Diane Auer Jones was appointed the nation’s top higher-education official by Bush in May 2007, replacing Sally Stroup, who stepped down. According to the Chronicle report, Jones had hoped to remain at the Department of Education through the end of the Bush administration in January 2009 but couldn’t pass up the chance to replace the Washington Campus’s president, who is retiring. It was a case of “the perfect job coming at not the perfect time,” she told the Chronicle.

The Washington Campus is a consortium of 16 major university business schools founded in 1978 to help educate business school students and corporate executives on the process of U.S. policy making. Among its member universities are the University of California at Berkeley’s Hass School of Business, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and Michigan’s Ross School of Business. 

Founded on the principle that “understanding government is indispensable knowledge for all business leaders,” the Washington Campus provided customized executive education programs for corporations and associations, open-enrollment programs for business executives and graduate-level courses for MBA students within the consortium.

According to the Chronicle, Jones feels she is leaving the Education Department at an appropriate time in its calendar even though the Bush administration still has eight months remaining. Several critical regulatory processes have been finished, and all of the department’s major grant competitions have been completed.

Mbarunnergirl recently returned from a breathtaking journey ‘down under’, which helped her realize, among other things, that the travel-heavy consulting lifestyle’s just not for her.  Now, with the summer stretching out ahead of her, she has to figure out what is, at least for the next several months until she joins Columbia.  Her dilemma surely resonates with JulyDream, who’s also looking to gainfully employ her time before she heads off to Darden, although right now she’s been stymied by a sudden onset of nostalgia about her current gainful employer.  On the other hand, My MBA Dream’s sights are focused ahead – all the way to next application season, in fact – unless the Darden waitlist pans out for this fall.  Speaking of restarting the whole nerve wracking process, Miss Curly Bee spoke out in defense of one its most anxiety inducing elements – gasp – the BusinessWeek forums!  What’s wrong with a little b-school drama now and then? she implores would-be censors of this MBA circus.

First-year HairTwirler wasn’t in the mood for any funny business from the MBA community this week, however: she took a decisively hard line stance on which applicants should be doing community service and why.  So what makes her an authority?  An outstanding grade in Ethics at Georgetown, for starters.  M@ also cut to the chase, frankly speaking about his unsatisfying Ross Multidisciplinary Action Project grade, which couldn’t have been further disconnected from the success he felt his team achieved in South Africa.  The week was easier on Necromonger, who’s finding INSEAD’s P5 surprisingly manageable.  He took the opportunity this afforded him to capture INSEAD’s Fontainebleau campus from a variety of perspectives.  UniQpath also entertained a change of perspectives, reflecting on how her career aspirations have shifted over her first year at Wharton, landing her at a Bay area startup for the summer instead of a big consulting firm.

Back at INSEAD after a Wharton exchange, MillionDollarSpatula’s getting ready to make a big career decision, too – will it be a gritty general management job at a down-to-earth firm or a posh, supporting role at Fortune 500 company?  Meanwhile, job in hand, Angie found time to sing the praises of LBS again, this time with the heady assertion that the school “rules European sports,” as evidenced by London Business School’s triumph in the European MBA Tournament (for the third year in a row!).  And last but not least, Mbagladiator took a break from his full-time post as a social butterfly to share his accomplishments over the past few weeks – from knocking out papers and finals to narrowly defeating the Yale SOM’s Dean Podolny in bowling.

That just about wraps up the MBA blogging news for this week!  Hope to have you back with us next Friday for the latest synopsis of business school blogging activity.

Application Deadlines
Round 1: October 15, 2008
Round 2: January 6, 2009
Round 3: March 11, 2009

Note: All deadlines are 5 p.m. EST.

Notification Dates
Round 1: January 21, 2009
Round 2: April 2, 2009
Round 3: May 13, 2009

Essay Questions
1. What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)
2. What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)

Please respond to two of the following (400-word limit each):
1. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?
2. Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization.
3. What area of the world are you most curious about and why?
4. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?

