Latest / Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast / MBA Wire Taps 431—Japanese in the US. 326 GRE, consider retake? LBS vs INSEAD.

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MBA Wire Taps 431—Japanese in the US. 326 GRE, consider retake? LBS vs INSEAD. · Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast

• 0:16
  Speaker A: Welcome to the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. I'm Graham Richmond and this is your Wiretaps for Monday, June 23, 2025. I'm joined by Alex Brown from Cornwall, England. Alex, how are things going this week?
• 0:28
  Speaker B: Very good, thank you, Graham.
• 0:29
  Speaker A: So Alex is a former admissions officer from Wharton school and current ClearAdmit community manager and podcaster. He also teaches digital marketing for some top business schools, including Columbia and London Business School. And I am the co founder of ClearAdmit. I also worked in admissions at Wharton where I first met Alex and have my MBA from that program. Alex, anything happening on Livewire? I mean, we're getting into the summer here. It's pretty quiet. Right. But there may be some. Is there some weightless movement or. It's been kind of calm.
• 0:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it is pretty quiet, but there is a little bit of weightless movement movement. And I would just anticipate that will continue over the next two or three weeks because there's still some, some uncertainty out there. Right. In terms of international students and various other aspects. So I don't think it's game over yet if you're still on a wait list. Yeah, but, but yeah, we are getting closer to the sort of pre terms or whatever. So things start actually sometime in July for many programs.
• 1:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, and that's a perfect segue. I mean, you know, as we've been talk going on with universities and visas, it so happens that since we last recorded an episode, the US Government has reopened visa appointments. They're, you know, they've added this extra layer, which is a social media check. Basically, they're looking to see if you are, you know, apparently sympathetic to entities like Hamas or, you know, what they're listing as sort of terrorist organizations. So that's like an extra layer. But I do think that there's going to be a backlog and there are going to be some people who don't make it through these visas in general and not necessarily because of the social media check. I think that the government's a little stricter. So as you say, there could be more opportunities for waitlist movement because of that. We'll just have to see how this all plays out. But this is usually a quieter time for admissions directors. They go to the annual GMAC conference which is taking place this week. They get at least a little bit of time to kick back and celebrate the class they're bringing in and start gearing up for the next year. But this whole visa thing has really thrown a wrench in the process for all these American Schools?
• 2:41
  Speaker B: I would think so. But also, this added step, I mean, how is it really going to work? How are they doing this? Do you know? How do you do the scrutiny on the social media channel?
• 2:54
  Speaker A: Apparently, what they said that you have to do. I read this article when they first announced this, that you have to set your social media platforms to public. So on Instagram, for instance, you can have a private account that no one can follow without your permission, or you can have an account that anyone can see. So you have to turn it to public for them to run their little check. It feels very Orwellian. Or it's like Big Brother. Yeah. I don't like this. It seems just sort of.
• 3:18
  Speaker B: I think it's extraordinary for the US Government.
• 3:23
  Speaker A: Totally. Yeah. So. Boy. Yeah. So we'll see how this unfolds. The other thing that I wanted to mention is that if you are someone who's looking to apply. This coming cycle, we have our big essay event series that's rolling, rolling out starting in July, every Wednesday in July, starting on the 9th of July. And the first event will be with Berkeley, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke and Penn. Should be a lot of fun. It's always going to be. I'll emcee them. It's me, usually with five schools every week asking them questions about their essay topics and what they look for, why they ask the questions they ask, et cetera. So you can sign up for the events at Bit ly Mbasa 0725 for July 25. So it should be a lot.
• 4:08
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And how many folks you got signed up for that first event, Graham?
• 4:11
  Speaker A: I don't know off the top of my head, but I think it's several hundred already, isn't it?
• 4:14
  Speaker B: It's hit 500.
