From HBS MBA Program Blog:
Round 2 Interview Invitations – A Little More Information
Well, I dealt with the aftermath of the transparency about interview invitation numbers in Round 1 today. Someone called and asked directly why we couldn’t send out all the invitations on one day. Good question. Here’s the answer:
We could..but it would be February 13, not January 31. Maybe that would be better…a later date, but just one date. The way we’ve structured it now – 3 waves – is to accommodate the reality of a (human) Admissions Board trying to give thoughtful attention to a lot of applications. And each application needs to be reviewed twice. So we have to have a little bit of flex in terms of the notification dates. The senior team in Dillon does (a lot of) other things besides reading applications. Board member X may be pulled into an IT crisis. Board member Y needs to pull together the budget for the next fiscal year. I went to NYC last week to do an admit event for Round 1 admits. All these things can throw off an application-reading timetable, so we build in those extra two weeks (two waves) to make sure we’ve got bandwidth to make careful decisions. We’re not doing this by machine. It’s just us.
As always, hope this helps.
From MBA Admissions Blog:
Notes from the Director: Round 2 Interview Update
Ankur Kumar, Admissions Director
Round 2 interviews are well underway and we look forward to meeting many of you, stateside and overseas. I am constantly inspired to see the unique talent and sheer motivation in our applicant pool. As our staff’s interview travel continues, the Admissions Committee and I look forward to engaging with you and hearing more of your stories.
We released more invitations to interview on Thursday, 16 February and we will continue to release up until Tuesday, 28 February. Again, if you have not received an invitation at this point, please do not be discouraged. Applications are not read in any particular order; interview invitations are extended as we complete each applications evaluation process. We have plenty of interview slots available on campus and we will continue to offer phone interviews for those with extenuating circumstances.
Our office will be open on Monday, 20 February for President’s Day and all campus visits and interviews will take place as scheduled. Please continue to follow our blog, as we will post further updates on office closings, interviews, Round 3 applications and our upcoming global events.
Should other questions arise, please continue to contact our office directly at mba-admiss@wharton.upenn.edu or post on our S2S Discussion Board and we will respond as soon as possible!
From The MBA Insider’s Blog:
Waitlist Guidelines
Our remaining Round 1 decisions were released last week, and we’ve received a number of questions from candidates who were placed on the waitlist. For clarification on our waitlist policy this year, please read on.
- Your name will remain on the waitlist until a final decision is made on your application or you request your application be withdrawn.
- Waitlisted candidates (excluding those who withdraw) will be reconsidered for admission in subsequent rounds.
- Specifically, Round 1 applicants will receive an update on your application status by the Round 2 decision deadline of April 4, 2012. Some candidates may be offered the option of remaining on the waitlist for consideration in Round 3.
- Waitlisted candidates may send in updates to their application since the Round 1 deadline to wlmgr@anderson.ucla.edu. This is completely optional.
- We ask that you use your personal judgment and discretion in submitting information that is relevant to your application. Some examples include (but are not limited to): updated GMAT scores, promotions at work, and recent extracurricular accomplishments.
- We cannot give individual feedback to waitlisted applicants.
- Chances of being admitted off the waitlist are difficult to predict since the number of students admitted from the waitlist varies from year to year depending on the size/strength of the admit pool, number of admits who enroll, and other factors.
Before you rush to submit additional information to the waitlist manager, please keep in mind that:
- Every interaction we have with you moving forward can be a data point on your file – make sure your interactions are targeted and value-added
- This is the busiest time of year for most admissions offices
- Quality of information/communication count more than quantity
As always, we appreciate your continued enthusiasm for UCLA Anderson and thank you for your patience as we craft the Class of 2014.
From Darden Admissions & MBA Blog:
Advice for Applicants on the Waitlist
If you are on the waitlist from Round 1, please do take this as a positive sign! You have qualities in your application that the Admissions Committee is impressed by.
We review our waitlist with each subsequent round of admission. Waitlisted candidates from Round 1 may therefore hear from our office on the Round 2 or 3 decision notification dates. By the Round 3 notification date, we will often narrow our waitlist down and keep a smaller number of people on the waitlist throughout the summer.
