Latest / Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast / MBA Wire Taps 493: Indian engineer, 725 GMAT. Full-time vs Part-time. Stern vs Sloan

Transcript

MBA Wire Taps 493: Indian engineer, 725 GMAT. Full-time vs Part-time. Stern vs Sloan · Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Hi, I'm shelley heiner, senior assistant dean of graduate admissions in the career management center at the smu cox school of business in dallas. You're listening to the clear itmit podcast. Welcome to the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. I'm Graham Richmond, and this is your Wiretaps for Monday, May 25, 2026. I'm joined by Alex Brown from Cornwall, England. How are things, Alex?
• 0:39
  Speaker B: Good, thank you, Graham.
• 0:40
  Speaker A: So, you know, today is Memorial Day, I just realized in the US And I think it's even a bank holiday in the uk. Is that correct? I think it's a holiday. Yeah. There you go. So, hopefully people are tuning in as they maybe are marinating some meat for the barbecue or whatever people do in America to celebrate this kind of. But in any event, we have a pretty good show on tap. It's just been. There's a lot of content that we're putting out there. So I've got some news out of John Hopkins, Johns Hopkins, and ESA in Spain. We've got a Fridays from the Front Lines piece. And of course, Real Humans Alumni, that series continues. And we've got grads who are working at Microsoft, OpenAI and Twitch. But first, Alex, anything going on on the admissions front? Like, are there deadlines or decisions? I feel like I've seen some people posting about deferred enrollment results, maybe from some of the very top schools.
• 1:29
  Speaker B: Yeah. But some of those are still to come out in June, actually. Okay. But, yeah, Stanford's scheduled to release some decisions next week, Fisher and Cox, and application deadline for Joan. So there is still some activity and will be over the next two or three weeks before we completely wind down the, the, the. The. The. This. This last season.
• 1:55
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I think what I saw now I'm remembering, was on Livewire, people were posting that they were rejected from Harvard two plus two for deferred enrollment. And I'm guessing that's because they must have had an interview invitation deadline. And so those people who didn't get interviews know they're out or were told they're out. So, yeah. Okay. So, yeah. So obviously, best luck to everyone waiting on those kinds of decisions. But, yeah, we are beginning to really turn that page and start to look at the next cycle, which is always exciting. And I've had a lot of fun. We just did events last week for what's called our MBA Application Overview webinar series. And so we, you know, I hung out with 10 different schools over two nights last week. We did these virtual sessions, and really good turnout. A lot of great you know, just great responses from the panelists. And we're doing two more of those this week. So on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, 5-26-27, we're going to connect with, let's see, Tuesday is Emory lbs, Michigan Wharton and University of Washington Foster. And then on Wednesday is Columbia INSEAD, Texas McCombs, UNC, Kenan Flagler and Uva Darden. So should be fun. I've enjoyed. You actually peeked at the transcripts from the first two events, right?
• 3:11
  Speaker B: Yeah. No, absolutely. Fantastic. And obviously we use then those transcripts to help us train our admissions bot. Right. So we want to make sure that the advice that our bots offer and the advice, the content we have on Clear Admit more generally is completely up to date. So having these webinars ahead of the season as we're going into the season is just like gold. The content is absolutely fantastic.
• 3:40
  Speaker A: It's great. And one thing I've been hearing, I know you often ask me like, oh, what did I learn? Right. And I think one thing that's kind of interesting is this increased reliance on, you know, kind of video. And, you know, like, schools are talking a lot about they've switched some of their essay questions to short videos that people need to record. Some of these are like, in real time, so you don't really get a chance to, to practice or rehearse. They really want to get at the authentic candidate. And I think they're also trying to avoid someone submitting something that's just been, you know, AI generated and polished to an extent that it's, you know, hard to really get to know the candidate. So there's, there's some echoes of that in what kind of what the schools were saying and in terms of how their applications are going to be structured year, which was interesting.
