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Re: Directory of MBA Applicant Blogs [#permalink]
FROM MBA Data Guru: MBA Summer Internship
MBA Summer Internship

I haven’t posted anything in the past month because I have been busy interviewing for my summer internship. I interviewed with 14 different consulting companies and am happy to say that I have already received 3 offers and am waiting to hear back from a few others. Getting your first offer is the greatest feeling in the world. I can feel my stress melting away.

If you think it is stressful waiting to hear back from business school just you wait for internship interviews. At least with business school you have only invested a thousand or so on applications and a bunch of time studying for the GMAT and filling out applications. For career switchers who need an internship in their industry, we gave up our high paying jobs and $200K in tuition and expenses to gamble in getting our dream job.

The good news is that business school does a good job of preparing you for interviews. I wish I could go back to undergrad and teach myself how to interview.

I will start posting regularly again now that I have more free time.

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FROM MBA Data Guru: MIT MBA Acceptance Rate
MIT MBA Acceptance Rate

MIT is one of the most selective business schools in the top ten after Stanford and Harvard. The MIT MBA acceptance rate is only 13%, however several factors can influence your chance of admission at Sloan. Now that I have finished my consulting interviews and secured some summer internship offers I have been able to turn my focus back to this website. I built a statistic model to predict the chance of admissions based on a few pieces of data. I plan to build an admissions calculator, but until then I’ll share with you some of the insights I learned about MIT MBA acceptance rate.

MIT MBA Acceptance Rate by GMAT

As you would expect, a higher GMAT increases your chance of acceptance at MIT. The average GMAT score at MIT is 713, which results in a 13% acceptance rate. Increasing your GMAT by 100 points from 650 to 750 would roughly double your chance of admission. Even with an 800, the acceptance rate is only 20%.

MIT MBA Acceptance Rate by GPA

GPA is also critical for admission into the Sloan School of Management. The average GPA is very high at 3.6. For each .10 change in GPA, the acceptance rate changes by roughly 1%. Obviously your GPA is likely already written in stone, so you should focus on increasing your GMAT instead.

MIT MBA Acceptance Rate: GMAT vs. GPA


Most schools prefer a high GMAT score* to a high GPA, however MIT is not one of them. The only other school that prefers a high GPA is Harvard Business School. Although GPA matters slightly more than GMAT, GPA can’t be changed once you graduate. If you have a low GPA then make sure you have a solid GMAT and focus on other factors like leadership and volunteer work. I started a networking group that grew to 900 people, which went over well with the admissions committee. It wasn’t even hard, I just started a meetup group in my area.

MIT MBA Acceptance Rate by Round

At Sloan, the round you apply in is very important. As you can see in the graph above, acceptance rate at MIT is 50% higher for round 1 applicants compared to round 2. If you have no other choice, you might as well apply round 2, but absolutely try to apply round 1 if possible.

GMAT, GPA and application round were the only factors that had a noticeable affect on admissions rate. Surprisingly, industry, major and years or work experience had no impact on acceptance rate.

*A high GMAT or high GPA is defined as one standard deviation above average.

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FROM MBA Data Guru: MBA Admissions Process Advice
MBA Admissions Process Advice

The MBA admissions process is long and difficult. It is no wonder that many people pay a lot of money to hire admissions consultants to help them with the process. This article will help you to understand the critical parts of the application process.

MBA Admissions Process Components
  • GMAT
  • Resume
  • Recommendations
  • Essays
  • Application
This list of components for an MBA application is ranked from most important to least important as far as I’m concerned. Every school worth going to will have all of these components, if not more

