The Leading Independent
Resource for Top-tier MBA
Candidates

Recent News

Published: March 15, 2022
Episode 222: Women’s Path to Leadership and the Power of the MBA
In this edition of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast, we welcome two special guests from the SMU Cox School of Business to discuss women’s path to leadership and the influence of an MBA. Women hold just six percent of CEO roles at F500 companies (that’s 31 women vs. 469 men); of those 31 women, nearly half have MBAs. In 2005, zero business schools reported more than 40% female enrollment, but that number jumped to 19 business schools in 2019. Clearly, there is still much work to be done in this domain. To talk about what’s happening on the Read more
Published: March 14, 2022
Real Humans of Bain: Sanchita Shandilya, INSEAD ’21J, Consultant at Bain & Company
Nearly 50 years ago, William Bain, Jr. left BCG to launch what would become another Big Three consulting firm: Bain & Company. In this edition of Real Humans: Alumni, we hear from Sanchita Shandilya, INSEAD MBA ’21, who also embarked on a new adventure to a leading one-year MBA program to launch her career in consulting. Read on for how INSEAD heightened Shandilya’s skills and prepared her for the exciting life of a Bain consultant. Sanchita Shandilya, Insead MBA ’21J, Consultant at Bain & Company Age: 29 Hometown:  Read more
Published: March 13, 2022
Student Loan Rates are Rising – Lock in your low rate today!
As interest rates begin to rise again after historic lows, Juno has been carefully monitoring the markets. They’re a Clear Admit partner that protects students from high interest loans by researching, negotiating, and forecasting the rate environment.  Since January, lenders have been anticipating rate hikes from the Fed, along with other market forces, and have begun to raise their lending interest rates accordingly. In the first few months of 2022, Ascent raised their starting fixed rates significantly from 3.09% to 3.87% as of March 4th.  This is expected; Read more
Published: March 13, 2022
MBA Career Trends: Consulting Placements at Top U.S. Programs
For many years, MBA graduates have sought to work at leading management consulting firms for the opportunity to provide important strategic advice to business leaders operating large companies. Jobs at leading strategy consulting firms, such as McKinsey, Bain and BCG, are particularly coveted by MBA graduates. In this installment of Top MBA Program Career Placement Outcomes, we take a closer look at the management consulting industry job placement across leading business schools. Class of 2021 MBA Job Placement in the Management Consulting Industry Here is a chart showing the percent total of Class of Read more
Published: March 13, 2022
Wire Taps 221—Military candidate with weaker numbers, entrepreneur with top GMAT, Columbia versus Sloan for Asset Management
In our latest installment of the Clear Admit MBA admissions podcast, Alex and Graham discussed the pending releases of admissions decisions for several programs in this upcoming week (Emory, UNC, Duke, Michigan, UVA, IESE), as well as last week’s release of  CMU / Tepper decisions. Graham speculated that there will be significant movement off the Round 1 waitlists, forthcoming, due to the slump in application volume. We also discussed the release of additional articles in our new content series: Top MBA Career Placement Outcomes. We focused on the Finance sector piece, which is very revealing in terms of Read more
Published: March 10, 2022
Real Humans of Disney: Stephanie Sorensen, Chicago Booth Evening MBA ’20, Senior Associate
From humble beginnings as the “Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio,” The Walt Disney Company (Disney) has grown into a multinational entertainment and media conglomerate. Disney has woven magic and wonder into global culture. Do you remember your favorite movie or cartoon character as a kid? Now, imagine, as an adult, what it would be like to work there. In this edition of Real Humans – Alumni, Stephanie Sorensen, Chicago Booth Evening MBA ’20, delves into her part-time business school experience and reflects on what helped her become a senior associate at Disney. Stephanie Sorensen, Chicago Booth MBA ’20, Read more
Published: March 9, 2022
Resiliency and Momentum Are the Themes of the 2021 Texas McCombs MBA Employment Report
The employment report for the MBA Class of 2021 at the Texas McCombs School of Business shows a successful post-pandemic year.  In 2020, 88% of graduates seeking employment received a job offer three months after graduation, and 85.6% had accepted. This year, those numbers jumped to 94.3% receiving offers and 93% accepting at the three-month post-graduation mark. The median salary for the class is $130,000, up from $125,000 last year. “Thanks to the support of our extensive employer and alumni network, our world-class faculty, industry experts, and our talented career consultants, we had Read more
Published: March 9, 2022
Real Humans of McKinsey & Company: Cortne Edmonds, NYU Stern MBA ’21, Associate
McKinsey & Company is the oldest and largest of the “Big Three” management consulting firms and they routinely recruit MBAs for associate positions and more. Within this enterprise of 30,000+ employees, what does it mean to “make your own McKinsey?” In this edition of Real Humans – Alumni, Cortne Edmonds, NYU Stern MBA ’21, explains this concept and much more about becoming an Associate at the leading consulting firm. Cortne Edmonds, NYU Stern MBA ’21, Associate at McKinsey & Company Age: 32 Employer & Title: McKinsey & Company, Associate Hometown: New Read more