• 4:24
  Speaker B: Yeah. And I think we started to hear that conversation last season, too, but certainly more so this season. And again, I'm a big believer using AI to prepare to, whether it's drafting essays, drafting ideas, content, etc. Etc. Absolutely. Use those, the tools. And we have some great tools now for preparation. But you want to make sure the essays that you ultimately finalize are your, are in your voice and your work. Right. So use AI to help you with that work, but don't just completely rely on it because that will backfire.
• 5:04
  Speaker A: Yeah. So in any event, join us Tuesday and Wednesday of this week at noon Eastern if you can. You can go to the website justclearadmit.com events and sign up, because you do have to sign up in advance if you want to be a part of these events. But Alex, one of the things that I wanted to mention as well is that on Wednesday I mentioned that UT Austin McCombs are joining us. And I don't know if you listened to last week's podcast, but Dennis, our producer, put a little front end kind of station ID on from Stacey Batass who is the director of MBA admissions at McCombs. And she said, oh, this is Stacy from McCombs and you're listening to whatever. And he's probably done that this week too. But I haven't heard yet what he's going to put on put on this week because he recorded all these things when we were down in Atlanta with all the schools. But what was funny is that I don't know if you heard it, but Stacy, she did her station ID and then she said, hi Patrick. And then the show began. And I'm sure that many of our listeners are like, why is the admissions director at UT Austin saying hi Patrick? And the reason is, is that Patrick is a colleague of hers in the office there at UT Austin McCombs who listens to the show apparently religiously, like every week he tunes in and then he comes into the office and tells the rest of the team at McCombs like what we said. So, so apparently that's what that was all about. I don't know if you heard that, but I thought it was really funny.
• 6:19
  Speaker B: Brilliant. And hopefully what we say week to week is interesting stuff, right? I mean, yeah, Well, I feel like
• 6:26
  Speaker A: Stacey on Patrick would write me an email if they were like that was out of line, you know, so we'll see. But, but in any event, I just thought it was really fun and I can't wait to hear some of these other recordings that Dennis has made when we were down in Atlanta. So. But moving right along, we have a lot of news and notes to get to. The first thing, as I mentioned at the top of the show is that the business school at Johns Hopkins. So Carrie, W.P. carey Business School down in Baltimore, they just got a $50 million donation from the Cary foundation, which is, you know, the namesake of the school. As you know, it's John Hopkins Cary Business School. So what they're going to do is they're apparently using this money very specifically. So the first thing they're going to use it for is student entrepreneurs will see startup funding and enhanced connections for full time MBA students to Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures and the center for Entrepreneurship. So they're trying to use this funding to Build bridges between Johns Hopkins University undergrad and grad and also the sort of entrepreneurial ecosystem within the university. They also are going to apparently use some of the money for full time MBA student recruitment, student leadership program programs. And they mentioned Cary Business School also plans to increase its visibility as the premier business school in the business of health, which, you know, we know Johns Hopkins is a very well noted school for, you know, health science and things. So in any event, I thought it was also interesting how they're really leaning into Baltimore. So they do have a campus in D.C. as well. But they made an explicit statement in this like, press release that Baltimore is the primary home and the gift comes with an intentional focus on Baltimore's business and societal fabric. So. And it's funny, they then had a quote from this guy named David Rubenstein who is the, I guess he's on the board of Carlisle, but he also is the owner of the Baltimore Orioles. And he said there has never been a more compelling moment to invest in Baltimore. So in any event, lots of news from Carrie at Johns Hopkins, but I think that's a pretty substantial gift. I feel like they originally had had a $50 million gift from Carrie and now, you know, they've got another 50. So seems like a lot of money.
• 8:33
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, absolutely. Fantastic. And, and I like to focus on how, you know, the business, business of healthcare.
• 8:40
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 8:40
  Speaker B: And you know, that's obviously a really important industry focus.
