Wire Taps 254—Pakistani banker, 15 years out. Software engineer, good numbers. Australian, stand out numbers

Our latest podcast begins with Alex looking at the upcoming MBA admissions deadlines for Duke / Fuqua, Dartmouth / Tuck, Columbia ED and Georgetown / McDonough; interview invites are also scheduled for Oxford / Said.  Graham then makes a final plea for a new survey we have published which asks about brand perceptions for each of the top programs. More details are here: https://bit.ly/mbabrands Amazon gift cards are available to some respondents! Beyond deadlines and surveys, Graham and Alex highlighted the new class profile for Northwestern / Kellogg, which fell in line with similar programs within the “M7”. Graham also highlighted the recent Real Humans pieces for Harvard and NYU / Stern; these are great resources for MBA candidates targeting these programs. Graham then highlighted this Wednesday's final essay insights workshop; participating MBA programs are UCLA / Anderson, Dartmouth / Tuck, INSEAD, London Business School and Georgetown / McDonough. Signups are here: https://bit.ly/clearadmitfall As usual, Alex selected three candidate profiles for review, in this instance all came from ApplyWire entries: First up, Alex chose a candidate from Pakistan who has 15 years of work experience in banking, as well as an MBA that they completed early in their career. While their experience appears to be strong, Alex and Graham tackled some of the bigger issues they will face in the admissions process: the need to fit in and the need to justify the second MBA, the need to demonstrate academic readiness, etc. This candidate still needs to complete the GMAT, which will have a lot riding on it. The second candidate featured this week is a software engineer lead, who is looking to use the MBA to transition to tech product management. They have super numbers (760 on the GMAT) and look like they might be a decent candidate for M7 calibre programs. Our final candidate is from Australia, with decent work experience as well as community experience. This, combined with superb numbers, suggests they should be targeting the very best programs. They have also targeted a few programs that gave them applicant fee waivers; which leads to a discussion regarding the folly of applying to programs you wouldn’t be thrilled to attend. This episode was recorded in Paris, France and Cornwall, England. It was produced and engineered by Dennis Crowley in leafy West Philadelphia. Thanks for listening; it means a lot to all of us involved in producing the Clear Admit podcast!