I had a most enjoyable morning yesterday. I visited Columbia Business School, met with Linda Meehan, a few students, and attended a class. In our meeting I asked Linda about the possible tension that exists between being a top (in her words “the top”) finance program with roughly 50% of all MBA’s going into finance-related…
Law School Waitlist Tip
The law school waitlist is not the place for false modesty. Just the opposite. Your mission: convince the waitlisting school that you are even a better applicant than they thought you are. As I wrote in The Nine Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make on a Law School Waitlist: "Show them you are even better…
Common Sense Isn’t So Common in Admissions
MBAAnonymous questions in "Admissions consultants?" why applicants use or think they need admissions consultants. After briefly providing her background, she adds, I’m just an applicant. I have however worked as a writing consultant where I edited, among other things, MBA applicants’ essays to places like HBS, Stanford GSB, and LBS. Looking back on that experience…
MBA Admissions: MIT Sloan Quant Experience Chat Trarnscript
Last week I co-hosted with Dr. Peter Regan of MBA Math a chat focused on the quant experience of MBA students at MIT Sloan. The special guests at the chat were Maura Herson, Associate Director of Student Affairs; Jeri Seidman, instructor of the pre-term accounting course for the past two years; and first-year MBA students…
MBA Audio: Forte, Haas, and EMBA programs.
There is no shortage of MBA admissions information, or media for presenting that data. Here are a few excellent podcasts I have come across in the last several weeks: “GMAT Not Required?: Which B. Schools Are Removing the GMAT Requirement from Admissions Criteria?” discusses EMBA programs and the pros and cons of requiring the GMAT…
MBA Interview Feedback Galore and Accepted.com Contests
The MBA Interview Feedback Database (MBAIFDB) is one of the most valuable and popular sections of our site. Thanks to your generous sharing of interview experiences, it has grown and grown and grown. Furthermore, the feedback we are getting lately is far more comprehensive and still focused. And thanks to the improvements we made last…
Q&A with Tuck Dean Paul Danos
This Q&A represents a distillation of an hour-long meeting I had with Dr. Paul Danos, Dean of the Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth. If you want to understand Tuck’s values, culture, and goals, read it (long post). Tuck’s MBA program is at the top of all the major business school rankings, including BW,…
Penn Prevents ABD: Provides Dissertation Bootcamp
Dissertation Bootcamp Rules: Four hours a day for two weeks, starting at 9:00 AM Only a 30-minute break. No emailing. Internet use for academic purposes only. $50 fee back if you complete the process. The Writing Center at Penn is serious about focusing its grad students on their dissertations. Uninterrupted time for researching, structuring, writing…
More Jobs for PhD’s in History
Inside Higher Ed reports more job postings for PhD’s in history than ever before. Quite a switch from recent history. However, the paper hastens to add that most of the jobs pertain to Asian or African history. Furthermore more and more positions are part-time and non-tenure track.
Graduate Program Options: Merge or Close?
Inside Higher Ed reports on a possible merger between the German departments at Duke and UNC Chapel Hill, two small struggling programs. According to Inside Higher Ed: "In so doing, the two universities believe that their programs could catapult to among the largest — if not the largest — in the country, with 18 full-time…
Essay Tip: What to Do If You Procrastinated.
I was looking for something on the old blog and came across a post that I thought was timely and worth repeating. I wrote it in early January 2005, when my daughter was applying for grad school (She got in and then decided she didn’t want to go.) It gives advice for those of you…
Businessweek B-School Rankings 2006
Businessweek has published its bi-annual b-school rankings. The Top 10 US schools Chicago Wharton Kellogg Harvard Michigan Stanford MIT Sloan UC Berkeley (Haas) Duke (Fuqua) Columbia Businessweek prides itself on presenting a ranking of customer satisfaction. The "customers" are MBA students and recruiters, who are surveyed for this report. To use Businessweek’s data, please first…
US News 2007 College Rankings:
For those of you who have not yet seen it yet, the Top Ten in US News this year are: 1. Princeton University(NJ) 2. Harvard University(MA) 3. Yale University(CT) 4. California Institute of Technology 4. Stanford University(CA) 4. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology 7. University of Pennsylvania 8. …
Personal Statement Tip: Dealing with Hardship
A friend of mine was recently going through a hard time. Things were going wrong, seriously wrong in her life. She wryly labeled these experiences "character building." It is a sad truth that tragedy and trial build character strength and develop wisdom. Most of us would rather be weaker and stupider than have character building…
4 Tips for Demonstrating Professional Growth in a Flat Organization
If you work in a flat organization, how do you demonstrate advancement and growth? After all, your progress will be compared to that of other candidates who have regular promotions with clearly delineated expanded responsibilities. In a flat organization, you may hold the same title for five years. It is a point that your MBA…
