Stanford GSB: Looking for More Round Three Applicants?

We were a little surprised to see Stanford GSB's Derrick Bolton post a message on Stanford's blog last week encouraging anyone who's on the fence to pull the trigger and apply to Stanford in this year's Round Three. Could it be that the slow economy has hurt Stanford's numbers? Could Stanford really need applicants this year?

Probably not. It's doubtful that a school such as Stanford needs more applicants, or that the school's yield has dropped much vs. previous years. What is true, though, is that Stanford's Round 3 admissions deadline this year (April 8) is nearly three weeks later than last year's, and no top business school has a Round 3 deadline nearly as late as Stanford's. (Visit out site for a list of all business school admissions deadlines.) We're not sure of Stanford's reasons for this change, but it could be that Stanford made this move to snag a few extra top-tier candidates that HBS and Wharton, etc., may miss out on because of their earlier R3 deadlines. Now that Stanford is the last top school with its doors still open for 2008-2009 applicants, perhaps Bolton has so far been underwhelmed by the number (and quality?) of applicants that this strategy has brought in.

He writes:

The media hype says that business school applications soar when the economy is bad and, as such, there won't be any spots left for third round applicants. This simply isn't true. And we worry that some great people may delay applying because of these misperceptions. Historically, we've found that applications follow demographic cycles more than economic cycles.

We assure you that we admit outstanding individuals in all three rounds--this year is no exception. While it is true that the final round typically is smaller than the first two, we do admit excellent candidates in Round 3--including our current Director of MBA Admissions.

By this point in the 2008-2009 application season, odds are that you long ago already decided to apply this year, or know that you definitely won't apply any sooner than this coming fall. It's encouraging to see messages like this coming out of a top-tier MBA program, because it suggests that your chances this year may be a little better than some expected, but our advice remains the same: Only apply when you're ready, and only when you have a competitive GMAT score, can get strong letters of recommendation, and have enough time to create strong admissions essays. Don't apply in Round 3 just on a lark!

For more advice on applying to Stanford, visit our Stanford information page, or follow us on Twitter.

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Business Bloodlust: Madoff, Wagoner, and Public Lynchings

Rick Wagoner is out as CEO of General Motors, Bernie Madoff is staring at the equivalent of consecutive life terms, and the American tax code may be in the process of a major remodel. And somehow, as a result, millions of Americans can sit in their own homes and point fingers from the glow of a widescreen plasma television. Just as we learn on that television, give the networks 30 minutes (or, in the case of a primetime drama, 60) and the crisis will be solved with clear delineation between good and evil.

Good and evil, however, are much harder to ascertain in this financial crisis than would ordinarily suit the mass media or the attention deficits of its consumers. Sure, Bernie Madoff is a fairly clear villain in this case, but even his prosecution seems to be a grandstand to appease the American public's bloodlust for one, true culprit; the man faces an unprecedented 150 years for a financial crime, while at the same time the public's attention is distracted from the fact that some of the most-respected financial institutions in world history -- Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns -- lost billions of dollars of investor money, as well. Greed in the form of Ponzi schemes makes for a delicious script, but the fact remains that the worldwide financial collapse has nothing to do with Madoff, but rather with the inability of top firms to do what they do best -- assess risk and value and invest accordingly.

Perhaps even more culpable in its inability to assess risk is the behemoth insurance conglomerate AIG, an insurance company for which its primary core competency and mission statement should have been to assess and hedge risk. That its employees may well receive bonuses paid with taxpayer money is lamentable, but the furor over the bonus payments and potential tax code implications only obscures the much more crucial issue: Should a company ever be allowed to become so large that its failure impacts the global economy so greatly, and, if so, how can government and the global community regulate such a firm proactively so that the firm doesn't get to this very point -- one at which it is so essential to the world economy that it can command a blank check from taxpayers with few repercussions?

The global collapse created by the financial markets and AIG is one of two external factors that led to the demise of Rick Wagoner's tenure at the helm of General Motors. The spike in oil prices that peaked for 2-3 years as a precursor to the crisis was the other. At one point, GM couldn't sell its fleet of profitable SUVs and trucks because of a sudden shift in market dynamics; soon thereafter, it became another victim of the worldwide credit crunch, which left consumers without the means (or desire) to make large purchases. The double-whammy ("perfect storm" is a little too widely used these days) doomed GM, along with the rest of the industry, to years of deep recession, but without either factor it is likely that Wagoner's tenure would have been remembered fondly. Under his control, GM made monumental progress with the United Auto Workers, shifting much of its competitive burden in the form of legacy healthcare and pension liability to the union itself, and streamlined its branding and design, reasserting Cadillac as an aspirational luxury brand, moving Chevrolet to the forefront of innovation with the Volt concept, and seizing back industry awards from decades of foreign control with compact winners like the Chevy Malibu. (He also brought in Bob Lutz for a very successful tenure as the company's product czar that led to many of the aforementioned achievements, something for which Wagoner gets too little credit. -- Ed.)

Wagoner's dismissal, at the hands of the White House, is another effect of the public's thirst for easy-to-recognize scapegoats in this complicated situation. In fairness, his resignation may be a blessing in disguise for Wagoner, who can live out his days with his millions of dollars and without the responsibility of leading tens of thousands of GM employees through this trying time. But the act of scapegoating Wagoner, or anyone in his position, is shortsighted -- it took a vicious cycle of events to tear down the economic system, and the once-proud automaker, and to simply package the subtleties of the situation in to a series of easily-consumed villains is akin to packaging a mess of bad loans in to a somewhat-digestible security. It arrogantly and conveniently hides a host of individual factors and presents them as one user-friendly solution, and a solution that ignores what could be learned from what lies underneath.