• 4:15
  Speaker A: Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, so that's. And that'll keep going up as we get closer. But, yeah, those are always a lot of fun. And there are another. Aside from the schools I mentioned, There are another 15 schools that are joining us as well over the course of the month. So should be a lot of fun. It's all the top schools, so stay tuned for that on the website. Alex, there's been a couple of big kind of news articles that we read about Chicago. Booth, an alum of the program, Mar Tolan, who graduated back in 92, she gave them $12 million for their healthcare initiative, along with her husband. So they gave all this money to help Chicago Booth's healthcare initiative. So that's kind of interesting. And the other thing that happened is Booth gave out. What is it? Yeah, $2.26 million to 10 finalist teams in their venture award competition. They had this new venture challenge every year, I guess, and that was the record. They'd never given out that much money in prizes. When they first held that competition back in 1997, the prize was $20,000. So along with, you know, things have come a long way with these kind of accelerator programs and, you know, venture competitions.
• 5:23
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's absolutely fantastic. And congratulations to Booth for getting that donation for their health care program. I mean, obviously, healthcare is a really important sort of domain and there are lots of top programs focused on it. So. Yeah, no, absolutely brilliant.
• 5:42
  Speaker A: And more and more candidates, too. And we're going to talk about a candidate. One of our candidates this week is very interested in healthcare. So, yeah, you're right. Business schools seem to be focusing on this a bit, and it's a giant industry, obviously. So the other thing we did is we've been running more admissions tips as we head into a new cycle. So we did an admissions tip about how to address gaps in employment. That was a topic that we tackled. I think last week we had a candidate who was dealing with that sort of thing. So read that tip. There's, I think, a video that accompanies it as well, with some information from Alex and my Admissions Academy video series that we did. The other thing is we started this new series, Alex, called Mythbusters, which I got to credit you with because you had this idea of kind of brainstorming new kind of column ideas. And the first. So we're running this like they're short articles. They're called mythbusters.
• 6:31
  Speaker B: Are we going to tell them how we brainstormed it, Graham?
• 6:33
  Speaker A: Yeah, we should, shouldn't we?
• 6:35
  Speaker B: Yes. Good old chat. GPT.
• 6:40
  Speaker A: Yeah. So what we did is we. Yeah, tell us how this worked because it's kind of interesting.
• 6:44
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So basically I, as Graham mentioned at the intro, which you can stop mentioning a little bit, Graham, I teach digital marketing. So I've created. As part of that, I've created a load of what we call custom GPTs. And one of the. A couple of custom GPTs that I've developed, which literally take five minutes to develop. So it's no, no big, no big deal sort of idea generation type custom GPTs. Because I think that's where things are quite difficult for folks, whether it's idea generation for a new business, for a new strand of business, or content ideas for your own business, etc. Etc. So. So, yeah, custom GPT, you put in your URL for your business, so it knows who you are, et cetera, et cetera. And yeah, NBA MythBusters was a hot topic.
• 7:34
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So it was very cool because it basically reads the content on our site and says, oh, you have great content about this, but why don't you try this? So we're doing this Mythbusters, which is. We did two of them. The first one is all M7 admits come from finance or consulting backgrounds. So we had a lot of fun writing that one. That kind of breaks that down. We are writing the articles, by the way, so we use Gatsby to come up with the idea for the series, but then we're writing the articles. Actually, Peggy on our team is doing those, and we did another one about, oh, you need a perfect GMA or GRE to get into a top school. So we just sort of break that down. So there'll be many more of these to come. It's a lot of fun.
• 8:10
  Speaker B: Very good.
• 8:11
  Speaker A: The other stuff is we've been catching up with admissions directors as part of our admissions director Q and A series. That's now way off. Off to the races. I see there's a stack of them coming. And we connected with Brent Nagamine, who is the admissions director over at University of Washington Foster in Seattle, and we asked him, how does your team approach the essay portion of the application specifically? And I thought this was really good. And anyone interested in Foster should, like, you know, stop what you're doing and listen to this. He said, we're looking for applicants who can authentically tell us why they are pursuing the Foster MBA by articulately explaining their motivations and goals. Essays that stand out are well researched, demonstrate an understanding of our program, and detail how you authentically see yourself achieving your goals and contributing to the community at Foster. So he goes on from there, and I know we've got a lot of stuff to cover this week, but he goes on from there to just talk about how they really want to see that you've done your homework and that you know what their program is, how you're going to get involved, contribute, et cetera. They do not want a cookie cutter kind of response, which is not true for all schools. Some schools are more focused on what are you trying to achieve and less about you, kind of rattling back at them stuff that you know about their school. It really varies, but in Foster's case, they want to know that you've done your homework.