We know the prospect of hearing as late as July is not easy for applicants and we will do our best to keep you informed throughout the process as we continue to make decisions.
So what can you do?
You may want to consider how you could improve your application (i.e. retaking the GMAT or GRE or taking a class in accounting or statistics to demonstrate your potential to handle quantitative subjects). If you do decide to take an action to improve your application or if you get a promotion or receive significant new responsibilities at work, we want to hear about it. Simply e-mail us at darden@virginia.edu.
We also want to hear from you if Darden is your first choice. Please e-mail us and let us know that you will accept our offer if we make one to you. We greatly appreciate your interest in Darden.
And if you no longer want to be considered for admission, please keep us informed so that we can open up spots for other applicants.
From MBA Admissions Blog:
Notes from the Director: Round 2 On-Campus Interviews
Greetings Round 2 Candidates,
Hello from the new MBA Admissions Office in Vance Hall! We have just begun our interview program, when we have the opportunity to meet many of you, in person, after reading your impressive applications. As my colleagues on the admissions committee will be speaking with some of you in various cities around the world, I will have the opportunity to interview candidates in Philadelphia– and I couldn’t be more excited.
For those of you interviewing here in Philadelphia, this is a great opportunity for you to take part in our campus visit program while you’re here. Indeed, it’s a great time to see Wharton’s campus, as this is a busy time, all-around: current Wharton students are back into full swing after winter break; Round 1 admitted candidates have just wrapped up Winter Welcome Weekend; Round 2 candidates are in town for interviews; and prospective students are visiting to learn more about the School.
The visit program gives you the opportunity to sit in on a class, to speak with current students, to tour the campus and to gain further insight into the opportunities that the Wharton MBA offers through our information session. This is an excellent way to interact with the Wharton community and to get a feel for life on campus.
Whether you are in Philadelphia or overseas, I wish you the best of luck as we move through this phase in the process. Should you have any questions regarding your interview, please just contact our office at mbainterview@wharton.upenn.edu and a member of our Admissions team will work with you directly.
From Booth Insider:
Round 2 Update
Interview invitations for Round Two started to go out this week, and as such, we wanted to provide an update on the process. Interview decisions will be announced on a rolling basis through the mid-decision date, February 15th. We start releasing interview invitations earlier than the mid-decision date to ensure that we have enough time to interview applicants, and so that applicants have time to plan accordingly. All applicants will be notified via email, and interview invitations will be released throughout each day. Please know that we are currently in the midst of reading applications and will continue to read applications until the mid-decision date. This means that if you haven’t heard from us, we have not yet completed the full evaluation of your application. Applications are assigned randomly and in constant streams throughout the read cycle.
I hope this is helpful.
Carrie
Director of Cambridge Judge Business School comments on the most recent Financial Times rankings in The Cambridge MBA Admissions blog:
Lessons of the latest FT MBA rankings
This is my first blog post as Director of Cambridge Judge Business School. Five months into my tenure, I have already spoken with many of our alumni and other interested parties. For example, I have just returned from Abu Dhabi, where I met up with alumni, corporations, government bodies, and the UAE University as a potential partner. But it’s not possible to meet all of you, and I needed another way of telling you about what’s going on at the School. The result is this monthly blog.
So, what’s new? Well, we have a strategy that is emerging – an evolution of what Cambridge Judge has begun in the recent past, rather than a revolution – and I would like to tell you about that. But this is the time of year when the FT Global MBA Rankings are released. Several members of the Alumni Advisory Council suggested that it would be a good idea to comment on these, so we’ll save strategy for next time.
Our MBA programme appears at 26th place in the FT rankings – the same position as last year. Now, we could launch into a microscopic reading of the indicators used to compile the rankings. On the one hand, we did quite well in “Employment after three months”, and “Aims achieved”, as reported by alumni. On the other hand, we did less well in the crucial factors of “Weighted salary (US$)” and “Salary percentage increase”.
We were also marked down in some indicators relating to the School as a whole, such as size of the PhD programme and the percentage of faculty that is female. Putting aside opaque technical issues (for instance, what are the exchange rates used to calculate these figures?) we need to ask ourselves what this assessment really means.
