I am swamped at this time of year with clients facing early January deadlines so I decided to start 2019 with one of our most popular shows of 2018, my interview with Tuck’s MBA Admissions Director, Luke Pena.

In the show, Luke discusses the importance of Tuck’s mission to the school and in the application process. He also shares his perspective on the MBA application essays, the Tuck interview process, and what Tuck means by “wise leadership” and “confident humility.” So for those of you trying to decide if Tuck is for you, or for those of you putting finishing touches on the application you plan to submit this Monday, January 7, Tuck’s next deadline, or for those of you planning ahead for a R3 or 2020 application, this podcast is for you.

I also want to mention that if you’re an MBA wannabe trying to decide whether to apply Round 3 this year or wait until next year, Accepted has a webinar coming up just for you. On January 16 at 10 AM PT, I am presenting Round 3 VS Next Year, a live webinar to be followed by a Q&A. It’s free but registration is required.

In case you missed last week’s show I again want to thank you for listening to the podcast and wish you much success in this brand new, exciting year, 2019.

For the complete show notes, please check out the original blog post. 

Related Links:

• Tuck MBA Admissions

• Dartmouth Tuck MBA Essay Tips & Deadlines

• Raether Family Donates $15 Million to Tuck

• Accepted MBA Admissions Services

Related Shows:

• Meet Duke Fuqua’s New MBA Admissions Director, Shari Hubert

• Do You Fit With Cornell Johnson?

• Building Your Consulting Career, and a Look

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As this show airs,  I’m really busy helping applicants with the end of the year application crunch. And you are probably also really busy, either with your own applications, year-end at work, or with holiday and family events and parties.

Now is an excellent time for an encore show. Consequently, I decided to replay my interview with Bain & Company’s Keith Bevans, Partner and Global Head of Consulting Recruitment at Bain. It is definitely one of the most popular interview of 2018.  

Obviously if you are interested in a career in management consulting, this interview is for you. In addition, many of the qualities and skills that Bain values are also valued by other employers and by many graduate schools, especially in business, law and engineering. So pull up a chair… or at least put on your earbuds.

In addition to introducing this week's podcast, I want to take the opportunity to thank you for listening week in and week out, or whenever you find a show you like. I truly appreciate that you choose to spend time with Admissions Straight Talk’s guests and me. Thank you!

I also want to wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year, a year filled with the realization of your educational and professional dreams, and of course acceptances.

For the complete show notes, please check out the original blog post. 

Related Links:

• Bain Interview with Keith Bevans

• Preparing for Bain’s Hiring Process

• Fitting In and Standing Out, your free guide to the paradox at the heart of admissions

• Meet David, Cornell Johnson MBA Student Headed to Bain

• Accepted MBA Admissions Consulting Services

Related Shows:

• Haas, McCombs, and Case Interviews

• Case Interview Secrets and More with Victor Cheng

• How to Become a Management Consultant

• Building Your Consulting Career, and a Look Back at a Tuck MBA

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Interview with Dr. Charles Cochran, anesthesiologist and blogger [Show Summary]

Are you wondering what life is like as a med student? Resident? Practicing physician? Do you want to graduate without mountains of debt? Do you want to be able to have work/life balance when you start practicing? Interested in rural medicine? Anesthesiology? Hear from Dr. Charles Cochran about the unique path he took to becoming a doctor, and his advice on how not to bury yourself in student loan debt.

Med school admissions, med student life and #lifeofamedstudent [Show Notes]

Our guest today, Dr. Charles Cochran, is a Hoosier through and through. He grew up in Indiana, attended Indiana State as an undergrad, and Indiana University School of Medicine Bloomington, which he graduated from in 2013. He did his residency also at Indiana U Medical Center in anesthesiology. On the side, he started the Twitter hashtag #lifeofamedstudent and a very popular pre-med and med student web site by the same name.

Can you tell us about your background? Where you grew up? [2:05]

I grew up in a small town called Spencer, not far from IU – Bloomington. I knew early on I wanted to get into medicine - my dad was a chiropractor. I rode horses on the weekend, spent lots of time in the woods learning to hunt and fish – basically a traditional rural Indiana upbringing.

