These days there are a lot of exciting posts on the MBA blogs from successful applicants who are preparing to head off to various schools. My MBA Journey reflects on all of the paperwork and preparation before starting at Yale. Strawberrtints celebrates getting financial aid. And Rainierisms even offers some fashion tips on different bags for back to school. But Let me wear a Suit. Please brought up something, albeit with humor, that I haven’t seen much of on the blogs…the fear of failing classes.

With all of the discussions on the GMAT, essays, recs, and interviews followed by the drama of acceptances and rejections, it is easy to forget that the ultimate outcome is going to back to the classroom and that means getting grades. Many applicants may not know that some schools like Stanford practice grade non-disclosure. This means that when students interview with companies, interviewers are not allowed to ask students their grades and students are not allowed to share their grades. The main reason for instituting such a policy is to foster a non-competitive atmosphere. That said, the policy may not be the real problem as discussed in this HBS piece. In fact, in recent years HBS reversed their grade non-disclosure policy, a decision you can read about here.

There are pros and cons to such a policy. I’ve heard students from non-traditional backgrounds (eg, non-profits, military) say it was helpful to go into interviews knowing that their struggles in quantitative classes wouldn’t hurt them. I’ve also heard students from these same backgrounds who were strong quantitatively say this policy hurts them because they can’t show companies that they are ready for a finance position, for example, despite their previous career path.

At any rate, grade disclosure policies are one more question you can ask in information sessions and on school visits to help you get a sense of each school’s culture.

Stanford posted their 2007-2008 application deadlines and essay questions.

Application Calendar
Round one deadline: Oct 22, 2007
Round one notification: Jan 24, 2007

Round two deadline: Jan 7, 2008
Round two notification: April 3, 2008

Round three deadline: Mar, 21, 2008
Round three notification: May 15, 2008

Essay Questions

Please answer essay questions A, B, and C. We provide recommended lengths for each essay, but these are only guidelines. Most applicants will find 7-11 pages (in total) sufficient. If your responses total more than 11 pages, you need to upload the remaining pages in the Additional Information section.

* Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (Recommended length is 3-4 pages, double-spaced)

* Essay B: What are your career aspirations? How will your education at Stanford help you achieve them? (Recommended length is 2-3 pages, double-spaced)

* Essay C: Short Essays—Options 1-4
Please answer two of the questions below. In answering each question, please tell us not only what you did, but also how you did it. Describe what you felt, said, and thought during these experiences. Tell us the outcome, and describe how people responded. Your responses should describe experiences that have occurred within the last three years.

Option 1: Tell us about a time when you did something that was not established, expected, or popular.
(Recommended length is 1-2 pages, double-spaced)

Option 2: Tell us about a time when you felt effective or successful.
(Recommended length is 1-2 pages, double-spaced)

Option 3: Tell us about a time when you had a significant effect on a group or individual.
(Recommended length is 1-2 pages, double-spaced)

Option 4: Tell us about a time when you tried to reach a goal or complete a task that was challenging, difficult, or frustrating.
(Recommended length is 1-2 pages, double-spaced)

In the coming weeks, we will start breaking down the essay questions for the top schools with tips on how to approach them. The season has begun!

On Friday, we discussed going abroad for your MBA. If you are considering schools outside of the US, please be sure to check their deadlines and program options as some are different from the top American schools. Two examples of this are LBS and INSEAD.

INSEAD offers a program that begins in Jan 2008 in addition to their Sept 2008 start date. Each of their classes has about 450 students representing over 70 nationalities. About 300 students begin at their France campus and 150 start at the Singapore campus. Students can change campuses during their time at INSEAD. You can see all of the INSEAD deadlines here. If you are interested in starting in Jan 2008 program you can still apply by July 11. Don’t be discouraged that two deadlines for this start date have already passed. According to INSEAD, “competition for each round is relatively equal, so there is generally little advantage to be gained by early application.”

LBS also boasts a global student body with students from over 70 countries, faculty representing over 30 countries, and 25,000 alumni across 100 countries. Also interesting is that the LBS curriculum can be covered in 15 or 21 months for those of you seeking a flexible time frame. Their admissions details can be found here.

USA Today published an article recently about some of the advantages of studying abroad. We have certainly experienced the surge of interest in non-US programs and there is a good reason for that. New programs are being developed, and they are innovative and meeting the needs of today’s MBAs.

Among the reasons for investigating programs abroad, some are practical, such as one year programs, lower expenses and international perspectives. Others are more “fun”, such as “you go to school, and you get a vacation.”

The article also lists the top 10 schools in which Europeans are interested:
INSEAD
LBS
HBS
Columbia
Stanford
Wharton
IESE
NYU
IMD
Athens University

To learn more about some of the non US schools on this list, check out the following stident blogs:
IESE – Gandaki
LBS – Angel Angie
INSEAD – Lebloghog
LBS – Karlitos

BusinessWeek.com has a virtual calendar to keep you up to date with all of the upcoming business school events in the US and around the world. You can view the calendar here.

Some highlights from this month include:
*Information sessions for MIT Sloan
*Podcasts from Vanderbilt
*Events at Yale

Also we’ve mentioned before that it’s a great idea to sign up for email updates from your schools of interest. For example, HBS recently emailed their update with links to student led summer information sessions and other off campus events. You can read about all of these here. HBS will be starting up a new interactive website in July to keep you better informed.

Of course you can also read up on MBA blogs such as Bee to B school, let me wear a suit please, and Asiangal to see what other applicants (or now accepted candidates) are up to and find tips from your peers.

One option to explore in the application process is early decision or early action. You may remember this strategy from your undergraduate admissions process – you apply before the regular deadline, receive notification early, and if accepted secure your place with a deposit. This can be a great strategy because the admissions committee will see your profile and essays before reviewing regular decision applicants. Two schools that offer this are Columbia and Tuck.

Columbia will begin reviewing Early Decision applications on August 17, 2007, and the final deadline for Early Decision is October 10, 2007. Columbia reviews applications on a rolling basis; you will receive notification of their decision within 10 weeks of submitting your application. If accepted to Columbia in the Early Decision round, you must withdraw applications and decline offers of admissions from any other schools and submit a non-refundable $5,000 deposit to reserve your space in the class. You can read all of the details on Columbia’s Early Decision here.

The Tuck Early Action option is sightly different. While Tuck has not posted the Early Action deadline for this year, last year applications were due in mid-October and decisions were sent by mid-December. Tuck allows accepted Early Action applicants to wait until early January before submitting their non-refundable deposit ($3,500 last year). Tuck views their offer as nonbinding because applicants can see the results of other first round applications in early January before committing to Tuck with the deposit. You can read all of the details on Tuck‘s Early Action here.

These are just two examples. Please check your schools of interest to see if they offer any early decision options.