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You already read our blog every day. Now you can visit the Clear Admit Facebook page to become a fan, interact with other MBA applicants, get school updates, take polls, win Clear Admit Guides, and find out about application deadlines and MBA events! Visit our Facebook page to become a fan, or text “fan clearadmit” to FBOOK (32665) to instantly become a member!  How Do You Ensure That Your Recommenders Get Their Letters In On Time? I know they support me and want me to get in, I have confidence that they will get the forms in on time. I check in with them daily, their office is just down the hall. I send them weekly reminders that the deadline is approaching. I tell them that the deadline is a week before the actual due date, better safe than sorry! Loading … Posted by Clear Admit on September 29, 2009, at 12:42 pm Posted in:  Essay Topics , School: USC / Marshall The USC/Marshall essay topics for the 2009-2010 admissions season are now available! The essay topics are as follows: 1. What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will USC Marshall help you achieve these goals? (750 words) If interested in a dual-degree program, please address in this essay. 2. How will other USC Marshall MBA students benefit from your background, experience, leadership and teamwork skills? (500 words) 3. Select three from the following and describe: (250 words each) a) A challenging international experience b) A personal or professional setback c) An entrepreneur you admire d) Your family, including any ties to USC e) Your most significant accomplishment f) A situation where your professional ethics were challenged To access the online application, visit the USC/Marshall admissions site. The Council of Graduate Schools recently released official data about graduate school enrollment in Fall 2008. First-time enrollment in U.S. schools was up 4.5% from the previous year and applications were up 4.8%. Even more notable, for the first time since 2004, the domestic student enrollment increase (4.7%) was higher than international student enrollment increase (3.3%). “The growth in graduate school education is being driven by increases for women and minorities,” explained Nathan E. Bell, director of research and policy analysis for the Council of Graduate Schools. Minority numbers were higher across the board, with enrollment for American Indian students up 8.8%, Asian students up 6.7%, Black students up 6.5%, and Latino students up 10.6%. In contrast, the number of white students only increased 3.5%. Across racial and ethnic categories the number of women enrolled in graduate school rose as well, with average annual increases of 3.8% compared to 2.3% for men. The Council of Graduate Schools also reported that the most popular disciplines for graduate school applications in 2008 were business, engineering, and social and behavioral sciences. Education, business, and health sciences accounted for nearly half of first-time enrollment in Fall 2008, up 3.1%, 5.6% and 6.7% respectively. The economic downturn may have been a contributing factor in rising enrollment numbers and changes in discipline popularity, but increased diversity within graduate school classes is an encouraging trend—even if according to Bell, “we have a long way to go.” To read more about Fall 2008 graduate enrollment trends, click here. Posted by Clear Admit on September 29, 2009, at 2:10 am Posted in: School Guides , School: Cornell / Johnson , Trivia Tuesday In this week’s Trivia Tuesday column we turn our focus to the Johnson School at Cornell University and the program’s opportunities for leadership development. The Johnson School’s leadership philosophy is founded on personal mastery through self-knowledge and self-development. As such, Johnson students begin their MBA experience with an intensive and interactive personal assessment and continue feedback and assessment sessions into the fall semester. For students seeking to further develop their leadership abilities, Johnson offers a 10-credit Leadership Focus. The cornerstone of the Leadership Focus is the Goal Setting and Coaching for Leadership Success course, which is centered on the idea of “leader as coach.” The course trains students to effect personal behavior change, then to develop coaching strategies that enable them to help others. Throughout the semester-long course, students practice leadership by acting as a coach for a classmate. They also regularly update the personal learning plans they made during orientation so that the plans reflect their leadership progress. Students may fulfill the remaining 8.5 credits of the Leadership Focus by choosing among fourteen 1.5- or 3-credit leadership course offerings. They can also contribute credit from day-long Leadership Skills workshops. These workshops are part of Johnson’s Leadership Skills Program, which supplements the traditional business school curriculum through one-day workshops exploring practical skills from etiquette to Excel. The workshops range from three to eight hours in duration and are worth 0.1 elective credits. While there is no limit to the number of