How did you become interested in medicine? [2:56]

My dad was a chiropractor and gave me exposure to medicine as a rural clinician. He didn’t push me to be a chiropractor but he thought if I was interested in medicine I should go for a more advanced license, an MD or DO. Even from high school I had a pretty clear idea I wanted to go into medicine, and luckily it all worked out. I didn’t take a gap year, which was fine with me. Now that I am paying back my loans I am glad I went through as quickly as I did. It is nice to be done!

What was the hardest part of applying to medical school? [4:29]

I was part of the Indiana State/IU rural bachelor/MD program, so applying to medical school was pretty straightforward. The program takes people from small towns and provides them with a pathway to becoming a physician in hopes they will return to a small town and practice medicine. Ideally the state would like primary care physicians, and while I didn’t go that route, I think I still fulfilled that goal by practicing in a rural, midsize hospital.

In a lot of ways things were set up for me since the first day of undergrad. If you maintain an average GPA of 3.5 and met the minimum required MCAT you were set for admission to medical school. Once I was in the program it was a matter of sticking with it. It wasn’t always easy – I did have to take the MCAT a second time – but overall it was much less stressful.

What was the best part of your medical experience at Indiana University? [6:38]

IU has a lot of regional campuses - 8-9 where you can go for your first two years. I guess this could be considered the best and sometimes the worst. You are in one (rural) place for two years, and then Indianapolis for two years. I actually really liked it – I spent the first two years in Terra Haute, and then moved to the big city for years 3-4,

Interview with Cornell Tech's Dean Matthew D'Amore and Admissions Director Dr. Raymond Lutzky [Show Summary]

The Cornell Tech campus and programs on Roosevelt Island in New York City have INNOVATIVE stamped on them. Hear from Dean Matt D’Amore and Admissions Director Dr. Ray Lutzky about the inception of the program, the innovative degrees currently being offered, how to get in, and what the future holds for Cornell Tech’s lucky students and graduates.

Get to Know Cornell Tech [Show Notes]

Our guests today are Dean Matt D’Amore, Associate Dean at Cornell Tech and Professor of Practice, Cornell Tech and Cornell Law; and Dr. Ray Lutzky, Senior Director of Enrollment and Admissions at Cornell Tech. Since they both have bios and resumes longer than my arm, I’m going to do away with the details and simply welcome them.

Dean D’Amore: Can you give a little background or brief history about Cornell Tech? [2:10]

Cornell Tech grew out of a 2011 competition from Mayor Bloomberg, who wanted to incentivize a first-class technical campus in NYC, and solicited bids from major academic institutions. Seven or eight schools ultimately submitted bids, including Columbia, NYU, MIT and Stanford, and Cornell won out in a joint bid with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. We were awarded land to build a campus and started from there. The academic curriculum is a combination of seven masters programs and a small PhD program with applied sciences in technical areas.

Normally I ask for an overview of the one or two programs my podcast guest represents. However, you both work with seven masters programs and several PhD programs. We’re going to focus this episode on the master’s options: Johnson Cornell Tech MBA, MS of Engineering in Computer Science, MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Master’s In Operations Research and Info Engineering, LLM in Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship, Technion-Cornell Dual Master’s Degrees in Connective Media, and the Technion-Cornell dual Master’s Degrees in Health Tech. I’m going to suggest that we not get an overview of each program and I’m going to ask what these very different programs have in common. What makes them Cornell Tech programs? [4:06]

Studio is what ties all the programs together. The Studio curriculum is 1/3 of all our one-year programs. It is a cohesive interdisciplinary program based around product development and the basics of figuring out whether to launch a company, how to launch a company, and provides students with the basic skills and insights to help them decide if they want to found a startup when they graduate as well as the tools to do so.

