Most business schools left their essays alone this year. Stanford GSB is sticking with their two iconic core essays, what matters most and why Stanford, which have not changed in a couple of decades, plus the same four short essays. Harvard Business School is also playing it cool, keeping last year's trifecta of your mission, your leadership style, and how you grow. Kellogg and Chicago Booth decided to shake things up a bit.

Happy August!

While for some, August is peak vacation time, for me, I am heads down with round 1 applicants working towards September deadlines. However, I always like to pick my head up for a second and reflect on last cycle's admits and how far they have come since this time a year ago.