photo courtesy of Indiana University

Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business has announced that Idalene “Idie” Kesner will head the school as its next dean, pending approval by the IU Board of Trustees.

Kesner, who becomes the first woman to lead the business school, has served as interim dean since October 2012. She succeeds Dan Smith, who left after a seven-year tenure as dean to become president of the IU Foundation.

She joined the Kelley School faculty in 1995, coming from a titled faculty position at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“Being selected as the dean of the Kelley School is an honor of a lifetime for me,” Kesner said. “As a graduate of the school, I can say with certainty that the successes I have had throughout my career are attributable to the great education and countless opportunities afforded to me by the Kelley School and its alumni network of nearly 100,000 living alums.”

Kesner received both her MBA and Ph.D. in business administration from IU; her doctorate was awarded in 1983. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Southern Methodist University in 1979. Kesner has repeatedly been recognized for her teaching, winning 24 teaching awards during her career. Most recently, in 2012, she won a teaching award from Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, which has a joint MBA Program with the Kelley School.

She has taught in more than 100 executive programs and served as a consultant for many different national and international firms working on strategic issues. Her research has focused on the areas of corporate board of directors, chief executive succession, corporate governance, and mergers and acquisitions.

“Many of the school’s most prestigious programs, such as our full-time MBA program and department of management entrepreneurship, have Idie’s clear imprint on them, and her passion for IU and the Kelley School are unmatched,” said Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie in a statement announcing the news.

“I am confident that, under her leadership, the Kelley School will build on the outstanding legacy left by former dean and current IU Foundation President Dan Smith and continue to be home to some of the finest business educators, scholars and students anywhere.”

The Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley has released the application deadlines for the 2013-2014 MBA admissions cycle.  The three round deadlines are:

Round 1

Deadline: October 16, 2013

Notification: January 15, 2014

Round 2

Deadline: January 8, 2014

Notification: March 26, 2014

Round 3

Deadline: March 12, 2014

Notification: May 15, 2014

The new fall 2014 application will be available in August. For more information, visit the UC Berkeley Haas School admissions website.

The University of Michigan Ross School of Business has posted the MBA application deadlines for the 2013-2014 admissions cycle. This year’s deadlines are as follows:

Round 1

Deadline: October 1, 2013

Notification: December 20, 2013

Round 2

Deadline: January 2, 2014

Notification: March 14, 2014

Round 3

Deadline: March 3, 2014

Notification: May 15, 2014

International applicants are strongly encouraged to apply in the first or second round, and all applications are due at 11:59 p.m. EST on the day of the deadline. For more information, visit the University of Michigan Ross School of Business admissions website.

This post originally appeared on Stacy’s “Strictly Business” MBA blog on U.S.News.com

As a prospective MBA, you’ll benefit enormously from taking time at the beginning of your application process to contemplate the path you’re about to take. This is a great time to ask yourself critical questions, as self-evaluation and reflection are crucial to any MBA application journey. Setting aside some time for heavy thinking before you start writing your essays will prepare you for a solid and strategic application.

Question 1: What are your career goals? As you contemplate applying to MBA programs, the very first step in your self-evaluation process is to consider where you want to be in your career. Ask yourself what you would do if you didn’t need to work for money and what your core values are.

If your career goals are not immediately revealed, ask your friends and family what they see you doing. This process should reveal good ideas and a spark of passion for your career path.

If you are in a field where MBAs are not traditionally required, you may still benefit if your career goals include rising to senior management within your company or starting your own company. As a first step, look around at the people you most admire and want to be like within your target company or industry. Read their bios to see their skill set and educational background.

Talking to people who are pursuing your target career, at any level, is also a great way to understand what you need to do to accomplish your goals.

Question 2: Why do you want an MBA? While an MBA is a great experience, ultimately it’s a tool to advance your professional aims. The degree is highly focused on practical business applications, not intellectual curiosity.

Preferably when you answer the question of your career goals it will be clear why an MBA is the right degree for you. If your career path doesn’t immediately reveal the need for an MBA, yet you know you want one, you may want to delve into your motivations.

Consider your expectations for the degree and critically evaluate whether your hopes match the reality of an MBA program. If you know current MBA students or alumni, sounding them out first is a great way to start your research and make sure you are committed to the MBA application process.

Question 3: Is an MBA the right degree for you? Evaluating your professional goals might reveal that a different type of graduate degree would be useful.

Those interested in finance might also consider a master’s in finance, which typically prepares students more specifically for a career in corporate finance, financial analysis or investment management. That degree may prepare you to be the chief financial officer of a company, but may not be the ideal degree for a general manager or CEO.

If you’re interested in public policy work or managing in the nonprofit sector, you might look into a law degree, a master’s in public policy or master’s in public administration. On top of those options, you could pursue a joint J.D./MBA or a joint M.P.P./MBA or M.P.A./MBA.

While any one of these degrees can help you achieve your goals, you may want to consider the environment of each school, the academic focus, the time you will spend pursuing the degree and what works best for you personally.

Question 4: Are you competitive in the MBA applicant pool? As you think about entering an MBA program, you should be aware of the competitive pool of candidates who apply every year. Evaluate yourself against successful candidates to the schools you are considering.

The easiest first step is to see what the mean GMAT and GPA is for a successful applicant to your target programs.

If your “numbers” are much lower than the mean at your dream schools, you may want to consider taking classes to build an alternative transcript or retaking the GMAT. While no candidate is perfect, minimizing any red flags in your application will ensure that you have a strong chance at admission.

As if worrying about your GMAT scores, essay prompts and letters of recommendation wasn’t enough, more and more business schools are incorporating assessments in emotional intelligence quotient, or EQ, for incoming applicants.

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions, and according to Melissa Korn‘s recent article in the Wall Street Journal, looking at EQ is “the latest attempt by business schools to identify future stars.”

Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business has been posing a 206-item online questionnaire called the Personal Characteristics Inventory since 2010, which screens them for traits such as teamwork and leadership abilities that the school has found in its most successful students and graduates, the WSJ reports.

Andrew Sama, senior associate director of M.B.A. admissions at Mendoza, notes that companies select for top talent with these types of assessments, adding “If we are selecting for future business leaders, why shouldn’t we be [using] similar tools?”

Meanwhile, the Yale School of Management plans to try out the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test on volunteers from the current crop of applicants in the coming weeks. Bruce DelMonico, assistant dean and director of M.B.A. admissions, tells WSJ that for now, the school is merely in the process of gathering data on what traits predict success, so the results of the online self-assessment won’t affect admission decisions.

Admissions Director Dawna Clarke of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth tells the WSJ she’s still searching for a test that accurately and consistently measures EQ, but notes that the school asks people who recommend a student to score the applicant on their ability to cope with pressure, intellectual curiosity and other traits.

While the inclusion of EQ assessments in MBA admissions decisions may strike fear in the heart of some applicants, others—perhaps those with lighter resumes—will find relief in being valued for their competencies in this area.

Wondering how to get the most out of your MBA experience? If you are a soon-to-be member of the MBA class of 2015, you may not be sure of how to best prepare for what comes next.

I’ve got seven tips for you, which I’ve laid out in an article posted this week in Wharton Magazine, published by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Follow the link above to check it out, and remember, getting in isn’t the end goal. It’s just the beginning!