Welcome back to Fridays From the Frontline, where we at Clear Admit publish some choice stories floating around the business school blogosphere.  Decisions, reflections and plans are all being made this week as bloggers take the next steps towards their summers.

The Senator is committing to Tuck and wearing something green forever; he’s also outed his true identity.  Though blubbering on the phone, The Applicationist was ultimately accepted to Chicago Booth and now faces a huge decision.  MRI posted her reflections on the GMAT as well as some resources for soon-to-be test-takers.  Sanket has celebrated the kickoff of the application season and begun dusting off his résumé.  Meanwhile, Cheetarah explored the age-old business school question of rank versus money and landed on an individual’s preferences as the deciding factor.

This week, two more Fridays from the Frontline bloggers reviewed the free Clear Admit School Snapshots.  MBA Dilemma reviewed Clear Admit’s School Snapshot for INSEAD and said the “no-nonsense” guide would have saved hours during school screening.  Tepper ’13 Julianne also found that the Tepper School Snapshot is a great timesaver for applicants and puts the most relevant information in one place.  » Continue reading

After a good month of consideration and evaluation, the votes for the seventh annual Best of Blogging competition are in! The purpose of the BoBs is simple: to identify and celebrate the applicant and student bloggers who have shared their lives with the online MBA community over the last year. The wisdom and knowledge that each nominee provided to their readers will last long after their own time in b-school has come to an end, leaving a proverbial ‘treasure trove’ for future applicants and students alike.

Without any further ado, or fanfare, here are the top bloggers of this year’s competitions!

Top Applicant Bloggers
The Senator: http://thesenator2014.wordpress.com/
Fortune 800: http://fortune800mba.blogspot.com/
Unfathomable: http://knowingthepathandwalkingthepath.blogspot.com/

Most Entertaining Applicant Blog
The Senator

Best GMAT Preparation Advice
Unfathomable and The Senator (tied)

Best School Selection Advice
Fortune 800

Top Student Bloggers
Jeremy: http://www.jeremycwilson.com/
Bayo: http://nigerianintobschool.blogspot.com/
Julianne: http://julianneharty.blogspot.com/

Most Entertaining Student Blog
Bayo

Best Job/Internship Advice
Jeremy

Best Representation of Academics
Jeremy

Best Representation of Student Life
Bayo

Our warmest congratulations to all BoB nominees and especially to The Senator and Jeremy! We’ll be getting in touch with the winners this week to solidify prize selection and distribution. The prizes for this year’s competition were an iPod touch or $300 Amazon.com gift certificate for the winners, and the choice of a 6-month subscription to either the Business Week Magazine or the Economist for the second and third place bloggers.

Clear Admit would like to thank our FFF readers for taking the time to delve deep into the great pool of b-school bloggers and cast their votes. Also, a big hand must go out to the entire MBA blogging community, nominated or not, without whom the BoB awards would not be possible. It is a pleasure and a privilege to follow the lives of so many interesting b-school applicants and students. We’re looking forward to another great year of following the application and MBA experience – happy reading and writing!

Welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s weekly roundup of the b-school blogosphere’s comings and goings. With our announcement last week of this year’s Best of Blogging nominees, b-school bloggers were abuzz. Many announced their nominations and encouraged their readers to vote, which Clear Admit also encourages.

BoB nominee Ccatcher danced a happy dance after receiving additional scholarship funding from Tepper.  Fellow BOB nominee Ms HR found herself with some decisions to make.  After much study and dedication, nominee MBA Dreamz successfully broke the 700 mark on her GMAT.  The Senator proudly displayed his BoB badge and discussed how his approach to the blog changed over the course of his application process. Cheetarah felt a certain amount of dread when it came down to actually picking between Kellogg, Chicago Booth and Wharton.

Johnson ’13 Ellipser got ‘ICED’ and reconnected with recently admitted students whom he first met when they were just visiting hopefuls. Harvard ’13 Parker announced her official status as ‘entrepreneur.’ While announcing her own BoB nomination Kellogg ’13 Night Owl reflected on how unsure of where she was going to be a year ago and how happy she was with the way things turned out.  Tepper ’13 Julianne loved Thursdays for a number of reasons, including her BoB nomination, the warm weather and writing a case study about Wii.

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As promised in our April 6th time line for this year’s BoBs, today is the day we release the 2011-2012 Best of Blogging nominees! For those of you not familiar with the Clear Admit Best of Blogging competition, the goal of this annual event is two-fold.  First, we want to recognize and celebrate the best MBA applicant and student blogs covering the 2011-12 admissions cycle/academic year. Equally important is Clear Admit’s commitment to identifying valuable sources of information for the next round of MBA applicants and students.

