BusinessWeek released its much awaited biannual, full-time MBA rankings. The rankings showed slight movement: Columbia went from #10 in 06 to #7 in 08. Wharton went from #2 to #4. Kelley climbed from #18 to #15.

Frankly, don't pay too much attention to the absolute ranking or even slight movement. Take advantage of BW's rich, informative database and fantastic resources for applicants. Then choose what's important to you and do your own ranking.

Top 30 U.S. Programs
1 University of Chicago
2 Harvard University
3 Northwestern University (Kellogg)
4 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
5 University of Michigan (Ross)
6 Stanford University
7 Columbia University
8 Duke University (Fuqua)
9 MIT (Sloan)
10 UC Berkeley (Haas)
11 Cornell University (Johnson)
12 Dartmouth (Tuck)
13 NYU (Stern)
14 UCLA (Anderson)
15 Indiana University (Kelley)
16 University of Virginia (Darden)
17 UNC - Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)
18 Southern Methodist (Cox)
19 Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
20 University of Notre Dame (Mendoza)
21 Texas - Austin
22 Brigham Young (Marriott)
23 Emory University (Goizueta)
24 Yale University
25 University of Southern California (Marshall)
26 University of Maryland (Smith)
27 University of Washington (Foster)
28 Washington University (Olin)
29 Georgia Tech
30 Vanderbilt University (Owen)

Top 10 Non-U.S. MBA Programs
1 Queens University
2 IE Business School
3 INSEAD
4 Western Ontario (Ivey)
5 London Business School
6 ESADE
7 IMD
8 Toronto (Rotman)
9 IESE
10 Oxford (Saîd)

BW bases its rankings on employer and student surveys as well as school research output or "intellectual capital."  This year for the first time, in a nod to the economic crisis, it is also including a ranking based on ROI and years to recoup the MBA investment. Not surprisingly, European schools, which tend to be one-year programs, are at the top of the chart. More surprising: HBS ranks 50 out of 50 in this chart. I guess assumptions matter.

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.

"Wall St. meets Campus Commons" could be an alternate title for this post.

Harvard became the latest university to announce the loss of its CitiAssist loan program. Citibank stopped accepting loan applications on Oct. 6 at Harvard.

International students are hardest hit by the ending of this program. It had provided loans to them without requiring a domestic co-signor.  That requirement frequently is a formidable barrier for international students wanting to attend US graduate programs.

CitiAssist has also been canceled at MIT, Michigan, Cornell, and other top graduate programs.

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).

She is a wonderful addition to our already excellent staff.

If you would like to work with Natalie on your application, please register and request her in the comments box.

A lot of great things happening here.

• Accepted Senior Editor Paul Bodine will answer your questions tomorrow Thursday at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/ 5:00 PM GMT. Paul is the author of Great Application Essays for Business School, a practical guide for writing winning MBA application essays. Indeed the focus of the chat tomorrow is great application essays and how you should write them. You aren't sure how to do so? Please join us tomorrow.

• On deck: Wharton Admissions on Monday September 15 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/ 5:00 PM GMT

For a complete schedule of upcoming MBA admissions chats, please click on the link. Better yet, join our MBA Admissions Events mailing list and receive notification of all our MBA events.

Finally, we posted the transcript from the recent 2009 Michigan Ross MBA Admissions Chat with Soojin Kwon Koh. It was a well-attended (100+ applicants) and very informative chat. Lots of questions about Ross' MAP program and action-based learning. I was impressed with how many applicants were asking questions that showed a real knowledge of Ross' program.

A few highlights:

ahembeea (Aug 20, 2008 12:00:27 PM)
Zach and Mike: Hello Ross team, can you please tell us in what ways do the students at Ross co-create their MBA experience, apart from MAP ? How exactly is action based learning a core feature of Ross ?

MikeZarrilliROSS(Aug 20, 2008 12:05:35 PM)
Ahembeea - In response to action based learning, it is at the core of everything you do at the school. For example, in the classroom you are constantly working in teams with your classmates and outside the classroom, there are numerous opportunities to gain real life experience. An example of this in the Wolverine Venture Fund, which invests REAL money in start-up companies. In addition to that, there is the community consulting experience, which pairs teams of students with local non-profits to improve their business.

AbhishekSengupta (Aug 20, 2008 12:12:58 PM)
Soojin: How much of an importance is paid by the school to an applicant's involvement in social bodies and charity organizations? Is one at a disadvantage if one has not been involved in some sort of social work?

SoojinKwonKohROSS (Aug 20, 2008 12:16:12 PM)
Abhishek - extracurricular/community involvement is one of the things we look at. We recognize that in some industries or some countries, outside activities are not the norm or are not possible. What we're trying to understand is what an applicant does with his/her time - what drives him/her, what is he/she interested in and passionate about. That could be work, it could be something outside of work.