The lesson to be learned from this crisis will prove essential for the future of the global economy, as the advances in technology and global trade have created and will continue to hone an intricate and worldwide system of codependent businesses, consumers, and governments. Domestically, governments will need to consider the costs and benefits of varying degrees of free trade and domestic protection (in the case of Wagoner and GM, the very fact that the government protected low fuel costs may have directly contributed to his inability to react to the quick change in product lineup that needed to accompany the surge in costs, while foreign manufacturers whose research and development teams worked in high-fuel-costs areas had a built-in advantage). Individually, consumers will need to assess risk of their own, with the knowledge that the institutional and governmental experts in charge of valuing securities can be much farther off than advertised. And globally, the economic community will need to consider ways to regulate and/or live with the conglomerates like AIG that may inevitably become too large and important to ever risk their failure to the free market.

These questions and others must be considered and analyzed -- in business school classrooms, congressional meetings, and in the public discourse. To ignore them in favor of the quick assignment of blame dooms the future to repeat the failures of the economy over again.

For more news and analysis of the world of business and management education, follow Veritas Prep on Twitter.

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GMAT Tip of the Week

Positively Uncertain - Prognosis Negative

(This is one of a series of GMAT tips that we offer on our blog.)

One of the greatest contributions that Jerry Seinfeld has made to society is his array of fake movie titles from his sitcom. Mention the terms "Chunnel", "Sack Lunch", or "The Muted Heart" to any Seinfeld fan and he'll have spent at least a few hours imagining what the plot for that movie could have been. Perhaps the one that inspired the greatest enthusiasm for the characters on the show was the faux film "Prognosis Negative" -- which should also serve as a warning to you when you take the GMAT...

A common theme, particularly on Data Sufficiency questions, is the use of variables with inequalities. For example, a question might ask:

Is x>y/z?

And provide you with the statement:

(1) xz>y

Performing the algebra quickly, many might simply divide both sides by z, creating the given equation and proving, presumably, that the answer is yes.

Upon closer examination, however, we cannot know for sure that z is a positive number. If z is, in fact, negative, we would need to flip the inequality to demonstrate that x
A) x=2, y=1, z=1. This satisfies statement 1, (2*1 > 1), and when manipulated algebraically, gives us the answer "yes" (2 > 1/1).

B) x = -2, y=1, z=-1. This also satisfies statement 1 (-2 * -1 > 1), but gives us the answer "no" to the overall question (-2 is not > 1/-1).

When inequalities use variables, you need to keep in mind that each variable could very well be negative unless specified otherwise. In other words, if you assume that a variable is positive, your prognosis is negative.

Visit Veritas Prep for more GMAT prep tools and tips.

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Admissions Updates from HBS and Wharton

This week Harvard Business School and Wharton provided important updates for applicants on their blogs. For anyone who is currently waiting to hear back from HBS or Wharton, the next couple of weeks figure to be an important time.

On the HBS admissions blog, Dee Leopold provided an update for applicants in all three admissions rounds.

She wrote:

Round One Waitlist - We will be extending offers of admission to about 40 round one waitlisters shortly after April 2. We will continue to maintain a waitlist and Eileen Chang will send out an update in early April.

Round Two Notification - April 2 is the notification date. All decisions will be released online - you will receive an email instructing you to check your status. We won't be making any congratulatory phone calls in advance of April 2!

Round Three Interview Invitations - Many, but not all, will go out on April 3.

Meanwhile, over at the Wharton admissions blog, the team posted an update specifically for Wharton's Round 2 applicants:

All Round 2 applicants who were invited for interviews: you will receive your admissions decision tomorrow. You may check your decision status at that time through your online application. We will also make every effort to contact all new admits via telephone or e-mail.

Return here tomorrow for an announcement that decisions have been released and for more details...

Good luck to everyone!

That Wharton blog post was written yesterday, meaning that by now many of you should have heard from Wharton... Hopefully you got good news!

For more regular updates on HBS, Wharton, and other top business schools, be sure to follow Veritas Prep on Twitter.

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Duke (Fuqua) Introduces New Nine-Month Masters Program

Duke University's Fuqua School of Business has just announced a new master's program designed to provide basic entry-level business skills to recent college graduates and advanced degree holders with no prior full-time work experience.

Called the Master of Management Studies in Foundations of Business (MMS) program, the new initiative includes 12 business courses taught over four six-week terms. MMS coursework will cover all of the basic areas of business training: finance, accounting, marketing, strategy, operations, decision analysis and management. All courses will be taught by the same Fuqua faculty that teaches in the core MBA program. The first MMS class will enter Fuqua this fall.

The program requires no previous business studies, although a basic knowledge of calculus, statistics and computer skills is required. For those who enter the program with no training in these areas, "boot camps" in statistics and computer skills are available. It's noteworthy that, while the majority of the MMS program's students will be recent college grads, it is actually designed for anyone with little or no work experience, including Master's degree and PhD holders.

Is the MMS program right for you? While there is no single rule that can be applied to everyone, we've usually told our MBA admissions clients that they will get the most out of their business training if they have at least a couple of years of full-time work experience under their belts. We still believe this to be true, although there may very well be a place for programs such as MMS in the education market.

If you are just graduating from college and think you will one day want to earn an MBA, then we recommend getting two to five years of work experience before applying to business school. However, if you don't plan on pursuing an MBA and want a basic level of business training in order to get your professional career started, then the Master of Management Studies program may be a good fit for you.

