Clear Admit
Top #MBA Tweets of the Week: #ClassOf2018
Summer seems to be heating up and yet winding down, as we follow new MBA students to campus in this Top #MBA Tweets of the Week, a weekly column of notable Twitter posts from the business school community. As prospective MBA students tackle their applications, the Classes of 2018 are continuing to make their ways to their respective b-school campuses. Assistant Dean of Yale School of Management, Bruce Delmonico, captured the “before and after” of orientation: Calm before the storm: @YaleSOM admissions office five days before the start of #MBA orientation. Happy August! pic.twitter.com/gEkS8jmToE — Bruce DelMonico (@bdelmonico) August 10,... Read more »
CMU / Tepper Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Following up on the announcement of this year’s Tepper essay topics for the 2016-2017 admissions season, we wanted to offer some guidance on how to approach these prompts for candidates targeting the Carnegie Mellon University MBA Class of 2019. Letting go of the long time prompt about a defining professional moment, the Tepper adcom this year has opened up the essay to a general introduction. Meanwhile, the optional essay allows candidates to cover any extenuating circumstances, and re-applicants to reflect on their growth. Let’s take a look at each of this year’s Tepper essay prompts: Required Essay Imagine that you... Read more »
Top #MBA Tweets of the Week: #Rio2016 Continued
Welcome to another installment of Top #MBA Tweets of the Week, in which we pull some notable Twitter posts from leading MBA programs; as competition continues in Rio, we’re taking another look at the 2016 Olympics. After all, we cannot help but watch the elite athletes in awe, just like the Dean of Emory / Goizueta: Been staying up much too late to watch the Olympics but it's been worth it. These athletes are inspiring! https://t.co/7csdAE9qdh — Julie Barefoot (@barefootgbs) August 14, 2016 Several programs, including Michigan / Ross, Georgetown / McDonough and UT Austin / McCombs, tipped their hats... Read more »
Notre Dame / Mendoza Essay Topic Analysis
With the release of the 2016-2017 Notre Dame / MendozaMBA essay topics, we wanted to offer some guidance to applicants as they prepare to tackle a potentially challenging prompt. This year, Notre Dame / Mendoza has provided three essay options and applicants are asked to only answer one of them. In the application itself, there is an additional slide presentation and option to explain any areas of concern over one’s candidacy. Before delving into specific approaches to individual prompts, candidates should first consider their greatest achievements or what evidence of leadership and impact they hope to share. This may even... Read more »
London Business School Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Following up on the recent release of the 2016-2017 London Business School essay topics, we wanted to offer some guidance to applicants targeting London Business School this admissions season. LBS has decided to reduce the number of essays it requires from two to one, while retaining an optional essay. Let’s take a closer look at each of this year’s LBS MBA essays: Required Essay What are your post-MBA goals and how will your prior experience and the London Business School programme contribute towards these? (500 words) This is a fairly standard career goals/why MBA essay, asking applicants to specify their post-MBA plans and to... Read more »
Indiana / Kelley Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Following this season’s release of the Indiana / Kelley Essay Topics, we wanted to share our essay topic analysis for the 2016-2017 admissions season. 2016-2017 Indiana Kelley Essay Topic Analysis Let’s take a closer look at each essay: Essay 1 Please discuss your immediate post-MBA professional goals. How will your professional experience, when combined with a Kelley MBA degree, allow you to achieve these goals? Should the short-term goals you have identified not materialize, what alternate career paths might you consider? (500 words) This prompt is a standard career goals essay that touches on one’s career history, the short... Read more »
Oxford Saïd Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Following up on the release of the Oxford MBA essays for 2016-2017, we wanted to offer some pointers to applicants targeting Saïd Business School this admissions season. The Oxford MBA adcom has kept its essays from last year, maintaing the number of required essays at two with a total 750 words. The prompts are both rather open ended, with the first inviting applicants to comment on the ways they fit the school’s larger mission, and inviting them to use the other to share anything not already covered in their data forms. This makes for a somewhat challenging essay set for 2016-2017,... Read more »
UVA Darden Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Following up on the announcement of the UVA Darden essay topic for 2016-2017, we wanted to take a closer look at this season’s prompt for UVA MBA Class of 2019 hopefuls. This is the fourth consecutive year that the Darden essay section has comprised a single 500-word essay asking applicants to recount the specifics of a past experience. Moreover, the nature of that situation is the same as last year. This prompt reflects an ongoing focus on the applicant’s development in the workplace and ability to learn and grow as a professional. Let’s take a closer look at the 2016-2017 UVA Darden essay... Read more »
Yale School of Management Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Following up on the release of the Yale SOM essay topic for 2016-2017, we wanted to offer our advice on how to approach this year’s challenging topic. As was the case last year, Yale MBA hopefuls are required to respond to one 500-word essay, but the Yale adcom has chosen to modify the prompt rather substantially. In his blog post announcing the topic, Admissions Director Bruce DelMonico commented that the Yale MBA adcom developed this “seemingly simple and straightforward question” essay prompt in collaboration with a professor of organizational behavior at SOM. DelMonico shared more thoughts about the essay in our Real Humans of... Read more »
Cambridge / Judge Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Following up on the release of the Cambridge Judge MBA essay prompts for 2016-2017, we wanted to provide some guidance for applicants targeting Cambridge this admissions season. While Cambridge has maintained its request for candidates’ career goals, the adcom has also revived their interest in a spectacular failure. New for this year is an additional short answer with a teamwork focus. Because each Cambridge essay is a relatively short one, applicants must make judicious use of the available space to highlight their industry-specific knowledge, preparation for business studies and general strengths. Let’s take a look at each of this year’s... Read more »
UCLA Anderson Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