• 9:29
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, it varies, but I would say that it's still good adv for all the schools you Target. So really understand how that school is going to enable your career trajectory, your goals post mba. So it's just a different way, I guess of asking that question. But yeah, makes, makes perfect sense.
• 9:49
  Speaker A: Yeah, totally. We also caught up with Charlotte Russell Green, who is at Cambridge Judge. And again we asked her like, how does your team approach the essay portion? And she said, we get this question a lot. And without giving too much away, the essays help us understand how applicants think, reflect, and whether they're a good fit. We look for answers that directly address the question while showing capability, resilience, self awareness and a sense of who they are. Common pitfalls. Relying solely on AI. Yes, we can tell, she says, not answering the question and accidentally naming another school. Copy and paste with care. So that's what Charlotte had to say on the essays for Cambridge Judge.
• 10:34
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, very good. I'm curious about that AI comment, but we'll leave it at that. Yeah, I mean, I'm a big believer you've got to use AI to help you prepare your applications, etc. Etc. There's so much you can do now with AI. Don't use it. The final product of your essays for sure, but certainly 80% of the drafting. Why not?
• 11:00
  Speaker A: Yeah, and I think that's why she's saying relying solely on AI. That's probably what's going on there. And then last but not least, we caught up with Kara Trippy over at Michigan State Broad. That's an MBA program in Michigan, the other good MBA program in Michigan, because we talk a lot about Ross, but Michigan State has a great school. We asked her, is there anything else you'd like to highlight about your program or the admissions process, et cetera. And she said, or a small but impactful MBA program. And that comes with some big advantages. Unlike many other MBA programs, we offer a dedicated required career management course in your first semester, not just optional workshops. This course covers essential topics like career assessments, planning for a successful summer internship, and even AI integration. And she goes on. I read her whole interview and she talked a little bit more about how they literally get with you before you even show up on campus and are kind of coaching you. And again, it's sort of hands on approach because it's very small program.
• 11:57
  Speaker B: I think that's absolutely fantastic. And a big shout out to Michigan Broad or however you pronounce that, because it's the, the school where I would say my closest friend in MBA admissions, where she worked for many, many years, Jennifer Chiswick.
• 12:12
  Speaker A: Oh, I forgot about that.
• 12:13
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, absolutely brilliant. But it makes perfect sense, right, to have a course like that right up front.
• 12:20
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 12:20
  Speaker B: And make it really required because it's such a critical aspect of why you're doing an mba. It's about career development as well as obviously academic development and so on and so forth. So. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I'd not heard of that, a required course before right at the beginning. So that's very good.
• 12:41
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's good stuff. We also caught up with a couple of real humans, well, a couple of alumni, as part of our Real humans alumni series. So these are people who went to business school and are now out in the workforce. There are two of them. So we caught up with Cameron, who went to emory, graduated in 24 and is currently a consultant at BCG. Cameron is 30 years old and from Knoxville, Tennessee, shout out. He went to Davidson College, which is a really nice liberal arts college down in North Carolina. Studied physics, but also has, it looks like a master's in mechanical engineering. So in any event, we asked him, what about your Emory MBA experience prepared you for your current career at bcg? And he said, I've used a huge amount of knowledge I gained in my classes as a consultant, including strategy, economics and data analytics most frequently. I also competed in several case competitions which taught me how to operate under pressure and gave me reps at solving real world problems while also allowing me to network with a variety of companies. Finally, I completed two directed studies while at Emory, one of which dove into the economics of nuclear power. And I'm hugely interested in energy consulting. And that study earned me credibility in the space where before I had very little. So that's kind of Cameron's thoughts and I think easy for a consultant to say when you go to business school, you get a lot of tools that are quite useful in the consulting role. So he's clearly drawing on that.
