MBA Wire Taps 322—3.93 GPA, software engineer. 760 GMAT, Round 2 strategy?

In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by reviewing the latest MBA application deadlines and interview releases. We are still seeing Round 1 interview invites on MBA LiveWire continuing to roll out for Berkeley / Haas, Stanford, Cornell / Johnson, and several other programs; INSEAD is scheduled to release its Round 1 decision next week.

Graham highlighted the second deferred admissions event that Clear Admit is hosting this upcoming Wednesday, which includes Berkeley / Haas, Columbia, Yale SOM and CMU / Tepper. Signup for the event here: https://bit.ly/declearadmit Clear Admit is also hosting its first events for Masters in Management programs on November 29 and December 6th. Schools participating in those events include Chicago / Booth, Michigan / Ross, CMU / Tepper, Northwestern / Kellogg, Georgetown / McDonough, Emory / Goizuetta, Duke / Fuqua and Notre Dame / Mendoza. Signups are here: https://bit.ly/clearadmitmim

We then had a discussion on the impact of the Forte Foundation on female enrollment in top MBA programs. New data reveals that in 58 leading MBA programs, female enrollment is now averaging 42%. We also know that at some of the very top programs, that number rises to above 50%. This is an impressive leap forward from the 30% we were seeing 20 years ago. Some great and important work has been done in this area.

Graham then highlighted three Real Humans pieces, from Cambridge / Judge, Notre Dame / Mendoza and NYU / Stern. Hearing directly from students at these programs is a great way to learn more about the culture of these programs. We then discussed three recently published employment reports, from Georgetown / McDonough, Duke / Fuqua and Emory / Goizueta. Consulting still appears to be the key industry for placements, which also helps drive up the overall median salaries to record levels at these programs.

Graham then mentioned our ongoing fall survey for MBA applicants, which will allow MBA programs to better understand candidates’ communication preferences, interest in sustainability, and international business. You can access the survey here: https://bit.ly/clearadmitfallsurvey

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

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate has a great GPA of 3.93 and was top of their class. Their GRE score is also decent, at 326. They are a software engineer from India, so they will be potentially considered over-represented, which may present additional challenges as they target round 2. Outside of work, they have a passion for fine art, which may help differentiate their profile.

This week’s second MBA candidate is also from India, and has a super GMAT of 760. They have worked in digital marketing, with great success. They are also very active outside of work, with several different activities, including classical singing. They did apply in Round 1, and have interview invites for all the programs they have targeted. They are now considering their Round 2 strategy.

We finished this podcast episode with a short discussion on speculating patterns for the release of interview invite decisions, for those MBA programs which release decisions over several weeks.

This episode was recorded in Cornwall, England and Paris, France. It was produced and engineered in Philadelphia, USA by Dennis Crowley. Please remember to rate and review this podcast wherever you listen and to 'stay safe everybody'!