[00:00:16] Speaker A: Welcome to the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. I'm Graham Richmond and this is your Wiretaps for Monday, January 20, 2025. Are you looking for an MBA program where you'll be more than just a number? Vanderbilt business offers a personalized learning experience to help each stud reach their unique career goals. Whether you're looking to switch careers entirely or accelerate the path you're on, the Vanderbilt MBA program will provide you with the individual support you need to propel your career forward. Vanderbilt is currently waiving their $200 application fee for MBA Wiretaps listeners. To learn more about the Vanderbilt MBA program and to claim your application fee waiver, Visit Business Vanderbilt. Edu ClearAdmit. I'm joined by Alex Brown from Cornwall, England. Alex, how are things going this week?
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Very good, thank you, Graeme.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: So, I was.
I saw some good news in the media yesterday.
News of maybe a potential ceasefire in Israel, and also it seems like the fires are getting more contained in Los Angeles. So I know we're not a geopolitics and global news podcast, but I was disheartened to hear that both of those things seem to be progressing. I mean, it's just been terrible what's happened to LA and obviously in Gaza and stuff. So it's. Yeah. So hopefully better times ahead.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: A little bit of good news, possibly.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: Exactly.
In our universe. What's been going on? How busy? I mean, it seems like people are all getting their apps in, right?
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously Round two application deadlines have been thick and fast over the last couple of weeks.
And this upcoming week, Imperial has a round two application deadline in the uk. Boston College. Carroll also has an application deadline as well, as ASA is scheduled to release its Round two interview decisions. And on that score, we've started to see some Round 2 interview invites rolling out. Saw a flood for Darden this morning. Actually, we're recording on Thursday, so saw a few for Darden, but we've seen them for Yale, Tuck, Kellogg, Tepper and even Stamford this early. So, yeah, activity is moving forward for Round two. Graham.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Yeah, just so listeners know, I mean, you kind of have these two types of schools, right? Schools that will trickle out. Interview invitations, batches.
It can be very challenging for candidates and they do typically come in batches. It's not like you're doing one a day. It's usually like each week they'll let a bunch of them out and then the rest of the schools, and we're talking about interviews by invitation only, obviously, but the rest of the schools just let them all out. At once, typically. And so I'm thinking of schools like Booth or Harvard or Wharton, where they're just coming in a batch and they usually tell you. Although some schools tell you at the beginning, some schools wait a couple weeks and then make an announcement that they're going to be issuing all the invitations on a certain day. So do you have any. What are your odds on when Harvard might issue theirs? Based on historical data? Do you know when that is? Is it late Jan or early Feb?
[00:03:15] Speaker B: I would imagine it's somewhere around there. I haven't spent any effort or energy thinking about this.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: All right, sorry I put you on.
[00:03:22] Speaker B: The spot, but let's just put it this way. It'll be about two weeks before Wharton.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: And Wharton does schedule. Does publish their schedule. So whenever Wharton's is. And as we're yakking away, I could look that up real quick, actually. And then I would just backfill two weeks for Harvard. So Wharton's February 19th, so. Yeah, you got it exactly right. End of January, early February.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Okay, good to know. One other thing, Alex, I know you are super excited about this, but we have a new thing coming, right? I'm gonna let you talk about it. Cause you've been, I mean, headlong throwing yourself into this project over the last three to six months. I mean, it's been a slog. But we have something really exciting that you want maybe you can talk about.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm super excited. I mean, the team, I think, has put together a really very good AI chatbot trained on all of clear admits content over the many years that we've been in this MBA admissions field. So this chatbot should answer any questions that candidates might have, whether it's how to select schools, whether it's how to apply to schools, whether it's, you know, which schools are good for which industries, etc. Etc. If we've written about it, that content will be in the chatbot and so forth. So really excited. We're not. We. We. It should have launched last week, late last week. Let's hope it did launch. Otherwise people are going to be a little bemused. But really encourage people to try it out, provide us any feedback. Obviously we will.
