APPLICANT RESOURCES

Admissions Director Q&A (New!) Below are links to Clear Admit's exclusive admissions director Q&A sessions.
Dawna Clarke (Tuck)
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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.

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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*
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IESE*
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MIT / Sloan*
Michigan / Ross*
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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

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CATEGORY - SCHOOL: CMU / TEPPER

Friday, August 15, 2008

Tepper School of Business Invests in Teaching, Research with New Faculty Members, Associate Dean Appointments

The Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University underscored its commitment to world-class teaching and research this summer through the addition of several new faculty members for the 2008-2009 academic year, as well as the appointment of two current faculty members to newly established leadership roles overseeing teaching and research at the institution.

The new hires bring with them valuable expertise in the fields of marketing, organizational behavior and theory, finance, operations management and manufacturing, and information systems.

“We are thrilled to welcome these outstanding researchers and educators to the Tepper School and look forward to their individual contributions to our tradition and high standards of academic excellence,” Dean Kenneth Dunn said in a statement.

The new members joining the Tepper faculty are Mustafa Akan, assistant professor of operations management and manufacturing; Laurence Ales, assistant professor of economics; Soo-Haeng Cho, assistant professor of operations and manufacturing; Rosalind Chow, assistant professor of organizational behavior and theory; Kinshuk Jerath, assistant professor of marketing; Lars-Alexander Kuehn, assistant professor of finance; Param Vir Singh, assistant professor in information systems; and Anita Williams Woolley, assistant professor of organizational behavior and theory. For more on their backgrounds and specific areas of research, click here.

Meanwhile, Tepper also has created two new leadership positions that will oversee the teaching and research areas of the institution. Tepper faculty members Robert Dammon and Richard Green have been named to new posts as associate deans, with three-year appointments that went into effect on July 1st.

Dammon and Green, both professors of financial economics, will serve as associate deans of education and research respectively. Dammon will oversee all educational programs offered by the school, and Green will lead the school’s research focus as well as oversee the development of tenure-track junior faculty.

“These particular faculty members reflect our high standards for producing world-class research and their many accomplishments reinforce our reputation as a business school that advances global business practice via relevant, path-breaking research,” Dean Dunn said in a statement announcing the appointments.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Carnegie Mellon/ Tepper Deadlines 2008-2009

The Carnegie Mellon/Tepper 2008-2009 deadlines have been released. There are five deadlines this season, and they are as follows:

Round One: October 27, 2008

Round Two: January 5, 2009

Round Three: March 9, 2009

Round Four: April 27, 2009

Round Five: June 1, 2009

Interested applicants should note that the round four deadline is reserved for U.S. citizens and permanent residents, as well as FlexTime and FlexMode applicants, and that the round five deadline is reserved for FlexTime and FlexMode applicants only.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Forte Foundation New, Returning Board Members Include Administrators from NYU Stern, MIT Sloan, CMU Tepper, UT-Austin McCombs, Kellogg and UVA Darden

The Forté Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping women assume leadership roles in business and enabling corporations to more effectively reach and retain top female talent, announced the election of new and returning board members this month.

This year’s roster includes administrators from several of the nation’s top business schools, as well as representatives from some of the world’s leading multinational corporations.

Forté, a consortium of 27 leading multinational corporations, 37 top business schools in the U.S. and abroad and the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), provides a national infrastructure for women at all stages of their careers to access the  information, scholarship support and networking connections they need to succeed in business.

Joining Forte’s board this year from the academic side is Anika Davis-Pratt, assistant dean of MBA admissions and financial aid for New York University’ Stern School of Business. Davis-Pratt joins several representatives from other top-tier business schools who are returning this year as board officers. They include

• Cindy Benton, director of student services at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business;
• Colleen McMullen Smith, director of diversity strategies and programs atCarnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business;
• Julie Strong, senior associate director of MBA admissions at MIT’s Sloan School of Management;
• Roxanne Hori, assistant dean and director of career management, Kellogg School of Management;
• Stacy Poindexter Owen, director of admissions, Wake Forest University, and
• Wendy Huber, assistant director, admissions, University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

From the corporate side, representatives from Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers and Avon joined the board as newly elected officers this year. Returning corporate officers this year include representatives from Deloitte and Touche, Citi, the Ernst & Young Foundation and Eli Lilly and Company.

To learn more about the Forté Foundation, visit www.fortefoundation.org. 

