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CATEGORY - SCHOOL: OXFORD

Friday, November 21, 2008

Oxford’s Saïd Business School Hosts Annual Entrepreneurship Forum

In a post earlier this week, we looked at the ways in which administrators and alumni at top schools are encouraging business students to channel their entrepreneurial energies amid the current financial crisis. Entrepreneurship is in the headlines at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School this week as well, as the school prepares to host its 8th annual Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford conference.

This year’s forum, “A 360-Degree View of the Valley,” is designed to offer students just that. Luminaries from across Silicon Valley will join leading European entrepreneurs and Oxford faculty and MBA students for an array of masterclasses and panel debates focused on the big issues and future directions of innovation. The conference will take place on Monday, November 24th.

Smart search engines, intelligent databases, open source software, social networking and web TV will be among the various technologies and trends explored by the forum and its participants. Meanwhile, a keynote panel entitled “The Universe, the Brain and Second  Life” will attempt to contrast these trends against longer term, more visionary elements of technology. The global recession and its impact on entrepreneurship, too, will be a subject of discussion as part of a welcome plenary.

Speakers and panelists at this year’s Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford will include Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn; Elon Musk, co-founder of Space X and PayPal; Chris Sacca, former head of special initiatives at Google and adviser to Skype; Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life; and Biz Stone, founder of Twitter, among others.

The forum is hosted by the Oxford Centre of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which provides a range of programming and resources to MBA and undergraduate entrepreneurs. To date, more than 100 MBA entrepreneurship projects have evolved into successful new ventures and collectively raised more than $1 billion in venture finance.

To learn more about the Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford conference, click here. For more on entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School, click here.

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.”

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Oxford / Said Deadlines 2008-2009

The Oxford/Said deadlines for the 2008-2009 application season have been announced.  The four deadlines are as follows:

Stage 1:
Deadline: October 24, 2008
Interview Notification: November 14, 2008
Final Notification: January 9, 2009

Stage 2:
Deadline: January 16, 2009
Interview Notification: February 6, 2009
Final Notification: March 27, 2009

Stage 3:
Deadline: April 3, 2009
Interview Notification: May 1, 2009
Final Notification: May 29, 2009

Stage 4:
Deadline: June 5, 2009
Interview Notification: June 26, 2009
Final Notification: July 24, 2009

Interested applicants should note that, although the application form is not yet available, Oxford/Said has announced that it will begin reviewing applications on September 1.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Oxford’s Saïd Business School Creates New Corporate Reputation Center

What determines a corporation’s global reputation and what impact does it have on company performance? A new center established in late June at Oxford’s Saïd Business School sets out to answer these and other questions surrounding issues of corporate reputation.

Founded on a major set of new research programs and led by appointed international fellows from leading universities and business schools around the world, the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation will feature several teaching programs targeting Oxford MBA and EMBA students as well as senior corporate executives, chairmen and CEOs. The center will also feature programming for the public, as well as a Distinguished Speaker annual lecture for undergraduates.

An organization’s reputation can be influenced its by its ability to attract talent, the perceptions of potential suppliers, customer support, community relations, investor relations, financial ratings, media relations and more, according to Rupert Younger, the new center’s director. “Yet, to date, there has been little rigorous academic research conducted to explore these issues,” Rupert continued. “Our aim is to correct that and to become one of the leading repositories of knowledge on corporate and institutional reputation globally.”

A group of 70 international visiting fellows – internationally recognized senior executives from a range of industries and regions as well as journalists, regulators and public sector officials – has committed its time to teaching the center’s various programs.

A global advisory board has also been appointed to advise the center on its research agenda. This board will be led by Bob Wigley, chairman of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Merrill Lynch International.

“It is ironic that for such an important business subject, there is very little in the way of robust research,” Wigley said in a statement about the new center. “What excited me about this initiative is the fact that Oxford is looking at reputation from the perspective of fundamental corporate behavior,” he continued.

To learn more about the new Oxford Center for Corporate Reputation, click here.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

European B-Schools Heat Up as Economy Slows

European business schools have received top billing in the past week in both BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal, with both publications reporting increased application volume at schools across the region.

According to the Journal piece, published Friday, business schools across Europe, which have seen application volume rise steadily in recent years, expect a further surge amid current global economic instability. This would follow the usual pattern of past slowdowns, when would-be analysts and managers looked toward graduate business programs as a place to ride out market uncertainty.  