• 8:45
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 8:46
  Speaker B: And it'll be interesting for us. Right. Obviously we're big Wharton cheerleaders and that's a big focus at Wharton too. And they're not too far apart. Right. Philadelphia, Baltimore.
• 8:55
  Speaker A: So 90 minutes.
• 8:56
  Speaker B: So the maybes maybe some interesting outcomes to that.
• 9:00
  Speaker A: Yeah. And actually, you know, it doesn't have to be a zero sum game. It could be that, you know, that area in general, Philadelphia has a ton of healthcare companies and so maybe it's just, you know, they're growing the pie and it's a, it's an area that as you say, is increasingly important in an aging population in the United States. So. And you know, in other parts of the world too. So in any event, another little news notes item is that MBA students matriculating at ESE in Barcelona in September will engage in a new curriculum that's centered around AI. And so I have a couple of quotes from the deputy Dean at esa. He said we made a deliberate choice not to bolt AI onto a couple of electives and call it a transformation. AI now runs through every first year course because in two years our graduates will Be in roles where the question is not can you use AI, but can you lead and manage in a human plus AI organization? That is a leadership challenge in every function. Finance, operations, strategy, not a specialist topic. So yeah, it sounds like, you know, ESA very quick to innovate and sort of, you know, kind of renew their curriculum in a way that is, you know, fits with everything that's happening, which is great.
• 10:07
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think all top schools have to do this.
• 10:09
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 10:10
  Speaker B: Whether it's this season or next season. And I like the notion, not just bolting it on in a couple of electives, but threading it right through the core curriculum and so on and so forth in each of the districts disciplines. It's super, super important. I mean, I work on a course at Stanford, Digital Transformation and yeah, I mean, obviously this stuff is fundamental. Actually, I know I'm going off on a bit of a tangent, but I just finished a book called A Cruel Intentions, Accrual Intentions, absolutely fantastic book. It's a guide that set up an accountancy firm where he's the leader and he's got 11 AI agents working for him.
• 11:00
  Speaker A: Oh, wow. Okay.
• 11:01
  Speaker B: And it is a really good insight into what the world of work will look like in the next several years.
• 11:09
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think, you know, I have to say, I know there's been a lot of gloom and doom with regards to AI and you know, certainly like with MBA grads, etc. But I do think that the kind of leadership and management skills and judgment, all these things that we learn in business school are going to be at a premium when you have to kind of lead these sort of AI plus human organizations.
• 11:30
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean there will be some different skills to develop in that regard. But yeah, orchestration and all those sorts of roles and taste, et cetera, et cetera are going to be really super important. But I also think having a little bit of an engineering sort of brain sort of helps sort of complement. Right. So anyway, some really interesting stuff going on and a really good step forward for erc.
• 11:59
  Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. Last thing in the news and notes category is that we connected with Derek Rhodes. He wrote a piece for Fridays from the Front Lines, which is a long standing series we've had@clearadmit.com where current students just share experiences from the front line what it's like at their business school. So he's a Duke first year, he's just kind of finishing his first year and he wrote a really lovely piece about kind of what to expect. It's kind of thing that anyone thinking of going to business school should probably read because I thought it was really helpful. And he distilled it down into four pieces of advice. So the first one was build community before you arrive. And what he means by that, I think, is go to the welcome events, like connect with your incoming classmates before the first day of class. The second thing he said is lean on your support system early. He talked about how, you know, it's just such a whirlwind of activity in business school and, you know, there are things there to support you and you need to avail yourself of those support systems. He then says, don't wait until you feel ready. And what he's referring to there is like, if you're going to just try something new or you're thinking about, you know, I don't know, taking a new elective in an area that you have know nothing about or starting a company or joining some club, he's like, don't wait till you feel ready. You're never going to really feel ready. You should just take the plunge. And that's what business school is about. And then he said, pay attention to how you show up on teams. So I guess he talked a little bit about some of the teams he was a part of and how important it is to support your classmates and vice versa. So any event, it's a really nice article if you're interested in business school. And I mean, especially Fuqua, it's a. It's a treasure trove of information that would probably be great for anyone's essays if they're looking for content and, you know, trying to really get to know the Fuqua community.