Monday, April 14, 2008

Yale, Tepper, Kellogg Address Diversity on Campus and Beyond

The Yale School of Management (SOM), Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business and Kellogg School of Management this month have turned their focus, each in its own way, toward the issue of diversity on business school campuses and in the broader business world.

For its part, Yale SOM joined the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, a national nonprofit organization committed to increasing diversity and inclusion in American business. As the Consortium’s 14th member school, Yale SOM will help uphold the organization’s mission of “reducing the serious underrepresentation of African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans in our member schools’ enrollment and the ranks of management.”

“Partnering with the Consortium is a logical step in demonstrating an essential aspect of our own institutional mission of educating leaders for business and society,” Joel Podolny, Yale SOM dean, said in a statement announcing the alliance. “By linking our mission with that of the Consortium, both of our institutions are stronger,” he continued.

The Consortium awards more than $11 million in merit-based MBA scholarships each year. It will begin recruiting prospective MBA students for Yale SOM in the fall of 2008, with the first class graduating in the spring of 2011.

Kellogg Kicks Off New Diversity Speaker Series
Meanwhile, the new Interdisciplinary Center on the Science of Diversity at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management last week hosted its first in a series of speakers designed to increase the quality and quantity of dialogue on diversity within management education.

University of Michigan professor and Kellogg alum Scott Page delivered the kick-off address on April 4th, sharing the findings outlined in his latest book, The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools and Societies.

“Science in no longer done by great people like Madame Curie sitting alone on a bench,” Page said to the assembled crowd. “It’s done in teams.” According to Page, his research explains mathematically how and why diverse teams tend to out-perform homogenous ones. He hopes it will challenge the popular notion that diversity in teams is merely a nice idea.

Next in the ICSD speaker series will be Yale psychology professor John Dovidio, who will discuss “Racism Among the Well-Intentioned” in late April. Speakers scheduled for later in the semester are Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect, who will discuss the relationship between diversity and innovation, and Joan Williams, professor of law at the University of California’s Hastings College, who will discuss the sociological, psychological and legal aspects affecting professional women.

Tepper International Festival Highlights Diverse Student Body
Finally, the Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business this month hosted its 8th annual International Festival, designed to celebrate the school’s broad cultural diversity. The festival included performances and food representing the more than 30 different cultures that make up the Tepper student body.

Performances this year included students from China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Romania, India, Hong Kong, Turkey and parts of Africa demonstrating traditional dances and wearing traditional cultural dress.

This year’s festival also featured 28 different food booths presenting traditional dishes and flavors of the many cultures and countries from which current Tepper students hail. The event this year drew more than 500 people. It also was broadcast via webcast for alumni and other student members who couldn’t attend in person.  

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Wiki Wednesdays: Choosing Between Offers

Welcome back to Wiki Wednesdays, our weekly look at informative contributions to the Clear Admit Wiki. With interview season coming to an end and many applicants sifting through their admissions results, we’re shifting our focus towards the School Choices page in the Wiki. This is a great resource for applicants who are now facing the fortunate, but difficult, task of deciding between offers from multiple schools.

Before diving into some debates, however, let’s take a look at which schools are opening their doors to admitted students over the next few weeks.  These ‘admit weekends’ or ‘welcome events’ are a great way to learn more about programs, meet future classmates and blow off a little steam to celebrate favorable results.  [Note: For a humorous glimpse into what makes admitted students weekends so enjoyable, see this video].  Without further ado, here is a run-down of the upcoming events:

1. Columbia GSB: April 11th, 2008
2. CMU / Tepper: April 11th-12th, 2008
3. Northwestern / Kellogg: April 18th-20th, 2008
4. Wharton: April 19th-20th, 2008
5. HBS: April 24th- 26th, 2008
6. Chicago GSB: April 25th-26th, 2008
7. Stanford GSB: April 27th-28th, 2008
8. MIT / Sloan: May 2nd-3rd, 2008

With all of the festivities at admit weekends, it may be easy to forget that tough choices are on the horizon.  This is why we’ve created the School Choices page in the Clear Admit Wiki - to allow candidates to explain their rationale for the choice they ultimately make. 

