What do you hope to be asked during your MBA admissions interview? Let us know what you think when you enter Accepted.com’s Facebook Fans MBA Face-Off Contest! You could win interview prep resources valued up to $50!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

We ran out of time at the end of the Q&A and were left with a few unanswered questions. Below you will find the answers to those questions that James Frick was kind enough to answer for us via email.

Q: Do you view being unemployed and applying detrimental?

Not at all. We all understand it has been a difficult economy, and many exceptional candidates have faced similar challenging circumstances in recent years.  In talking to students in years past who were laid off prior to applying for business school, it often turned out to be a blessing in disguise in that it put a plan into motion for them to ultimately better equip and prepare themselves for their career path by allowing them to refocus and add additional training and networking opportunities that an MBA program provides.

If you are facing a similar situation, we would recommend that you be proactive in speaking to it in your application materials (most likely, the essays and interview).  You also want to demonstrate the positive steps you have taken in the time since you have been unemployed (i.e. researching post-MBA career paths, becoming more involved with a non-profit or community organization).

Q: In my opinion, one of Tepper’s key strengths is in combining technology and management. Does this reflect in its preference for candidates?

There are many students who come from a technical background and are drawn to our program because they want to be a leader or a strategist in that space.  However, there are many others who choose the Tepper School because they have not yet had this experience or training and feel it will be a powerful addition to their skillset.  In a typical year, we see nearly a 50/50 split between students who come from a technical background with their undergraduate studies and those who come from a more non-technical background.

There are indeed numerous opportunities in the curriculum for students to focus their studies in technology, including the general MBA with concentrations in information systems and strategy, and our track in Technology Leadership, which combines courses from the Tepper School with graduate courses in the School of Computer Science.  However, students who choose to focus in other areas will still leave the program adept at utilizing technology in strategic decision making through their exposure to it in our required course sequence.

Q: What opportunities do families of students have to be involved with the Tepper community?

Our close-knit community extends well beyond current students to include partners, children and pets!  We have a terrific partner group which does a great job in building your network and scheduling all sorts of social and cultural activities.  You can visit them online at: http://www.tepper.cmu.edu/current-students/current-graduate-students/student-clubs/tepper-partners-club/index.aspx.  Most activities outside of the classroom, such as our weekly social, B**rs, as well as larger events such as casino night are open to all students and partners.  In times past, partners of current students have taken courses at the larger university as a non-degree seeking student, or audited courses from the Tepper School (on occasion, the partner has also opted to pursue her/his MBA from the Tepper School as well J).  The university also offers a partner ID for a nominal fee, which grants partners access to university resources such as libraries, computer labs, and athletic facilities.

View the full Q&A transcript or listen to the mp3 recording of the event now!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Top 30 U.S. Business Schools of 2010 (2008 rankings are parenthetical.)

1. Chicago Booth (1)
2. Harvard Business School (2)
3. Wharton (4)
4. Northwestern Kellogg (3)
5. Stanford GSB (6)
6. Duke Fuqua (8)
7. Michigan Ross (5)
8. UC Berkeley Haas (10)
9. Columbia (7)
10. MIT Sloan (9)
11. UVA Darden (16)
12. Southern Methodist Cox (18)
13. Cornell Johnson (11)
14. Dartmouth Tuck (12)
15. CMU Tepper (19)
16. UNC Kenan-Flagler (17)
17. UCLA Anderson (14)
18. NYU Stern (13)
19. Indiana Kelley (15)
20. Michigan State Broad (2T)
21. Yale SOM (24)
22. Emory Goizueta (23)
23. Georgia Tech (29)
24. Notre Dame Mendoza (20)
25. Texas-Austin McCombs (21)
26. USC Marshall (25)
27. Brigham Young Marriott (22)
28. Minnesota Carlson (2T)
29. Rice Jones (NR)
30. Texas A&M Mays (NR)

Top International Business Schools

1. INSEAD (3)
2. Queen’s (1)
3. IE Business School (2)
4. ESADE (6)
5. London Business School (5)
6. Western Ontario Ivey (4)
7. IMD (7)
8. Toronto Rotman (8)
9. York Schulich (2T)
10. Cambridge Judge (2T)
11. McGill Desautels (2T)
12. IESE (9)
13. Cranfield (NR)
14. HEC Paris (2T)
15. HEC Montreal (HR)
16. Oxford Said (10)
17. Manchester (2T)
18. SDA Bocconi (NR)

BW bases its rankings on employer and student surveys, as well as what they call “intellectual capital,” or school research output. For more information on how the rankings are determined, read BW‘s “How We Rank Business Schools.”

