APPLICANT RESOURCES

Admissions Director Q&A (New!) Below are links to Clear Admit's exclusive admissions director Q&A sessions.
Dawna Clarke (Tuck)
Rose Martinelli (Chicago)
Judith Hodara (Wharton)
Sarah Neher (Darden)
Soojin Kwon Koh (Michigan)
Randall Sawyer (Cornell)
Beth Flye (Kellogg)
David Simpson (LBS)

Clear Admit School Guides
Eighteen titles available! Understand how the leading programs compare and learn more about the MBA experience in and beyond the classroom through Clear Admit School Guides. As featured in the Economist.

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.

Essay Topic Analysis
Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics.
The Career Goals Essay*
Berkeley / Haas*
Chicago GSB*
CMU / Tepper*
Columbia*
Cornell / Johnson*
Dartmouth / Tuck*
Duke / Fuqua*
Harvard*
IESE*
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 '08-'09 commentary

• Admissions Director Q&A
• Admissions Tips
• Campus Chronicles
• Deadlines
• Essay Topic Analysis
• Essay Topics
• Events
• Fridays from the Frontline
• General
• GMAT News
• GMAT Tips
• Interview Guides
• Interview Tips
• MBA News
• Part-Time MBA
• Part-Time/Executive MBA
• Poll
• Pre-Matriculation Tips
• Rankings
• School Guides
• School: Berkeley / Haas
• School: Cambridge
• School: Chicago
• School: CMU / Tepper
• School: Columbia
• School: Cornell / Johnson
• School: Dartmouth / Tuck
• School: Duke / Fuqua
• School: Emory / Goizueta
• School: ESADE
• School: Georgetown
• School: Harvard
• School: IE
• School: IESE
• School: IMD
• School: Indiana / Kelley
• School: INSEAD
• School: ISB
• School: London Business School
• School: Michigan / Ross
• School: MIT / Sloan
• School: Northwestern / Kellogg
• School: NYU Stern
• School: Oxford
• School: Penn / Wharton
• School: Stanford
• School: UCLA / Anderson
• School: UNC / Kenan Flagler
• School: USC / Marshall
• School: UT Austin / McCombs
• School: Virginia / Darden
• School: Yale
• Strategy Series
• Trivia Tuesday
• Uncategorized
• Waitlist Advice
• Which School Wednesdays
• Wiki Wednesdays
• Workbook Wednesdays

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

• knowledge@wharton
• INSEAD Knowledge
• Harvard Working Knowledge
• Knowledge @ Emory
• Columbia Ideas @ Work
• knowledge@ W. P. Carey
• Stanford Knowledgebase

Blog Archive

• November 2008
• October 2008
• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008
• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008
• December 2007
• November 2007
• October 2007
• September 2007
• August 2007
• July 2007
• June 2007
• May 2007
• April 2007
• March 2007
• February 2007
• January 2007
• December 2006
• November 2006
• October 2006
• September 2006
• August 2006
• July 2006
• June 2006
• May 2006
• April 2006
• March 2006
• February 2006
• January 2006
• December 2005
• November 2005
• October 2005
• September 2005
• August 2005
• July 2005
• June 2005
• May 2005
• April 2005
• March 2005
• February 2005
• January 2005
• December 2004
• November 2004
• October 2004
• September 2004
• August 2004
• July 2004
• June 2004
• May 2004
• April 2004
• March 2004
• February 2004
• January 2004
• December 2003
• November 2003
• October 2003
• September 2003
• August 2003
• July 2003
• June 2003

CATEGORY - SCHOOL: CHICAGO

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Interview Insights from Stanford GSB, Chicago Booth Admissions Directors

In a post to the Stanford Graduate School of Business Admissions blog last week, Director of Admissions Derrick Bolton shed some light on the timing of interview invitations. “Please be assured that your likelihood of admission bears no relationship to when you receive your interview invitation,” he wrote. “The timing of your invitation simply depends on when we review your file.”

And as for the order in which Stanford GSB reviews applications, there is no pattern, Bolton said. Interviews for Round 1 applicants start as soon as possible after the application deadline, which is typically early November, and continue through mid-January.

“We expect to send Round 1 interview invitations pretty regularly, every business day or so, through mid December,” he said. During the school’s winter shutdown, December 22nd through January 5th, the admissions committee is still reading applications “feverishly,” but invites get bundled and go out every few days instead of every day. 

According to Bolton, he hopes to send almost all Round 1 invitations out by mid-January, but some will likely go out later. And some applicants may be asked to join the waitlist without an interview, he added. But the timing of your invite does not have any bearing on your likelihood of admission, he repeated. “No matter when you receive your invitation to interview, you have the same chance of admission as any other candidate.”

