In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the activity on MBA LiveWire; a few MBA programs are still reducing their wait lists as pre-terms approach; we then discussed the value and importance of pre-term to help set up candidates for their MBA experience.

Clear Admit’s summer essay workshops have now come to a very successful conclusion; the next series of events will begin in September. Graham highlighted Harvard’s recent announcement that their MBA program is now STEM certified. This allows international students more scope for remaining in the United States in the short term, post MBA. Harvard is following a significant trend for leading MBA programs which started with Rochester / Simon.

Graham noted that Berkeley / Haas has a new dean; one of Haas’s previous deans has now moved up in the administration at Berkeley (Rich Lyons, as Chancellor of UC Berkeley), which we assume is a good thing for the business school, generally.

Graham then highlighted two admissions tips. The first focuses on the value of campus visits, the second is essentially a useful list of all the early round deadlines for the top MBA programs. This useful resource also includes links to each program’s respective essay topic analysis, and much more.

Graham then discussed three recently published Adcom Q&As, from Chicago / Booth, Boston College / Carroll, and CEIBS.

Graham then highlighted two recently published podcasts he recorded during GMAC's annual conference. These interviews feature admissions officers from Yale SOM and Cornell / Johnson, answering three questions related to MBA admissions: candidates’ use of AI in the admissions process, the use of video in the admissions process, and aspirational trends that they a seeing from their candidates.

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

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate was a medical doctor and then moved on to McKinsey. We really like that profile. They are targeting the trilogy of Harvard, Stanford and Wharton, which is quite ambitious, but they can always expand their selection in the second round, if necessary.

This week’s second MBA candidate is from the Midwest and has a rather unorthodox pathway to pursuing the MBA, starting out their career as a reporter, then working at a startup, and now in banking. They do have a strong profile; the one weakness may be their quantitative abilities.

The final MBA candidate for this week is a military candidate who has also worked in the private sector for a couple of years after leaving the service. If we can assume a strong military experience, we think there’s a lot to like, and targeting top 16 programs makes sense. They are also a marathoner.

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!