In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the upcoming Round 1 deadlines for this new season; for this week Harvard, UPenn / Wharton and London Business Schools have their Round 1 deadlines, Duke / Fuqua and UVA / Darden have their Early Action deadlines.

Graham then highlighted our next Essay Insights series, which run on September 13, 20, and 27; signups for this popular series are here: https://bit.ly/cafallessays Graham then mentioned two Adcom Q&A articles, where we interview admissions directors at Georgia / Terry and Boston / Carroll.

As usual, for the candidate profile review portion of the show, Alex selected three ApplyWire entries:

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate participated in Teach for America, and then subsequently won a Fulbright Scholarship to teach English abroad. They also have extensive roles on boards. Unfortunately we worry about their academic profile, for which they have already taken MBA Math. But improving their GRE score, and applying in Round 2, will be very advantageous.

This week’s second MBA candidate is from Chile and has an engineering undergraduate degree. They are an older candidate (the engineering degree took 6 years) and have recently been laid off from work, during the tech lay-offs. While they are currently able to focus full-time on preparing their MBA applications (and preparing to take the GMAT), we think they might also benefit by doing some additional volunteer work in an area about which they are truly passionate.

The final MBA candidate is debating whether to apply full-time or part-time. Their valid concern is that at their stage of career, they are making a very good salary, and are also married with family. But we think the risk / reward scenario favors doing a full-time MBA, and targeting M7 programs. Their overall profile looks really strong, both from an academic standpoint, and from a professional standpoint.

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!