In a blog post of her own, Rose Martinelli of the Chicago Booth School of Business shared a little about interviews at that school. Not a lot of detail here – her post was devoted primarily to the school’s new name and its generous benefactor – but she did reveal that more than 250 applicants were headed to campus this week to interview and that she has been enjoying meeting them all.

That’s all we have for today, but we’ll keep the updates coming as often as we can. And don’t forget, you can share your own interview experiences with fellow anxious applicants on the Clear Admit Wiki and read what others have to say about theirs as well.

Monday, November 17, 2008

BusinessWeek 2008 Business School Rankings: A Closer Look

Today we’ll take a closer look at how the various top programs fared in BusinessWeek’s most recent business school rankings, released last week.

Chicago Booth held firmly to the number one spot it secured in the 2006 rankings, boasting high scores in both the corporate recruiter and graduate surveys. Harvard Business School (HBS) and Wharton traded places this year, with HBS climbing to number two and Wharton slipping to number four. BW’s Louis Lavelle attributed Wharton’s slide to a poorer showing in the intellectual capital category this year than in 2006. 

Columbia, meanwhile, advanced from the number 10 spot to number seven, but MIT Sloan and Berkeley’s Haas School of Business each slipped slightly. Also noteworthy was the fact that Southern Methodist University (18) and Brigham Young University (22) each cracked the top 25 this year for the first time ever. SMU, for its part, has been among the participating schools for years, but lacked sufficient response rates in the recruiter and student portions of the ranking to secure a top spot before now, according to BW’s Geoff Gloeckler.

There were also two newcomers to the Global MBA rankings, IE Business School (2) and Oxford’s Saïd Business School (10). Like SMU, IE has long been a participant but until this year had insufficient recruiter and student response rates, Gloeckler said.

Yale School of Management, meanwhile, seems to have fallen back slightly. It came in at 24 this year, down from 19 in 2006. Lavelle attributed its fall to low student survey scores.

In an article accompanying the rankings, BW takes a look at the current business school landscape, which it says is marked by surging application rates amid “wretched” recruiting prospects.

As has historically been the case in times of economic downturn, application rates to business schools are rising steadily. According to the BW report, schools are reporting double-digit increases in application volume. Chicago Booth, for example, has seen a 20 percent surge in attendance at information sessions around the globe.

But even as more students clamor to get in, job prospects upon graduation are uncertain, with some schools bracing for the toughest MBA job market since the dotcom bust. “I think next fall is going to be very, very difficult,” George Daly, dean of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, told BW.

The article went on to cite a survey by umbrella group MBA Career Services Council, in which 70 percent of 77 participating schools reported a downturn in full-time recruiting opportunities in financial services in October.

As a result, some students are shifting their focus from investment banking to consulting and other fields. Attendance at recruiting presentations by consulting firms is standing room only, New York University’s Stern School of Business Dean Gary Fraser told BW.

A shift is also taking place in the classroom, as professors are introducing new case studies and re-writing syllabi as part of an effort to make sense of the financial crisis and market upheaval.

Risk management, meanwhile, is expected to play a much more important role in business school curriculums over the next three to five years, according to the BW report, a trend that Robert Meyer, co-director of Wharton’s Risk Management & Decision Processes Center, calls “potentially transformational.”

Thursday, November 13, 2008

BusinessWeek Releases 2008 Business School Rankings, Chicago Booth Tops U.S. List

BusinessWeek today released its 2008 rankings of the world’s top business schools as part of a live chat event moderated by editors Louis Lavelle, Geoff Gloeckler and Francesca Di Meglio. The chat format was designed both to build excitement around the rankings’ release and provide readers with an opportunity to ask questions about everything from the rankings methodology to the suprises the BW team encountered while compiling the list.

Kicking things off, Gloeckler began by revealing the top 10 international schools, counting down to the top spot. They were

10. Oxford (Said)
9. IESE
8. Toronto (Rotman)
7. IMD
6. ESADE
5. London Business School
4. Western Ontario
3. INSEAD
2. IE Business School
1. Queens

Queens holds the top spot in the global MBA rankings for the third consecutive year. But at number two, IE is a newcomer to the rankings. Number three INSEAD, meanwhile, advanced from the number six spot it held last year.

Lavelle then took the reins, doling out the top 30 U.S. full-time MBA programs one by one. We won’t list all 30 here – for that you can check the BW site – but we will give you the top 15. Drumroll please:

15. Indiana (Kelley)
14. UCLA (Anderson)
13. NYU (Stern)
12. Dartmouth (Tuck)
11. Cornell (Johnson)
10. UC Berkeley (Haas)
9. MIT (Sloan)
8. Duke (Fuqua)
7. Columbia
6. Stanford
5. Michigan (Ross)
4. Penn (Wharton)
3. Kellogg (Northwestern)
2. Harvard

And for the second year in a row…though sporting a new name…BW’s top-ranked U.S. MBA program is the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

As always, we encourage you to use these rankings as one of several tools for researching which MBA program promises to best fit your individual needs and goals.

