Fridays From The Frontline » Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

APPLICANT RESOURCES

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Admissions Director Q&A
Below are links to Clear Admit's exclusive interviews with MBA admissions directors at leading programs.
Dawna Clarke (Tuck)
Rose Martinelli (Chicago)
Judith Hodara (Wharton)
Sara 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)
J.J. Cutler (Wharton)
Jake Cohen (INSEAD)
Rod Garcia (MIT Sloan)

Clear Admit School Guides
Become an expert on your target schools overnight! Get the program-specific details you need to craft essays that stand out. See how schools compare head-to-head in key areas like recruiting, curricular structure, elective offerings and more. Available for immediate download. As featured in the Economist.

Clear Admit Career Guides
Understand career-specific offerings at leading MBA programs and identify the schools that will best support your career goals with the Clear Admit Career Guides! Available for Consulting, Investment Banking, Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Healthcare.

Clear Admit Strategy Series
Craft a winning application with the Clear Admit Strategy Series! Step-by-Step guidance through the application process. Titles include a Resume Guide, Recommendations Guide, Waitlist Guide and more!

Clear Admit Interview Guides
Be as prepared as possible for your MBA interviews this season with the Clear Admit Interview Guides! School-specific sample questions and in-depth strategy, campus visit details and places to stay.

Application Deadlines
Below are the upcoming deadlines for admission to top-tier schools.
Feb 10: INSEAD R3
Mar 1: Michigan / Ross R3
Mar 3: CBS
Mar 3: LBS R3
Mar 4: Kellogg R3
Mar 8: Cambridge / Judge R4
Mar 8: CMU / Tepper R3
Mar 9: Duke / Fuqua R3
Mar 9: Penn / Wharton R3
Mar 10: Berkeley / Hass R4
Mar 10: Chicago Booth R3
Mar 10: Yale SOM R3
Mar 15: NYU / Stern R3
Mar 17: UCLA / Anderson R3
Mar 19: UNC / Kenan-Flagler R4
Mar 30: Cornell / Johnson R4
Mar 31: UVA / Darden R3
Mar 31: INSEAD R4
Apr 1: UT-Austin / McCombs
Apr 2: Dartmouth / Tuck R3
Apr 2: Oxford / Saїd R3
Apr 7: Stanford GSB R4
Apr 8: Harvard R3
Apr 14: CBS

Essay Topic Analysis
Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics.
The Career Goals Essay
Berkeley / Haas*
Chicago Booth*
CMU / Tepper*
Columbia*
Cornell / Johnson*
Dartmouth / Tuck*
Duke / Fuqua*
Harvard*
Indian School of Business*
INSEAD*
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 '09-'10 commentary

Categories
Use categories to access all that has been written on each of the topics. We have categorized by school and by subject matter.

Interview Reports
A selection of interview field reports from fellow applicants posted to the MBA Admissions Wiki. Add your reports when you are finished with your interviews.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan / Ross
MIT / Sloan
Stanford
UNC / Chapel Hill
Virginia / Darden
Wharton
London Business School

GMAT Resources
MBA.com
Manhattan GMAT
GMAT Club
Princeton Review
Test Prep New York
Kaplan
Beat The GMAT
Knewton

Writing Resources
Guide to Grammar and Writing
The Internet Grammar of English
English Usage, Style and Composition
The Economist Style Guide
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant

School Rankings
Rankings are a good way to start your research on various MBA Programs. Keep in mind each uses a different methodology.
Business Week
Economist
Financial Times
Forbes
USNews
Wall Street Journal

Career Guides
The following resources should be useful to those who want to research the careers open to them after (or before) earning an MBA.
Vault.com
Wetfeet

Business School Resources
The following are business resources offered by a variety of leading Business Schools. It's useful to subscribe to these resources, especially for the schools to which you are applying.

