MBA News by Clearadmit

1. Bloomberg BusinessWeek Article on Visiting Business Schools Features Clear Admit Co-Founder -

   Clear Admit co-founder Graham Richmond shared advice for prospective MBA applicants planning visits to business school campuses as part of an article this week in Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

   The article, entitled “Making the Most of the Campus Visit,” highlighted some of the most important things prospective applicants should plan during a visit, including talking to students, getting to know the faculty and learning more about the school’s career management offerings.

   Richmond, who worked in admissions at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School before co-founding Clear Admit, advised prospective applicants to always be courteous during campus visits. While at Wharton, he would open applications to find notes about rude or demanding applicants, he told Bloomberg BW.

   Be polite, he advised, but don’t settle for just the . . . → Continue Reading

2. University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School Names New Vice Dean for Innovation -

   In a letter to the Wharton School community last week, Dean Thomas Robertson announced the appointment of a new vice dean for innovation, a position newly created to help ensure that the very best ideas for improving Wharton’s research and teaching are identified and implemented.

   Karl Ulrich, a Wharton professor of entrepreneurship and e-commerce, will assume the new role, Robertson announced. “As vice dean, Karl will be a steward for innovation opportunities, providing a vital channel to the Dean’s Office for ideas originating from across all divisions of the school,” he wrote. He added that implementing just two or three additional ideas each year could be transformational for the school.

   Ulrich, who joined the Wharton faculty in 1993, has since helped redesign the . . . → Continue Reading

3. Prospective Applicants Show Heightened Interest in Marketing Program at Chicago Booth -

   In a post earlier this month to the Booth Insider, the admissions blog for the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Admissions Director Kurt Ahlm shared his surprise at finding himself bombarded by questions about the school’s marketing program at recent MBA fairs.

   This proved the case at an MBA fair August 12th hosted by Kaplan Test Prep in Chicago, Ahlm said. He noted that Chicago Booth had a table at the event directly across from the region’s other top MBA program, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern.

   Ahlm, who replaced departing Admissions Director Rose Martinelli earlier this summer, was surprised by how much interest prospective applicants showed in Chicago Booth’s marking program because of what he called an unbelievably powerful stereotype that . . . → Continue Reading

4. Executive and Part-Time MBA Programs See Application Volume Rise in 2010, GMAC Reports -

   Demand for executive MBA (EMBA) programs rose significantly in 2010 and remained steady for part-time programs, though application volume for full-time programs continued its fall from peak levels in 2008, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) announced earlier this week.

   GMAC released the findings of its 2010 Application Trends Survey, a global survey of 327 business schools in 39 countries, yesterday. According to survey results, programs aimed at people with significant work experience were particularly strong, with 59 percent of EMBA programs reporting that they received more applications this year than in 2009, up from 37 percent the year before. Part-time programs, which appeal to people hoping to juggle school along with family or work or other responsibilites, remained steady this year . . . → Continue Reading

5. Kellogg School of Management’s New Dean Chronicles Her First 100 Days by Blog -

   Sally Blount, the new dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, plans to blog her way through her first 100 days on the job. Her posts, which began in mid-July when she first assumed her new role, provide insight into her background, her passions and her vision for the school.

   Blount took the reins at Kellogg on July 15th, replacing Sunil Chopra, who has served as interim dean since Dean Dipak Jain stepped down last September. As she shares in her introductory blog post, the decision to say yes to Kellogg’s invitation was her second – her first was as a graduate student.

   “The first time was life-changing. I have no doubt that the second time will be as well,” . . . → Continue Reading

6. Partnership Between MIT Sloan, Indian School of Business to Create Student, Professor Exchanges -

   As reported last week, MIT’s Sloan School of Management will partner with the Indian School of Business (ISB) as it expands to a second campus in Mohali. In a subsequent article, the Economic Times reports that exchanges by professors and graduate students will also take place between Sloan and ISB’s Hyderabad campus, beginning in about 18 months.

   ISB will send up to two professors a year to teach at MIT Sloan, and Sloan in return will send two to four professors to teach at ISB in Hyderabad, the ET reports. In addition to teaching classes, professors from each institution will have the opportunity to conduct research and get to know the faculty at the partner school.

   “We have a strong desire to further . . . → Continue Reading

7. New Website from BusinessWeek Rankings Creator Will Feature Comprehensive MBA Rankings, Information -

   John Byrne, who spearheaded BusinessWeek’s groundbreaking MBA rankings initiative in the 1980s, this week launched his own website designed to provide prospective applicants with an in-depth look at hundreds of MBA programs.

   The new website, called Poets & Quants, will feature a new ranking devised by Byrne to cull the most useful information from existing rankings produced by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the Financial Times, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes and the Economist.

   “There are a lot of players in the game, but each of the traditional media rankings has its own particular take,” Byrne told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). “The FT, for example, takes into account how many female professors a program employs. That may be politically correct, but it . . . → Continue Reading

8. Admissions Staff Changes at Many Top MBA Programs -

   According to a Columbia Business School (CBS) spokesperson, long-time admissions director Linda Meehan is retiring from her post this week. Meehan joined the CBS staff in 1993 and served as director of admissions through fall 2009, when CBS appointed Mary Miller as the school’s new admissions director as part of a move to combine admissions for the MBA and EMBA programs. Meehan stayed on for the past year, focusing more of her attention on alumni affairs, but she has now decided to retire. 

   The news comes on the heels of several other changes among the staff at top MBA programs around the country. At the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, veteran Admissions Director Rose Martinelli announced her own departure last month. . . . → Continue Reading

9. Ten Top Business Schools Report Application Volume Declines -

   According to a recent article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the number of prospective candidates applying to MBA programs at 10 top U.S. business schools is down this year compared with 2009. Indeed, Bloomberg BW is declaring that the recent boom in MBA applications that went hand in hand with the economic crisis “appears to be over.”

   Bloomberg BW surveyed 30 of the top U.S. MBA programs about application volume. Of those, 10 reported decreases in volume averaging 6.1 percent. Eleven reported increases averaging 10.2 percent, and nine schools declined to provide information.

   Among the top schools where fewer candidates applied in 2010 than in 2009 were the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley . . . → Continue Reading

10. Indian School of Business Begins Construction of New Mohali Campus -

    Construction work began this week on a new 70-acre campus for the Indian School of Business in Mohali, Punjab, the Financial Times reported.

    The campus, the school’s second, will enroll 200 students when completed in spring of 2012. ISB’s first campus was established in Hyderabad in 1999 with the help of top international business schools including the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and London Business School.

    A number of ISB’s initial investors have contributed an additional $42.9 million (2bn rupees) for construction of the new campus in Mohali. It will be home to four separate institutes focused on healthcare management, public policy, manufacturing excellence and innovation and physical infrastructure management, according to the . . . → Continue Reading