the depths of the deliriously detailed lives of MBA aspirants and current students. Seven days never goes by quite as fast as in the b-school blogosphere. Each week, additional applications are submitted or worked upon, recruiting schedules wax and wane and interviews, for jobs or admission, are replayed over and over in each candidates’ head. This week was no exception, aspirants continue to deal with the stress of hearing (or not hearing) from their round one schools while current b-schoolers continued to do their best to manage their time efficiently.

An unavoidable part of the business school application process, for most, is a ‘zap’ here or there (Note: we’re tired of the word ‘ding’, so we’ve opted to go with ‘zap’ from now on). This year has been no exception for blogging hopefuls. Wharton, Harvard and Columbia have already made many of their choices known, leaving some extremely happy, while others must regroup. Ahembeea, zapped by Wharton, reflected on the remaining application roads on which he could travel, and hoped that he was going to get on the right one. Samantha also got bad news from Wharton, but began working hard on her Columbia application. D.G. had his own gruesome analogy for the slew of rejections disbursed over the last few weeks. MBAdreamer might appreciate that analogy, having received less than positive news from ISB.

Not all news was bad news, MyNameisNeo received his acceptance letter from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and will start taking classes in March. Soni submitted his NYU applications and wasn’t looking forward to a specific Duke essay. After a while with no posts, MissionMBA returned with a question about his chances at Fuqua. The.Grey.One shared an interesting perspective on Harvard. Omne, having submitted his applications, asked ‘what’s next?’, wished fellow applicants good luck and summed up the overall feelings of many applicants: waiting stinks! The Teacher considered the importance of soft skills in professional life, and assessed a few schools’ programs in relation to that area of expertise.

First year b-schoolers have certainly adjusted to their respective school routines, though that doesn’t mean that it’s always easy. Darden ‘10 JulyDream had a lot of traveling logistics, academic and personal, to work out before December. She also shared her 15 hour StratSim experience and proudly said that all members on her team were still breathing. LBS ‘10 N.A.S. recounted his team trip to Dusseldorf, complete with Jack Daniels, hot showers, unnecessary fire alarms and the Indo-German Business Conference…and horses. Lastly, McCombs ‘10 Metal returned from a consulting trek to Dallas and translated one of his fave ghazals into English.

‘09ers covered a wide variety of topics this week. Darden ‘09 Anand discussed game theory as it applies to video games…and the larger world. Fellow Darden classmate, Mandy, celebrated the powers of Exedrin and linked to a very extreme video. McDonough ‘09 Hairtwirler, in an effort of procrastination, posted on potentially “exciting news on the job front”. And finally, Chicago ‘09 MaybeMBA didn’t enjoy the Chicago Booth bidding system for classes.

Those of us in the Northeast of the United States are certainly feeling a chill in the air and can only expect snow flurries in the coming weeks. Hopefully aspirants will experience at least one positive flurry, of the heart, after receiving positive b-school news. Clear Admit will continue to follow all those in the b-school blogosphere, as they strive to accomplish great things!  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Admissions Director Q&A: Liz Riley Hargrove of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business

As part of our continuing series of discussions with admissions directors at top business schools around the world, we are pleased to offer this recent interview with Liz Riley Hargrove, Associate Dean of Admissions at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Hargrove has spent almost her entire professional career at Duke. After starting in undergraduate admissions at North Carolina State University, she joined the staff at Duke in 1993 and has been there ever since.

In the interview that follows, Hargrove shares her excitement about Fuqua’s plans for global expansion, describes the school’s philosophy of collaborative leadership and provides an important tip for applicants to help ensure that you’ve adequately answered your essay questions. So read on!

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

Liz Riley Hargrove: Fuqua has just announced a plan to expand our campus to become the first globally embedded business school in five countries simultaneously. We will have a physical presence in India, Russia, China, the United Kingdom (probably London) and Dubai. We just announced it at the end of September.

For prospective applicants it means that Duke will be one of the first business schools to actually be on the ground in all of those locations. We have revamped one of our EMBA programs – our cross-continent program – and students in that program will be able to take classes in those regions of the world. We also will have career services and other resources on the ground in those regions. So it will definitely benefit our full-time MBA students in terms of curriculum, faculty and career services options.

CA: What is the one area of your program that you wish applicants knew more about?

LRH: I would say that a lot of people, just from reading our website, aren’t really familiar with the kind of culture that our students experience here. We are of the philosophy that Duke is a collaborative leadership culture. In other words, we believe students can be both collaborators and leaders, as opposed to having the philosophy that those two things are in opposition.

