Admissions Stories
Applicant Bulletin: Deadlines Announced, Rankings Released, & The MBA Tour Hits The US
Applicant Bulletin: Deadlines Announced, Rankings Released, & The MBA Tour Hits The US
It's the first of our monthly bulletins for business school applicants! We round up everything you need to know in July
Written by Amy Hughes
©Deagreez—Our monthly applicant bulletin brings you need-to-know dates, deadlines & rankings updates
It's July. Rankings are out, deadlines are out, and the MBA application cycle is heating up!
It's also the first of our monthly bulletins for business school applicants. Here's what business school applicants need to look out for this month:
Top schools release their MBA application deadlines
Of the top five MBA programs as ranked by the Financial Times for 2018, Harvard Business School (number five on the FT's list) has the earliest round one deadline on September 5th 2018.
The rest of the top-five schools' deadlines hover around September 18th and 19th—giving you an extra fortnight to perfect that application essay!
See also: How I Got Into The MBA At Harvard Business School—And 4 Ways You Can Too
New rankings from The Economist and the Financial Times give guidance to execs and entrepreneurs
The Financial Times released its ranking of the top MBA programs for entrepreneurs on July 1st, with Stanford Graduate School of Business taking the top spot.
The FT's highest-ranking British MBA for entrepreneurship is offered by Lancaster University Management School, closely followed by City University's Cass School of Business.
The Economist has also released its ranking of Executive MBA programs around the world, crowning Yale School of Management's MBA for Executives as the best.
IMD in Switzerland and the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School lead the pack in Europe in The Economist's ranking, at fifth and seventh place respectively.
'Smart; nice; accomplished; aware': Tuck's new must-have traits for MBAs
The stakeholders have spoken: at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, evaluation criteria have been simplified to reflect the attributes of 'successful Tuck students'.
The Ivy-League college's admissions services have decreed that prospective students should be 'smart', 'nice', 'accomplished', and 'aware'—simple criteria designed to take the stress out of MBA application, and bring the focus back onto soft skills.
Tuck has also updated its application essay questions accordingly, with prompts now aiming to assess the 'niceness' and 'awareness' of applicants, leaving 'smartness' and 'accomplishment' to be demonstrated by candidates' resumés.
In case you missed it: 4 Steps To Writing A Winning Business School Admission Essay
Student loans become more expensive—but hiring prospects for MBA grads remain strong
Any bulletin must have its share of bad news, and according to MarketWatch, the cost to take out a federal student loan in the US is set to increase for the 2018-19 academic year.
The interest rates for Stafford loans, which lend up to $20,500 to graduates, will rise from 6% to 6.595%, while PLUS loans—which allow parents and graduate students to borrow the cost of attendance for a program—will go up from 7% to 7.595%.
So, loans are getting more expensive—but the good news is that hiring intentions among US companies remain strongly in favour of MBA grads! The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) annual Corporate Recruiters Survey report shows that 85% of responding businesses intended to hire MBAs in the coming year.
So, although interest rates might be climbing, your chances of landing a job after your MBA are still strong, making paying them back much less daunting!
More things to look out for
Business loans provider Spotcap has created a UK Fintech Fellowship—an eight thousand-pound award to be gifted to one aspiring master's or MBA student per year.
The fellowship aims to widen the pipeline of UK graduates interested in the fast-growing sector of fintech—particularly as the uncertain spectre of Brexit looms ever-larger on the horizon. If you want to be in with a chance of receiving the award, you'll need submit your application by August 1st 2018.
More on Fintech careers: Why More MBA Students Are Gunning For Careers In Fintech
And...The MBA Tour is coming to America.
Beginning on July 12th in Seattle, the tour will see schools from around the world get to network with applicants in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Washington DC, and more, before finishing up in Boston on July 26th.
If you're a US-based applicant hoping to speak face-to-face with admissions teams from top schools, this is the perfect opportunity—and don't forget to check out our list of MBA tour dos and don'ts before you go!
Lancaster University Management School Stanford Graduate School of Business City University: Cass Business School Dartmouth College: Tuck Harvard Business School (HBS) IMD Business School University of Oxford: Said Business School
Stanford Graduate School of Business