The mbaMission Podcast

Send us your admissions questions! Artificial intelligence (AI) is the current focus of Harvard Business School’s online and executive education programs. In Episode 127 of The mbaMission Podcast , host Harold Simansky is joined by Patrick Mullane, executive director of Harvard Business School (HBS) Online and Executive Education, and Simeen Mohsen, senior managing director of HBS Online, for a co...

Send us your admissions questions! In Episode 126 of The mbaMission Podcast , mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky and Founder Jeremy Shinewald welcome back Jim Caruso, chief innovation officer at Elevate and a graduate of the Michigan Ross Online MBA program, for a conversation about artificial intelligence (AI) and the future of MBA careers. Jim teaches AI at Montclair State University a...

Send us your admissions questions! In Episode 125 of The mbaMission Podcast , mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky and Founder Jeremy Shinewald take on the most frustrating part of the MBA admissions process: the waitlist. Harold and Jeremy explain why schools use waitlists, what your odds look like, and the deliberate steps you can take while you wait — from retaking the GMAT and taking q...

Send us your admissions questions! How do you extend your research on a business school beyond its website? By having authentic conversations with the people who know it best. In Episode 124 of The mbaMission Podcast , mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky and Founder Jeremy Shinewald break down how applicants should connect with their target schools and with those schools’ students and alu...

Send us your admissions questions! Why would an experienced entrepreneur and product leader decide to attend business school—and choose an online MBA program? In Episode 123 of The mbaMission Podcast , mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky and Founder Jeremy Shinewald speak with Jim Caruso, chief innovation officer at Elevate and a graduate of the Michigan Ross Online MBA program. Jim expla...

Send us your admissions questions! Which MBA candidates should choose the MIT Sloan Fellows MBA over a traditional two-year MBA or executive MBA program? In Episode 122 of The mbaMission Podcast, mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky speaks with Ricardo Heredia, a biotech scientist, life sciences investor, and recent MIT Sloan Fellows MBA graduate. Ricardo explains how the immersive, 12-mon...

Send us your admissions questions! The Johnson Cornell Tech MBA offers an accelerated path for professionals who know they want to work where business and technology intersect. In Episode 121 of The mbaMission Podcast , mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky and Managing Director Gavriella Semaya welcome Corey Laffel Solon, Gavi’s classmate in the inaugural Johnson Cornell Tech MBA cohort an...

Send us your admissions questions! Which admissions test should you take? Can you overcome a lower GPA? How should reapplicants choose their recommenders, and how much clarity do business schools expect applicants to have about their career goals? In Episode 120 of The mbaMission Podcast, mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky and Managing Director Gavriella Semaya explain how candidates fro...

Send us your admissions questions! In this episode, mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky and Founder Jeremy Shinewald speak with Shari Hubert, associate dean of admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, about MBA career outcomes and the school’s approach to long-term professional development. Shari explains that Fuqua’s Career Management Center assists students with increas...

Send us your admissions questions! The perfect MBA program to get you closer to your goals might be outside the top ten. In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , host Harold Simansky, mbaMission Founder Jeremy Shinewald, and Managing Director Gavriella Semaya discuss how applicants can build a more appropriate list of target MBA programs by looking beyond the top tiers of the rankings. Their co...

Send us your admissions questions! Can Harvard Business School (HBS) Online’s Core Business Essentials program help MBA applicants prove they are ready for the classroom? In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky and Managing Director Gavriella Semaya speak with Simeen Mohsen, senior managing director of HBS Online, about the program’s origins, struct...

Send us your admissions questions! What does Team Fuqua mean for Duke MBA students once they arrive on campus? In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky and Founder Jeremy Shinewald continue their conversation with Shari Hubert, associate dean of admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. This time, they move beyond admissions to explor...

Send us your admissions questions! In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky and Managing Director Gavriella Semaya discuss how MBA candidates can use AI responsibly when preparing their applications, without losing their unique voice. They explain that AI detectors are unreliable, offer guidance on responding to schools’ AI disclosure questions, and...

Send us your admissions questions! What does Duke Fuqua’s admissions team want candidates to understand before they start working on their application to the school’s MBA program? In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky and Founder Jeremy Shinewald speak with Shari Hubert, associate dean of admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, a...

Send us your admissions questions! Is an MBA still worth the investment in 2026? What about in the years ahead? In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky, Founder Jeremy Shinewald, and Managing Director Gavriella Semaya discuss the MBA’s return on investment, AI, hiring headlines, scholarship opportunities, and the long-term value of business school....

Send us your admissions questions! What does starting a company during business school really demand beyond a strong idea? In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , host Harold Simansky and Gatehouse Founder Liza Weale sit down with GrowthFactor CEO and MIT Sloan alumnus Clyde Anderson for a candid conversation about the Sloan experience, entrepreneurship, and school fit. Clyde explains how he m...

Send us your admissions questions! How do MBA admissions consultants help their clients beyond editing their essays? In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , host Harold Simansky sits down with two highly experienced admissions consultants, mbaMission Managing Director Rachel Beck and Gatehouse Admissions Founder Liza Weale, for a candid, inside look at what MBA consulting entails. The conversa...

Send us your admissions questions! The old deal with work is broken. Leaders today are looking for a way to get their company’s culture back, but an expert in the consulting space argues that rather than returning to old ways, we should be reinventing work from scratch. In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , mbaMission Founder Jeremy Shinewald and Executive Director Jessica Shklar sit down wi...

Send us your admissions questions! In this episode, listeners learn how to optimize the formatting of their resume, strategically handle issues with their transcript, and make their short-answer responses effective. Host and mbaMission Founder Jeremy Shinewald talks with Executive Director Jessica Shklar and Managing Director Rachel Beck about how admissions committees evaluate applicants’ profess...

Send us your admissions questions! What is the case method, and how does it work at Harvard Business School (HBS)? Plus, what should MBA applicants know before they enroll? In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , host Harold Simansky and mbaMission Executive Director Jessica Shklar sit down with HBS professor Joshua Margolis—a member of the program’s Organizational Behavior Unit and a faculty...

Send us your admissions questions! Is real estate a feasible career path for MBA students? And how can one break into the industry? In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , host Harold Simansky and mbaMission Founder Jeremy Shinewald speak with Frank Cohen, a Boston-based real estate developer, co-founder of Sheridan Road Properties, former senior director at Tishman Speyer, and a Kellogg MBA,...

Send us your admissions questions! Are any MBA applicants truly “nontraditional” applicants? In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , Harold Simansky is joined by Jeremy Shinewald, the founder of mbaMission, to examine a common notion in MBA admissions: that of the “nontraditional” applicant. Drawing on more than two decades of experience, Jeremy argues that applicants should not focus on wheth...

Send us your admissions questions! What role do informal letters of recommendation play in business school admissions decisions?  Host Harold Simansky is joined by Melissa Blakeslee, an experienced MBA admissions consultant and former admissions director, to clarify what these endorsements are and why most programs discourage them. In this episode, Melissa shares firsthand insight into how admissi...

Send us your admissions questions! How can MBA applicants and business school students network effectively? In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , host Harold Simansky and Jessica Shklar, mbaMission Executive Director, speak with Jeff Yolen, CEO and founder of Career Connector, about how to network effectively to advance your career. Jeff explains why cold applications so rarely lead to offer...

Send us your admissions questions! How do you figure out what your post-MBA career goals should be when you only know you want change but do not yet understand what that change entails? In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast , Harold Simansky speaks with Melissa Blakeslee, an mbaMission Senior Admissions Consultant, and Rachel Beck, an mbaMission Managing Director, about how business school app...