• 13:37
  Speaker B: Very good. Yeah.
• 13:38
  Speaker A: Yeah. We've also got real humans. I'll just quickly go through those. We have Brian, who graduated from HBS and is now a senior product marketing manager at Microsoft. Brian's 31. He's originally from New York City. He went to Vanderbilt as an undergrad and studied human and organizational development. Now, before business school, he worked in marketing, looks like for, yeah, as a product marketing manager for like five years. But he also worked a little bit in tech as a senior technical product manager over at Amazon. So he's had a couple of different roles before business school. And now his role at Microsoft, in terms of the specifics of it, is he works for Copilot, which, as you know, is Microsoft's kind of AI tool. Right. So he works in Copilot as a senior product marketing manager. And we asked him, I thought this was so fascinating. We said, why did you go to hbs? And we Ask this about every real humans. Like we always ask them to reflect on why they chose their school. And he says, I love the case method. To me, they feel like a fun story. Even before hbs, I would often find myself looking for HBS cases on companies that I admired. I was thrilled to learn that as an HBS student, you can request a PDF of any HBS case for free. I took full advantage of this, but the bigger driver for me was something more personal. I like to look for rocket ships. To me, rocket ships are the environment, jobs, experiences, schools that take you somewhere you probably couldn't get to on your own. And I had a strong feeling that HBS would be one of those. It was one example. I worked with Chip Berg, the former CEO of Levi's, on an independent project about the future of retail that led to me taking Amtrak up to Freeport, Maine on a rainy spring day to interview the CEO of L.L. bean and walk their flagship ship store with him. It was one of those experience that just doesn't happen in normal life. And it felt very HBS in the best way. So there you have Brian. Definitely happy that he went to hbs.
• 15:40
  Speaker B: It sounds like, I think that what a great endorsement too. Just those anecdotal experiences are absolutely fantastic.
• 15:48
  Speaker A: And I love the description of business school as a rocket ship. This idea something that can take you somewhere that you would not be able to get to on your own. So I thought that was a really interesting metaphor. We also caught up with Wen Jia. She is a Wharton grad from back in 24 and she's currently a technical program manager at OpenAI. She's originally from China, but she went to undergrad at Cornell where she studied operations research and information engineering. Obviously attended Wharton and focused on operations and entrepreneurship. She also, as part of Wharton, she pursued the dual degree with the Lauder Institute. And so she was in the. She actually selected the global track that they have within Lauder. And before business school, she worked as a consult consultant at Deloitte. And this is so interesting. She got into Wharton after three years at Deloitte. Okay. But then she deferred. She's like, you know what? I need another year. And they granted her deferral. And in that extra year she worked in product management for TikTok. So she did a year of that and then obviously left Wharton and has been in the kind of AI universe ever since currently with OpenAI. And we asked her as well, like, why Wharton? And she said for me, the biggest draw was Lauder. I knew I wanted a Global MBA experience. And Lauder offered something I did not really find elsewhere. An international community, the chance to travel and learn with people from very different backgrounds and room to explore topics that were a little niche but really mattered to me. And then when Gia also says with regards to advice to current MBA students, she says, be good at your current job and be genuine with people. A lot of the best opportunities come from people who know your work and want to vouch for you. So anyway, I thought that was interesting. I mean, number of thoughts from her. Kind of interesting in terms of like why she went to Wharton and even her advice about showing up at work.
• 17:39
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, I like that last bit of advice. It makes a lot of sense to be good at what you do, but also recognize that your opportunities are going to come through your networks and folks that know what you do. And so for. So, yeah, so, so, yeah, no, that, that makes a lot, a lot of sense. And it's the first real humans we featured that's actually working for one of these foundation AI firms. Right. So frontier, I should say. I think that's the term that's used. So, so, so yeah. Nice to see that top MBA grads are going into some of these big frontier firms.
