A companion student exit survey, the 2013 Global Management Education Graduate Survey, shows that similar to last year, six in 10 business school graduates already had job offers in February or March. The annual employer and graduate surveys, looking at the current employment outlook from both sides of the market, were released Tuesday by GMAC.

graphic courtesy of GMAC

The 2013 Corporate Recruiters Survey of 935 employers around the world finds 75 percent plan to hire MBAs, up from 71 percent that hired MBAs in 2012. The proportion of employers planning to hire other types of business school graduates is up from last year for master in management, master of accounting, master of finance, as well as other specialized business master’s.

Both surveys show a healthier job market for business school graduates from five years ago, when just 50 percent of corporate recruiters planned to hire MBAs and 43 percent of class of 2009 graduates surveyed had early job offers.

“These results positively answer many of the primary questions MBA candidates ask about the opportunities an MBA degree may present to them, by not only confirming the value of the MBA degree in today’s dynamic job market, but also clearly illustrating the industries in which it might currently best be leveraged,” says Mark Peterson, president of the MBA Career Services Council.

The good news is that the GMAT does not demand any knowledge of advanced mathematics: trigonometry or calculus or beyond.  GMAT Math only covers up to about the level of ordinary Algebra Two and basic Statistics.  The challenging part, though, is that the GMAT is not satisfied if you can merely regurgitate math factoids back at it.  Rather, the GMAT wants you actually to know the mathematics and be able to reason mathematically.  What do I mean?

Many folks think if they know the GMAT formulas, then they know GMAT math.  Even the GMAT OG has a “Math Review” in which it lists all possible math factoid tested.  Are the contents of that OG’s “Math Review” identical to the mathematics you need to know?  Not quite.  The factoids themselves are not math, just as isolated pieces of vocabulary do not constitute fluency in another language.  Mathematics is using those factoids, exploiting their logical interconnections, and employing them ingeniously as tools for problem-solving.  The best GMAT books will begin to give you this latter perspective on math.

Relatedly, stop wondering whether you can use a calculator on the GMAT. You can’t. Folks who don’t understand what math is think that a calculator “does math” for them.  No.  Instead, when you don’t have a calculator, you are forced to think mathematically.  For example, you might use the information about a number’s prime factors to figure out by what one of its powers is divisible. Not having a calculator makes more relevant the divisibility patterns, estimation, and calculation shortcuts like the doubling & halving trick.  In fact, whenever you think a GMAT Quant problem is asking you to do a gigantic calculation, you inevitably are overlooking some particularly elegant simplification.

You don’t need to be a math genius to do well on the GMAT Quant section.  Furthermore, despite whatever GMAT-IQ correlation there may be, you don’t need to be in the elite IQ region in order to get an elite GMAT score.  You just need to work hard.  You need to follow a thorough and well-founded GMAT study plan.  You need to use excellent GMAT prep resources.  You need to put in hours of practice.  Math is not a spectator sport: you learn it only by doing it.  You need to learn to see patterns, and use these patterns in problem-solving.   You need to practice, make mistakes, read solutions & explanations, and learn consistently from your mistakes.   This assiduous work, and nothing less, is your passport to GMAT math.

This post was written by Mike McGarry, resident GMAT expert at Magoosh. For more advice on taking the GMAT, check out Magoosh’s GMAT blog.

INSEAD has posted the deadlines for the September 2014 intake. The three deadlines are:

Round 1
Deadline: October 2, 2013
Interview Decision Notification: November 8, 2013
Final Decision Notification: December 20, 2013

Round 2
Deadline: November 27, 2014
Interview Decision Notification: January 10, 2014
Final Decision Notification: February 21, 2014

Round 3
Deadline: March 5, 2014
Interview Decision Notification: April 11, 2014
Final Decision Notification: May 23, 2014

Applicants should note that competition for each round is relatively equal regardless of the intake or round you apply for. INSEAD reviews the pool of applications submitted within each round independently, keeping the “offer ratio” (percentage of candidates accepted vs. applications received) fairly constant across all rounds.

All applications must be submitted by midnight Central European Time on the day of the deadline.

Columbia Business School

Short Answer Question
What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (100 characters maximum)

Essay 1

Given your individual background, why are you pursuing a Columbia MBA at this time? (Maximum 500 words)

Essay 2

Columbia Business School is located in the heart of the world’s business capital – Manhattan. How do you anticipate that New York City will impact your experience at Columbia? (Maximum 250 words)

Please view the videos below:

 New York City – limitless possibilities

 New York City – fast paced and adaptable

Essay 3

What will the people in your Cluster be pleasantly surprised to learn about you? (Maximum 250 words)

Optional Essay

An optional third essay will allow you to discuss any issues that do not fall within the purview of the required essays.

For more information, please visit Columbia Business School’s admissions website.

Round 1

Deadline: October 1, 2013

Notification: December 17, 2013

Round 2

Deadline: January 7, 2014

Notification: March 25, 2014

Round 3

Deadline: March 27, 2014

Notification: May 6, 2014

The two deadlines for the MBA/MA–Lauder Program are:

Round 1

Deadline: October 1, 2013

Notification: December 17, 2013

Round 2

Deadline: January 7, 2014

Notification: March 25, 2014

To be considered for a round, you must submit a complete application by 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on the day of the deadline. Applications received after the deadline for Round 1 or 2 are rolled to the next round. No applications for Round 3 will be accepted after the deadline.

For more information, visit Wharton School’s admissions website.

photo courtesy of Indiana University

Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business has announced that Idalene “Idie” Kesner will head the school as its next dean, pending approval by the IU Board of Trustees.

Kesner, who becomes the first woman to lead the business school, has served as interim dean since October 2012. She succeeds Dan Smith, who left after a seven-year tenure as dean to become president of the IU Foundation.

She joined the Kelley School faculty in 1995, coming from a titled faculty position at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“Being selected as the dean of the Kelley School is an honor of a lifetime for me,” Kesner said. “As a graduate of the school, I can say with certainty that the successes I have had throughout my career are attributable to the great education and countless opportunities afforded to me by the Kelley School and its alumni network of nearly 100,000 living alums.”

Kesner received both her MBA and Ph.D. in business administration from IU; her doctorate was awarded in 1983. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Southern Methodist University in 1979. Kesner has repeatedly been recognized for her teaching, winning 24 teaching awards during her career. Most recently, in 2012, she won a teaching award from Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, which has a joint MBA Program with the Kelley School.

She has taught in more than 100 executive programs and served as a consultant for many different national and international firms working on strategic issues. Her research has focused on the areas of corporate board of directors, chief executive succession, corporate governance, and mergers and acquisitions.

“Many of the school’s most prestigious programs, such as our full-time MBA program and department of management entrepreneurship, have Idie’s clear imprint on them, and her passion for IU and the Kelley School are unmatched,” said Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie in a statement announcing the news.

“I am confident that, under her leadership, the Kelley School will build on the outstanding legacy left by former dean and current IU Foundation President Dan Smith and continue to be home to some of the finest business educators, scholars and students anywhere.”