Published: March 8, 2022
MBA Career Trends: Finance Industry Placements at Top Programs
For many years, MBA graduates have been drawn to careers in the finance industry due to high compensation and the chance to work on high profile deals at an investment bank or invest in the next billion dollar company at a venture capital or private equity firm. In this installment of Top MBA Program Career Placement Outcomes, we take a closer look at the finance industry placement across leading business schools. Key categories include sell-side investment banking jobs, buy-side jobs in investment management, private equity (PE) & venture capital (VC) as well as other finance industry Read more
Published: March 8, 2022
Real Humans of MBA Students: Stanford GSB Class of 2023
Get the inside scoop on MBA life at Stanford GSB in this edition of Real Humans: MBA Students. Out of 7,367 applicants, 426 new students matriculated at Stanford GSB in the fall of 2021. Forty-four percent are women and 47 percent are international, representing 63 countries. Forty-eight percent of U.S. students and permanent residents identify as students of color. A quarter of the class had studied engineering during their undergraduate years. Economics followed at 22 percent. Fifteen percent had majored in business & commerce and the same in social sciences. Another 14 percent earned degrees in Read more
Published: March 7, 2022
Why the MBA Case Method Should Surprise You
Sponsored Content As a former case study researcher and writer at HBS, where I co-authored about 35 cases, I spent a great deal of time working to develop cases that would achieve a lot of outcomes simultaneously. Ideally, the published case would capture a real-world business dilemma in a compelling narrative. It would bring the “characters” in the company to life. And it would challenge students to, independently and collectively, generate an optimal solution to a non-trivial business problem—while allowing diverse perspectives to sharpen and enrich the learning. Developing cases in this way provided many surprises to case researchers Read more
Published: March 7, 2022
How to Decide Between Federal and Private Student Loans
My name is Nikhil Agarwal. I graduated from Harvard Business School in 2020 and have helped thousands of students with more than $500 million of student loans over the last three years through Juno, an organization that negotiates the lowest rates for MBA student loans.  Read on to learn more and decide if federal, private, or a mix of federal and private student loans are the best fit for your MBA student loans.  The TL;DR Version Reasons to Select Federal Loans You are pursuing Read more
Published: March 7, 2022
Choosing Between Fixed and Variable Interest Rate Loans
My name is Nikhil Agarwal. I graduated from Harvard Business School in 2020 and have helped thousands of students with more than $500 million in student loans over the last three years through Juno, an organization that negotiates the lowest interest rates for MBA student loans.  When it comes to private student loans, you usually can choose between fixed interest rates and variable interest rates. Most people choose fixed interest rates and have a negative opinion of variable interest rates. Sometimes, that negative opinion is not justifiable. When Read more
Published: March 7, 2022
Optimal Strategies for MBA Student Loans
My name is Nikhil Agarwal. I graduated from Harvard Business School in 2020 and have helped thousands of students get the best deals on more than $500 million in student loans over the last three years through Juno, a startup that negotiates lower rates for MBA student loans.  When you’re choosing an MBA student loan, you can customize the following: The loan term (generally five to 20 years) The repayment plan (how much you want to pay while you’re in school) The type of Read more
Published: March 7, 2022
A Guide to MBA Student Loans
You’re excited. You just got into your top picks for business school and are deciding which one to attend. One thing you should keep in mind while you’re comparing is how much each school will cost. Here’s a guide to MBA student loans, from start to finish, brought to you by Juno, an organization that helps you navigate student loans for free. Step 1. Analysis What sort of financial aid package did you receive from each school? Do you want to appeal to get more aid? Read more
Published: March 7, 2022
Budgeting for Business School
My name is Nikhil Agarwal. I graduated from Harvard Business School (HBS) in 2020 and have helped thousands of students with more than $500 million in student loans over the last three years through Juno, an organization that negotiates the lowest rates for MBA student loans.  When it comes to attending business school, one of the best ways to minimize your cost is to learn how to budget and manage your money. Read below for considerations when budgeting for business school. Don’t Blindly Follow the Cost of Attendance Read more
Published: March 7, 2022
How Two HBS Students Changed The Student Loan Market
Juno’s Origin As my co-founder and I started at Harvard Business School, we decided the student loan market was absurd. We also knew that we could get lower rates if we negotiated as a large group of MBAs, as opposed to applying for loans by ourselves. So we formed a collective bargaining group and successfully managed to get a bank to offer loans with very low interest rates to us and our friends who were attending various MBA programs. Pretty much everyone who heard about the deal took advantage of it.  Read more