Diving in to some decision making cases, this season, blogger Tinydancer pitted Wharton against Kellogg on the School Choices page. Breaking down her criteria into categories like location, curriculum, cultural fit and school brand, among others, Tinydancer offered the following observations on the schools’ marketing curricula:

1. “Wharton: Most people I’ve talked to…believe that its marketing program is probably under-rated…Many people also told me the marketing curriculum is probably more quantitative and data-driven than at other schools, but I have no way to really substantiate this. I did sit in on a couple marketing classes and I was impressed.

1. Kellogg: Kellogg is as well known for marketing as Wharton is for finance. In marketing circles, it is widely regarded as the best. I sat in on a class here too, which was great. “Brand” (as in brand management) is one of the top careers students choose, and many companies recruit there specifically for that reason. Also, while I was there, the marketing club was in the middle of the annual marketing competition…There were advertisements everywhere, and it seemed [to be a] cool environment.”

To find out where Tinydancer decided to attend, you’ll have to read her full report.  As always, we encourage our readers to join in the conversation - whether you’re looking for others’ opinions on individual schools or just searching for a good method of breaking down this complicated decision, the School Choices page can be a great help. Further, the process of writing down pros and cons is often much more productive than spinning the wheels in one’s head, so we hope readers will take the time to share their own thoughts! Simply create an account or send your debates to wiki@clearadmit.com.

For those still interviewing or interested in sharing interviews from this season, we will be awarding a $10 iTunes gift certificate to each applicant who submits an interview report for the following schools: Berkeley / Haas, Cornell / Johnson, MIT / Sloan, Stanford GSB, Dartmouth / Tuck, UCLA / Anderson, Yale SOM, INSEAD and LBS between now and April 30th (limit one gift card per applicant). To be eligible for the prize, simply e-mail your interview report to wiki@clearadmit.com.

That wraps up this week’s edition of Wiki Wednesdays! As always, we wish the best of luck to those still interviewing and extend our thanks to those who have contributed to the Clear Admit Wiki!

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Admissions Tip: Late Round Considerations

Nearing the end of a relatively sleepy February, March is just around the corner, bringing an extensive list of application deadlines and decision notification dates. Let’s take a look at the numerous Round 3 (or 4) deadlines spread over the next several months:

February 28: Wharton R3, UVA/Darden R3
February 29: LBS R3
March 1: Michigan/Ross R3
March 3: Duke/Fuqua R3, Columbia (international students)
March 7: Kellogg R3, UNC/Kenan-Flagler R4
March 10: CMU-Tepper R3
March 12: Berkeley/Haas R4, Chicago R3, HBS R3, Yale SOM R3
March 15: NYU Stern R3
March 19: Cornell/Johnson R4
March 21: Stanford GSB R3
April 1: UT Austin/McCombs (final)
April 2: Tuck April Round
April 3: INSEAD R4
April 4: Oxford/Said R3
April 16: Columbia (U.S. applicants)
April 23: UCLA/Anderson R4
April 25: Georgetown/McDonough Final Round
April 28: CMU-Tepper R4
May 2: LBS R4, Cambridge/Judge (final)
June 6: Oxford/Said R4

While it’s always best to apply as early as possible, the difference between applying in round one and applying in round two is, for most applicants, a marginal one. However, the later rounds are a very different game. Because most of the seats in the incoming class will have been given away by the time round two decisions are released, the acceptance rate in the third round is dramatically lower than that for the first two deadlines of the season.

To maximize your chances of a later round acceptance, demonstrating your interest in the school and submitting thoughtful and error-free written materials will be crucial. Just as applying in round one is generally taken as a sign of interest in a given program, applicants submitting their materials in a later round need to work extra hard to convince the adcom that they are genuinely interested in the school and are not simply applying as an afterthought because interview invitations didn’t come through in round two. Demonstrating that you would make a valuable contribution to the community and providing evidence that you have taken steps to engage current students and alumni will work to your advantage.

As always, we’d like to recommend the in-depth Clear Admit School Guides to those applicants who are targeting the later deadlines and just beginning to investigate certain programs, and to encourage those who’ve visited the campus and interviewed to share their experiences in the Clear Admit Wiki. Potential R3 or R4 applicants are also welcome to contact Clear Admit directly to discuss the strength of their later round candidacies and learn more about our one-on-one counseling services.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Wiki Wednesdays: CMU Tepper and Berkeley Haas Part-Time MBAs

Welcome to another edition of Wiki Wednesdays, where we highlight informative, applicant-generated content on the MBA admissions process from the Clear Admit Wiki. With a slew of part-time MBA program deadlines left in the 2007-2008 admissions season, we’re taking a closer look at a few part-time MBA interview reports – specifically, the Berkeley Haas Evening and Weekend MBA interview as well as Carnegie Mellon Tepper Flex-Time Program interview.