You know, we're rolling it out, but we're still sort of testing and learning. So whilst I. All our internal testing has been really positive lately, you know, the first iteration out of the box, there might be a few wrinkles we've got to tidy up. But I am super excited, Graham. And I think the team that has been working on this project has done just some amazing work.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: Yeah, totally agree. And I will say I'm a little nervous, Alex, because I've been. I'm asking it some questions. So I asked it like, oh, I don't want to write about a failure. It's going to make me look bad in my essay. But the school's asking me to do so, what should I do? And it gave this amazing response with an outline of, like, how to think about presenting failure.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: And did it begin, Graham, we know plenty of failures from which you can draw.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: I didn't say that. But, you know, and then it also. I was asking it like, oh, I don't have an interview invitation from a school. And, you know, I'm getting impatient, you know, should I email the admissions team just to find out, you know, kind of where things are? And it basically scolded me and said, do not do that.
So it gave me but a good explanation.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: And so, yeah, the point is, the design of the bot is if we've written about that issue, it should address it really clearly.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: Yeah. And I will say one other thing. I mean, we might be out of a job, you and I, but no, but one other thing is that it.
It's really.
I'm really impressed with it. And the reason is because I have this feeling that when you look for advice kind of on anything parenting diet admissions, like how to get into a top school, you can go on the Internet and you'll find lots of information. But I mean, just as someone will tell you to do one thing, then you'll find someone else telling you to do the exact opposite. Right. So that's the problem with a lot of advice out there. And I think that this bot. I'm just going to say it, I think that our bot is better than ChatGPT and it is built on ChatGPT. I mean, we use OpenAI platform to build this thing. Right. But I think ours is better because you don't end up with this. Too many cooks spoil the recipe or pull things in different directions. And so, yeah, I mean, I just, I think it's fantastic. I'm really excited.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: And it's supported by related readings. So the design of the bot is. Here's the answer. So a nice synthesized answer. And then here's four links from Clear Admits, sort of articles that you can ban go and further explore. So that was really important to us to develop a bot that sort of enabled further exploration on the Clear Image site, if that's what people wanted to do to back up what they've learned from the response itself. So, yeah, hopefully it's well received, I know through the summer and it's a product that will inevitably improve and so forth. But I'm super excited. Why don't you give folks a URL and we'll move on to the next podcast.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Yeah, we're too excited about this. So just go to AI.clearadvit.com and you'll find the bot, you can launch it and play with it. So yeah, check it out. Alex. Yeah, let's.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: And there is a feedback form on it. So please, if you do have feedback or whatever, please let us know because we're rolling it out and feedback is super critical for us to continue to innovate.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: Yeah, totally. All right, so moving along, we have events coming up. The first event I'm going to mention is February 5th. We're going to sit down with admissions directors from Berkeley, Haas, Wharton and Stanford and we're going to talk to them about their deferred enrollment program. And this is just, you know, you apply when you're in college, you get in, you go work and they basically hold a seat for you while you're out there working. So it takes a lot of the stress out of, out of the application process because you don't have to apply while you're working and juggling everything else. So the first set is February 5th. We'll do another one on February 12th with another batch of and you can sign up for the deferred enrollment virtual webinars at Bit Ly de 0225 for February 25th. So join us for that. We have other events coming up, but we're going to move on. We can talk about them next next week. Alex we did run some admissions tips on the website that I thought were important to highlight. The first one was just about how to approach group interviews. You mentioned Wharton earlier, issuing their invites sometime in February, you said. And so get ready to learn about group interviews if you've applied to Wharton because they do the team based discussion. We have an entire podcast devoted to that. But we have a post on the website that just explains the dynamics and the general kind of do's and don'ts in that process. We also did an admissions tip on letters of support, which are kind of like recommendation letters, but they're not recommendation letters. These are letters submitted by people within the MBA community at the program you've applied to, whether that's students, faculty, alumni. And you know, it's kind of like a recommendation, but it's an unsolicited recommendation, usually a bit less formal as well. So read, read about that if you're curious, on the website and make sure you follow the rules, because not all schools allow for these types of letters to come in. But in any event, those are the two admissions tips. Alex. Yeah, it's. It's definitely. We're getting into interview season here, so.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, well, like you say, we're switching. We're seeing some interview invites come out, so. And there will be a few folks that will begin interviewing directly. So. Yeah, so that'll be very good. And obviously these letters of support and group interview tips are all in the AI bot trained.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Yes, that's right.