Everything at Fuqua is designed to give students the opportunity to work in teams but also to define and refine their leadership skills. I think students are closer as a result. They challenge each other to be better and to improve and to continue to get better.

We have lots of ways for students to practice what they are learning in a low-risk environment. Our students are not passive participants in their business school education. They are actually encouraged to be a really great part of helping to Fuqua to be a really first-rate school. For example, our Career Fellows help their fellow students in the job search process, and our Leadership Fellows help peers work on leadership skills. Students here have the opportunity to really get involved with the running of the school.

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.). 

LRH: Once an applicant hits the submit button our operations team takes over. They download all the applications and print them, and then they are put into folders with labels and divided up for reading among the Admissions Committee, which is approximately 20 people. Each application is read at least twice and most often three times before the Admissions Committee meets to discuss it. It takes 45 minutes to an hour to read one application.

The first reader uses an evaluation criteria we have established. As part of that criteria, an applicant’s undergrad record, GMAT scores, essays, recommendations, interview, community involvement, leadership – all are assigned equal weight in the process. I really like that because an applicant can have a blemish on his or her application but still be a great fit, and if we’re looking at the applicant as a whole being instead of just one component it really allows us to create the diversity that we want here. It’s like creating a mosaic.

Once each file is read, we have an Admissions Committee meeting where each file is discussed and a vote is taken. In the case of a tie, I break it.

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?

LRH: There are a couple of things in the application process that applicants control and then there are things they can’t do anything about. Their undergrad record, GMAT scores – those things are what they are. But everything else they can control. The essays and the interview really give the applicant a chance to differentiate themselves. So they are a key part in terms of us getting to know why they want to come and their potential fit.

We want students who really want to come to Duke, so we are looking for evidence of why they chose Duke and why they think it’s a good fit for them as individuals.

In terms of the most common mistake we see, that would have to be applicants who don’t answer the essay question. We see that a lot. For instance, in answer to a question about how an MBA fits into short- and long-term goals, many candidates will tell us what they want to do right after they graduate, but not tell us anything about their longer-range plans.

My one piece of advice to applicants as they sit down to write their essays is this: Have someone read your essays without giving them the questions. If they can tell you what the questions were after reading your answers, then you have answered the questions.

Again, while the essays are only one component of the application process, they are a really important component.

Campus Chronicles: Harvard’s Harbus

This week we return to Harvard’s Harbus to discover the latest events and initiatives on the HBS campus.

Harbus reports the launch of a student blog titled “Economic Policy Review,” developed by four students in September.  Aiming to offer a non-partisan commentary on issues that currently plague the U.S. economy, the blog (www.econblog.org) delves into economic policy, touching on topics such as domestic energy policy, trade policy, campaign finance laws, and global competitiveness.    One of the blog’s creators, Kyle Sable, stated that the idea for the blog arose in his BGIE section when he recognized the “disjunction between sound economic principles and the polices that are often enacted.”  Hoping to close this gap and use his “HBS education to impact the world immediately,” Sable recruited his section mates to serve on the editorial board.  Each of the board members oversees a different economic policy area, yet each potential post is debated at their weekly meetings.  One of Sable’s fellow board members comments, “Talking about these issues in an open forum, free of partisan debates is an important way to understand the gravity of these issues while maintaining intellectual honesty.”  Another board member, Drew Thomas, recognizes the importance that his HBS education has played in making the blog possible, stating, “I’ve become more open to listening to opposing ideas and better at evaluating those ideas based on their strengths and weaknesses.”  Thus, the blog offers a chance not only to delve into American economic policy, but also to learn life lessons about assessing ideas and reaching consensus.

In other news, the Student Association at HBS is currently in the process of accepting applications for the SA Community Impact Fund.  The Impact Fund provides financial backing for student-led initiatives that have a “direct and tangible impact” on communities outside of HBS.  Fred Smith, the Co-President of the Student Association, stated that the SA is “proud in helping students help others,” going on to comment, “So many students have great ideas for outreach projects, and we want to use the fund to enable these initiatives to become reality.”  SA Senator and Chair of the Community Impact Fund Committee, John Coleman, echoes Smith in stating, “We know there are individuals and groups wanting to start new programs or expand current ones, and the SA wants to support them as much as possible.”  To gain funding for an initiative, at least one of the leaders must be an HBS student, and the SA prefers to see projects in which results will be achieved within six months of receiving funding.  Past funding has gone to transportation