Although this week everyone seems a little preoccupied -- Thanksgiving, recession, the transition in US administrations -- the MBA admissions world stands still for no one and nothing.

For Round 2+ Applicants

• Admissions directors advise again and again, that good applications require time and reflection and time and rewriting. Now is the time to move forward with your Round 2 applications. Time is a key spice for great essays, and it will rapidly disappear if you are applying to several schools in January. Take advantage of Accepted's November special on MBA admissions consulting and editing: $100 off any order of $2000 or more placed on or before Nov. 30. Buy now and receive expert editing and mentoring. Wait until Monday --  the discount and the long weekend are both gone. (Use coupon code SAVE100 during checkout.)
• Thanks to all the MBA telethon participants. It was our best telethon ever.

For Round 1 Applicants

I previously declared November "International MBA Interview Month," and the world took notice.

• Interview feedback is flowing into the MBA Interview Feedback Database. Check it out before you interview, and please share your interview experience after you do so.
• It's a 10! Contest: Provide your interview feedback and you'll be automatically eligible for valuable prizes - http://www.accepted.com/mba/contest.aspx.
• We are receiving more and more requests for MBA interview preparation.
• MBA I.V.: MBA Interview Questions & Tips, Maxx Duffy's and my ebook containing interview tips and questions organized by school, is 20% off through Nov. 30.
• MBA applicants are signing up in droves for our popular free e-course "MBA Interview Prep."
• The Wharton MBA Interview Chat is online.
• Fellow AIGAC members have also provided excellent interview tips:
  • Clear Admit has a thoughtful post on what to ask the interviewer. I would also like to suggest that you google your interviewer, if you know who it will be ahead of time, or look her up on LinkedIn. A little info may help you connect.
  • MBAMission examines the pros and cons of on-campus and off-campus interviews. I completely agree with MBAMission's conclusion "If time and funds are not at issue, candidates should elect to travel to campus, as they can “kill two birds with one stone” — they can experience and evaluate a target program that is within their reach, all the while revealing their personal interest to the program itself."

For all MBA Applicants

• The MBA Tour is sponsoring a Photo Essay contest that runs from now until Feb. 10. The photo essay should present your view of the future of global business. Lots of great prizes.
• HBS takes a critical look at the MBA degree in "Harvard Business School Discusses Future of the MBA." Other than a slight overdose of "rah-rah Harvard," it is a thoughtful piece.

First, congratulate yourself! You have made it through one colossal hurdle. For most schools that interview, the MBA admissions interview invitation means the written part of your application was strong enough to take you to the next stage. (There is a small subset of schools that interview candidates on the bubble. You should find out in which group you fall by reviewing your invitation, contacting the admissions office, students, or alumni, or participating in Accepted.com chats.)

Next, take a deep breath. Regardless of the category into which you fall, you need to relax. Anxiety will not help you in the interview or for your next step in the process: interview preparation.

You must prepare, prepare, prepare. Get to know your resume inside and out. Review each detail and ask yourself the question, "What would not have happened, had I not been a member of (fill in the blank) organization?" Ask it again and again and quantify your results. Did you increase revenue? Decrease costs? Increase Efficiency? Decrease cycle-time? Increase market share? 

Review the Accepted.com website for MBA interview tips, its interview e-course, and its MBA interview feedback database. Check out MBA I.V.: Mainline to Top MBA Programs -- MBA Interview Questions and Tips in the Accepted.com bookstore.

Read the school's website, speak with students, alumni, and faculty. Think about your desire to attend that school and why you would be a proud alumna of that program.

Create 3-4 examples for common questions on leadership, team experiences, and goals. Use the StAR (state your example, describe the action, and quantify your results) method to direct your answers.

If you need personal assistance, Accepted is always here to help. You are welcome to register with one of my colleagues or me for a mock interview or other interview services.  

Finally, don't forget to schedule your interview. The admissions committee will never get to know how truly wonderful you are unless you schedule that interview.

By Natalie Grinblatt, Accepted Editor and former Director of Admissions at the Ross, Johnson, and Carey MBA Programs.

This is an Accepted MBA Admissions News summary:

• Accepted will host the UC Berkeley Haas chat tomorrow Wednesday October 29 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/5:00 PM GMT. Peter Johnson, Haas' Director of Admissions, will be the special guest, joined by one or two current Haas students. The chat will take place in Accepted's chat room. Please feel free to join us.
• We just posted the transcript from last week's two chats. First the MIT Sloan chat with Angel Navedo and Barry Reckley, both Assistant Directors of MBA Admissions at Sloan. An excerpt:

DAV (Oct 23, 2008 12:13:28 PM)
Barry: How stringently do you hold to the criteria that experiences discussed in essays need to fit within the last three years (for example, a 4-year project that only has its last year fit within the 3-year window)?