The Haas admissions committee conducts on-campus interviews by invitation; these interviews are “blind,” with the interviewer having no prior knowledge of the candidate’s submitted application. Meanwhile, Tepper began their admissions season with applicant-initiated interviews, but transitioned into invitation mode in early December. Tepper’s part-time interviews can be conducted on- or off-campus as well as by telephone. Unlike Haas, Tepper’s interviewers have thorough knowledge of a candidate’s application materials.

According to one Haas Evening and Weekend MBA applicant who posted in the Clear Admit Wiki, “[the interviewer] asked me to walk her through my resume…I explained all the transitions and why I made those choices.” As the Haas program emphasizes “leading through innovation,” applicants might take this opportunity to reflect on how they have developed fresh ideas and seized new opportunities through the course of their career. In addition to other standard questions about career goals and MBA objectives, the Haas applicant reported,

1. “[The interviewer] also asked about what my boss would think of me and then what…my colleagues would think of me.”

This focus on the impact one has had on peers and superiors suggests an interest in an applicant’s collaborative skills and approach to engaging others in the program. Given the school’s emphasis on innovation and collaboration, it might also make sense to highlight how one has fostered innovation in a team setting.

While the Haas part-time MBA interview consisted of some standard questions, one in particular seemed to be missing – “why Haas?” According to a recent Tepper Flex-Time MBA applicant, this was not the case with CMU - as the interview kicked off with the question, “Why did you choose Tepper Flex-Time?” With a clear understanding of what Tepper has to offer, candidates can set the tone for the interview by prioritizing some main themes, such as Tepper’s part-time flexibility, small class size or focus on diversity. Of course, the interviewer’s familiarity with a candidate’s background makes the nature and order of questions somewhat unpredictable; the Tepper wiki contributor notes, “there was no formal structure to the interview.” While the Tepper interview reportedly progressed on the topics “of desires, career goals, current employment and even extracurricular activities,” the candidate advises, “know the Tepper program inside and out.” Among many other ways to get to know Tepper, the school suggests contacting current Tepper students and exploring their website.

As always, we would like to thank those who have posted to the Clear Admit Wiki this season, most recently a new Darden interview and an applicant’s choice between Kellogg and Wharton. If you would like to add your experience to the Clear Admit Wiki, simply create an account or send your reports to wiki@clearadmit.com. Best of luck to those preparing for interviews this season! For further tips and advice, be sure to check out Clear Admit Interview Guides.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Part-time and Executive MBA Programs

Part-time MBA programs offer sound alternatives to full-time options in terms of time and tuition. Usually lasting two to three years, part-time MBA programs allow students to keep their jobs while attending classes in the evenings or on weekends. This schedule allows students to minimize debt by maintaining their income and/or obtaining tuition reimbursements from their employer with the added benefit of immediately applying classroom lessons to their own careers.

Applicants with extensive work experience (a minimum of five years) and company sponsorship may find an Executive MBA program to be the best fit. These programs provide a solid framework in general management and prepare candidates for long-term senior level growth. EMBA classes usually take place on weekends, though some programs may require students to take 1-2 weeks of time off from work each year to attend intensive class sessions.

For those unable to attend a full-time MBA program, but seeking new skills to push their careers forward, be sure to take a look at the part-time and EMBA program deadlines below and to check out the schools’ websites for further details.

PART-TIME MBA PROGRAM DEADLINES:

Babson College / Olin
Evening MBA: May 1st, 2008, July 1st, 2008, or rolling admissions until August 15th
Fast-Track MBA: May 1st, 2008, July 1st, 2008, or rolling admissions until August 15th

Berkeley / Haas
Evening & Weekend: February 29th, 2008

UCLA Anderson
FEMBA: April 2nd, 2008

Carnegie Melon University / Tepper
Flex-Time MBA: March 10th, 2008, April 28th, 2008, April 28th, 2008 then rolling
Flex-Mode MBA: March 10th, 2008, April 28th, 2008, April 28th, 2008 then rolling

Chicago GSB
Weekend Program: June 6th, 2008
Evening Program: April 18th, 2008 (summer entry), July 11th, 2008 (fall entry)

