Posted by Clear Admit on February 6, 2012, at 3:00 am
Posted in:  Admissions Tips , Interview Tips Over the last months, we’ve focused on helping applicants prepare to answer the various questions they’ll be posed during their interviews, but there is one in particular to which we have not paid much attention. Today, we wanted to offer a few tips in navigating the nearly inevitable interview finisher: “Do you have any questions for me?”
This seems like a harmless inquiry, and indeed poses a great opportunity, but there’s actually a fine line to walk here. You certainly want to take advantage of this opportunity to show the interviewer that you appreciate his or her time, perspective and knowledge.
Posted by Clear Admit on January 30, 2012, at 3:00 am
Posted in: Admissions Tips , Waitlist Advice What should an applicant do when placed on the waitlist at his or her dream school? While most applicants regard the waitlist in a negative light (we’ve even heard it described as “a sort of purgatory prior to getting dinged”), the best approach is to view the glass as being half-full (especially for R1 waitlisters). In all cases, getting waitlisted is much better than getting denied.
Here are a few tips to help you navigate this often difficult and mysterious process:
1) Know your file. Before you can develop a waitlist strategy, you need to understand where you may have fallen short in the application process. Read over your file with a critical eye and try to identify any weaknesses.
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Posted by Clear Admit on January 23, 2012, at 3:00 am
Posted in: Admissions Tips With the majority of schools having released their Round One decisions, many successful applicants will soon be facing the enviable – but often agonizing – decision of choosing between programs. Though we know that those of you in this position will already be juggling an overwhelming amount of information about the schools on your short lists, we wanted to offer a few pointers to consider as you identify and evaluate the most important facts and factors in making this decision.
1) Immerse yourself. If you have not yet visited campus, go to the school and see what you think of the environment. Be sure to attend classes, talk with students, tour the facilities, and so on.
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Posted by Clear Admit on January 16, 2012, at 3:00 am
Posted in: Admissions Tips With a slew of schools releasing the last of their R1 notifications in the coming weeks, we know that many of our readers will be asking about the background checks conducted by leading programs. Here are some quick facts to help explain the process:
1) What are background checks? Background checks involve the verification of information that a candidate has provided in his or her MBA applications. Although the process varies from school to school, it usually includes checking that an applicant attended the undergraduate (or graduate) school(s) that he or she claims to have attended, received the grades indicated and earned the GMAT score reported.
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Posted by Clear Admit on January 9, 2012, at 3:00 am
Posted in: Admissions Tips , Waitlist Advice While the past few weeks have seen a number of admits and rejections handed down to Round One MBA applicants, the fate of many remains uncertain. There is no reason for waitlisted candidates to lose hope, as the top programs admit a fair number of individuals from the waitlist in Round Two and thereafter, but we know that cautious optimism does not make the wait for an answer any easier. To help those in this situation make sure that they’re doing all they can, we wanted to share a few waitlist tips: 1. Know – and follow – the rules. Schools vary in their stances when it comes to interaction with those on the waitlist; some shun communication from applicants and even go so far as to discourage on-the-record campus visits, whereas others welcome correspondence and assign waitlisted candidates to an admissions office liaison.
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Posted by Clear Admit on January 2, 2012, at 3:00 am
Posted in: Admissions Tips We often stress that, to present oneself effectively in application essays, it’s critical to think carefully about what a given question is asking and what this might indicate about a specific school’s admissions priorities. Of course, it’s also imperative to communicate clearly and appropriately regardless of the target program or particular inquiry.
As many applicants are feverishly putting the finishing touches on their essays for programs with deadlines this week and next, we wanted to offer a few general guidelines to keep in mind during that final revision. Time is tight, we know, but a few small changes can make a considerable difference, so today we’re going back to basics and offering a few broadly applicable tips on tone and style to keep in mind when polishing the written elements of your applications.
1. Be Professional. While a number of schools ask fun questions and most urge applicants to be themselves rather than submitting “overly polished” materials, it’s important to remember that this is a graduate school application and you should approach your essays with a degree of formality.
Posted by Clear Admit on December 30, 2011, at 2:49 pm
Posted in: Admissions Tips , MBA News To close out 2011, the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), which owns the GMAT entrance exam, shared a roundup of survey and poll results for the year, which together bode well for current and soon-to-graduate MBA students.
For starters, employment figures are rebounding after the economic crisis of the past few years. Specifically, GMAC found that 54 percent of all graduate business students seeking employment in 2011 had at least one job offer before graduation, up from 32 percent in 2010. Survey findings also underscored the importance of internships to the job search. Class of 2011 grads who completed a summer internship were 26 percent more likely to receive a job offer prior to graduation than those who didn’t. And according to GMAC’s Year-End Employer Poll, almost four times as many companies (22 percent) are planning to increase the number of MBAs they hire in 2012.