MBA Programs: North America
If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
Berkeley / Haas
Boston College / Carroll
Carnegie Mellon / Tepper
Chicago
Columbia
Concordia
Cornell / Johnson
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Emory / Goizueta
Harvard
HEC Montreal
Indiana / Kelley
Michigan
MIT / Sloan
Northwestern / Kellogg
New York / Stern
North Carolina / Kenan Flagler
Notre Dame / Mendoza
Pennsylvania / Wharton
Queens
Stanford
Syracuse / Whitman
Texas / McCombs
Thunderbird
Toronto
USC / Marshall
UCLA / Anderson
Vanderbilt / Owen
Virginia / Darden
Washington University in St. Louis / Olin
Western Ontario / Ivey
Yale

MBA Programs: Rest of the World
As there is some variety in the length of international MBA programs, we have denoted the length of the program next to its name (1 = one year; 2 = 2 years). If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
AGSM (Australia) 2
Cambridge / Judge (UK) 1
CIEBS (China) 2
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (China) 1
Cranfield School of Mgmt (UK) 1
ESADE (Spain) 1 or 2
HEC (France) 2
Hult (UK) 1
IESE (Spain) 2
IMD (Switzerland) 1
INCAE (Costa Rica) 2
INSEAD (France) 1
IPADE (Mexico)
ISB (India) 1
London Business School (UK) 2
Manchester Bus. School (UK) 2
Melbourne (Australia) 2
Oxford / Said (UK) 1
Rotterdam (Netherlands) 1
Tsinghua IMBA (China) 2
University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) 1

Additional Resources
Here we link a host of additional resources available across the web. E-mail info@clearadmit.com to have resources added to this list.
AACSB International
Association of MBAs
Beyond Grey Pinstripes
EFMD
gradschools.com (worldwide)
Infozee
International Student Loans
mba.com (GMAT Scores)
MBAInfo
mbaleague.blogspot.com
MBAzone
MBA Jungle
TOEFL
Top MBA

MBA Tipline
We encourage admissions officers, students and applicants to alert us of interesting news and developments, please send an email to news@clearadmit.com so we can blog it.

Blog Archive

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Friday, April 24, 2009

Fridays From The Frontline

Hello there and welcome to another Fridays From The Frontline, Clear Admit’s compilation of the most recent thoughts, feelings and actions around the MBA blogosphere. Time stops for no man, woman or blogger and we’re glad to see that b-school bloggers are perpetually up to the task of keeping up with the pesky tick tock of the world’s clock.

Applicants and those officially signed up for the class of 2011 had a variety of thoughts on their minds. Some were deciding whether to enroll in one school or hold out for another, like Helen who received an acceptance from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business but continued to hope for good news from Stanford. Lauren reflected on her visit to Fuqua, and her expectations of b-school then decided that Duke was not the school for her. Kellogg ‘11 The.Grey.One. provided his definition of a ‘thoughtlet’ and prepared to join his fellow ‘piggy banks’ at the second Day at Kellogg event. The.Grey.One’s future classmate, Kellogg ‘11 D.G., wrote about the financial gamble he is taking by getting his MBA and why he feels it is risky and why he feels it is worth it. Ahembeea thought that his new found ability to arbitrarily articulate himself would come in handy during his b-school experience. IIMB ‘11 MBADreamer was in his second week of school and already had four tests under his academic belt. Kellogg ‘11 Mike found himself a place to live in Chicago and thanked Clear Admit for his BoB nomination. Goizueta ‘11 MissionMBA shared his quick tips on how to build one’s b-school application profile. Stanford ‘11 PaloAltoForAwhile was inspired by Clear Admit’s BoB nomination and MissionMBA’s recent tips post and began to organize her own step-by-step process for applying to b-school. Wake Forest ‘09 Omne went to the school’’s Red Carpet Weekend and enjoyed sitting in on a class, participating in a team-building exercise, which included putting together a bike blindfolded, and an evening of wine tasting. ISB ‘11 The Teacher started school on the 11th of April, but went to a few good vacation locations before his return to the classroom. Ameya struggled to balance future work commitments with his continued hope of getting off of Darden’s waitlist. ChocHeaven posted her thoughts on, and pictures of, her recent trip to Ghana.

