Jeanette Brown
Admissions Director Q&A: Shari Hubert of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business
Anyone anxiously awaiting an interview invitation from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business? Well, we can’t make them roll out any sooner—but we can offer you something you should read while you wait. Shari Hubert, who had been in charge of admissions at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business since 2013, choose to move south last fall to North Carolina to lead admissions at Fuqua. “Shari stood out in an incredibly talented and competitive pool of candidates,” Russ Morgan, Fuqua senior associate dean for full-time programs, said announcing her hiring. “Shari is a terrific fit within our culture. She is a demonstrated collaborative... Read more »
Skype or Video MBA Admissions Interview in Your Future? Catch Today’s Podcast RePLAY
MBA interview season continues to chug along here in Round 1—with applicants to MIT Sloan School of Management and Duke’s Fuqua School among those hoping to receive invitations to interview this week. Already this fall we have aired several new episodes of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast that drill down specifically into MBA interview etiquette, content, format, and protocol. One recent episode examined the five most common interview questions MBA applicants report being asked—along with how to ace them. Another took seven of the hardest MBA interview questions applicants report having to answer—unpacking the questions to understand what makes... Read more »
Stanford GSB Financial Aid System Overhauled: New System Based Solely on Need
Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) will implement a new financial aid system next month that allocates fellowships and loans to incoming MBA students using a formula based solely on financial need, the school announced today. This will formalize the transitional system the school has used for the past year—ever since a data breach last fall caused its prior approach to financial aid to come under close scrutiny. Today’s decision resulted from an exhaustive review and redesign of the school’s historical practices surrounding financial aid and drew on input from faculty, students, staff, alumni, and outside advisors, the school said.... Read more »
Understanding the MBA Admissions Interview – Part II
This is the second in a four-part series on the MBA admissions interview that we produced last season, and are releasing again for this season. In case you missed it, view Part I here. Okay—now that you’re clear on open interviews and interviews by invitation, let’s get into some of the finer points. What’s this about blind versus non-blind interviews, you ask? Some schools believe strongly in the notion of blind interviews, which means that your interviewer will know nothing about you in advance of the interview other than what appears on the résumé you give them. Schools that fall firmly into this... Read more »
Who Is Your MBA Interviewer? A Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast Replay
Round 1 applicants continue to receive invitations to interview. But depending on the school, the person who serves as your MBA interviewer could vary. Today alone, there have been MBA LiveWire reports of invitations to interview at Chicago Booth, INSEAD, UCLA Anderson, UT McCombs, and Cornell’s Johnson School, among others. If you suddenly find yourself in the throes of preparing for an interview, take a moment to revisit one of our earliest MBA Admissions Podcasts. Episode 2, which aired last spring, takes a closer look at who does the interviewing at different MBA programs and how to prepare accordingly. Take a listen below.... Read more »
HBS Admissions Director Chad Losee Dishes on the MBA Interview, Essays, Financial Aid, and More
Are you anxiously awaiting an interview for Harvard Business School (HBS)? I’m going to let you in on a secret. Chad Losee—who leads admissions for HBS and conducts a portion of the interviews with applicants himself—is nervous, too. For real. He told me as much in our latest Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. Losee, for those who haven’t been following MBA admissions or HBS for long, is a bit of a special case. Not only does he now lead admissions for one of the most selective business schools in the world, he was a student at that school himself a... Read more »
Nobel Prize in Economics Awarded to Professors at NYU Stern & Yale SOM
Faculty define a business school. Their research, teaching, mentorship, and influence have tremendous impact on the experience students have while there and often the careers they pursue once they graduate. From the curriculum they shape to the initiatives and centers they help run, faculty are vital. And it certainly never hurts when those faculty are also Nobel Prize winners. This year, professors at two leading business schools were recognized with the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences: Paul Romer at NYU Stern School of Business and William Nordhaus of Yale School of Management (SOM). Nobel Prize in Economics At first glance,... Read more »
Understanding the MBA Admissions Interview – Part I
With Harvard Business School (HBS) issuing its Round 1 interview invitations two weeks ago, the MBA admissions world is buzzing about one thing: INTERVIEWS. HBS, of course, is not alone. At Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, which features applicant-initiated interviews, hopeful candidates have been traipsing back and forth to Hanover already for several weeks. With so much interview anxiety in the air—and knowing that it only stands to build from here—we’ve decided to devote this week at Clear Admit to all things interview, introducing a series we ran during the last two admissions cycles. We’re getting the ball rolling with the first part of... Read more »
MBA Interview Formats: A Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast Replay
It’s interview season for Round 1 applicants, and MBA LiveWire has already been lighting up with reports of interview invitations from Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, CMU’s Tepper School of Business, Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and Yale School of Management, with many more to come. We’ll have some brand-new, interview-focused podcast episodes as part of our Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast Series in upcoming weeks. But we also want to invite you to revisit our very first episode, which debuted last spring and discusses the range of MBA interview formats used by different business schools and how best... Read more »
Has the MBA Lost Its Luster? GMAC Application Trends Survey Sheds Some Light
Declining application volume at U.S. business schools made the headlines when the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) released the findings of its annual application trends survey earlier this week (10/1). “Applications Down at 70 Percent of U.S. MBA Programs—Including Harvard,” broadcast one news outlet. And it’s true. The GMAC data reveal that just 32 percent of U.S. programs reported growth as compared to last year. Overall, U.S. business schools experienced a nearly 7 percent decline, with domestic applications down 1.8 percent and international volume off by 10.5 percent. Growth in Other Markets Offsets U.S. Decline “Demand for graduate management education... Read more »
