Weekly Columns

Keep up with the latest school facts and news from your fellow MBA applicants.

Published: March 9, 2017

Fridays from the Frontline: NYU Stern Student Shares a Recruiting Road Less Taken

Are you considering the luxury retail industry after business school? If so, don’t miss this week’s Fridays from the Frontline, which comes to us from NYU Stern School of Business second-year MBA student Nina Dudhale. New Jersey-native Dudhale worked in digital acquisition marketing at American Express OPEN before coming to Stern, where she has chosen to specialize in luxury marketing and finance. Nina Dudhale, Stern MBA ’17 As she shares in the post below, folks at Stern warned her at the get-go that recruiting in the luxury retail space is less structured than industries like consulting or Read more

Published: March 2, 2017

Fridays from the Frontline: HBS Student Offers Advice for Prospective Latino Students

Today’s Fridays from the Frontline contribution comes to us from Karla Mendez, a first-year MBA student at Harvard Business School (HBS). Born in Mexico, Mendez moved to Fresno, California, when she was five with parents who wanted to build a better life for her family. In the thoughtful post below, Mendez shares some of her experiences as a Latina American, including the tension between wanting to maintain a strong connection to her Mexican American roots while not having them define her completely. She also describes the pressure so often felt by immigrants, and sometimes even more so their Read more

Published: February 27, 2017

MBA DecisionWire Spotlight: Chicago Booth, Northwestern / Kellogg or UVA / Darden with Family

The choice of an MBA program can comprise a myriad of factors, as seen in this edition of MBA DecisionWire Spotlight, which highlights the admissions results of students and alumni posted to Clear Admit’s DecisionWire. This week, we take a closer look at a candidate with acceptances to U. Chicago Booth, Northwestern / Kellogg and UVA / Darden. While some feedback was positive and direct... Read more

Published: February 23, 2017

Fridays from the Frontline: A Day in the Life of an INSEAD MBA Student

INSEAD is definitely riding high these days, having topped the Financial Times’ annual ranking of leading global MBA programs for the second year running. Calling itself “the business school for the world,” it features campuses in France, Singapore and Abu Dhabi and more than 90 nationalities represented in its student body. Students complete an accelerated 10-month program, which has helped the school rank especially high in terms of return on investment, since both tuition and the opportunity cost of being out of the workforce is lower for INSEAD students than those in two-year MBA programs. Read more

Published: February 20, 2017

MBA DecisionWire Spotlight: MIT / Sloan or Berkeley / Haas for Technology

As acceptance notifications roll out, many MBA candidates are posting their successes and selections on MBA DecisionWire, a tool for applicants, students and alumni to share their admissions results. In this edition of MBA DecisionWire Spotlight, we take a closer look at a candidate with acceptances to Berkeley / Haas, Duke / Fuqua, MIT / Sloan, and UCLA / Anderson. While the applicant had already pared down the list, he’s still seeking advice to determine where to pursue his MBA: Read more

Published: February 16, 2017

Fridays from the Frontline: MIT Sloan’s Israel Lab

Israel is in the news this week following President Donald Trump’s first official meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which took place on Wednesday. Our Fridays from the Frontline also centers on Israel, but without touching on the incredibly fraught subject of a one- versus two-state solution for the conflict-ridden region. Instead, we focus on a series of fascinating blog posts written by MIT Sloan School of Management students who spent their winter break taking part in MIT Sloan’s Israel Lab. Now in its second year, Israel Lab takes Sloan students on a journey to one Read more

Published: February 14, 2017

MBA DecisionWire Spotlight: Wharton, Columbia, or Booth for Investment Management

MBA DecisionWire is a tool for applicants, students and alumni to share more information with their peers—specifically about where they decide to attend business school based on where they applied and were accepted. In our new series, MBA DecisionWire Spotlight, we’ll be taking a closer look at selected posts. This week, we kick off with one candidate’s decision between Chicago / Booth, Columbia Business School and The Wharton School. Read more

Published: February 9, 2017

Fridays from the Frontline: From Herat to Haas, An Afghan Student’s Journey

Today’s Friday from the Frontline is a bit of a departure from our usual practice of sharing first-person accounts—but the story of Sal Parsa on the Berkeley Haas blog so captivated us that we wanted to make sure the Clear Admit audience didn’t miss it. Below, learn how Parsa went from sewing clothes in a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to serving as president of the Haas Data Science Club while also working to get a career guidance platform startup off the ground. It’s inspiring, to say the least. Our thanks to Haas and Parsa for allowing us to share the story here. Read more