Other articles in the report that may interest you include:

• “The Best U.S. Business Schools 2010” – This article highlights ways that business schools are dealing with the sour job market—putting a new emphasis on job placement, reaching out to alumni for job leads, using technology to connect with recruiters, and bolstering career services departments.
• “Top Global Business Schools” – Read about how the Great Recession has affected the international MBA scene, why new schools have popped up on the top 10, why students are being drawn to emerging markets, and more.

Related Accepted.com Resources:

• The Rankings, a free special report on how you should interpret the rankings in your own b-school quest.
• Internationalizing the MBA, a free special report that will help you determine whether an international MBA program is right for you.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

The lead article to the new BW rankings, “Part-Time MBAs: Greater Expectations,” explains how student motives are shifting away from career advancement to a switch in job or career placement. Because of this shift, students are expressing a greater demand for career services than did their predecessors.

Monica Powell, associate dean at the UT-Dallas School of Management, explains:

When you talk to this current group and ask them why they are pursuing this degree, students say they are doing it because they want to make themselves more marketable in the job arena, distinguish themselves from others, and further their educational backgrounds. It’s partly generational because of Gen Y and the Millennials, but there’s been a shift away from doing the degree for the company toward doing it for themselves. For them, it is almost as if they are doing this as an insurance policy for their careers. If they are going to be on the chopping block, maybe they will be later in line if they have this degree, as opposed to the head of the line.

Why do Gen Yers and Millennials feel the need to pursue an MBA as insurance? It always comes back to the same thing: The Economy.

And now…the rankings:

Top 10 Part-Time MBA Programs (Rated best for…/average salary increase)

1. CMU Tepper (Job changers, 44%)
2. Drexel LeBow (Career switchers, 24.9%)
3. U. of Richmond Robins (Job changers, 47.5%)
4. Maryland Smith (Career switchers, 31.9%)
5. Lehigh University (Career advancers, 18.2%)
6. U. of Nebraska (Job changers, 60.7%)
7. Michigan Ross (Career switchers, 44%)
8. Indiana University Southeast (Job changers/career switchers, 28.9%)
9. Chicago Booth (Career switchers, 33.2%)
10. Case Western Reserve Weatherhead (Career switchers, 38.4%)

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

This year, Chicago Booth took the cake with the number 1 slot, at least in part, if not entirely, because of its top-ranked career service department. (The $300 million donation by David Booth in 2008 helped the school achieve this goal, something most schools haven’t been able to accomplish in this economy.)

Here are the top ten full-time international MBA programs:

(Click image to enlarge.)

And here are the top ten schools by category:

(Click image to enlarge.)

For more information on how these schools were chosen, check out the Methodology section of The Economist‘s report.

Meanwhile, a Poets & Quants article on The Economist rankings (“The Economist’s Roller Coaster MBA Ranking“) points to the fact that the this year’s rankings are slightly flawed, mainly in that the job/salary data was gathered from the class of 2009, not the latest graduating class of 2010. The 2010 data, which won’t be ready for a few weeks, would have presented a much more current and fair perspective on how b-school graduates are actually doing job/salary-wise, especially since the economy has improved in the last year.

The P&Q article refers to a number of “roller coaster-like” jumps and plummets, including:

• UVA Darden “leapfrogged” 13 spots from last year’s 24th spot to this year’s 11th.
• Columbia moved up 8 spots from 20th to 12th.
• CMU Tepper jumped 22 spots from 33rd to 21st.
• London Business School ranked the third best in the UK, a shock that came to most people, especially given its number 1 placement by The Financial Times. According to The Economist, LBS is ranked lower than the Cranfield School of Management and Henley Business School.

P&Q states that of the five major MBA rankings (U.S. News, Businessweek, Forbes, Financial Times, and The Economist), “the Economist‘s methodology is considered the least credible.”

Not sure what the rankings mean to you? How much should you take them into account when applying to b-school? Download Accepted’s special ranking report now to learn about how the rankings affect you.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

This CMU Tepper 2011 MBA Application tip post is one of a series of posts providing MBA application and essay advice for applicants to top MBA programs around the world. You can access the entire series at http://blog.accepted.com/acceptedcom_blog/tag/2011-mba-application-tips. My tips for answering Tepper‘s essay questions are in blue below.

A. What are your short term and long term goals? How will a Tepper MBA help you achieve these goals? (Please include any information regarding what steps you have taken to learn more about Tepper.)