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What's in a name? Remembering Davidson Hall

One can learn quite a bit in business school. I learned quite a bit from business school. As a BBA student at the University of Michigan Business School (now Ross), I went to school each day in Davidson Hall, and each day when I passed under those words, I smiled. "Davidson" - and I always wondered how many of my classmates realized it - stood for Bill Davidson, owner of Guardian Glass, and, more importantly to me, the Detroit Pistons. Mr. D, as he was affectionately called by everyone who worked for him, died last week at age 86, saying goodbye nearly three years after the building that bore his name was torn down. His legacy, however, is one that won't, and shouldn't, be forgotten.

Mr. D's building was demolished to make way for a state-of-the-art facility for the newly-named Ross School of Business just a few years ago, and to his credit, Davidson embraced the change. It was classic Davidson, to be honest - for a man who, and I say this with reverence, came across as old-fashioned, and stubborn, he was seemingly always on the forefront of change. I first came to know his work as a young fan of the Detroit Pistons; as owner, he was the first to purchase a private plane for an NBA team (which is now standard) and in 1988 built an arena still considered to be among the class of the league...and did it completely with private financing. Unlike many owners who saw their teams as hobbies, Davidson ran his as a business, and considered these luxuries to be investments in his team success.

I witnessed that success firsthand as a sales representative for his company, Palace Sports & Entertainment, in the early years of this decade. By then, some 15 years after building the Palace of Auburn Hills and truly beginning his entertainment empire, Davidson owned multiple concert venues, the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning, and the WNBA's Detroit Shock. He ran a tight ship - employees wore jacket and tie at all times, were prohibited from wearing facial hair, and kept rigid hours. But, more importantly, he ran a family, and saw his staff as that. Like a grandfather to most of us - salespeople in sports tend to be young and energetic - his words carried quite a bit of weight. "Mr. D would like it if we..." was all anyone needd to say, and the initiative commanded respect. We worked hard for him, but loved doing it.

He cared just the same for his employees at Guardian - perhaps even more so, as that was the business that earned him his fortune - and carried this incredible aura of love and respect throughout his businesses and the state of Michigan. He was fiercely loyal to his employees and his companies, demanding respect but giving it right back. My two favorite memories:

1) At the parade celebrating the Pistons' 2004 NBA Championship, he took personal exception to those in the media who nearly unanimously predicted that the Lakers would make quick work of the Pistons, grinning from ear to hear as he shouted some choice words at those who disrespected his team.

2) In 2003 we distributed our season tickets in packages designed to look (and perform) like lunchpails in the style of a blue collar, hardworking team. Mr. D, a multimillionaire who could afford anything he wanted, brought his lunch to work each day in that free, souvenir lunchpail.

I learned a lot in business school, but I think I learned quite a bit from the man whose name appeared on my business school, as well. Command respect by giving respect, and lead by example when it comes to keeping expenses lean and work ethic high. Invest wisely and don't let pride get in the way of doing the right thing. Hire good people and trust them to do the same. Thanks, Mr. D, from all of us who were fortunate to spend time in your school and your Palace.

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The WSJ on Law School and the Recession -- A Deeper Look

Last week, Nathan Koppel of the Wall Street Journal wrote a thoughtful piece about young professionals retreating to law school as a form of safe harbor in the current economic climate. The column explored both sides of the issue, offering both reasons for and against going back to law school. While I agreed with much of it, I also felt that a great deal of analysis –- and more importantly, critical advice -– was missing from the article.

Again, I want to stress that Koppel's take on this issue was fundamentally solid and that he presented the issue without much by way of an obvious agenda. That said, the first aspect of the column with which I take issue was his use of statistics. To put it bluntly, I believe he cherry-picked his "application increase" stats around which to build the story, citing Washington and Lee (29% increase), Yale (8%) and Texas (8%) as proof of a massive migration. However, as we wrote a while back, the ABA reported only a 1% increase in applications across the board this year. So again, I don't think there has been quite the "retreat!" mentality that Koppel makes it out to be. Of course, that may just make the underlying question -- Is heading to law school right now a good move? -- all the more relevant because that small increase for this year is a harbinger of a huge increase next year. (See that same blog article for an analysis of the 2001 recession that saw a very small spike that year followed by 17% increase in 2002 applications.)

As to whether or not going to law school at this time is a good idea, I am more on the "yes" side of the fence than I am down the middle. With that in mind, here are key considerations that were either missing from the column or were not explored in great enough depth:

Safe Harbor. For starters, law school lasts three years, so the "hide out" argument could be bolstered by the fact that it gives students longer to ride out the recession. I think Koppel missed an easy chance to compare MBA students (who only get two years) and to introduce the notion of a JD/MBA degree, which provides even more of a diversified skill set and, depending on the school, can allow a student to ride out a down economy for four years. Even the most skeptical among us likely believe that things will be better four years from now -- especially in the legal markets, where transactional attorneys will be in great demand once lending starts up again. In fact, when that day comes, there simply won't be nearly enough junior and mid-level attorneys to draft all the documents that will be needed to support those deals. I could see a major corporate associate hiring boom in the next two-to-four years when lending kicks back in throughout the financial markets (commercial real estate, not so much, but that is beside the point).

New Jobs. I also think Koppel missed an "emerging industries" angle with regard to financial regulation (which would have been a perfect transition from talking about JD/MBA degrees and their value) and corporate governance. Given the clear cause of the economic crisis and the reform being called for by the Obama administration, I believe there are going to be a plethora of new legal jobs in the regulatory sector -- both within governmental agencies (existing bodies like the SEC and possibly those that have yet to be formed) and within companies and law firms as well.

