Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast Clear Admit

In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began with a discussion of our BIG event in Chicago on Wednesday May 15th; please join us if you can, by signing up here: https://www.bit.ly/cachicagofair  We then turned to a discussion of the week ahead; several programs are releasing final decisions for Round 3, including UPenn / Wharton, USC / Marshall, MIT / Sloan, Yale SOM, Oxford / Said, UCLA / Anderson and Washington / Foster.

Graham then highlighted the Spring Online Webinar series that Clear Admit is hosting. The second event in the series is on Wednesday, May 22th. Signups are here: https://www.bit.ly/caspringwebinars

Graham then mentioned a recently published admissions tip that focuses on pre-MBA additional coursework; this might be useful for candidates who have very little quantitative studies in their undergraduate studies, or for candidates who need to address below par grades.

Graham then noted four Real Humans Alumni pieces, alums from: Berkeley / Haas who works at Pepsi, IMD who works at Amazon, Notre Dame / Mendoza who works at Microsoft, and Stanford who works at Myc0Works.

For the candidate profile review portion of the show this week, Alex selected two ApplyWire entries and one DecisionWire entry:

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate is targeting Stanford. They have a very interesting background in EdTech, they also have their own YouTube channel with a significant number of followers, as a content creator. We worry that only targeting Stanford can be risky, but they do appear to have an attractive profile.

This week’s second MBA candidate is from India, and also has French citizenship. They have strong numbers, and appear to have done well in their career, to date. They want to target the top programs, and we encourage them to include those programs in the first round.

The final MBA candidate for this week is deciding between UCLA / Anderson and USC / Marshall, with substantial scholarships. They are seeking buy-side finance roles, and wonder if one of these options will be good enough, or should they reapply to higher-tier programs next season.

This episode was recorded in Paris, France and Cornwall, England. It was produced and engineered by the fabulous Dennis Crowley in Philadelphia, USA. Thanks to all of you who’ve been joining us and please remember to rate and review this show wherever you listen!

In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began with our usual discussion around application deadlines, interview releases, and decisions for this season. This week, Round 3 and 4 continue with several application notifications; several programs are also releasing final decisions for Round 3, including Northwestern / Kellogg, Emory / Goizueta, CMU / Tepper, Duke / Fuqua and INSEAD.

Graham highlighted the Spring Online Webinar series that Clear Admit is hosting. The first event is on Wednesday, May 8th, and includes Berkeley / Haas, Duke / Fuqua, Emory / Goizueta, Georgetown / McDonough and Texas / McCombs. Signups are here: https://www.bit.ly/caspringwebinars Graham then noted the May 15th event we are hosting in Chicago, which will be Clear Admit’s first in-person MBA candidate event. Signups are here: https://www.bit.ly/cachicagofair

Graham then mentioned an admissions tip that focuses on the reapplication process. While this is targeted to candidates who were not able to secure a seat at a top MBA program this season, we also discussed candidates who are debating whether to reapply next season, or go to business school this season.

Graham then noted three Real Humans Alumni pieces, alums from: UCLA who works at Google, Harvard who works at Amazon and UC / Irvine who works at PepsiCo.

For this week, for the candidate profile review portion of the show, Alex selected two ApplyWire entries and one DecisionWire entry.

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate is targeting leading executive MBA programs, rather than full-time MBA programs. They have 15 years of experience, most of which has been in digital marketing. They currently work at Nestle. They have a 720 GMAT score and a 3.02 GPA.

This week’s second MBA candidate has a 326 GRE and a 3.43 GPA; they work at IBM in technical sales. They plan to return to IBM after the MBA, and then move on to work in their family business.

The final MBA candidate for this week is deciding between USC / Marshall and CMU / Tepper. While both MBA programs are in the same tier, they will offer different experiences. We think the candidate needs to really think hard about their post MBA goals, in order to help drive their final decision.

This episode was recorded in Paris, France and Cornwall, England. It was produced and engineered by the fabulous Dennis Crowley in Philadelphia, USA. Thanks to all of you who’ve been joining us and please remember to rate and review this show wherever you listen!