Not so at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Last week, Tuck held its eighth annual Tuck GIVES (Grants to Interns and Volunteers for the Environment and Society) auction, a student-run event that gives the entire school community a chance to help support students heading into nonprofit and public-sector internships.

Combining silent and live auctions, calendar and raffle sales and a poker tournament, this year’s event brought in $67,400.
“I feel fortunate to go to a school where my classmates devote so much of their time and money to helping their peers engage in nonprofit and public-sector work,” Rachel Roth T’09, an event organizer, said in a statement. Other members of the Tuck GIVES leadership team included Brooke Szostak T’08, Jamie Greenthal T’08 and Chelsey Hood T’08.

Students supported their peers not only by bidding on auction items, but also by offering up their skills and services to serve as auction items themselves. Distinctive items auctioned off this year included flying lessons, a traditional New Orleans-style crawfish bowl with Tuck Dean Paul Danos and a traditional fiesta dinner prepared by seven Tuck students from Mexico.

The proceeds from last year’s auction funded seven student internship positions at organizations in industries ranging from healthcare to public education. This year’s proceeds, too, will supplement the salaries of Tuck students pursuing internships in the nonprofit and public sectors. 

“Tuck GIVES demonstrates how Tuck puts its values to work,” said Patricia Palmiotto, director of the Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship, in a statement about the event. The Allwin Initiative helps to sponsor the auction each year. a sponsor of the event. “We believe in using business skills to make a positive difference in the world,” Palmiotto continued.

To learn more about Tuck GIVES, contact the Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship.

1) Understand the odds and consider reapplying in the early rounds next year. If you failed to gain admission to a school in its final application round, you should not give up hope or instantly assume that your profile contains some glaring weakness that will forever bar you from acceptance. Because relatively few spots in the incoming class are available by the time of the Round 3 deadlines, it is always most difficult to get into a school at this point in the year. In many cases, an earlier application is all that you need to find success in the process.

2) Get feedback from the admissions committee. As we commented in a recent post, some of the top programs allow unsuccessful applicants to sign up for a feedback session with an admissions officer (sessions typically take place over the summer). This is a unique chance for you to learn how the committee perceived your application. Keep in mind that your audience with the adcom will be brief - try to approach the meeting with pointed questions about your candidacy in order to ensure that the feedback session is as productive and informative as possible.

3) Get feedback from other sources. Although a number of schools do not offer feedback, there are other ways to learn about where you may have fallen short. To start, you should read over your file with a critical eye and try to identify and understand your weaknesses. Take a step back from the process and be objective about your shortcomings. You might also share your file with colleagues who have been to business school. While this can be enlightening, you should also be careful about the feedback you collect on these fronts, since not all of it will be accurate (or consistent). Finally, you might seek feedback from an MBA admissions consulting firm. Clear Admit offers complete feedback sessions, including detailed written reports that provide an individualized road-map for reapplication.

4) Plan for a productive summer. Although it’s tempting to simply take a break from the admissions process after receiving a rejection letter, it is imperative that reapplicants use the summer months to address the weaknesses in their profiles. In many cases, reapplicants need to pursue outside coursework, retake a standardized test (GMAT/TOEFL), increase involvement with outside activities or take on new responsibilities at work. All of these tasks take time and cannot be addressed in the fall when application forms and essays should be the priority. By being proactive about improving your candidacy now, you will put yourself in a much better position to apply next year.

The event will also feature ManhattanGMAT instructor Keith Blume, who will speak to the GMAT specifically, helping prospective applicants understand how it works, what it tests, how business schools interpret scores and the benefits and limits of using short-cuts and tricks.

As if that alone weren’t reason to stop by, attendees also will receive a range of gifts and special promotions, including:

• A free access pass to one of ManhattanGMAT’s computer adaptive practice exams
• A chance to win a free ManhattanGMAT 9-session course (a $1390 value) or a complete set of ManhattanGMAT course books (a $270 value)
• A chance to win a set of five Clear Admit School Guides (a $175 value) or a set of five Clear Admit Interview Guides (a $100 value)
• $100 off any 9-session ManhattanGMAT preparation course
• A free hour of Clear Admit consulting time with the purchase of 10 hours of consulting time (a $200 value) 

The information session will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., and drinks and appetizers will be available. This exclusive event is free to interested applicants, but advance registration is required. To register online, click here. (Note: This link will take you to the manhattangmat.com website. If it is your first visit to the site, you will be asked to first complete a free student profile.)