  • GMAT – All top MBA programs require the GMAT (or GRE). It is extremely important for admissions. If you want to be admitted to a top ten school then shoot for 700+. Preferably 720+ given that GMAT scores at top schools have been on the rise in recent years due to more international applications.
  • Resume – The resume is made up of your work experience, leadership experience, undergraduate school and interests. The truth of the matter is that business schools care a lot about name brand for the companies you have worked at as well as the undergraduate school you attended. If possible try to work at a desirable company such as Google, Goldman Sachs or McKinsey but at the very least, try to have at least one company on your resume that a normal person will have heard of. For additional advice, check out my article on improving your resume.
  • Recommendations – Your recommendations are critical! If any of your recommenders give you even lukewarm recommendations then you can kiss your acceptance goodbye. Everyone gets good recommendations because we all pick people that like us. It is helpful to pick alumni of the school if possible or at least people that have an MBA. Recommenders who don’t have an MBA probably won’t understand the process and what the admissions committee is looking for. If your recommender did not go to a top MBA school, spend some time explaining to them what schools are looking for in a recommendation.
  • Essay – The essay is your chance to explain to the admissions committee why you are a good fit and why you need an MBA. You should do as much research as possible for each school before writing the essay so that you can tailor it to the school. In researching a school you should use their website, visit the school and network with currents students/alumni. I can’t stress enough networking with current students. They recently went through the same process that you will be going through and they know what the culture of the school is. If you really befriend a student they may even help you by editing your resume and essays, but don’t expect it. If I were you I’d avoid asking too much of the tour guide who shows your around because they meet hundreds of prospective students a month and don’t have enough time to spend helping every one. Instead I would ask the tour guide to connect you with a student who is in the area in which you are interested. For example, if I were applying again then I would email the tour guide and ask them to connect me with someone who knows about financial services consulting or maybe someone who did an internship at XYZ consulting company. This gives the guide the option of passing you off to a friend of theirs who doesn’t get as many emails from prospective students. That person will probably be willing to spend more time talking to you.
  • Even after you have done all the other components of the application you will still have to fill out the actual application. It typically takes two or three hours and will require you to have all the information about each job you worked and degree you received. If you have ever gotten into trouble, most schools ask if you were ever on probation or arrested, so have an answer ready.
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Re: Directory of MBA Applicant Blogs [#permalink]
FROM Pulling That MBA Trigger: Booth – Ding #1
So it’s official, my first ding of Round 2 from Booth. Unfortunately, it was what I considered my best application so now I’m a little apprehensive about the fate of my other three applications. I’m not too disappointed because I knew it was a long shot but I had to try. My presentation was good, I have no doubt about that but I think my lack of work experience was what held me back along with an average-ish GMAT score. For any other school, I don’t think this would matter but this is the Top 5 we’re talking about. I’ve also been thinking about my plans if Round 2 doesn’t work this time around… more on that later!

Congratulations to everyone invited to interview! I hope to be in that enviable position soon.


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FROM MBA Data Guru: Columbia MBA Acceptance Rate Analysis
Columbia MBA Acceptance Rate Analysis

The Columbia MBA acceptance rate is on the higher side for a top 10 school, at around 18%. Despite the deceptively high acceptance rate, Columbia is still a tough school to gain admission. I built a predictive model which can give you some insight into what the Columbia Business School admissions committee is looking for in applicants.

Columbia MBA Acceptance Rate by GMAT

As expected, Columbia MBA acceptance rate increases as GMAT rises. The average GMAT score is an impressive 719. Increasing GMAT score by 100 points from 650 to 750 increases odds of acceptance by 140%, which is a bigger benefit than MIT.

Columbia MBA Acceptance Rate by GPA
Surprisingly GPA has little to no affect on acceptance rate at Columbia. The average GPA of Columbia applicants is 3.49 while the GPA for those admitted is almost unchanged at 3.51. Stanford is the only other school where GPA doesn’t matter. For those of you out there with a low GPA and high GMAT, Columbia is a great school to apply.

Columbia MBA Acceptance Rate by Round

The round you apply in impacts Columbia MBA acceptance rate. At CBS, if you apply during Early Decision then you are forced to enroll if accepted. Columbia seems to be worried about yield for accepted students if they are forcing applicants to choose them. If you are serious about Columbia then consider applying Early Decision because you have a slight edge otherwise you might as well wait for regular decision. Columbia is actually rolling admissions, so the sooner you submit your app the faster you get your decision.

Columbia MBA Acceptance Rate by Age

The age at which you apply has a strong impact on your chance of admission. The best time to apply is when you are 27 or 28. The further a candidate is from the average age, the lower their chance of acceptance is. I believe that this is because candidates with around 5 years of work experience have worked long enough to impress potential employers and contribute to classroom discussion while not being over qualified for on campus recruiting positions. Duke, Cornell and Boothall have a similar age effect.

Other Admissions Factors
Liberal arts majors have roughly twice the acceptance rate as others. I don’t have gender in my data set but my hypothesis is that Columbia is trying to attract women which is why the acceptance rate is so high for liberal arts majors. Acceptance rate is higher for economics majors but lower for finance majors. Consultants also have a major advantage, with an impressive 30% acceptance rate.