workshops a student can participate in, only 1.5 workshop credits may be applied toward graduation. Past topics have ranged from “Building Rapport through Applied Listening” to “Wine Appreciation.” For more information on the leadership development programs at Cornell or other leading business schools, be sure to check out the Academics and Special Programs sections of the Clear Admit School Guides! Posted by Clear Admit on September 28, 2009, at 12:00 pm Posted in: MBA News , Rankings , School: Babson , School: IE , School: IMD , School: Northwestern / Kellogg In today’s challenging economic climate, some applicants are turning to accelerated programs that take only 10-15 months to complete and cost substantially less than a two-year program. These candidates argue that they don’t have the time or money to invest in a two-year program. In light of the growing popularity of one-year MBA programs, The Wall Street Journal surveyed 1,361 recent grads and 731 alumni and reported their findings in a recent article about the one-year MBA track. The Wall Street Journal ranked fifteen one-year programs (comprised of nine European schools, five in the U.S., and one Latin American school) and European schools clearly led the pack. IE Business School in Madrid ranks #1, Switzerland’s IMD Business School is #2, and Cranfield School of Management in the U.K. is #3. Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and Babson’s F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business round out the top five, but according to students, international programs offer a strong curriculum and “a much stronger international exposure.” And for 86% of students surveyed, a program’s international focus was the deciding factor in choosing a school. Only 90 accredited schools worldwide offer a fast-track MBA, and few are located in the United States. Alumni reported that those in the U.S. tend to focus the majority of their career services and recruitment efforts on two-year students. On a positive note, women make up 35% of accelerated MBA graduate classes in the U.S. compared to 23% in international programs; and according to The Wall Street Journal, “American schools tend to excel in softer skills, like teamwork, building relationships, and managing across functions.” These programs won’t suit everyone. They are both rigorous and time-consuming, and almost two-thirds of students reported spending more than fifteen hours a week on schoolwork outside of the classroom, leaving little time for extracurricular activities. IMD Business School is known for having six-day, 100-hour weeks! “These students want to be taught, and then they want to move on,” said Sean Rickard, director of Cranfield’s MBA program. A very true statement, indeed—the Wall Street Journal study reported that 82% of students pursued one-year programs so they could return to the work force faster. Fortunately, most alumni reported that recruiters and managers don’t view an MBA degree from a one-year program any differently than a two-year program, and many agreed that the quick degree made their jobs safer during the recent economic crisis. For the complete Wall Street Journal article, click here. With applicants for the round one deadlines putting the finishing touches on their applications, the question of how strictly applicants need to adhere to word limits is perhaps more popular than ever. MBA candidates naturally have a good deal of information they want – and need – to convey in their materials, and getting the important ideas down under restrictive word counts is a difficult task. While it might be tempting to run a bit beyond the guidelines to slip in that one extra thought, it’s important to keep the reasons for word limits in mind. In addition to being a forum for explaining your goals and sharing your story, the essays also serve as a test of the applicant’s ability to communicate clearly and concisely, not to mention follow directions and answer a question. Because business schools and post-MBA employers place a premium on all of these elements, adhering to word counts ultimately works to the candidate’s advantage. The other consideration is the reader’s time. Because of high application volume and the need to give every applicant fair and thorough consideration, schools are forced to limit the amount of information in each file. If you consistently extend your answers beyond the suggested limits, you are essentially asking the reader to give you more time than they are devoting to the other applicants. In other words, if you were to ignore the word limits and overshoot by 30% throughout, this might imply that you consider yourself to be 20% more interesting than everyone else who applied. That being said, there is some leeway. For the vast majority of programs, it’s generally acceptable to exceed the word limit by 10%. There are, of course, a few exceptions: Caveat #1: If a school gives you a range (e.g. 250-750 words), you should ideally stay within that range. Caveat #2: If a school gives you a page limit (e.g. 2 pages), you should stay within that limit – without excessive margin manipulation or font size reduction. In