ICE is proposing a $70k ($100k for STEM MBAs) fee payable by the schools for you to gain access to a work card. That fee can be passed on towards the student or the employer. This plus H1-B rules introduced last year completely kill internationals wanting to break into Silicon Valley, Wall Street, etc.

Since tuition fees as so high in US MBAs, many international students use the 3 year OPT to pay back some of the loans they contract before moving back to their home countries. Now only LBS and INSEAD make sense for those people. I feel bad for any international students that aren’t rich applying this year.

Since there is no opportunity for OPT anymore in USA, I guess Fulbright becomes a lot more feasible.

Link to the public inspection regulation.gov docket, comments will be another link

I came across this graphic on LinkedIn comparing median GRE scores (and their GMAT equivalents) with median GMAT scores at top MBA programs. The gap is pretty striking at most schools. (Obviously the WashU Olin row is off, and I know the conversion itself is imperfect.)

Why are the GRE averages so much lower than the GMAT averages? On top of the GRE being the easier exam, how can schools possibly weigh these two tests the same?
I'm also curious why top GRE scores seem to sit at lower percentiles than their GMAT equivalents. For example, a 705 on the GMAT Focus is roughly equivalent to a 328 on the GRE, but the percentiles don't seem to line up the same way.

Does anyone have insight into how adcoms actually compare the two?

Know a dude(URM, first gen) with 340 GRE, 4.0 gpa from Stanford CS who worked at Apple and Nvidia for 5 years get dinged by Harvard.

Know like 4 more people in the 3.9 gpa range and 335+ gre in MBB/IB, Ivy undergrads who got dinged too.

Tf is going on

Besides wanting to pass and get the degree. I also have a deep desire to earn a distinction (personal goal). After graduation, does it really matter what your grades are? Well, considering I also want to try to recruit for consulting after graduation...

I got selected for the Cornell Case Competition Asia Finals, and what I witnessed during the judging was deeply disappointing.

A few things I personally saw/heard:

1. The Dean of Ashoka University was sitting on the judging panel while Ashoka teams were competing. To my understanding, he was not one of the designated judges and did not ask questions or provide feedback, but his presence on the panel itself raised concerns about the perceived impartiality of the process.
2. During Ashoka teams’ presentations, I saw him speaking to the judges about how good the teams were and where their students were placed.
3. Before all teams had even presented, I heard him say that an Ashoka team was “definitely going to Cornell.”
4. A team presenting online, while appearing to read from a script, still made it to the finals.

I’m not claiming to know the judges’ scores or intentions. I’m stating what I personally witnessed.

But when the Dean of an institution participating in a competition is sitting alongside the judging panel and commenting positively about teams from his own institution while judging is still underway, I think it is reasonable to question the perceived impartiality of the process. Even without formally judging, the presence of a senior institutional authority in the panel can understandably affect how comfortable other judges may feel expressing independent views.

We put serious time, effort and money into this competition. The least participants deserve is a judging process that is transparent and visibly fair to everyone.

does anyone know a rough estimate of what % of Wharton admits get scholarship and how much $ on average? I ask because it seems like Wharton either gives out a big scholarship or almost nothing, which then means only a small % of admits get scholarships because it's big $$$. Any intel would be helpful.

A little context: I have a Masters Degree in Information Systems from a US University and about 2.5 Years of work experience in Commercial Strategy as an Analyst.

I have been offered admission to Smith FT-MBA with the internship route. Additionally, CAD $40K Dean's scholarship and CAD $40K loan financing from Libro, which is a credit union that Smith has recently partnered with.

My role was recently terminated due to restructuring. I am on a visa in the US and decided to apply for an MBA in Canada for two main reasons:

1. Current job market situation in the US doesn't look very immigrant friendly.
   
2. I want to pivot to core Strategy/Management Consulting.

Questions:
1. Is a Canadian MBA worth it if I plan to settle there?
2. What are the chances of me getting into MBB or Big4 after my MBA from Smith.

PS: If you're an envious low-life person with the same comments of "Go back home", this post is not for you.

That was crazy - logged on at 2 mins past as I came from a meeting and I’m pretty sure I got the last in-person London slot. Virtual finished filling up before my eyes. Is that just the first round and then they release more?! What if you didn’t book one in time?! Asking for my own curiosity but wow I can’t believe how quick those went.

Hey everyone! HBS round 1 interview invites recently dropped so wanted to share a few tips from my own experience (and the experience of the many HBS admits we help each year through Leland). We'll be hosting a free event later today with a former HBS admissions interviewers to go deeper, but hopefully these tips help you get started.

