MBA Wire Taps 419— Non-traditional, 16 years of experience. Haas vs Kellogg’s MBAi. Darden vs Stern.

In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the Round 3 activity on LiveWire; interview invites are now starting to roll out for this shortened application round.

Graham then announced the recent partnership Clear Admit has now established with Leland, which will now become our partner for MBA admissions coaching, test prep, and career counseling.

Graham noted Clear Admit’s Application Overview May series of events. These online events will be hosted on May 6 and 7, and May 20 and 21. Signups are here: https://bit.ly/appoverview25 Sandwiched in the middle of these events is Clear Admit’s MBA admissions fair in Boston, on May 14th. Twenty-four of the top 25 U.S.-based MBA programs are planning to attend, along with London Business School. Signups for this event are here: https://bit.ly/mbafair2025

Graham noted a Clear Admit admissions tip focused on what candidates need to do, if they were not able to secure admissions at the targeted MBA programs. Graham then highlighted two recent articles from Clear Admit that focus on NYU / Stern’s new dean, and UPenn / Wharton’s new AI major. We then discussed the recent publication of 2025 US News’s rankings, which led to a discussion on their overall methodology.

Graham highlighted four Real Humans alumni spotlights, alums from IMD working at Johnson & Johnson, Cornell / Johnson working at Elephant Energy, Vanderbilt / Owen working at Amazon, and London Business School working as an entrepreneur.

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

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate is clearly non-traditional; for that reason, we discussed some of the approaches that non-traditional candidates need to pursue, including a strong focus on “why MBA” and their goals.

This week’s second MBA candidate is choosing between Berkeley / Haas and Northwestern / Kellogg’s MBAi. They want to do product management in tech, in Texas.

The final MBA candidate is choosing between UVA / Darden and NYU / Stern. They have a full-ride scholarship at both and want to purse MBB consulting.

This episode was recorded in Atlanta, Georgia 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!