• 18:15
  Speaker A: Yeah. And the other thing I'll say is, in case our listeners don't know, the Lauder program at Wharton is like a, it's a joint degree, but it only exists with Wharton. So like if you're, you know, you have to do a Wharton MBA to get it, but it's like an add on and you take some extra classes, language, you do some travel. And it's meant for people who really want truly kind of international careers with a cultural element too. So in any event, that's what she pursued and she seems like she's having a great time at OpenAI. Our last real human alum from this week is Eddie. And Eddie went to Yale, graduated back in 23. He is currently a senior product manager at Twitch. He's 32. He hails from Houston, Texas. And he went to UT Austin, studied chemical engineering as an undergrad. And get this, Alex, he worked for five years in the energy, oil and gas sector. He was a drilling and completions engineer at Shell. Okay. For five years before business school, goes to Yale and lands at Amazon after Yale. And he stayed there for a couple years and now he's pivoted to work at Twitch, which you reminded me is actually owned by Amazon. And so he's made this pretty extreme pivot. And we asked him, why did you go to Yale. And he said, yale SOM stood out to me because of its mission to develop leaders at the intersection of business and society. I've always wanted my career to have an impact beyond just business results. And the way that Yale frames leadership around that broader purpose felt like the right fit. And then we asked him, well, did the MBA experience prepare you for your current career? And he says, my MBA experience gave me not only a business education, but also a new way of thinking. I already knew how to break down complex technical problems, but SOM taught me to frame them in terms of a financial, organizational, and human lens at the same time, which is how I now operate as a product manager. I'd like to think that I've become a more empathetic and effective leader since.
• 20:06
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, absolutely. Fantastic. And this combination, I think, of hard engineering skills wrapped around then a top MBA experience I think is the. Is a really good sort of platform for top MBA students going off into this now world where AI is so dominant and so on and so forth. So, so, so I think that our last two candidates anyway, absolutely reinforce that.
• 20:43
  Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. And I think it's just great to. I love this series. I mean, I'll have all the, quote, real humans pieces that we do, but I love this one in particular because it's so fascinating to see people who are out there in the world have done the mba, but recent enough where they have a good memory of what it's done for them. So in any event, yeah, we will continue on with these. I don't know how many are left, but Lauren continues to publish them on the site. But let's move on. Alex, we've got to get to our wiretaps candidates for this week. So unless you had anything else, we should probably just. Just move along.
• 21:11
  Speaker B: Let's kick on.
• 21:13
  Speaker A: All right, so this is Wiretaps candidate number one. So our first candidate this week, you've chosen an apply wire entry. And this person has a host of schools on the list. They've got Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Michigan, nyu, ucla, ut, Austin, uva, Washington Foster, and Yale som. And they want to start school in the fall of 27. They are currently an infrastructure analyst, which they put in brackets, software engineer. They're thinking about a career maybe in retail after business school or they want to focus on, you know, some of these big companies, you know, Target, Starbucks, Walmart, etc. They did list a few tech companies in there as well. Their gmat score is a 725. If you're more familiar with the old scale, the test that's like a 760, so a very strong GMAT score. They have an 8.23 GPA out of 10. They are from India and that is a pretty good GPA out of India. We don't see too many above 8 coming out of India, so that's probably a very good GPA. 5 years of work experience. They'd love to land in Austin, Seattle or anywhere they say. So they've seemed pretty open, but they have a couple of places in mind. And then the. They just gave us a lot of detail on their work experience. But essentially, you know, they're in a fairly technical role. They say they work in enterprise middleware, infrastructure engineering, sporting, you know, different environments. And so there's a lot of technical jargon in here, which we should probably give them some tips on how to sort of position. But they also mentioned that they're curious to know, like, how competitive are they for top 10 or top 15 schools as an Indian male entry engineer. And they're also wondering how committees will view an enterprise infrastructure kind of middleware background versus software engineering or product backgrounds. And then they're wondering, you know, if we think their career goals make sense. And I think you asked them for extracurriculars and they mentioned that aside from doing a little bit of employee engagement stuff at work, that they are involved in caring for stray animals and they say that's a cause that they care deeply about. So, Alex, what do you make of this candidate?
