Posted by Clear Admit on March 23, 2009, at 12:30 pm
Posted in:  Events , MBA News , School: Columbia Columbia Business School (CBS) last week announced the launch of a premier MBA student competition in which teams from top business schools from around the world will compete against each other in a triathlon of business management contents.
Called Odyssey, the student event will debut at CBS on March 27th and 28th, drawing teams of students from 15 top business schools based in seven countries to compete in three games – the Negotiation, the Pitch and the Case. The games have been designed to challenge students’ expertise in the areas of finance, negotiation and entrepreneurship.
“Odyssey presents students from the most influential global business institutions with the opportunity to meet a unique set of challenges that are not a part of the everyday MBA experience,” Daniel Ames, CBS associate professor of leadership and ethics, said in a statement. Ames served as an advisor to the CBS students leading the event.
The competition also will include a symposium for participants with renowned global business leaders. Featured speakers for this year include Ian Davis, managing director, McKinsey & Company; Steve Forbes, chairman and CEO, Forbes; Steve Leaman, joint global head of Investment Banking, UBS; Didier Lombard, chairman and CEO, France Telecom – Orange; and Mary McDowell, executive vice president and chief development officer, NOKIA.
“Now more than ever, entrepreneurs face a variety of challenges that change on a daily basis,” said Mark Trayling, CBS ’09, who together with his classmate Peter Novak, CBS ’09, envisioned the contest. Trayling and Novak worked together with a team of peers and CBS faculty advisors to launch the event.
To make it to the Odyssey finals in New York, teams of five students selected from each school will compete in an online simulation game involving the airline industry. The winning teams will then come to Columbia’s campus to face off in the final three-part challenge. A point system will determine the ultimate winning team, which will receive a $5,000 cash prize and bragging rights.
“Odyssey lets the business leaders of tomorrow learn what it is like to compete with other businesses in real-time and how to emerge as the best in class,” Trayling said.
For more information about the new Odyssey business management competition, click here.
Posted by Clear Admit on March 23, 2009, at 3:00 am
Posted in: Admissions Tips , General We have previously posted some correspondence tips for those applicants who have been waitlisted by schools that welcome supplemental materials and communication. Today, we’d like to provide some advice to those who are in an arguably more difficult position: waitlisted by schools that discourage further contact with the adcom.
This may sound obvious, but if a school indicates that they do not want supplemental materials, then you should respect their guidelines. In other words, do not send along a new recommendation or an essay if the program has clearly indicated that you should not do so. There may be exceptions to this – for example, if a dramatic change has taken place in your candidacy – but in most cases, you should simply follow the rules.
While at first it seems as though this leaves little option for waitlisted applicants other than sitting and waiting for a more definitive decision, one of the best things an individual in this position can do is just the opposite – take action and visit the school. This makes particularly good sense for those who have never been to the campus of their target programs. Very many things can happen when spending time at the school:
1) You may interact with students or professors who can better inform you of opportunities at the school and give you a better sense of the campus culture. If you make a particularly strong impression, you might even inspire someone to intercede with the adcom on your behalf.
2) By visiting a school and gaining a feel for the community and setting, you may actually realize that a given program is really not for you. This will enable you to focus your energy and attention elsewhere, and give up your spot on the waitlist to someone who might be a better fit with the program.
3) A school may take note of your visit (if you sign in with the admissions office) and view it as a potential sign of your interest. All other things being equal, the adcom is generally more likely to admit an applicant if they believe him or her to be likely to accept an offer of admission.
4) You never know when you’ll have that chance meeting with an admissions officer who is willing to give you a little feedback (and who through the process of meeting you face to face might get a better sense of your candidacy). In fact, if planning a visit, there’s no harm in letting the admissions office know in advance – especially if you have a ‘waitlist manager’ or someone on the admissions team who you’ve corresponded with in the past. Just send them a polite email indicating that you will be on campus on date X and would love to stop in and introduce yourself, etc. You’d be surprised at how often an admissions officer ends up being available to speak with you for a few minutes. Having said that, it’s critical not to force such a meeting or make unreasonable demands on the adcom, so be sure to use your best judgment.