The process we used to determine BoB nominees started with considering all FFF-featured blogs and those listed in the Clear Admit Wiki. Looking at originality and relevance of content, as well as total number of posts and overall contribution to the space, we then narrowed the count down to a select group of bloggers. Whether new to the blog scene or seasoned veterans, focused on providing class descriptions or travel tips, straight-laced students or party animals, all members of this group  have shared something unique about themselves and provided informative and relatable information about the MBA experience. And so, without further ado, the nominated bloggers:

Applicant Bloggers:

Applicationist: http://theapplicationist.blogspot.com

Ccatcher: http://missionm.wordpress.com/

Fortune 800: http://fortune800mba.blogspot.com/

MBA Dilemma: http://mbadilemma.wordpress.com/

My MBA Dreamz: http://mymbadreamz.blogspot.com

Pyarapopat: http://pyarapopat.wordpress.com

Roller Coaster: http://shekmba.blogspot.com/

The Senator: http://thesenator2014.wordpress.com/

Str1der: http://unclearadmit.blogspot.com/

Unfathomable: http://knowingthepathandwalkingthepath.blogspot.com/

Student Bloggers:

Bayo: http://nigerianintobschool.blogspot.com/

Darden Poet: http://dardenpoet.wordpress.com/

Ellipser: http://money9111.blogspot.com/

Howie: http://imdhowie.blogspot.com/

Jeremy http://www.jeremycwilson.com/

Jonathan: http://grounds-management.blogspot.com

Julianne: http://julianneharty.blogspot.com/

MBAhut: http://mbahut.com/

Night Owl: http://nightowlsrevenge.tumblr.com/

Parker: http://mbadventure.com/

Congrats to our nominees! The next step is for the nominated bloggers and blog readers to cast their votes on the overall ranking, as well as a few more focused categories. Clear Admit readers and FFF community members will be invited to vote online early next week. Voting will conclude  on Friday, April 27th. We’ll be emailing ballots to nominees with their contact information on their blogs; those nominees who don’t receive a ballot are encouraged to get in touch by sending a note to bob@clearadmit.com. Additional information about our online voting process will be available on Monday, so stay tuned!

For more details on the BoBs (prizes, rules, etc), you can read our original post.

Another application cycle is rapidly drawing to a close, and summer is ahead of us. A good deal of clarity and news has been delivered to the MBA applicant crowd: interview invitations, admissions decisions, and, of course, the announcement of our annual Best of Blogging Awards (also known as “the BoBs”)! For those unfamiliar with the awards, each year we make an effort to identify exceptional blogs maintained by MBA applicants and students. We do this for two reasons: to recognize the commitment and quality of the best applicant and student bloggers’ writing, and to identify valuable sources of information for the next round of applicants.

Here’s the timeline for this year’s awards, which will cover the 2011-2012 admissions/academic cycle:

Nominees Announced – Friday, April 13th
We’ll begin by considering all featured bloggers from Fridays From The Frontline (bloggers are encouraged to email bob@clearadmit.com about adding a link if their sites are not currently included). Keeping in mind the relevance and frequency of posts, as well as the overall quality of their contributions to the MBA blogosphere, we’ll pare the list of nominees down to approximately 10 applicants and 10 current students. Once we’ve determined the blogs to be considered, we’ll be sending BoB ballots out to each of the nominated bloggers.

Ballots Due – Friday, April 27th
Votes from the nominated bloggers, Clear Admit staff and our Fridays From the Frontlines readership will be due on Friday, April 27th.   In addition to an overall ranking, we’ll ask voters to share their thoughts on the funniest blog and best single post, and to point us to the blogs that they feel feature the best advice in categories such as GMAT preparation, school selection, application essays, admissions and recruiting interviews, as well as the best representation of academics and student life in business school.

Rankings Revealed – Friday, May 4th
Once the votes are in, we’ll publish the category winners as well as the top five listings in the applicant and student categories. Clear Admit will be presenting prizes to the select few for their efforts and contribution to the community. Second and third place bloggers in the student- and applicant-blogger rankings will each receive a six-month subscription to the Economist or Business Week magazine (their choice), and the top-ranked student and applicant blogger will each be given the option of a 32 GB iPod Touch or a $300 Amazon.com gift certificate.

That’s all for now – check back on Friday, April 13th for an announcement about this year’s BoB nominees! In the mean time, happy blogging…

Hello and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s weekly look-see into the lives of MBA applicants and student bloggers. This week covered a nice range of topics, from further notification from schools to advice to applicants on how to decide between school opportunities.

Ccatcher was unable to do her Cornell acceptance dance after receiving word of her placement on the school’s waitlist. Unfathomable did some light reading on the MBA admissions process and identified five to six factors that play into how that process will go.

Johnson ’13 Ellipser responded to emails from recently admitted, waitlisted and denied Johnson applicants. HBS ’13 Parker shared where she was heading for her summer internship and was elected Co-President of the HBS Women’s Student Association. Tepper ’13 Julianne explained some of the pitfalls of group assignments. Sloan ’13 ECLS joined fellow classmates on a trip out to California where they visited the headquarters of  LinkedIN and eBay.
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Hello and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s Friday feature focused on the b-school blogosphere. This week was pretty quiet for most applicants and students, though a few did chime in.

Mbadilemma chose to delay her applications by about 6 months. The Senator announced his plan to join Tuck’s Class of 2014.  Roller Coaster talked about the value of networking at Kellogg.

Tepper  ’13 Julianne reflected on the resources that helped her during her application process.  Harvard ’13 Parker traveled to Austria with her sister and perfected “the Stink Eye.”

Darden ’12 Dave lacked motivation, especially given the weather and his upcoming trip. George Washington ’12 Part-Timer traveled to France. Kellogg ’12 Jeremy encouraged readers to attend a free symposium. Darden ’12 Jonathan recounted the joys of a case competition.

Want to join the Fridays From the Frontline community and see your blog featured regularly in this column? Just copy and paste the code found here to your blog and then email us atbob@clearadmit.com with your URL so we can make sure to add you to our weekly roundups.