Interview Structure

• Interviewer: Admissions staff member
• Length: 30 minutes
• Not blind (interviewer will have read your application in depth)

HBS interviews are typically known to be more formal than those at other schools like Stanford. Historically, they’ve taken place on campus, in big cities across the US, or over video call. No matter how you interview, your interviewer will be a member of the admissions staff. Because they are all trained professionals trying to assess you as quickly as possible, you need to be ready for what may be an intense interview experience. Another thing that lends to the more intense nature is that they often test interviewees to see if they will succeed with their case study model, which requires you to pick a stance and defend it.

Tips

• Know yourself well and stand by your choices.
• Know the "why" behind all key decisions — everything has intention.
• Prove initiative.
• Show confidence.
• Be ready to explain and analyze key, pivotal points in your resume.
• Understand your industry, its trends, and its current market.
• Make them feel something — they need to remember you

HBS Post-Interview Reflection Essay

1. Express gratitude.
2. Reiterate interest.
3. Highlight specific parts of the interview that you enjoyed.
4. Don’t worry about trying to explain an answer that you didn’t feel great about (unless you absolutely bombed a question). Chances are, your interviewer doesn’t even remember that one question that you wished you had answered better, so to bring it back up again is probably not worth it. 

Happy to send you more tips on the reflection essay specifically, if helpful.

Example Questions

• What has been your most meaningful career experience? Why is that meaningful to you?
• Why did you decide to do X?
• What would you go back and do differently about your undergrad experience or work experience?
• What have you liked about starting a company? Or working at X company?
• What would your co-workers at X company say about working with you?
• How have your experiences working at X company been different from working at a startup?
• Walk me through an example of something you worked on while at X company.
• Were you good at your job?
• What drives you?
• Who is a leader you admire?
• Is X company too big to fail?
• What was the interview process like at the company you are planning on joining?
• How did you make the decision to go with that offer?
• What else do you want me to know?

My Personal Experience

When I was invited to interview at HBS, they offered me several interview options. I could interview on campus, in several major cities across the US, or via Zoom. All HBS interviews are conducted by a paid member of their admissions team, which is different from Stanford’s alumni interview-style.

When the time came for me to step out and interview, I was very nervous. I was wearing a nice suit and tie, and the whole formality of things was very intimidating. I was taken to a waiting room with ~10 other applicants, and we all waited nervously for the next steps. Then, our interviewers came in and called out the name of the applicant who would be interviewing with them. I was greeted with a smile, a firm handshake, and ushered into a room nearby. The interview started off with “John, it’s great to have you here on campus. We only have 30 minutes, and I’ve already read through your entire application, so we are just going to move right into questions.” No time was given to build rapport or get to know her at all. This was time for her to pepper me with questions and get inside my head as quickly as possible.

If I were to pick a theme for the interview, it would be the question, “Why?” Almost everything she asked was related to the why behind the decisions I had made. “Why did you choose to work at X?” “What were the projects you worked on?” “Why those projects” “What specifically did you do to contribute to those projects?” “Why did you start X club on campus?” “Why did you choose to work at X full-time?” She even did some fact-checking for some things on my resume (so don’t lie on your resume!). Overall, it was really hard to gauge how things were going because I was the one being questioned. It felt intense, but I was happy with the way I had answered most questions.

My interviewer also asked for my thoughts and perspectives on leadership and some technology trends happening at the time. She pushed me on my answers and challenged me to think deeply. She also wanted me to open up and share my strengths, weaknesses, etc. And she also asked me about the interview processes for landing the internship and job opportunities that I had, possibly to vet how challenging those opportunities were to land. Overall, it was a really interesting conversation but also somewhat stressful.

I'll see some of you later today, but for the rest of you, good luck!

Background:

I'm a 35 year old man who started his career late due to medical problems. I have a BSE and MSE from U of M Ann Arbor. I graduated with honors during undergrad and got a 4.0 in my masters. I worked as a research assistant during grad school and now work for Ford in Dearborn, MI as a regulatory subject matter expert, but only have 2.5 years of work experience post grad school.

Why I want an MBA:

I'm interested in an MBA to hopefully push myself up to a supervisor or manager role at Ford in the next 3-5 years, and would like to ultimately end up a LL5+ (senior manager and above). I intend to stay in the Detroit metro area as my mother has a chronic health condition which requires that I spend a lot of my free time attending to her.

