Written by Sameer Kamat

Cambridge University has an 800-year-old legacy that includes a huge list of Nobel prize winners, prime ministers, actors, writers and other famous alumni who have excelled in their fields. Within that awe-inspiring context, the Cambridge MBA is relatively new. But it has carved a niche for itself among the MBA rankings that are dominated by bschools that have been in existence for much longer.

When all the discussion forums were abuzz with paranoid MBA aspirants wondering how the recent changes to the UK work permit & visa rules would impact their post MBA career prospects, the Cambridge MBA added another feather to its cap. An impressive 97% of the graduating class had jobs in hand within 3 months of completing the program. And the cherry on the cake – over 50% of Cambridge MBA graduates switched careers (either industry, role or geography) and 29% managed to change all three.

Sameer Kamat (founder of MBA Crystal Ball) caught up with Conrad Chua – Admissions Director Judge Business School (University of Cambridge) to talk about some typical and other not-so-typical questions, including the big one – How easy or difficult is it to get a job in the UK after an MBA?

Written by Sameer Kamat

In our MBA profile evaluation analysis (i.e. MBA MAP), INSEAD MBA ends up as a Strech or Ambitious school for most. Rather than sugarcoat our findings, we say it like it is. And for those who’ve had the INSEAD MBA program as their top choice, it can be devastating.
Till we explain to them what those ratings mean and how they can improve their chances.
Praveen Kumar was one such candidate who decided to use the minor blow (during the simulation) as an opportunity to learn and improve. He’s currently pursuing his INSEAD MBA and he writes this post from Paris (France).

Written by Sameer Kamat

The MIT Sloan MBA offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one of the best MBA programs on the planet. The MIT brand has a formidable reputation across the world. In MBA rankings, the MIT Sloan MBA ranks not just in the general category but also across specialty rankings for finance, entrepreneurship, Supply Chain / Logistics, Production / Operations, Information Systems. If you check out the statistics for the class profile, you’ll find high average GMAT scores (710) and classmates who have done some solid work in their pre-MBA careers. The graduating class gets an average salary of around $120,000.
Sameer Kamat (founder of MBA Crystal Ball) interviewed Jeffrey Carbone – Associate Director – Admissions, MIT Sloan School of Management.
Read on to delve deeper into what the MIT Sloan MBA has to offer, gets tips on how to tackle the Sloan MBA essays, interviews, and many other topics.

Written by Sameer Kamat

The Georgetown MBA in Washington D.C. is a top ranking program with a diverse class profile. With an average GMAT score of 683, the student age range falls between 22 and 45. Over 30% of the students come from outside the U.S. For the current class the business school admissions team received over 1500 applications and enrolled only 250, making it one of the toughest and most selective programs in the world.
Sameer Kamat, founder of MBA Crystal Ball, caught up with Interim Assistant Dean and Director, Katelyn Rosa Stephenson to find out more about the program.
Katelyn has been associated with Georgetown since March 2008. Before that she was responsible for undergraduate admissions at The George Washington University.

Written by Sameer Kamat

Vijay Govindarajan, Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, is one of the most influential business thinkers of our times (number 3 on the Thinkers 50 ranking). His ideas on innovation and strategy have gained worldwide recognition and respect. Reverse innovation – his most recent contribution to the world of strategy and innovation – has been hailed by Harvard Business Review as one of the top 10 ideas of the decade.
Sameer Kamat, founder of MBA Crystal Ball, caught up with Vijay Govindarajan (VG) to find out more about his book on reverse innovation.

Written by Sameer Kamat

The Carey MBA (ASU) offered by the W.P. Carey Schools of Business (Arizona State University) has strong ties with the industry, specially when it comes to Supply Chain Management (SCM). The W.P. Carey Company Networking Night (CNN) is a great way for students to rub shoulders with their prospective employers. On the official website, you’ll find stories of how students have got used the CNN opportunity to land interships and post MBA jobs.

Written by Sameer Kamat

Pagalguy.com published an FAQ series written by yours truly for pagal guys (or puys, as the forum readers are known). It covered many basic questions that come up in the minds of applicants who have just begun their research on the best international MBA programs across the world. Titled ‘The Mother of all International MBA FAQs’ each Pagalguy MBA abroad post covered common questions related to a specific topic – GMAT preparation, MBA financing, MBA essays, MBA interviews, MBA recommendations and many more.

Written by Sameer Kamat

In an interview with MBA Crystal Ball, MBA admissions consultant Paul Bodine shares some tips on how to tackle MBA applications and get into the top business schools.
Paul is also the author of several popular books: The Perfect Phrases series (Perfect Phrases for business school, law school and medical school acceptance), Great Applications for Business Schools.

Written by Sameer Kamat

Entrepreneurship as a career figures high on the preferences of many. Compared to regular corporate jobs, the nice warm feeling of knowing that you’ll get your monthy salary is absent, but there’s a whole lot more to compensate for that. Freedom, flexibility and a tremendous sense of job satisfaction.
Tepper MBA Vikram Narayan is the founder of BookBuzzr, which provides authors with a unique online marketing platform for their books. An extremely down-to-earth guy, with no airs about the success that he has managed to achieve, Vikram shares with us his entrepreneurial journey that started from Carnegie Mellon University and has brought him back to India. During the phone interview, I picked up quite a few ideas from him.

Read his views and suggestions on bootstrapping a startup. Inspiring!

Written by Sameer Kamat

The Richard Ivey School of Business in Canada offers something special for international MBA candidates that many of top schools in the US and Europe can’t – the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program. This allows MBA students to convert their study visa into a work-permit immediately after completing their program. This allows an additional 1 year to stay back in Canada. That’s a huge psychological advantage.
We recently caught up with the Associate Director of MBA Recruiting and Admissions at the Ivey MBA, Jenni Denniston and Julia Michienzi, Communications Officer. Instead of the regular questions about the MBA applications, essays, interviews and the case study approach that Ivey MBA is well-known for, we thought we should focus on 2 other aspects that may be more important for international MBA students – financing the MBA program (including scholarships) and getting post MBA jobs in Canada after graduation.