Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast Clear Admit

Whether you're curious about pre-MBA preparation or what makes Bain a unique workplace, this episode is packed with actionable advice and insider knowledge for aspiring consultants. We dive deep into the world of strategy consulting with Noble Stafford, Vice President of Recruiting for Bain & Company's Chicago office.

In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we kicked things off with our usual rundown of the latest admissions news.  We are still seeing some activity around wait lists at few MBA programs. We then discussed the delayed roll-out of the Harvard MBA admissions essay for this upcoming season. It looks like HBS is planning to change their more traditional essay prompt, and there appears to be much anticipation about this change.  All will be unveiled later this month...

Graham highlighted the upcoming summer application essay series that Clear Admit hosts, which begins on Wednesday, July 10, and will include the majority of the top MBA programs. Signups have recently opened and are here: https://www.bit.ly/summeressays

Graham then noted the publication of a new podcast episode which is a recording of one of the panel discussions during the in-person Chicago MBA admissions event that Clear Admit hosted. This discussion centered on answering several key questions about the MBA degree; who is it for, when should one pursue it, why, what's the ROI, etc.  The show features admissions directors from Cornell / Johnson, Harvard, NYU / Stern and Michigan / Ross, with Graham moderating.

Graham then highlighted a recently published Clear Admit admissions tip, which focuses the importance of the campus environment; this led to a discussion about the Penn campus in Philadelphia.

Graham then noted the publication of Clear Admit’s first Adcom Q&A for this new season, from Ohio State/Fisher.

For this week, for the candidate profile review portion of the show, Alex selected three ApplyWire entries:

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate is from India, and is reapplying next season, after gaining admissions this season for USC / Marshall and CMU / Tepper. They have a strong blend of tech and entrepreneurial experience, as well as decent additional activities. They have a very good GMAT, but their GPA is the weak spot.

This week’s second MBA candidate is a military candidate with a 700 GMAT score and a 3.15 GPA. They are not being overly ambitious with their target programs. They plan to retake the GMAT this summer, as well as take some additional coursework to bolster their profile.

The final MBA candidate for this week is also from the military, this time on the nuclear engineering side for the Navy. They have a strong GMAT of 740, and while their GPA is a little modest, they played Division 1 Baseball as an undergraduate.

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!

Recorded live at the Clear Admit MBA Fair, admissions directors from top business schools share their insights on key questions prospective MBA students often need answering in this special episode of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. The episode features Eddie Asbie from Cornell Johnson, Dana Fernandez from Harvard Business School, Matthew Ganderson from Michigan Ross, and Lindsay Lloyd from NYU Stern.

In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by running down all of the latest b-school admissions news. We are still seeing quite a lot of activity around waitlists at a number of MBA programs.

Graham highlighted the upcoming summer application series that Clear Admit hosts, which begins on Wednesday, July 10, and will include the majority of the top MBA programs. Signups have recently opened and are here: https://www.bit.ly/summeressays

Graham then highlighted a recently published Clear Admit admissions tip, which focuses on how to build your ideal list of target MBA programs.

Graham then noted three Real Humans Alumni pieces; an MBA alum from Chicago / Booth who now works at BCG, an alum from Goizueta / Emory who now works at Bank of America and an alum from UC Irvine / Merage who now works at Amazon. Finally, Graham highlighted a Friday’s from the Frontlines article from a student who is taking part in 'Stern Solutions', an experiential learning program from NYU / Stern.

For this week, for the candidate profile review portion of the show, Alex selected three ApplyWire entries:

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate is only targeting INSEAD. They have a very strong GMAT of 705, a decent GPA and nearly 10 years of experience in the Fintech space. They are currently working in South Korea.

This week’s second MBA candidate also has a GMAT of 705, and is a product manager coming from a liberal arts background. They are from the Midwest of the United States.

The final MBA candidate for this week is from Nigeria and has trained to be a medical doctor. After one year of being a physician, they switched to lead a Solar company. They also have a high test score, a 333 for the GRE.

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!

This week's MBA Admissions podcast began with our usual rundown of the latest MBA application news for this season. This week, a few top MBA programs are releasing final decisions for Rounds 3 and 4, including London Business School, CMU / Tepper and Texas / McCombs; there is also still some waitlist activity being reported on LiveWire.

Graham highlighted two recently published Clear Admit admissions tips; the first looked at the impact of volunteer activities in an MBA application, the second focused on choosing between MBA programs.

Graham then noted two Real Humans Alumni pieces; an MBA alum from IESE who is now an entrepreneur, and an alum from Northwestern / Kellogg who now works at BCG. Graham also discussed a report from the Kellogg Climate conference, as well as a feature on a Dartmouth / Tuck MBA creating a startup while in business school. We then discussed a Real Humans piece from UCLA / Anderson, which features six MBA students from the program.

For this week, for the candidate profile review portion of the show, Alex selected three ApplyWire entries:

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate is from India and now works in Canada. They have 10 years of work experience, which places them at the high end of the spectrum for traditional full-time MBA programs. Should they target one-year MBA programs?  How high should they aim?

This week’s second MBA candidate has developed a VC-backed startup over the last several years. They also have a STEM PhD. They are looking at online/hybrid or executive MBA programs, so they can continue with their startup, while studying for their MBA.

The final MBA candidate for this week is originally from India, but studied in the United States for their undergraduate degree, and then went into banking in the U.S. They then moved back to India for a Fintech startup. This is a rather unorthodox move for an MBA admissions candidate. They also have very good numbers.

In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began with a quick report from Graham on how Clear Admit's first ever in-person event for applicants went in Chicago; spoiler alert: it was a great success!  Alex then followed with an update on the latest MBA application decision releases for this season: this week, a few top MBA programs are releasing final decisions for Rounds 3 and 4, including Cornell / Johnson and Georgetown / McDonough; Harvard and UPenn / Wharton are releasing interview invites for their deferred admissions rounds.

Graham highlighted the final spring online webinar that Clear Admit is hosting this Wednesday at 12 pm ET, which will feature CMU / Tepper, Columbia, UPenn / Wharton, INSEAD and London Business School. Signups are here: https://www.bit.ly/caspringwebinars

Graham then mentioned a recently published Clear Admit admissions tip, regarding background checks on admitted candidates, before moving on to discuss three 'Real Humans Alumni' pieces, an MBA alum from Duke / Fuqua who works at Pfizer, an MBA from Columbia who works in AI for Amazon, and an MBA alum from Chicago / Booth who works at Xbox.

We then discussed the MBA Class of 2023 career report from UCLA / Anderson. This report is quite late in the cycle, but highlights the many strengths of the Anderson MBA program, especially if you are interested in being on the West Coast after business school. Finally, we discussed a U.S. Department of Energy competition won by MBA students from Duke / Fuqua. The winning concept related to how to manage power generation when the renewable inputs are variable.

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 appears to have a very strong professional career, and is from Latin America. While their GMAT is decent (710), their GPA is the weak point. We discussed strategies to mitigate the lighter GPA.

This week’s second MBA candidate also has a modest GPA of 3.0. They have a super GMAT (695 on the new version of the test) and appear to have done well in their marketing career, despite navigating a layoff.

The final MBA candidate for this week is deciding between Duke / Fuqua and London Business School. These are two quite different options, and we discussed those differences. They want to be in the United States in the longer term, 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!