Alternative Career Path. One additional angle that Koppel went for in the column was some advice on how a graduating law student can prop himself up in a down job market. Not to beat a dead horse, but he missed a few things here as well. Koppel got the "elite school" thing right when he discussed the impact that graduating from a top 14 law school has on one's prospects with BigLaw, but when he wrote about pursuing a non-legal job, he made it sound way too easy.

In fact, this part of Koppel's article would have been the ideal place to drop in some of the soundest advice a prospective law student could ever receive: start your alternative career path while in law school. Too many law students make the mistake of assuming they can just waltz out of an elite law school with a JD and get whatever job they want, in whatever industry they want. And while a JD does signal certain things (critical thinking, strong writing skills, work ethic, problem solving) that can make a law school grad immediately attractive in particular industries such as management consulting, it doesn't help much at all in the wide majority of industries who naively see law school as "lawyer training." Never mind that this isn't really true; that's the perception.

So a law student who wants to work for an NBA team, or in business development for Warner Brothers, or for a hedge fund (or name your industry/company) can't simply go take summer jobs at big law firms, graduate, and then send out their resumes. Yes, those summer associate gigs pay a mint, but they put law students on a straight-line path with 20-foot walls towards working at a big law firm. If a law student really wants to work for Warner Brothers, that person has to spend her summers working there for free or for cheap, so that the big guns at Warner Brothers get to know her and value her and desperately want her to work there. Then, when she graduates with her prestigious law degree, they have to pay her and position her accordingly. That is how it works for "alternative" career paths.

And I just desperately wish people would tell prospective students this reality. Maybe the Wall Street Journal wasn't interested in that type of social good or perhaps Koppel didn't even think of this or know about this reality, but this article would have presented a perfect opportunity to broadcast an important message.

The Money Game. The only other thing I would have put in this article is that students should be more cognizant of the financial aspects of their law school choices. With an uncertain job market at the other end of the pipeline, it is no longer a cavalier thing to take out $150,000 in debt to obtain an elite law degree. In 2004, I would have been crazy to go to Duke for $70,000 rather than Chicago for $150,000. Now, in 2008? I'd probably be crazy to do the opposite. Schools are leveraging each other right now too, so it is a good time to pay attention to trends (this year Michigan appears to be the big spender) and also to barter with the schools.

All of this signifies a sea change in the selection/enrollment process. Until now, I would have told a student to pick among the top 14 law schools in this order:

1) fit
2) rank/prestige
3) cost.

Now, under these market conditions, I would change the order to:

1) cost
2) fit
3) rank/prestige.

In my humble opinion, it is far better to go to Cornell and have $50,000 in debt than go to NYU and carry $120,000 in student loans, when it might not matter much with regard to job prospects. Either the deals are going to start happening by the time you graduate (in which case you can get a great job from either school), or they're not (in which case you might be trouble coming from either school). This is now a major consideration. Put another way: students have to consider law school a little more like undergrad with regard to their cost versus return on investment (ROI) analysis.

All in all, Koppel's article got some key issues out on the table and will get people talking. That's the most important thing. I simply wish the analysis had gone deeper and that some key and useful messages would have been delivered to the confused law students and prospective law students who need that information so badly.

To get more law school admissions news and analysis from Veritas Prep, be sure to follow us on Twitter.

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More Americans Target European MBA Programs

Given the turmoil on Wall Street and the overall soft job market in the U.S., it's not surprising that many international applicants have decided not to come to the U.S. to pursue an MBA this year. Even more interesting, however, is that apparently many Americans also also now considering earning their MBAs abroad.

An article in last week's Wall Street Journal describes the trend of more and more Americans deciding to go abroad for their MBA programs. Not only do schools such as INSEAD and IMD provide Americans with an opportunity to broaden their international exposure, but they also offer a nice sort of career diversification in that they tend to attract a more diverse array of corporate recruiters than do American business schools.

According to the article, at some top European schools, only about 20% of the graduating class lands in finance, compared with up to 60% at some U.S. schools. While this has traditionally been a weakness for European schools in attracting top talent that wants to pursue high-paying jobs, in today's climate it's one reason why more American than ever have sought out these programs.

Another advantage that many European schools offer is that their programs are shorter than most American schools' programs, which, among other things, means that they can be significantly less expensive. While we tend to discourage applicants from choosing based on costs alone, this often significant difference can be hard for someone to ignore when they're still paying off old student loans and are about to leave their job to take on even more debt.

The European programs aren't content to just let Americans beat a path to their doors -- they've made a point of aggressively reaching out to U.S. students in order to capitalize on this trend. As a result of the macro trend and these recruiting efforts, schools such as Oxford's Saïd Business School have interviewed 60% more American applicants this year than last year.

The pendulum is swinging towards the rest of the world right now... Will it one day swing back towards American MBA programs? Comment and tell us what you think!

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GMAT Tip of the Week

And Then There Were Two...

(This is one of a series of GMAT tips that we offer on our blog.)

Quite often, test takers lament that they can almost always narrow the answer choices on verbal questions down to two, but don't guess at much better than a 50% average from there. Does this happen to you? If so, it is likely the result of a common way that people approach questions, and you can tweak your thought process just enough to avoid that trap.

Many questions require two different thought processes -- one to narrow the choices down to two, and then another to choose between the finalists. The biggest problem with that is that test-takers often either try to use the same process once they have narrowed it down by eliminating bad answers, or lose track of what they are being asked to do because the most recent things they have read have been misinformation in the wrong choices. To combat that, you should essentially “cleanse your mental palate” once you have narrowed down the answers, and reframe the question so that you can refocus on the exact question, and treat it as a new one with only two plausible answers. In that way, you are more likely to recognize the shift in necessary thought process, and focus on the remaining answer choices without having your mind clogged with unnecessary information.