• 23:23
  Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think they're aiming high enough, quite frankly. They need to target round one. Right. Because they are going to fall into this pocket of potentially being overrepresented in the pool. But they have really strong engineering background, I think, and if they can talk about outcomes and impact, that can help overcome some of the jargon aspect of the technical aspects of what they actually do. But what is the impact of what they do, etc. Etc. And it looks like they're going to be able to do that quite well. Their numbers are really super strong, as you pointed out, and that GMAT really reinforces that. So, so, and, and I, you know, I like the, the fact that the, the, the, the, the person seems to care about some other stuff outside of hardcore engineering. Right. So they're stray animals and so forth. So it'd be interesting to know, know exactly what their role has been. Have they started a, you know, a rescue home for them or are they volunteering or what. Whatever they're doing in that area would be Quite interesting to know, but I do think this is a sort of candidate that if they get their Dr. O for round one, could see some opportunities at some of the schools that aren't listed on their target list. Right. So looking at a couple of M7s and then mix that in with some of the target schools that they have. But go, you know, as heavy into round one as they can would be my suggestion. They also asked if they get penalized for only having one employer, and I don't see why that could be a concern. Again, it's all about, you know, showing impact and growth and if you stay with one employer, you probably have more opportunity to show that impact and growth and so forth. So quite frankly, Graham, I think there's. The raw material here is very good for this candidacy. And if they can really align well in round one, I would up the ante a little bit.
• 25:31
  Speaker A: Yeah, I could not agree more. Like, I think that could apply to a couple of them, seven schools. I think they're going to need to narrow this list from 12 down to, you know, six or, I mean, maybe eight if they're really, you know, ambitious. So they need to narrow the list down. They probably need to look into which of these programs might be best suited to place them at the companies that they're curious about. But yeah, I would aim high, go in round one. And the other thing I would say is they'll need to tone back the jargon. I mean, there's a lot of stuff in there, even in their ApplyWire post, that I didn't understand. You know, they're saying, supporting IBM, MQMFT environments, there's all this jargon in here. And so they're going to need to figure out ways to, you know, sort of speak to that in a way that the layperson can understand. But that's not, that's not hard. And just one thing that you, you mentioned about them having one employer, I think it's, it's actually a little refreshing to see someone who's like been at the same place and as you say, often that gives you opportunities to really advance. And I would argue that, and this is probably in our video series that we did for the Admissions Academy that people can watch on our website for free. But you know, we have a session on kind of work experience and, and I remember we talked a little bit about how if you jump jobs every, you know, I don't know, six to 18 months, it's hard to kind of gain leadership, responsibility and to really have impact. So, you know, I would not be worried at all that they've been at the same firm.
• 26:51
  Speaker B: It's also hard to hard to show loyalty and various other things that employers really do regard as quite important. Right. So if you, if you're being recruited out of the MBA program, you're showing one employer of over five years that's probably sending a good signal to the, to the company that's about to recruit you out of the mba.
• 27:11
  Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So in event I want to thank this person for sharing their profile and yeah, just encourage them to maybe aim a little higher. They can, you know, if they go with six to eight schools they can have a range of admissions difficulty across that group but they should have a couple at the top end.
• 27:24
  Speaker B: But that is key. Make sure they keep that range. Right?
• 27:28
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 27:28
  Speaker B: Don't just go all in on M7 round one thinking okay, I can apply round two of on other schools outside the M7. That doesn't work when you're potentially overrepresented. You need that range in round one.