The FT rankings are most heavily influenced by high alumni salaries and high salary jumps after completing the MBA. So if we really wanted to increase our rankings, we could close down our arts-management and not-for-profit specialisations, and force every student to major in more traditional areas with a view to finding a high-paying job in finance or consulting. (And we could also balloon our PhD programme, irrespective of quality, because size gets a good rating in this metric.)
For the complete article, go to http://www.christophloch.com/2012/02/10/lessons-of-the-latest-ft-mba-rankings/.
From Berkeley EWMBA Admissions Blog:
The Haas School of Business is committed to recruiting a diverse Evening & Weekend MBA student class. Did you know there are 3 scholarships available to first-year EWMBA students? We encourage applicants to submit their application and apply for the scholarships below:
Dean’s Scholarship ($8,000 per recipient – a first year award only)
The Dean’s Scholarship is reserved for students who have experience promoting diversity. Please note this scholarship is only awarded to first year students for the one year. This scholarship is based on how best you respond to the essay question on the application. Students who meet one or more of the following criteria are encouraged to apply:
- You commute to Haas from outside the Bay Area,
- You can demonstrate a commitment to ethnic diversity
- You are committed to shaping the role women play in business
- You work in an industry that is unique among our current population
Non Profit / Public Service Scholarship ($10,000 per recipient)
The purpose of the Non Profit / Public Service Scholarship (formerly named EWMBA Grant) is to facilitate access to the Berkeley MBA for students whose current employment is in the non-profit or public service sectors and who demonstrate financial need. Priority is given to students who currently work in the non-profit or public sectors though students working in corporate social responsibility or sustainability may be considered. Net financial need is calculated by the Haas Financial Aid Office using guidelines adapted from the federal government. Please note, given the limited pool of funds, we are not able to meet the needs of all who apply.
Ronald Shapansky Scholarship ($10,000 per recipient)
The Ronald Shapansky Scholarship is funded through a bequest from Juanita Shapansky in memory of her son Ronald, who graduated from UC Berkeley’s San Francisco-based Evening & Weekend MBA program in 1986. Recipients will be awarded based on financial need.
The scholarship application will become available to admitted fall 2012 students, so we encourage you to apply!
From Stanford MBA Admission Blog:
Thoughts from the people who evaluate your applications
Round 2 deadline was last week, and so we are in full swing. Reading the large volume of high-quality applications that Stanford receives is a challenging and enriching job. You might be interested in hearing what it’s like for our staff reading your applications. Here are some comments from our readers about their experience…
“It’s like reading hundreds of biographies. Everyone has a story to tell.”
“When someone I’ve recommended for admission gets in, I feel that in my own small way, I’ve enabled someone who is eventually going to change the world.”
“The applicants have accomplished so much and have so much to offer the world. It’s disappointing that we can’t take them all, but I am reassured by knowing that they’re going to go on and do great things even if they don’t attend Stanford.”
“The toughest aspect of choosing among applicants is the limited number of seats in the class. I always feel we could fill several full classes with well-qualified applicants from our pool.”
“The collective pool offers much diversity, in terms of industry, background and aspiration. They are all interesting people that I’d love to know well.”
“It’s a lonely job and the volume can be daunting…as long as my eyes hold out, I’ll be fine!”
One thing all of our readers agree on is that after spending many weeks getting to know our “flat friends”, it’s a joy to finally meet our admits in all of their 3-dimensional glory!
Cheers,
Allison
From HBS Events page:
As part of our commitment to a truly diverse, international student body, we bring a sample of the Harvard Business School experience to locations throughout the world. At these outreach events, you will have the opportunity to meet representatives from the HBS community and learn more about the MBA Program and its application process. In addition, we host a variety of campus events throughout the year.
If you’d like to participate, complete the Introduce Yourself form so that we can give you event, application, and HBS news and information specifically suited to your interests.
Click on the location of an event to register for that event. If neither the event title nor the location is linked, registration is not yet open for the event.
All dates are tentative and subject to change.
Registration will open approximately 2-3 weeks prior to the date for general outreach events.
Registration will open approximately 2-3 weeks prior to the date for on campus events.