Published: February 2, 2017

Fridays from the Frontline: A Ross Student on How to Act on Climate Change as Business Leaders

How can the business leaders of tomorrow act on climate change? Micaela Battiste, a dual-degree MBA/MS student at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and School Natural Resources and Environment, provides three concrete examples in a recent post on the school’s Student Voices blog. She traveled with a delegation of 10 other Michigan students and faculty to the 2016 United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) in Marrakesh, part of an effort to bring transparency to the COP process. Returning from that conference, Battiste shares that the number of companies committed to taking action against climate change has Read more

Published: January 26, 2017

Fridays from the Frontline: A Haasie Leans In to Increase Ranks of Women in Venture Capital

That women make up only seven percent of partners at the leading 100 venture capital firms wasn’t a deterrent for UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA student Kira Noodleman, it was a challenge. Her self-professed passion for solving “problems that matter” and natural gravitation toward “sink-or-swim” environments led her to a summer internship at Bee Partners, a venture capital firm founded by a fellow Haasie. On the last day of her internship, she was offered a full-time position, which she recently accepted. In the thoughtful post that follows, Noodleman reflects on how Haas’s four “Defining Principles” influenced Read more

Published: January 12, 2017

Fridays from the Frontline: Thai Adventure for MIT Sloan Student

Today’s Fridays from the Frontline comes to us from an Indian-born MIT Sloan School of Management MBA student currently in Thailand. Partha Sharma, now in his second year at Sloan, is taking part in the MIT Sloan Global Entrepreneurship Lab, or G-Lab, an experiential learning opportunity in which students spend three months working remotely from MIT with a host company headquartered elsewhere in the world and then three weeks on site at the company’s offices during their January break from classes. This year, Sloan students are in 13 different countries—Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Read more

Published: January 5, 2017

Fridays from the Frontline: Are You My Alma Mater?

Chicago native Sabrina Lakhani’s pre-MBA career took her—literally and figuratively—all over the map. From Babson College in Boston she headed to a small Connecticut marketing consultancy for a couple of years before volunteering as a full-time project coordinator at a hospital for children in Kabul. From there it was on to East Africa, working first on a network of hospitals and later on a network of schools. She then returned to work for her family’s businesses in Chicago before joining a decision heuristics science‒based marketing firm as director of client services. In choosing an MBA program, she wanted one that Read more

Published: December 22, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Navigating Complex MBA Decision-Making Process

Pierre Girard, a 2016 graduate of the Weekend MBA program at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, shares his tips for the complex decision-making process that can accompany choosing to pursue an MBA. For Girard, a father to two small children who planned to continue working while getting his MBA, a part-time MBA program was the best way to meet all of his goals. And some of his tips—such as hiring a maid if your budget allows it—seem perhaps less geared toward traditional full-time MBA students than others. But at its core, the bulk of Girard’s advice is applicable no matter what kind of MBA degree you’re planning to pursue. The support of your network, setting realistic expectations about your schedule, and knowing how to prioritize are just as critical for full-time, two-year MBA students as they are for full-time employees who are working toward their MBA in the evenings or on the weekends. Read more

Published: December 15, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Five Tips to Make the Most of Your Campus Visit

Perhaps you’re in the extraordinarily fortunate position of needing to choose between multiple schools that have offered you admission in Round 1. Or maybe you are furiously working on your Round 2 applications. Wherever you are in your process, campus visits can play a vital role in choosing where you ultimately decide to enroll. Today’s Friday from the Frontline post—from Natalia Suarez, a second-year MBA student at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business—provides valuable tips for how to make the most of your campus visit. Suarez, who was born in Colombia but raised in New Jersey and Georgia, Read more

Published: December 8, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Unlocking a World of Opportunities as an International MBA Student

Today’s Fridays from the Frontline contribution comes to us from Prerana Manvi, a second-year student at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. A native of India, Manvi shares in detail her experiences as an international MBA student—including the many opportunities her time at Kenan-Flagler has afforded her. For Manvi, success as an international MBA student has hinged on taking full advantage of in-class opportunities, extracurricular activities and real-world experience. Among other things, she has played an active role in student clubs, serving as vice president of international experience for the Consulting Club and president of the MBA Net Impact Club. Read more