While not yet live on the BW site at the time of this posting, the full rankings will no doubt be available there soon, and we will provide analysis of this year’s shifts among those jockeying for the top spots in upcoming posts. But for now, we wanted you to have the information as soon as it was released.

Friday, November 07, 2008

Chicago GSB Renamed Chicago Booth School of Business in Recognition of $300 Million Alumni Gift

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business announced yesterday that alumnus David G. Booth (MBA ’71) recently donated $300 million to the school, the largest donation in the university’s history and the largest gift ever to a business school. In recognition of his generosity, the school will be renamed the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Booth, the founder and chief executive of investment firm Dimensional Fund Advisors, built his firm and his fortune on the finance principles he learned at Chicago. His first course there, taught by Professor Eugene Fama, was life-changing, he said. Fama is the founder of the efficient market hypothesis, which states that investors do best by buying and holding widely diversified portfolios, the basic thinking behind index funds.

“I remember Professor Fama standing up the first day of class and saying ‘This is the most practical course you will ever take,’ and it turned out to be true,” Booth said in a statement announcing the historic gift. “We built Dimensional Fund Advisors around his set of ideas. I am hoping that others will join me in giving back to this amazing business school,” he continued.

The gift, which includes an upfront payment, an income stream from shares in Dimensional Fund Advisors’ parent company and equity interest, will help fund several new initiatives, including an aggressive push to attract and retain star faculty.

The school also will consider adding new faculty groups in academic areas not normally associated with business schools, expanding existing research centers and exploring ways to more ambitiously leverage the school’s intellectual capital. The school’s international presence, too, could grow beyond its existing campuses in London and Singapore.

School officials expressed tremendous gratitude to Booth and lauded the decision to rename the school in his honor. “Given the profile of our school and its role in the world, it is imperative that the person who names the school embodies its values and, moreover, is a person who is of great integrity and who commands respect,” Edward Snyder, dean of the business school, said in a statement. “In David Booth, we have a person who exceeds all the relevant criteria.”

Booth’s gift is almost triple the amount given to Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 2006. That $105 million gift, made by Nike founder and chairman Philip H. Knight, had been the largest ever to a business school. Other notable gifts to business schools include $100 million to the University of Michigan in 2004 from Stephen M. Ross, $85 million to the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2007 from a combined partnership of 13 alumni and $60 million to the Darden School at the University of Virginia from Frank Batten Sr., retired chairman and chief executive of Landmark Communications.

To read more about Booth’s $300 million donation to the University Chicago, click here.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Top Schools Remain Committed to Helping International MBA Applicants Find Student Loans

In a post earlier this month, we reported that Citibank has cancelled its CitiAssist student loan program with several top business schools as a result of the current economic crisis and shrinking credit markets, creating confusion and uncertainty for many international students about how to fund an MBA. 

So far, loans for domestic students pursuing an MBA program do not seem to have been impacted, but the cancellation of the CitiAssist program brought to an abrupt end loan programs for international students that don’t require a co-signer. Several schools have responded with assurances that they are focused on the problem and committed to providing access to financial aid to all students regardless of citizenship.

In a post yesterday on her newly launched blog, Rose Martinelli, director of admissions and financial aid at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, stressed that she and her team are committed to finding new loan sources for the upcoming year.

In fact, Chicago GSB went through this exact exercise not so many months ago. The school’s previous loan provider cancelled its program for international students in July, and Martinelli’s office scrambled to find a replacement program – with Citibank. Fortunately for this year’s entering class, loans for the current year were locked in and will be unaffected by the more recent CitiAssist cancellation.

But now Chicago GSB must again find a replacement loan program. “We were all taken by surprise and are actively engaged at the highest levels in the school/university in identifying potential new loan sources for the upcoming year,” Martinelli wrote.

In the meantime, she encouraged international students to look at the various financing opportunities available in their home countries. “Rates and terms will vary by location, but it makes sense for you to have this information available so that you can evaluate the terms schools are able to provide for similar loan types when that information becomes available,” she wrote.

Acknowledging how uncomfortable the uncertainty must feel, Martinelli encouraged prospective applicants to remain positive and focus on the fact that an MBA is a long-term investment that will pay dividends over a lifetime regardless of market cycles.