For more insight in to the way that your mind works on GMAT questions, consider working with Veritas Prep's GMAT prep experts.

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HBS 2+2 Program Podcast

In a new podcast on the HBS web site, Assistant Director of MBA Admissions Kerry McLaughlin, interviewed Andrea Kimmel from HBS 2+2 Program admissions, and Mark Michaelman, a recent 2+2 Program admit from Northeastern University. The podcast provides a nice overview of Harvard's rationale for launching the program last year, as well as some advice for rising college seniors who may apply to the program this summer.

Kimmel explained that the impetus for creating the HBS 2+2 Program was when the school realized who wasn't applying to HBS. Explained Kimmel, "We realized there was a real opportunity to start to talk to younger people who maybe would never have business or an MBA degree on their radar screen." The admissions officers especially had scientists, engineers, liberal arts majors in mind when they created the program -- how to turn them on to the idea of a graduate business education before they go too far down another professional path?

Even though the HBS 2+2 Program attracted more than 630 applicants in its first admissions cycle (and admitted 106 of them), the school is aggressively promoting the program to attract an even more diverse applicant pool in the coming year. "Since launching it, we have been on over 80 college campuses, and that number continues to grow," said Kimmel. "We're looking forward to having an even higher number of applications in the second year."

New admit Mark Michaelman then went on to describe the application process. Not surprisingly, the real challenge for a rising college senior is to balance schoolwork and the application process. "As long as you keep track of it and organize your schedule, it tends to be pretty straightforward."

Kerry made a point of emphasizing that the HBS 2+2 Program will accept the GRE this coming year, which is consistent with the program's mission to attract more applicants who may not have considered an MBA until now. In Michaelman's case, he plans on pursuing a chemical engineering-related job for the next two years, before enrolling in HBS in the Fall of 2011. He plans on moving into a managerial position in the same field once he graduates with a Harvard MBA in 2013.

Read more about the program's admissions essays and deadlines on our blog, and see how Veritas Prep can help you apply to the HBS 2+2 program this summer.

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Law School Rankings - Exploring Ethics

Should ethics be part of the U.S. News law school rankings? That was the question posed recently at a conference of the magazine's editors, and the subject of a recent blog post by Bob Morse, of Morse Code.

Ethics has obviously become a hot topic in recent months, given the financial crisis causes by the negligent, if not clearly unethical, behavior of many of America's most trusted institutions. This topic certainly surfaced during the scandals of Enron and WorldCom, but it seems to have new life, as the subject of ethical training was featured recently in a New York Times article pondering the need for reform in MBA programs.

However, the fact that U.S. News is considering adding an ethical component to its ranking system is probably the most radical thing I've heard yet regarding a sea change in how our professional education systems handle the subject of ethical behavior in both academia and in the workforce. Most, if not all, law schools already require a course on professional responsibility, which doubles as preparation for the MPRE (multi-state professional responsibility) exam, which is part of the bar admissions process in all states. Adding an additional layer of measurement (no doubt both objective and subjective, which is indicative of the rankings system as a whole), puts the notion of ethics in a whole new light. Morse grapples with many of the issues (or at least relays what they dealt with at the conference) in the blog post, but this approach gives rise to many questions: will schools begin to promote workshops and speaking series on ethics to game the rankings rather than for the good of the students (or are the two mutually inclusive?). Will ethics courses start to replace elective options? Will they become mandatory courses? Which schools will rise or fall based on this new element ... or will it make a dent at all?

It is hard to say what kind of impact this change in approach would have, but it would certainly make things interesting. And as "ethics" becomes more and more of a buzzword in politics, the media, and in academia, we can only expect the attempts to measure it in quantifiable ways to increase. On balance, that would seem to be a good thing. Time will tell.

For more updates on school rankings, be sure to follow us on Twitter.

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MBA Admissions Survey Reminder

This is a quick reminder to let you know that there are only three days left for you to complete the AIGAC MBA admissions survey for a chance to win an iPod Touch or one of two new iPod Shuffles! All you have to do to be eligible is fill out the short online survey and share your thoughts about the MBA admissions process. Don’t miss your chance to contribute your personal thoughts and opinions!

Please click here to access the survey. The survey is now complete. Thanks to everyone who participated!

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In Defense of the MBA

Yesterday the Financial Times' Stefan Stern wrote an interesting piece titled Why MBA Bashing is Unfair. In it he argues that, while graduate business programs aren't perfect and need to evolve, they are not churning out the sharp-elbowed, non-consequence-caring sharks that some in the media have accused them of producing. If anything, they are guilty of producing leaders who only manage by the numbers, and, because of their lack of true management experience, are unable to step back at times and think about an organization as more than just a pile of balance sheets and income statements.

The stereotype of the cocky (and guilty) MBA is surely somewhat deserved. Heck, recently one of Harvard's own MBAs put out a book describing HBS as the "cauldron of capitalism" in his own unflattering words. But to say that "arrogance and greed" are solely responsible for our current economic troubles misses the larger point about the value that an MBA can provide.

Argues Stern:

The content of the course, while not exactly incidental, is really not the most important thing. It is the process itself: applying for a place, being admitted, meeting and working with faculty and contemporaries, and forming a new network, that matters.

This is what you find when you talk to sceptical MBA graduates who may not remember a great deal about the different modules they studied. Even they will describe their time at business school as a transformative experience. They went in one end as a fairly ordinary, apprentice businessperson. They came out the other ready to operate at a higher level.