DePaul University / Kellstadt
Weekend MBA: July 1st, 2008 then rolling (September entry)
Evening MBA Program: February 1st, 2008 (spring entry), April 1st, 2008 (summer entry), July 1st, 2008 (autumn entry), October 1st, 2008 (winter entry)

NYU / Stern
Langone Part-Time: May 15th, 2008

Northwestern / Kellogg
Evening Part-Time MBA: April 18th, 2008 (summer quarter), July 18th, 2008 (fall quarter)

University of Minnesota / Carlson
Part-Time MBA: May 1st, 2008 (fall semester), October 1st, 2008 (spring semester)

University of Southern California / Marshall
MBA.PM: Rolling until May 1st, 2008

EXECUTIVE MBA PROGRAM DEADLINES:

Berkeley / Haas
Executive MBA (Berkeley-Columbia): February 11th, 2008

UCLA Anderson
Executive MBA: April 1st, 2008, then rolling

Chicago GSB
Executive MBA: February 1st, 2008 or April 1st, 2008

Columbia Business School
NY-EMBA (September entry): June 1st, 2008
NY-EMBA (January entry): October 15th (early deadline) and December 3rd (deadline)
EMBA-Global: February 11th, 2008 (May 2008 entry)
Berkeley-Columbia: February 11th, 2008 (May 2008 entry)

Duke / Fuqua
Global Executive: February 18th, 2008 or March 17th, 2008 (May 2007 entry)
Cross Continent: March 17th, 2008 or April 14th, 2008 (July 2008 entry)
Weekend Executive: Not yet announced (first deadline last year was May 14th for March entry)

University of Michigan / Ross
EMBA (August entry): February 1st, 2008 March 15th, 2008, or May 1st, 2008
EMBA (January 2009 entry): June 1st, July 15th, September 1st, October 1st, November 1st or December 1st, 2008

NYU / Stern
EMBA: April 15, 2008 or June 15, 2008

UNC / Kenan-Flagler
EMBA Evening: January 21, 2008, March 17, 2008, May 5, 2008 (August entry)
EMBA Weekend: April 7, 2008, July 14, 2008, or October 1, 2008 (Jan. 2009 entry)
OneMBA Program: January 29, 2008, April 1, 2008, or June 10, 2008 (Sept. entry)

Northwestern / Kellogg
Executive MBA: February 1, 2008, April 1, 2008, June 1, 2008 (September start)

Wharton
WEMBA: February 1, 2008 (for Philadelphia or San Francisco location)

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Business Schools Accept More Undergrads Straight Out of College

According to a report this week in the Chronicle of Higher Education, business schools – including some of the very best – are beginning to rethink whether requiring several years of prior work experience on the part of applicants should be de rigueur. While corporate experience is certainly still valued, some schools are opening up admissions to a younger set as well in an effort to reel in promising students early before they get sidetracked by careers or head off to other professional schools.

Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford and the University of Texas at Austin have all started programs geared toward students who are coming straight from undergraduate programs or are just a year or two out. Doing so, the schools hope, will also help to diversify their student body with more women and minority students.

Having younger students in the classroom brings a fresh perspective to discussions, according to some admissions officials. “Students who come in without a lot of experience are asking the questions that illuminate class discussions for everyone, and they’re questioning the assumptions that many others have taken as a given,” Derrick Bolton, director of MBA admissions at Stanford Graduate School of Business told the Chronicle. About 5 percent of Stanford’s MBA students come straight from college, up from 1 to 2 percent a few years ago.

But the decision by Stanford and other schools to admit younger students with less experience has been met by criticism by some schools and alumni. “Experienced students have more war stories to share and can often enrich classroom conversations,” Beth Flye, director of admissions at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management told the Chronicle. “A big part of what students learn comes from what they absorb and take away from their classmates,” she said. According to Flye, Kellogg still prefers applicants with significant work experience – an average of five years.

Despite the criticism, Stanford stands behind its decision to admit younger students in increasing numbers. According to Bolton, younger students make up a disproportionate number of the school’s top students and leaders. Deferred

Admissions Programs Catching On
Other schools have followed suit. In September, Harvard launched a deferred admissions program aimed at high-performing college graduates. The program guarantees these students a spot in the Harvard MBA class once they’ve gotten two years of approved work experience. The goal is to catch promising students in engineering, science and the arts who might be considering other graduate study.