Posted by Clear Admit on December 26, 2011, at 3:00 am
Posted in: Admissions Tips , Deadlines As we prepare to bid goodbye to 2011 and greet the deadline-packed first month of 2012, we would like to take the opportunity to recap the upcoming Round Two deadlines and offer some advice for hardworking applicants. Some schools have even reached their third rounds by January, and those are denoted below by (R3).
First, a summary of this month’s deadlines along with the exact time each application is due:
Tuesday, January 3rd Tepper, 5:00 p.m. EST
Wednesday, January 4th Booth, 5:00 p.m. EST Duke, 11:59 p.m. EST Ross, 11:59 p.m. EST Tuck, 5:00 p.m. EST Wharton, 5:00 p.m. EST
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Posted by Clear Admit on December 21, 2011, at 2:00 pm
Posted in: Admissions Tips , MBA News , School: Chicago , Waitlist Advice In a change to its waitlist process this year, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business will feature a waitlist enrollment form allowing candidates to immediately opt in or out of the list and will permit waitlisted candidates to submit a 90-second video update regarding their candidacy, the Admissions Committee shared this week.
In a post yesterday to the Booth Insider, the school’s MBA admissions blog, Associate Director of Admissions Carrie Lydon shared these and other updates regarding the waitlist process. The applications of candidates who accept the offer to become part of the waitlist will be considered for admission again as part of Round 2 and will receive an updated decision on March 21st, the final decision date for the round. “We will try to make a final decision by that point, but there is a possibility that you could remain on the waitlist through Round 3,” Lydon wrote.
Posted by Clear Admit on December 19, 2011, at 3:00 am
Posted in: Admissions Tips As candidates tackle interviews and preparation for Round 2 applications, we would like to revisit an important aspect of the application: the resume. Given the many roles that the resume plays in the business school application process, drafting a resume (or CV) is an excellent starting point for someone embarking on the next round of MBA applications. Here are several reasons why now is the time to focus on polishing your resume:
1) Crafting a resume can serve as the creative starting point for candidates trying to develop their positioning strategy and career goals for the MBA admissions process. Distilling all relevant educational, professional and extracurricular experiences into a coherent one-page document can be an eye-opening exercise.
Posted by Clear Admit on December 15, 2011, at 12:43 pm
Posted in: Admissions Tips , Essay Topic Analysis , School: Columbia , Videos If you’re applying to the MBA program at Columbia University, don’t miss our video lecture on tackling the school’s essay topics. As a part of Beat The GMAT’s ‘Write Like an Expert’ series, Clear Admit team member, Graham Richmond, breaks down each application essay for Columbia hopefuls in the video below. This is a great opportunity to learn how a former admissions officer would strategically approach each essay question.
Special Announcement: If you like our Write Like an Expert videos, don’t forget to check out our Navigating the MBA Admissions Process video course!
Posted by Clear Admit on December 13, 2011, at 2:00 pm
Posted in: Admissions Tips , School: Dartmouth / Tuck Dawna Clarke, director of admissions at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, recently launched a new video series called “Ask Dawna,” in which she answers a range of questions posed by prospective applicants about the admissions process. One such video pertains specifically to Tuck’s position on the use of education advisors as part of the application process.
“Tuck’s position is generally very positive,” Clarke says, noting that Tuck has historically even hosted an annual conference for educational advisors intended to better familiarize advisors from around the world with Tuck’s program.
Posted by Clear Admit on December 12, 2011, at 3:00 am
Posted in: Admissions Tips Last week we offered some advice to help applicants avoid common pitfalls in writing their essays for the Round Two deadlines. This week we’d like to offer some more advice. Although these tips might not apply to everyone or to every school, these are some good basic strategies to employ. For personalized advice about your applications, contact Clear Admit directly. 1. Think strategically when delving into anecdotes that are highly personal. While breaking up with your college sweetheart may have had some impact on who you are today, you’ll want to be careful about using personal matters as the basis for an essay. While there are certainly exceptions, we find that examples from the professional sphere or from extracurriculars typically make for stronger, and more compelling, essays
Posted by Clear Admit on December 9, 2011, at 9:50 am
Posted in: Admissions Tips , Essay Topic Analysis , School: Penn / Wharton , Videos If you’re applying to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, don’t miss our video lecture on tackling the school’s essay topics. As a part of Beat The GMAT’s ‘Write Like an Expert’ series, Clear Admit team member, Graham Richmond, breaks down each application essay for Wharton hopefuls in the video below. This is a great opportunity to learn how a former Wharton admissions officer would strategically approach each essay question.
Special Announcement: If you like our Write Like an Expert videos, don’t forget to check out our Navigating the MBA Admissions Process video course!
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