So we also did a couple of real Humans pieces. We caught up with students at Manchester's MBA program. That's the Alliance Manchester Business School in the uk.
And so we profiled, I think there are six profiles and really interesting just to read. And there's a woman named Cinta from Nairobi, Kenya, who's earning her MBA right now at Manchester. And she went to undergrad at Cardiff University, which I think is in. That's in Wales. Right? You're the UK expert.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Okay. So she did undergraduate in the uk, but originally from Kenya. She majored in econ and finance and became an asset manager and also then worked in venture capital. So she headed off to Manchester and we asked her, like, why did you choose Alliance Manchester Business School? And she said, in addition to its prestigious ranking, what really drew me to the AMBS MBA program is its learning by doing approach. I'm particularly excited about the opportunity to engage in three consultancy projects which will provide real world experience and open doors to valuable networking across various sectors and regions. And then she goes on to say, exploring Manchester and becoming part of the University of Manchester community also felt like a meaningful milestone, as I had once applied for undergraduate at Manchester and didn't get in. So it's rewarding to see things coming full circle. So that was what Cinta had to say from Kenya. Very cool stuff.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: Very nice, Very well done.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: Yeah. And then we caught up with students. Another Real Humans piece we did. We caught up with students at Emory, Goizuera, and this is in their Master's in management program, which is a program that you typically would start right after undergrad. And you're going to love this profile. This woman named MacKenzie, she's from Fort Worth, Texas. She went to undergrad at Tulane, where she was a Division 1 basketball player.
She majored in exercise science and psychology. And we then said, like, why did you decide to go off to get this master's in management degree, why now? As opposed to maybe waiting or getting an MBA or something? And she said, I made the decision to attend business school to deepen my understanding of strategic decision making and develop a broader skill set that supports well rounded, informed leadership. I decided to do this now because I'm building on the foundation of my undergraduate education and using this gap before entering the workforce to strengthen my professional and personal growth. So I guess, in a nutshell, I think what she's saying is really that she just feels like doing this Master's in management will wrap everything together that she started in undergrad and make her, I think, more employable, et cetera. Right? It sounds like it, yeah.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: No, it sounds like it. And that's probably one of the key reasons why folks pursue Masters in management directly out of undergrad versus waiting two or three years, four years to pursue the mba, which is obviously a very different proposition. And that's what we tend to mostly focus on.
And, yeah, they are kind of. It's one or the other. The very few would do both.
And, yeah, it's interesting, historically, I would agree.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: I think what's happening now is that a lot of these schools are saying, oh, if you come back a few years later, after you've worked, after the master's in management, you can come for one year and you can add an MBA to your resume.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: I think, is it. Is it Yale or LBs that does that might be.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: LBs does it. And even. And Duke does it. There are a few schools now that are doing that. So, yeah, so I think. But I think in her case, what's interesting is, you know, she obviously was full on Division 1 basketball. She was studying exercise and, you know, and psych, and so not really a business undergrad, but she wants to. It sounds like she wants to work in the sports, in the business side of sport. And so she's going to have to, you know, so getting this Master's in management is going to expose her to all these subjects that'll make her, you know, just more employable, if you ask me. So. All right, let's move on and talk about this week's candidates. If you want to write to Alex or myself, you can email
[email protected], use the subject line wiretaps. But, Alex, unless you add anything else, I suggest we just start talking about the candidates.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: Let's kick on.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: All right, so this is WireTaps candidate number one.
Our first candidate this week has four schools on the target List those schools are Columbia, Harvard, MIT and Wharton. This person has been working in consulting at one of the MBB strategy consulting firms and they will continue with consulting post mba and in fact they're considering firm sponsorship.
They're located in India, but they do stipulate that they're not originally from India. They just say they're from South Asia. We don't know where.