terms of the other end of the length issue, it is likely unwise to consistently fall more than 10% below the word limits, as this is valuable room in which to share further information about your candidacy (and might signal a lack of effort, experience, or accomplishments). Best of luck to all those working on their application essays! Mary Miller Joins Columbia Business School as Assistant Dean of Admissions for EMBA and MBA ProgramsPosted by Clear Admit on September 25, 2009, at 1:00 pm Posted in: EMBA , MBA News , School: Columbia In more Columbia Business School news, not only are eight new professors joining the School’s faculty, a new Assistant Dean of Admissions was officially appointed on Tuesday. Mary Miller will assume the new role, overseeing the recently consolidated MBA and Executive MBA admissions department. Most recently, Ms. Miller was Associate Dean of the MBA program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she managed admissions, career services, and student affairs. She has also served as Associate Dean of MBA Admissions, Student Services, and Alumni Affairs at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Ms. Miller will be reporting to Ethan Hanabury, Senior Associate Dean, Degree Programs, who recently commented that, “Mary brings 28 years of experience in higher education and a commendable record of accomplishment to this new role that will build on the remarkable success of MBA and EMBA admissions at the School.” For more Columbia Business School news, click here. On Friday, September 18th we incorrectly posted that the new Yale School of Management building project is on hold. Our reporting was based on a letter that the President of Yale sent to the University community on September 10th (see the full text of that letter below). Although it is true that “no major construction will proceed until funding is available from donor support or financial markets recover” we were informed by a representative of the Yale SOM that the current phase of the business school project (construction plans and drawings for the building) is fully funded and still moving forward. We regret any confusion this may have caused. —————————————————— To: The Faculty and Staff of Yale University From: Richard Levin and Peter Salovey We write to apprise you of the University’s financial condition as we continue to work through the effects of the economic downturn. We have been greatly impressed with the response of the Yale community. Rather than wait to reduce expenditures until the current fiscal year began on July 1, many units achieved significant savings in the first half of this calendar year. Budget reductions were achieved with a spirit of cooperation and common purpose. We explained in our messages to the community last December and February that we did not want to overreact to the downturn in financial markets by making reductions that might later prove unnecessary if markets recovered quickly. Thus, the budget reductions we undertook eliminated most, but not all, of the deficits previously forecast for the years ahead. These forecasts assumed that the June 30, 2009, value of our endowment would be $17 billion. Although the publicly traded portion of our endowment declined no further in value between December and June 30, we continued to incur losses in the value of our illiquid investments in private equity and real estate. The precise final results for the 2008-09 fiscal year are still being compiled and will be announced later this month, but it is clear that we will report a June 30 value of the endowment of approximately $16 billion. Only a small fraction of our endowment is invested in publicly traded securities, so the recent stock market rebound has not had a substantial effect on that number. The bulk of our endowment remains invested in illiquid assets, which have not begun to recover their value. Because we did not make a full adjustment to the initial decline in our endowment and because it has declined further since last December, we are now projecting a general appropriations deficit in the range of $150 million each year from 2010-11 through 2013-14. Thanks to the work undertaken last year, these deficits are only half as large as the projections we faced last December, but they are still substantial and will require further budget adjustments. Units of the University heavily dependent on endowment income will be especially affected. Because our spending rule spreads the impact of dramatic changes in the market value over time, the endowment payout . . . → Continue Reading Welcome to Fridays From The Frontline, Clear Admit’s ongoing look into the lives of bloggers hoping for, or living, the MBA lifestyle. As some deadlines for the first round start looming in an altogether new way (a week or less) the applicant pool was a bit more quiet, probably focusing on last minute edits and new topic approaches. Ah, the finishing touches. Current students were a bit more vocal, especially those first years finally hitting their stride in terms of social and academic commitments. Steve felt that the GMAT, and many other things, were all about confidence. XLick