Best of luck to those of you playing the waiting game, and feel free to contact us at info@clearadmit.com to learn about our application feedback and waitlist counseling services. Hang in there!
Posted by Clear Admit on March 20, 2009, at 12:30 pm
Posted in: MBA News , School: NYU Stern New York University’s Stern School of Business has launched a new center devoted to cutting-edge research on risks in financial markets and related topics in financial econometrics. Created under the leadership of Stern’s Nobel Laureate and finance professor Robert Engle, the Volatility Institute will feature its own Volatility Lab, or Vlab, which provides real-time measurements and forecasts of volatility for a range of assets including equities, exchange rates, commodities and bonds.
 Stern's Vlab currently runs 300 analyses daily “The economic crisis has put a spotlight on the importance of calculating and managing risk effectively,” Engle said in a statement announcing the new institute. “The forecasts coming out of our Volatility Lab will provide risk managers and regulators with alternative and independent measures to assess the state of the financial markets on an up-to-the-minute basis.”
The Vlab’s beta public release took place on March 1st. It is currently running 300 analyses each day on 84 datasets using both classic models and some of the latest advances in financial econometrics. The Vlab produces a total of 1,000 series daily, and a demo username and password available on the beta site provides access to a wider set of models and analyses.
Through the Vlab and other initiatives, the Volatility Institute aims to foster new research and centralize datasets for practitioners, regulators and academics. “The decision to create the Volatility Institute reflects our commitment to cultivating a scholarly community that will advance the field of risk management while having a direct impact on the financial markets,” NYU Stern Dean Thomas Cooley said in a statement.
The institute also will host its first conference for researchers and the business community at NYU Stern on “Volatilities and Correlations in Stressed Markets” on April 3rd.
To learn more about Stern’s new Volatility Institute, click here. To visit the Vlab, click here.
Posted by Clear Admit on March 20, 2009, at 3:00 am
Posted in: Fridays from the Frontline Hello and thanks for joining us for another edition of Fridays From The Frontline! This week has brought additional travel reports from many a b-schooler, as well as more decisions and plans for aspirants.
Aspirants and future first years continued to share their b-school related experiences with the blogosphere this week. The.Grey.One was accepted by Kellogg and, while excited, still waited to hear from Tuck so he could compare the financial assistance packages of the two schools. Choc Heaven was waitlisted by Cornell Johnson, but didn’t mind since she had an affinity for Fuqua, though she was peeved by Johnson’s DIY notification system. PaloAltoForAwhile received an email from Stanford’s Dean Joss, and was given his home and cell numbers in case she had any questions about the school…this may or may not have influenced her decision to decline Harvard and send in her deposit;).
Continuing along with our look at MBA aspirant bloggers, Helen felt that Clear Admit’s Wiki helped her prepare for her Stanford interview (we’re glad to hear it!). Ahembeea reflected on his past pursuits of placement in IIM and why his choice of Emory made sense for his current self. Omne attended Wake Forest’s Scholar’s Weekend, which included a cocktail reception, scavenger hunt, mock statistics class and free ice cream. MBADreamer was a little overwhelmed after his first look at IIMB’s preparatory material for quantitative methods and statistics. ArdentMeerkat, in the the earlier stages of her MBA planning than many, took the GMAT and wondered whether it made sense to to retake it with the hope of increasing her quantitative percentile. In a less b-school-specific post, D.G. ruminated on the nature, efficiency and future of internet search engines.
Last week we wrote of the travels of many b-schoolers. This week Darden ’10 JulyDream checked in from Madrid, and briefly recounted her experience at a soccer game without beer and a recent tapas/bar crawl. McCombs ’09 Paragon2Pieces wrote of her night train trip from Shanghai to Beijing and of the company presentations her group attended, including one from Ford China. She wasn’t the lone b-schooler in China, Darden ’09 Mike was also in China, considering the various things that get lost in translation. Fellow ’09 Dardenite, Anand was amazed by how quickly time travels and also got to see a little history in Philadelphia.