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FROM MBA Data Guru: MBA Interview Acceptance Rate Rankings
MBA Interview Acceptance Rate Rankings

So you have just been invited to interview at the MBA school of your dreams. Obviously this raises your chance of getting in, but by how much? In general, top ten schools have lower MBA interview acceptance rates while schools ranked 11 to 20 have a higher acceptance rate for applicants who were interviewed.

MBA Interview Acceptance Rate by Rank

Interview acceptance rate for Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, Booth, MIT, Kellogg, Hass, Columbia, Dartmouth, NYU, Ross, Darden, Yale, Duke, McCombs, Anderson, Cornell, Tepper, Kenan-Flagler, Emory

The acceptance rate ranges from 34% to 75% for schools in the top 20. The average MBA interview acceptance rate for the top 10 is 50% and it is 62% for schools ranked 11 to 20.

MBA Interview Acceptance Rate Rankings from Highest to Lowest

NYU jumps out as the highest acceptance rate by a wide margin. If you have been selected to interview at Stern then you can prepare to open a bottle of champagne because you are probably going to business school. No other school in the top 10 has an interview acceptance rate above 60%.

On the other end of the spectrum is Kellogg and Tuck with the lowest acceptance rates. These two schools will allow anyone who visits campus to interview, so it is not surprising that they admit significantly fewer applicants who are interviewed. Most of the top 10 schools have an acceptance rate clustered between 46% and 51%.

Duke has the lowest acceptance rate for a school not in the top 10 at 52%. The rest of the schools range from 57% to 68%,

Good luck and don’t forget to prepare for your MBA interviews!

 

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FROM Naija MBA Gal: For Round 2 interviewees
First, let me say: Congrats on your invite!! I’ve been getting a few emails from round two applicants that recently received interview invitations. So I decided to put this up to help as many as need it. I’ve listed the things I did to prepare for my interview. You can also check my interview debriefs: […]
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FROM My Journey to Business School: Decisions, Decisions


It’s been a while since I’ve received offers of admission to the 3 schools that I applied to. I’ve had a lot of time to consider which school I want to attend this year, and it was really tough choosing between schools that I was excited about while applying. But it’s a good place to be in and after a lot of thought (and a lot of “What if”s and back-and-forth) I’ve finally made my decision. But I don’t think I’m ready to share it with the world yet.

These are some things I considered while making my decision:

  • Brand Value of the school
  • Kellogg’s MMM program vs regular MBA
  • Scholarship money & Financial Aid
  • Strength of the school’s alumni network in India and SE Asia
  • Alumni presence and recruiting opportunities in locations and organizations of my interest
  • Fit with other accepted students, current students and alumni
I’ll expand on the above points further once I share my decision. Meanwhile, for those who are still deciding – Stacy Blackman has recently published an article on USNews about the factors to evaluate while choosing between business schools. [Caveat: This is not just a shameless plug-in since I was quoted in the article – it is genuinely a good read.]

While I’m keeping my cards close, it isn’t any less exciting for me to hear what TopDogMBA, NaijaMBAgal, Hugoness and FinanceFurry  have decided. I’m looking forward to seeing where we all end up, and I really hope we will all get a chance to meet up before joining business school.

For the others who still have their fingers crossed with R2 applications – I genuinely hope y’all hear some good news soon! :)


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FROM MBA Data Guru: HBS Interview Questions and Preparation
HBS Interview Questions and Preparation


You have just received your HBS interview invitation and now you realize that you need to prepare for one of the most important interviews of your life. After all the Harvard acceptance rate for those interviewed is still only 50%. This guide will tell you what to expect during the interview and what are the most frequently asked questions during a Harvard MBA interview. Be sure to spend ample time preparing, because you know that everyone else invited by Harvard to interview will be also.

What to Expect in the HBS Interview
The interview will be 30 minutes long and will be conducted by two admissions committee members. It can take place on-campus, off-campus hub, or even sometimes over skype. There are many Harvard MBA interview questions that pop up pretty frequently, but Harvard has a lot more variation in the questions they ask than other schools. Harvard is going to dig deeper and ask follow up questions, similar to a McKinsey behavioral interview. You can expect anywhere from 5 to 18 questions during the interview. On average Harvard will ask you 11 interview questions.

Harvard will ask a lot of detailed questions about your resume and essays. Expect the adcoms to have read your full application. They seem to ask a lot of questions about choices and transitions that you have made. They will ask not only why you made that transition but how you made the transition.