Once you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email with the address of the event and other details. For questions about this event, contact ManhattanGMAT at 800-576-4628 or email studentservices@manhattangmat.com.

We hope to see you there!

After summarizing his take on a number of GMAT prep materials, the applicant noted, “I used a small diary to keep track of some grammar quirks, the more challenging Quant problems and the weird sentence correction sentences I came across.” While study habits and preferences will undoubtedly vary, candidates could consider keeping separate notes for ease of reference when tackling such problems again and again and again.

Despite thorough preparation, however, the test taker wasn’t quite ready for everything! As he recounted, “you have to use an erasable clipboard that you write on with a sketchpen for scratch work. I didn’t know this before hand and I had a VERY difficult time. On the page, I couldn’t tell the difference between my 7’s and 4’s while doing my calculations.” Applicants may want to crumple up that scratch paper and trade in their yellow legal pads for a dry-erase board in order to more closely simulate the test-taking situation. To find out AlchemistMBA’s final score, be sure to check out the Clear Admit Wiki!

As always, we encourage the MBA applicant community to share their thoughts on and experiences with the GMAT, a sometimes challenging, but necessary, part of the admissions process. 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. Thanks to all those who have contributed this season! Best of luck to those still sharpening their pencils!

“Well, I suppose this is the official launch of the Class of 2011 application season!” Leopold wrote. “The new essay questions are now posted along with the application calendar. Our application will be available online in mid-June.”

So we immediately set out to find the new questions so we could share them with our readers. Alas, they don’t seem to have gone live yet to the HBS site. But given Leopold’s post, we’re sure they aren’t long in coming, and we will carefully monitor the site and alert you when they are up.

Leopold’s note yesterday also indicated that she will be in New York City on May 27th for the first of several upcoming outreach events. More events – most in August and September – will be added as they are scheduled, she continued. College visits, meanwhile, will take place in late September, October and November.

Prospective applicants are more than welcome to visit HBS over the summer, during which time members of the Admissions Board will be hosting information sessions, Leopold continued. And though class visits don’t resume until early October, the HBS website features a video called Inside the Case Method, which Leopold recommends viewing in the meantime. “I think it gives a very clear picture of what happens in the MBA classroom and offers both student and faculty perspectives,” she wrote.

Finally, Leopold shared that she’s hoping to be a more active blogger now that the HBS Class of 2010 is set and that she will be re-writing the FAQ section of the HBS website to make it more comprehensive and colorful.

Once again, we will keep you posted about the new essay questions – as soon as they are up we will share them with you here.

However, two of the leading MBA programs best known for their strong sense of community are also two of the schools that have actively expanded the number on-campus housing opportunities for MBA students. At Tuck, nearly half of each first-year class lives in the school’s on-campus housing facilities, while at Kellogg approximately 30% of students live in that school’s residence halls. Let’s take a closer look at housing options offered by Tuck and Kellogg.

Whittemore Hall, considered the center of Tuck’s on-campus residential life, offers private living accommodations, social areas, group study rooms, a business resource center and an exercise facility with locker rooms. Nearby Buchanan Hall provides additional housing for first-year students, as well as group study rooms and a lounge area. Although Whittemore and Buchanan are very attractive options for single students seeking on-campus housing, those students entering Tuck with partners or children often choose to live in Sachem Village, a duplex and townhome community for Dartmouth’s graduate students.

Tuck is continuing to expand its residential options, with a additional residences for first-year students scheduled to open in December 2008 upon the completion of Tuck’s new living and learning center. The new center is located just west of Whittemore Hall and will provide living spaces for nearly 100 students, as well as additional study rooms, lounge areas, and classroom facilities.