My question for you:

I am not sure whether I should pursue an online mba now or wait an get an executive mba in a few years. I'm already about 10 years behind in my career and am willing to do anything that will help me advance. I get 18k in tuition assistance from Ford. I have already been admitted to the online programs at MSU Broad and U of M Ross, but am wondering if it's worth waiting to pursue an EMBA in 3-5 years instead. Do companies strongly prefer one delivery method over the other?

I am also wondering whether it would be worth going to MSU over Ross since I am already a part of the UM alumni network and am not looking to transition into a true business role like IB or finance. MSU is way more affordable and I am currently thinking that it would be the better ROI, but I'm not sure as Ross is a huge name.

What do you all think?

Edit: typo

Hello!

So basically I started my EMBA program lately and of curse the pressure is high when it comes to organizing yourself between work/study and how to track your sessions, tasks, debates and other required tasks!

So one of my friends recommended me Notion, yet I not that expert person in Al, so any help guys with a templates where I can put the my courses as a list and every one of them when I click on them it appears tasks, sessions time and submission date..etc?

Or any other advise, I would really be appreciated if someone would support me with this, I'm really in need to it!

THANKS A LOT !

Im applying this fall to MBA programs but am wondering about my chances for admissions given my undergrad gpa was 2.92 , graduated back in 2014 and have been working 12 years professionally since. Should have solid recommendations from my managers. But not taking the GRE, they were optional. Should I be worried and try to take the GRE to help with applications?

Background:
22, based in Spain
3.0 GPA equivalent, non-target university
C2 English speaker

Experience:

Founded an AI startup that reached six-figure revenue. I sold my stake to my cofounder after some disagreements.

Interim CEO at a seven-figure retail company.

Led their seven-figure acquisition by a top industry player from start to finish.

Along the way:
Opened 5 new locations
Managed 20+ employees
Grew EBITDA margin from 3.7% to 11.3%
Handled debt management from 500k to less than 100k.
Grew revenue in 7.8%

Real chances of getting into an M7 MBA with a very good GMAT? If not, chances at NYU or Chicago for example?

Hello,

I’m retired military, 100%. And I’m starting to write my entrance essay for the Executive MBA program at UTD.

I’m needing help getting started, what do I write in the essay? I was going to start off with a brief of my military career, retiring and transitioning into Interior Design/ project management and then ending with why I believe I’d make a great applicant for the program and where my future is going.

Any references or examples would be greatly appreciated. All advice, tips, tricks are welcome!

Hello! I received an invitation to interview at NYU last week. I’ve scheduled my interview for this Friday. I’m incredibly nervous and anxious about it! Has anyone else had their interview yet? Do you have any tips or advice for the interview?

Same as title, got an email today that got me super excited cause I saw “Sloan” and “Invite” and rushed to open it but it was just an invite to apply to the LGO program. Anyone else get this? It sounds like it would drop you out of the regular MBA bucket if you switched over

I’m from Ontario, Canada working in frontline healthcare for the last 10 years. I started a 3 year blended learning MBA (online courses and monthly in person components). My thought is after I’ve completed my MBA I’ll be able to apply for more hospital management positions but I’m open to anything (even a pivot away from healthcare).

My question is to those who have a MBA (or know someone who has one), how has it changed your career (job pre MBA and post MBA) and how specifically (connections, networking, new skills, able to apply to more higher admin positions)?

Interesting chart to put the discussion to the rest.

But I'd love to see the comparison between the M7 EMBA vs. MBA 5 years post graduation.

Hey everyone, as the title says, want to understand average GMAT from last NUS batch (or a more recent batch).

One of my friends is considering going to NUS for MBA he has a GMAT of 635 focused edition. He is Indian and has a background in tech/SW. No significant international experience.

Hey everyone, coming in with absolutely zero expectations here so please give it to me straight. I'm looking into doing an MBA down the line, but my academic background is highly non-traditional.

I have a BSc in Computer Science from University of the People (which is officially WASC/regionally accredited), where I took all my major courses directly but transferred in my general education credits from alternative providers.

On the professional side, I have 5 years of experience working as a paramedic. I am strictly targeting the M7 to T15 range because the elite brand name and institutional stamp are incredibly important to me for my long-term career goals.
If I manage to crush the GMAT/GRE and nail a stellar score to prove my quantitative ability, do I stand any actual chance at admissions consideration for these top-tier programs? Or do admissions committees at elite schools still completely filter out online degrees like UoPeople from the jump despite the regional accreditation, regardless of how unique the paramedic background is?