attended a Columbia finance and economics panel. Bizwiz started his own biz-ness. Illuminati had a lot to report about sentence correction and studying for the GMAT verbal section. AJ’s conflicting desire to eradicate her current student debt while also preparing to apply to b-school was getting her a bit flummoxed. Rocky was committed to applying to Wharton in round 1. McCombs ’10 Paragon2Pieces attended two events specifically for MBA women. Darden ’10 JulyDream also participated in a women-specific event, the NAWMBA dinner. McCombs ’10 Metal celebrated his 100th post, and made his way to New Orleans. LBS ’10 OutOnALimb was getting into watching True Blood. Darden ’10 Mechanigal talked consumer packaging. Harvard ’10 Harvard Bound was looking to be hired. Melbourne Ronjon shared some business-oriented news. Wake Forest ’11 Omne chimed in after a long silence with a post about just how busy he is in his first year. Stanford ’11 PaloAltoForAwhile talked about how the campus changes with the addition of first years. Haas ’11 SunnySideUp made a S’mores cheesecake. Fuqua ’11 Choc Heaven chimed in with a overview of how her first month at Duke had gone. Kellogg ’11 Windsor embraced his inner bucket, and shared a CIM video. Chicago Booth ’11 GlobThink posted a long entry about international resumes and the different office cultures. Kellogg ’11 Jeremy was on his way to an MBA conference. Following a classmate’s blogging lead, Kellogg ’11 Orlando posted his class schedule for the fall term. Goizueta ’11 Ahembeea continued to write about his love for his new surroundings. Kellogg ’11 DG found rest to be elusive. Ross ’11 Raghunathrao provided links to earlier posts about the application process for all those in the thick of it. And that’s all the noteworthy news for this installment of Fridays From The Frontline. We’re so glad to see new students settling in, second year students navigating their myriad responsibilities with ease and aspirants keeping calm in the face of impending deadlines. Until next week, have a great weekend! Columbia Business School recently announced the addition of eight new professors for the 2009-10 school year. Specializing in a variety of academic divisions, each new faculty member will hold the title of assistant professor and has a wealth of knowledge and experience to contribute to the MBA program. “We are very pleased to have such distinguished professors join Columbia Business School,” said Vice Dean and Samberg Faculty Director Amir Ziv. “Our ability to attract the most talented faculty is critical to our mission to educate and develop business leaders and to create the knowledge and tools that advance the practice of management.” Two new faculty members will teach within the Management division; two will specialize in Decision, Risk, and Operations; two will join the Accounting program; and the final two will contribute their expertise to Finance and Economics. Here is a complete rundown of who has been hired: -Modupe Akinola (Management division) -Omar Besbes (Decision, Risk and Operations division) -Edwige Cheynel (Accounting division) -Moshe Cohen (Finance and Economics division) -Marina Halac (Finance and Economics division) -Urooj Khan (Accounting division) -Ernesto Reuben (Management division) -Carri Chan (Risk and Operations division) For detailed bios of the new faculty, click here. To find out everything you need to know about Columbia Business School, download the Clear Admit School Guide to Columbia Business School! Posted by Clear Admit on September 24, 2009, at 10:00 am Posted in: Fridays from the Frontline , Twitter , Twitter Thursdays Welcome to another installment of Twitter Thursdays, a weekly column in which we highlight the latest updates from the top MBA programs on Twitter! For those who missed last week’s maiden post, think of Twitter Thursdays as a way to stay on top of what’s happening in the MBA admissions world – this time with a focus on words (or in this case ‘tweets’) from the schools themselves. Also, if you’re not following us already, be sure to check out Clear Admit on Twitter for updates, special prizes, admissions tips and breaking news. The Haas School’s Dean mingled with their alumni in Los Angeles and revealed a “surprising” post-MBA statistic. Meanwhile, across the country, UCLA / Anderson’s Dean, Judy Olian, rubbed elbows with alums in Boston. Having hosted a few alumni events in Athens and Spain, Stanford GSB shared briefings from the events. Rose Martinelli, Chicago Booth’s Associate Dean of Admissions, also related some alumni news regarding three graduates’ start-up success. The Johnson School celebrated its admission to the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, an organization for promoting diversity and inclusion in American business. The Tuck School of Business is already knee-deep in the academic school year, sharing plenty of professors’ research. Meanwhile, the Kellogg School of Management continued its steady stream of insight and research, as conducted by their notable professors. The Wharton School is gearing up for the Joseph Wharton awards ceremony, which happens to take place on the