• 14:08
  Speaker B: Yeah. And especially coming from his academic background. Right. Which is he's a rocket scientist or whatever it was that you described. But then that layering on top of that, the business acumen, which shouldn't be dismissed. Right. So taking that sort of really hard, difficult data, whatever it is that he did, they were doing, and mapping that on top, I think is a really, really good combination.
• 14:35
  Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. So read that interview if you're curious about Emory or bcg. There's a lot of tips in there about the interview process for those consulting jobs. We also caught up with Dan, who's a Duke Fuqua grad from back in 20 and is now a senior strategy consultant at Accenture he's 32 years old from Winchester, Virginia. Went to Duke for undergrad and studied public policy, but then came back for the mba. Before business school he had worked as a producer and host on a sports network, Monumental Sports and Entertainment, msc. So basically kind of an interesting non traditional background. And we said what piece of advice do you wish you'd been given during your mba? And he said it's well documented that the first several months of the business school experience can be a bit bananas. Some students will have coffee chats with over 100 professionals, complete over 50 practice cases and place heavy emphasis on the consulting and banking industries during first year internship recruitment. That's great, but I can assure you that I did not do that. I met with about two dozen individuals doing my best to have a real conversation to learn not only about the work, but also the people. Over my two years at Fuqua, I completed roughly 25 practice cases across consulting, consumer packaged goods and other areas. My point is that no one is better at being you than you. If that means you go against the grain, that's okay. Just remember you earned your spot and owe it to yourself to pursue whatever you are most interested in. So I thought that was kind of interesting advice too.
• 16:10
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, I think it's brilliant. But also again, it's sort of doing something a little less orthodox, not following the crowds, etc. Etc. Because you can get really swept up in this sort of FOMO and various other things and you've got to do this and oh, this, this is coming up, I'm going to sign up for that, etc. Etc. If you come in with your, a really well developed plan for your mba, then you can be more selective and really stick to your goal. So very good.
• 16:41
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I think, you know, he goes on in the interview, it's, it's a long interview with him and he talks a bit more about, you know, just, you know, how his goal was to really get to know the people that he interacted with when it came to these sort of informational interviews. And so he did fewer of them but he thinks it really paid off to dive deep and, and you know, not just do surface stuff with, you know, dozens and dozens of people.
• 16:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, very good.
• 17:00
  Speaker A: So let's see. So those, that's everything that's been going on on the site. I know we had a lot to kind of tackle. We can now get into the candidates, but I do want to remind people just to feel free to email us at infoearadmit. Do use the subject line wiretaps we got a lovely note which I think I shared with you, Alex, when I wrote back to the person, this is someone who we profiled their candidacy in 2020 or 21, I think. I mean, this is like five years ago. And they were on the show, we kind of talked about their candidacy, gave them advice, and now they're headed off to, I think it's Kellogg or something. And they, you know, they followed our advice. They did a whole bunch of different things in their ensuing years.
• 17:37
  Speaker B: What was our advice? Take four years to, to, to apply.
• 17:40
  Speaker A: No, it wasn't, no, but I think our advice was about taking on challenges at work and this person did just that. And so they, yeah, they really excelled. And in any event, it just was so heartwarming to get that note. I, I doubt she's still listening because she probably has better things to do. But if she has, you know, really appreciated that note and. Yeah, feel free to write to us.
• 18:00
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's absolutely brilliant.
• 18:01
  Speaker A: Totally.
• 18:01
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 18:02
  Speaker A: Yeah. All right, anything else on your mind before we talk about the candidates?
• 18:04
  Speaker B: Now? Let's kick on.
