The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University has updated its website with the application deadlines for the Class of 2012. Stay tuned for additional information regarding the essay questions for this season as well as an announcement of when the application will be available online.

The deadlines are:

Early Action
Deadline: October 6, 2009
Notification: November 24, 2009

Round 1
Deadline: November 12, 2009
Notification: January 19, 2010

Round 2
Deadline: January 7, 2010
Notification: March 8, 2010

Round 3
Deadline: March 9, 2010
Notification: April 22, 2010

Please note that The Duke MBA Early Action round option is for applicants who have completed their MBA research and have decided that The Duke MBA is the best program for them. Any applications submitted to other schools must be withdrawn upon an offer of admission from The Duke MBA.

*
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.

The Yale School of Management Community Blog has just been updated with the 2009-2010 application deadlines and essay questions. For anyone hoping to get a jump on their application, review the pertinent information below. Yale SOM will be posting a summer/fall recruiting schedule shortly and the application itself should be live in early August.

Application Deadlines

Round 1: October 8, 2009 (decisions due by December 18, 2009)
Round 2: January 7, 2010 (decisions due by April 2, 2010)
Round 3: March 10, 2010 (decisions due by May 7, 2010)

Essay Questions

Short Answers

Please answer each of the four questions below with a short paragraph of no more than 150 words. This is an opportunity to distill your core ideas, values, goals and motivations into a set of snapshots that help tell us who you are, where you are headed, and why. (600 words maximum)

1. What are your professional goals immediately after you receive your MBA?

2. What are your long-term career aspirations?

3. Why are you choosing to pursue an MBA and why now? (If you plan to use your MBA experience to make a significant change in the field or nature of your career, please tell us what you have done to prepare for this transition.)

4. What attracts you specifically to the Yale School of Management’s MBA program?

Personal Statement 1
Describe an accomplishment that exhibits your leadership style. The description should include evidence of your leadership skills, the actions you took, and the impact you had on your organization. (500 words maximum)

Personal Statement 2
Choose one of the following topics and answer it in essay form. Please indicate the topic number at the beginning of your essay. (500 words maximum)

1. A central premise of our teaching about leadership at the Yale School of Management is that true leadership—leadership that helps to address a significant problem in a new way—is necessarily personal. It is only when personal passion aligns with meaningful aspirations that individuals are able to inspire others to act in support of an important goal or cause. What are you most passionate about, and how have you demonstrated a commitment to this passion?

2. What achievement are you most proud of and why?

3. What is the most difficult feedback you have received from another person or the most significant weakness you have perceived in yourself? What steps have you taken to address it and how will business school contribute to this process?

4. Describe a situation in which you devised and implemented a creative or unique solution to a difficult problem. What obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them?

5. Required for reapplicants: What steps have you taken to improve your candidacy since your last application?

Additional Information (Optional)

If any aspect of your candidacy needs further explanation, please provide any additional information that you would like the Admissions Committee to consider. (250 words maximum)

*
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.

Whether your summer plans include lounging at the beach or holding down a job or internship, taking time off to read can offer perspective and insight beyond the classroom experience.

With that in mind, Business Week asked professors and students at top business schools to share the five books they’d put at the top of their personal summer reading lists. Titles ranged from the classic novel to contemporary nonfiction, but when read together create an encyclopedia of leadership, Francesca Di Meglio reports.

“Reading will make you a better businessperson and a better, happier person,” Erik Gordon, associate director of the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, tells Di Meglio. “Students don’t want to hear it. They want to know the magical formula that will get them rich tomorrow, but we have a duty to try and convince them.”

See the complete list of recommended titles at  “Summer 2009 Books: MBA Reading List” on Business Week’s Getting In blog.

(Beach reading image by Flickr user Scissorhands33, CC 2.0)

*
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.

The Moscow School of Management Skolkovo will take in its first batch of full-time MBA students in January, and dean Wilfried Vanhonacker says that within the next 20 years he hopes to make Skolkovo one of the top schools in the world.

According to Ben Aris‘ recent piece in Business News Europe, Vanhonacker is the man to do it: he already set up China’s first business school CEIBS (China Europe International Business School) over a decade ago, which is now one of the world’s 10 best schools as ranked by Financial Times last year.

A top-notch business school in Russia is badly needed, Aris reports. A recent study by consultants McKinsey found that up to 80% of the gap between the US’ productivity and Russia’s was simply due to poor management. Virtually all of Russia’s top companies complain that the lack of good managers is the single biggest impediment to business.

Skolkovo will become fully operational at the start of next year when the first 45 full-time students enroll for the €50,000 MBA course. Just last week, the school announced its core faculty team. Learn more about this international group of instructors here.

“We call the program an MBA, but the product is unique and it needs explaining. It is not a typical MBA for the typical applicant,” says Vanhonacker. “We are looking for a more entrepreneurial type of person with energy and the desire to make a difference, as you need these qualities in the fast moving emerging markets.”

How is Skolkovo different?

Rather than stay on campus and pour over case studies, students will spend the first 12 months of the 16-month course on five projects that throw them into the real world. Their “exercises” are to solve real world problems in real world companies.

Also, Aris writes that the directness of the school’s approach is also reflected in its marketing campaign. Skolkovo is looking for unusual students; the school does not advertise in the mainstream international press (apart from a few ads in the Financial Times) and spends most of its time looking for students through social networking sites and similar forums on the internet.

Much of what the school is proposing to do is a pretty radical experiment in new teaching methods, Aris reports, noting that given Vanhonacker’s track record, established schools are keen to see if Skolkovo’s formula will prove successful. “We are being closely watched by other schools, especially in the US, as we are doing things they would like to do but can’t,” says Vanhonacker.