Published: March 7, 2022
Real Humans of Microsoft: Nathalia Borges, Duke Fuqua MBA ’21, Product Marketing Manager | Cloud Business
Satya Nadella, current CEO of Microsoft, is credited with turning the culture of Microsoft around, to a “growth mindset.” The tech giant’s mission statement is now, “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” This, among other features of the multinational corporation, drew Duke Fuqua MBA ’21, Nathalia Borges, to pursue her internship and post-MBA job there. In this edition of Real Humans – Alumni, Nathalia shares how the Team Fuqua b-school experience prepared her to become a product marketing manager at Microsoft, insights into her summer internship there and more. Nathalia Read more
Published: March 7, 2022
Episode 220: Taking a Serious Look at the Online MBA
Most of our regular listeners know our podcast tends to devote 99% of recorded time to traditional, full-time, in-person MBA offerings, but several factors have combined to merit some serious discussion of online offerings. Those factors are: Technology The caliber of institutions increasingly active in this space The pandemic’s ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ doctrine Special guest Dr. Carolyn Goerner joins host Graham Richmond to discuss the online MBA landscape. Dr. Goerner, the Aldi, Inc. Distinguished I-Core Clinical Professor at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business in Bloomington, Indiana, teaches in the #1 online MBA program Read more
Published: March 7, 2022
INSEAD’s Limitless Campaign Celebrates Alumnae for International Women’s Day
Today, March 8th, is International Women’s Day. Officially recognized by the United Nations in 1977, this annual celebration is an opportunity to educate the public and mobilize political will and resources toward addressing women’s issues worldwide. On International Women’s Day, we recognize women’s achievements, honor the growing women’s movement, and support women’s rights and equity in political and economic spheres. INSEAD’s Limitless campaign celebrates women whose strength and determination have driven them to innovate. For 2022, the campaign theme is #BreakTheBias, raising awareness and taking action for equality. These six INSEAD alumnae are leaders in Read more
Published: March 6, 2022
MBA Career Trends: Employment Outcomes at Top Programs
Since one of the benefits of going to business school is to help young professionals advance in their career, many MBA applicants (and current MBA students) are interested in seeing the employment outcomes for recent graduates. In response, business schools survey their MBA graduates and issue employment reports which highlight successful MBA job placement outcomes by region, industry and function. It is important to keep in mind that a lot of the information prominently displayed in the MBA employment reports is gathered from the subset of Read more
Published: March 6, 2022
Wire Taps 219—West African candidate and 700 GMAT, Test waiver for Round 3, Johnson Park Fellowship versus Columbia
In this episode of WireTaps, Graham and Alex discussed this week’s forthcoming release of admissions decisions for CMU / Tepper and INSEAD. Your hosts also highlighted our new content series: Top MBA Career Placement Outcomes. Two pieces published last week revealed interesting insights regarding regional placement within the U.S.. Graham and Alex then shifted gears to talk about two Real Humans Alumni pieces which focused on making the move from Northwestern / Kellogg to Google and from and Georgetown / McDonough to BCG. Graham also mentioned the recently published career report for USC / Read more
Published: March 3, 2022
Real Humans of Apple: Jon-Matt Hopkins, CBS ’20, New Product Launch Manager
How long have you waited in line for the new iPhone? How many Apple products are helping you run your life seamlessly? In this edition of Real Humans – Alumni, we hear from an MBA alum making sure these products reach you. Jon-Matt Hopkins, Columbia Business School MBA ’20, tells us about his business school experiences that helped him become a New Product Launch Manager at Apple. Jon-Matt Hopkins, CBS MBA ’20, New Product Launch Manager at Apple Age: 31 Hometown: Morristown, New Jersey Read more
Published: March 2, 2022
Real Humans of BCG: Steve Neumann, Georgetown McDonough MBA’ 2019, Project Leader
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)—one of the Big Three of the top consulting firms known as MBB—has offices in 50 countries, and therefore no shortage of opportunities to pursue a diverse and lively profession. In this Real Humans – Alumni, we meet Steve Neumann, Georgetown McDonough MBA ’19, who talks about setting his sights on joining BCG and how McDonough empowered him to do so. Steve Neumann, Georgetown McDonough MBA ’19, Project Leader at BCG Age: 30 Hometown: Newtown, Pennsylvania Undergraduate Institution and Major: Georgetown University — Marketing major Read more
Published: March 1, 2022
MBA Career Trends: U.S. Regional Employment Outcomes
In this edition of our Top MBA Program Career Placement Outcomes series, we take a closer look at trends regarding which U.S. regions dominated post-MBA employment for Class of 2021 MBA graduates. You can also review our first piece, which broke down schools by region and their regional placement. For our analysis, we used the statistics in the official employment reports from 27 full-time MBA programs* based in the United States. In particular, we focused on MBA graduates of these 27 MBA programs who are seeking employment, received Read more

