Attention applicants! Prateek Kumar of the Harvard Crimson recently published two articles discussing B-school applications by undergraduate seniors.  The opinions presented are only the opinions of ONE PERSON, and some are debatable, but this is a worthwhile read for anyone applying to business school, and much of the advice may be broadly applicable.

In Riding the College-to-Business School Express, Kumar opens with a recitation of the staggering statistic that roughly 8,500 applications were submitted to HBS this year during its three round process. What admissions criteria are used to distinguish the cream of the crop from the bottom of the barrel? At least one important factor is the sense of “organizational context” that a student can offer. Specifically, the admissions committee looks at the organizations an applicant has been a part of, and how long they have been involved.

Of course, strong academic performance is highly valued, perhaps even more than one’s GMAT score. For older applicants, exceptional experience may make up for a weak area elsewhere in the application. And, as always, admissions committees are interested in an applicant with diverse interests.

In A Shrewd Undergraduate’s Guide to HBS admissions, Kumar lists six suggestions for building a strong application:

1. high GPA

2. high GMAT

3. Be strategic about extracurriculars: try to be a leader.

4. Be a “work in progress”.  Demonstrate that HBS can help to transform you.  If you are already sculpted, why would you need to be a part of their program?

5. For the “2+2” program, which is new, it is better to pretend to be ‘out of it’ about business than someone who has been obsessed with business ever since your grandfather gave you 100 shares of General Electric for your 10th birthday.

6. In your essays, show what makes you tick; the essays are not brag sheets.  Show HOW you accomplished X, not just that you accomplished X.

For more details on these points, refer to the articles.

Of course, for many applicants, certain aspects of their application are already fixed (i.e. GPA) and cannot be changed. However, the value of Kumar’s articles is that they give us an idea of how we should be framing or presenting ourselves to the admissions folks. 

Omne’s MBA Journey shares a a two-part recap of his visit to USC’s Marshall School.

Sustained Agony applied to eight business schools this season and is in the home stretch as she examines where her Chicago/Tuck head is at.

First-year Darden blogger The Sunny Days enlightens prospective and admitted students eager to know about the case study method by explaining what a “case” looks like.

One Columbia J-termer’s B-School Odyessy is surprised and amused to learn that the CIA will be recruiting at CBS this week.

Bee to B-School shares her ideal application timeline…were she not a procrastinator, she would have followed it herself!

In this week’s post, INSEAD Blog by Zanat0s offers a change of pace with his airport reviews.

This week’s GMAT challenge from PrepForTests.com is a data sufficiency question.

Work out which of the statements 1 and 2 are required to answer the question.

Have a go at answering this and then review your answer.

Earlier this week, Financial Times reporter Neil Courtis offered up an enlightening examination of the pros and cons of one-year and two-year MBA programs. While there’s no denying that business school is intense, there are definite differences in the degree of intensity in each course. The fact that most American programs take two years and European counterparts typically take one to complete makes little difference in the area of rankings, employer preference or even syllabuses. So what are the differences, and how do you know which pace is right for you?

Compressed programs, such as the one-year MBA pioneered by INSEAD 50 years ago, leave little chance to catch up if you fall behind. Classes start at 8:30 a.m. and finish at 7 p.m., even on public holidays. As FT points out, in this format, core courses are largely dispatched in a four-month sprint at the start of the year. Engineers and business graduates certainly have the upper hand with subjects such as statistics or accounting; those without either a quantitative background or business education will have a tough row to hoe.

When it comes to class composition, one-year courses may have more sponsored students who may be older and have more workplace experience. These seasoned students may find discussions of leadership frustrating in classes where few have ever managed other workers.

In terms of what happens in the classroom, the differences are clear, says FT. A one-year program might squeeze a course of 10 three-hour sessions into 16 90-minute slots. Two-year MBAs, such as that at IESE Business School in Spain, thus have time to stick to the Harvard model where every class revolves around a discussion of a business case. This means shorter MBAs do not waste time rehearsing material students can find in textbooks.

According to FT, the critical difference between the two modes of study is off campus. At the heart of the two-year program, in the long summer break between first and second years, is an internship. This summer job on steroids allows students to subsidize their study and try a different career for 12 weeks.

Ask yourself, how crystalized are your professional goals? This can help the decision-making process, as those with a definite goal may appreciate the efficacy of a one-year progam. Conversely, anyone still contemplating several career avenues would probably enjoy the flexibility of a two-year program and the increased opportunities internships provide.