Executive education programs, though, could suffer a hit, according to the Journal, as companies previously happy to fund continuing education for their employees are forced to slash budgets.

The Journal piece goes on to say that for good or bad, the state of the economy is what has people talking on European campuses. “It’s very much the hot topic at the moment in business schools,” Jeanette Purcell, chief executive of London-based Association of MBAs, a consortium of 145 business schools around the world, told the Journal.

For many, the focus is on recruitment trends. According to the Journal, recruitment of new MBAs in the finance sector has already slowed, and both students and faculty are fearing drop-offs in other sectors as well. Administrators are saying that graduates from European programs are increasingly looking for jobs in the stronger Asian economies, the Journal reports.

Professors, meanwhile, see many of the recent stories in the financial press as perfect fodder for classroom lessons and discussion. From the international movement of bad debt to the rouge trader blamed for billions in losses at French bank Société Générale, the crises have been “helpful from a teaching point of view,” Simon Taylor, a finance lecturer at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, told the Journal.

Greater Employer Demand for International Experience, Bargain Prices
An article in BusinessWeek on Thursday also turned the focus on European business schools, citing curriculum improvements, growing corporate demand for international experience and shorter, cheaper programs as factors drawing business school applicants in ever greater numbers toward European business schools.

According to the BW report, applications to INSEAD, the French business school with campuses in Fontainebleau and Singapore, jumped 20 percent in the past year, and American student enrollment grew 24 percent over 2007, to 73 students. Barcelona’s IESE had 32 percent more applications from the U.S. and expects to enroll 35 Americans in the next class – a 60 percent increase. ESADE, also based in Barcelona, has received an overwhelming onslaught of inquiries from American applicants as well, BW continued.

Speaking to BW, INSEAD Dean Frank Brown suggested that more and more young people recognize the value of an MBA, but fewer want to devote two years – the length of most U.S. programs – to earning one. Others credit the U.S. recession as a contributing factor to higher European B-school applicant volume, BW reports.

The dollar’s week performance against the euro raises the cost of European programs for U.S. students, but even so, tuition at schools overseas represents a bargain. BW reports that the average tuition at the top 10 European schools is less than $73,000, vs. $86,600 at Harvard Business School, and about $95,000 at Wharton.

Another draw for American students, according to BW, is the European schools’ effort to enhance their focus on issues of social justice. Responding to student demand, several top European schools have added a wealth of new courses on corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship and doing business in developing countries, as well as founding new centers devoted to these and other issues.

Finally, according to BW, European business programs on average are smaller and more diverse than their American counterparts. Compared to Harvard and Wharton, whose MBA classes are 63 and 55 percent American, respectively, European schools are much more international. French students make up just 14 percent of the MBA class at France’s Paris HEC and Brit’s comprise a mere 5 percent of Oxford’s MBA class.

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.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Oxford’s Saïd School of Business Opens New India Business Centre

Through the establishment of satellite campuses, regional fellowships and new centers for the study of particular business regions, top business schools have steadily been increasing their offerings in the area of international business. The most recent evidence of this growing trend: Oxford University today announced the creation of its new India Business Centre at the Saïd School of Business.

Dr. John Hood, Oxford’s vice chancellor, announced the creation of the new center and the establishment of a new chair of Indian business studies during a visit to New Delhi.

“The primary objective of this research centre is to learn from India’s business success,” he said. “A clear understanding of the issues faced by India and their innovative solutions, as India transitions from poverty to prosperity, will form a guide to future generations of countries attempting similar transitions.”

The creation of the new center is being underwritten by the Lavasa Corporation Limited, a company formed to undertake a 10,000-acre planned community development between Pune and Mumbai. As part of its support, Lavasa has endowed the Ajit Gulabchand Professor of Indian Business Studies at the University of Oxford, named after Lavasa’s chairman.

Fostering collaborative inter-disciplinary research between academics at Oxford, in India and around the world will be the center’s primary focus, according to Colin Mayer, dean of Oxford’s Saïd School of Business. The university will actively engage practitioners and policymakers to ensure that the center’s research agenda is both relevant and significant, he continued.

Beyond its stated research goals, the center will also focus on teaching – providing doctoral programs for students and scholarships for degree programs at Oxford. “We will also develop a range of executive education programs for practitioners to be delivered in India,” Mayer said. These programs will be delivered in a new facility in Lavasa, near Pune – part of a new development by Lavasa Ltd. A scoping study has been launched with companies in India and elsewhere to inform the development of the programs, which will be offered beginning in early 2010.