In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the latest application deadlines and decision releases for this season. This week Round 3 and 4 continue with several application deadlines; some programs are also releasing final decisions for Round 3, including UVA / Darden, Georgetown / McDonough, Dartmouth / Tuck, Berkeley / Haas, Texas / McCombs and Michigan / Ross.

Graham highlighted the May 15th event we are hosting in Chicago, which will be Clear Admit’s first in-person MBA candidate event. Signups are here: https://www.bit.ly/cachicagofair Graham also noted the Application Overview webinar series that Clear Admit is hosting. The first event is on May 8th, and includes Berkeley / Haas, Duke / Fuqua, Emory / Goizueta, Georgetown / McDonough and Texas / McCombs. Signups are here: https://www.bit.ly/caspringwebinars

Graham then mentioned two admissions tips that focus on MBA scholarship negotiation, and how important scholarship offers can be to a final decision.

Graham then noted four Real Humans Alumni pieces, alums from: Northwestern Kellogg at Google, Duke / Fuqua at Accenture, Rochester / Simon at Bain and Texas / McCombs at Tesla.

For this week, for the candidate profile review portion of the show, Alex selected two ApplyWire entries and one DecisionWire entry:

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate has a very strong GRE score of 332, and they graduated with a first class engineering degree, in India. Their career focus has been in software engineering in the non-profit sector. We like their overall profile, and recommend they target the first rounds.

This week’s second MBA candidate is planning several years ahead for their MBA experience. They need to overcome a very low 2.4 GPA. There are steps they can take to help mitigate this concern, and we detailed some of those steps.

The final MBA candidate for this week is deciding between Cornell / Johnson and UVA Darden, with a goal for MBB consulting. They are an international student and wonder whether the Ivy name from Johnson should be a factor.

This episode was recorded in Paris, France and Cornwall, England. It was produced and engineered by the fabulous Dennis Crowley in Philadelphia, USA. Thanks to all of you who’ve been joining us and please remember to rate and review this show wherever you listen!

In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we kick things off with our usual discussion of the latest MBA application deadlines and interview releases. This week, Round 3 continues with several application deadlines, including deferred admissions deadlines for Harvard (2+2) and UPenn / Wharton.

Graham then highlighted the May 15th event we are hosting in Chicago, which will be Clear Admit’s first in-person MBA candidate event (with 20 leading business schools!); signups are here: https://www.bit.ly/cachicagofair Graham also noted the Spring Online Webinar series that Clear Admit is hosting over the course of May, with signups here: https://www.bit.ly/caspringwebinars

Graham then mentioned that Stanford GSB has now appointed a new Assistant Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, after a year-long search following the departure of Kirsten Moss. Erin Nixon is a Stanford alumna of the MBA program, and an undergraduate alum. She will begin her new role on July 1.

Graham also noted a recently published tech careers piece, written by Clear Admit’s CEO, Eliot Ingram. While the tech sector is in a hiring squeeze for MBAs, it still represents one of the three major b-school employers.

Graham then noted four Real Humans Alumni pieces, alums from: Emory / Goizueta working at McKinsey, IESE working at BCG, Washington / Foster working at Microsoft, and Chicago / Booth working at Goldman Sachs.

For this week, for the candidate profile review portion of the show, Alex selected two ApplyWire entries and one DecisionWire entry:
This week’s first MBA admissions candidate has spent 8 years as a paralegal, and is now planning to use the MBA to transition over to the business side of deal making. They have a strong GRE score of 330, and are also heavily involved in additional activities. A potentially very decent profile, overall.

This week’s second MBA candidate appears to have a strong career in the venture capital sector in India. However, we worry about their overall numbers; their GRE score is 319. We recommend they retake this test, and target the first rounds.

The final MBA candidate for this week is deciding between Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua and Michigan / Ross. They are seeking a health-care related career. They have a partner, so they need to factor that into their decision-making.

This episode was recorded in Paris, France and Cornwall, England. It was produced and engineered by the fabulous Dennis Crowley in Philadelphia, USA. Thanks to all of you who’ve been joining us and please remember to rate and review this show wherever you listen!

In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the MBA application deadlines and interview releases for this season. This week Round 3 continues with several application deadlines, and UPenn / Wharton and Duke / Fuqua are scheduled to release interview invite decisions.

