Blogs are a great source for inside information about MBA programs, the MBA application process, and the life of MBA students. Through the process reading about different applicants and students' experiences you can get a much better idea about the reality of the application process and what it is like to be in an MBA program.
Below I discuss English and Japanese language blogs because those are the ones I am familiar with.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE BLOGS
A good first stop for MBA students blogs would certainly be the League of MBA Bloggers. The League has blogs from students studying worldwide.
The Clear Admit Admissions wiki is also a great way to find English language student blogs. Clear Admit posts about blogging in its Fridays from the Frontline series.
Businessweek has a dedicated MBA blog section, see http://www.mbablogs.businessweek.com/home/moreFaces.htm for the complete list, but this is a rather small selection compared to what you can find via the League or Clear Admit.
日本語 BLOGS
Regarding Japanese student blogs, given the limitations of my reading abilities, I have only read a few of them using Google translator.
The two I follow most closely are:
MIT MBA留学日記
Most recently, Kaz1204, who is beginning his studies at MIT Sloan has written at great length about his application process. He discusses his MBA application process and his new life at MIT at MIT MBA留学日記 (warning he says good things about me). You can find out about his application experience as well as that of other applicants at こうすれば受かるMBA 2007.
Tatsuya "Tats" Ishihara 's Blog.
Another blog that I have been following is that of Rotary Scholar Tatsuya "Tats" Ishihara, who is now in his second year at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. Filled with photos, I think Tat's blog is a great source of visual information. Anyone with a strong interest in applying to McCombs would be well served by looking at it. Tats is also featured on page 40 and 41 in the 2007-2008 Texas MBA Viewbook. You can find all the Japanese student blogs at McCombs here.
You can find a huge listing of Japanese language blogs at MBA blog Portal, but since the listing does not include the Class of 2008, I don't think it has been updated for a while. I will update this post if I can find a more up-to-date list. You can read Japanese Tuck student blogs here.
Do you have any blogs that you think I should mention? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
MBA留学