List of HBS Interview Questions
Here is a list of the most common Harvard MBA interview questions. It is compiled from Clear Admit interview reports. I calculated the probability of a person receiving each question in an interview so you know which questions to prepare for most. Sometimes they will ask a slight variation to the questions below.

  • (70%) What are your weaknesses? What is negative feedback you have received? What do you struggle with?
  • (60%) Why did you choose ABC employer or transition to ABC employer? How did you get XYZ job?
  • (55%) Is there anything you wish we had asked?
  • (50%) What are your long term goals / plans? What do you want to do post MBA?
  • (45%) Tell me about yourself.
  • (45%) Why did you pick your college?
  • (45%) What are your strengths?
  • (35%) Why get an MBA?
  • (30%) Describe your industry and role? What do you make of XYZ new competitor in your industry?
  • (30%) What do you do in your job? What does a typical day at your current job look like?
  • (25%) What is your dream job (or internship)?
  • (20%) Tell me about a challenge you have faced.
  • (20%) Tell about a company outside of your area of interest that you appreciate?
  • (15%) What do you like to do for fun? What do you do outside work?
  • (15%) Was moving to the United States (or other country) hard? Did you experience a cultural shock?
  • (15%) Why Harvard? How have you gotten to know us?
  • (10%) Why did you pick your major? What was the process?
  • (10%) How did you get these promotions?
  • (10%) Tell me some more about your siblings or family.
  • (10%) What would you do differently if you were CEO of your company?
  • (10%) What’s an issue in the news you always follow?
  • (10%) Did you visit an HBS class? What did you think?
Interestingly they don’t frequently ask why Harvard as much as other schools. Perhaps because Harvard is one of the most prestigious and hard to get into school in the world. You should prepare for at least the first 9 HBS interview questions on the list because you have a very high chance of being asked one of these questions. Be sure to read my guide on how to prepare for an MBA interview.

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FROM MBA Data Guru: Wharton MBA Interview Questions and Preparation
Wharton MBA Interview Questions and Preparation


Wharton is tied for the number one business school in the world. If you are fortunate to be invited to interview for a spot in Wharton’s MBA program then you are very lucky. Unfortunately, . Given the lower than 50-50 chance of acceptance, you should prepare as much as possible for your Wharton interview. This guide will walk you what to expect during your team based discussion (TBD), your individual Wharton MBA interview as well as what are the most common questions asked during the interview.

What to Expect in Wharton MBA Interview
There are two components to a Wharton interview. First you will participate in the TBD, then you will have a one on one interview, typically with a second year MBA student who watched you during the TBD. I recommend showing up to your interview at least 30 minutes early. This will give you a chance to meet as many of the applicants as possible. Hopefully you will meet several of the applicants who will be in your team based discussion, which will make working with them easier.

The TBD will last roughly 35 minutes and there will be 4 or 5 other applicants in the interview with you. There will also be 2 second year MBA students observing you. One of the two observers will be your one on one interviewer. Each prospective student will be given 1 minute to introduce them-self and their idea for the prompt. Take notes during the prompt and probably throughout the entire discussion. Make sure you know everyone’s name or you will look like an idiot, so write everyone’s name down. After the introductions are over you have another 30 minutes to solve the problem.

If your idea is selected then great, if not then don’t worry, just play along with the group. This isn’t an idea contest, it is an opportunity to see how your interact in a group. You need to show that you can work well in a group. If you act like a jerk and try to force your idea down everyone’s throat then you will not get into Wharton.

If possible try to show leadership traits. This can be by proposing an agenda for the discussion. This could be assigning roles such as time keeper and note taker. Be sure to talk but not too much. And do not interrupt other applicants.

Wharton MBA Interview Questions
The personal interview will last 10 to 15 minutes and will be conducted by one of the two MBA2’s who observed your TBD. You will typically be asked 4 questions, but it can range from 2 to 6. Here is a list of Wharton interview questions as well as the probability that you will be asked it during the one on one interview. The Wharton MBA interview questions were collected from Clear Admit.

