Show Summary MBA admissions veteran Kara Keenan Sweeney has joined Accepted. Formerly part of the admissions team at Wharton Lauder, INSEAD and Columbia Business School, she’s not only an Accepted consultant but she’s our guest on the podcast. Kara discusses various aspects of the MBA application process, including choosing the right schools, handling common challenges faced by international applicants, and approaching the essays and resume. She also touches on the qualities that management consulting firms look for in MBA recruits and provides advice for MBA re-applicants. Finally, she discus ..read more

Don’t miss our Admissions Straight Talk podcast interview with Sara Vanos, the Executive Director of Marketing and Admissions for HEC Paris MBA Programs. Sara highlights the unique aspects of the full-time MBA program, such as the 16-month duration, on-campus housing, and flexibility in specialization and electives. She also mentions the New Horizons program, which focuses on anticipating trends and thinking creatively. Listen below or click the image to read the full transcript. The HEC Paris MBA application essays – and there are many compared to most MBA applications these days ..read more

Show Summary Are you a mid-career manager hoping to elevate your career to senior management? Do you feel your business skills could use a boost? Are you interested in a top, top program?  In this episode of Admissions Straight Talk, Linda Abraham interviews Johanna Hising DiFabio, Assistant Dean of MIT Sloan’s Part-time and Full-time MBA Programs for Executives. They discuss the MIT Sloan Executive MBA program and the Sloan Fellows program, focusing on the application process and the unique aspects of each program. They also touch on the importance of innovation and the MIT ecosystem in ..read more

You’ve taken the GMAT test, and you scored a 700. Is that good enough? Should you take it again and try for a higher score? I’ve actually had candidates who wanted to retake the GMAT to see whether they could get their 750 score up to a 780 or higher! Whenever my adcom colleagues and I saw that, we’d roll our eyes and sigh, “An overachiever – he should have spent more time firming up his career goals!” — or “doing research on our school” or “reaching out to students and alumni.” These are the candidates who are often “dinged” because they didn’t do research in other critical areas. Yes, your ..read more

Show Summary In this episode of Admissions Straight Talk, host Linda Abraham looks back at her predictions for the 2023/2024 application cycle and offers advice for current and future applicants. She reflects on her previous predictions, such as the increase in test options and waivers and the continued use of rankings in admissions. She also makes new predictions for the upcoming year, including the increased use of video in applications and the continuation of questions about lived experiences and contributions to inclusive environments. Linda advises current applicants to pursue parallel tr ..read more

The Michigan Ross MBA program is thriving. Its graduates get jobs throughout the United States and around the world.  Here are a few key stats, drawn from the school’s 2023 Employment Report: Of the school’s 2023 grads, 96% had at least one job offer within three months of graduation. Forty-five percent of the Class of 2023 received offers from McKinsey & Company, Bain, and BCG. Deloitte and Amazon are also among the program’s top hiring companies.  On-campus recruiting facilitated 87% of offers.  As for the school’s incoming students in 2023, the latest Michigan Ross cla ..read more

Show Summary In this podcast episode, Linda Abraham discusses the use of ChatGPT in MBA application essays with admissions directors at top MBA programs. The admissions directors generally view ChatGPT as a tool that can be used to enhance the application process, but they emphasize the importance of authenticity and personal reflection in the essays. They caution against relying too heavily on ChatGPT and stress the need for applicants to take ownership of their ideas and experiences. The admissions directors also discuss the potential benefits and limitations of using ChatGPT and suggest way ..read more

Are you a practicing management consultant applying to business school? If so, you have several advantages over the general applicant. Mainly, your success as a consultant for a major firm reveals that your work ethic, analytical abilities, and team-playing skills are probably better than most people’s. As a result, MBA programs will likely give you the benefit of the doubt when they initially crack open your file. Similarly, if you work for a major consultancy, the adcoms won’t have to wonder about the nature and reputation of your employer. More than likely, then, as a management consultant ..read more

Show Summary Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business is welcoming a newly launched Masters of Science in Management (MSM) program. The one-year program is designed for early-career professionals with zero to two years of work experience who are looking for a career pivot or to gain business skills. If that sounds interesting to you, you don’t want to miss this episode of Admissions Straight Talk, where Linda Abraham sits down with  Dr. Kevin Dietrick, director of the MS in Business Analytics and MS in Management Program to learn more about the program and how to get in.&nbs ..read more

Applicants love to write about their accomplishments, whether in a personal statement for graduate school or in a b-school essay that asks about one’s greatest achievement, challenge, or the like. And they are not shy about sharing their accomplishments, such as driving innovations that led to revenue boosts for their firm, conducting original and meaningful research in their field of study, or leading a volunteer group on a community service initiative.  As genuine and significant as these accomplishments are, many initial essay drafts are often missing a key element: obstacles. I ..read more