They are looking to do consulting as I said, after business school, which they'd be obligated to do if they're sponsored. But then they're also kind of curious about venture capital in the longer term and they mentioned some firms like Andreessen Horowitz or Sequoia Capital. But again in the short term they're going to return to mbb. It sounds like they would love to land in New York, Chicago or Boston after business school. This is a male candidate. They're just 25 years old. They have a couple years of experience and they're not yet applying. Like this is a, an early bird. I think they're hoping to start school in the fall, I want to say of 27. So they're a couple years out. They want to build their career profile a bit. Their undergraduate degree was a bachelor in finance and econ. They were at the top of their class. They had a 3.94 GPA and they took the GRE and they have a 335 on the GRE so very good activities include debate. They've also been doing some work for a non profit and some of their work even with MBB it sounds like has been focused around growth tech. So actually working with startups and fast scaling businesses and they've even done some work in the public sector practice area. They also on the side do some coaching like helping people who are applying to master's programs. So they just mentioned that as well. And yeah again they're really interested in the world of VC and startups in the long term and they stress that here. Now a couple of things Alex. So number one they might be sponsored. They're working towards that.
They were curious if they should revisit the green. They, you know, had an 84th percentile on the quant and a 99th percentile on the verbal but they're just asking us that question. They figure they could improve the quant a little bit. And then the other thing is they do say that their hope is to earn full rides to top schools like Harvard, Wharton, Columbia and Sloan which are the schools on their list. So yeah, what do you make of this? Candidacy. I mean they're early bird but what do you think of them?
[00:17:16] Speaker B: Quite frankly it's a really strong candidacy.
I like a couple of other aspects which you didn't mention but I think they're the first from their university to get into MBB consulting.
So I mean I'd highlight that because I think they've had to do some reasonably extraordinary things given their environmental context to get to where they are today. So I think that's really, really good. So mbbs, top of the line. That's very good.
And you know their numbers outstanding. 394 GPA. So it doesn't surprise me that they had access to MBB and so forth even though that they were the first. I think the GRE335, that's going to be fantastic. If they could improve that score. I don't know that I would be sweating over getting that done because it's already an outstanding score.
So I don't think a 338 necessarily gets them a scholarship that a 335 doesn't get them if that's what they're, that they're sort of thinking about and it looks like that they do decent activity outside of work etc. Etc. So to me this is a really strong profile. I would really encourage the them to make sure they're in the first round. So even if they're not from India, which is would mark them explicitly as overrepresented, they might still be sort of within that range as it were in sort of South Asia. So the only way to mitigate that is to be in round one. There's no reason why they wouldn't be in round one anyway because you know they've got the test score taken care of etc. Etc.
So get into round one and you know this idea if they're sponsored by MBB that would be absolutely fantastic. So obviously that helps them with their, with their financing.
I don't know that if you're a sponsored candidate that necessarily eliminates you from consideration for scholarship because I think schools are effectively competing for the best candidate and if they figure that this person is a best candidate they'd still offer them scholarship regardless of whether have sponsorship from their firm. Graham, feel free to debate that but we'll get to that in a minute.
But it's going to be difficult for them to get a full ride. I think just given, you know that's always going to be challenging at the very top schools. Harvard will do it on a needs based basis and then the other Schools they're targeting, it's all going to be competitive. So if a school really wants this candidate, they will offer them scholarship regardless, I think, of whether they're sponsored or not.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So I'm kind of torn with this candidate in the sense that they have amazing numbers. They shouldn't bother to retake the test. Okay. They're working at mbb. They're clearly active. They have hobbies, martial arts. They mentioned that. They're a big reader. They do weightlifting, they do marathons. I mean, they have a lot of things going for them.
On the other hand, that comment about, like, I want to get a free full ride at these top schools. Yeah. I don' I don't know. I mean, ideally they're sponsored and then that doesn't matter. But if they aren't sponsored, I don't see these schools handing out full rides to candidates from South Asia, male candidates especially. And so I think that's going to be. I wouldn't count on that. Now, maybe they'll get some money. I mean, in the case of Harvard, it's really just going to be dependent on how much money they have in the bank. And they're kind of. So that's probably not going to translate to a full ride for someone who's working at one of the McKinsey Bain BCG firms.
