The folk at mbaMission always recommend getting started with your MBA applications as early as possible. By taking action now, you can dramatically improve your chances of gaining admission to a top MBA program in the coming years. It is never too soon (and certainly not too late) to take several crucial steps to shape your MBA candidacy. So they’re presenting a five-part series to provide a step-by-step timeline to help guide you down the long road of applying to business school. These guidelines assume that you are setting out a year ahead of the January deadlines. Even if you are starting later, you should be able to leverage this timeline to help you prioritize each step along the way. This week, they will lay out what you should be doing at least one year before you submit your applications. For more information on mbaMission and how they can help you in this process, click here.

Pre-Stage

The steps that we lay out in pre-stage planning are somewhat timeless. It is never too soon to take on a leadership position in your community, sign up for a supplemental course, visit your target schools, etc. We have therefore structured this piece so that you can consider the steps outlined in these sections ongoing. Read more

Our partners over at mbaMission recently wrote a post about what it takes – and doesn’t take – to get into a good business school.  Based on data released by top business schools like HBS and Stanford, many would be surprised to find that graduating from a non-Ivy school  does not decrease their chances of acceptance.  As Jeremy Shinewald puts it:

The admissions committees are more interested in your performance “ academic, professional, volunteer, personal “ than your pedigree. Further, the admissions committee is interested in diversity. We don’t feel that we are going out on a limb stating that Wharton does not want and cannot have a class of 850 UPenn undergrads, because they simply want the best potential business leaders out there and thus must jump into a much deeper pool.

You can read the full post here.

Several news outlets recently wrote about a list of strange questions that you might encounter in a business school admissions interview.

The admissions process is stressful enough without having to worry about which type of tree you think you would be if you were a tree. Thankfully, our partner mbaMission has confirmed that it is very unlikely you will be asked such a question. In fact, they’ve conducted interviews with top admissions officers at Yale, Tuck and Kellogg, and all of the officers said their goal for interviews is to get a feel for the applicants and who they really are. They are not looking for how quickly prospective students can answer strange questions on their toes. A new mbaMission blog posting notes:

We feel that our responsibility as an admissions consulting firm is to calm MBA candidates and keep them focused on what is truly important within the application process. Interviews are not easy, but overwhelmingly the questions are straightforward and will be about you. So, you should be able to rely on your experiences to answer the questions. By entering your interview calmly and staying in your everyday frame of mind, you will be able to thoughtfully address the questions that you are asked. If you can do that, you should perform to the best of your abilities and you may even enjoy your interview.

You can read the rest of the blog post, which includes quotes from interviews with top admissions officers, here.

More women are headed to business school these days, according to a piece over at Forbes.

The numbers certainly are striking. In the last decade, women have enrolled at business schools across the country in ever-greater numbers. Between 1997 and 2007, the percentage of MBAs awarded to women jumped from 39 percent to 44 percent”a 12.8 percent increase over a single decade.  Top schools are showing big leaps, too: HBS went from 28 percent women in 1995 to 38 percent in 2010, while Wharton’s female population climbed from 32 percent in 2007 to 40 percent in the class of 2011.

So what’s driving the increase? The article suggests it’s the combination of a weak economy, recruiting initiatives targeted to women, and, most of all, the flexibility offered by an MBA. Female grads can take their degrees into the nonprofit world or even start their own businesses, says Deirdre Leopold,  Harvard’s managing director of MBA admissions. That allows more wiggle room, especially for students juggling family responsibilities.

The increasing gender balance sure seems like good news to us!

There have been many stories about the improving economy, but apparently the current climate remains tough for 1st year MBA Students seeking internships, according to Businessweek.com. For those of you who haven’t yet started school, you’ve got a year or two for things to improve!

Good news for MBA hopefuls: A couple of recent stories indicate things are picking up at career offices, particularly if you’re interested in clean energy.

Last week we pointed to a Business Week piece about increased interest in European MBA programs. Now the mag tells us recruiting is also picking up at the continent’s top b-schools. Renewable energy companies are recruiting aggressively, along with biotech, public administration, and nonprofits, says the director of INSEAD’s career office. That fits with the news from the senior director of Sloan’s career office, who recently told the Journal she’s seeing a lot of action in consumer products companies, including clean tech and medical devices. The hiring process still isn’t easy, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel! If that’s too far in the future for you to worry about right now, rest assured that students are seeing more summer internship opportunities too.

When you think about school rankings, US News & World Report is likely top of mind. However, the Business Insider has come out with its own B-school rankings using a method that emphasizes value to the graduate based on network and perception of the credential. These rankings also claim to have incorporated the feedback of top recruiters. It’s worth a look, if only to get a second opinion on the value of having graduated from certain schools.

We’ve all heard various things about getting into business school. Is it true that only quant types get into Wharton and marketing types into Kellogg? Do alumni recommendations matter more than others? Is the third round really the dead zone in terms of getting into a selective school?

Well, if you want to know the real scoop on these and other issues, our admissions consulting partner mbaMission is holding Mythbusters events in Boston and Philadelphia next Thursday, March 18th, and online on March 23rd! All events are free and conducted by an experienced Admissions Consultant from mbaMission. Thanks to them for dispelling MBA Admissions myths everywhere!

Businessweek recently hosted a chat with admissions officers from Kellogg, one of the most popular business schools for our students. We thought we’d pass the link along, as it’s always great to get insight directly from the people who will be reading applications. (Also, they mention that they just care about your highest GMAT score, so don’t fret if you didn’t knock it out of the park the first time!)

The New York Times blog, “Bucks”, recently published two in-depth articles about a recent court ruling that has made MBA tuition tax deductible provided that you can prove that an MBA can enhance your career. There are some subtleties to the ruling; for example, you cannot deduct the cost of your MBA if you use it to switch careers and in some cases, you might have to provide written proof that the specific classes you took to earn your MBA are directly relevant to your established career. It’s worth giving both articles a full and thorough read, as this new ruling has the potential to save you a significant sum of money.

New York Times: When You Can Deduct the Cost of Your M.B.A.

New York Times: More on M.B.A. Tuition Reductions