Lavasa Chairman Ajit Gulabchand expressed his enthusiasm for the new venture. “This will open new paradigms of educational and managerial excellence for students in both countries,” he said.

Gulabchand and Hood will sign an official agreement establishing the new center at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 25th.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Columbia Business School Joins the Blogging World

Columbia Business School (CBS) has officially joined the world of user-generated content with the launch earlier this month of Public Offering, a school-run blog featuring submissions by students, faculty and graduates on more than a dozen topics ranging from accounting to world business.

In an introductory post, CBS Dean Glenn Hubbard mused about the remarkable pace at which the World Wide Web has evolved over the past decade but faulted academic institutions for being slow in general to embrace interactive online communication tools as a way to further their work.

“I am proud that Columbia Business School is using technology to foster exchange in our community, which includes students, faculty members, and alumni in every part of the world,” he wrote. “Moreover, it is my hope and expectation that this blog will eventually grow to serve the wider business community.”

Public Offering’s “About Us” page calls the blog “a natural extension of Columbia Business School’s longstanding tradition of innovation and entrepreneurship” that aims to cover the “stories of achievements, research, ideas and adventures” circulating through the halls and elevators of CBS. The blog is produced with support from the CBS Office of Communications.

Comments on blog posts are welcome from within or outside the CBS community. Those submitted by readers with a CBS account will be posted immediately, and all others will be queued for moderation and approval. Comments will not be edited for content or grammar, but they will be limited to 450 words or less and cut to fit as necessary.

Hubbard’s initial entry, posted yesterday, has generated a flurry of responses, the vast majority of which commend CBS for being at the forefront of educational institutions taking steps to promote platforms for open dialog.

“This is a wonderful initiative,” writes Rajeev Kohli. “Universities are in the business of knowledge creation and dissemination, in the market of ideas and opinions. Efforts like these – blogs, wikis and open course initiatives like those at MIT – can shift dialog and ideas in education to yet another level.”

Kohli’s sentiments were echoed by Osifo Akhuemonkhan, who writes, “Once again Columbia Business School under your direction has shown that it can talk the talk and walk the walk in terms of identifying and capturing opportunities. Providing a means of interaction between the business school community at Columbia and the rest of the world will keep Columbia a step ahead of its peers.”

Not all comments, though, were quite as glowing. “Better late than never,” writes Selden. “Columbia may think it is first, but only in the context of those at the back of the pack in terms of adopting new technology. Blogging is 4 years old. I guess if you are far enough behind, you think you are ahead.”

As recent posts here on Clear Admit have shown, Columbia is not alone in opening up the dialog. Oxford’s Saïd Business School launched its own blog this past December, MIT has long been an innovator with its open course initiative and schools around the globe are embracing YouTube and other user-generated content platforms with increasing vigor.

Ultimately, whether CBS deserves praise for being among the first or criticism for being slow to the game is your call to make. With initial posts ranging from an economic policy analysis of why dancers smoke to a defense for having a messy desk, Public Offering certainly provides us with something new and interesting to read. But don’t take our word for it – check it out for yourself and join in the dialog.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Business Schools Stream to the Web Using Video

Be it through their own channels on YouTube, podcasts posted through iTunes or the advent of new video-sharing sites like BigThink (founded by ex-Harvard President Larry Summers as a “YouTube for ideas”), business schools and business thinkers are finding even more of a presence on the Web as they begin en masse to embrace streaming video.

An article yesterday in the Chronicle of Higher Education (itself highlighted on the BizDeansTalk blog) called attention to YouTube’s latest video phenomenon – professors posting lectures. “Web video opens a new form of public intellectualism to scholars looking to participate in an increasingly visual culture,” read the article.

According to the Chronicle, several colleges and universities have signed agreements with YouTube to set up their own official channels on the video-sharing site. The deals, which do not involve any monetary exchange, allow the schools to brand their section of the site with school logos or colors and to upload longer videos than allowed by typical users.

“We expect that education will be a vibrant category on YouTube,” Obadiah Greenberg, strategic partner manager at YouTube, told the Chronicle in an e-mail interview. “Everybody loves to learn,” he continued.