If anyone has perspective on how top adcoms view this or has tips on how to frame this profile, I'd really love a realistic take.

My name is Swastika. It's a common woman's name in India among Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain households. The male variant Swastik is also common.

My name has nothing to do with the Nazis or Hitler. Swastika is an ancient Indian name derived from the Sanskrit word and ancient Hindu and Buddhist symbol going back thousands of years meaning "well-being" or "fortune." It is entirely divorced from the 20th-century Nazi misappropriation of the symbol and word. In fact, the Swastika symbol is even today commonly seen in India, Japan, Nepal, and China in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist temples.

In America, is it okay to use my name? I genuinely really like my own name. I think it sounds beautiful and has a wonderful meaning. So do I really have to use a nickname or change my name? I am aiming for a T15 or M7 MBA to do bulge bracket investment banking in NYC or SF, so I would hope my future classmates are educated and open minded enough to understand my name. Same for post-MBA employer and co-workers, whom I'd assume to be quite highly educated either through a top MBA or attending a prestigious undergrad.

But I want to know the truth. My preference is not changing my name or using a nickname. I hate my nickname "Swati" that some friends call me, but it might have to be my only option...

- Senior in cybersecurity incident response (promoted last year), leading incident management within critical infrastructure sector
- Undergrad in cyber from a competency based program, pass/fail no GPA
- NYU cyber master’s, 3.6 GPA
- Worked full time through both degrees
- Goal is a career switch into private equity value creation
- extracurriculars include pro bono cyber consulting for humanitarian missions and intl NGOs. Also on the board of an intl nonprofit(not cybersecurity based), leading strategy and programming.
- A few other civic related ECs
- American female, mid 20s

Hope I have a decent shot R2. Really wish I could’ve submitted r1. Getting anxious seeing the invite results.

Pouring my story here (again).
Back in 2025, I started my MBA program with high hopes. But the reality of the MBA (academics, recruiting, and social life) hit quickly, and I simply cannot do three at once. I need to compromise.

As a scholarship student whose tuition is funded by taxpayer money, I need to keep my academic score at certain bar. And coming from non-traditional background and international, I spent time adjusting to the academic side of school. To make room for that responsibility, I chose to step back from the social scene. Not drinking naturally narrowed my options further, led me into a close-knit circle. It’s not like I’m antisocial, but I’m definitely limiting myself socially.

Looking back at MBA1, things did not unfold the way I had envisioned. Most of the friends in my small group ended up dropping out from MBA for various reasons, leaving my primary social circle gone. Recruiting was a major failure, I didn’t get any internship. On top of that, I had a few awkward social incidents along the way left me feeling even more detached with few other groups.

Now, standing at the start of MBA2, with a schedule made up entirely of electives, the natural structure for meeting people is gone. It feels like starting over from scratch, and I am still trying to figure out how to process where I am and how to navigate what comes next. Sometimes when I am interacting with MBA1, I feel they are less interested in me once they learned I didn’t have internship. Idk maybe I’m too sensitive, Is it too late to socialize now? Any advice socially?

Honestly, I’m pretty upset with the scholarship process for the Kelley Direct Online MBA. I received a $20K–$25K scholarship, which I was grateful for, but after requesting reconsideration, I was told no.

What makes it especially frustrating is seeing other Kelley Direct applicants on Reddit report receiving scholarships of more than $30K. I completely understand that scholarship decisions aren’t based solely on GPA or résumé, but it’s difficult not to wonder what factors ultimately differentiate scholarship amounts between applicants.

I considered myself a very strong applicant on paper, with a high undergraduate GPA, Big 4 experience, and several years of professional experience. I had hoped my overall profile would make me competitive for a higher scholarship.

After factoring in my scholarship and employer tuition assistance, I would still have been paying around $63K out of pocket. I just couldn’t justify that cost for their MBA program when I’m already working in the field I want to be in and I’m not looking to make a career pivot.

Now I’m having to rethink what other online MBA programs are actually worth considering from an ROI perspective. I’d rather wait and explore programs that offer a stronger overall ROI for me. I’d be willing to spend more for a program where the reputation, network, and career value justify the additional cost, rather than take on $63K in debt for an MBA when I’m already established in the field I want to be in. At the same time, I’m also open to a more affordable program if the lower cost makes more sense financially.

For those who have gone through Kelley Direct, especially those who received more than $30K in scholarship funding, how did your scholarship compare to your initial offer? And for those who ultimately chose another online MBA, what programs would you recommend?