• 18:05
  Speaker A: All right, so this is Wiretap candidate number one. Our first candidate this week has a whopping 18 schools on the target list. And I'm not going to read them all, but they range from, you know, kind of Kellogg and Columbia to Washington University, Olin, you know, Kenan Flagler, Minnesota, Carlson. So they have a real wide range of what I would call kind of, you know, top 10 to top 25, you know, schools. This candidate is looking to start in the fall of 26. They have been working as a strategy analyst and after business school they're thinking consulting or tech. They have a 3.5 undergraduate GPA, 2 years of work experience to date, it'll be 3 upon matriculation and they indicate they're trying to apply and they wanted to get our thoughts. And they're in a bit of a pickle, I would say, because they have an undergrad in math with a concentration in data science. But they came to the United States from Japan and they basically went to undergrad in Oklahoma and they graduated in 23 and have been working, but it looks like they haven't yet secured a kind of long term work visa. So they're thinking of going to grad school and then maybe trying their luck at an H1B after that or something. So in any event, they are originally from Japan, as I said, and they've been working as a kind of analyst at a, what they describe as a lead gen marketplace startup. They Said it was featured in the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies. So it sounds like an interesting, exciting place. They work extensively with SQL, Excel, Tableau and do lots of projects in data science, Python, et cetera. So kind of on the technical side it sounds like in terms of using those tools and again, three years of experience by the time they would matriculate, they haven't yet taken a test, but they're aiming to take the GMAT and get in that sort of 700 ballpark. And they said, you know, they were thinking about grad school as a plan, sort of a backup if they don't didn't because they didn't get the H1B visa. But they what was originally a backup plan, they're kind of now thinking it seems quite appealing. So, so I'll let you comment on this. But it was kind of funny how they started as like, oh, this could be another way to stay in the States. And then they realized hey, this could actually be a really good thing for my career. But what do you make of this candidacy?
• 20:30
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean that's kind of why I picked this profile. I find it quite interesting. But also they need to start their MBA next season. Right. So one of the typical advice to someone with maybe two or three years of work experience is well, you can apply but maybe your profile will be stronger in a year or two. So if you then need to reapply, you probably have, have a, you know, a better chance in, in the years ahead. But that's not the case with this candidate. Right. So they've got to do a couple of things I think to really maximize their opportunity next season. One is to ace that test score. So the GMAT I think that they're targeting so really put a lot of effort into getting, getting, getting, you know, a very strong score relative to the schools that they're applying and leave themselves enough time to do a retake if necessary. So I think that's going to be really important, be really good if they could develop their sort of post MBA sort of career path and you know, make that part of their cogent story so that they can really effectively articulate why mba, why now career path without it being obvious that they're just doing it to try to stay in the United States for a little bit longer. Right. So, so it just becomes really important to think long and hard about that five year and ten year plan and, and yeah, that's sort of hypothetical but in this case it's going to be super slow, super critical. I think and then they need to be realistic about the schools that they're targeting. Right. So they're going to really. Yeah, have a couple of reach schools, have a couple of, you know, in that target range and then a couple of safety schools because they've got to get in somewhere. Right. So, so then it becomes, well, what is the range that they should be targeting? So it will to some extent depend on how they're able to articulate their work experience in terms of impact and growth. Because that's really, you know, I'm not saying a little bit of an unknown, but obviously they're very technical so they can complete projects. But are they really having impact and can they show that impact and growth? I think if they, they're able to articulate that effectively, that will really help. Supported by strong recommendations of obviously in that case. And, and, and, and, and yeah, if they get that really strong test score, then I'm thinking top 16, top 20 in terms of their sort of reach slash targets. Right. So what might be an ideal program, maybe Tepper. Right. Or something like that to, to and so forth. But yeah, I think it's an interesting case. Case Graham. I think they've clearly got some smarts and they're clearly doing some technical work that's going to set themselves up quite well, I think, for the future because we're moving into an AI world. So knowing that technical stuff is really, really important. So, so I think there is some upside, but they, they've got a couple of challenges ahead of them.
• 23:54
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, I, I think you've hit the nail on the head. I mean they, they definitely need to take the test, do well, because it sounds like the university they attended is not necessarily well known and their GPA is fine, but it's not jumping off the page, it's just solid. So getting a good test score is step one. Step two, they really need to figure out a career plan and just be able to articulate it. A path that they think that they want to follow and ideally one that draws upon their experience to date, maybe takes that analytics knowledge and puts it into a more sort of strategy role. Consulting could be fine or something, but it could be, maybe there's a boutique consulting shop that is more in line with what they've done and could do in the future. It's funny you mentioned Tepper. That does sound like a good fit. I don't think that was on their list. So they had 18 schools on their list and that wasn't one of them.