It sounds like Cornell Tech is very entrepreneurially-focused. Do established companies want graduates from Cornell Tech? Or is it a mix? [6:01]

We’ve been experimenting and looking at ways of working with established companies in addition to startups. With the studio program, part of our mission is to inspire and help students to spin out companies, and we have done 40-50 companies in the past five years. We also have curriculum that’s built around established companies, where practitioners come to campus and ask questions like, “How might we bring banking services to rural areas?” “How might we better educate people about retirement options?

Interview with Ryan Crane, Entering Medical Student [Show Summary]

Ryan Crane already knows he is going to medical school next fall, having been accepted at two schools in October! The medical school application process is long and ardurous, and Ryan knew he had some weaknesses to overcome. Listen to how Ryan overcame those weaknesses with a a detailed plan that he followed methodically and that led him to success early on. Let’s learn how he did it!

An Admitted Medical School Applicant's Story [Show Notes]

Our guest today, Ryan Crane, is happily anticipating the start of medical school. He was accepted to medical school in October. I’m going to let Ryan tell most of his story, but here’s a little background: In 2016 he graduated from Michigan State, where he was a bio major and a member of the Crew Club and rowing team. He has worked as an emergency room nurse aid, research associate, and scribe. That’s pretty bare bones, let’s get into the meat of Ryan’s story of early medical school acceptance.

Can you tell us a little about yourself? Your background and where you grew up? [2:04]

I grew up in Traverse City, Michigan and went to primary school there as well as attended two years at Northwestern Community College before transferring to Michigan State.

How did you decide to pursue a career in medicine? [2:32]

I was always interested in science growing up and was good at it. It was probably during the anatomy class my senior year of high school when we were doing cat dissections that it really clicked. I was naturally good at it and had good instincts. The teacher had me help other students with labeling the anatomical landmarks, so that was the first hint of my interest in medicine.

I also had a traumatic brain injury after riding a bicycle and spent a few weeks in the hospital recovering from that and then several months back and forth talking to specialists. Through that experience I shadowed and interacted with a lot of different physicians, nurses, PAs, etc., which confirmed what I wanted to do. After recovering I started volunteering in the ER at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City to get more exposure, and did so for a year and a half.

You’ve had a lot of different types of clinical exposure. What experience was the most valuable to you in terms of confirming your path? [4:34]

That’s a tough question, since I think each of the experiences has taught me something different about medicine. For example, working as a nurse’s assistant you get one-on-one patient interaction and the opportunity to develop a bedside manner. As a medical scribe you get the flip action of that, working one-on-one with a physician, which taught me to think like a physician and make notes like they would. I am an advocate for multiple types of exposure.

Was your 2018-19 application your first application to medical school or a reapplication? [5:39]

It was my first application that was completed. I began filling them out in the 16-17 cycle but was waiting for an MCAT score to come back, and it wasn’t what I’d hoped for, so I ended up holding off and began working with Alicia Nimonkar at Accepted in anticipation of applying during the 17-18 cycle. Then I decided to wait another year beyond that as we discovered some weaknesses in my application...

Interview with Nik Kumar, Columbia MBA Class of 2019 [Show Summary]

Want to know what it’s like to be a Columbia MBA? How about what it’s like to be a police officer? Nik Kumar (CBS ’19) can answer those questions, and in this episode he shares the ins and outs of both. Listen in for the scoop!

A Current Student's Perspective on Columbia Business School [Show Notes]

Our guest today, Nik Kumar, earned his bachelor’s degree from Cornell in Industrial Labor Relations and Economics. He joined Bank of America/Merrill Lynch as an analyst in 2010, moved into PE in 2012, and became a CBS MBA student in January 2018. While working on Wall Street, he also served as a volunteer auxiliary police officer for the NYPD.

Can you tell us about your background? Where you grew up? What you like to do for fun? [1:45]

I grew up in the Dallas area, and by the time senior year of high school rolled around I really wanted to get away from Texas, so I went to Cornell and had a wonderful time there, enjoying the experience and being away from a big city. Many people I met there are still great friends to this day. When I graduated the allure of Wall Street was too much to pass up so I joined the investment banking program at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch as an analyst in their leveraged finance group. I then had the unique opportunity to join a smaller firm, Sound Harbor, focused on distressed debt, and then went to another larger firm, AEA Investors, where I was for 2.5 years before starting at Columbia.