Published: December 1, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: How Did I Get Here? The Road from Science to an MBA

Just how did Chilean native Ignacio Cabrera—with an education in molecular biotechnology engineering and bacteriology and work experience first as research scientist at BioAmber and later as a microbial applications scientist at Kerry Inc.—find his way into an MBA program at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business? Lucky for us, he candidly shared his journey—including the fact that making the choice to leave his scientific career for business school was far from easy—as part of a recent blog post on the Tuck 360 MBA blog. Luckier still, he’s given permission for that blog post to be republished here for all the Clear Admit audience to read. Read more

Published: November 17, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Harvard MBA on the Politics of Free Speech

As President-elect Donald Trump begins to establish his cabinet, many are still processing the outcome of the U.S. election earlier this month. At Harvard Business School (HBS), second-year MBA student Preeya Sud, who serves as editor-in-chief of the school's newspaper the Harbus, sought out reaction from her classmates in the days immediately following the election, only to find that few students were comfortable signing their names to their political views, regardless of what those views were. Instead, the Harbus invited students to express their reactions anonymously. Read more

Published: November 10, 2016

Friday from the Frontlines: #MBAsOpenUp at Goizueta

In the wake of an extraordinarily contentious American presidential election with a result that stunned many both within the United States and around the world, much remains uncertain. This much, though, is clear: The election of Donald Trump to serve as its 45th president has revealed the United States as a deeply divided society and underscored the vital importance of dialogue to reach a point of understanding and a path toward a future that supports and protects the rights of all the country’s citizens. Read more

Published: November 3, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: The Supply Chain Master in Your Kitchen

Most MBA students head to business school expecting to learn about management from professors, peers, class discussions, team projects and text books. Which, of course, they do. But the management lessons don’t stop there. Sagar Doshi, an MBA student at the University of Oxford’s Saïd School of Business, has been writing about his experiences on campus in a series of blog posts on the Oxford Saïd MBA Blog. “I'm in a short, one-year MBA program, and one of my goals has been to get to know the people and community around me as much as possible,” he tells us. This desire has prompted his posts, many of which focus on aspects of life at Saïd that some might take for granted or overlook entirely. We’re sharing one today that provides a glimpse into the management practices that help keep the school’s kitchens running smoothly and the students well fed. Read more

Published: October 20, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Reflecting on the HKS/HBS Joint Degree Program

Harvard today is hosting an information session in Budapest on its joint degree program, through which students can study at both Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and Harvard Business School (HSB) and complete both their Master in Public Administration (MPA) and their MBA in just three years. Can’t make it to Budapest but still interested in learning more about the HKS/HBS joint degree program? You’re in luck. Our Fridays from the Frontline today comes to us from Rafael Rivera, a student in the HKS/HBS joint degree program now in his third and final year. In his post, Rivera shares Read more

Published: October 13, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Catching the Political Bug at Tuck

Sure, climate factors into how some people decide which business school to attend. But usually it has to do with warm temperatures and sunshine, not elections. Not for Justen Nestico. A second-year MBA student at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, Nestico chose Tuck in part because of its location at the heart of what has proven to be one of the wildest presidential races in the nation’s history. In the post that follows, Nestico shares how he and other Tuck students who’ve caught the political bug are ideally positioned to watch the electoral process unfold first hand. Our Read more

Published: October 6, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Enhancing Diversity in Business Starting at Kelley

Indiana University's Kelley School of Business is today kicking off a two-day celebration marking 50 years of participation as a member school of the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. Kelley was one of just three founding member schools—but the Consortium’s ranks have since grown to include 18 of the best business schools in the country. In anticipation of this important milestone, Ruby Jones, a Kelley School first-year MBA student and Consortium Fellow penned a beautiful essay explaining the Consortium to those who are unfamiliar, describing her journey from a nonprofit career to business school and sharing how she hopes—with her MBA—to assist the next generation of diverse leaders. Our thanks to Jones for granting permission for us to republish her essay here. Read more

Published: September 29, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Tackling Inequality—An HBS Independent Project