• 24:40
  Speaker B: Oh boy.
• 24:42
  Speaker A: But I think that's an interesting point. They might want to look closely at that program because it is a good one given their skill set. But yeah, I think there's a possibility here. But I think the other thing that's really important is they should not convey to the admissions team that the reason that they're applying to business school schools because they couldn't get a visa and stay in their job, they feel like they need to make it feel like this was an organic kind of discovery of, oh, wow, I really want to accelerate my career. Which in the end it sounds like that's what they want to do. And they've kind of come to that conclusion anyway. But they don't need to explain the logistics that got them there. And then the only other thing I would say is it'd be nice if they could highlight some outside interests and activities just to add some color to the candidacy. It sounds like they're a little bit weaker in that space, but hopefully there's some things that they do with their spare time that they can speak to. But anyway, that's probably enough said on them. I do want to thank them for sharing their profile. And I think, yeah, there's. If they cast a wide net like you suggest, they should land somewhere.
• 25:42
  Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:44
  Speaker A: Yeah. All right, well, let's move on and talk about wiretaps. Candidate number two, our second candidate this week has just seven schools on the target list. Those schools are Dartmouth, Harvard, mit, Kellogg, Chicago, Booth, Wharton, and uva Darden. They want to start school in the fall of 26. Their pre MBA career has been in pharma consulting. And they're thinking post MBA of staying in the kind of pharma healthcare space. They indicate Amgen, AstraZeneca, JJ Merck, Novartis, Pfizer and Roche as possible landing places. They've taken the GRE and scored a 326 on the test. They also have a 3.58 undergraduate GPA. They did mention that that's from a top five public university per US News rankings and that they majored in biology and Spanish. They have five years of work experience. They want to land in the Northeast. And they did leave us a couple of notes. They said that they're curious about how their candidacy lines up for the schools on their target list and they're wondering whether or not they should take the GRE once more or if it's better to focus now on essays and applications. They also gave us some additional details about like, you know, accomplishments at work. They seem quite accomplished. I mean, they have all this Work experience at a sort of boutique life sciences consulting firm. I mean it's really, you know, they started as an analyst, made their way to consultant. Now they're an engagement manager, so exactly what you would want to see. And they also do some great stuff outside of work. So they're a Girl Scout troop leader. They're a board member of a local chapter for a global organization supporting women in healthcare careers. They are a youth running coach and they're also captain of a co ed volleyball and flag football team. This is a female candidate, 26 years old. Alex, I really like this candidate. I mean, what's your take?
• 27:47
  Speaker B: Me too. I know my advice to the candidate has caused you a little bit of pause, but yeah, this is a really strong candidate and is potentially could get into all the programs they have listed and they're listing the best, right? Or many of the best. So. So yeah, work experience looks really strong demographically, really strong, but also outside of work. And I love it. Like, you know, they've been with the, with the Girl Scouts or whatever it's called for a long period of time that shows a lot of commitment, etc. Etc. Now they're in a leadership role in that organization, but they're also doing other things outside of work. So I mean, just keeps getting better and better. Right. So. But, but she did ask a specific question, right? Should I retake the GRE or should I spend more time on the essays? So, so this is a balance and it's quite an interesting question because the GRE is already close to or at the median of top schools.
• 28:53
  Speaker A: Except for Yale and Stanford.
• 28:55
  Speaker B: Yeah, except for a couple.
• 28:56
  Speaker A: But they're not on our list.
