Stacy Blackman’s Weekly Roundup of B-School Intelligence

Economy dashes b-school dreams — International students hoping to finance their MBAs at top schools such as Harvard, Wharton, Ross and Cornell through the now-defunct CitiAssist or Sallie Mae financial aid programs face mounting anxieties as no loan program has stepped forward to take their place. (BusinessWeek)

Connecting with customers is key to survival — Last week’s Kellogg Marketing Conference hit home the hard fact that firms need to not just listen to their consumers, but to engage and connect with them on a deeper, more meaningful level if they hope to survive the economic downturn. Getting too cozy with consumers can have its down side, though. Case in point: when green-minded members of the public seeded Chevy’s video website with anti-truck videos, causing some serious damage to Chevy’s image.

Slew of profs go to Washington — The Harvard Crimson is reporting on the departure of two more faculty members set to vacate their posts at Harvard to join the Obama administration. Economics professor Jeremy C. Stein and Kennedy School professor Jeffrey B. Liebman will join a growing list of Harvard intellectuals headed for the nation’s capital.

“Glass ceiling and sticky floor remain in place,” says Cherie Blair –  The civil rights lawyer and wife of the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke Monday night at the annual Weatherspoon Lecture at Kenan-Flagler Business School on the state of working women today. When it comes to the driving force in economic history, it’s not China, Brazil or India, Blair said, using the term “womanomics” to describe women’s relationship to the economy.

Georgetown panel offers solutions to crisis — The Financial Times and the McDonough School of Business co-sponsored “A Panel Discussion on the Economic Crisis and Global Challenges” for Georgetown students earlier in the week. Overall, the panelists expressed optimism about getting out of the current recession–not depression. “As soon as we recover, we need to tell people to stop spending like mad and start saving like mad,”  said William Gale, director of the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution.

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For a concise, thoughtful guide that will help you navigate the MBA admissions process with greater success, order our NEW book, The MBA Application Roadmap.

This week’s GMAT challenge from PrepForTests.com is a problem solving question.

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

While half of America tunes in to see whether the Steelers or the Cardinals brings home the trophy this coming Sunday, MBA students and faculty at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management will be scrutinizing Super Bowl XLIII for another reason: For the fifth consecutive year, marketing students will watch, analyze and grade each advertisement during the game for Kellogg’s Super Bowl Advertising Review.

The tanking economy should make the job especially interesting, as advertisers scramble to create enough buzz to favorably impact their companies’ bottom lines. During the Review, marketing faculty and students from the Kellogg Marketing Club rate the advertisements on a series of academic criteria and develop a final ranking of the most – and least – successful advertisers.

Using Kellogg-developed criteria known as ADPLAN, the students will attempt to quantify each spot’s Attention, Distinction, Positioning, Linkage, Amplification and Net equity. How will advertisers perform during this era of economic hardship? Will consumer uncertainty force advertisers to alter their game a bit? What makes a strong Super Bowl ad during a recession?

Professors Tim Calkins and Derek Rucker will lead the Review and have been blogging about Super Bowl advertising in the lead up to the main event. Check out Calkins’ posts on the pressures facing Super Bowl ad superstar Anheuser-Busch, and on Hyundai’s chances of swaying luxury car buyers to their new Genesis model.

Some food for thought to accompany the beer and nachos on game day.

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We are now on Facebook – please join the Stacy Blackman Consulting group, or become a friend of Stacy Blackman. I am posting news about MBA related events, job listings, and of course MBA news.

I am on Twitter too…click to follow me on Twitter! www.twitter.com/stacyblackman

For a concise, thoughtful guide that will help you navigate the MBA admissions process with greater success, order our NEW book, The MBA Application Roadmap.

Every Wednesday, Jeremy Dann contributes to our BNET B-School blog, usually interviewing very interesting professors and reporting on cutting edge theories, research and programs.   This week it was Chris Erickson, the faculty director of a new glogal program at UCLA.  If you are interested in learning more about what is really happening inside top MBA programs, this is a great weekly post to watch out for.  It’s useful to prospective MBAs trying to understand what various programs can offer, and to anyone in business who is interested in learning more…that should be most of us, right?