San Francisco Bay–area schools, too, recently also offered reassurance to prospective international students as well as some practical advice. A post last week on the Stanford MBA Admissions Blog featured the following quote from Jack Edwards, director of financial aid:

“International students at the Stanford Graduate School of Business will not be impacted by Citibank’s decision. The GSB Financial Aid Office has a close working relationship with Stanford Federal Credit Union and for the past two years we have made arrangements exclusively through SFCU to provide international students at Stanford the ability to take out private loans without a U.S. co-signer.” Edwards also confirmed that Citibank’s loan program for domestic borrowers had not been affected.

At the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, meanwhile, Director of Admissions Peter Johnson confirmed Citibank’s discontinuation of international student loans without a co-signer. “I’m guessing that no-co-signer loans will be hard to find until the financial services mess is sorted out,” he wrote in an email.

Johnson encouraged prospect Haas applicants to explore alternative financial assistance available through the school. “We  provide $3.2 million dollars in financial assistance, including merit scholarships providing up to full tuition and fees for both years; fellowships for students pursuing careers in financial services, and smaller programs for specific discipline areas,” he wrote. To learn more about Haas’s other financial assistance programs, click here.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Business Schools Brace for Record Round One Application Volumes

As round one application deadlines approach, business schools both here and abroad are bracing for a surge in application volume. Recent reports in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Asia Inc reveal what we’ve long known to be true: When business goes south, business school looks like a better and better idea.

“It’s a very predictable and reliable pattern,” Stacey Kole, deputy dean for the full-time MBA program at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, told the Times. “When there’s a go-go economy, fewer people decide to go back to school. When things go south, the opportunity cost of leaving work is lower.” And for workers who find themselves laid off, the decision is made easier still.

Official application tallies aren’t yet available since deadlines for the first round of admissions still loom at many schools. But early reports indicate that final numbers will be high.

According to the Journal report, New York University’s Stern School of Business has seen a 20 percent increase in attendance at off-site information sessions this year, Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management is reporting a 22 percent increase in applications so far, and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business has seen campus visits by prospective students double.

As always, registration volume for the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) provides an early indicator of application volume as well. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the test, registrations for the test through the end of September were 11.6 percent higher than in the comparable period of 2007.

In Europe, the same trends are playing out. “Actually, applications to MBA programmes at IE Business school this year have grown over 15 percent and diversity – the number of countries represented – has also increased,” Santiago Iniguez, dean of Instituto de Empresa Business School in Madrid, told Asia Inc last month. “In fact, the number of U.S. students expected for IE’s MBA programme starting this fall will increase over 20 percent,” he continued.

Still, not everyone sees a direct correlation between a sagging economy and a surge in application volume. Others rightly point out that uncertainty about what the job market will look like upon graduation could deter some from applying. And for some students, the credit crisis may make getting loans to cover the cost of business school more difficult.

Derrick Bolton, director of MBA admissions at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, told the Times that he sees very little correlation between a Wall Street bust and an application boom. According to Bolton, application numbers at his school remained “pretty standard” even after some of Wall Street’s greatest declines, such as the market crash of 1987.

For those in good jobs now, meanwhile, the risk of leaving to go to school may seem too great, according to Peter Johnson, executive director of admissions for the full-time MBA program at the University of California Berkeley’s Hass School of Business. “If you are in a good position and you are not confident of how the picture is going to look two years from now, you may stay in that position,” he told the Journal.

And then there’s the issue of student loans, which have become harder to get due to the widespread credit crunch. According to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, 144 education lenders have suspended private and federal loans. But Kantrowitz says business school students should not be impacted as greatly.
“Graduate student loans are the most profitable [for lenders] because the loan balances are the highest,” he told the Journal.

Stefan Szymanski, associate dean of MBA programs at London’s Cass Business School said much the same thing in an article on topmba.com. “Banks are consistently willing to lend to MBAs because they know they’ll get their money back,” he writes. “And yes, even though the banks have stopped lending to almost everybody else, they seem happy to maintain their loan schemes right now – and they wouldn’t be doing that unless they saw an MBA as a sure-fire economic proposition.”

Monday, October 13, 2008

Chicago GSB Adds Greater Flexibility to Its MBA Curriculum

The faculty at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (GSB) last week approved changes that will allow its students even wider latitude in the courses they select, making a curriculum long considered to be one of the most flexible among MBA programs even more so.

The faculty also voted to create a new academic concentration in analytical management and to require a leadership development course as part of its evening and weekend MBA programs, as it currently does for its full-time MBA program.

“We had the most flexible MBA program in the world even before these changes, and now we dialed up that flexibility further,” said Dean Edward Snyder in a statement announcing the curriculum changes. “Our philosophy remains that our students own their experience here and each student should play the major role in determining the course of study that is best for him or her.”

To graduate, full-time MBA students will still be expected to complete nine required courses, 11 electives and a leadership course, but more substitute classes have been added to satisfy the required courses. To meet the 11 elective requirements, students can select from hundreds of courses both at the business school and in other university departments.