With the release of the 2016-2017 UCLA Anderson MBA essays, we wanted to offer some guidance for applicants targeting the University of California, Los Angeles for their business school studies. Anderson MBA essay section is identical to last season’s: first-time applicants are required to respond to one 750-word response and are posed a fairly narrow 250-word optional essay question; meanwhile re-applicants are required to address a separate question detailing improvements in their candidacies. Let’s take a closer look at each of this season’s UCLA Anderson Essay prompt: Required Essay: We believe that the best results are achieved when you share... Read more »
Dartmouth / Tuck Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Update: Tuck recently made changes to their first required essay. Those changes are now reflected below. Now that Tuck has announced the Tuck MBA essay topics for the 2016-2017 admissions season, we wanted to offer our advice to applicants who are targeting that program’s Class of 2019. The format of Tuck’s essays remains the same as last year’s: applicants will respond to two required essays in a maximum of 500 words. While the school maintains a prompt about career goals, the longstanding essay about a meaningful leadership experience has been replaced with more of a focus on diversity. The school... Read more »
Northwestern / Kellogg Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Now that Northwestern has announced the Kellogg essay topics for the 2016-2017 admissions season, we wanted to offer our advice to applicants who are targeting that program’s Class of 2019. The format and content for Kellogg’s essays remains the same as last year’s: applicants will respond to two required essays in a maximum of 450 words with a focus on leadership and growth. Let’s take a closer look at each of the Kellogg MBA essays for 2016-2017: Essay 1: Leadership and teamwork are integral parts of the Kellogg experience. Describe a recent and meaningful time you were a leader. What... Read more »
Duke / Fuqua Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Following up on our announcement of Duke / Fuqua’s application essays for the 2016-2017 admissions season, we wanted to offer our essay topic analysis for the Class of 2019 Fuqua MBA hopefuls. Relative to last year, the Fuqua adcom has maintained their interest in candidates’ goals, personal background and passion about Duke. While the length allowed for each response has stayed the same, Essay 2 has been refined to one prompt, as opposed to a multiple choice last year. Let’s take a closer look at each prompt: Short Answer Questions Instructions: Answer all 3 of the following questions. For each question, respond in... Read more »
INSEAD Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Now that the online application for INSEAD’s September 2017 intake is live — and the INSEAD essay topics for 2016-2017 have been released — we wanted to follow up with some commentary for business school applicants targeting the school this season. INSEAD has maintained four Job Description essays for the application and cut one of the Motivation Essays. Further, the school simply requests a “short answer” rather than specifying a word limit for these responses, giving applicants a fair amount of leeway (and building in a test of the candidate’s judgment) with this portion of the application. In the past,... Read more »
MIT Sloan Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Following up on the release of MIT Sloan’s 2016-2017 application essay prompt, we thought we’d offer some suggestions about how Sloan MBA hopefuls might approach this year’s written materials. The school has maintained one required prompt and its open-ended optional essay for the coming admissions season. However, while having dispensed with last year’s behavior-oriented prompt, MIT Sloan has returned to its past request for a cover letter—last seen in the 2012-2013 admissions season—albeit in a much shorter format. Let’s take a closer look at this year’s MIT Sloan essays: Please submit a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT... Read more »
Clear Admit Releases 2017 School Guides to Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, Wharton and more!
We are excited to announce the first release of the Clear Admit School Guides, updated for 2017! Praised by both admissions officers and applicants, the School Guides profile top business schools in detail, addressing programs from the perspectives of students, faculty, alumni and the popular press. The latest editions of the Chicago Booth, Columbia Business School, Harvard Business School, Northwestern / Kellogg, MIT / Sloan, Stanford GSB, Dartmouth / Tuck, and The Wharton School guides, among a number of other titles in our publication lines, are available for immediate download in our mobile-friendly PDF format, offering the information, convenience and timeliness that busy... Read more »
UT Austin / McCombs Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Following up on our post with the 2016-2017 McCombs Essay Topics, we wanted to offer our analysis of this season’s UT Austin MBA essays. The broad format of these essays is nearly identical to last year’s, with applicants introducing themselves to their cohort via a 250-word essay or video (only losing the about.me option), and commenting on their interest in McCombs and potential contribution to the community in a second required response of 500 words. In a subtle change, the school has streamlined this second response for this admissions season, jumping right into candidates’ goals and cutting the description of the... Read more »
Chicago Booth Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Following up on the release of the University of Chicago Booth MBA essay topics for 2016-2017, we wanted to offer some guidance to applicants as they prepare to tackle this potentially challenging prompt. Similar to last year, the program presents candidates with images that capture life at Booth; applicants are asked to choose one and explain why it resonates with them. As was the case last season, applicants have the option of writing an essay or developing a PowerPoint and PDF response. And, as was the case last season, there is no word, page, or PPT slide limit listed, meaning that... Read more »
NYU Stern Essay Topic Analysis 2016-2017
Now that the NYU Stern MBA essays for the 2016-2017 admissions season have been released, we wanted to follow up with our analysis of this year’s topics. As has been the case for several years running, the Stern essay section comprises two required essays. The first, which focuses on the applicant’s professional goals and interest in the NYU MBA, is unchanged from the past few admissions season. The school’s classic Personal Expression essay also makes another appearance this year. Let’s take a closer look at each of the Stern 2016-2017 MBA essays: Essay 1: Professional Aspirations (750 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point... Read more »