The indecisive might consider the latest intermediate options. London Business School has offered students a 15-month course since 2005. FT points out that this option is popular for would-be entrepreneurs who have found a promising project. Columbia Business School offers a 16-month variation, whereby those who do not want an internship can begin the course in January and study through the summer, beginning the second year in sync with the September intake.

So which program is best? No one can say for sure as nobody takes both paths. However, if you’re looking for Fridays off and a semblance of work-life balance, definitely steer clear of Europe.

David Schmittlein, former Wharton professor and recently appointed dean of MIT Sloan, shared with Financial Times this week a plethora of maverick views regarding management education. “The future of management education is not the future of the MBA,” Schmittlein tells FT, adding, “I would like to be the first North American school that gets this.”

MIT Sloan is one of the top U.S. business schools, offering a small undergraduate program as well as the full-time, one-year Sloan Fellows program aimed at experienced managers. Schmittlein believes there should be an appropriate program for managers at every point in their careers, noting in the article that “We will be driven by growth in the number of programs [we offer], not by a bigger MBA.”

In keeping with tradition across the pond, Sloan’s new dean intends to launch a one-year masters program in management for those who have just finished their undergraduate work. The school has already announced that it will launch a specialized masters degree in finance and more specialized masters may soon appear on the horizon.

Schmittlein tells FT he believes the MBA will form a critical tool for people in their late 20s who want to change careers. With this in mind, the school is reducing the core of the MBA–the first part of the program that all students study together–to a single semester. In doing so, Sloan will be able to offer more focused elective tracks to suit students’ individual needs. Reducing the MBA to a one-year program is not the solution, however, since Schmittlein says an MBA takes two years to earn because people want to accomplish a thoughtful career transition.

Prominent on Schmittlein’s agenda is boosting the school of management’s visibility and making sure the world knows what in particular is great about Sloan. Interdepartmental offerings, such as joint courses with engineering or medicine, is an important area in which MIT Sloan has excelled. “Our graduates are close to graduates from other departments,” Schmittlein tells FT. “The school needs to be relevant to them at different times.” The university’s much-copied MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, in which students from all departments work together on business ideas, is the most noteworthy example of this philosophy.

With about 100 faculty and 400 MBA students, MIT Sloan is less than half the size of Wharton or Harvard. The new dean expects the number of faculty and programs, though not the number of students on the full-time MBA program, to grow. “We’re just above being too small and we’re not close to being too big,” Schmittlein says.

Stay tuned for further examination of one-year vs. two-year programs on Friday.

To hear voices from the frontlines, check out the MIT Sloan student blogs, or Dean Schmittlein’s blog.

Low-impact, zero effluent, fully sustainable. What used to be a fringe obsession has become firmly entrenched in the mainstream, to wit, environmental awareness. At this point, it is hard to imagine folks who haven’t at least heard about issues such as global warming, waste, clean energy, and sustainable resources. The relatively new phenomenon is that big business has found a way to cash in on it.

And if it’s important for business, it’s important for business school. As discussed in Mindy Charski’s recent U.S. News and World Report article, “business schools are reflecting the change in the marketplace by integrating studies of corporate citizenship into their programs.” For example, Stanford GSB offers a course in Environmental Entrepreneurship. HBS has a course called Business and the Environment. As Charski put it, learning how to be ecofriendly is an important skill.

Going green is more than environmental awareness – it can be the next big business concept. For Ron Gonen, the inspiration for Recyclebank came while he was sitting in class at Columbia Business School. Recyclebank seeks to provide homes with a special recycling container housing an embedded microchip. When garbage trucks collect the recycling, they weigh the containers and credit each household’s account points based on the weight of the items they recycled. These points can then be redeemed at merchants such as CVS pharmacies. (see TIME article)

Recent news about business school forays into environmental study is abundant. For example:

1. The University of Pennsylvania joins forces with leaders from US businesses, government and non-governmental organizations to launch a new initiative on business and the environment. The Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL), led by Penn’s Wharton School, will address the environmental issues facing businesses today from academic and policy-oriented perspectives. (see Wharton IGEL and our recent post on the program.)

2. HBS offers new executive education program in China. The program will focus on, among other things, how environmental concerns drive innovation throughout the agribusiness industry. (see HBS EE program)

3. Whitman School of Management helps launch the Sustainable Business Collaboration, designed to “provide insight into the best practices and policies for various sizes of businesses; metrics for sustainable efforts; implementation strategies; and associated long-term benefits to an organization and the community.” (see Sustainable Business Collaboration).

Considering going green? Check out an article on post-MBA employment for green MBAs.