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Published: November 7, 2018
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 Read more
Published: November 5, 2018
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 Read more
Published: November 4, 2018
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, Read more
Published: October 16, 2018
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 Read more
Published: October 15, 2018
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 Read more
Published: October 14, 2018
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 Read more
Published: October 14, 2018
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 Read more
Published: October 8, 2018
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 Read more
Published: October 3, 2018
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 Read more
Published: October 2, 2018
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 Read more
Published: September 26, 2018
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 Read more
Published: September 10, 2018
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 Read more
Published: September 10, 2018
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. Read more
Published: September 5, 2018
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 Read more
Published: August 28, 2018
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 Read more
Published: August 22, 2018
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 Read more
Published: August 22, 2018
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 Read more
Published: August 20, 2018
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 Read more
Published: August 6, 2018
Kellogg School of Management MBA Class of 2020: 46 Percent Women, 27 Percent U.S. Minorities
Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management announced today that women will make up 46 percent of the incoming two-year, full-time MBA Class of 2020. That’s a four-percentage point jump over last year and a record high for the school. U.S. minorities are also up—comprising 27 percent of this year’s first-year students, as compared to 25 percent last year. Meanwhile, average GMAT (732) and GPA (3.6) were identical to last year. Class size also remained constant at 478. “I am very, very thrilled with the diversity of the class,” Melissa Rapp, Kellogg director of admissions for full-time MBA and Read more
Published: August 6, 2018
Podcast Episode 17: Q&A with Tuck Admissions Director Luke Anthony Peña, Part II
We are thrilled to bring you Part II of our wide-ranging interview with Luke Anthony Peña, executive director of admissions and financial aid, on the admissions process at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. In Episode 16, Peña shared about his transition to Tuck from Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB). He also talked in great detail about Tuck’s recently revamped admissions process, including several shifts designed to make it more transparent and applicant friendly. Without further ado, we’re pleased to now present you with Part II of our interview with Peña, including valuable insights into Read more
Published: August 1, 2018
Is a Non-Traditional MBA Summer Internship Right for You? Why It Was for These Recent Stanford MBA Grads
Several recent graduates from Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) decided to pursue unusual summer internships between their first and second years of business school, and we’re thrilled to continue spotlighting them here. Whether you’re gearing up to start your first year or still contemplating applying, their stories reveal the wide range of opportunities your own internship recruiting process could include. In our earlier story—Break the Rules with Your Summer Internship­­­—a few recent Stanford MBA grads reflected on the non-traditional summer internships they chose, why they chose them, and what they learned. Jenny Molyneaux, MBA ’18, Read more
Published: July 25, 2018
The Inside Scoop on Cornell Johnson’s New “Back of the Resume” Essay
If you’re considering Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Business or have already begun thinking about crafting your application, you may already know that the school has swapped out one of its long-standing essay prompts in favor of something new. The 2018-19 Johnson MBA application is slated to go live on August 1st. For years, applicants to Johnson have been invited to imagine themselves as the author of their Life Story and submit a corresponding Table of Contents. “The ToC was a beloved essay prompt that predates my time joining the team back in 2015,” Read more
Published: July 24, 2018
Our Latest Podcast: Admissions Director Q&A With Tuck’s Luke Anthony Peña, Part I
In this wide-ranging interview on the admissions process at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, Luke Anthony Peña shares a little about his transition to Tuck from Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB). Peña came to Tuck just over a year ago, after working for several years in admissions at Stanford, where he also obtained his own MBA. With Tuck’s application for the Class of 2021 live as of this morning, Peña’s interview comes at just the right time, providing valuable insight into the school, its culture, and its recently revamped admissions process. For one, he Read more
Published: July 16, 2018
HBS Adcom Director Launches Application Tips Blog Series
Clear Admit had the pleasure of sitting down with Harvard Business School (HBS) Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Chad Losee a few weeks ago when we were in Boston for the annual Graduate Management Admission Council conference. Losee shared then his plans to launch an Application Tips series on his blog. True to his word, he kicked things off earlier this month. HBS Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Chad Losee “When July hits, I know from personal experience that applying starts to feel ‘real’ when you are planning to apply to HBS in Round Read more
Published: July 2, 2018
Our Latest Podcast: Admissions Director Q&A with MIT Sloan’s Dawna Levenson
After a brief hiatus, we are delighted to resume the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast series with a terrific interview with Dawna Levenson, who was just promoted to assistant dean of admissions at MIT Sloan School of Management. Describing herself as a “true, blue Bostonian,” Levenson holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT. (Her advanced degree is not an MBA, but that’s only because the school didn’t yet offer one when she was a student.) She has worked full time in admissions at Sloan for the past six years and read applications on a part-time Read more

MBA Livewire

October 16, 2026 1:28am ET
Waitlisted at NYU Stern
Round: Round 1
Received via email on October 14, 2026
Standardized Test: I haven't taken any of the standardized tests yet.
GPA: 3.51
Program Type: One Year Program
Post MBA Career: Health Care, Medical Devices, Technology, Other
Application Location: United Kingdom
Juno Member: Not yet
October 16, 2026 12:02am ET
Interview Invite to Columbia Business School
Round: Round 1
Received via email October 16, 2026
Standardized Test: GMAT
GPA: 3.5
GMAT: 695
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career: Consulting
Application Location: India, GURGAON
Juno Member: Not yet
October 15, 2026 6:56pm ET
Applied to Chicago Booth
Round: Round 1
Received via portal
Standardized Test: GRE
GPA: 3.47
GRE: 319
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career: Consulting, Bain, BCG, McKinsey
Application Location: Denver
Note:

Military
Juno Member: Not yet
October 15, 2026 6:50pm ET
Interview Invite to Dartmouth / Tuck
Round: Round 1
Received via email on September 20, 2026
Standardized Test: GRE
GPA: 3.47
GRE: 319
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career: Other Industries
Application Location: Denver
Note:

Military
Juno Member: Not yet
October 15, 2026 6:32pm ET
Accepted to Duke / Fuqua
Round: Early Decision
Received via phone October 15, 2026
Standardized Test: Executive Assessment (EA)
GPA: 3.96
EA: 148
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Juno Member: Not yet
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