McCombs ’10 Metal was still in Austin for his spring break, and shared a little first-year internship placement gossip. Darden ’10 Oren explored the ways his school manages to keep its program and curriculum relevant in an everchanging world. Kellogg ’10 La Coguette continued to write about the interview system from her acerbic (yet playful) point of view. Darden ’09 Mandy wrote about the relevance of sustainability to business and the world. Chicago ’09 GSBSutras was having a difficult time finding the position he wants for next year.
We’re midway through March on the East Coast, and already we’ve seen the lion purr a few times and then momentarily morph into a sweet lamb before crouching back down into a ferocious growl and shaking his mane around, ushering in colder temperatures and admissions zaps. But this, too, shall pass; soon futures will be solidified, the weather will become noticeably warmer, and a whole new cycle of hoping and testing and application writing and orientation and internships and job interviews will begin! As the months continue, we can’t wait to see how this group of first years finish their initial year, and what second years consider the most important lesson they learned as they look back at the whole of their b-school experience! With that sentiment we will close this installment of Fridays From The Frontline. Make sure to come back next week to get the freshest perspectives on the MBA application and student experience.
Posted by Clear Admit on March 19, 2009, at 12:31 pm
Posted in: General , MBA News , School: Chicago Female MBA graduates earn less than their male colleagues, a gap that grows even greater over time, according to a recent paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The results of the paper were published last week in the Economist.
The authors tracked the earnings of 1,600 MBA graduates from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (now Chicago Booth) between 1990 and 2006. According to their findings, males edged out females only slightly in income in their first year out of school. But the pay discrepancy increased steadily over time, with males earning as much as 90 percent more than their female counterparts 10 years after graduation.
The authors of the study attributed the differences to the subjects students chose to take (women took fewer finance courses), more frequent interruptions in women’s careers and the fact that the women worked fewer hours than the men, according to the Economist article.
Women MBAs having children contributed to the more frequent interruptions in their careers and their tendency to work fewer hours, according to the Economist. Upon having children, women MBAs cut back on hours or dropped out of the work force entirely. Ten years after graduation, 13 percent of the women in the study were not working at all, compared to just 1 percent of men, the Economist reported.
Active discrimination is not believed to have played much of a role in the pay gap, the researchers stressed. “But the continued influence of gender roles in determining career paths is clear,” the Economist wrote.
To learn more, click here.
Posted by Clear Admit on March 19, 2009, at 3:00 am
Posted in: Campus Chronicles , General As we near the end of the week, it’s time to take another look at MBA student newspapers in a new edition of Campus Chronicles! This week we read up on the latest happenings at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business through The Monroe Street Journal.
With the objective of bringing students together to investigate alternative investments, the Alternative Investments Club (AIC) is in the midst of running the annual AIC Private Equity Competition. This event allows students to compete for a cash prize of $200 while gaining greater insight into various aspects of private equity, including leveraged buyouts or LBO modeling, through a guest speaker series and workshops. During the competition, students work in groups of four, with each group given at least $300mm of equity in order to execute a leveraged buyout of a publicly traded domestic company. Each group must draft an executive summary detailing why they chose a particular company as the best investment. At the end of March, the groups moving on to the final round will be announced. In this round, each team presents for thirty minutes on their investment rationale, and then a Q&A session follows. The AIC Competition thus gives Ross students yet another opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge to a real-world competition.
The Monroe Street Journal also celebrates the success of the Blue Door Art Auction, which was sponsored by the Wolverine Wine Club and the SGA and showcased the talent of Ross students and partners. MBA students served as auctioneers, overseeing the bidding over the artistic pieces. Most of the pieces were created by MBA students and included photographs, paintings, and sketches. Four MBA students even submitted pieces that they had picked up while on Ross MTreks to Morocco, Costa Rica, South Africa, and Turks and Caicos. The auction raised almost $2,500 – proceeds which support the Ann Arbor Art Makers programs for at-risk youth. The event not only recognized MBA students’ artistic talent but also allowed students to donate to a great cause.
Stay tuned next week for another edition of Campus Chronicles!