BarryReckleyMIT (Oct 23, 2008 12:15:27 PM)
Dav: we're flexible, your situation sound reasonable within the time limits.

Sean Mahoney (Oct 23, 2008 12:13:39 PM)
Hi, Angel. We met at an information session MIT had last month. Thank you for that. I was hoping to get some more information about the guaranteed loan Citi gives all students. How much is the loan for (tuition only/ board/food/mortgage etc.)?  Also, do these loans get used for the trips MIT alumni have told us they took during the program?

AngelNavedoMIT (Oct 23, 2008 12:16:03 PM)
Hello Sean. I hope the presentation was helpful. Regarding the Citibank loan, we will no longer be offering that loan next year. As I wrote earlier, US students have plenty of excellent options and we are working hard to find suitable options for our international students.

Linda Abraham (Oct 23, 2008 12:17:20 PM)
Angel, is MIT Sloan able to expand its number of grants for students having trouble obtaining loans?

AngelNavedoMIT (Oct 23, 2008 12:19:18 PM)
Hi Linda! This past year we doubled the number of fellowships available to incoming students, so there will definitely be more money available in terms of fellowships than in the past.

• We have also posted the recent October 23 Consortium chat with Jackie Olden of the Consortium and representatives from Marshall, CMU Tepper, U of Wisconsin at Madison, Emory, Simon, McCombs, Darden, Yale SOM, and NYU Ster.  An excerpt:

Linda Abraham (Oct 23, 2008 7:06:26 PM)
Is the absence of the CitiAssist program and the overall tightening of credit affecting your schools and applicants? What should applicants be doing now to prepare themselves to apply this year?

LinwoodHarrisCMU (Oct 23, 2008 7:07:51 PM)
No! Several are concerned, but I don't think it is affecting us.

ErinNickelsburgWISCONSIN (Oct 23, 2008 7:07:59 PM)
In regards to tightening of credit - it is not affecting our applicants and we don't anticipate that it will.

JosuePortilloNYU (Oct 23, 2008 7:08:18 PM)
Linda, CitiAssist loans are still coming in with no problems at NYU.

KelleeScottUSC (Oct 23, 2008 7:09:59 PM)
Linda, no loan issues at USC.

RodrigoMaltaTEXAS (Oct 23, 2008 7:10:16 PM)
Linda, no loan issues at Texas either, so far so good.

• The Consultant's Guide to MBA Admission -- updated for the 2009 application season and with a complete set of sample HBS essays for this year's application -- is now 20% off. But just until Friday Oct. 31.
• Now is the perfect time to start your Round 2 applications. Now,  when those deadlines are two months -- not two weeks -- away you have the time to work methodically through several applications and improve them as you go. And we are going to help you get started. Save $100 off any MBA admissions order of US$2000 or more. Enter "SAVE100" at checkout to receive the discount. 
• This year's MBA interview feedback is starting to come in. We already have 2009 responses for Kellogg and Duke. Please check out the MBA Admissions Interview Feedback Database for recent feedback from all schools and share your interview experience after you interview. 

It is with great pleasure that I welcome Natalie Grinblatt to Accepted's staff. Natalie previously served as:

• Assistant Dean at Arizona State University's W P Carey School of Management.
• Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Cornell's Johnson School
• Director of MBA Student Affairs and Enrollment Management at the University of Michigan (where she also earned her MBA).

Thanks to Google Alerts, I stumbled across the following forum post by someone with the pseudonym "Balance":

Shell Shocked

---

My worst fears were confirmed to me on Monday when, after seeking advice from a confidant within the school‘s administration and teaching faculty, I realized that I should withdraw from law school. And so yesterday morning, I did.

I don’t want to get into specifics. Long story short, I misrepresented myself with respect to my criminal record on my application for admission to the school, and in doing so, sacrificed the integrity of the admissions process. I also sacrificed my own personal integrity. I was desperate to get accepted, and that desperation eventually contributed to me making a very foolish and regrettable decision.

My life, my future, has been turned upside down and there’s no one to blame but myself. I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to the people who love me. I don’t know where to begin. I spent 22 years trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do in this life, and I thought I’d finally found it; I excelled in law school. I thought I found it.

I don’t know why I’m posting this. I think I just need to tell someone, or anyone, about this epic fail of mine. Looking for some kind of catharsis that I won't find.

When applying to the school back in '05, I lied by omission in regards to a felony conviction from '00. Even though the final disposition was and is sealed, I was still obliged to disclose the facts of the case in my application for admission. My school never caught the omission, so I could theoretically just keep my mouth shut and hope the Florida Bar doesn't notice my deception. I could also continue living feeling like a liar and hurt a fledgling school that's tying to build a solid reputation for itself. I'm not going to do that.