“We’re trying to reach out and attract undergraduates who may be majoring in fields that are not typically viewed as feeder majors into business schools, but who see themselves as future potential leaders,” W. Carl Kester, deputy dean for academic affairs at Harvard, told the Chronicle.

The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business runs a similar deferred-admissions program, and Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business has a five-year combined undergraduate and MBA program that targets mainly engineering students.

By opening admissions to younger students, business schools also hope to attract more women. In contrast to the traditional business school timetable, earlier admissions could prove more palatable to female students who want to spend their later 20s and 30s starting families. At the country’s most competitive law and medical schools, which allow students to enter straight out of college, women represent about half of the entering class, compared to less than 30 percent of the students in the 30 top business schools, the Chronicle reports.

Statistics from the Graduate Management Admissions Council, which owns the GMAT examination required for admission at many business schools, bear out this growing trend. The number of students under 24 taking the exam jumped by 71 percent from 2005 to 2007, from 34,334 to 58,687. Overall test registrations grew only 9 percent in the same time period. The under-24 category now represents more than a quarter of all test-takers, up from 17 percent two years ago.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Tepper Students Kick Off 2008 with East, West Coast Networking Trips

Lining up a summer internship or full-time position for after graduation tops the New Year’s resolution lists of many a current MBA student. At Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, students get a helping hand thanks to two annual school-led tours of major job markets on the east and west coasts in early January.

Approximately 45 first- and second-year students are scheduled to depart for the West Coast on January 3rd as part of a seven-day tour that will include meetings with such top employers as Apple, Google, Cisco, HP, Intel, SAP, KLA-Tencor, Agilent and Yahoo! Additionally, the tour is scheduled to coincide with the West Coast Forum, a collaborative recruiting event with the MBA programs at Duke University, Yale University, Vanderbilt University and the University of North Carolina.

As a special feature this year, the West Coast trek will also include a Silicon Valley Technology Leadership panel at Yahoo! featuring Tepper School alumni, including Jeffrey Housenbold, CEO of Shutterfly, on the evening students arrive. Other West Coast meetings will be held at a hotel in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.

Meanwhile, a second group of Tepper students is New York–bound instead. This tour, which takes place from January 7th through 11th, puts Carnegie Mellon’s New York City classrooms (normally used for its Master of Science Program in Computational Finance) to use for students to interview with some of Wall Street’s biggest names, including Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, UBS and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“Since some companies interested in the quality of student we have at Tepper aren’t able to come to Pittsburgh to see our program firsthand, we make it convenient for recruiters and take our students out to seek them,” said Ken Keeley, executive director of the Tepper School’s Career Opportunities Center.

Despite some uncertainty in the economy, Keeley reports that Tepper is still seeing strong interest in its students from companies across the board. Last year, more than 85 percent of Tepper MBA students had accepted a full-time job offer by graduation, and 96 percent had done so by three months after graduation. Of first-year students, nearly 100 percent had accepted a summer internship position by the end of the academic year.

Keeley expects similar results this year. “Our unique, analytically focused brand of management education is a hot commodity among recruiters as they seek the next generation of business leaders for their organizations,” he said.

For prospective MBAs anxiously awaiting news of first-round interviews or scrambling to meet upcoming application deadlines, isn’t it nice to know that once you’re in, you can look forward to some help from schools on that next round of applications and interviews…?

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Admissions Tip: Round Two Reality

As we prepare to flip over another page of the calendar this weekend, we wanted to take a look at the upcoming December and January deadlines, just in case there are any Round Two applicants out there who aren’t already all too aware of the persistent passage of time.

While the Round One deadlines for the top MBA programs were mercifully spread out over the month of October, the outlook for the next wave of deadlines isn’t quite as rosy; most of the Round Two deadlines are closely clustered over a ten-day period in early January. For those applicants who are targeting two or more of those schools, careful time management during December will be of the utmost importance. Let’s take a closer look at the deadlines on the horizon:

Dec. 5: INSEAD R2
Dec. 11: Haas R2

Jan. 2: UCLA R2
Jan. 3: Darden R2, HBS R2, Ross R2, Wharton R2
Jan. 4: LBS R2, UNC R3
Jan. 7: CMU R2, Stanford R2
Jan. 9: Chicago R2, Cornell R3, Tuck R3, Yale R2
Jan. 11: Kellogg R2
Jan. 15: MIT R2, NYU R2
Jan. 31: Haas R3

As though that weren’t enough, add to the mix Columbia, whose rolling review of Regular Decision applications begins on the already-packed 9th of January.

