It's been very busy around here during the last few weeks. With round two applicants working hard on their applications, and round 1 applicants dealing with interview invitations and responding to news about acceptances, and yes a few rejections, Accepted has been buzzing.

I want to do a round-up of excellent school-specific material that I have stumbled upon and not yet written about:

• MIT Sloan has produced a wonderful series of podcasts, which I commend to those of you seriously considering MIT Sloan. I recommend specifically the interviews with Rod Garcia, long-time Director of Admissions at MIT Sloan, and with Ed Roberts, who has a list of titles too long to include here. Suffice it to say that he has been a seminal figure in entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan and is currently head of its hugely popular Entrepreneurship and Innovation program.
  
• To gain insight into Wharton's direction, check out the short AP article about its new dean, Dr. Thomas Robertson, entitled "Wharton dean seeks to raise school's profile as 'force for good.'" The article quotes the dean's bio and his stated goals "to champion Wharton as a force for good worldwide and create global economic and social value." The view that business and business methods can be a force for doing good and not just doing well is gaining greater prominence in all top b-schools. Perhaps Dean Robertson will lead the way. Perhaps it will just be another b-school fad. I hope not.
  

BW has launched or renewed an excellent series of admissions director interviews. I already wrote about an earlier interview with Stanford's Derrick Bolton. But a few more have been published. I want to highlight them for those of you who do not have subscriptions to BW's MBA Insider.

• Interview with Fuqua's Liz Riley Hargrove. Here's a small segment that discusses the difference between two Fuqua question, a distinction many of you have struggled with:

What's the most unusual or difficult essay question on your application? What's your advice to students about how to answer it?

We've gotten phone calls. Students are struggling with how to present themselves in the personal essay. One specific essay is to tell us what your prospective contribution would be to the Duke MBA and the other is a shorter answer on how your personal background and values influence who you are. The first essay is designed for you to tell us what you are going to bring to the table. The second is designed for you to tell us how everything you experienced made you who you are.

The biggest thing is that the essay questions, at an initial glance, may appear to be very similar but they really are approaching two different things. We want to know what you have to contribute to your classmates and the other is designed to find out who you are, not what you've achieved professionally. Many candidates feel that the MBA is about touting your professional accomplishments, but we want to learn about our students. We want to get to know our students.

• Interview with Lydia Heyman, Interim Director of Admissions at UCLA Anderson, During the interview Lydia announced that round 1 application were up 20% over round 1 a year earlier. She also gave excellent tips on the essays, recommendations and interviews at Anderson.

Recently catching up on some reading, I had a chance to look at the latest UCLA Anderson Assets, its alumni magazine. The article "Seriously Simple: AMR Project Takes Every Day Fine Dining From the Printed Page to the Pantry Shelf" gives you a window into an Anderson field study project. There are also a couple of worthwhile articles if you are interested in UCLA's FEMBA program.

BTW, Lydia Heyman will be Accepted's guest at a chat on January 24. Mark the date if you have questions about UCLA's program, admissions policies, or student life.