It’s hard to provide an exact count of how many business schools have established YouTube channels. As noted in the Chronicle article, YouTube doesn’t make it easy to quickly find its educational offerings. So far, the site’s education category offers up as many videos seemingly unrelated to education as videos that are on topic.

Some schools, though, are taking steps themselves to help users find them on YouTube. In an announcement last week, the Saïd School of Business at Oxford University directed prospective students to its new YouTube channel – set up in mid-December – which includes two new promotional videos outlining the benefits of studying at Oxford and of the Oxford MBA. In addition to these promos, the Saïd YouTube channel currently features 12 other videos, including several interviews with individual students and alumni as well as one video devoted to campus life.

Other universities and colleges also have YouTube channels, including the University of California at Berkeley, Vanderbilt University and the University of Southern California. But though each of these institutions boasts its own business school, only USC’s Marshall School of Business seems to have established its own YouTube channel.

iTunes Podcasts, Feeds and More
Even schools that haven’t yet set up their own YouTube channels are embracing podcasts and streaming video in ever-growing numbers. Dan Colman, director and associate dean of Stanford University’s continuing-studies program, runs a blog tracking podcasts and videos made by colleges and professors, an entire section of which is devoted to business schools.

More top business schools are listed here than aren’t, offering video and audio content that ranges from the school’s latest research results (IMD) to digital interviews with top business leaders (Tuck, Harvard, Wharton) to how to optimize your b-school applications (Stanford). According to Colman, Duke’s Fuqua School of Business offers “one of the richest collections out there.”

As mentioned in recent Clear Admit posts, podcasts from students and alumni can help provide applicants with a fuller sense of the schools they are considering and can round out more traditional admissions material from the schools themselves. Increasingly, schools’ YouTube channels may make it into the mix of must-consult resources when applying to business programs. Finally, sites like BigThink suggest that video sharing may soon change even the way the larger business world functions. More on that in an upcoming post…

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Oxford’s Saïd Business School Launches New Blog

Oxford’s Saïd School of Business last week launched a new blogging site, BusinessBlogs@Oxford, designed to provide a glimpse into the lives and activities of current students in the school’s MBA, Executive MBA and Msc in Financial Economics programs. 

The blog, which is maintained by Saïd’s marketing and admissions department, features posts by current students as well as links to students’ posts on other sites. There is also an extensive resources section, providing information about the Oxford admissions process, GMAT and TOFEL information, a link to the Financial Times MBA rankings and – we are proud to say - a link to Clear Admit.

In recent posts, students have given their views on the college system (specifically, what it’s like as a B-school student to have occasion to intermingle with students pursuing other studies), the Oxford Entrepreneurship Project and even the weather (according to one student from Oregon, it’s not that bad!).

There is also a significant section devoted to fun, including everything from a catalog of spots on Oxford’s campus featured in the Harry Potter films to a YouTube clip of B-school students drumming out their stress as part of a team building exercise in the school’s amphitheater.

A great new resource, especially if Saïd is on your list of target schools. Good luck to everyone working toward fast approaching application deadlines!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Annual Venture Capital Conference Returns to MIT Sloan

Entrepreneurship took center stage at Oxford last week. This week it’s the focus in Cambridge. Cambridge, Massachusetts, that is, as MIT Sloan prepares to host the 2007 Venture Capital Conference this Friday, November 30th.

The conference, now in its tenth year, brings together more than 400 participants – including venture capital professionals, corporate execs, angel investors, entrepreneurs, MBAs and academics – for debate, panel discussions and valuable networking opportunities. Venture capital in enterprise software, life sciences, new media and clean energy will be among this year’s highlighted discussion topics.

Keynote speakers include Frank Moss, director of the MIT Media Lab; Christopher Sacca, head of special initiatives at Google and Diane Greene, founder and CEO of Vmware. Representatives from Advanced Technology Ventures, Common Angels, Fir Capital/DFJ Brazil, General Catalyst, General Partner, IDG Ventures, Polaris Ventures, Quattro Wireless and Spark Capital are also expected.

New this year, the conference will also feature an Entrepreneur Showcase, which will give select entrepreneurs a chance to debut new products and services for the high-tech, mobile, bio-tech and energy sectors. The showcase, open to the public, will take place the evening before the conference, on Thursday, November 29, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the MIT Museum. Companies interested in participating should contact showcase@mitvcconference.com.