Posted by Clear Admit on March 18, 2009, at 3:00 pm
Posted in: General , MBA News , Rankings A recent survey of registrants to the Graduate Management Admissions Council’s (GMAC) mba.com website revealed that business school websites are more influential than published school rankings in prospective applicants’ decisions about where to enroll. Because the mba.com website is a main access point for the GMAT exam, its registrants provide valuable indicators of overall demand for graduate business and management education.
The 2009 GMAC mba.com Registrants Follow-Up Survey found that 97 percent of registrants had visited the websites of the schools to which they intended to apply in order to obtain information about the school’s offerings, and 73 percent considered the school website to have been extremely or very influential in their decision of where to attend. Published business school rankings were named as a secondary source of information, followed by traditional advertising (online, direct mail, print, TV and radio).
Whether they sought the information on school websites or through published rankings, survey respondents were looking first and foremost at a school’s quality and reputation. Other important criteria as reported by survey respondents were, in order, career aspects, financial aspects, program specifics, curriculum aspects and student class profile.
The survey results also shed some light on the average timeline and scope of the application process. One finding was that women register on the mba.com website sooner after completing their first degree than men, an average of 32 months after as compared to 46 months after for men. On average, survey respondents applied to three graduate business schools and four programs. More than half of survey respondents enrolled in a business school program 25 months after registering on mba.com.
To view the survey results in their entirety, click here.
Welcome to this week’s edition of Wiki Wednesdays, in which we take a peek at the latest goings on in the Clear Admit Wiki! We’re taking a closer look at some of the numerous reports that have rolled in for Harvard Business School and Stanford GSB.
But first, we’d like to remind applicants that, today through next Tuesday, March 24th, every fifth piece of content submitted for the Clear Admit Wiki will receive a $10 iTunes gift card. Plus, between now and next Tuesday, March 24th, the first 15 candidates that submit interview reports for Berkeley / Haas, INSEAD, London Business School or NYU / Stern will receive a $10 gift certificate to iTunes! (Please note, to be eligible for a prize, content must be e-mailed to wiki@clearadmit.com. Limit: one gift card per person.)
Without further ado, here are a few snippets from the freshest reports in the Clear Admit Wiki. Starting with Stanford, one candidate shared the following queries from an alumni:
- Where else have you applied? How have those worked out?
- Tell me about what inspires you.
- How do you deal with failure?
- What are your hobbies?
Another Stanford candidate answered the following questions from an alumni during a Round 2 interview:
- What did you take away from your undergraduate experience?
- Tell me about a time you failed.
- What is your greatest accomplishment?
For Harvard Business School, an adcom member posed the following questions to a Round 1 applicant:
- As you know there are many people applying from a finance background, why should we consider you vs. other candidates?
- In essay 1, you mention you lead a team of people while working in India, please describe how you were able to execute this and what aspects you found difficult.
- Why have you chosen to you leave your job at this time?
- Who would you want to sit next to in your first year at HBS?
Thanks for checking out Wiki Wednesdays this week! Be sure to come back next Wednesday for another glimpse of the latest contributions to the Clear Admit Wiki. As always, we’d like to thank everyone who has shared their experiences with the MBA admissions process and truly strengthened this robust resource for fellow applicants! So, don’t forget to keep sending in your interview reports – or campus visits, school comparisons and application challenges – to wiki@clearadmit.com and we’ll be sure to post them to the Wiki. Thanks again and best of luck to those undergoing interviews!
Posted by Clear Admit on March 18, 2009, at 3:54 am
Posted in: Poll
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Posted by Clear Admit on March 17, 2009, at 6:00 pm
Posted in: General There are only four days left for you to complete the AIGAC MBA Search Survey for a chance to win an iPod Touch or one of two new iPod Shuffles! All you have to do to be eligible is fill out the short online survey and share your thoughts about the MBA admissions process. Don’t miss your chance to contribute your personal thoughts and opinions!
Click here to get started: http://surveys.marketpointsinc.com/mba09.asp
Posted by Clear Admit on March 17, 2009, at 12:00 pm
Posted in: MBA News , School: Harvard The newest addition to the Harvard Business School (HBS) podcast library features an in-depth discussion about the 2+2 Program, which offers promising college students an opportunity to secure a spot in the HBS class that they can fill after completing two years of approved work experience.
