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In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the flurry of decisions we have witnessed from all the top MBA programs as Round 1 decision deadlines have passed. While things will be a little quieter on LiveWire now, as we head closer to the Christmas holiday, DecisionWire is getting very popular, as Round 1 MBA candidates start making decisions as to which MBA program they will enroll or turn to the Clear Admit community for advice.

Graham noted a new Real Humans admissions event, scheduled for January 24. This event will bring together students from a variety of top MBA programs, ready to answer questions from MBA aspirants. Signups for the event are here: https://bit.ly/carealhumans Graham also mentioned the next Clear Admit+ event which is scheduled for January 3rd, one day before Round 2 deadlines for 10 of the leading MBA programs.  Please join us by signing up here: https://www.clearadmit.com/private-webinar-series/

We then discussed the recently published Poets & Quants 'aggregate' MBA ranking. Most of our conversation focused on UPenn / Wharton’s position in the ranking at #31, as a result of not being able to participate in the Financial Times ranking.

Graham highlighted three Real Humans pieces from Clear Admit, focused on Washington / Olin, IMD, and Chicago / Booth. We then discussed three MBA employment reports, from MIT / Sloan whose top industry is Consulting, Berkeley / Haas whose top industry is Tech, and UPenn / Wharton whose top industry is Financial Services.

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 is from Africa and has really interesting professional experience which may help them stand out. Their GRE score is a very respectable 327, but we worry that their GPA of 3.01 may raise concerns, despite it being a computer science degree.

This week’s second MBA candidate has a GMAT score of 655. Because this is the new GMAT focus edition, we needed to convert this score to a 700-710. They have a strong GPA (3.6) and decent work experience in Canada. They also have a good spread of target MBA programs.

The final MBA candidate for this week is deciding between Dartmouth / Tuck (with scholarship), UVA /  Darden (no money) and possibly Northwestern / Kellogg. If they are admitted to Kellogg, we see a tough choice between Kellogg and Tuck, and geographical preferences will likely play a part in the final decision.

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!