“Not every idea grows into a new enterprise,” said student organizer Bashar Mashal, MIT Sloan MBA ’08, in a statement announcing the event. “Successful innovations are founded by savvy entrepreneurs and enabled by the right relationships and guidance,” he continued. “We encourage participants to discover new entrepreneurs, enterprises and opportunities that will enable the next generation of businesses and leaders.”

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Oxford’s Saïd Business School Welcomes Silicon Valley Experts

As part of its ongoing commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship, the Saïd Business School at England’s University of Oxford this week hosted its seventh annual Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford (SVOC) event, drawing luminaries from the technology industry together to address the school’s MBA students and faculty, as well as local entrepreneurs and corporations.

Leaders from several cutting-edge Silicon Valley companies took part in yesterday’ day-long interactive event, which included a kick-off panel discussion focused on current entrepreneurship issues, master classes taught by visiting experts and “Garage” innovation sessions, in which participants were led through real-life business scenarios by Valley insiders.

Drawing 15 key speakers, more than in any prior year, the event’s opening panel discussion focused on innovation and tech start-ups and gave attendees tips for which trends to watch for in the sector. Speakers this year included Chris Sacca, head of special initiatives for Google; Reid Hoffman, founder and CEO of Linkedin; Craig List’s Jim Buckmaster; Bob Goodman of Yelp; Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston of Y Combinator and many others.

Writing on the Guardian’s “pda:the digital content blog,” Jemima Kiss summed up some of the conference’s hottest topics. Openness, user-created content and the user experience topped the list, according to Kiss.

As an example of the power of openness, Google’s Sacca pointed to the social networking site Twitter, which saw a 20-fold increase in web traffic when it released its Application Programming Interface (API) online.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, who led one of the master classes at yesterday’s SVOC event, draws a clear link between Twitter’s openness and its success. “When users form a community around a product, discuss that product and build compelling applications on top of a product, then that service is showing signs of success,” he told the Guardian last May. “We expect to see more folks invite their friends to Twitter or discover our service through various integrations made possible by our API,” he continued. Seems the company’s expectation has been met.

Paul Graham, another of this year’s SVOC speakers, shared investment advice. “Look for things that are evil, broken or stupid,” he told attendees. “These are usually great opportunities.”

Graham is co-founder of Y Combinator, an investment house that bucks investing trends by throwing small sums of money – usually less than $20,000 – at start-ups in their earliest stages in exchange for small stakes in the companies’ futures. Further, Y Combinator funds start-ups in batches, two per year, during which the founders from all the different fledgling companies come together for a boot camp of sorts at the investment house’s Silicon Valley headquarters.

Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford, which has established itself as a leading European event for debate and networking in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship, is just one example of Saïd’s focus on innovation. All Oxford MBAs complete a required two-term Entrepreneurial Project culminating in the presentation of a business plan to panels of experts and venture capitalists.

Additionally, Saïd is home to not one but two major centers of entrepreneurship, the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, established by ebay founder Jeff Skoll, and Oxford Science Enterprise Centre, which sets out to provide scientists with critical business skills. Finally, several faculty and staff are actively involved in research relating to entrepreneurship and innovation. For more on entrepreneurship at Oxford, click here.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Admissions Tip: Planning for the Deadlines

Anyone who’s familiar with the MBA application process knows that August moves forward at an accelerated pace, and that in September entire weeks seem to disappear. To help this year’s Round One applicants avoid the classic time crunch, today’s blog post offers some basic advice on how to approach the Round One deadlines at a reasonable pace.

Let’s start by taking a quick look at the published Round One deadlines for the top MBA programs:

October 2: Harvard
October 3: INSEAD
October 10: Columbia Early Decision and January Term
October 11: Wharton
October 17: Chicago
October 22: Stanford
October 24: UCLA / Anderson, Yale SOM
October 30: MIT Sloan
November 1: Michigan / Ross, UVA / Darden (Early Action)
November 5: Berkeley / Haas

Though there are still a number schools that have yet to announce their deadlines (Kellogg and Stern, for example), one can still get a general sense of the lineup of R1 deadlines. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when creating your personal timeline:

1) Plan to be busy in August and September. Sure, it’s tempting to work on your tan instead of your essays. However, many MBA applicants squander the month of August only to wake up in September and realize that they cannot make their target deadlines. If not bogged down by professional obligations in August, this makes for a great opportunity to devote time to working on your MBA applications in the evenings. The last weeks of summer can easily be split between resume drafting, essay writing, recommendation coaching, GMAT prep, school research, visits and more…

2) Think carefully about the timing of the R1 deadlines. Looking at the deadlines above, it becomes clear that some deadlines may be easier to make than others. A candidate applying to, say, Wharton and MIT could have a leisurely October as compared to someone targeting Wharton, Chicago and Stanford. Look at the deadlines, assume about three weeks of research and writing for each school’s application and count backwards to determine a start date for each. It is entirely possible to meet back-to-back deadlines, such as Columbia’s and Wharton’s, but doing so requires a well-planned schedule and consistent progress.