This is what we at Veritas Prep always tell our admissions consulting and GMAT prep clients: The hardest part of business school may seem to be getting in, but once you're in, what value you get out of the program is entirely up to you. There's at least as much value in the chance to make new friends, get exposed to new viewpoints, and build an incredible new network, as there is in learning about the capital asset pricing model.

And, as McGill University professor Henry Mintzberg argues in the FT article, the real learning about how to manage still needs to occur on the job, after you graduate. That inevitably means that at some point a fresh MBA will be promoted into a role that he's not yet fulled qualified for, but management must be learned in context. Today's business leaders are at least as responsible for educating tomorrow's leaders as any MBA program is. This kind of mentorship has always been how people and organizations grow, and this will never change.

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More on Grad School Application Trends

In last week's Economix blog on the New York Times web site, Catherine Rampell shared the latest growth trends for the LSAT, GMAT, and GRE. Not surprisingly, the number of LSAT exams taken in 2008-2009 increased more than 5%, which coincides with the National Law Journal's report that applications were up 4% vs. last year.

While the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) hasn't yet released its numbers for 2008-2009, it is expected to show steady growth vs. the previous year. It will be interesting to see if the overall number of MBA applicants grows much this year, given the uneven preliminary numbers we have heard from some of the nation's top programs.

Not all of the numbers reported by the National Law Journal point to strong growth. Interestingly, the actual number of law school applicants increased by less than 1%. So, not many more people applied to law school vs. last year, although those who did apply seemed to apply to more schools. Also, the number of GRE exams taken in 2008 actually was actually lower than the number taken in 2007, although that may have more to do with a change to the exam, which may have spiked 2007's numbers.

The whole story is still unfolding, but it will be interesting to see where the numbers end up at the end of this application season. Will a surge actually come a little later than some expected, or will this recession prove to be different than others? Only time will tell.

If you decide to take the plunge and apply now, see what Veritas Prep's admissions consulting services can do for you.

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GMAT Tip of the Week

The Importance of "Of"

(This is one of a series of GMAT tips that we offer on our blog.)

One of the smallest and least noteworthy words in the English language, the word "of" is crucial to your success on the GMAT, on both the quantitative and verbal sides of the exam. Accordingly, it is of great importance that you recognize these two common appearances of, and traps set by, the word "of":


1) Percentages:

The most common error that examinees make on percentage-based questions is that they take the percentage of the wrong number. Asking yourself "of what?" is the easiest way to ensure that you never make this mistake. Take, for example, the problem:
If a car dealership wants to earn $20,000 from the sale of a new car, and wants that price to reflect a 50% discount to the customer, where should the dealer mark the retail price?

Many students will take 50% of 20,000 and add that to the original number, coming up with an answer of $30,000. That is incorrect - ask yourself "50% of what"? A discount is always taken off of the retail price, so this problem should correctly be set up to reflect that $20,000 is equal to 50% off of the retail price. Mathematically, that is: 20,000 = Retail - (50/100) Retail, and the retail price works out to be $40,000.

Be careful with percentages - asking yourself that crucial question "of what?" will help you to avoid commonly catastrophic errors

2) Sentence Correction

In Sentence Correction problems, the word "of" is commonly employed as a modifier, which the GMAT often throws in to lengthen sentences and distract you from subject-verb agreement errors. Consider the following items:

The number of applicants to business schools are increasing given the current economic climate.

The House of Representatives are meeting this week to continue working on an education bill.

In either case, the subject is actually the singular noun before the word "of" - "of applicants to business schools" just tells us "which number?", and "of Representatives" simply indicates "which House?". The writers of the GMAT know that examinees are often unsure of which noun to choose as the subject; by using the word "of" to set up modifiers with multple nouns, the writers can exacerbate this problem. If you are aware of, and searching for, these modifiers, you can quickly avoid these common mistakes.

Visit Veritas Prep to see all of the GMAT prep services that we offer.

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UC Irvine Law School Faculty Ranked in Top 10

We put you on notice that the new UC Irvine Law School could be a force to be reckoned with right out of the gates with its inaugural 2009 class. Now we have our first confirmation of this new program's validity, in the form of Brian Leiter's faculty rankings, which places the scholarly impact of UC Irvine's law faculty in the top 10 in the nation.

The announcement that a brand new law school without any students currently occupying its building could rank in the top 10 in any list seems insane, but Leiter is one of the most respected individuals in the rankings game. That said, this particular placement of UC Irvine has to be taken with a grain of salt, as Leiter acknowledges that less than half the faculty has been staffed at the program. Since the rankings are based on "scholarly impact," and therefore, the number and prestige of academic citations, it is entirely possible that the front half of the Irvine roster is stacked with great researchers and writers, which would inflate the impact of the final faculty. Of course, it could go the other way as well, and Leiter has appeared to take great pains to assess this as fairly and accurately as possible, even diluting the impact of Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, one of the world's most prolific and respected constitutional law scholars.

Either way, this is yet another sign that UC Irvine is probably going to buck the trend of a slow road to accreditation and respect, and come out of the gates as a legitimate top law school option.

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New MBA Admissions Survey

We pride ourselves on making the Veritas Prep Blog a source of reliable information and valuable advice on the MBA admissions process. To that end, as a member of the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC), we are conducting a survey to help us better understand our readers' goals and needs. We would like to invite all of our readers to share their school selection priorities and views on the MBA application process.

This online survey should take just 10 minutes to complete. We would love to receive as many responses as possible before the closing date of Friday, March 20th. That end, AIGAC will will give away an iPod Touch and two iPod Shuffles as a token of gratitude.

Thanks in advance for your help! Please click here to participate. The survey is now complete. Thanks to everyone who participated!

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Round 3 Admissions Update from Wharton

Yesterday the Wharton admissions committee posted an update on its blog for everyone who just applied in Wharton's third admissions round. Since they understand that waiting on one's application status can put an applicant on pins and needles, Wharton's admissions officers are deliberately over-communicating about what Round 3 applicants can expect in the coming weeks.

First, know that if your status currently reads "Received" or "Complete for Round Three," then you are in good shape. "Received" just means that the office needs to match up your hard copy submissions with your electronic files, and within a week or so you should see your status change. "Therefore," says the admissions committee, "please allow the Operations Team until Thursday, March 12 before inquiring about the completeness of your application."

Regarding interview invitations, Wharton will start releasing them on March 30, and will continue to release them until April 9. So, once your application status is "Complete," there's no need to even check it again until the end of this month. Also on April 9, Wharton will notify all Round 3 candidates who have been denied admission.

Finally, if you are invited to interview, you must complete the interview by April 23. All interviewed applicants will receive their final admissions decision by May 14.

If you are invited to interview with Wharton and would like some professional assistance in preparing for the big day, Veritas Prep offers MBA admissions interview preparation services. Until then, good luck!

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GMAT Prep Courses Start This Week

Normally we don't use this space to blatantly flog our GMAT prep courses, but this week we have dozens of courses starting around the world!

If you want the most complete GMAT preparation available from any company, anywhere, then we recommend our Full Course. This is our most popular format, which gives you six hours of in-class preparation per week, over seven weeks. (In some of our bigger cities, such as New York, we also offer a Saturday-only GMAT class.) These courses start tonight and tomorrow night in most cities, and this coming Saturday in those bigger cities.

If you prefer to attend class on weekends and also want to finish in fewer than seven weeks, our Weekend Course gives you 36 hours in class over two straight weekends. The difference vs. our Full Course is that less time is spent on class reviewing homework lessons, so rest assured that you'll learn everything in this course as in the Full Course. The Weekend Course also gives you the chance to focus just on verbal or quant lessons, if one of those areas is your predominate weakness.

In select cities Veritas Prep also provides an Intensive Course over seven straight days, if you are on a tight schedule or prefer to move through the material very

Finally, don't forget that we offer our live online class, Virtual Veritas Prep, which gives you a chance to learn the exact same 42 hours' worth of material as our classroom courses, taught live by one of our best instructors via an online interface. The next Virtual Veritas Prep class starts March 16. If you prefer to go at your own pace, you can also enroll in Veritas Prep on Demand, which you can access anywhere, at any time.

Good luck in your GMAT studies!

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GMAT Tip of the Week

Confidence

(This is one of a series of GMAT tips that we offer on our blog.)

We recently took a call from a distressed GMAT student after a disappointing exam performance. The story? She struggled through the quantitative section and went in to the break exhausted and disappointed -- after months of study and preparation, how could she feel so confused by a few quant questions? Why was she struggling to finish on time? From what she could remember, the verbal section was, accordingly, a blur -- her confidence destroyed by the quantitative section, she couldn't focus, she gave up early on questions and simply guessed, and she limped to the finish, guessing on the last few questions just to get it over with. All in all, it was a very frustrating experience.

The result? 90th percentile on the quantitative section, and a dismal performance on the verbal section that pulled down her overall score.

Read that again: After all of that, her score on the quantitative section was in the 90th percentile. All her worry on the verbal section was for naught -- she was essentially 'playing with house money', as her high quantitative score, if combined with even an above-average verbal score, would have earned her a competitive overall profile. Instead, because she doubted her performance early, she didn't give herself a chance at the verbal section.

The lesson? The GMAT is an adaptive test, designed such that everyone will feel challenged by most of the problems that they face. Furthermore, questions that appear "easy" are often more difficult than you'd think -- if you miss a word that changes the tenor of the question, you, and countless others, can miss a question that appears easy enough to shake your confidence ("the questions are too easy...I must not be doing very well"), but actually carries some high difficulty.

So, above all else, be confident throughout the test -- trust in yourself and the preparation you have completed, and keep your focus on the questions to come, rather than on the questions that you've already faced. As Lindsey Buckingham and, later, Bill Clinton, would say "yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone (so don't stop thinking about tomorrow)".

Naturally, a GMAT instructor telling a test-taker to "just be confident" when taking the exam is akin to Tom Brady telling, well, a GMAT instructor to "just be confident" when talking to a supermodel. There are, however, reasons to be confident when taking the test -- if you have prepared thoroughly, taken practice tests, and analyzed your mistakes, you can confidently approach the exam knowing that you won't see anything for which you're not ready, and that you know how to respond to any situation. At Veritas Prep, our goal is to provide students with more than enough GMAT resources to earn that confidence, and, in turn, a high score.

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Yale Adds Three-Year JD/MBA Program

Big news coming out of New Haven, Connecticut, as Yale has announced the addition of a three-year JD/MBA program to its graduate school options.

The official name of the program is the "Accelerated Integrated JD-MBA Program," which is certainly a literal title, as well as a mouthful. It is focused on students interested in "business law," which sounds specific, but lends itself to all of the careers we typically see from a JD/MBA track, including transactional law, corporate governance, regulatory law, entrepreneurship, and a host of other professional paths. So the thrust of the program doesn't sound dramatically different from the other three-year programs that are already available at elite universities (Penn, Northwestern, Duke).

However, on closer inspection, there are two significant differences between Yale's program and the others mentioned above:

1. There is more focus on the law. At the other elite three-year JD/MBA programs, the emphasis is often on the management or finance aspects of the program. This is evident in the way the program is built, but even more so in the way the applications are set up. In particular, the application for the Northwestern three-year program is basically a minor deviation from the Kellogg application, and nearly all of the questions are about leadership, teammwork, work experience, and other "MBA" issues. In the case of Yale, it seems that the program is anchored more in the law school curriculum and I suspect that the application process will reflect that as well.

