Much is happening on Accepted and in the MBA admissions world  these days. Here goes:

• Birthday Ebook Sale. May 9-13  In honor of my birthday, I am giving you all 50% off all MBA admissions ebooks including:

Best Practices for MBA Admissions: Take advantage of the super advice captured in this transcript of a one-of-a-kind teleseminar.  Find out what are the 4 Pillars of a Successful Application, and most importantly, discover the concrete steps you can take to strengthen your pillars.

MBA BlastOff: 45 Terrific Tips to Launch Your MBA Application to Acceptance: Learn how to create a winning MBA application package including advice on writing your application, crafting your resume, working with recommenders, and preparing for your interview. 

The Consultant's Guide to MBA Admissions: Invest in the one resource written for YOU. Transform yourself from "just another consultant" into a distinctive, exciting prospect. Learn to mine your experiences and project the qualities schools value. This ebook has sample HBS essays.

The Finance Professional's Guide to MBA Admissions: If you are in investment banking, corporate finance, venture capital, or any financially related field that sends oodles of applicatants to top business schools, this ebook can teach you how to distinguish yourself from your competition and improve your chances of admissions. 

The Techie's Guide to MBA Admissions: Attention Techies: Are you afraid of being just another IT applicant. If so, The Techie's Guide to MBA Admissions is for you! Learn how to highlight your individuality and unique qualifications to create a distinct, exciting MBA application. 

MBA I.V.: Mainline to Top MBA Programs -- MBA Interview Questions and Tips: Invest in an ebook that provides the questions that have been frequently asked during recent MBA admission interviews at the top business schools as well as the advice you need to prepare for your interview. Exactly the information you need to ace your interview.

The Nine Mistakes You Don't Want to Make on an MBA Waitlist: Discover how to avoid the mistakes that doom so many on an MBA waitlist and make the right moves that increase your chances of acceptance. 

Create a Better Sequel: Reapply Right to B-School: Determine what went wrong and how to change the outcome. Get the information you need to navigate the MBA admissions maze and transform those thin rejections into fat acceptances. Buy this 28-page ebook today to propel your reapplication.  

• MBA Admissions Telethon on Tuesday May 13 at  10:00 AM – 12:00 PM PT/1:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET (5:00 PM – 7:00 PM GMT). Sign up for FREE 15-minute consultations. Ask your most important MBA application questions.
• IMD admission chat with Janet Shaner, IMD's Director of MBA Marketing, and with an IMD participant. They will participate in this online chat where you can learn more about IMD's outstanding, international MBA program.
  
• Chicago GSB's monthly admissions newsletter has two timely articles: "Stay Engaged this Summer," on using the summer months to prepare for fall applications, and "Getting the Most Out of Your Campus Visit." For more on these topics, please see "Visiting Schools: Myths and Reality" and Best Practices for MBA Admission.
• MBAPodcaster's last two segments are winners. Check out "One Year MBA Programs," which focuses on Cornell's, Kellogg's,  and USC IBEAR's one-year MBA programs, and "Business School Admission's Panel: Top Schools Answer Your Application Questions," which presents admissions directors from  Columbia, NYU Stern, and Wharton discussing their respective admissions processes. If you are interested in any of these programs, you owe it to yourself to either listen to the podcast or read the transcript. 

  

I would like to invite all 2009 MBA applicants to sign up for the second 2009 MBA Admissions Telethon on Tuesday, May 13th between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM PT (1:30 PM ET - 3:30 PM ET; 6:00 PM GMT - 8:00 PM GMT). What is the MBA Admissions Telethon?

Two hours when 6 MBA admissions experts will be available to answer your individual questions via telephone. Prior to calling in, you will receive a brief, 6-question questionnaire and submit it along with your resume to a designated email address. (No essays, please.) When you call in, your consultant will review the information you provide, and you will have 15 minutes to discuss with him or her your most pressing MBA admissions questions.

Oh, by the way, the 2009 MBA Admission Telethon is free.

You can learn more details and sign up at 2009 MBA Admissions Telethon.

Yesterday I met with a LAMP client who is shrewdly starting now to prepare for his fall application. We went over his profile, and I made several suggestions as to what he can do between now and this fall to improve his chances of acceptance next year. He found the session very valuable. And again, I commend him for starting early to work on his application. I want to be able to commend and mentor and help prepare more of you.

For years I have encouraged MBA applicants to lay the foundation for their MBA application in the months before applications come out. That's why I wrote Best Practices for MBA Admissions, a featured ebook this month. That's why Accepted has hosted MBA Admissions Telethons and teleseminars. And that's why Accepted is introducing a new subscription form of MBA Admissions Consulting: Start Smart ™.

With Start Smart, you can meet up to one hour per month with your adviser, an experienced Accepted consultant and editor who for years has seen what works and what doesn't. Our experienced staff shares my frustration when talented but flawed clients come to us in September wanting to apply in Round 1 and hoping that a magic wand will make them competitive. We don't have that wand. We do have decades of collective experience that we would like to share with you on an individual basis through Start Smart.