Turning to current MBA students in the blogosphere, LBS ‘10 OutOnALimb provided bullet points to summarize his activities since his last blog post and declared his passionate love of Japan and illustrated this adoration with photographs of his recent trip to the country. Marshall ‘10 Andrew was gearing up for his summer internship in Milwaukee and was already excited for all the Net Impact events he was going to organize next fall. Darden ‘10 Mechanigal gave a number of examples from her own life that embodied the greast nature of the school’s community. Though Darden ‘10 JulyDream’s international expectations changed from when she was an applicant, she still planned on spending a quarter of her second year in Sweden. McCombs ‘10 Metal found himself struggling with his second quarter, saying it was less a “cakewalk” and more an “uphill climb with a sack of bricks to carry”. McCombs ‘10 Paragon2Pieces cemented her schedule for next year and started counting down her last year. Darden ‘10 Oren briefly summarized Darden’s bidding process and the philosophy behind having students choose all the second year courses while still in their first year. LBS ‘10 The Ruminator expressed his opinion over a recent student club election controversy.

Harvard ‘09 CS considered her BoB nomination a birthday gift and provided a humorous rundown of some of the ways her blog gets readers. Darden ‘09 Mandy attended one of the best weddings ever and had the tan to prove it. Chicago Booth ‘09 GSBSutras shared his thoughts on internships in India. Ross ‘10 gltnfrpnsmt, feeling the glow of his own BoB nomination, outlined some of the pros and cons of his first year at Ross. Ross ‘09 M@ posted more in the last week than he has in months, touching on the weakest link in the Ross experience to a googlechat with JulyDream.

We were very glad to see increased BoB excitement throughout the b-school blogger ranks and we are just as impatient as the nominees to see who comes out on top! The BoB winners will be revealed on Tuesday the 28th, but we’ll have to wait until that following Friday to see how the news ripples through the blogger community. We continue to wish all nominees the best of luck (and remind them to get their ballots back to us as soon as possible)!

Comments are closed.

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MBA Admissions Wiki
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Wharton Interview Field Reports
HBS Interview Field Reports
Kellogg Interview Field Reports
Chicago Interview Field Reports
Columbia Interview Field Reports

Discussion Boards

BusinessWeek Forums
The BusinessWeek Discussion Boards are another way to learn about the issues applicants face. Clear Admit hosts the Ask Clear Admit thread, which should help answer your questions. Here is a link to the original interface (for those of you who didn't like the recent upgrade). Also, here are the five most recent discussions taking place in the forum:

Beat The GMAT Forums
Clear Admit is a featured expert in the BeatTheGMAT forums, answering questions from applicants across the globe. Feel free to ask us your questions in this forum! Here are the most recent posts:

StudyLink Forums
Clear Admit manages the Applying section of the StudyLink MBA discussion boards.

GMAT Club Forums
Below are the five most recent posts to the GMAT Club message boards.

student 2 student
The student-2-student Discussion Boards are managed by Wharton. Here are the five most recent discussions.

School-Hosted Blogs

Straight from the source: aggregated posts from students and administration. Below are the seven most recent posts in school-hosted blogs.

Individuals' Blogs

A selection of the latest updates to MBA blogs compiled by Hella.
MBA Applicants

MBA Students

Bloggers by School

The following are links to bloggers at each of the schools listed.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan
MIT / Sloan
New York / Stern
North Carolina / Chapel Hill
Stanford
Virginia / Darden
Wharton
Yale
ESADE
IESE
INSEAD
London Business School

Community Blogs

Bshoolers.com
Community blog with MBA student and alum contributors.

Forté Foundation MBA Diaries
Video blog entries posted by women MBA students.

Owen Bloggers
Independent blog with content by Vanderbilt MBA students.

Best of Blogging

2008-2009 Top Ten: