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, Berkeley / Haas, and Northwestern / Kellogg. Upcoming this week, we have several Round 1 deadlines including MIT / Sloan, Duke / Fuqua, UCLA / Anderson, CMU / Tepper, USC / Marshall, Washington / Foster, Washington / Olin, Maryland / Smith, SMU / Cox, Minnesota / Carlson, UVA / Darden, Emory / Goizueta and Georgia Tech / Scheller. Oxford / Said has its Stage 2 deadline, too.

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

Graham then highlighted two recently published admissions tips focused on letters of support, and different types of MBA admissions interviews. Graham then noted two Real Humans stories, focused on MBA students at Cornell / Johnson and London Business School.

We then discussed three recently published class profiles, from Harvard, MIT / Sloan and Dartmouth / Tuck. Like prior profiles for this season, application volumes are up, and the profile of the incoming classes remains strong. This did, however, lead to a discussion regarding median GMAT scores versus GRE scores.

Finally, Graham noted a recently published podcast he hosted with David Simpson of London Business School.

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

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate has an outstanding academic profile, with a 3.85 GPA and 750 GMAT score. They have a health care focus, and as part of their school selection, they need to consider their partner’s continuing career.

This week’s second MBA candidate has a 720 GMAT and a 329 GRE, which led to a conversation as to which is better. They have a strong technical focus, which includes their own entrepreneurial experience.

The final MBA candidate for this week is a reapplicant for USC / Marshall. They have improved their GRE score, and other elements of their profile should also be improved. We suggest they also apply to UCLA / Anderson.

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!