With Start Smart, you can have a mentor guide you in:

• Identifying the core stories for your application.
• Focusing on specific schools.
  
• Strengthening your application and ameliorating weaknesses.
• Choosing recommenders.

We can even help you work out an application time table.

In addition, Start Smart is something that rewards your early-bird-gets-the-worm approach to your applications:

• You will pay less per month when you sign up for more months.
• Your credit card is billed on a monthly basis for the exact number of months you want. You do not pay for the entire service up front so it is more affordable.
  

The Wall St. Journal has released its 2008 recruiter ranking of MBA programs. The WSJ surveys recruiters, not deans or  students. It  groups schools into 3 categories (National, International, and Regional). The recruiters rated the full-time MBA programs on 21 attributes and then ranked them in these categories.. To fully understand the methodology, please see "Recruiters Top Choices."

The Wall St Journal Top Ten -- National Ranking 

1. Tuck
2. Haas
3. Columbia
4. MIT Sloan
5. CMU Tepper
6. UNC
7. Michigan Ross
8. Yale
9. Chicago
10. Darden

The Wall St Journal Top Ten -- International Ranking 

1. ESADE
2. IMD
3. London Business School
4. IPADE
5. MIT Sloan
6. Columbia
7. Essec
8. Tecnologico de Monterrey (EGADE)
9. HEC Paris
10. Thunderbird

1. Brigham Young University (Marriott)
2. Wake Forest University (Babcock)
3. Ohio State University (Fisher)
4. University of Rochester (Simon)
5. Indiana University (Kelley)
6. University of Florida (Warrington)
7. Louisiana State University
8. Emory University (Goizueta)
9. University at Buffalo, SUNY
10. University of Maryland (Smith)

The Wall St. Journal rankings has been called the "silliest of rankings" by Jaymaven, who provides a comparison and critique of the rankings methodology, but I think that comment is more than a little harsh. Given my usual caveats that rankings are not objective measures of educational quality as much as surveys and data banks, I would say the  WSJ rankings are subject to inherent conflicts of interest, but still valuable, especially for those who do now have flawless profiles.  If you think you have a good shot at H/S/W you are pretty confident someone good is going to hire you and these rankings may indeed be silly, but if you have specific regional needs or if you don't have what it takes to get into an elite program, then the WSJ survey can be a useful element in your research. Not the end-all and be-all, but a piece.

So what are the conflicts of interest? Your interests and the recruiters' do not always coincide. For example Michigan slid in the rankings because recruiters perceived increased "arrogance" among Ross students and a little less cooperation from the Career Center staff, partially due to construction of a new facility. Frankly, the students were a little cocky because they could expect multiple offers -- a sign of Ross' success -- and construction is an inconvenience not a reflection on the quality of the Ross education, teaching, or student life.  Similarly HBS and Stanford don't do well in this ranking, at least partially because they frustrate recruiters.

You as a sophisticated user of this information need to understand those limitations.

PS.  The rankings are just part of a special section on MBA admissions that the WSJ is publishing tomorrow. I haven't had a chance to read it all, but it looks good, especially "Battle for Fresh M.B.A. Talent Prompts Changes in Recruiting."

 A few MBA admissions items of note:

• MIT announced the appointment of Dr. Steven D. Eppinger as interim dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management and Professors JoAnne Yates and S.P. Kothari as the school's interim deputy deans. MIT continues to search actively for a permanent replacement for the previous dean, Professor Richard Schmalensee, who announced last September that he intended to step down at the end of this academic year after nine years at the helm.
• Haas reports that on-campus recruiting was up 23% this year and that salaries continue to rise steadily, albeit not dramatically. According to the Haas announcement, "The median base salary for new Berkeley MBA graduates this year was slightly under $103,000, compared to $100,000 in 2006. Early data shows students are receiving a mean signing bonus slightly under $21,000." Furthermore "More than half [the class] went into the technology and financial services industries, and 19% entered the consulting field. The top hiring firms this year are Google, Bain & Company, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Abbot Laboratories, Apple, Archstone Consulting, Autodesk, Bank of America, and McKinsey & Co. In addition, 16 graduates fulfilled their entrepreneurship dreams and are launching their own companies."
• PaGalGuy once again provides an excellent interview with a school representative. In this case, PaGalGuy grilled IMD Switzerland's Director of MBA Admissions Katty Ooms Suter. As to be expected for a site based in India, the interview has some India-specific questions, but it also has valuable information for any and every applicant to IMD. One snippet from the interview: "The job market for the 2006 MBA class was fabulous. We had 60 companies on campus for 89 people looking for a job, as one was company sponsored. We generated over 200 job offers and some people had eight offers."
• The Wall St. Journal has an informative article on the latest sexy field in business school, if there is such a thing: private equity. The article discusses the somewhat symbiotic relationship between MBA programs seeking students with private equity experience and private equity firms seeking MBA's with private equity experience. Actually is that symbiosis, incest, or a dog chasing its tail? In any case, the article discusses the business schools that have special programs in private equity and where private equity firms recruit: HBS, Tuck, Chicago, Wharton, and Columbia.