  • (83%) How do you think the discussion went?
  • (42%) Walk me through your resume / tell me about yourself.
  • (42%) Did your behavior in the TBD reflect how you normally are?
  • (25%) Why Wharton?
  • (25%) Do you have any updates to your application?
  • (25%) What clubs would you participate in here at Wharton?
  • (17%) What is something that your group could have done better?
  • (17%) Who I would want and NOT want on my team?
I found the the who you would not want on your team question especially difficult because I wasn’t expecting it. Even though it is a rare question, make sure you have an answer. Good luck in your Wharton MBA interview and be sure to check out my guide to preparing for MBA interviews.

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FROM MBA Data Guru: Stern Interview Preparation Guide
Stern Interview Preparation Guide


Stern Interviewed me back in December 2013. I am happy to say that I was accepted. I used Clear Admit to prepare, and it was very helpful. I felt ready and don’t remember being caught off guard by any questions. I have created a list of the most common questions you can expect during a Stern interview because I want to help all of my potential future classmates. Most Stern interviews are around 30 minutes and conducted by an admissions staff member who has read your full application. My first question was about a unique activity that I participate in that I mentioned in the application. When you arrive, you will receive a folder with information about clubs/programs you mentioned you would be interested in. You will also be given a Stern shirt so you can show your pride if you are admitted. My Stern interview was right before winter break so I didn’t hear back for almost 3 weeks, but often candidates get their decision in as little as a few days. Don’t forget to bring a copy of your transcripts, your application cannot proceed without them. I forgot mine and had to overnight them when I got back home.

The Most Common Stern Interview Questions
  • (63%) Why do you want to attend Stern?
  • (63%) How did you come to work for XYZ company? Or why did you transition for XYZ company to ABC company?
  • (53%) What is your back up plan if you don’t get a job in your desired post-MBA role?
  • (42%) What programs would you get involved with at Stern?
  • (37%) Describe a conflict you had at work (or challenging situation or time you failed) and how you overcame it.
  • (37%) What is your proudest professional achievement?
  • (37%) What companies do you want to work at post MBA? (Have a list of 5 companies and reasons for each one)
  • (37%) How is your post MBA goal different from your current role?
  • (32%) Where would you like to intern between your first and second year?
  • (26%) How would your (friends, manager or colleague) describe you?
  • (21%) What is the weakest aspect of your resume?
  • (21%) If you are admitted to all of the schools you applied to, how will you decide which school to attend?
  • (21%) Why do you want to get an MBA?
  • (16%) How do you plan to market yourself to your target industry?
  • (16%) Tell me about yourself or walk me through your resume.
  • (16%) If 25 years from now you were asked to return to Stern to speak, how would you want to be introduced?
  • (11%) What is your role within a team?
  • (11%) What will you contribute to the class?
  • What other schools are you applying to?
  • What other schools did you apply to? How would you decide where to attend?
  • What frustrates me the most at my current role?
  • What role would I prefer to take (if any) in a student organization?
  • Tell me about what you’ve learned working at your current company?
  • What’s the best constructive criticism your boss has given you?
  • What do you hope to learn from your future classmates?
  • How did you choose to attend ABC for undergrad? What is your best memory of your time there?
  • How did you first hear about Stern and in what ways did you learn about the school?
  • What most surprises you about Stern?
  • Is international experience important to me in my business school experience? Why?
  • Tell me what you like to do in your free time.
  • What do you like about New York? What neighborhoods would you consider living in?
  • What would you change/enhance on the Stern website?
  • What makes Stern’s culture different from other schools?
  • During the first few weeks at Stern, how will you distinguish yourself from the other students?
  • Why do your MBA in New York City? (about the city.. not the school)
  • What do you bring to the class?
Any question that doesn’t have a percentage next to it I only saw once in interview reports. The one Stern interview question that rubs me the wrong way is the question about  your back up plan. As a member of the class of 2016, I wonder is it so common that Stern students fail to get the job they want post MBA that Stern need to ask almost every student this question?

If you are invited for a Stern interview, please let me know if this guide was helpful for you. Also, check out my guide on how to prepare for an MBA interview.

Other interview preparation articles:

MIT / Sloan Interview Preparation

Upenn / Wharton Interview Preparation

Tuck Interview Preparation

HBS Interview Preparation

MBA Data Guru - Data and analytics that will help you in the MBA admissions process
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FROM My Journey to Business School: The weirdest thing just happened…
….I received an interview call from ISB! And why is that weird? I applied in November, and decisions are due in 2 days.

I’m not sure what to make of it yet. This definitely is a (welcome?) twist – and just when I thought I’d finally made a decision!! Huh. We’ll just have to wait and see.

