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In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the flurry of Round 2 MBA application deadlines that dominate the beginning of January. This upcoming week, we see several top business schools have their deadlines.  DecisionWire also remains popular, as Round 1 MBA candidates start making decisions as to which MBA program they will enroll.

On Tuesday at 12 pm ET, Clear Admit is hosting an event with CMU / Tepper, which focuses on its Data Analytics masters program. Signups are here: https://bit.ly/cmuanalytics Clear Admit is also hosting a Real Humans admissions event, scheduled for January 24 at 7 pm ET. This event will bring together students from a variety of top MBA programs, including NYU / Stern, Georgetown / McDonough and Washington / Foster, ready to answer questions from MBA aspirants. Signups for this event are here: https://bit.ly/carealhumans

Graham highlighted two recently published admissions tips which focus on two key aspects related to finalizing the MBA admissions essays: word counts and essay polishing. One question that is becoming more obvious: how can we best use Generative AI in the essay writing and editing process?

Graham then highlighted two Real Humans pieces that were recently published on Clear Admit, covering students from Yale SOM and Berkeley / Haas.

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

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate has a very solid GMAT score of 730, but their GPA is a very troubling 2.5. They suffered from mental health issues during their undergraduate experience. Their long term goals are in the mental health space. They will need to address concerns surrounding the GPA in the optional essay; we think they really also need to take some additional coursework.

This week’s second MBA candidate has a very decent 720 GMAT score, and has a chemical engineering undergraduate degree, with a 3.67 GPA from their graduating University. We think there’s a lot to like about this profile, but nothing that absolutely stands out. They might want to consider also exploring 1-2 more top 16 tier MBA programs.

The final MBA candidate for this week is deciding between Columbia and Northwestern / Kellogg, while also applying to UPenn / Wharton and MIT / Sloan in Round 2. . They want to be on the east coast, after their MBA, with a focus on healthcare and pharma.

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!