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Published: March 12, 2018
March Madness Begins: Consortium MBA Draft Takes Place Today
No, it has nothing to do with basketball. A draft of another sort will take place today, but for some MBA applicants it could be as big as getting signed with the Golden State Warriors. We’re talking about the annual draft for the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. Each year, the group’s member business schools offer tens of millions of dollars in fellowships to hundreds of MBA applicants, most under-represented minorities. Clear Admit’s DecisionWeek is brought to you by HBX. HBX brings the dynamism of the Harvard Business School classroom to online learning—preparing participants for the Read more
Published: March 11, 2018
Ross MBA Adcom Bullish on Class of 2020—And Round 2 Decisions Aren’t Even Out Yet!
It’s a good week at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. In a March 9th post to the Ross MBA Admissions Blog, Soojin Kwon, managing director of full-time admissions and program, shared her excitement about the Round 1 applicants who have paid their deposits and said they’ll be heading to Ann Arbor next fall. The details she shared about the earliest members of the Ross MBA Class of 2020 suggest that diversity is the word that defines them. In addition to a professional hockey player in the NHL, a Ghanaian who leads commercial programs for GE, a Read more
Published: March 11, 2018
Getting to Know John Gilligan: The New Director of the Oxford Saïd Finance Lab
Are you looking to dive deep into finance during your MBA program and seeking opportunities to interact with banking firms, funds, and industry leaders? That’s precisely the theory behind the Finance Lab at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. Read more
Published: March 7, 2018
How MBA Rankings Can Provide Value To MBA Candidates
U.S. News will release their MBA Rankings for 2019 on Tuesday, March 20, 2018. For those of you currently navigating the admissions process, we thought it would be timely to look at rankings and the value they provide for MBA candidates.  So how can b-school applicants use rankings to discover the “best” schools—for them?  Read on for 5 key tips… U.S. News is one of many organizations that rank top MBA Programs, the list also includes BusinessWeek, the Financial Times and the Economist. However, because business schools receive different rankings depending on the sources’ criteria, it can be difficult to understand Read more
Published: March 7, 2018
Is Tuck the Best Business School for Studying Emerging Markets?
As stateside opportunities wax and wane, MBA students at U.S. business schools have become increasingly interested in emerging markets in developing countries around the globe. Though they can present greater risks, there are career opportunities unique to these often overlooked economies that appeal to many sides of the MBA in training—particularly the part that longs to get in on the ground floor of the next big thing. Read more
Published: March 7, 2018
Yale SOM Dean Says His Dean Days Are Numbered
Yale School of Management (SOM) Dean Edward A. Snyder, currently on sabbatical, announced this week that he will continue as dean for the 2018-2019 year but return to full-time teaching and research on July 1, 2019. It will be a big change for the long-serving dean—who has led Yale SOM since 2011 and before that also held deanships at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and UVA's Darden School of Business—and it was not a decision he made lightly.  Read more
Published: March 7, 2018
MBA News You Need: The Gender Pay Gap Post-MBA, Kellogg Professor Talks NRA Boycott, Case Centre Award Winners Announced, and More
Each week we collect all the MBA news that’s fit to print to give you a quick overview of the latest trending topics from top schools around the world. Here’s your quick MBA News You Need digest for the week of March 8, 2018. Research Finds a Wider Gender Pay Gap Post-MBA Could the gender pay gap widen after an MBA? According to research by the Financial Times, women earn on average 9 percent less than men before an MBA and 14 percent less post-MBA. But the good news is that awareness of the gender pay gap is growing, and Read more
Published: March 6, 2018
Clear Admit Launches New MBA Admissions Podcast Series
We are excited to announce the debut of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast, where we’ll bring you frequent insights into how prospective MBA applicants can navigate the competitive application process. We’ll also discuss trends within graduate management education, student life on campus, post-MBA career options, and more. We will speak to admissions directors, industry thought leaders, and prospective and current students about the topics and trends that currently loom large in the MBA world. Clear Admit Co-Founder Graham Richmond, a Wharton alumnus who brings more than 15 years of experience in MBA admissions, will also be a frequent guest. Read more
Published: March 6, 2018
Real Humans of the IESE MBA Class of 2019
