In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the activity on MBA LiveWire; we are starting to see interview invites released for Round 1 for programs like Yale SOM and Northwestern / Kellogg. Upcoming this week, we have several Round 1 deadlines including Toronto / Rotman, Imperial College, Dartmouth / Tuck and IESE.

The Clear Admit “Inside the MBA Admissions Process” event series concludes this week, on Wednesday, and includes Duke / Fuqua, CMU / Tepper, Columbia, Texas / McCombs and Georgetown / McDonough. Signups are here: https://bit.ly/insidemba

Graham also highlighted the upcoming webinar focused on MBA programs from the West Coast, including Berkeley / Haas, Stanford, UCLA / Anderson, UC / Irvine, and UW Foster.  Signups are here: bit.ly/westcoastmba

We then discussed two recently published MBA rankings, from LinkedIn and Bloomberg / BusinessWeek. While we understand the importance of rankings for candidates’ research, we discussed the integrity of these rankings, relative to the reality of the marketplace of top MBA programs.

Graham highlighted a recently published admissions tip focused the optional essay, which, for most MBA programs, is truly optional and should be tackled with caution.

Graham then noted the recently published Adcom Q&A from Stanford. This included a conversation about how to address Stanford’s first essay prompt, which is Alex’s favorite MBA admissions essay. Graham then highlighted the beginning of Clear Admit’s Real Humans series that focuses on current students. This series kicked off with a focus on Rice / Jones and Michigan State / Broad.

We then discussed two recently published MBA class of 2026 profiles, from Yale SOM and UVA / Darden. Both programs appear to have very decent class profiles overall. Yale’s does stand out with its academic numbers.

For this week, for the candidate profile review portion of the show, Alex selected three ApplyWire entries:

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate is a senior at university and looking to apply for deferred admissions. They have some decent internships in the health care space. They have also undertaken some entrepreneurial work. They still need to take the GMAT and need to aim very high.

This week’s second MBA candidate is applying from India and is applying in Round 1. They do appear to have a very strong profile, overall, with a GMAT score of 760 and several promotions at work.

The final MBA candidate for this week is a London-based software engineer, originally from South Korea, who has worked for some major tech companies. They have a strong GRE score of 330, and are looking to transition to product management, before working at their family business.

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!