More rigorous courses have been included among the new options within the required portion of the curriculum, a result of the higher quality of students entering the program, according to Snyder.
“We have added a hybrid finance class containing five weeks of corporate finance and five weeks of investments that will allow all the standard corporate and investment classes to be taken up a notch in difficulty,” he said.

The curriculum changes, which will be effective for students entering in summer 2009, will apply to each the full-time MBA program, evening MBA program and weekend MBA program.

The framework of required courses will also shift some under the newly adopted curriculum, part of an effort to make the program requirements easier to understand. Students will still select courses from the foundation areas of accounting, microeconomics and statistics, but in place general management course requirements, students now instead will select classes representing functions (finance, marketing and operations), management (decisions, people and organizations) and the environment in which firms operate.

Steven Kaplan, Chicago professor of entrepreneurship and finance and co-chair of the curriculum review committee, underscored that the curriculum changes, while introducing greater flexibility, are not a radical departure from the existing curriculum, which received consistently high marks from alumni, current students and corporate recruiters. “More than 92 percent of our recent graduates say they are satisfied or very satisfied with the business education they received here,” Kaplan said.

Chicago’s enhanced commitment to flexibility within its curriculum is based on a school-wide philosophy that there is no singular path to career success, says Snyder. “Research on the career paths of our alumni by Professor Marianne Bertrand shows that successful graduates varied their coursework,” he said, adding that such variation would not be possible under a lock-step MBA experience.

For more on Chicago’s recent curriculum changes, click here.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Chicago GSB Admissions Dean Launches Her Own Blog

In late September, Rose Martinelli, dean of student recruitment and admissions at the Chicago Graduate School of Business (GSB), joined the blogosphere with the launch of her own blog, entitled “The Rose Report.”

A self-proclaimed advocate of transparency in admissions, Martinelli aims not just to talk the talk but also to walk the walk with her new blog. “Over the next several months I plan to update you on admissions, respond to questions and concerns and try to add some texture to this process,” she declared in her initial post on September 26th.

So far, her posts have touched on topics ranging from Chicago’s speedy response to recent GSB grads impacted by the Lehman bankruptcy, general application strategy (including a reference to Martinelli’s own Q&A with Clear Admit) and whether there are advantages to submitting in Round 1 versus Round 2.

Martinelli joins other admissions deans in the blogosphere. Harvard Business School’s Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Dee Leopold has been blogging since June 2007. And Sara Neher, director of admissions at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, boasts her own video blog on YouTube.

Of course, admissions deans’ blogs should serve as just one of many resources for prosective applicants seeking to guage which business school will best meet management education needs and goals. But when an admissions dean takes the time to speak directly to prospective applicants…prospective applicants probably want to listen up!

(To subscribe to receive regular updates to “The Rose Report” via RSS feed, click here.)

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Trivia Tuesday: International Study Trips at Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, NYU Stern and Wharton

Welcome back to Trivia Tuesday, our weekly exploration of the details, distinctions and developments of the leading MBA programs.

Over the last decade, most business schools have sought ways to provide relevant, hands-on international business exposure within the confines of a two-year degree. The solution that many schools have arrived at is “study trips,” which allow students to spend 1-2 weeks exploring the business environment of another country over the summer or during a mid-semester break. Depending on the school, these trips may be organized through an elective course, by an administrative office, or through a campus student group.

For instance, the Chazen Institute at Columbia works with individual students and clubs to organize study trips to countries or regions of interest, while Chicago’s International Programs Office coordinates short-term summer exchanges to Austria, Brazil, France and Germany. Several other business schools offer students academic credit for their travel abroad. At HBS students are able to earn 1.5 credits for their work abroad over the summer between the first and second year, provided they keep a weekly journal and submit a final paper. At Wharton, however, study trips are often closely integrated into full-semester elective courses, with students participating in hands-on consulting projects with firms from outside the U.S.

At NYU Stern, the school’s two-week long Doing Business In… (DBI) programs offer an appealing short-term alternative to spending an entire semester abroad. The program is usually offered in three selected locations each year and takes place outside of the normal academic calendar, usually between semester breaks or during Spring Break, making it easy for students to fit the program in at some point during their MBA. Each DBI includes one pre-trip class session and 8-10 full days of scheduled activities in the host country. Admission is by lottery, and classes are taught by the faculty of the host university; these faculty members also award the final pass/fail project or paper grades for the course.

In addition to the two-week DBI programs, Stern also offers students the unusual opportunity to study abroad for 1-6 weeks with one of four partner universities in Argentina, Denmark, Germany, or South Korea. These courses usually take place in early- to mid-May, making it possible to arrange a summer internship start date around completion of the course. The one-, three- and six-week programs may earn students 1.5 to 6 credits toward graduation. Although many MBA programs allow students to study abroad for a full semester or to travel abroad as part of a course, few provide summer exchanges through which students can earn credit toward graduation.

