Quite a bit, according to an open letter published last week by Ryan Allis ’14 as he reflected on his first semester for the Harvard Business School Class of 2015 pre-matriculation blog.  Like any top-tier MBA program, HBS students learn finance, marketing, operations and the like. But Allis says he’s taken away much more than that over the last four months.

For example, Harvard Business School:

• Teaches you a deeply analytical thinking process critical to making high quality decisions and becoming a transformational leader.
• Enables you to build a team or find a team of superstars to go after any big world challenge that you wish.
• Gives you constant psychological reinforcement and mentors that enable you to refine and then actually execute on your dreams to make a difference.

In just one semester, Allis says his thinking process and decision-making ability has been refined, because “HBS teaches you to see one problem from ninety angles–equal to the number of classmates in your first year section with whom you’ll take each class and form meaningful lifelong bonds.”

Also, HBS changes the caliber of the people in your life as you build lifelong ties with highly competent people who want to make a big difference in the world. Allis adds that this greatly expands the frontier of opportunities available to you and your ability to find leverage points to influence the world.

Thirdly, Allis believes Harvard Business School can help you use your life to make a bigger difference in the world. ”Whether or not you already have your life dreams mapped out,” Allis says, “HBS provides the landscape for wide-ranging exploration and reflection and the support to go in any direction you wish.”

Finally, this first-year student is amazed at the psychological value and self-fulfilling prophecy of being around people who assume you’re going to do something special in the world.  “If you crave the combination of an inspiring environment with access to the people who can help you do anything you set your mind to,” says Allis, “You’ll love your time at HBS.”

Today marks the official kick-off of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare. With that in mind, we’re checking in with some of the entrepreneurial activities going on at business schools these days.

Students at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management spent this past weekend hunkered down as they looked for ways to turn their ideas for new startup companies into reality. Known as 3 Day Startup, the goal is for participants to start a technology company over the course of three days.

According to participant Nick Fishman, the best element of this type of event is you really get your hands dirty.

“You can read about entrepreneurship all day, but if you actually dedicate time to try and build something — even if it does not succeed — you are already attempting and getting into the entrepreneurial spirit, which is the difference between talk and action.”

Babson College, a leading MBA program for entrepreneurship, is participating in Global Entrepreneurship Week with a series of forums, summits, workshops and other activities.

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School is celebrating the initiative through Innovate@Carolina, a $125 million project aimed at making UNC a leading institution in the field. The business school will host discussion panels and lectures to help familiarize students with the university’s entrepreneurship resources and the significance of innovation.

Meanwhile, Harvard Business School got a jump on things with its 2012 Startup Scramble in late September. Here, the most entrepreneurial students across Harvard’s campus worked on prototyping new projects and ventures (from low-tech to high-tech, for- or non-profit), were immersed in rapid skill-building sessions (business modeling, legal, finance, and technology), and exchanged startup war stories.

As more and more students head to business school with the goal of eventually starting their own business—out of nearly 226,000 GMAT exams taken in 2012 in which test takers selected an intended concentration, more than 12,000 indicated Entrepreneurship—it’s been great to see programs targeted for budding entrepreneurs flourish.

Most people would agree that an entrepreneur needs to know the same basic skills as someone running a more established company. Business schools teach the skills that can help entrepreneurs make sound decisions and avoid expensive mistakes.

I encourage readers who are interested in the subject to click over to UV Darden School of Business‘s Dean Bob Bruner’s blog, where he wrote a great piece on the merits of an MBA degree for prospective entrepreneurs.

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

‘Tis the season for interviews! This is the most unpredictable portion of the MBA application process, since every interviewer is different. The same interviewer may even react differently depending on his or her mood that day. For the lucky round one MBA applicants who have been invited to interview by their target business schools, here are several tips for preparing and guidance on what to expect.

The role of the interview varies by program, so if possible, reach out to your network of current or former students at the school for an insider perspective. Most MBA programs will offer the option to interview on campus or with a local alumni volunteer. You should make your decision based on your personal needs, rather than on the basis of how it may look to the admissions committee.

If you have the time and resources to visit the school, you’ll have a great opportunity to meet current students and attend classes. However, if an on-campus interview coincides with a big quarterly meeting at your job, the additional stress would likely make the experience far less beneficial, so it’s probably better to interview with a local volunteer. No matter which option you choose, the admissions committee uses the same metrics to evaluate your performance.

