In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by wishing everyone a happy holiday season!

Graham highlighted three admissions tips that have been published on the Clear Admit site this week. These include tips about how to highlight the reasons for a target program, without comparing them to other programs, how to explain any employment gaps, and whether to consider test waivers.

Graham then discussed a recently published Adcom Q&A which features the Assistant Dean from Yale SOM. We then discussed a Real Humans story, focused on MBA students at INSEAD.

Graham then presented the career placement reports from Harvard and MIT / Sloan.  We are starting to see a trend that shows that a higher percentage of MBA graduates are moving on to financial services careers, than we have seen in recent years. This is likely more to do with the retraction of opportunities in consulting and tech, rather than student desire.

For this week, for the candidate profile review portion of the show, Alex selected two ApplyWire entries and one DecisionWire entry:

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate has a non-traditional profile; she is a registered nurse. But she does also have some health care related business experience. Her overall profile is quite interesting, and we think she should have good opportunities.

This week’s second MBA candidate is from India, so we would have preferred they had targeted Round 1. They have an interesting career profile in tech and entrepreneurship, as well as strong numbers.

The final MBA candidate is deciding between IESE, Ross and Yale SOM. They are also on the Duke / Fuqua waitlist. They have plenty of interesting options; we think Yale SOM may be the winner.

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!