Graham started with a story of his random meeting with a podcast listener (and current Wharton student), who he met at a car rental agency.

Graham then highlighted the May 15th event we are hosting in Chicago, which will be Clear Admit’s first in-person MBA candidate event. Signups are here: https://www.bit.ly/cachicagofair Graham also noted the Spring Online Webinar series that Clear Admit is hosting, with signups here: https://www.bit.ly/caspringwebinars

We then had a discussion about the recently published 2024 U.S. News MBA ranking of U.S. based MBA programs. For the second year in row, there is a significant emphasis on career outcomes in this ranking, rather than an emphasis on the quality of the incoming class. Some of the order of the ranking appears to be off, as a consequence of this.

Graham highlighted a recently published admissions tip focused on the waitlist, which also provides direct access to a video that we hosted for the Admissions Academy. This video is now freely available for all to watch.

Graham then noted three Real Humans Alumni pieces, alums from: Cornell / Johnson working at Amazon, Columbia working at Google, and Georgetown / McDonough working at Johnson & Johnson.

For this week, for the candidate profile review portion of the show, Alex selected two ApplyWire entries and one DecisionWire entry.

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate is applying next season. They have decent numbers, with a 3.72 GPA and 326 GRE. They have 3 years of work experience in consulting. We discussed what they might do to improve their overall profile, over the next several months.

This week’s second MBA candidate has recently left their work, to take a break, before starting business school. They appear to have a strong professional record at top tech companies, and a decent GPA. They have gained a test waiver to the programs they are targeting; we are not convinced that’s the right approach.

The final MBA candidate for this week is deciding between Northwestern / Kellogg, Duke / Fuqua (with money) and IESE. They also need to consider their spouse’s options, as they weigh whether to do an MBA in Europe or the United States.

This episode was recorded in Schenectady, New York, USA and Cornwall, England. It was produced and engineered by the fabulous Dennis Crowley in Philadelphia, USA. Thanks to all of you who’ve been joining us and please remember to rate and review this show wherever you listen!

As usual, this week's MBA Admissions podcast kicks off with a discussion of all the latest MBA application deadline and decision release news for this season. Last week, MIT / Sloan released its Round 2 final decisions. Cornell / Johnson also released some of their final decisions. This week Round 3 continues with several application deadlines.

Graham promoted the MBA applicant survey we now have in the field. We are trying to encourage as high a response rate as we can get. The survey is at https://www.bit.ly/caspringsurvey Graham also noted the May 15th event we are hosting in Chicago, which will be Clear Admit’s first in-person MBA candidate event. Signups are here: https://www.bit.ly/cachicagofair

Graham highlighted two recently published admissions tips focused on how candidates should decide between different MBA program offers, and how to get the most out of the admitted students events that many top MBA programs offer in the month of April. These events are very important to attend for two broad reasons: to help candidates make their final decisions, as well as to begin the process of transitioning to the new MBA adventure.

Graham then noted three Real Humans Alumni pieces, alums from London Business School working at Uber, Maryland / Smith working at Merck, and UPenn / Wharton working at General Mills.

For this week, for the candidate profile review portion of the show, Alex selected two ApplyWire entries and one DecisionWire entry.

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate applied to London Business School this season, but was rejected after the interview phase. They have a 319 GRE score and a 3.1 GPA. While they appear to have a strong professional background, we are encouraging them to retake the GRE, ahead of next season.

This week’s second MBA candidate also has a 3.1 GPA, but there GMAT is a little better, at 710. They also have a very decent professional background, as well as very interesting extra-curricular activities and interests. Their target is Duke / Fuqua’s early action round. We think there is a strong potential benefit from retaking the GMAT, if they can gain 20-30 points.

The final MBA candidate for this week is deciding between UCLA / Anderson with some scholarship and UNC / Kenan Flagler with a full scholarship. We think the decision really boils down to where they want to be, geographically, post MBA.

This episode was recorded in Paris, France and Cornwall, England. It was produced and engineered by the fabulous Dennis Crowley in Philadelphia, USA. Thanks to all of you who’ve been joining us and please remember to rate and review this show wherever you listen!