How did you get interested in becoming a volunteer police officer? [3:08]

In looking back it started kind of with 9/11. As I grew older and saw the terrorist incidents I hated being unable to do anything about them. I thought about joining the military, going to West Point, but quickly learned I might not be the best fit to lead a platoon in Afghanistan or Iraq. I decided to pursue a more regular career path, but always had the desire to do some sort of service. When I found out about the NYPD program I knew I wanted to be a part of it. It is essentially a reserve police unit that operates during big events, like parades, visiting dignitaries, etc. It is a 12 hours/month commitment. Training is over 16 weeks, once a week at the police academy and includes training in self-defense, penal law, reacting to terrorist incidents, and military style training, so very different from anything I had ever done previously. People in my class were from very different backgrounds - students, mechanics, city workers – and it was an amazing way to meet people I wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to. We did not have guns, and our responsibility was mainly to observe and report, crowd control, etc.

What experience as a police officer stands out for you? [6:28]

New Year’s Eve always stood out. I did that for four years in Times Square. With so many people in such a tight area, my responsibility was to be on the lookout for anyone acting suspiciously and also crowd control – that people are safe, crowds don’t spill over barricades and stampede. It was our job to make sure it didn’t happen.

You have an undergrad degree in business and extensive experience in investment banking and private equity. Other than the credential, why do you need an MBA? Are you actually learning much from your studies? [9:47]

The decision to go back wasn’t easy. I spent a lot of time thinking about it.

Interview with Rebecca Lippman, Accepted Admissions Consultant [Show Summary]

Accepted’s own Rebecca Lippman is a veritable fountain of knowledge when it comes to scholarships and grants, and in this podcast she shares tips on how to find scholarship opportunities and how to position yourself to win them.

Everything You Need to Know About Grad School Scholarships and Grants [Show Notes]

Our guest today is Rebecca Lippman, who recently joined Accepted’s team of admissions consultants. However, she is here today mostly in her capacity as scholarship expert, having personally secured funding for her masters and doctoral studies in Comparative Literature, as well has having worked for 3.5 years in UCLA’s Scholarship Resource Center. Let’s learn her secrets.

Can you tell us a little about your background and how you became interested in Comparative Lit? [1:53]

I knew from a young age that I wanted to study abroad and learn another language. I grew up in Oakland and heard a lot of Spanish at school. I went to UCLA because I knew there would be plenty of opportunities to study abroad and get a double major at the same time, and Comparative Literature was one of the majors where I could do that. That was how I was thinking when I was 18! I did stick with it, however, and learned Portuguese and Spanish which allowed me to have access to research in literature and film I wouldn’t have had access to otherwise.

You earned your masters in the University of Cambridge in Latin American Studies. Why there for Latin American Studies, and how did you get fully funded for a humanities masters degree? [3:46]

Cambridge has a Latin American Studies center that has experts in Latin American film. At the end of my senior year I was thinking what I wanted to do. I really liked film and thought it would be neat to keep studying film, but I wanted a regional focus. Most schools have a language/literature department and then a film department. But Cambridge had everything in one department, which is primarily why I applied there. In terms of funding I also applied to Cambridge knowing they had the Gates Cambridge Scholarship available. I was a finalist but didn’t get it, and was instead offered a large, partial scholarship. It was great because I did not have to work for that funding.

When we talk about “Fully funded” does that mean tuition, living expenses, everything? Or is it just tuition? Also, does part of that funding require work – TA’ing or working in some other capacity? [5:49]

I wouldn’t compare it to a full-time salary in any other sector, but when I got into UCLA for the PhD program in Comparative Literature I received a package which includes guaranteed TA-ships. You have 1-2 years where you don’t have to teach and can focus on your coursework, and the rest of the funding includes a TA-ship which means you TA for your department and then tuition and fees are waived plus you get a living stipend.