Straight-forward goals question. What do you want to do immediately after earning your MBA? What do you want to do 5-10 years down the road? Yes your longer term goals can be fuzzier, but you should be able to show clear direction. Then discuss how Tepper’s program (not ranking, reputation, or other generalities that apply to all top programs) will help you achieve your goals.

As you do your research, attend info sessions, and visit campuses, look for the distinctive pieces to any MBA program that appeal to you. Then use that data to demonstrate how well you know the program and what a great fit you are for the given school.

Regarding CMU, you may want to refer to its mini-semester structure or its MBA tracks and cross-campus curriculum . Explain how any or all of these elements will help you achieve your goal. If Tepper professors are prominent in your area of interest, discuss how their research jives with your professional interests. Your ability to connect these details and your goals contributes to a stellar goals essay.

B. The Tepper School’s culture relies on all members to be active contributors to our community. With your values, experiences, and interests, how will you make a unique contribution to the Tepper community? Your examples may include: classroom interaction, student activities, career development, community service, etc.

Show how you have contributed actively in the past to your team at work or on the field, to your community, club, class, or church. Did your suggestion enable the team to finish the project on time? Did you inspire and unite your teammates and lead them to unprecedented victory in college? Then, how will the qualities, values, and interests you developed or utilized during this experience enable you to contribute to Tepper’s community?

C. Please answer two of the following three questions or statements. Please clearly specify which questions you are answering. Your two answers should equal a total of two pages or less.
1. Describe an obstacle you have faced in your professional or academic life. How did you overcome this obstacle and how did it foster your development?

2. Describe a time in which your ethics were challenged. How did you deal with the situation and what did you learn from it?

3. One thing people would be surprised to know about me is . . .

Choose the two questions that will best allow you to present yourself while complementing the required questions. You want each essay to present a different perspective on you and your talents. For more on this, please see “MBA Essays: You’ve Got Options!”

D. Is there anything additional that you think we should know as we evaluate your application? Note: If you believe your credentials and essays represent you fairly, you should not feel obligated to answer this question. This essay is intended to provide a place for you to add information that you think is important but is not covered elsewhere in the application.Note: You must complete this essay if you answered ‘yes’ to either of the ‘additional information’ questions above.

Use this optional essay, or lose a great opportunity to provide even more reasons for Tepper to admit you.

If you would like help with your CMU Tepper MBA application, please consider Accepted.com’s MBA essay editing and admissions consulting or a CMU Tepper School Package.

CMU Tepper 2011 MBA Deadlines

* The April 25th deadline is reserved for U.S. citizens and permanent residents, as well as all Flextime and Flexmode applicants.

** Reserved for FlexTime and FlexMode applicants

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com.

1. Intake % of Indian engineers
2. Teaching Methodology
3. Recruitment
4. Culture
5. Clubs/extra-curricular
6. Curriculum and specialization.

I boil down A’s 2-5 to three which I rank as follows:

1. Professional opportunity (roughly his 3 & a little of 6).
2. Curriculum and school strengths (his 2, 4, 5, & 6).
3. Personal preferences (A describes these as”tertiary” and for most of you that’s true.)

All the above have to be filtered through the lens of applicant qualifications and competitiveness, and I largely agree with A, except for one significant difference.

His #1 doesn’t appear on my list, and I’ll tell you why.  The schools that seem to favor engineers –whether from India or Indiana — are also going to attract more applications from engineers. Furthermore, if you are attempting to break out of the engineering mold, attending a program that is very much in the engineering world won’t facilitate that change as well as a program with a different approach.

While I can certainly understand applicants wanting to attend a program where they will find others like themselves and feel more at home while thousands of miles away from home, you don’t necessarily need or want to be too much in your comfort zone.

Whether you are a career changer or enhancer, it is your job as an applicant to break out of the label and the mold “Indian IT guy” or “Indian engineer.” Don’t think of yourself first and foremost with the most generic and common labels in the applicant pool. Look at aspects of your experience and background that will differentiate you. My guess is that you will find them in specifics a few layers below the top level “Indian engineer” or “investment banker.” Focus on those details and highlight them in your application.

Finally, your school choice should be guided primarily not by the past or even the present. First and foremost, should be the future. What do you want to do after your MBA? Where do you envision yourself? What career options are worth uprooting yourself, spending all that money, and foregoing two years of income?  (Leaving a job you hate doesn’t qualify, as was repeated over and over by adcom after adcom at the AIGAC conference, which I attended this past week in Boston.)