(Note: This makes sense on an intuitive level, since Yale's law school is the top ranked law school in the country and is quite a bit more prestigious -- relatively speaking -- than the School of Management. Certainly, the pairing of Yale Law and Yale SOM represents the greatest disparity in relative ranking strength. In fact, in the case of Penn and Wharton, it is the business school that enjoys the greater ranking prestige relative to its peers. From this, one could surmise that the law school will also be driving the admissions decisions.)

2. No summer classes. I'm not sure how Yale is going to pull this magic trick off (early indications are the complete elimination of electives and "non essential" coursework), but the three-year program is truly three academic years (six semester). In other words, no summer course work. This is a huge deal, because it should reduce tuition costs (for more on the tuition considerations of a JD/MBA, see here), while freeing up both the first and second summers to seek out either legal or business employment experiences.

All told this is a major addition to the three-year JD/MBA options currently available to interested candidates and yet another sign (coming on the heels of Penn announcing its own program last fall) that this degree is enjoying an increase in both popularity and accessibility.

For those interested in learning more about JD/MBA programs, exploring whether the degree might be a good fit, or looking for assistance with a JD/MBA application, please explore our JD/MBA admissions consulting services.

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HBS 2+2 Program to Accept the GRE

We've previously weighed in on the GRE vs. GMAT question in the media. Now, one more big name among business schools plans to start accepting the test: Harvard has announced that it will accept the GRE for HBS 2+2 Program applicants starting this year.

This is consistent with the strategic aim of the HBS 2+2 Program, which is to attract more applicants who may otherwise not have considered pursuing an MBA. While many top business schools compete with HBS for high-potential applicants, HBS sees other top grad programs (especially law schools) as their main competition for top young talent. Accepting the GRE allows HBS to attract more of these applicants who may not have originally planned on pursuing a business education.

By the way, the Forbes article makes it sound as thought HBS will only accept the GRE for the 2+2 Program, but it will actually accept both. (See the HBS admissions FAQ.) If you already have a strong GMAT score, then don't even worry about the GRE.

If you're still in college and might eventually want to pursue a Harvard MBA, read more about the HBS 2+2 Program on our blog, and see if it's right for you.

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Law School Applications: On the Rise for 2010?

According to an interesting report from the American Bar Association, law school applications only increased by one percent this year, despite the severe economic recession that typically serves as a catalyst for large application increases.

There are a variety of reasons why the total number was lower than expected. The biggest is probably the limited number of LSAT test dates, which makes it harder to spring into action during a downturn. Furthermore, many typical law school applicants are more insulated from the early signals of a recession than, say, MBA candidates who are working in directly impacted industries.

Regardless of the reason for the delay, history tells us that application spikes are usually just around the corner. When the market went into a recession in 2001 following the attacks of September 11th, the impact on law school applications didn't occur until the following year, when schools saw a whopping increase of 17% across the board. It is highly likely that a similar increase will occur this fall and winter for candidates applying for the fall of 2010.

In short, we are probably on the cusp of the most competitive year in the history of law school admissions.

This means that the steps candidates take between now and then are of paramount importance, as every action must show motivation for the study of law so that your application doesn't look like your own personal bailout plan. Furthermore, it will place more emphasis than ever before on the personal statement component of the application process. No longer will law school admissions simply be a numbers game where decisions are made based almost entirely on GPA and LSAT. How candidates address weaknesses in their profile and how they answer the unasked questions of the admissions committee will determine their chances for success.

Never before has achieving perfection on the personal statement been so important. If there was ever a year to explore LSAT preparation or - even more importantly - assistance with your application, this is the time to do it.

To learn more about Veritas Prep services that can help you maximize your application, set you apart from the crowd, and give yourself the best possible chance of success, please visit our website to explore our expansive offerings.

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Stanford GSB Job Statistics for the Class of 2008

Recently Stanford GSB published its final job placement statistics for the Class of 2008.

Not surprisingly, consulting was the most popular single industry, with 27% of the class opting for a median starting salary of $1250,000 and a median signing bonus of $20,000. Private equity came next, at 14% of the class, with the median starting salary being $150,000 and the median signing bonus clocking in at $32,500.

Slicing it by function, consulting was still the most popular, at 29% of the class, with private equity (16%) and investment management (8%) coming next.

The most popular careers for the Stanford GSB Class of 2008 were:

Industry	Percentage of Class	Median Base Salary	Median Signing Bonus
Consulting	27	$125,000	$20,000
Private Equity/LBO	14	$150,000	$32,500
Hedge Funds	8	$150,000	$25,000
Internet Services/E-Commerce	6	$115,000	$22,500
Investment Banking/Brokerage	5	$ 95,500	$40,000
Nonprofit	5	$ 80,000	n/a
Venture Capital	5	$155,000	n/a
Investment Management	4	$127,500	$19,125
Real Estate	4	$112,500	$15,000
Consumer Products	3	$100,000	$20,000
Pharma/Biotech/Healthcare	3	$103,750	$20,000

Source: Stanford GSB Blog

Interesting to see that the non-profit sector accounted for 5% of Stanford GSB grads' post-MBA career plans. While this is consistent with other top schools' statistics, we wonder if this number will increase this year and next as the rough economy encourages more grads to pursue non-profit and social enterprise careers in place of high-paying consulting and banking jobs, which may not be plentiful in the near term.

To get a feel for your chances of gaining admission to Stanford, try Veritas Prep's Business School Selector.

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