Calling all Kellogg Applicants (2015 Intake) Class of 2017 !

Good luck everyone! Can't believe it's been over a year since I started my applications. One of the most stressful, yet rewarding, years of my life.

Applying in Round 1

R1!

R1 fight!

FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Asst. Dean Kate Smith: The value of a Kellogg degree

Last month’s Kellogg graduation ceremony marked a milestone for me as assistant dean: the first class of two-year students I admitted completed their studies and are going out into the world. I know what they’re feeling — as a Kellogg alum myself, I remember how much I grew and developed during my time in the program, both personally and professionally. In the 15 years since, over and over again I’ve seen firsthand the value of the Kellogg degree. It opens doors to new and incomparable opportunities. Kellogg graduates walk away with an academic foundation and confidence that help them succeed in their career goals, whatever those may be. Being able to draw on the toolkit of skills that I built took me to a whole new level of navigating and achieving my goals. I pivoted from a career in commercial real estate into an internship at Proctor & Gamble, which led to brand management at General Mills and PepsiCo, and now to the admissions office, where I have the privilege of interacting every day with an amazing, talented and dynamic community. The Kellogg degree sets you apart in the working world. Employers and colleagues understand what we stand for: collaboration, creativity, discipline and excellence. It stems from the ethos we foster at Kellogg, a pay-it-forward mentality and our belief in the power of teamwork. Students have so many opportunities to learn from each other and grow, whether it’s in the classroom, on a trip, through internships or simply by interacting with one another. Our alumni exemplify that spirit most of all. The 58,000-member alumni network prides itself on its responsiveness and its eagerness to help one another. From the time they begin at Kellogg, people are so passionately engaged and have such a good experience that as alumni, they love to connect and further each other’s work. The relationships, friendships and drive to engage last a lifetime, at any and all intersections of your career and beyond. That same enthusiasm for community extends to those who are interested in joining the Kellogg family. Contact our admissions office or find a local alum to hear for yourself how Kellogg will change your game — and your life. Kate Smith ’98 is assistant dean of admissions and financial aid at Kellogg School of Management. Having built a 15-year career in brand management at General Mills, Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo, Smith brings extensive marketing and management expertise to Kellogg. Filed under: Academics, Admissions, Student Life Tagged: admissions, alumni, collaboration, Convocation

Have they released essay questions for this year? I cannot find them on the website! Thanks

Excited to apply to Kellogg! The culture has been great so far! Wonder when the app will go up so I can book my tickets for a "real" visit and interview!

IN for R1!

FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Digitizing Kellogg: KETI founder Westin Hatch ’14 on Innovation

When I arrived at Kellogg, I was given a notebook and stacks of papers. I had never owned a tablet but I felt like if I were to become a leader in digital innovation, I needed to try to do things digitally at Kellogg. I bought an iPad and looked all over for the right apps that would allow me to accomplish my schoolwork digitally. Soon I found a small group of students, led by Sam Sung ’13, that was piloting tablets at Kellogg. One of the common complaints was that there was no good app for taking notes. I realized this was a consumer need, so I enrolled in NUvention: Web and led a team in developing Chisel, an iPad app that allows users to type, draw and annotate from within one app. Within three days of launching Chisel, we had 1,000 downloads. We now have users from 28 countries. While building Chisel, I applied to be part of the Dean’s Consulting Alliance (DCA). There, I was asked to lead a team in addressing the distribution of Kellogg’s course material, specifically business cases. After meeting with lots of vendors and comparing costs, my team and I realized Kellogg could save its students over a million dollars by switching to a vendor that provided cases digitally. Not only would such a move cut printing and distribution costs, but it would also result in a superior customer experience. When I returned from my summer 2013 internship, our recommendation had been implemented. Cases for Kellogg’s incoming class were completely digitized. By the end of the 2012-2013 school year, the tablet pilot, which I now led, had solid data that showed the tablets were effective in the classroom without distracting classmates, as critics had feared. Given this data and the fact that cases were going digital, the deans approved my recommendation to allow all students to use tablets in the classroom. No more stacks of paper. Where to go next? I met with the pilot leadership team and together we came up with the name Kellogg Education Technology Incubator and the mission statement of creating “the best technology experience among MBA programs in the world.” With our new mission and help from Dr. Gad Allon in securing funding from a group of alumni, we had the freedom to pilot new ideas. What we didn’t have were the ideas. I then realized we could crowdsource pilot projects from the whole student body. From 22 ideas submitted at a KETI kickoff event, we chose eight to pitch in our final event. Each of the eight teams presented their idea and then the audience of students and faculty graded each team using clickers on a scale of 1 to 5 in four areas. The four teams with the highest average point score at the end of the night were selected for the first class of the incubator and given $60,000 to develop and pilot their ideas. Each team did successfully pilot their idea (Arbyl, KetchUp, Tuplee, & You@Kellogg). It has been an amazing journey during my time at Kellogg to build KETI, launch my startup and digitize the Kellogg experience. I’m honored to receive the Leadership Award for Innovation and in the end have to give credit to my MMM professors who taught me user-centered design, my classmates who supported my far-fetched ideas and the deans for taking on the risk to run these experiments and give me freedom to make my Kellogg experience match my goals. Westin Hatch ’14 recently graduated from the Kellogg MMM program and was awarded the Kellogg Leadership Award for Innovation. Filed under: Academics, Admissions Tagged: Innovation, KETI, Startups

FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Student Perspective: Becoming a Digital Innovation Leader at Kellogg