Our Real Humans of the MBA Class of 2019 series takes us this week to lovely Barcelona, Spain, where students at IESE Business School have just taken part in “Multi-Culti,” one of the most highly anticipated social events of the year. It’s a half-day shindig that lets the school show off its true international spirit through regional dance, dress, and food from the dozens and dozens of countries and regions its students call home. From all the accounts we heard, it lived up to the hype. The school is also basking in its recent third-place rank among business schools in Europe in the Financial Times 2018 Global MBA Ranking, released in January, up from fifth the year before. And just earlier this week, IESE placed second in Europe in the FT’s just-released Top MBAs for Women ranking, and 14th globally. Read more
Published: March 5, 2018
What the Relaunch of the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Association Could Mean for Haas MBA Students
Entrepreneurship at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley is getting an upgrade. Right now the university is working to rebrand and relaunch the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Association (BEA). While the newly updated BEA isn’t available yet, it’s in the works and will have many exciting announcements over the next weeks and months. We were lucky enough to get an inside look at what’s coming to the BEA in a talk with Luca Cosentino, MBA’19, BEA president and co-chair and the man behind the re-launch. Here’s the inside scoop! Clear Admit: What is the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Read more
Published: March 5, 2018
Financial Times Reveals New Ranking of Top MBAs for Women
For years, there’s been a growing push for women to enter business and business school, and some change has occurred. In 2017, four in 10 applicants to two-year, full-time MBA programs were women, up from 33 percent in 2013 according to the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Unfortunately, that increase in applications has not been reflected within MBA cohorts. Women still only account for a third of the students accepted into the top 100 MBA programs, the same as it was five years ago. And there’s another issue as well: cost. Women, on average, earn around 91 percent of their Read more
Published: March 5, 2018
Our Five Favorite MBA Podcasts Right Now
Many business schools and MBA students have recently begun to produce podcasts, discussing the diverse range of student and graduate experiences as well as current trends and relevant topics in business. These podcasts are unique in that they provide a candid, first-person look at business school from those currently enrolled, allowing for an open platform to discuss business topics outside of the confines of the university. While this is a fairly new trend, there are several different podcasts out there for those who might be interested to learn more. We’ve assembled our five favorite MBA podcasts right now, and we’ll Read more
Published: March 4, 2018
The Skinny on Corporate MBA Fellowship Programs—Could One Be Right for You?
Prospective MBA students looking to join a program at a leading business school have a wealth of opportunities available to them in the form of corporate MBA fellowship programs. These highly competitive fellowships, often geared toward under-represented minorities, are offered by many major corporate recruiters hoping to secure top MBA talent early in their time at business school. Corporate MBA fellowship programs can present a great option for those looking to offset the cost of business school, since many include stipends that cover some or all of awardees’ MBA tuition costs. Corporate MBA fellowship programs also can be an excellent way Read more
Published: March 1, 2018
The Vision Behind the Cornell MBA FinTech Intensive
Fridays from the Frontline Fintech is one of those buzzy, disruptive industries the business world loves to hate and hates to love. But very much unlike their tech brethren—edtech, cleantech, insurtech— the financial services sector, which should by all accounts be shaking in its skivvies about going the way of the Guam flying fox, has strangely begun to embrace fintech innovations like open banking and cryptocurrency. MBA students are taking notice and beginning to flock toward fintech in lieu of more traditional financial services gigs. Enter Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management’s FinTech Intensive, “a cutting-edge Read more
Published: March 1, 2018
Free Webinar: Register Now to Learn How to Fund Your MBA Abroad
Do you have questions about how you can fund your MBA abroad? Sign up for a live online info session with Prodigy Finance in partnership with Clear Admit to learn about how to finance your studies with a Prodigy Finance international student loan. How Will You Fund Your MBA Abroad? Wednesday, March 14, 2018 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Eastern Standard Time Click here to register We’ll cover questions like: How can I pay for my MBA as an international student? How does Prodigy Finance process work? How much can I borrow? What will my rate be? Read more
Published: February 28, 2018
Inside Cornell’s MBA Fintech Intensive
Cornell SC Johnson College of Business' brand new MBA FinTech Intensive is a cutting-edge program with an innovative studio curriculum. Led by Drew Pascarella, a Cornell Johnson lecturer of finance and managing director of Vista Point Advisors, the FinTech Intensive blends hard science and collaborative projects with startups and institutional players in New York for an in-depth learning experience. Read more