• 27:42
  Speaker A: Totally. Yeah, that makes sense. All right, well let's move on and talk about wiretaps. Candidate number two. So our second candidate this week again you've chosen an apply wire entry. This person is hoping to start in the fall of 27. They have nine schools on their list. They've got Berkeley, Chicago, Booth, Columbia, Harvard, mit, Kellogg, ucla, Washington, Foster and Yale. And one thing I should mention is some of these programs, they're actually open to doing a part time version. So in the case of like Berkeley or MIT now apparently has a part time, they would be open to that. So just FYI they are a program manager at Microsoft, they've been there for nine years and post mba it's a little fuzzy. They listed consulting, finance and technology which covers sort of the big three, three bases that you know, people tend to go into after business school but not a lot of clarity. And they just said that their plan for their future career is to expand their network so that they can do something entrepreneurial or maybe career pivoting into a higher paying job. Again a little fuzzy. So that's something you'll probably address in your review here. Alex. They did mention Google is like a dream company they would love to work for. They're located in Seattle, I don't know if I already mentioned that. And they have a 3.4 GPA. They have yet to take the GMAT but they are confident that they can get above 700 on the test. So yeah. Alex, what do you make of this? You know they. Yeah There's a lot to unpack here. I'm curious what you think.
• 29:20
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think this is a candidate that's probably looking at the direct, you know, which way the wind's blowing and is potentially feeling a little bit insecure in terms of their current job situation. Right. We're hearing a lot about tech folks getting laid off, et cetera, et cetera. So they're looking at their options. I might be a little wrong here and I apologize to the candidate if that's the case, but that seems to be my impression. Well, that is my impression based off of what I've read. My feedback to them is, all right, let's get serious about this. Let's really think long and hard about the NBA as one of their potential opportunities. If it comes to pass that their current thing gets a little bit derailed, then they can apply with a much more serious set of focus. So a piece of that will be, yes, make sure that they get a great deal GMAT score, right. So they can really focus now hard and make sure they get the score that really reflects their intellectual capacity. They're a little concerned about their slightly lower gpa. So that's one way to mitigate it. Right. If you've had nine years of experience, post that GPA and can come back with a strong gmat, you're really helping ADCOM think, well, that's not going to be a problem at all. Then the next part is their goal focus, right? They really want to narrow down and come up with a plan, an ideal plan for what they see themselves in the future, if an MBA is part of that future. So I would think long and hard about that goal focus and fine tune it. And there's no doubt they can apply to full time and part time. And they won't be the only candidate that's sort of hedging in this way and so forth. So they'll probably have a slightly different narrative for each of those different options. But certainly for the full time programs, they want to get the best GMAT score that they can and they want to really fine tune that goal focus.
• 31:35
  Speaker A: Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, I think the one thing that really struck me is on the one hand they seem to not necessarily know, you know, whether they should do an MBA or you know, part time, full time, whether they're going to get laid off or not or. But on the other hand then they say, oh, I would, it would be a dream job to work at Google. And I'm kind of wondering, well, what, you know, I would love to unpack that further. It's like, well, what do you want to do at Google? Because maybe they do have an idea of something very specific and if they do, then that, that helps, that helps to think about where they should be applying. You know, you might put some emphasis on schools on the west coast or you know, near any of the Google headquarters on the east coast, et cetera. So you know, they could really sort of tailor around that. But I do think they need to take the test like you said and get a good score like you. I'm not really worried about the 3, 4. It doesn't jump off the page, but it doesn't. It's not a red flag either. And I think they mentioned they took some, I think they were pre med or something originally and they did poorly in those classes and that lowered their gpa. So that's an easy thing to explain in an optional essay. But the test is sort of putting your money where your mouth is. Right. So if they have a great score on the test, it sort of further underlines that, oh yeah, this person's really more like a 3.8 candidate. They got a great test score and they're motivated. Right? Yeah. So I think there's a lot for them to do just thinking through what they want here. But also the only thing we didn't get, and I think you asked them for this, but they didn't respond is what's the extracurricular sort of profile look like? What else do they do that makes them interesting? And presumably they're probably established nine years already in Seattle. There must be things they do that are activities and things. So be good to know that. I don't know, I mean I, I kind of, I guess they could hedge and apply to some part time, some full time. It's just a little tricky because I don't know, with some of these part time programs they're really designed for you to be in market. So you know, they're in Seattle, so Washington Foster maybe. But yeah, some of them you can kind of just parachute in on the weekends and things. But in any event that's up to them to decide. But I would encourage them to figure out their goals like you said and get to work on that test.