When I arrived at Kellogg, I was given a notebook and stacks of papers. I had never owned a tablet but I felt like if I were to become a leader in digital innovation, I needed to try to do things digitally at Kellogg. I bought an iPad and looked all over for the right apps that would allow me to accomplish my schoolwork digitally. Soon I found a small group of students, led by Sam Sung ’13, that was piloting tablets at Kellogg. One of the common complaints was that there was no good app for taking notes. I realized this was a consumer need, so I enrolled in NUvention: Web and led a team in developing Chisel, an iPad app that allows users to type, draw and annotate from within one app. Within three days of launching Chisel, we had 1,000 downloads. We now have users from 28 countries. While building Chisel, I applied to be part of the Dean’s Consulting Alliance (DCA). There, I was asked to lead a team in addressing the distribution of Kellogg’s course material, specifically business cases. After meeting with lots of vendors and comparing costs, my team and I realized Kellogg could save its students over a million dollars by switching to a vendor that provided cases digitally. Not only would such a move cut printing and distribution costs, but it would also result in a superior customer experience. When I returned from my summer 2013 internship, our recommendation had been implemented. Cases for Kellogg’s incoming class were completely digitized. By the end of the 2012-2013 school year, the tablet pilot, which I now led, had solid data that showed the tablets were effective in the classroom without distracting classmates, as critics had feared. Given this data and the fact that cases were going digital, the deans approved my recommendation to allow all students to use tablets in the classroom. No more stacks of paper. Where to go next? I met with the pilot leadership team and together we came up with the name Kellogg Education Technology Incubator and the mission statement of creating “the best technology experience among MBA programs in the world.” With our new mission and help from Dr. Gad Allon in securing funding from a group of alumni, we had the freedom to pilot new ideas. What we didn’t have were the ideas. I then realized we could crowdsource pilot projects from the whole student body. From 22 ideas submitted at a KETI kickoff event, we chose eight to pitch in our final event. Each of the eight teams presented their idea and then the audience of students and faculty graded each team using clickers on a scale of 1 to 5 in four areas. The four teams with the highest average point score at the end of the night were selected for the first class of the incubator and given $60,000 to develop and pilot their ideas. Each team did successfully pilot their idea (Arbyl, KetchUp, Tuplee, & You@Kellogg). It has been an amazing journey during my time at Kellogg to build KETI, launch my startup and digitize the Kellogg experience. I’m honored to receive the Leadership Award for Innovation and in the end have to give credit to my MMM professors who taught me user-centered design, my classmates who supported my far-fetched ideas and the deans for taking on the risk to run these experiments and give me freedom to make my Kellogg experience match my goals. Westin Hatch ’14 recently graduated from the Kellogg MMM program and was awarded the Kellogg Leadership Award for Innovation. Filed under: Academics, Admissions Tagged: Innovation, KETI, Startups

Dear friends,

Any updates on the essays?

Thanks.

FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Packed House for Japan Info Session

We had a packed house for our Tokyo, Japan, info session! Follow our admissions team on Instagram with #KelloggOnTheRoad and find an upcoming info session near you. Follow us on Instagram. Filed under: Admissions Tagged: admissions, Info Sessions, japan

no essay questions yet

This was the response I received from admissions on July 11th regarding the essay prompts:

"Thank you for your interest in the Kellogg School of Management. Our 2015 application will be available next month and the essay questions will be available within the application. "

R1-er,

bml

Changes to the essays and video essays have been released to P&Q:

https://poetsandquants.com/2014/07/21/ke ... ten-essay/

The two new essays are:

1. Resilience. Perseverance. Grit. Call it what you will…. Challenges can build character. Describe a challenging experience you’ve had. How were you tested? What did you learn? (450 words)

2. Leadership requires an ability to collaborate with and motivate others. Describe a professional experience that required you to influence people. What did this experience teach you about working with others, and how will it make you a better leader? (450 words)

The essays are pretty much the same as last year (they are changed slightly, but I feel like I could've definitely used last years essays for these prompts), with the "Why Kellogg" essay now being in video form instead of written essay.

REALLY excited for these prompts... I'm starting to work on them now.

FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Kellogg Essay Questions Are Now Available!

Thank you for your interest in the Kellogg School of Management. My name is Beth Tidmarsh, and I am Director of Admissions for Kellogg’s Full-Time MBA programs. I am excited to tell you that our 2014-2015 application questions are now posted online. Please find the questions below: For 2014-2015, the following two essays are required of all applicants: Resilience. Perseverance. Grit. Call it what you will … challenges can build character. Describe a challenging experience you’ve had. How were you tested? What did you learn? (450 words) Leadership requires an ability to collaborate with and motivate others. Describe a professional experience that required you to influence people.  What did this experience teach you about working with others, and how will it make you a better leader? (450 words) Certain applicants will respond to additional questions: Dual-degree applicants: For applicants to the MMM or JD-MBA dual degree programs, please explain why that program is right for you. (250 words) Re-applicants: Since your previous application, what steps have you taken to strengthen your candidacy? (250 word limit) More information about applying can be found on the Kellogg website. The 2014-2015 application will be available later this summer. In the meantime, we encourage you to learn more about Kellogg and each of our four full-time MBA programs.  Please do not hesitate to contact the Kellogg Admissions team if you have any questions.  Stay tuned for information about the application! Beth Tidmarsh ’03 is the director of admissions for full-time MBA programs at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Her previous career experience includes corporate solutions and consulting work at Jones Lang LaSalle, Huron Consulting Group and Accenture. In addition to being a Kellogg graduate, she is also a proud Northwestern alumna. Filed under: Admissions Tagged: admissions, application, essay, questions