Published: February 28, 2018
MBA News You Need: Booth Black Out Day, NFL Players at Ross, Tuck’s Energy Initiatives, and More
Each week we collect all the MBA news that’s fit to print and give you a quick overview of the latest trending topics from top schools around the world. Here’s your quick MBA News You Need digest for the week of March 1, 2018. Read more
Published: February 27, 2018
Berkeley Haas Celebrates 8 Years of Defining Leadership Principles
If you want to get a feel for the culture of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, look no further than its four Defining Leadership Principles (DLPs): Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. Introduced eight years ago, the DLPs have become a part of the fabric of the school. In fact, 75 percent of students from all three MBA programs and the undergraduate program cite them as a major reason they chose to attend. Not only that, 90 percent of Haas alumni surveyed from the past decade report being familiar with them and using them to navigate both their professional and personal lives. Earlier this month, as part of Haas Culture Day, the school celebrated the DLPs' eighth birthday, complete with cupcakes.  Read more
Published: February 26, 2018
HBS Black Business Leaders Series Celebrates Black History Month
To commemorate Black History Month, Harvard Business School (HBS) presented a series of cases, courses, and podcasts highlighting influential black business leaders. Within its MBA curriculum, HBS has also been working to increase the representation of compelling African-American protagonists culled from a wide range of industries in the case studies at the heart of its distinctive case study method.  Read more
Published: February 26, 2018
7 Top Takeaways from Leading Business School 2017 Employment Reports
There’s been a steady stream of salary and employment data from leading business schools over the past several months as one after another has released 2017 employment reports. We’ve shared a lot of it along the way, including special reports on Kellogg, McDonough, NYU Stern, Tuck, and Stanford. With results from nearly every top school now in, prospective MBA students can take heart that the news is pretty universally encouraging. Overall, data gathered about the Class of 2017 reveal growing salaries across all industries Read more
Published: February 25, 2018
Michigan Ross Announces New Need-Based Scholarship
A $4.3 million gift to the University of Michigan Ross School of Business will go toward improving math proficiency. In particular, $1 million of the contribution from alum Mike Jandernoa (BBA ’72) and his wife Sue will be used to establish a new need-based scholarship fund for Michigan Ross undergraduate students. Read more
Published: February 22, 2018
Acing the Wharton TBD: Advice from Former Wharton Admissions Staffers
There’s been a steady stream of bright yellow interview invites to Wharton lighting up Clear Admit’s LiveWire for two weeks running, suggesting that many of you are in the throes of preparing for the school’s unique team-based discussion (TBD). The prompt Wharton used for the TBD with Round 1 applicants in the fall was as follows: “For many students, the global perspective fostered by Wharton’s international community is brought into focus through immersive learning opportunities like Global Modular Courses (GMCs). GMCs are full-credit courses in an intensive workshop format that take place in a location relevant Read more
Published: February 21, 2018
Why You Should Consider Yourself Lucky to Get to Write the MIT Sloan Pre-Interview Essay
Did you get invited to interview at MIT Sloan today? If so, a hearty congratulations. And if not—there’s still hope! Another batch of invites is slated to go out a week from today, on March 1st. In case you don’t know it already, for those of you who did or still might receive an invitation to interview—you’re also going to get to write an additional essay. That’s right. MIT Sloan is unique among top business schools in that it saves an application essay question for only those candidates it invites to interview. Before you groan and say, “Another essay?” you’d do Read more
Published: February 21, 2018
MBA News You Need: Judge Launches LGBTQ Scholarship, Yale SOM Tackles Water Crisis/Hosts Cannabis Conference, New Digs for McCombs MBA Students, and More
Each week we collect all the MBA news that’s fit to print to give you a quick overview of the latest trending topics from top schools around the world. Here’s your quick MBA News You Need digest for the week of Feb 22, 2018.  Read more
Published: February 20, 2018
An MBA Likely to Earn Less After Getting His Degree? Vincent Kompany Doesn’t Mind
When it comes to soccer (err, football) Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany is one of the most widely known center backs in the world. The Belgian international joined City way back in 2006 and went on to lead his club to victory, helping bring the team its first Premier League title in more than four decades in 2012, and then again in 2014. Read more