While pursuing your PhD, you’ve been helping UCLA’s students get awards, grants and scholarships. Before we turn to some of the specific scholarships, what are 3 top tips for getting awards and grants? [7:17]

I would say being creative is incredibly important to identifying scholarships in the first place - not just looking at obvious places where scholarships might come from. If you use me as an example,

What’s New at INSEAD? [Show Summary]

No school exemplifies the trend global business quite as much as INSEAD, which was founded in France, but has campuses in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East as well as partnerships with Wharton in the U.S., Tsinghua in China, and the Sorbonne. Virginie Fougea, Director of MBA Admissions at INSEAD will take you through the unique history of INSEAD, its mission and vision, and how you should approach the application.

Interview with Virginie Fougea, Director of MBA Recruitment and Admissions at INSEAD [Show Notes]

Today it’s my pleasure to have on the show Virginie Fougea Director of MBA Recruitment and Admissions at INSEAD. She began working at INSEAD shortly after I put Accepted on the web way back in 1996. She also participated in Accepted’s old text-only chats, typing madly away. In 2012 she became the Associate Director of Admissions at INSEAD, and on the day that I previously interviewed her for the podcast 3 years ago, she officially became Director of Admissions.

Can you give an overview of the INSEAD’s full-time MBA program for those listeners who aren’t that familiar with it? [2:24]

INSEAD was founded in 1957 by Georges Doriot, a French national and graduate and professor of Harvard. He came back to France after World War 2 and decided to promote peace and prosperity in Europe, with the idea being a common business school with different European countries working together. French, English and German were required languages at the time, though now it is just English. The institution does not belong to any government and is a private non-profit. The curriculum is designed to be taught in one year, and has been since the beginning. We now have 500 students per class, and two intakes per year, one in January and one in August. Students also choose between three campuses – the original in France, in Fontainebleau, which is 60km outside of Paris, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi.

You and I spoke a couple of weeks ago, and before we turn to admissions tips I’d like you to share with listeners some of the exciting recent developments at INSEAD. Let’s start with the €40 million gift from Andrea Hoffman Class of 90. Can you tell us how INSEAD will use the money? [4:38]

This is the single largest gift in INSEAD history and enabled us to launch the Global Institute for Business and Society, which we just launched this past week. It will be a transformative entity – working on theoretical frameworks, strategies, analytics tools, business models or new ways of teaching and disseminating knowledge. The goal is to align businesses with the societies they serve, and goes back to the vision to promote peace and prosperity. The hope is that future leaders from around the world involved in businesses will deliberately account for societal and environmental impact in their decisions as a result. The idea is that this will flow through all the entire INSEAD experience, from the coursework to green campuses.

Can you also tell us about IW50? The 50th Anniversary of INSEAD admitting the first woman to its program. [7:53]

We admitted the first two women to the MBA program 50 years ago, and were one of the first schools to do that. We wanted to recognize the leadership of women in the world, and through different events we wanted to influence the way men and women conceive of women as leaders. We brought people from everywhere in the world,

Interview with Dr. LeeAnna Muzquiz, Associate Dean for Admission at University of Washington School of Medicine [Show Summary]

Our guest today is Dr. LeeAnna Muzquiz, UWSOM Associate Dean of Admissions, UWSOM grad and professor, and citizen of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) in Montana. She dives deep into the University of Washington School of Medicine program, mission and admissions practices during this packed podcast. Additionally she provides an excellent overview of how the WWAMI regional program shapes admissions at UW. Finally, she offers can’t-miss advice to UW medical school applicants. Listen in!

Get into University of Washington Medical School [Show Notes]

Dr. Muzquiz, can you give an overview of the UW SOM’s curriculum focusing on its more distinctive aspects? [2:17]

The UW School of Medicine did an overhaul of its curriculum and implemented it with the incoming class of 2015. We are all still getting used to it but essentially we changed the way that we helped students get ready for clinical medicine with exposure right out of the gate. There are three phases (rather than the more traditional two years of basic science and two years of clinical exposure). The design is a layered approach – there is a foundation phase, patient care phase, and explore and focus phase, which really reflects the progress of the student and maturation from student to physician. Starting with orientation and immersion during the first two weeks of medical school it is all about exploring what it is to be a doctor, basic exam skills, and also exposure to service learning and health systems. Students come in with whatever their passion is, and we offer all kinds of different ways to tailor their education.