So. Yeah, but. So I just want to put a little bit of. I don't know what the word is, just have them be aware that it may not be a full ride, but to the extent that they're going to go back to consulting or get into vc, I mean, they can borrow money and pay for the mba. This is what people have been doing for decades and decades. It's a really common thing. And, you know, there's a good ROI on the mba. So even in troubled times, like people are, you know, they get good jobs for the most part and they, in the long term, it's not a problem to pay off. So. Yeah, I just want them to be aware of that.
Yeah, that's the main thing. I mean, I will say some of the activities, like they mentioned that they, you know, they really like reading. They read Adam Grant and that they're in the debate club. And the only thing I was thinking is, well, those are pretty common. You know, I don't know why, but I guess for Indian folks in India, debate seems to be really big. And that's always been the case. Whenever you see candidates applying from India, there's a lot of people doing debate and then reading business, you know, Popular business literature is also a very common thing for candidates to these top schools. So I just want them to be aware that, you know, they need to. They have great numbers. They're going to get into these types of schools if they work hard and have a good career at mbb. But yeah, just be. I wouldn't take a full ride for granted by any chance.
[00:22:20] Speaker B: The only thing I would say about the debate references, Graham, is I think their point is they did very well at it.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: So it's not just, you know, one of my hobbies is debating, et cetera, et cetera. They have real sort of milestones of achievement in that area, which I do think gives them significant kudos.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Right. And I do like the fact that they continue to work for the national debate team with help like selecting new people. Exactly. So, no, it's a good hobby. I'm just saying it doesn't jump out necessarily as like, totally unique. But I think you're right. If they focus on the accolades and the achievements there, they should be fine. Again, this is a great candid. They're out in front as an early bird and we love that. Right. So, yeah. So best of luck to them. I want to thank them for sharing their profile. Why don't we move on and talk about WireTaps? Candidate number two.
So our second candidate this week has five schools on the target list, and those schools are Columbia, Harvard, mit, Stanford and Wharton. This person's looking to start in the fall of 25. So they're applying now. They have been working also at mbb. They don't tell us which one. Just like our first contestant this week, they're looking to stay in consulting, but they're particularly interested in nonprofit and social impact type work. They have a 331 on the GRE and a 3.7 undergraduate GPA. They have or will have three years of experience upon matriculation. This candidate's located in Los Angeles. They want to stay out west or potentially land in New York after business school. And Alex, I know exactly why you picked them. I mean, they have a obviously pretty stunning profile here, but you picked them because they left this note on their entry in which they say, hi, Alex, I'm a huge fan of your Livewire podcast with Graham, and I was wondering if you could potentially review my profile on the next episode. So there you go. They just asked and you did it, Alex.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: All they got to do is ask. Absolutely fantastic. And the fact that we know they're a podcast listener, I mean, that's brilliant.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: So they did also share. They're 25, they are an underrepresented male and again living in LA. Hopefully they're safe given everything that's going on in LA right now. They did say that their undergraduate was earned at a top five US public universities and they gave us some examples like Berkeley, ucla, Michigan, UNC type school. And they've as I said, you know, have done two years at mbb, but they had an early promotion to junior manager and they're currently on a one year second at an urban mobility startup focused on autonomous vehicle technology in San Francisco and they're particularly interested in that domain, this idea of sustainability and transportation.
And so they're really excited about this role that they're currently on a second with and post mba. They'll obviously go back to mbb, but they talk about eventually wanting to become COO of an urban mobility startup and in the long term maybe even get into kind of government or urban mobility tech kind of roles. So they say their number one choice is Stanford because of the innovative culture and it's near San Francisco's tech ecosystem. But they're also pretty keen on MIT which apparently has a great urban planning department. So in any event, that's the profile. What do you make of this candidate?
[00:25:49] Speaker B: Another fantastic candidate, I think quite honestly, Graham, I mean there are similarities in terms of they Both work for MBB, they both have really great numbers. In this case, 331Gre3.7 GPA, which reinforces my point for our previous candidate at a GRE of 335. I think think enough is enough on that score. But these are both super candidates, I think, maybe for slightly different reasons, but I like this idea that they've worked a couple of years at mbb, now they're on a secondment and they're really focused on this sort of urban mobility. Absolutely love it. I mean I'm fascinated by what's going on with Waymo and whatever Elon Musk is doing a couple of years behind, etc. Etc.