So “begin with the end in mind” as you plan your MBA future. Season your dreams with the reality of your qualifications as you choose your schools. But don’t let the most common label or denominator dominate your decisions.

For more on shortlisting MBA programs, please see Best MBA Programs: A Guide to Choosing the One for You.

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com.

Robert Dammon, CMU Tepper associate dean and professor, explains the price-wage connection: “The kinds of students that the best schools attract are going to get the highest-paying jobs.”

Paul R. Dorf, managing director of the consulting firm, Compensation Resources, adds, “The cream-of-the-crop companies hire the cream-of-the-crop grads.”

Top-ranked b-schools generally offer the most expensive programs and generally churn out the highest paid graduates. Harvard Business School, for example, has the most expensive MBA program, and the best paid alumni.

PayScale, a salary-comparison company, recently evaluated salary data of 23,000 MBA graduates from Bloomberg Businessweek‘s top 45 American business schools.

Their data shows that on average, MBAs from top programs make $2.5 million (base-pay plus bonuses) over the course of 20 years in a single industry. HBS alumni make closer to $4 million, while alumni from lower ranked programs (but still in the top 45) like Iowa Tippie, make less than half of that.

Another interesting comparison between the higher ranked and lower ranked programs was the growth of salary over the two-decade period. Graduates from Yale SOM, for example, were awarded with extremely high starting salaries, but then experienced only small increases over the following 20 years. Grads from University of Connecticut’s business school, on the other hand, received lower starting salaries that more than doubled over that same 20-year period.

Below are the top median salaries earned after less than 2 years out of b-school and then the estimated career total for a 20-year long career:

Related Accepted.com Resources:

• B-School Zones
• The Rankings: An Accepted.com Special Report
• Forbes ROI MBA Rankings for 2010
• BusinessWeek’s Top 10 Undergraduate Business Schools with the Best Returns on Investment

Want our news sent directly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Almanac by clicking here!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Dunn has been serving as dean of Tepper since 2002.

“I accepted the position of dean because I wanted to give back to the place that has been so influential in my life and career,” said Dunn. “Without question, the Tepper School is one of the world’s best business schools and I was honored to be invited to lead such a great institution.”

According to Tepper administration, faculty, and students, Dunn has contributed significantly to the top b-school, including leading the $55 million naming donation from David and Marlene Tepper and implementing infrastructure, facility, and academic upgrades.

According to Mark S. Kamlet, CMU executive vice president and provost, “The next dean will have a very solid foundation, indeed, upon which to advance the school.”

For more information on b-school deans stepping down, please see:

• HBS News: Dean Light to Retire
• Chicago Booth Dean Announces Resignation
• Ross Sad to See Dolan Go
• Kellogg Names NYU Stern’s Sally Blount New Dean

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

The chat will take place in the Accepted chat room.

During Accepted’s most recent MBA admissions chat, we hosted a busy event with the Consortium. Here are a few excerpts from the transcript.

Linda Abraham (Oct 20, 2009 7:05:14 PM)
To all the school reps, does the applicant ranking influence the evaluation of the application?

WendyHuberUVA (Oct 20, 2009 7:06:22 PM)
Linda, applicants should apply as if the schools do not see the ranking. Rankings are only looked at when we are deciding fellowships, they are not used in the admission decision.

JacquelynnDayROCHESTER (Oct 20, 2009 7:09:08 PM)
Linda: While we do consider an individual’s rankings, we look at the application as a whole, therefore we encourage students to focus on submitting an overall competitive application

RTorres (Oct 20, 2009 7:05:50 PM)
What happens with applicants that apply to the Consortium and to the specific MBA programs at schools when they are not accepted into the fellowship? How are their MBA applications handled? Are they still considered by the schools?

ErinNicklesburgWISCONSIN (Oct 20, 2009 7:07:59 PM)
RTorres: Each applicant is evaluated independently by each school in terms of both admission and Fellowship decision. An offer of admission does not indicate a guaranteed Fellowship offer, as they are separate. The admission offer will stand regardless of the Fellowship offer. If a Fellowship offer is not given, the applicant will go into the general merit-based aid pool.

AmyPR (Oct 20, 2009 7:12:34 PM)
What is the difference between the November application date and the January application date? Do chances of acceptance increase one date vs. the other?

LaurieShunneyCORNELL (Oct 20, 2009 7:15:21 PM)
AmyPR- Competitiveness for admission and scholarship may increase in later rounds. In general, we recommend submitting the strongest application possible. If you are prepared to apply during the November round, it may help.

By Linda Abraham, founder and president of Accepted.com.