New Dean Will Lead Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
Economist and labor market scholar Kevin F. Hallock has been appointed dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business beginning December 15th, Provost Michael Kotlikoff announced yesterday afternoon. The Cornell College of Business, formed in early 2016, integrates the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, the School of Hotel Administration, and the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. An experienced administrator, Hallock has served as dean and professor in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) since 2015. His new term as dean of the College of Business was approved by the Cornell Board of Trustees executive... Read more »
Podcast Episode 21: Admissions Director Q&A with Cornell Johnson’s Judi Byers
We got to catch up with Judi Byers, executive director of admissions and financial aid at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, earlier this year for an in-depth interview on the admissions process she oversees. Today, we’re delighted to share a recording of that conversation as the latest episode in the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast series. Judi Byers, Cornell Johnson executive director of admissions and financial aid Byers joined the Johnson admissions team in January 2015 from American University’s Kogod School of Business, where she began her admissions career following her own undergraduate studies. By the time she left... Read more »
Tuck Reports Application Volume Uptick, More International Students, Record-Setting Women in Class of 2020
Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business today became the latest in a string of business schools to share statistics for its incoming Class of 2020, but its headline news comes in contrast to reports from almost every other peer in the United States. At Tuck, application volume was up year over year with 2,621 applications received. It’s a mere 0.4 percent uptick, but it’s an uptick nonetheless in a year when numerous schools have seen double-digit declines. The Class of 2020 is also more diverse internationally, again bucking the trend among U.S. schools, most of which struggled in particular with international... Read more »
Applications Down 4.5 Percent at HBS, But Applicant Quality Remains High
The release of the Harvard Business School (HBS) Class of 2020 profile statistics last week revealed that the Boston school—like many of its U.S. peers—saw a decrease in overall application volume, but median GMAT score and GPA remained unchanged from the prior year at 730 and 3.71 respectively. The admit rate, 11 percent, was also unchanged year over year. So though he was working from a smaller pool of 9,886 applicants (down from 10,351 last year), Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Chad Losee did not sacrifice on quality. HBS is one of many leading U.S. business schools to... Read more »
Podcast Episode 20: Should You Apply in Round 1 or Round 2?
In the MBA admissions world, this week holds some of the first application deadlines for candidates looking to apply to business school for the 2019-20 academic year. Completed applications for early action at IESE were due in by Tuesday, Harvard Business School (HBS) Round 1 applications were due yesterday, and the deadline for the new Early Action round at UVA’s Darden School is tomorrow. Applications for the earliest rounds at Oxford’s Saïd Business School and Cambridge’s Judge Business School are also due tomorrow. Things are officially heating up. Maybe HBS’s noon Round 1 deadline yesterday passed you by? Maybe you... Read more »
Don’t Miss Clear Admit’s MBA VisitWire: New Business School Campus Visit Archive
It’s here! Clear Admit’s newest applicant resource, MBA VisitWire. The latest in our family of community-sourced MBA admissions tools, VisitWire is designed to help MBA candidates learn more about their target schools by reading about the campus visit experiences of others. We’ve been in beta testing all summer and are excited to announce that we’re now officially live. You can access VisitWire here or via the navigation bar button above. Our thanks to early users who helped us refine the tool by sharing tips for fellow applicants planning visits. Resource for Those Planning Visits—and for Those Who Can’t Visit Like... Read more »
Podcast Episode 19: 10 Tips for Tackling the MBA Written Application
With Round 1 deadlines looming, we know many of you are hard at work crafting essays, filling out data forms, and perfecting your resumes. Before you do anything else, check out the latest episode in the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast series, which tackles the written components of the MBA application head on. Clear Admit’s Alex Brown Our guest this week is Clear Admit’s own Alex Brown, who worked for several years as part of the admissions team at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He’s also the author of Becoming a Clear Admit: The Definitive Guide to MBA Admissions. In... Read more »
Renowned Wharton Economist, Berkeley Alumna Ann Harrison Named New Haas Dean
Ann Harrison named new Haas dean Ann Harrison, a renowned economist and member of the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, has been named the next dean of the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, the California school announced today. Harrison earned her undergraduate degree from Berkeley and served as a professor in Berkeley’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics from 2001 to 2011. “Professor Harrison is an accomplished administrator as well as a world-class economist who has dedicated her career to creating forward-looking policies in development economics, international trade, and global labor markets,” Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ... Read more »
Adcom Director Demystifies New Tuck Application Essays
Amid extensive international and domestic recruitment travel, Luke Anthony Peña—who leads admissions at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business—found some rare downtime to devote an August post on the Tuck360: MBA Blog to the school’s new essay prompts. The new essays are part of an overhaul of Tuck’s admissions criteria designed to streamline and simplify the process. The topic of the new essays has come up a lot as part of recent admissions events for prospective applicants across Asia and North America, Peña said. “There’s lots of advice and guidance for our revised essays popping up all over the web, so... Read more »
Podcast Episode 18: London Business School Admissions Director Q&A
This week we’ve got two new voices joining us on the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast, Gareth Howells and David Simpson of London Business School. Howells is executive director for the MBA and Master in Finance (MiF) programs at LBS, and Simpson heads up admissions for both. Not only that, both men have been with LBS for more than two decades. In our exclusive interview, the two share how LBS is a dynamic enough place to keep things interesting for them both for more than 20 years. More than anything else, it’s the incredible array of applicants and students they... Read more »