"Did you know that nearly 80 percent of HBS alumni are asked to serve in nonprofit boards at some point in their lives post-HBS?” asks Harvard Business School (HBS) second-year MBA student Molly Palmersheim in a post this week on the HBS MBA Voices student blog. That statistic spurred Palmershein and other students—as part of an independent study in their EC year with HBS Professors Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Nien-hê Hsieh—to design a course that could help train students for these roles they were so likely to take with nonprofit community organizations. For Palmershein, part of being the kind of “difference-making” leader HBS students are educated toward becoming would naturally involve volunteering with community organizations. “I came to HBS knowing that community leadership would live alongside my professional and personal lives post-HBS,” she writes. But she didn’t realize how the skillset she was developing at HBS could change how she worked with nonprofits. Read more

Published: September 22, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: A CBS First-Year MBA Student Reacts to Police Shootings

Columbia Business School (CBS) was one of the first schools to join students at Wharton earlier this week in response to the recent deaths of black men at the hands of police in two U.S. cities. Soon, students at six or more schools had come together, dressed in black, both to mourn the losses but also to let those deaths serve as a rallying cry for dialogue both at business school and in the business world beyond. Adding to the dialogue, this week’s Fridays from the Frontline is a thoughtful, candid essay from CBS first-year MBA student Lyndon Mouton. In it, Mouton provides the poignant and at points painful perspective of an African-American male faced with continuing issues of race and policing that interfere with the business school education he is working so hard to obtain. Before matriculating at CBS over the summer, he worked in private equity in Chicago and New York. Our thanks to Mouton for sharing his thoughts here with the Clear Admit audience. Read more

Published: September 15, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Chicago Booth Admissions Director on the Impact of Booth’s Flexible Curriculum

Last week we featured a student blogger from Harvard Business School (HBS) explaining why, for him, that school’s required curriculum provided the business foundation he believes will best prepare him for a seat at any business table. This week, our Fridays from the Frontline comes from Kurt Ahlm, associate dean of student recruitment and admissions at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. On the “Booth Insider” blog, Ahlm recently extolled the virtues of that school’s extraordinarily flexible curriculum—though the timing was simply to coincide with Booth’s upcoming Round 1 deadline and was certainly not Read more

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MBA Applywire

April 15, 2026 12:57pm ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Carnegie Mellon / Tepper, Chicago Booth, Columbia Business School, Cornell / Johnson, Emory / Goizueta, Georgetown / McDonough, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, Penn / Wharton, Stanford GSB, UCLA Anderson, UVA / Darden

Pre-MBA Career: Big4 Deals Consulting

Post MBA Career: Consulting, Finance, Commercial Banking, Diversified, Corporate, Management Consulting

GMAT: 675

GPA: 3.72

Location: Marietta, GA

Post MBA Location: New York City

Notes:

Applying to deferred programs this year, would love to hear thoughts on my application.

675 GMAT Focus, 3.723 at Non Target Undergraduate, Finance Major. Decent extra curricular on-campus, for internship experience started college with internship at a small ABL shop, interned sophomore summer/junior school year at a large publicly traded mortgage company doing Risk, interned after junior year at a Big4 doing Risk Consulting for FSOs. Returning FT to same B4 in Deals practice.

Would love to hear thoughts. Thanks.

April 14, 2026 10:15am ET

Applying: Harvard Business School, INSEAD, Lauder Institute, London Business School, Penn / Wharton, Stanford GSB

Intake Year: 2027

Pre-MBA Career: Orthopedic Surgeon

Post MBA Career: Consulting, Technology, Management Consulting, Healthcare, McKinsey

GRE: 328

GPA: 3.5

Years of Work Experience: 13

Location: UK

Post MBA Location: US, UK, Switzerland, HK, Europe

Notes:

Orthopaedic surgeon with cross-border training/work exposure i.e. UK, HK & Pakistan
• Strong involvement in research, publications, and innovation-related work
• Interested in the intersection of clinical medicine, healthcare systems, digital health, and business
• Long-term goal is to move from being a clinician to a broader leadership role where I can help build, scale, or evaluate healthcare solutions

April 12, 2026 10:23am ET

Applying: London Business School, Oxford / Saïd, SDA Bocconi

Intake Year: 2026

Pre-MBA Career: Civil Engineer with PPP experience and certification

Post MBA Career: Finance

GPA: 4.48

Years of Work Experience: 10

Location: Uganda

Post MBA Location: London, UAE or Europe

Notes:

African female - after 7 years at an international engineering consultancy and 3 in public sector, looking to get into infrastructure finance through an infrastructure focused MBA and internship pipeline. Certified PPP practitioner but not ao much leadership experience. Hoping to join a big 4 infrastructure advisory or infrastructure fund post MBA.