• 28:59
  Speaker B: Then they're not. Maybe they should be, but that's a whole nother story. But my point is, if you think the scope for improvement, then I would do it. And why is that? Because more scholarship money may come to play and more access. So maybe they're on the edge for Harvard. Whereas a slightly higher GRE with all the other grades, great stuff that she presents pushes her over the edge for Harvard. Right. So that was the reason why I said, yeah, if you've got the time and the wherewithal, retaking the GRE might make sense if that becomes a 328, 329, 30 or whatever, that's better than the 326. If it's lower than, then you've still got the 326. You've spent some time, but nevertheless, class, you still got the 326, so. And and it's balanced against. Or should I spend more time on the essays? And quite frankly, Graham, I mean it's great to write great essays, but I don't think that's rocket science. And again, you've got your cv, you've, you've got the essay questions, you've got the whatever, you can use some AI to help you formulate some strategy for your essays, etc. Etc. So I don't think you've got to sweat really hard to effectively articulate your profile, your reason for going to school X, your research on the school, etc. Etc. You've got the tools to do that and do that quite well. Schools aren't looking for the best written essays. What schools are looking for is for their best understanding of who you are. And they should be able to do that. That if you just write effectively, if you're a good communicator and you know your yourself very well.
• 30:50
  Speaker A: Right.
• 30:50
  Speaker B: And the school that you're targeting. So that's my point. Right. So yeah, fantastic profile. Could it be improved potentially with a little higher. But I think this, this candidate will, will, will go far.
• 31:05
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean I think if she applies as is, she'll get into a number of these schools. But you're right, if the GRE is a 330 or something, there may be more money coming her way at least for those schools that do merit based. Now there is a school on her list, Harvard, that's not merit based. So it doesn't really matter if she hits the bar to get in. The scholarship dollars are just based on her needs. So that's a little different.
• 31:28
  Speaker B: But can you imagine, Graham, if she's got to spend 20 hours prepping for the green to get a 330 and that yields an extra hundred grand at her favorite school, that's a pretty good payback for 20 hours of work or whatever.
• 31:45
  Speaker A: Yeah, it might be more like 60 hours of work, but still it still holds. Right? So I think, yeah. And I mean I do think that one of the fascinating things to me here is that she may find that Wharton's healthcare management program, Kellogg has a great healthcare program we just heard about. Booth is on her list. They do great things in healthcare. The two schools in Boston and even Tuck are in that great kind of geograph geography for healthcare related jobs. And so she's got the right focus on schools in my mind. And some of those schools that are merit based may give her lots of money if she's successful in this process. Exactly. So I think she's going to land on her feet for sure. She mentioned she didn't have Duke on her list, which is a great school for healthcare, because she wants to land in the Northeast. And I just want to remind her, or maybe, I mean, she may not know this. Duke sends a ton of people to New York. I think it might be their number one market. And so it's. My guess is that just as easy to get to New York or the Northeast from Duke as it is from, say, Chicago. Booth. And that is on her list. In any event, she can't apply everywhere, and she already has seven schools on the list, and it seems like she wants to keep it focused. And to your point, she applies in round two, it doesn't matter. So if she really wants to take the time on the test, it's not the end of the world. She's not overrepresented, and she has a terrific profile, could get it in either of those rounds. So I'm not worried about that. That.
• 33:07
  Speaker B: Yeah, very good.
• 33:08
  Speaker A: Anyway, I want to thank her for sharing her profile. Let's turn to.
• 33:12
  Speaker B: Well, I'll ask you one quick question. I know we're running on a little. Little bit.
• 33:15
  Speaker A: No, it's fine.
• 33:15
  Speaker B: Is there a disadvantage applying in round two for scholarships, scholarship money?
• 33:21
  Speaker A: Not necessarily. I mean, I think, you know, schools have earmarked dollars for the rounds, and. And any. Any money that they put towards someone around one who doesn't ultimately take the offer comes back into the pool. So I wouldn't be so worried about that. That round three, I would say. Yeah, that would be dangerous. But round one and two, I think you're okay.
• 33:39
  Speaker B: Yeah. Round three is dangerous in any which way. Right. So, yeah. But again, for this profile, Round one, Round two, really has no material effect.
• 33:48
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 33:49
  Speaker B: So, but obviously getting results from round one, it helps you develop a round two strategy. So for this candidate, maybe target two or three schools in round one, maybe retake the GRE a little bit later, and then target two or three schools in round two, who knows? Right?
