In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the upcoming Round 1 deadlines; for this week it’s Texas / McCombs; we are also seeing Round 1 interview invites on MBA LiveWire for Dartmouth / Tuck, Northwestern / Kellogg, Yale SOM, Stanford and Harvard, which released all its Round 1 interview invites last week. This week, London Business School and INSEAD are scheduled to release Round 1 interview invites.

Graham highlighted two events Clear Admit is hosting in the upcoming weeks: one is a Real Humans event featuring MBA students from leading programs, the second is an event Clear Admit is hosting with Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT). Last week, we hosted our monthly Clear Admit+ event, which focused on Round 1 interview prep. It was a very good event, with lots of terrific questions from the audience. Our next Clear Admit+ event will be held in early November.

Graham then highlighted an Adcom Q&A with Northwestern / Kellogg, and detailed a couple of new classes the program is offering; one focused on AI and the rules for AI, the second focused on energy financing with a focus on sustainable energy. Graham then mentioned  several Real Humans profiles, published on Clear Admit, from Indiana / Kelley, CMU / Tepper, and ASU / Carey.

We then discussed several class profiles that have been announced, from Stanford, Chicago / Booth, UVA / Darden, Cornell / Johnson and Berkeley / Haas. The numbers from Stanford are just really impressive, but all programs appear to be holding quite steady with their class profiles, despite a small downturn in application volumes.

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

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate has a super GMAT of 780, and a slightly low-than-average GPA (3.4). They were super busy during their undergraduate studies. They appear to have had an interesting career path in fintech, and now want to move over to media, with a tech focus. They also have very decent activities outside of work.

This week’s second MBA candidate worked as a school teacher before switching to human resources at a consulting firm. Her numbers are a little on the lighter side (680 / 3.3), and she is now doing MBA Math. She applied to MBA programs in Round 1, so should be getting some early indications on where she stands. We think it might make sense to look at a couple of Top 16 programs for Round 2, and to consider retaking the GMAT, if necessary.

The final MBA candidate is a sponsored candidate from PWC. They’ve worked in strategy consulting, and will return, but they also have a nice focus on biotech and healthcare; they have very solid additional activities. A strong GMAT of 760 also helps. They do look like a decent candidate for M7 programs.

This episode was recorded in Paris, France 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!