As knowledge of other cultures and business practices becomes more important to the daily life of business, it will become ever more important for students to gain exposure to international business during the MBA program. Since study trips range from informal and self-directed to formal consulting engagements for academic credit, applicants may want to consider the type of study trip that would best complement their prior international experience and keep this in mind as they apply to MBA programs. For more information on the details of schools’ study trip offerings, be sure to check out the schools’ websites or consult the Clear Admit School Guides!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Business Schools Continue to Focus on Financial Crisis

With the nation squarely focused on the state of the economy and Congressional negotiations toward a bailout plan waging on, business schools, too, have kept the financial crisis at the forefront of their communications.

Harvard Business School’s Admission Director Dee Leopold yesterday posted an entry on her blog directed toward prospective applicants wondering how the current economic situation will impact upcoming admissions volumes and cycles.

According to Leopold, the Admissions Office at HBS has been receiving a new array of questions given the climate of uncertainty in the financial markets. Questions have ranged from whether or not HBS intends to increase the size of next year’s class and/or the number of admits from financial services in light of higher application volume to whether prospective candidates who are unemployed will be at a disadvantage.

The class size next year will not increase, remaining at roughly 900 students, Leopold says. As to increasing the number of admits from financial services, Leopold’s answer was less precise. “Not necessarily,” she said. “Our goal is to compose a class which represents many different kinds of diversity, of which professional experience is only one element.” But there are not strict quotas that govern industry or geographical targets, so the overall class profile could shift some in the coming year.

Applicants who find themselves unemployed will not be at a disadvantage, Leeopold assures. “We realize that these are unusual times and that many strong contributors may find themselves in this situation,” she says.

To view the full list of questions and Leopold’s answers, click here.

Schools Offer Support to Alumni
MIT Sloan and Wharton, meanwhile, have each reached out to their alumni bases via email to remind them that school career services, networks and support are available to those within the alumni community who may need them.

“Whether you are employed by a fledging new venture, a not-for-profit service or one of the firms in the headlines, these services are there for you,” wrote MIT Sloan Dean David Schmittlein in an email address to alumni earlier this week. Schmittlein also encouraged alumni who are in a position to provide support to other alums in need to get in touch with the school.

Dean Tom Robertson of the Wharton School at the University of Pennyslvania issued a similar statement to that school’s alumni on Monday, listing a range of resources available to alumni in need of support and encouraging others who might be in a hiring position to post job opportunities at no cost on the Wharton Job Board.

Roberston also noted that Wharton faculty led a teach-in on campus on September 16th about the unfolding financial situation attended by more than 1,000 students. Videos of that day’s panelists are available for viewing at this link.

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business also reached out to its alumni, including convening a dinner in New York in the immediate aftermath of the Lehman bankruptcy announcement for members of the 2008 class who had accepted offers with the firm.

“As soon as we heard the news, we reached out to the ‘08s who had just graduated in June,” explained Julie Morton, associate dean of career services at Chicago GSB. According to Morton, 26 members of the 2008 Chicago class had accepted offers with Lehman, some in Chicago and New York and others in London and Asia.

Morton and Stacey Kole, dean of Chicago’s full-time MBA program, flew to New York to have dinner with the Lehman students there on September 19th. “At that point the whole Barclays deal had been announced and they were waiting to see,” Morton explained, most having just completed training a week earlier and not yet started their rotational programs.

“They were in a state of limbo, and we were really just reminding them that we were here from them,” Morton said.

“At this point quite honestly I’m not sure they are going to need a lot of new job support,” Morton said in a phone interview earlier this week. “I think for the most part they will land on their feet with the acquisition,” she said, “but I think it meant a lot to them to know that we are there.”

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Q&A With Chicago GSB Admissions Director Rose Martinelli

~ A CLEAR ADMIT EXCLUSIVE ~

Today marks the debut of a new content series here at Clear Admit – Admissions Director Q&A. In our first installment, Rose Martinelli, director of admissions at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (GSB), shares her thoughts and insights on the upcoming application season.

Read on to learn about some of the features that makes Chicago’s MBA program unique, as well as just what process the school’s admission committee follows when reviewing prospective students’ applications. Our warm thanks to Rose for taking time out of her busy schedule to participate in this Clear Admit exclusive!

Later this week, we’ll feature our next installment in the series, a similar question-and-answer exchange with Dawna Clarke, director of admissions at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. So be sure to check back!

Clear Admit: What is the one area of your program that you wish applicants knew more about?