I’ll be back with another update tomorrow after my interview.


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FROM My MBA Journey: A Goal is a Dream with a Deadline


At times this MBA journey has challenged me. It hasn’t been an easy path. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never wanted to give up and I’ve never questioned my decision to apply for grad school. But, if you haven’t started your journey, please realize this is not an easy process.

I truly believe there’s no personal growth if your goals are handed to you. Throughout this journey so far I’ve learned a lot and grown from the experience.

I’m happy to say the hard work is paying off in other ways. I’ve received an invitation to interview at 4 out of the 5 schools I’ve applied to. I am beyond elated for this opportunity.

I also realize there is a lot of work to be done. Several schools have seen an increase in applicants this year. I have been reading MBA books in an effort to prepare for my interviews. In addition to finalizing research on individual schools, I’ve also been regularly reading MBA blogs. Use caution when subscribing. Although most blogs have a lot of great content and user generated discussions, some are a bit misleading. Here are a few independent blogs I have been frequenting:

https://blog.clearadmit.com/

https://poetsandquants.com/category/mba-blogs/

Some school programs have their own blogs too. In addition to events and updates, there are tips that have helped throughout the application process.

https://blogs.fuqua.duke.edu/duke-mba/

https://michiganross.umich.edu/admissions-blog

Both programs and current students claim the interview is usually an “open conversation” instead of a formal interview. I have read some horror stories though about some grad school interviews. Some of the questions seem more difficult than the questions Google asks during interviews. We’ll see what happens. In the meantime I’m going to keep researching!


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FROM My MBA Journey: The Fuqua Experience


I am spending the weekend in Durham, NC to visit Duke and the Fuqua School of Business to learn more about the MBA program. I woke up at 3AM to catch an early flight. By the time I landed in NC I was able to work from “home” for the day and attend Fuqua activities in the evening.

I had the opportunity to attend two MBA classes. The first was a computer science class that prepared students to use Excel performance tools while on the job. The class was similar to “office hours” in the sense that the class was optional to attend. The professor provided additional help and direction. It was really nice to see this side of things. Sometimes prospective students think grad school is a completely cut throat environment where you fend for yourself. From what I’ve seen, this is not the case. Both the students and faculty have been nothing but supportive to the students and want them to succeed.

The second class was a marketing research section. It was more of a lecture format with approximately 70 students in attendance. It seemed to be similar to the “typical class.”

After the classes, a group of prospective students went to Fuqua Friday. It’s an event held every week for the students and their families to attend. During this event, students and their families get to relax and bond over food and drinks. The event was very well attended this week. There were several current students who were kind enough to spend time with me and some other prospective students during their Friday night off. They were not “buddies” assigned to us. They simply saw us and shared their thoughts and experiences with us. The students were extremely welcoming and answered all of our questions. I’ve found speaking with current students is invaluable during school trips. They help to provide a different level of insight into the school.

My experience with Fuqua so far has exceeded my expectations. I agree with the slogan, Fuqua is “rethinking the boundaries of business school.” I am looking forward to my fun filled busy day at Fuqua tomorrow!


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FROM The adventures of a (provisional) MBA student: FIELD 2 – “International Immersion”
A core part of the Harvard Business School MBA curriculum is FIELD, divided into 3 distinct parts;

FIELD 1 – Leadership Intelligence: An introspective classroom based-program focused on self-awareness.

FIELD 2 – Global Intelligence: A global immersion program, with a team-based project in an emerging economy.

FIELD 3 – Integrative Intelligence: Groups of 6 MBA first years are tasked with launching a microbusiness within the semester.

I’m not sure how I feel about the module names (?!), but click here for more information about: HBS FIELD.

In each section of FIELD, the emphasis is on ability for practical ‘doing’ skills, rather than knowledge-based learning. I’ll admit I was intrigued by the experience prior to HBS, and while many programs now offer some sort of ‘experiential learning component’ the effort and resources put into it by HBS did make it one of the more unique programs.

Most of the top schools offer some form of experiential learning, but I found it quite unusual to a) have it scheduled as part of the formal curriculum and also b) what this enables is to work in a group with your fellow students rather than an individual experience.

Instead most other schools focus on student-driven/optional programs which while giving greater flexibility inevitably offers a different type of experience – if it happens at all – due to all the other great things that are competing for your attention.