At Kellogg, of the 30% of MBA students who choose to live on campus, most settle into the seven-story McManus Living/Learning Center. Both single and married students may choose from single or double studios, and one- or two-bedroom apartments. With study rooms, a computer lab, lounges, a workout room and a game room, McManus is designed to facilitate socializing and out-of-classroom learning. The McManus Living/Learning Center is just a three block walk from the Jacobs Center, making it one of the most convenient housing options for Kellogg students.

Students at both Tuck and Kellogg report that the opportunity to live with classmates extends students’ social circles and enhances the sense of a shared campus community. For more information on the housing options at Tuck, Kellogg, or other leading business schools, be sure to check out the schools’ websites or the Life On Campus sections of the Clear Admit School Guides!

The founders of Socialbomb Inc., Stern alumnus Mihir Dange (BS ‘01) and Michael Dory, Adam Simon and Scott Varland of Tisch’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, won first place in this year’s traditional track. Their plan provides entertainment services (and related advertising opportunities) built upon existing social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Basically, Socialbomb serves up clever games that users can play on mobile devices in which they are rewarded or penalized for everyday life events such as how they dress, whether or not they remember friends’ birthdays and more.

Socialbomb’s founders were awarded the Ira Rennert Entrepreneurial Prize of $50,000, which will help them turn their business plan into reality. But as important as the prize money was the coaching and guidance the team received over the course of the eight-month business plan competition, say its members.

“Socialbomb entered the competition having completed some R&D and with a vague notion of how it might be turned into a business, and we left with a strategic plan of action,” said team member Adam Simon. “Guidance from advisors and the Berkley Center staff played a huge part in shaping our young company’s development,” he continued. “The market research and financial planning we completed throughout the year helped shape how we think about our products and the market, allowing us to emerge from the competition ready to open our doors.”

Focusing on the Double Bottom Line of Profitability and Social Impact
Two winning teams, meanwhile, shared top honors in the social entrepreneurship track for their business plans focused on creating positive social impact while still turning a profit. Splitting the $100,000 Stewart Satter Family Prize were Naya Jeevan for Kids (NJFK), which was awarded $75,000 for its innovative plan to provide quality healthcare access to social disadvantaged families in developing countries, and Madécasse, which won $25,000 to further develop its plan to support local production and manufacturing of fair trade products in Madagascar for export to the United States.

The NJFK team, led by Asher Hasan MD (MBA ‘07), Saad Tabani (MBA ‘08), Farhan Musharrif and Irum Musharraf, has focused its initial efforts in India and Pakistan, where it will act as a catalytic intermediary between insurance companies and corporations to give naya jeevan, or “new life” as it translates from Urdu and Hindi, to two underserved communities in South Asia. The two communities it will target are low-income corporate employees and their children, as well as domestic staff members of corporate employees and their children.

“One of the most valuable experiences the NJFK team gained from its participation in the business plan competition was having unprecedented exposure to venture capitalists and social entrepreneurs,” said NJFK team member Hasan. Getting to repeatedly pressure-test business concepts and receive continuous feedback was also a major benefit, he added.

The other winning team in the Social Entrepreneurship track, Madécasse, won with its plan to help bridge the gap between poverty and potential in emerging markets using Equitrade. Equitrade, similar to the Fair Trade concept, requires both the farming and the manufacturing of products to be completed within the country of origin using ethical and sustainable methods.

“Before the competition, our business plan for Madécasse was relatively small in scale,” said Madécasse co-founder Tim McCollum. “This process opened our eyes to how much more we could potentially do with the business, and transformed our vision from that of a small business to an industry leading company that can achieve $10+ million in revenue per year,” he continued. Other team members include recent Stern graduate Brian McCollum (MBA ’07) and Brett Beach.

Stern’s Business Plan Competition, sponsored by the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, is open to the greater NYU community. It drew 155 teams this year, up 20 percent over last year. In addition to valuable seed money and continual guidance throughout the competition itself, the winning teams will have a virtual “pod” in the Stern Incubator, where they will benefit from $10,000 in pro-bono legal and consulting support, an extensive mentor network, ongoing technical assistance, educational programs and other university resources.