Rose Martinelli: One of the most common misperceptions about Chicago GSB is that our flexibility and commitment to individual choice has an adverse impact on our community. I think it is important for prospective students to understand that our community is strong, and student commitment to this school and one another is a direct result of the flexibility we provide.

At Chicago GSB you create your own community – you develop and cultivate relationships that mean something to you as a student and future professional. Because of the flexibility in our curriculum your classmates will change regularly, causing your networks to constantly change.

At Chicago GSB you will develop vast networks and meet people from all different walks of life who share the same belief … that each path to an MBA is a personal one and success is predicated on leveraging a strong community, not competing against it. At Chicago, ideas compete, people collaborate and community, like our curriculum, is not dictated but rather facilitated through the classroom, student groups and the vibrant diversity of the city of Chicago.

CA: Walk us through the life of an application in your office from an operational standpoint. What happens between the time an applicant clicks ‘submit’ and the time the committee offers a final decision (e.g. how many “reads” does it get, how long is each “read,” who reads it, does the committee convene to discuss it as a group, etc.). 

RM: First it is important to note that Chicago GSB’s full-time program office does not start reading applications until the application deadline, and although we do not encourage you to wait until the last second to submit your application, we do encourage you to take your time to prepare the best application you possibly can.

Once you have submitted your application our operations team makes sure it is complete, prints the entire application and then passes your file to one of our admissions fellows (hired, second-year students) who reads your application. Admissions fellows make a recommendation to the committee to either invite you to an interview or not. The application is then passed on to an admissions director who goes through the exact same process. If decisions match and both members of the committee agree, a mid-decision is released to the applicant. If they do not agree, the dean of admissions reviews the files and makes a tie-breaking decision.

At mid-decision, an applicant is either invited to interview or denied admission. If you are invited to interview you are given an opportunity to sign up for an interview with an alumnus in your area or come to campus to meet with one of our admissions fellows. Interviews are standardized, and all are weighted the same regardless of who you interview with.

Once the interview is complete and the interview feedback is submitted, the complete file is given to an admissions director who has not previously reviewed the application. She or he makes a decision to admit, committee or deny the candidate.

Similar to the first phase of the process, if all decisions match a final decision is made. If there is disagreement, a file goes to committee, where a group of admissions directors debate the file and make a final recommendation to the dean to either admit, waitlist or deny the applicant.

CA: How does your team approach the essay portion of the application specifically? What are you looking for as you read the essays? Are there common mistakes that applicants should try to avoid? One key thing they should keep in mind as they sit down to write them?

RM: One thing many applicants miss in the essay section is that success in this section is dictated more by strategy than creativity. When applying to a top business school it is very hard to find something that can truly differentiate you amidst an elite group of applicants. So spending time thinking about that one creative truly unforgettable detail or topic that is going to move that committee is not realistic. Instead, think about who you are and why your life experiences to date are a good fit for that particular institution.

Realize that each part of the application should reveal something different about your qualifications, and you do not want to use multiple sections revealing the same information. Therefore think strategically. Ask yourself, “What do I want the committee to know about me?” and “How and where do I best communicate that in the application?” If you can map that out on paper, chances are your essays will be meaningful and direct.

For Chicago GSB it is always about substance and analytical thought. How cohesive is your application? How on point and logical is your thought process? And do we understand your goals and how they fit with our culture when we’re done reading your application? If you can feel confident that you addressed these questions through the entire application you will be taking a big step in the right direction.

Essays are not an island in the application. They make up a part of the continent. Do not think of them in isolation, but rather think about how they might provide greater depth about who you are. Finally, creativity is great but to quote one our faculty, it will never trump strategy.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Scoretop Saga Conclusion: With 84 Students’ Scores Cancelled, Some Fates Still Uncertain

As reported last week in BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal, the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) has cancelled the scores of several students shown to be involved in the Scoretop.com scandal that came to light earlier this year.

According to various reports, the ultimate fate of these students will depend on the level of participation they had with the Scoretop website, the schools to which they applied and their current student status. (Some students involved, in fact, have already graduated from business school.)

According to GMAC spokesperson Judy Phair, the admissions council has decided to cancel the scores of only those students “against whom we felt we have airtight cases.” In total, 84 students’ scores were cancelled.

Of those, 12 students were shown to have actually posted questions themselves on the Scoretop site. Those students will be barred from retaking the GMAT exam for at least three years. The other 72 students posted messages on Scoretop indicating that they had seen certain questions on their GMAT exam. Their scores cancelled, these students will be permitted to retake the exam again immediately.

In all 84 cases, the admissions council notified schools that students had improperly prepared for the exam, although what individual schools will do with that information remains to be seen.