April 6, 2026 12:21pm ET

Applying: Penn / Wharton

Intake Year: 2026

Pre-MBA Career: MBB Consulting

Post MBA Career: Finance, Investment Banking, Private Equity, Brookfield Asset Management

GMAT: 675

GPA: 3.76

Location: South Korea

Post MBA Location: U.S., Seoul, Singapore

Notes:

Only applying to Wharton "Deferred" Program (Due to eligibility)

Demographic: Asian Male, 26

Academic Background: B.S. & M.S. in Nuclear Engineering @ Top school in S.Korea

GPA: B.S.(3.76/4.30), M.S.(3.93/4.30)

GMAT Focus: 675 (Q-96th, DI-95th, V-56th)

Pre-MBA Employer: Recieved FT Offer @ Bain (expected start: July 2026)

Post-MBA Goal:
- Short: Banking
- Long: Infrastructure PE

Internships: Internship @ BCG

Research Experience:
4 conferences and several papers under review about Nuclear Fuel Materials, Nuclear Plant Economics & EPC, Nuclear Reactor Core Design

Extracurricular Activities/Leadership:
- Led a consulting project for a nuclear energy company in S.Korea
- Honor Society, College of Engineering
- VP of the student council @ UG department
- Soccer/Baseball team(non-varsity)

Awards:
- 2 x Minister's Award (1st place in Nationwide competition in Energy Sector)
- 5~10 x Minor Awards mostly in Energy & Nuclear Engineering

Honors:
- U.S. Army Commendation Medal
- Presidential Science Scholarship(Awarded by the President of the Korea, one of 25 recipients nationwide) - Fully funded during UG
- Korea Defense Veteran's Association (KDVA) Scholarship
- Honor Society of the College of Engineering

April 3, 2026 8:48am ET

Applying: Emory / Goizueta, Georgetown / McDonough, IE Business School, Rice / Jones, UCLA Anderson, USC / Marshall, UT Austin / McCombs, UVA / Darden, Vanderbilt / Owen, Yale SOM

Intake Year: 2027

Pre-MBA Career: Technology - Software Developer

Post MBA Career: Kearney, LEK Consulting, McKinsey, Oliver Wyman, PWC Strategy&, Consulting

GPA: 8.3

Years of Work Experience: 2.8

Post MBA Location: United States

Notes:

Hi All,

Location: India YOE:2.8 yrs Industry: Software Role: Senior software developer

I have been working in a software Mnc and recently got fired. I had initially planned to apply for MBA programs for 2027 intake. But given the recent layoff I'm not sure what to do next. I didn't yet take the gmat. And confused if I should do a job hunt now or prepare for gmat, since I wanted to apply for round 1s by sep.

I definitely want to go for a good International MBA for 2027 intake.

What should I do next, follow are the choices I can think of-

1. Prepare for a good gmat score, finish it in next 2-3 months, I also have a small startup idea that I would like to in parallel experiment/try out, not sure how far it will succeed.

2. Prepare for gmat, complete in next 2-3 months then do job hunt(might or might not be able to get a job by the time I apply for round 1s)

Please suggest what is better for my mba applications.

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MBA LiveWire

April 17, 2026 11:28am ET

Interview Invite to Penn / Wharton

Round: Round 3

Received via email April 17, 2026

Standardized Test: GMAT

GPA: 3.8

GMAT: 675

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Post MBA Career: Healthcare

Juno Member: Not yet

April 17, 2026 10:07am ET

Interview Invite to Berkeley / Haas

Round: Round 3

Received via email on April 15, 2026

Standardized Test: GRE

GRE: 329

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: General Management

Juno Member: Not yet

April 17, 2026 9:57am ET

Rejected at Penn / Wharton

Round: Round 3

Received via email April 17, 2026

Standardized Test: GRE

GRE: 332

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Post MBA Career: Finance

Juno Member: Not yet

April 17, 2026 9:49am ET

Interview Invite to Penn / Wharton

Round: Round 3

Received via email April 17, 2026

Standardized Test: GRE

GPA: 3.7

GRE: 322

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Post MBA Career: Other Industries

Juno Member: Not yet

April 17, 2026 9:31am ET

Interview Invite to London Business School

Round: Round 3

Received via email on April 15, 2026

Standardized Test: GMAT

GMAT: 645

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Post MBA Career: Consulting

Target Career: Consulting

Juno Member: Not yet

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