But it's a fascinating space, right? We know in the long run we're all going to be driven around by these autonomous vehicles and how do we get from A, where we are now to B is not going to be in a straight line and it's really fascinating. So I think that will really appeal to adcom, the fact that they're sponsored, they're going to return to MBB to then segue back into this space and if they can show the real passion for this space, etc. Etc. I really do think ADCOM are going to love this.
So I'm really positive. I absolutely think they should be targeting Stanford for a lot of reasons. But I think they could probably hit that first essay what means most to me and why and tie it to some of this type of stuff is going to be really, really good. Graham. So yeah, I just think all around great candidate. They run a marathon sub three hours. Graham. This is ridiculous.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it makes my New Year's resolution I mentioned last week look kind of stupid. But you know, I'm. Whatever.
Yeah, but no, I think, you know, you're right. This mobility stuff is very interesting. I laughed when you mentioned it just because I had a kind of a creepy moment where I was. I was driving myself to the airport in California earlier, well last year I guess, and, and it was you know like five in the morning on one of those crazy early flights and I pull up to a light and next to me is one of these taxi waymos or whatever and it was empty and it just sort of sitting there and I just, it was this kind of weird moment where the thing, you know, we both, the light turns green and we both drive on and I was just kind of like, it's just kind of strange. It was empty and it's just kind of roaming around. There's like a million cameras all over it, you know, obviously to avoid, I guess running people over or something. But anyway, no, it's a fascinating space and hopefully helps to improve climate, et cetera, in terms of pollution, et cetera. If people can do more carpooling and get places in more efficient ways, obviously that'll be great. Although I'm a big fan of driving a stick shift car on a country road. So I kind of grapple with not necessarily wanting to be taken around. But in any event, this is a great candidate. I feel like you're right. I mean they should be competitive. I mean I did say to you before we came on the air that they only have two years of experience right now. They'll have three by the time they matriculate. But you pointed out to me that you think it's enough, right?
[00:29:04] Speaker B: I mean I think ADCOM is smart enough to really identify potential. Right.
So yeah, this is a little bit of an earlier career applicant, possibly with three years of experience. But I really like the two year MBB plus one year in this sort of mobility, urban mobility space working potentially for a client of MBB or whatever it is that's got them that role. But I do like that transition. So it's not just they're coming out of MBB for a couple of years going straight into their NBA, but even folks that do that, you know, some of them are clearly superstars in the making and that comes can figure that out.
[00:29:49] Speaker A: Yeah, agreed. Well, I want to thank them for sharing their post and for listening to the show. It's just always nice to hear from listeners so that we actually know that people are tuning in. It's always useful.
But Alex, let's move on and talk about wiretaps. Candidate number three.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: Well, I just bring up one more point.
[00:30:07] Speaker A: All right. All right.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: We didn't mention at all that they're an underrepresented minority and that was deliberate, I think, or at least it was deliberate on my part. I think their entire profile really stands up on its own.
But the fact that they're underrepresented minority too is only going to I think make ADCOM more excited and so forth. Especially if that's affected some of their life experience to date, etc.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And yeah, I didn't mention also because you know, technically they're not supposed to take into account anymore. But of course they're, you know, they're going to learn about this person's background and I think it will be compelling. I totally agree.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely.
[00:30:50] Speaker A: So best of luck to that person. All right, let's move on and talk about wiretaps. Candidate number three.
So our final candidate this week comes from a decision wire entry and this person applied to Berkeley, Columbia, Duke, Harvard, Kellogg, Stern, Stanford, ucla, Wharton and Yale and they did really well. Okay so they got offers at Berkeley, $195,000 scholarship. They got into Columbia with 150K. Duke also 150,000. Kellogg gave them 60. Stern 190,000. They got into UCLA also with $190,000 scholarship and they got into Yale with 170. So they didn't get into to Harvard or Wharton or Stanford, but they got in pretty much everywhere else it looks like and with lots of money.