According to the Journal, two of the students who acknowledged that they had seen certain test questions on the Scoretop site – but who had not posted actual questions themselves – are current students at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Chicago is considering action against the students, but “we haven’t decided anything,” Rose Martinelli, director of admissions, told the Journal.

Meanwhile at Stanford, 11 students’ scores were cancelled, according to the Journal report. Of those, 10 were denied admission, but one had already graduated, Admissions Director Derrick Bolton said in a statement.

Stanford plans to meet with the student who has graduated “to discuss this situation,” Bolton said. For students whose scores were cancelled and who plan to reapply, they will need – “at minimum” – to supply an explanation, Bolton continued, encouraging that they “might learn from the experience by reflecting on their actions and taking ownership for their errors, then sharing those explanations and insights with us.”

Other top business schools – including Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale – report that they had no students with tainted scores actually enroll. And a spokesman for the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania said in an email to the Journal that officials still “analyzing the situation are not yet prepared to discuss next steps.”

Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, for its part, will hold an “ethics fireside chat” this month on campus to discuss the Scoretop cheating scandal.

GMAC, meanwhile, has posted an extensive FAQ on the subject of score cancellations. It also announced that it plans to implement palm-vein scanning technology going forward to help reduce other types of fraud among test-takers, including “proxy” test taking, in which applicants hire high-scoring imposters to take the exam for them.

We’d love to hear what you think of the conclusion to the Scoretop scandal. For anyone who missed it last week, click here to participate in Clear Admit’s online poll about whether the punishment fits the crime.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Trivia Tuesday: School-Wide Socializing

Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday, our ongoing series exploring the programs, resources and opportunities available at the leading business schools.

Although most of our columns have focused on the academic options schools offer, this week we turn our attention to students’ opportunities for socializing with classmates. Since creating a strong network of friends and future colleagues is one of the lasting benefits of business school, prospective students may want to examine the ways in which schools help classmates get to know each other and build relationships. One popular method schools use to bring students together is program-wide happy hours. These events are usually held at the end of the academic week and tend to be organized by the MBA student government.

For instance, a staple of Wharton’s social life is Pub, held Thursday evenings throughout the academic year. MBA students pay a membership fee at the beginning of the year for access to all club events as well as all the rotating wines and beer, pizza and non-alcoholic drinks they desire. Other Wharton clubs take turns sponsoring the weekly pubs; previous themes included Japan Night, Pink Pub: Wharton Women in Business, and Europa Oktoberfest. With over 85% of Wharton students typically joining the Pub, it is one of the best ways to meet Wharton classmates.

MIT Sloan’s Consumption Function happy hours (C-Functions) are also a popular part of student social life. Held most Thursday evenings during the academic year, the C-Functions are a great way to get together with classmates and other members of the Sloan community in a relaxed, non-academic setting. The events are organized by the Sloan Activities Board, but are usually sponsored by other clubs on campus and have weekly themes. Past themes include the 1970s, Brazil, Meet the Faculty, Oktoberfest and the Canadian C-Function.

In a similar vein, the Chicago GSB hosts weekly Liquidity Preference Functions each Friday afternoon, Columbia Business School hosts Thursday Happy Hours in the Uris Hall deli (with rotating post-Happy Hour destinations), and Kellogg students gather each Friday in the Atrium for the Kellogg TG (reputedly short for “Thank God it’s Friday”).

Most schools invite prospective students visiting campus to drop by the happy hour, and attending one of these events can be a great way to talk with current students and learn about the campus culture.

For more information on the social side of the leading MBA programs, be sure to talk with current students or to check out the Clear Admit School Guides!

Monday, August 25, 2008

Clear Admit Guides Provide Critical Competitive Edge amid Brewing “Perfect Storm” for MBA Applicants

PHILADELPHIA (Business Wire/EON) — MBA applications are on track to reach record levels this admissions season due to a collision of demographic and economic factors. As a result, b-school hopefuls are facing a more competitive landscape than ever, especially those seeking admission to the top schools.

To help applicants navigate this “perfect storm” and prepare the strongest applications possible, Clear Admit has just released the Clear Admit Resume Guide. This 17-page document – filled with step-by-step instructions, illustrative examples and two full resume templates – teaches applicants how to create a masterful resume that provides an effective overview of their candidacy, distilling major accomplishments to a single page while providing a full and compelling picture of their strengths and background.

“The resume is a key component of any business school application, yet many applicants fail to tailor this document to the admissions process. Our guide has been forged from Clear Admit’s wealth of experience advising MBA applicants and our team members’ direct experience in admissions roles at programs like Wharton, Tuck and Columbia,” says Graham Richmond, Clear Admit’s Co-founder and CEO.

The Resume Guide is just the latest addition to Clear Admit’s growing arsenal of resources for the well-prepared MBA applicant. Also fresh off the presses are the