The first step in preparing for your interview is to review your applications. A few weeks have probably passed since you hit the submit button, so you’ll need to return to the MBA applicant mindset by reviewing your overall application strategy. If your interview is “blind”—meaning the interviewer hasn’t seen any of your application materials—this review will help you remember what aspects of your background you want to highlight.

At some MBA programs, such as Harvard Business School, the interviewer will have already reviewed your application and will tailor his or her questions specifically to help the admissions committee learn more about you.

The second step in your interview prep is to review some typical questions. Many candidates post their experiences online in boards, forums, and blog posts.

Once you have a list of likely questions in hand, you can use those questions to practice. Being concise, focused, and enthusiastic is your goal, and knowing what talking points you want and need to share will help. Write out short bullet points to outline what you would say in response to your practice questions.

When I was at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University meeting on-campus recruiters for a summer internship, I learned about an interview technique called the STAR method. I consider it one of the most useful frameworks for effectively answering interview questions.

For those unfamiliar with this technique, STAR stands for situation, task, action, and result. The STAR technique can be applied when asked “situational” questions, such as: “Tell me about a time you failed;” “Tell me about a time you came up with an innovative solution;” “Tell me about a time you managed a difficult project;” and “Tell me about a time you led a team.”

The power of the STAR method is that it allows you to formulate a very complete answer, but it keeps your answer organized and prevents you from rambling on and on—a common occurrence in interviews.

Here’s one example of how you can organize your notes:

Situation: “Product A was losing market share to a new competitor.”

Task: “I needed to create a plan to regain our lost share.”

Action: “I led a team to implement tactics A, B, and C.”

Result: “We regained lost share, plus 10 percent.”

And then you stop.

Often, the interviewer will probe further, asking for very specific details related to your story. You need to be prepared to elaborate, but just start with the basic elements of your story. STAR will help you get there.

Once you know what you need to say, the only thing left to do is to practice. Enlist the help of family and friends, and ask them to provide constructive feedback. After you have undergone several mock interviews, you will feel more relaxed and be able to focus on connecting with your interviewer and demonstrating your enthusiasm for the school.

If time permits, think of a few interesting questions to ask the interviewer at the end of the conversation. Alumni interviewers will enjoy reminiscing about their experiences, and will especially like any questions about clubs or activities they were part of. Current students can provide a great perspective on what they wish they had known, or the most interesting aspect of their MBA experience.

Now that you have done your interview homework, the final step is simply to relax and enjoy the process.

In her latest update to the Harvard Business School MBA admissions blog, Director Dee Leopold explained what happens today for Round 1 applicants waiting anxiously for news of their status. To recap, potential candidates can expect to receive either an invitation to interview,  placement on the waitlist, or be released.

For those who received an email notification today with interview details, congratulations! However, if you were not successful in your R1 application to Harvard, you should know that while the blow certainly stings, it truly is better to know now so that you may refocus your energies on your other target schools and perhaps the next round deadlines.

While placement on the waitlist can be frustrating, or even feel like a disappointment, we think applicants should really pay close attention to how Leopold explains the process, and the odds. The waitlist is where promising candidates end up when there has been an array of outstanding applicants in a particular round, and yes, this is good news, because it means you’re still in the running!

At Harvard Business School, placement on the waitlist means the admissions committee wants to re-review your candidacy after they see Round 2  applications. In the best case, you would be invited to interview on the R2 timetable; otherwise, the school will inform you of your release in mid-February.

“We anticipate that approximately 100 Round 1 applicants will be asked to join the waitlist on October 24,” Leopold says, later explaining that, “Last year, we interviewed 48 Round 1 candidates who were placed on this early waitlist before interview and admitted 24 of them.”

Those odds may be longer than you’d like, but for a top-notch MBA program, many applicants are happy to take their chances.

For more on this topic, read our post from the spring with advice for accepted, waitlisted and denied MBA applicants.

The case method approach has come under increased scrutiny of late. Established by Harvard Business School more than a century ago, it is still widely used at top MBA programs worldwide.  Harvard relies on the case method for approximately 80 percent of its instruction, and students at Darden School of Business are exposed to more than 500 cases in a variety of industries and functions during their time at the UVA MBA program.

By definition, case studies are authentic business or management scenarios that present executives with a problem or uncertain outcome. The case lays out the situation in the context of the players, events and issues that influence it, and enables students to identify closely with those involved. The next step is to perform the necessary analysis—examining the causes and considering alternative courses of actions to come to a set of recommendations.