In the new podcast, Kerry McLaughlin, an assistant director in MBA admissions, speaks with Andrea Kimmel from the 2+2 Program and Mark Michaelman, a recent 2+2 Program admit. Their discussion reveals the history of the program’s creation and provides details about the application process.
As Kimmel explains, the 2+2 Program provides a way for students to apply to the HBS MBA program as a rising college senior. Applications are due on July 1st after completion of the junior year. HBS invites the candidates it is most interested in to campus to interview in August and delivers admissions decisions in early September. Admitted students then finish out their senior year and work for two years before assuming their space in the HBS MBA class. “You are applying to our regular core MBA program, you’re just following a slightly different application process,” Kimmel says.
The program got its start as a result of HBS taking a close look not at who was applying to the school but at who wasn’t applying, explains Kimmel. “We realized there was a real opportunity to start to talk to younger people who maybe would never have business or an MBA degree on their radar screen,” she says.
Specifically, HBS wanted to target scientists, engineers and liberal arts majors who might never have had the opportunity to fully consider careers in business. “We want to show how broad they are and how flexible the MBA degree is when you consider it against a law degree or medical degree,” Kimmel says.
As HBS prepares this year to enter its second application cycle for the 2+2 program, representatives have visited more than 80 college campuses to share details with students. In its first year, the program drew more than 630 applicants, which yielded 106 admitted students. “We couldn’t have been happier, and we are looking forward to even more this year,” Kimmel says.
Michaelman, a senior at Northeastern University in Boston, heard about the program from a friend. The chance to secure a spot at one of the world’s premier business schools and obtain real-world experience before starting appealed to him immediately and made it easy to prioritize getting his application done even amid a heavy course load in his junior year, he says.
The basics of the application process are similar to those of a normal business school cycle – taking the GMAT, writing application essays and obtaining recommendation letters. This year, HBS also will accept the GRE as an alternative to the GMAT, giving applicants even greater flexibility and, it hopes, appealing to students from a wider range of academic backgrounds. Again, the deadline for this year’s rising college juniors is July 1, 2009, so there’s still plenty of time to get started.
The actual online application will be available later this month on the HBS website. In the meantime, for details about the program’s specific requirements – including this year’s essay questions – click here.
To hear the 2+2 Program podcast in its entirety, click here.
Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday, a weekly column that examines the opportunities and resources available to students at the leading MBA programs.
The high cost of attending a full-time MBA program means that graduates often carry significant educational debt. Although repayment is generally not an issue for students going into high-paying jobs in the private sector, repayment can be difficult for those who choose public or non-profit sector employment.
Recognizing the need for experienced, well-trained managers in the public and non-profit sectors, many business schools have created loan repayment assistance programs for graduates going into these fields. Today we’ll highlight some of the assistance available.
Wharton students who make a commitment to engaging in non-profit or public-sector careers after graduation may apply for the John M. Bendheim Loan Forgiveness for Public Service program. The program provides up to $10,000 a year of loan forgiveness for up to five years after graduation. Recipients must re-apply annually for the grant and provide a biannual update of their activities. At Kellogg, alumni are eligible to receive assistance through the Collins Family Loan Assistance Program for up to ten years, but must reapply for the award each year. Precise award amounts are dependent upon the graduate’s own salary, immediate family resources and loan payment obligations.
Meanwhile, the Stanford GSB offers two separate loan assistance programs. The first is the Non-profit/Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which provides selected alumni with an average of $4000 a year towards their loan payments. Graduates can apply for the program at any point in their careers, as long as they are employed in public service and still making loan payments. Globally, the GSB International Loan Forgiveness Program supports recent graduates who are non-U.S. citizens and are working for organizations in developing countries. The program offers selected students up to $7,500 a year for up to three years following graduation.