• 33:39
  Speaker B: Yeah, very good.
• 33:41
  Speaker A: All right, I want to thank them for submitting their profile. Let's move on and talk about wiretaps. Candidate number three. So our final candidate for this week, Alex, comes from a decision wire entry and as usual it's someone who cannot decide where to go this Person applied to Berkeley, Michigan, mit, Stern and Yale. They got into all of these schools okay, and Berkeley gave them 50K, so did Yale. So they got 50,000 from both of those schools. Ross gave them $100,000, MIT Sloan $69,000 and NYU Stern takes the crown with $195,000 scholarship. This person has a 329 on the GRE, so really good test score. I'm not surprising that they're getting a lot of money. Maybe that's a. There's a correlation there. They mentioned they have a corporate sustainability background and they're interested in exploring sustainable finance or climate tech. They said, I didn't take Haas or Yale's offers thinking I'm going to take the money at Stern for maximum flexibility post grad with impact roles. So it sounds to me, if I could just narrow this down, Alex. It sounds to me like it's down to stern offering them 195k and probably MIT Sloan, which is sort of the higher ranking program, offering them 69,000. They mentioned explicitly they're not considering Berkeley and Yale. I don't know what the story is with Michigan which is offering them 100. But in any event, what do you think they should be doing here? Because there's a little bit of complex math with, you know, there's a lot of money on the table here from Stern.
• 35:16
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean it's interesting, right? I mean it's sort of the classic case. You can go to Stern and it's a much lower risk opportunity in terms of, you know, financial risk. But then on the other end of the spectrum, are they taking on risk in terms of opportunity Risk. Right. Career risk relative to what Sloan might provide them. So I would really examine Stern very closely for their specific goals, climate tech, etc. Etc. And see what opportunities Stern can uncover for them and then, then compare that with Sloan and then make that hard decision. I think they're both really good opportunities, but one would argue Sloan being in the higher tier may present for them more access to climate tech, etc. Etc. So that's the dilemma. It's reasonably straightforward, I think depending on where they want to have that risk. Risk on the financial side or risk on the opportunity side.
• 36:27
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's, you know, it's really interesting just because part of me, I don't know enough about the ecosystem at Sloan vs. Stern when it comes to sustainable finance or climate tech specifically. So like you said, like they should do their due diligence, but it does feel from the post like they're leaning on taking the money from Stern, which would give them flexibility to take whatever job afterwards. Right. So I understand that makes a lot of sense, but I would encourage them to at least do the due diligence talk with people in both programs. I mean, these are, you know, they're both actually fairly close knit places because Sloan is one of the smaller M7 programs. Right. So in any event, yeah, they should do their homework here, but, you know, can't fault them for taking a. Basically, what's a free ride, you know, over the other. Money is not nearly as large from these other schools, so it's understandable. I want to thank them for sharing their dilemma and wish them the best of luck as they try to decide. Alex, we had a lot to talk about this week, so we had a little bit of longer show, but I did want to thank you for picking out these candidates and also just for offering a lot of your insights on the world of AI. It's been really fascinating for everyone, you know, as we kind of navigate all this stuff, and I always appreciate your perspective on that.
• 37:34
  Speaker B: Well, I appreciate you listening to me, but yeah, no, best of luck, everyone. Stay safe. Sam.