So their dilemma though, and by the way, this person had a 3.9 GPA and a 320 on the GRE and they wanted work in nonprofit social impact. They're starting school this fall and they do mention in the note they say that they are a social impact. They're interested in social impact and entrepreneurship impact, investment and civic tech. They want to end up in New York after business school. They also say they are risk averse when it comes to taking on debt as they can't guarantee the ROI because they want to work in social impact.
And so they said for them it comes down to Yale, som Stern and ha. They said they're leaning Yale though. Worried about enjoying New Haven. Berkeley seems great, but worried about having a northeast network. Stern worried about fully immersing. So those are the three that they've narrowed it down to. And Alex, you left them a comment immediately to call their attention to something. So why don't you tell me what you think of this.
[00:32:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean I was confused why Columbia wasn't considered with 150k as a scholarship. And their response is that I think the overall cost of Columbia is actually going to be a little bit higher. But nevertheless, I think if you want to be in New York post MBA with your career and you know that, then that does make the New York area based programs more compelling. So sadly for Haas in this case probably eliminates them from consideration. And I think the candidates recognize that already.
So you know, Columbia, Stern and certainly Yale. And Yale obviously has a stronger reputation as it were, for social impact. I mean, after all it's the youngest MBA program simply because it was a, you know, prior to that it was a program for non profit rather than a full mba. So it has that legacy. And I know this candidate seems to be leaning toward Yale in terms of overall cost of when they factor in scholarship and when they factor in the actual cost of living and that kind of stuff.
So I think they'll do well out of Yale.
I think they'll, you know, obviously Yale will be able to place them into New York City, I would think anyway, so that shouldn't be so much of a problem. I just think that Columbia and Stern are also really compelling given their goals. Stern's also got, I mean, I think all programs now lean more heavily toward things like social impact and entrepreneurship. So I think any of those three Columbia, Stern and Yale would be great choices for this candidate.
[00:34:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it's tricky. I am hearing from them kind of a desire to be in a close knit community.
I mean they seem drawn to Yale for that because Yale's a bit small and it's more of a traditional college campus.
[00:34:54] Speaker B: Less distracting.
[00:34:55] Speaker A: Yeah, less distractions. And I think that of the students at Yale, I would imagine that there's probably only maybe there's like one a year who is from New Haven. So you're kind of thrown into a environment where everyone is new and discovering each other and doesn't have established ties.
I'm less concerned about. They did say that they're kind of worried about New Haven. I Mean, I've been to the campus many, many times and I think New Haven gets a little bit of a bad rap. And the campus is pretty stunning. And it's. I mean, this is Yale University, right? They have a beautiful campus. The business school's in an amazing new building. And so I don't, I'm not, I wouldn't be worried about that if I were them. I think they will get exactly what they're looking for in terms of close knit. And I do hear them on the fact that 170 from Yale might be the same thing as 190 from Stern when you start to think about cost of living in New York, et cetera. So I get it. I mean, Columbia and Stern are compelling because they're in New York. And if this person really wants to be in New York, what a better place. Can't think of a better place to be to network. Right. But you got to go with your heart. And I just hear them in their comments here, seeming to really want to go to Yale. And I can't really argue with that. I understand where they're coming from.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: I mean, I agree Yale is not a bad decision here. And if that's exactly where they want to go and they just want affirmations of that, I think they can clearly get that.
[00:36:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:19] Speaker B: I just also think if they really wanted to go to Columbia or Stern, you could make strong cases for either of those two.
[00:36:27] Speaker A: Yeah, totally agree. Absolutely. So hopefully we haven't left them more confused than they started. But I do appreciate them sharing and I want to say, I mean, wow, just congratulations on getting into to so many schools with so much financial aid. I mean, it just. You rarely see this. I mean, this is nuts. I mean, they're getting sort of free rides at a lot of these schools, so very impressive and yeah, congratulations to them. Alex, let's wrap up and we'll come back together next week and do this again.
[00:36:56] Speaker B: Okay, Very good. Good luck, everyone. Stay safe. Take.
[00:37:11] Speaker A: It.