If the case method approach is so useful, why doesn’t every top business school embrace it wholeheartedly?  In an article that created quite a buzz in management education when first published, Harvard Business School professor James Heskett pointed to concerns that the case method is too time-consuming, ill-suited to teaching quantitative techniques, and based on the idea that there’s no right or wrong answer—only some that are better than others.

Columbia Business School uses cases about 40 percent of the time, and in a recent interview with MBA Channel, Vice Dean Amir Ziv explains where he thinks the approach succeeds, and where the criticism is valid. For Ziv, the obvious advantage is that the case represents a real-life situation and forces students to solve it.

“The second big advantage,” he adds, “Is that a case draws on everyone’s experience. If you have 60 students and everyone has four years of work experience that is many more total years than what I have myself. In the case method everyone benefits from the shared experiences of everyone else in the class.”

As for the downsides, Ziv agrees that sometimes the problem is efficiency. “In order to teach two plus two, I don’t need a case—I can teach that in a lecture, which is less time-consuming,” he says.

Another big problem: most cases are already too complete. When handed a 30-page analysis, students already have everything they need to know and don’t need to do any additional research. “That is artificial and doesn’t allow students to think what additional information they might need and how to get it,” Ziv notes.

In order to deliver a good case analysis you need lots of preparation from your students, Ziv adds. “If people are stressed or tired or do not prioritize academics, they don’t prepare, it shows, and all the benefits of the case method are absent.”

Columbia has come up with an alternative method called the decision brief that teach students to handle tough, real-world issues by providing them with incomplete data that forces them to become resourceful, and hence, better decision-makers.

“In one case we hand out two emails and one picture. You have to figure out what the issue is, who on the team should work on what, and what other information you need,” Ziv explains. “That’s how we overcome the weakness of the case method: by giving our students incomplete and unstructured information.”

The case method approach is considered a proven winner because it brings the subject to life, brings business back to reality, and allows you to benefit from the professional experiences of a diverse group of classmates. But judging by the interview with Ziv, and other media stories on the issue, this method may not be for everyone.

Are you applying to school that relies heavily on the case method approach? Or, are you looking for an MBA program with a broader teaching style that combines lecture and experiential learning? We’d love to hear feedback from our readers on the usefulness of this teaching approach, so please leave us a comment with your opinion below.

Don’t try to stand out, do make sure you understand—and are excited about—the case method approach to learning, and stay curious are three of the main pieces of advice Harvard Business School’s Dee Leopold offers applicants in a recent post on her director’s blog.

While some candidates may feel deflated after reading her remarks, fearing they might have to switch strategies mid-stream, Leopold’s tips benefit anyone applying to Harvard and other case method-based MBA programs.

Tip #1

“Try to resist the urge to make “standing out” your primary goal in the admissions process. If you have made traditional choices all along (college, extra-curriculars, major field of study, jobs), own it. You’ll look silly if you try to portray yourself as a rogue daredevil. There are plenty of people at HBS who come from traditional backgrounds.”

I would add that excellence comes in many different packages, and sometimes small examples can brilliantly illustrate your distinctive contributions. Avoid any attempt to manufacture a memorable impression and instead focus on relaying with enthusiasm your own unique accomplishments and interests. You’re not being asked to talk about yourself for any other reason than to help a school learn why you made the choices you did. What those choices were is hardly relevant.

Tip #2

“Do your homework about the case method. It’s our signature pedagogy and it is nothing like traditional academia. Watch Inside the Case Method on our website and ask yourself if you find this method of learning intriguing and exciting. If it’s not for you, choose another school now vs. later.”

The Case Method approach is a proven winner because it brings the subject to life, brings business back to reality, and allows you to benefit from the professional experiences of a diverse group of classmates. However, this method may not be for everyone.  Other top programs, such as Chicago Booth School of Business, Kellogg School of Management, Yale School of Management and more rely on a broader mix of teaching methods.

Tip #3

“Stay curious. It’s so easy to stay “heads down” during the application process and become so introspective that you lose sight of the larger world. Keep reading. Keep listening. We’re looking for people who can dig into a case about a company they have never heard of, in an industry they don’t think they care about – and be 100% engaged.”

I like to remind applicants to stay connected to the bigger picture – remember what this process is all about.  Ultimately it is not about submitting a set of essays.  It is not even about getting in to X school.  It is about your future, your career, creating opportunities for yourself.  Tap into all the things in life that inspire you; this will help you to make things happen.