Check out this week’s interview with Chris Erickson, and last week’s with Paul Marshall of Harvard.

Leadership coach Ed Batista from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business had an insightful post last week on three things you probably won’t learn in b-school. With a major assist from his colleague Corey Ford, former GSB student and a fellow and lecturer at the Stanford Institute of Design, Batista shares some key lessons most students learn only after they graduate.

• Business school will help you get from point B to point Z. Finding out where to get started is up to you…and not something you should hope to figure out once you’re already in business school.

• Spending two years surrounded by MBAs can leave you unprepared for interacting in the real world once you’re on the job. Make sure all of the traits honed in b-school–competitiveness, drive, leadership skills–don’t leave other, non-MBA stakeholders in the dust or feeling sidelined as you lead the charge.

• Many MBAs are surprisingly risk-averse.  By avoiding failure like the plague, Batista says you create a ceiling over your accomplishments. And we all know the greater the risk, the greater the reward.

Check out Batista’s complete post, which comes with nifty graphics, too. What would you add to his list of things you probably won’t learn in business school?

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We are now on Facebook – please join the Stacy Blackman Consulting group, or become a friend of Stacy Blackman. I am posting news about MBA related events, job listings, and of course MBA news.

I am on Twitter too…click to follow me on Twitter! www.twitter.com/stacyblackman

For a concise, thoughtful guide that will help you navigate the MBA admissions process with greater success, order our NEW book, The MBA Application Roadmap.

If you were a Round 1 applicant this season, over the last few weeks you may have received great news, upsetting news or a mix of both – otherwise known as placement on the waitlist. First of all, the waitlist is great feedback. It means that you are qualified to attend the program, and that the school was interested in your application and your profile. Unfortunately, it was a competitive year and they couldn’t offer you a solid place in the class. If you’re like Omne, the waitlist is still a tough place to be.

Will I get in?
There is almost no way to know if you will be admitted off the waitlist. It certainly does happen, often, yet you have little information about the ranking of the waitlist, how many people are on the waitlist, or whether the school will reach the yield they are looking for with regular applicants. Therefore, being on the waitlist means a certain comfort with ambiguity. Hopefully you were admitted to another school and can decide whether to remain in limbo or not.

Should I stay on the waitlist?
The decision to stay on the waitlist depends on your interest level in the MBA program you have been waitlisted for. If it is your top choice, you may be willing to remain on the list until school begins, especially if you are willing to move quickly and give up a deposit on a school that has offered you firm admission.

If the waitlisting program is not your first choice, or you would like to settle your MBA plans before school starts, you may choose to remove your name from the list. It is a great service to another applicant if you do so promptly, allowing someone else a chance at their MBA dream.

Can I improve my chances of admission from the waitlist?
You may be able to improve your chances. The number one rule of waitlists is to follow directions. The school provided you with instructions about how to handle the waitlist process, and you must follow these directions to avoid having a negative impact on your standing with the admissions committee. If the school tells you that no additional materials are required, no additional materials are required, and you should not submit any under any circumstances. Wharton’s waitlist policies, for example, are posted clearly on the adcom blog UCLA outlines waitlist policies on their website as well.

If the MBA program does provide the option of submitting additional materials, apply consistent application strategy to the task. The adcomm may welcome letters of recommendation, improved GMAT scores or additional essays/letters from you. Carefully consider your strengths and weaknesses and what may be most beneficial in your situation.

Letter/Essay
If you have recently been promoted at work, have accomplished a personal goal, or have completed an academic class with a strong grade, it may be worth writing a letter to update the admissions committee with your news. Try to keep your essay or letter factual, and do not repeat information that was already included in your original application.

Recommendations
A supplemental recommendation may add information about you to strengthen your position on the waitlist. If you have been involved in an extracurricular activity, know someone associated with the school, or can use a letter to strengthen a part of your application, the letter may be the right direction to proceed in. Make sure your additional recommendation is brief, focused and adds significant additional information to your overall profile.

GMAT scores/Transcripts
Factual information like improved GMAT scores or transcripts from successful business related classes could go a long way towards bolstering your chances.

While the waitlist may be frustrating, it’s a positive indication for your application and you may be fortunate enough to receive final admission from your chosen program. Good luck!