MBA Applywire

6
September 3, 2026 11:12pm ET
Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Columbia Business School, Duke / Fuqua, Northwestern / Kellogg, UVA / Darden, Yale SOM
Intake Year: 2027
Pre-MBA Career: Analytics Consulting
Post MBA Career: Consulting, Bain, BCG, McKinsey, Management Consulting
GMAT: 725
GPA: 7.38
Years of Work Experience: 4
Location: Hyderabad, India
Notes:

4 YoE at matriculation. T1 Indian engineering college (Mech Eng.). Long term entrepreneurial goal building sports infrastructure and improving access to high quality training facilities and credible pathways to professional leagues. Played football (soccer) extensively through school and college as captain in school. Football community head in Hyderabad with around 60-70 members.
8
September 3, 2026 1:25am ET
Applying: Chicago Booth, Columbia Business School, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, Penn / Wharton, UVA / Darden
Intake Year: 2027
Pre-MBA Career: Medical device sales
Post MBA Career: Finance, Investment Banking
GPA: 3.3
Years of Work Experience: 4
Location: Boston
Post MBA Location: NYC
Notes:

-5 year Division I student athlete
-3x captain
-3.97 masters gpa (business analytics)
-undergrad major is sport management
-4 years at Fortune 500 med tech company (3 different positions)
-started a fund 5 years ago to help families affected by cancer in memory of my mom (plan annual events, present to 200+ people per event, allocate funds to event beneficiaries)
-targeting round 2
-Taking the GRE in Oct

Any advice on a range for a target GRE score and based on my profile do you think the 3.3 will hold me back from those top M7/T15 schools that I plan to apply to?
(I assume to help offset the 3.3, my GRE score will need to be pretty high)
10
September 1, 2026 9:10am ET
Applying: Cornell / Johnson, Duke / Fuqua, Emory / Goizueta, Georgetown / McDonough, Indiana / Kelley, Notre Dame / Mendoza, SMU Cox, UNC Kenan-Flagler, UT Austin / McCombs, Vanderbilt / Owen
Pre-MBA Career: Financial Reporting and Analytics at MUFG for PE Funds
Post MBA Career: Finance, Rothschild & Co, RBC Capital Markets, PJT Partners, Piper Jaffray & Co, Nomura, Morgan Stanley, Moelis & Company, Lazard Freres, Investment Banking, Bank of America Securities, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Centerview Partners, Credit Suisse, Evercore Partners, Greenhill & Co, Guggenheim Partners, Houlihan Lokey Inc, Jefferies Group, JP Morgan, Lincoln International
GMAT: 655
GPA: 3.16
Years of Work Experience: 3
Location: Charlotte, NC
Post MBA Location: Southeast US
4
August 31, 2026 12:35pm ET
Applying: Chicago Booth, Northwestern / Kellogg, Penn / Wharton, Stanford GSB
Intake Year: 2027
Pre-MBA Career: Analytics from Data to Product
Post MBA Career: Marketing, Management Consulting, McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Consulting
GPA: 3.0
Years of Work Experience: 3
Location: New York City
Post MBA Location: NYC, Chicago, West Coast
Notes:

I am thinking of doing Booth and Stanford Full time applications and Kellogg part time and also thinking of doing Booth part time as well since I have a low years of experience in a non consulting role. Knowing all this and my GPA what would an ideal GMAT score look like for me?
4
August 31, 2026 7:39am ET
Applying: Chicago Booth, Columbia Business School, INSEAD, London Business School
Intake Year: 2027
Pre-MBA Career: Consulting (MBB)
Post MBA Career: Consulting
GMAT: 695
GPA: 8.6
Years of Work Experience: 4
Notes:

I’m in knowledge consulting (a bit more specialised than generalist track with lower client exposure - but I’ve been fortunate to work directly with most of my clients)
Currently 4 yoe
I don’t have anything particularly distinct in my profile apart from this
Bachelors in economics
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MBA LiveWire

September 4, 2026 1:34am ET
Applied to Penn / Wharton
Round: Round 1
Received via portal
Standardized Test: GMAT
GPA: 3.91
GMAT: 725
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career: Consulting
Application Location: South Asia
Note:

Application submitted 03 Sep
Juno Member: Not yet
September 3, 2026 11:43am ET
Applied to Columbia Business School
Round: Round 1
Received via portal
Standardized Test: GMAT
GPA: 3.91
GMAT: 725
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career: Consulting
Application Location: South Asia
Note:

Application submitted 02 Sep
Juno Member: Not yet
September 2, 2026 11:14pm ET
Applied to Duke / Fuqua
Round: Early Decision
Received via portal
Standardized Test: GRE
GPA: 3.21
GRE: 320
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career: Consulting, Management Consulting
Juno Member: Not yet
September 1, 2026 12:20pm ET
Accepted to Columbia Business School
Round: Round 2
Received via email on August 30, 2026
Standardized Test: GMAT
GPA: 3.98
GMAT: 655
Program Type: January Intake
Post MBA Career: Manufacturing, Retail
Application Location: Thailand
Note:

Submission 6 Aug, Interview invite 17 Aug, Interview 28 Aug, Acceptance Letter 31 Aug
Juno Member: Yes
August 30, 2026 6:42pm ET
Applied to Dartmouth / Tuck
Round: Round 1
Received via n/a
Standardized Test: GRE
GPA: 3.7
GRE: 310
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Post MBA Career: Agribusiness
Application Location: Washington, DC
Juno Member: Not yet
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