We know that this very compressed schedule might be a difficult reality to confront for those working on applications for several of these programs, but we hope that this list helps to put the coming weeks into perspective. It’s not too late to take a careful inventory of the work required for each school and devise a realistic plan of attack. Because the end of December can be as hectic a time as it is festive, we suggest frequently checking in with your recommenders over the coming weeks and, if possible, completing at least one school’s essays before the holidays kick into high gear.

Best of luck!

Monday, October 29, 2007

CMU / Tepper School of Business Essays 2007-2008

We continue our series of 2007-08 essay topic posts with Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business.  While Tepper has maintained their interest in an applicant’s goals, growth and diversity, they’ve offered slightly fewer essays to explore those topics this year, as applicants are only required to answer two options for Essay C as opposed to three. Keep in mind that Tepper suggests using only two double-spaced pages for each essay.  The school’s deadlines are posted here.

CMU Tepper Essays
Essay A (required): What are your short term and long term goals? How will a Tepper MBA help you achieve these goals? (Please include any information regarding steps you have taken to learn more about Tepper.)

Essay B (required): Describe an instance in which you made an impact either as part of a team or as an individual. How did this experience help shape you as a team member or leader and how will it enable you to contribute to the diverse Tepper community?

Essay C (required): Please answer two of the following three questions or statements. Please clearly specify which questions you are answering. Your two answers should equal a total of two pages or less.

C1. Describe an obstacle you have faced in your professional or academic life. How did you overcome this obstacle and how did it foster your development?

C2.Describe a time in which your ethics were challenged. How did you deal with the situation and what did you learn from it?

C3. One thing people would be surprised to know about me is…

Additional Essay (Optional): Is there anything else you think we should know as we evaluate your application? Note: If you believe your credentials and essays represent you fairly, you should not feel obligated to answer this question. This essay is intended to provide a place for you to add information that you think is important but is not covered elsewhere in the application. Note: You must complete this essay if you answered ‘yes’ to either of the ‘additional information’ questions above. (The “additional information” questions are in regards to the applicant’s academic and/or criminal record.)

Monday, September 17, 2007

Wall Street Journal 2007 MBA Rankings Released

As many of our readers know, the Wall Street Journal released their business school rankings online late yesterday. The Wall Street Journal’s ranking of the national (US) MBA programs relies on feedback from corporate recruiters at key firms in order to rate the b-schools. More specifically, the results are based on the following criteria:

1. Recruiter feedback on each school (for 21 different attributes)
2. Recruiter plans to hire graduates from the schools in the future
3. Recent hiring patterns of corporate recruiters

While traditionally less popular than the Business Week or US News MBA rankings, the Journal has been gaining ground with increased fanfare surrounding their rankings each year. Their related hard-copy publication, WSJ Guide to the Top Business Schools, helps in this effort. In addition, a GMAC survey showed that the WSJ rankings were viewed as “most credible” by MBA applicants (although we’d like to suggest that the reputation of the newspaper itself may help this perception along).

While the recruiters-only focus of the WSJ rankings may always provoke criticism, the rankings appear to be here to stay. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the top national programs for this year:

1. Dartmouth College (Tuck)
2. University of California, Berkeley (Haas)
3. Columbia University
4. MIT Sloan
5. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
6. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)
7. University of Michigan (Ross)
8. Yale University
9. University of Chicago
10. University of Virginia (Darden)

It’s interesting to note that Wharton and Kellogg have continued to slip in these rankings, moving out of the top five last year and out of the top ten this year. Ross likewise moved down within the rankings this year, from first to seventh, while Haas and MIT Sloan each moved up several notches to enter the top five. Harvard and Stanford continue to miss out on the top 10, holding steady at 14 and 19, respectively.

Beyond the US national ranking, the Journal also published an international ranking - using a slightly different methodology that measures non-US-based employment upon graduation. Here are this year’s top “international” business schools:

1. ESADE
2. IMD
3. London Business School
4. IPADE
5. MIT Sloan
6. Columbia Business School
7. Essec
8. Tecnológico de Monterrey (EGADE)
9. HEC Paris
10. Thunderbird

We encourage our readers to review the WSJ Career Journal site for further details about the rankings methodologies. As always, please remember that rankings are one of many resources for information regarding MBA programs.