Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)

Question

Carnegie Mellon is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Carnegie Mellon offers a strong transelite program. It has many obvious strengths, especially in technical and quantitative fields. Tepper stresses its unique approach to management science and how it is a "truly" interdisciplinary school.

Pittsburgh is the 22nd largest economic area in the US.

Academic Calendar: 4 mini-semesters per year (CMU was one of the first schools to use this type of schedule)

Tracks: https://business.tepper.cmu.edu/default.aspx?id=142012

Duration: 2 years with option of graduating in 16 months
https://business.tepper.cmu.edu/default.aspx?id=141564

The first two minisemesters are prescribed.

Electives begin in the third minisemester.

Hjort · Answer

FT 2005 has Carnegie Mellon tied at #32 with Georgetown. This is just below Vanderbilt and just above Western Ontario.

EIU 2004 places Carnegie at #29 worldwide- ahead of Texas and LBS.

Hjort · Answer

Employment Stats https://web.gsia.cmu.edu/default.aspx?id=141548

Hjort · Answer

CEOs: FPL, Chiron https://www.ge.com/en/company/companyinf ... jimori.htm

Hjort · Answer

A short article on Carnegie Mellon from Business Week: https://www.businessweek.com/magazine/co ... _mz056.htm

Hjort · Answer

Value Considerations

Estimated Total Cost for 2 Years: c. 116k.

Tuition: 38.8 k per annum 

FT05 Value For Money #85, near Chicago, MIT, and Michigan.

Hjort · Answer

Class Profile

https://business.tepper.cmu.edu/default.aspx?id=141605

Note that the percentage of students with GMAT above 690 has increased from 35% to 47% from class of 2004 to class of 2006.

In addition, the percentage of students with GMAT below 600 has fallen from 5% to 1%.

Avg. years of experience has fallen from 5.5 to 4.3.

jackson24nj · Answer

also interesting to note how much they have decreased their class size in order to have a very competitive class.

Hjort · Answer

Inspired by jackson24nj I looked at my files for CMU again. The change from 2003 to 2006 is far more dramatic.

The percentage of enrollees with GMAT above 690 went from 21% to 47%. Not surprisingly, the percentage of enrollees with GMAT below 600 went from 14% to 1%!

vasild · Answer

Interview Information

I had my interview a couple of weeks ago and I thought sharing the experience may be useful to someone applying to CMU. Check the link for my responses to the standard accepted.com questionnaire. The site contains responses from about 50 other CMU applicants, so it's very useful.

https://www.accepted.com/mba/interviews/ ... IntID=8374

In brief:
- I am an international, so it was a phone interview;
- the interview lasted 30 mins, all the questions were standard (why Tepper, why now, leadership exmp, diversity), and I never managed to raise my 'school passion level' to a satisfactory level. I felt it was a very impersonal experience - the interviewer was not familiar with my application, so I felt awkward answering the essay questions again.
- The interviewer did not say ANYTHING apart from asking the predetermined questions - no follow-ups, no clarifications. Just a small 'Do you have any questions?' session at the end, which resulted in references to other school officials.

I guess the best way to prepare is to go through your resume and essays, because you'll be answering the same questions again (very likely). Use accepted.com's interview feedback database. Try and do a mock interview before the real thing - this was my first phone interview and I feel I could have been more calm and ready, had I done a mock interview before that.

Hjort · Answer

Thanks for relating your impressions of the interview. I obviously did not take part in your interview but I would not automatically assume that the interviewer had not read your materials. Some interviewers purposefully ask for information they already possess to see if your responses are consistent with your written materials. I sometimes use this when conducting interviews- it can be an effective technique, in part to see if candidates get annoyed by the question. It is a good idea to have paraphrased oral versions of your primary case for admission prepared in advance. 

Hjort

vasild · Answer

Actually, the response to the 'thank-you' email I sent to the interviewer included the statement 'We look forward to reading your application', so I am pretty certain she hadn't read my application. Anyway Hjort, I think you are absolutely right - it is very useful to have flexible versions of the answers to the standard questions. 

On the next day I received an email, which said that my application is now complete and the decision will be posted in mid January. I don't know if this means complete and pending review or complete and decided upon. We'll soon see what kind of academic news the new year will bring to me... 

To the future interviewees: unless you are a great improvizer, know your story, so that you can sell it right!

Hjort · Answer

Alumni Mass Index 

Northeast: Large 
West: Moderate 
Midwest: Moderate

eazyb81 · Answer

Hjort, 

What is your rationale for classifying Carnegie Mellon's program as a Trans Elite instead of an Elite? When compared to its Trans Elite peers, CMU has a much stronger track record as being a top program and seems to have a much stronger reputation in terms of general perception and placement stats. 

Does the small class size hold it down or is there more to it than that? In your opinion, does the heavy quant-focus define it as more of a niche school, or is that something that helps it separate from the pack?

isa · Answer

A more updated link to the class profile:

https://www.tepper.cmu.edu/mba/admissions/successful-mba-candidates/class-profile/index.aspx

perfectexamscore · Answer

do they have an exec mba program?

Annebaker · Answer

the decrease in class size has contributed to quality

Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)

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