What are threads, themes, and pathways? [5:12]

The overall approach is really to be multi-layered and longitudinal to help med students and physicians develop critical thinking skills. Essentially, how does basic science, pathophysiology, and physiology really relate to patients walking into the hospital? Threads are both scientific and clinical offered throughout each block, including anatomy, physiology, and pathology. For example, in the first block of the curriculum you are studying the molecular and cellular basis of disease, which will include cell physiology, genetics, pathology, and histology and all of those things will be part of expectations to be mastered in that block. That is the thread going through. The next phase would be Invaders and Defenders, looking at the immune system, microbiology, seeing the anatomy of how that works, pharmacology, etc., so much more system oriented. The themes are recurrent throughout. How does this then look in terms of the value-based concepts -- diversity, ethics, and population health – when applying to real people? We are teaching students to think much more like physicians need to think at the end of training, but we’re starting that training in the beginning of it. Pathways are extracurricular certifications to meet the needs of students who have additional interests – the Indian Health pathway is what I did. Other pathways include Hispanic Health, Global Health, Underserved Health, and LGBTQ Health, and you receive additional training in those fields.

UW serves the WWAMI states, which include Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. How does that work? Is there a set number of students that you take from each of the ...

Interview with Barbara Craft & Diane Sharp, Wharton Executive MBA Admissions Directors [Show Summary]

In today’s podcast we talk with Barbara Craft and Diane Sharp, Directors of Admission at Wharton’s Executive MBA programs in Philadelphia and San Francisco. They share information on the intricacies of the programs, how they relate to each other and to the full time MBA program, and how to stand out in the admissions process. Listen in!

Wharton’s Executive MBA, Where East and West Meet and Mix [Show Notes]

So what are Wharton’s Executive MBA options? Who is Wharton’s EMBA program for? And how do you as an applicant show the program is right for you? Today we speak with Barbara Craft and Diane Sharp, both Directors of Admissions at Wharton’s Executive MBA programs located in Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Can you share a bit about the history of the Wharton MBA Program for Executives with our audience? [1:44]

University of Pennsylvania has been around a very long time. It was founded in 1740 by Benjamin Franklin. Wharton is the oldest collegiate business school, founded in 1881. I mention this because we were also one of the first to have a format for working professionals - we’ve had it for 45 years - and now almost 20 years in San Francisco. We are the only Ivy League offering a [non-distance learning] MBA for executives on the west coast.

We are especially proud of the fact that our EMBA program is the same as our full-time MBA program. It’s the same number of credits, and same level of academic rigor. It is not MBA-lite by any means.

Who should choose an executive program vs. a full time program? [3:58]

There are a lot of good reasons for choosing either, but we find that professionals further along in their career choose the EMBA program. They are typically at the cusp of higher level management and prefer not to jump off their career track and lose trajectory. Sometimes it is a life-style issue as well, as they have families and moving for a couple years is not feasible. You also have to have the buy-in from your company.

Full-time students tend to be more junior and often are looking to make a career switch, so having the internship makes it easier to have a change.

The average age of matriculants in the EMBA program is 35-36, with 12-13 years of experience. We like to see at least eight years of work experience, and also some management experience.

What are the distinctive elements of Wharton’s Executive MBA program (as opposed to other EMBA programs)? [6:31]

We are one program, two locations, so we span the country. Either cohort starts the program together in Philly as one big group, then everyone goes back to their respective coast for the first year of core classes. Later on in the first year the east coast cohort comes west for a week-long marketing simulation class. We also offer four different locations for global business residency, so there is another opportunity for merging of east and west. Second year students can take electives on the east or west coast. We have the largest selection of electives of any business school in the world, so in no way are our students limited, they can absolutely specialize if they like. We draw from students that are all over the country, and we attract from other countries as well – on the west coast...