FIELD 2 takes place in the first year, with preparation in Cambridge and a placement in between the two semesters. I’ve been fortunate enough to spend my time in Chengdu in China – not somewhere I was familiar with before my placement. While not a common tourist destination, it’s certainly somewhere interesting to visit from an academic point of view.


A Chengdu market street – fully immersed

The course places you in a small team of 6 MBA students, assigned a project from a local company in your placement city and given a week to propose a solution. A significant portion of the week is dedicated to understanding the local market, tastes and preferences, ensuring mutual benefit for both team and company.

It’s been a fascinating week, and I was really lucky to be working with a social enterprise in startup community, which completely challenged my own preconceptions of business in China. Working with them led to a very different type of learning from just a tourist trip/b-school trek.

I also feel pretty pleased to have completed a small project that really seemed to influence our hosts, and changed the way they were thinking about a problem. They were more than happy to stay in touch and promised to share the results, which we will hopefully get to see soon!

For this semester, we are now on to the next part of the FIELD program, FIELD 3…


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FROM TopDogMBA - A Reapplicant's Tail: Every little thing – why I chose MIT Sloan over INSEAD
Those of you who’ve been following me for a while will know that I was honoured to receive MBA admits to both INSEAD and MIT Sloan. And, while it all seemed a lot clearer when I started this process, choosing between these two great institutions has taken me a lot of time. Having thought long […]
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FROM My MBA Journey: Fuqua Weekend Day Two


The day started with a Career Management Information Session focusing on opportunities in the technology industry. Residing in the Research Triangle Park, Duke is a great place for those interested in tech.

Fuqua also offers opportunities for entrepreneurs such as the Start Up Challenge, Center for Advanced Social Entrepreneurship, and the Fuqua Tech Academy.

There are great resources available through the Career Center. If a company does not traditionally recruit on campus, the Center tries to connect students with the company by utilizing alumni relations. It was nice to hear the Career Center sometimes even helps spouses of MBA students find jobs in the area if they had to relocate.

Here are some quick stats about the 2014 Fuqua alumni.

Average salary $114k (not including bonuses)

Career field by function as a percent of 2014 grads:

Marketing: 21%

Finance: 24%

Strategy: 34%

Management: 16%

Next I attended a Curriculum Panel session led by students. The Fuqua Curriculum is a bit different than other MBA programs. Instead of having no classes on Fridays like most MBA programs, Fuqua students do not have classes on Wednesdays. It’s not a day off though. Club meetings and recruiting events fill up students Wednesday schedules. Apparently, more students stick around on the weekend since they don’t have a 3 day weekend “off.”

In an effort to prepare students for their internship, Fuqua requires all core classes to be completed very early on in the program. Below is an example of the first part of the program curriculum.

Global Institute –Introductory to MBA, 4 weeks

Fall I –core classes, 6 weeks

Fall II –core classes, 6 weeks

Spring I –final core class, rest are electives, 6 weeks

Spring II – electives, 6 weeks

Fuqua students do not receive exact grades on a 4.0 scale. Instead they receive a level of passing or not passing. For example a student may receive a “high passing” status which is somewhat equivalent to a 3.5 grade. Grades are disclosed, which was a decision the students helped make.

After the curriculum session, I attended an information session held by the Partners Club. The club provides opportunities for friendship and camaraderie for the partners of the students. The partners also provided a lot of useful information about places to live in the area. Immediately following this session we were taken on a tour of the school that ended with lunch.

Following lunch I attended a Student Panel session during which the current students answered questions about anything and everything. It was helpful to learn more about the student clubs and roles available within them. I participated in several student clubs during my undergrad and thought it was an irreplaceable learning experience. If accepted to Duke I hope to participate in the AWIB, MBAA, Board Fellows, Marketing Club and of course the Beer Club.

The last session of the day was the Diversity Panel. I enjoyed hearing about different club opportunities to make an impact on campus. AWIB recently administered a survey and compared the results across male and female participants. Female students appeared to have a different perspective and level of acceptance on campus. After the study was analyzed a town hall meeting was called to further investigate and determine ways to improve the experience for females. I found this to be an especially empowering example of the Fuqua culture.

Finally I had my interview at 4PM that day. It was a pretty casual interview with a second year student. There were only two questions that were a bit unexpected. Throughout the interview and the entire weekend, everyone was extremely welcoming and friendly. I must say it was a great weekend which ultimately left a great impression of the Fuqua program.


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