• 34:09
  Speaker A: Yeah. All right. Want to thank her for sharing her profile? Let's turn to wiretaps. Candidate number three. So our final candidate this week is a decision wire entry that you picked. This person shared their admissions results and is having some trouble deciding. They applied to Cambridge, Chicago, Booth, Columbia, INSEAD, LBs, AT, and Stanford, and they ended up getting into Cambridge, Booth, Columbia in Seattle, and LBs. So they got in everywhere except for Stanford. They're starting school this fall. They want to work in consulting, technology, investment banking, venture capital, or private Equity so basically they don't know what they want to do when they're done. They listed a whole bunch of companies and it's all the usual suspects in those different domains. They had a 760 on the GMAT exam, they're located in London and they say, I'm struggling to decide between LBs and INSEAD. They point out that the INSEAD offer is for the January intake. So it's, you know, it's staggered and that's a little bit different than the other programs starting in September. I should also mention that that Cambridge offer that they got, which they don't seem to be considering, did come with a 10,000 pound scholarship. So in any event the, that. But, but they seem to, I, I'm not sure what's led them to narrow this to just in C&LBs, but that's where they are and that's what they asked us for advice on. What do you make of this, Alex? I mean it's kind of an interesting dilemma.
• 35:34
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean you, as you point out on, on the, on the site, if they go to insead, they still have an opportunity to do an internship because it is the January intake. So, so that's important. But yeah, the issue here is the candidate hasn't come up with their post MBA plan. They haven't really developed a strong plan for what they want to do yet. So if they're relying on the business school to help them develop that, I would say London Business School. Why? Because it's just a longer program so they can spend a bit more time, get more immersed, etc. Etc. As well as obviously pursue the internship opportunities. Whereas INSEAD is more of a condensed program and I think because it's shorter, more condensed, you know, there's just more going on, etc. Etc. Yeah, it fails as folks going in with a really well developed post MBA plan. So to me that's the one piece that makes me think actually LBs, which, you know, full disclosure, I do some work for it would be potentially a better choice here.
• 36:55
  Speaker A: Yeah, now they are. So they are in London and I wondered like where do they want to be because obviously they go to insead, they're going to spend half their time in France and half their time in Singapore and maybe even some time in Abu Dhabi or I can't remember where they, where they're campuses in the Middle east. So it would be a very different experience but it would be a sprint. And I agree with you that they don't seem to have any idea what they want to do. They have this kind of, I mean, no one recruits for consulting, tech and banking at once. It just doesn't, you can't, I mean, you have to figure this out. And so, yeah, at least LBS would give them that chance to stretch out a bit and have a first year of core stuff, do a summer internship and then come back, do electives and figure out their long term plan. So, yeah, and I, yeah, the NCID program in January does have a summer into a summer internship. It's a couple months long because they take a break in the summer. So. But it just still feels like it'd be pretty speedy. And I, they, you know, this is up to them. They got to know what they want to do and, and where they want to be geographically. But it does feel like LBs might be a good fit here.
• 37:57
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Best of luck to them. They're obviously super smart, right?
• 38:01
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
• 38:01
  Speaker B: And they got into some great programs, so they're probably going to land on their feet whichever of the programs they choose. I just think for them it'll be easier for them to sort of take it all in when the program's a little bit longer to make a better post. MBA decision.
• 38:18
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I'm assuming they left Booth and Columbia out of the decision because they don't want to work in America. That's all I can assume because obviously if they do, then they would need to go to American school. Right. I mean, because it comes with some ability to work in the States afterwards, et cetera. But it sounds like they narrowed it to the European options. And yeah, I want to wish them the best of luck and thank them for sharing their profile. Alex, we had a long show today. Next week will be speedier because I'm going to be in Kansas City when we record this next episode. I'll be there for the GMAC conference. I'm looking forward to that kind of catching up with a lot of admissions directors and colleagues in our space. So it should be fun. But let's find a time to record while I'm out there. If you can do it.
• 38:56
  Speaker B: Absolutely. Very good. Stay safe, everyone. Take care of Sam.