MBA Applywire

5
June 30, 2026 11:10am ET
Applying: Columbia Business School, Cornell / Johnson, Dartmouth / Tuck, NYU Stern, UVA / Darden
Intake Year: 2027
Pre-MBA Career: Defense Industry as a Engineer
Post MBA Career: Consulting, Undecided
GMAT: 675
GPA: 3.44
Years of Work Experience: 3
Location: New Jersey
Post MBA Location: NYC
Notes:

Chemical Engineering Bachelors and Masters (3.44 and 3.88 respectively)

Currently mentoring entry level engineers as well.

Worried about transition from a more engineering field to consulting and how the masters impacts admission odds
21
June 29, 2026 11:59am ET
Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Cambridge / Judge, Carnegie Mellon / Tepper, Chicago Booth, Columbia Business School, Cornell / Johnson, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, ESADE, Harvard Business School, HEC Paris, IESE, INSEAD, London Business School, Michigan / Ross, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, Penn / Wharton, Stanford GSB, UVA / Darden, Yale SOM
Intake Year: 2027
Pre-MBA Career: Quant/ Software Engineer at top Investment Bank
Post MBA Career: Blackstone, Jefferies Group, Goldman Sachs, Management Consulting, Technology, Adobe, Amazon, Apple, Facebook/Meta, Google, Microsoft, Uber, Private Equity, Nomura, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Barclays, Investment Banking, Finance, McKinsey, Kearney, BCG, Bain, Consulting
GRE: 322
GPA: 7.45
Years of Work Experience: 3
Location: India
Post MBA Location: US, UK, Middle-East
Notes:

Background:
24F, Indian
GPA - 7.5 from a Tier 1 Indian college

Participated in CBSE Swimming nationals, and won medals in relay

Took part in badminton clusters

Was part of the prefectorial body in which we welcomed delegates from all around the world

Took part in a NASA program wherein we visited the Johnson Space Centre in Houston

College:

Not good GPA but can defend it

Part of college badminton team and won many laureates

Got bronze in an inter-collegiate tournament as the women’s badminton team captain. And created history as this wasn’t achieved before by any woman’s badminton team

Was the sportswoman of the year for my college

Was part of the incubation center management team of the college. Was part of the strategic relations team (where we almost got Steve Wozniak to deliver a speech) and was the event management team lead

Work Experience:

3yrs Software eng/ quant experience in a top investment bank (front office and back office Eng roles)

Got a promotion

Lead a 2months intern project

What are my chances for the above colleges for a MBA and can I expect any scholarship?

