Yes! It’s that time of year again:  those shiny and vaguely medieval gowns, tassels, chilled champagne in plastic cups, pictures with family, and the solemn and inspiring words of a business luminary.  Class of 2010 - the light at the end of the tunnel might seem dim at the moment, but you’ll be snacking on cheese cubes and bidding farewell to your business school before you know it…

Here’s a taste of the lineup for this year’s MBA commencement keynotes (the links below will direct you to the commencement speaker announcement):

1.  HBS - Ann Moore, Chairman and CEO of Time Inc.

2.  Wharton - Utah Governor John M. Huntsman, Jr.

3.  UC Berkeley Haas - Mort Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report

4.  Kellogg School of Management - Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric

5. Tepper School of Business (Carnegie Mellon) - Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com

6.  McDonough School of Business (Georgetown) - Kenneth I. Chenault, Chairman and CEO of American Express.

Congratulations class of ‘08!

Since our 2/18 post on the Wharton Business Plan competition (see “Develop Your Inner Entrepreneur“) several other BPCs have proceeded to conclusion. Here are the results to date:

HBS 12th Annual BPC - First Prize ($10K cash + $10K in-kind services) went to teams EyeViewDigital.com and Diagnostics-For-All. EyeViewDigital “enables communication between businesses and customers through cutting-edge video technology,” while Diagnostics-For-All “provides health care agencies and commercial organizations with a new generation of point-of-care tools to address the diagnostic and clinical management needs of the global medical community.”

NYU Stern 9th Annual BPC - Traditional track first prize ($50K cash + $10K in-kind services) went to team Social Bomb, “a game development company which taps into the large amounts of existing social networking data to provide entertainment and reveal unexpected value for players and advertisers.” The social entrepreneurship track first prize ($100K + 10K in-kind support) went to team Naya Jeevan For Kids, “dedicated to providing socioeconomically disadvantaged children in the developing world with affordable access to catastrophic health care,” and The Red Island, which imports and manufactures specialty food products from Madagascar, focusing on importing finished versus raw materials.

Rice BPC - Grand prize valued at over $325K (!!) was awarded to qcue, “a dynamic pricing solution for concert promoters, sports teams, and venues. Its software application transforms existing box offices into electronic markets by implementing elements of airline pricing and NASDAQ trading to provide dynamic pricing based on market conditions, while hosting a secondary market which is seamlessly integrated with the primary market.”

Duke Start-Up Challenge - First place overall and healthtrack winner ($30K) went to Cerene Biomedics, dedicated to developing an “implantable device which delivers localized cooling to the surface of the brain to prevent epileptic seizures.”

Wharton BPC - Grand prize ($20K + $10K in-kind services) was awarded to Solixia, “an early stage radiopharmaceutial company developing products that allow doctors to target radiation specifically to solid tumors.”

Keep an eye out for the results of the MIT 100K Entrepreneurship Competition, which is scheduled to conclude on May 14th.

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. 

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.