In this week's MBA Admissions podcast Graham led things off by discussing the MBA Essay Insights series which wraps up this Wednesday. This season’s series has seen record levels of attendees (600+ each week); our final event brings together MBA admissions leaders from Cornell / Johnson, UCLA / Anderson, Washington / Foster, INSEAD, and London Business School. Signups are here: https://bit.ly/cambaessay  Graham then highlighted the recent survey Clear Admit has developed to understand the media habits of MBA candidates. These anonymous surveys allow us to gather data to really understand the behavior of the MBA applicant community, and we really appreciate all participation. The survey is here: https://bit.ly/casummersurvey

Moving on to recent news and admissions tips, Graham talked about a Clear Admit article that covers the cost of applying to top MBA programs. This piece features a podcast listener’s journey through the MBA admissions process and offers some amazing advice on how to save money in the b-school application process. Alex and Graham then discussed two Adcom Q&As, the first featuring SMU / Cox and the second featuring IESE. Graham then highlighted Clear Admit’s very popular essay topic analysis series, and last week we featured the essays from Yale SOM.

As usual, Alex and Graham tackled three candidate profile reviews, drawn from recent ApplyWire entries:

This week's first MBA admissions candidate has not yet taken the GMAT, but everything else points to a very strong profile, so Alex and Graham hope that with a GMAT in the 700s, she will be strongly considered by the very best programs. One concern this candidate expressed is her extra curricular profile, which is something Alex and Graham discuss on the show. This week's second candidate appears to have a very solid work profile, combined with strong numbers (740 GMAT, 3.76 GPA). Alex and Graham encourage them to apply in the first round, as it’s possible that they are part of a more over-represented pool of MBA candidates. Our final candidate comes from the military, and also has a masters degree. They are only targeting Georgetown / McDonough and Yale SOM, for personal reasons. Their GRE score is 319, after 5 days of prep, and having taken the test several years ago. Alex and Graham really hope they retake this test after more thorough preparation. This should open more opportunities (including scholarships) for an otherwise strong candidate.

This episode was recorded in Philadelphia, PA and Cornwall, England. It was produced and engineered by the fabulous Dennis Crowley in Philadelphia, USA. Thanks to all of you who’ve been joining us and please remember to rate and review this show wherever you listen!