For students interested in applying their MBA skills to public service work, loan assistance programs may be a valuable source of financial support post-MBA. Applicants would do well to inquire about the availability of loan assistance programs at their target schools, as well as the regulations governing such awards. More detailed information on the loan programs at these and other MBA programs may be found through the schools’ websites or in the Financial Aid section of the Clear Admit School Guides. Happy researching!
Posted by Clear Admit on March 16, 2009, at 12:30 pm
Posted in: General , MBA News , School: Yale The Yale School of Management (SOM) has announced a new self-funded loan program designed to ensure that the school’s international students have access to loans with terms comparable to those offered to U.S. students. Several loan programs for international students have been cancelled as a result of the global economic crisis, and top schools are responding as quickly as they can with workable alternatives.
The maximum annual amount of the new loan program is $49,945 for the Class of 2011 – equivalent to tuition and fees for the academic year – minus any scholarship awarded. The loans do not require a co-signer and carry a fixed interest rate of 7.75 percent. Students have 10 years to repay the loans but make no payments while enrolled and have a six-month grace period after enrollment ends to begin repayment.
“Especially in these difficult and uncertain economic times, we know how important it is for international students to have financing options on terms similar to those available to domestic students,” Bruce Delmonico, Yale SOM director of admissions, said in a statement announcing the new program. “That’s why we are pleased to be able to offer our self-funded, no co-signer Yale loan, the terms of which are as competitive as any other product out there,” he continued.
Prospective applicants or current students seeking more information about the Yale International Student Loan Program are encouraged to visit the Financial Aid section of the SOM website or email Karen Wellman directly.
Posted by Clear Admit on March 16, 2009, at 3:00 am
Posted in: Admissions Tips , General With many MBA programs already releasing their R2 decisions, the spring notification season will soon be coming to a close. While we would like to hope that today’s topic isn’t apropos for too many of our readers, we wanted to offer some advice to applicants who’ve been rejected from their preferred programs and are planning on reapplying next season. While it’s important to take some time to deal with the disappointment, it’s never too early to begin thinking about the next season, and there are a number of steps you can take to improve your candidacy and move toward a stronger application.
1) Reevaluate. While it’s certainly difficult when things don’t go to plan, this is actually a great chance to take stock of your career and goals, and make sure that an MBA is still a logical and necessary step at this point. It’s this sort of reflection that can lead to refined career goals and a clearer sense of the reasons you need a business education.
2) Revisit your applications. Once you’ve gained some distance from the emotional and time-consuming application process, it’s wise to review the materials you submitted to the schools with a critical eye. Having learned much about the process simply by applying, it’s likely that you’ll be able to identify a number of things that you could have done better. Whether you suspect your downfall was something like a strategic misstep in an essay or interview, or a more glaring weakness like a low GMAT or lack of extracurricular involvement, there is plenty of time to address your shortcomings before submitting an application next year.
3) Consider your data points. Your results this year may reflect some valuable information about your competitiveness at a top program. It’s important that you only apply to schools that you would be happy attending, but if you were unsuccessful at all of the programs to which you applied, it might be time to think about how realistic your list of target schools was and to add a few more to the mix. This is especially true for applicants who only applied to one or two programs this time around; there is an element of randomness and luck in the admissions process, and no matter how qualified the applicant, we recommend that a candidate target 4-6 programs to have a strong chance of success.
4) Schedule a feedback session, if applicable. While it’s possible that you’ve identified your weaknesses in retrospect or even were aware of them when you went into the process, if you’ve been denied by a school that offers feedback to applicants and are planning on reapplying, you should absolutely take advantage of this opportunity to learn of the adcom’s perspective and demonstrate your commitment to the program. In fact, reapplying without seeking feedback when offered can raise questions for the adcom concerning how seriously an applicant is taking the process and the school. Of course, some schools do not offer feedback to anyone and others, such as Tuck, selectively offer feedback only to particularly promising candidates. There is naturally high demand for this service at programs that provide slots on a first come, first served basis, so it’s important that you make a point of requesting a feedback session at the earliest possible time.
Of course, the adcom can only be so candid, and it’s important to seek out feedback from other objective and knowledgeable sources. Send an email to info@clearadmit.com for more information about our tailored application feedback and reapplicant advice.
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