3) Consider taking some time off from work. We realize that many MBA applicants work 70 hours/week and haven’t had a day off in months. For such applicants, a day or two out of the office can really do wonders for focus and organization. Applying to business school is a serious undertaking, and in the long-term you won’t regret having given yourself enough time to prepare strong applications. Many successful candidates take a week off in late September to make the final push. It’s not a glamorous way to spend your vacation time, but an offer to attend a leading MBA program can make the sacrifice well worth it.

4) Get your recommenders on board early. While many of the schools have not yet made their online applications and recommendation forms available, it’s a good idea to engage your recommenders early and inform them about the process and your timeline. Sit down with each recommender in August, perhaps over lunch or coffee. Present them with a rough sketch of the deadlines and the process. It’s then a wise to meet again once the forms are available, and by that time many applicants are in a position to share their background materials (a resume, career goals essay, etc.) to help their recommenders understand - and support - their message.

5) Do not leave the online application forms for last. Again, while many schools’ online application systems are not yet open for the 2007-08 season, we want to make sure that our readers are aware that this is a key component of the application. Some applicants pour weeks of work into their essays, only to scramble to complete face lengthy online data forms at the last minute. Your data forms are often the first thing the adcom will read when reviewing your file, so it’s important to make a strong first impression by following instructions, avoiding typos, and using this opportunity to present information about your candidacy to your best advantage.

Happy planning! For more information on the application process and school selection, feel free to contact us at info@clearadmit.com for a free consultation.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Oxford Said Deadlines 2007-2008

Oxford Said Business School has released their deadlines for the upcoming admissions season! While their Round 1 deadline is nearly the same date as last year, the adcom has extended the other rounds by about a week each. Completed applications will be reviewed beginning on September 1st, 2007.

Round 1
Application Deadline: October 26th, 2007
Interview Decision by: November 16th, 2007
Admissions Decision by: January 11th, 2007

Round 2
Application Deadline: January 18th, 2008
Interview Decision by: February 8th, 2008
Admissions Decision by: March 28th, 2008

Round 3
Application Deadline: April 4th, 2008
Interview Decision by: April 25th, 2008
Admissions Decision by: May 30th, 2008

Round 4
Application Deadline: June 6th, 2008
Interview Decision by: June 27th, 2008
Admissions Decision by: July 25th, 2008

Friday, April 13, 2007

Fridays from the Frontline

Welcome back to another installment of Fridays from the Frontline.  There’s been plenty of action in the MBA blogosphere this week – even aside from all the “BoB buzz” that that the nominations have generated!  Let’s see what’s new:

After so many tense months or hard work and waiting, we’re seeing a degree of healthy forward-looking perspective is returning to applicants’ blogs.  Now that Anand is in at Darden, he posted an inspiring ‘to do’ list for the next few months, including everything from sleeping to brushing up on his meringue.  AsianGal plans to study for her CFA exam and swim with whale sharks, among other things, now that she has committed to Wharton.  JatWarrior, meanwhile, gave notice at his current job this week and is looking forward to spending time with his family before joining Tuck’s class of 2009.

Other admitted students were busy reflecting on the process they’ve recently completed.  Iday posted advice on obtaining letters of recommendation and interviews, while Juggler offered her wisdom on funding one’s MBA.  Suser considered the best approach to the GMAT, and MBA Babe posted a list of her admissions season low points as a warning to future applicants.  Lastly, Peter wrote an insightful post about the difficulty of representing oneself honestly on one hand, while simultaneously trying to avoid hot button issues like religion and politics.

With the end of the school year near, this week inspired reflection among certain student bloggers as well.  Angel Angie took a look at her experience at LBS so far and considered what’s to come.  FromCali took time this week to describe her MAP experience at Ross, and despite the intensity of the project it sounds like she’s grateful for the experience.  In job search news, both DomoDomo and Hallonman described their recruiting