Should I retake the test? Planning to apply in R1
3
June 27, 2026 6:22am ET
Applying: Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Stanford GSB
Intake Year: 2027
Pre-MBA Career: 2x Founder & Management Consulting
Post MBA Career: Consulting, Finance, Management Consulting, Technology
GRE: 301
GPA: 2.93
Years of Work Experience: 6
Location: Dubai
Post MBA Location: USA
Notes:

Two-time founder (marketing agency during undergrad, then a fintech post-graduation), ex-Kearney consulting, currently on the founding team of a boutique financial consulting firm. Based in Pakistan, 29. Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. Undergrad from LUMS (top business school in Pakistan) with a 2.91 GPA, which I know is my main weakness.
Targeting HBS, Stanford, and MIT Sloan for R1. I'm aware these are reaches given my GPA. GRE is in progress, currently retaking to push into the 315 to 320 range with a strong quant score to offset the academic profile.
Post-MBA goal is to scale into senior operating or founder roles in fintech and financial services, building on my consulting and startup background.
6
June 24, 2026 12:12pm ET
Applying: Emory / Goizueta, Georgetown / McDonough, Georgia / Terry, UNC Kenan-Flagler, UVA / Darden, Yale SOM
Intake Year: 2027
Pre-MBA Career: United States Marine Corps Logistics Officer
Post MBA Career: Consulting, Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte, McKinsey, Other Industries
GPA: 3.23
Years of Work Experience: 5
Location: North Carolina
Post MBA Location: Virginia/North Carolina
Notes:

GMAT/GRE waiver, realistically what are my chances? I have 4 major exercises and 1 deployment. The reason for the waiver is time constraints as I am currently deployed.
2
June 22, 2026 9:40pm ET
Applying: HKUST, Nanyang
Intake Year: 2027
Pre-MBA Career: Healthcare
Post MBA Career: Health Care
GMAT: 620
GPA: 7.0
Years of Work Experience: 4
Location: India
Post MBA Location: Europe
Notes:

I'm a dentist from India exploring international MBA programs and would appreciate some advice from people who have either gone through a similar transition or have experience with MBA admissions and outcomes.

My long-term goal is to move into the healthcare/healthtech ecosystem, potentially in areas such as healthcare consulting, product management, healthcare strategy, or healthtech startups. I am particularly interested in leveraging my clinical background rather than moving into a completely unrelated field.

I'm currently evaluating MBA programs in Europe and Asia (Singapore, Japan, HongKong)

For context, I have a GMAT Focus score of 575 with 4 years of work ex within the clinical and corporate side of the healthcare sector
View or Submit Entries

MBA LiveWire

July 3, 2026 9:48am ET
Accepted from Waitlist to Duke / Fuqua
Round: Round 2
Received via phone on June 04, 2026
Standardized Test: GRE
GPA: 3.74
GRE: 310
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career: Other Industries
Target Career: Other
Application Location: United States, New York
Juno Member: Not yet
July 2, 2026 11:03pm ET
Interview Invite to Columbia Business School
Round: Round 1
Received via email July 2, 2026
Standardized Test: GMAT
GPA: 2.7
GMAT: 720
Program Type: January Intake
Post MBA Career: Finance, Investment Banking
Application Location: USA
Juno Member: Not yet
July 1, 2026 9:05pm ET
Accepted to Penn / Wharton
Round: Early Decision
Received via portal July 1, 2026
Standardized Test: GMAT
GMAT: 735
Program Type: Deferred Enrollment
Juno Member: Not yet
June 29, 2026 7:40pm ET
Interview Invite to Columbia Business School
Round: Round 1
Received via email June 29, 2026
Standardized Test: Executive Assessment (EA)
EA: 162
Program Type: January Intake
Juno Member: Not yet
June 29, 2026 1:39pm ET
Rejected from Waitlist at Columbia Business School
Round: Round 2
Received via portal June 29, 2026
Standardized Test: GRE
GPA: 3.21
GRE: 339
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career: Finance, Investment Banking
Application Location: Vienna
Juno Member: Not yet
View or Submit Entries
Live
Wire