day of their Round 1 deadline! While these are just highlights of what the leading MBA programs have been “tweeting” over the past week, we certainly encourage our readers to fill their personal Twitter needs by finding out who to follow through our Twitter Index. The MBA Admissions Twitter Index is hosted within the Clear Admit Wiki (a free resource which many applicants have come to depend on for first-hand accounts of MBA interviews, and general admissions-related updates). For more fill of the top MBA programs, check out this list of admissions officers and schools’ news feeds. We’ve also compiled lists of current MBA students and alumni as well as current MBA applicants who are on Twitter. If you’re on Twitter, let us know! E-mail wiki@clearadmit.com with your user name and status as an MBA applicant, student or admissions officer so we can add you to the appropriate Twitter Index. Happy “tweeting” and we’ll see you next week with some more Twitter updates! Posted by Clear Admit on September 24, 2009, at 2:56 am Posted in: Essay Topic Analysis , School: London Business School London Business School’s are unchanged from last year. This is a solid indication that the school’s emphasis on international experience, as well as its interest in a candidate’s past and proposed leadership experience, remains unchanged. More than most programs, LBS asks applicants to share specific details of their future involvement on campus and contribution to the community. From this, one can extrapolate and assume that they’re interested in candidates who’ve spoken to students and learned a good deal about the program to really understand how and where they might fit. Question 1 (600 words): In what role do you see yourself working immediately after graduation? Why? How will your past and present experiences help you achieve this? How will the London Business School MBA Programme contribute to this goal? Why is this the right time for you to pursue an MBA? Question 2 (200 words): Where do you see your career progressing five years after graduation and what is your longer term career vision? Here, the typical career goals essay is broken down into two discrete inquiries. This format clearly underlines the importance of having both a short- and long-term career plan in the MBA admissions process. Though the compartmentalization of the short and long term discussions might make it a bit more difficult to adapt content written for applications to other schools, it does signal the extent to which the adcom wants to hear about each of the topics raised. Developing one’s long-term goal discussion over 200 words, with a stopping point at the five-year mark, could be a great opportunity for applicants who often cover this topic in a single sentence to meet the word limit in their essays for other schools. The question also incorporates a “why now?” query, prompting candidates to explicitly justify the timing of their applications given the current stage of their careers. Question 3 (500 words): Please describe your experience of working in and leading teams, either in your professional or personal life. Include any specific challenges you have faced. Given this experience, what role do you think you will play in your first year study group? While this question seems to invite a broad commentary on the history of the applicant’s leadership and teamwork experiences at or outside of the workplace, keep in mind that the most effective essays are those that provide specific details and vivid anecdotes. A general comment about the various leadership roles you’ve held is certainly in order, but it would be wise to use this as an introduction to an example that exemplifies your leadership/teamwork skills and style. Because LBS specifically asks applicants to address specific challenges that they’ve faced in their interpersonal interactions, it would be beneficial for candidates to reflect on strategies they’ve developed to overcome and navigate any obstacles. You should also include information about how you can apply these processes to future work at LBS. Note that the question about LBS study groups offers applicants a great chance . . . → Continue Reading Posted by Clear Admit on September 23, 2009, at 4:07 pm Posted in: Essay Topics , School: UT Austin / McCombs The UT Austin/McCombs essay topics for the 2009-2010 admissions season are now available. The topics are as follows: 1. Describe how your experiences, both personal and professional, have led you to pursue an MBA at this time. What are your short- and long-term goals and how will a Texas MBA help you achieve them? Limit: 900 words 2. Discuss a defining experience in your leadership development. What did you learn from this experience about your strengths and weaknesses as a leader? Limit: 650 words 3. At the McCombs School of Business, you will be part of an active and diverse community. How will you use your personal strengths and unique experiences to enrich the McCombs community during your two years in the program? Limit: 500 words The UT Austin/McCombs deadlines were announced earlier this year. |
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