Accepted.com Odds 'N Ends

We have decided to publish this newsletter as a service to our clients and others who register for it on our web site. Accepted.com's Odds 'N Ends will bring you our tip of the month, admissions information for grad, law, MBA, and medical school applicants, and news about Accepted.com.

We also welcome contributions from readers. If you have comments, questions, or perhaps an article idea, please e-mail our editor. We cannot publish everything we receive, but we will try to respond to everyone. And as always, we appreciate feedback.

Index

What's New at Accepted.com
Tip of the Month
Grad Admission News You Can Use
Law Admission News You Can Use
MBA Admission News You Can Use
Medical Admission News You Can Use
Our Services

What's New at Accepted.com

Thank You for Choosing Accepted.com!

Accepted.com has enjoyed its best year ever! Since April 1, 1998, we have served approximately 250 applicants applying for admission to graduate and professional schools in September 1999.

New Sample Essays

New sample essays in the medical and grad sections.

UCLA Pre-Med Presentation Date Change

On April 22, 1999 Accepted.com’s Linda Abraham will give a lecture entitled “How to Write an Outstanding Personal Statement” to the UCLA Pre-Med Society at UCLA’s Kinsey Hall #169. The meeting starts at 6:00 PM and Mrs. Abraham is scheduled to begin her presentation at 7:00 PM.

She will focus on writing the AMCAS essay and would love to meet you if you will be in the vicinity.

Coming Soon — Referral Reward Program

One of our best sources of business has always been word-of-mouth referral. To demonstrate our appreciation, we will be initiating a referral reward program. Details will be announced in an upcoming issue of Odds ‘N Ends.

Coming Soon — Résumé Writing

We know that your need for writing consultants probably won’t end when you are accepted into graduate school.  To continue serving you, we will soon add a professional resume writer to the Accepted.com staff to help you on that all-important job search.

Details will be announced in an upcoming issue of Odds ‘N Ends.

Tip of the Month — What's the Point?

If the reader asks that question after reading your essay, you’re in trouble. The point, or theme, should be the main idea you want the reader to retain after reading your essay. In addition to directing the reader, a theme that you keep uppermost in your mind as you write will guide you by helping you sift the unimportant from the essential material. It should keep you focused on conveying the most important reasons you have for having chose the career that you have.

Before you can benefit from a theme, however, you need to develop one. For some of you, the lucky ones, the theme will be obvious. Others will struggle to develop one. If you belong to the latter group, try using a because statement like those shown in some of the examples below from real law, MBA, medical, and grad school application essays:

My anthropological studies, science classes, research, and clinical experience have prepared me for medical school and a career as a physician.

The Northridge earthquake and volunteer work that resulted from it  confirmed and focused my interest in law.

I want to be a lawyer because I want intellectual stimulation, I love  analyzing ideas, and I would like a career in which I could combine my interest in science and business.

My current job has developed leadership and organizational skills, but to achieve my goal of running my own high-tech concern I need to acquire a business education and larger basket of skills.

I want to study economic geography because I have enjoyed studying the relationship between economics and geographic features, want to further explore the use of high technology in the field, and ultimately to pursue a career as a professor and consultant in economic geography.

Although the examples above are all themes from real personal statements/application essays, not one was included verbatim. They initially just guided the applicants in drafting the essay. With the themes as their guides, the applicants could immediately recognize as extraneous anything that didn't support the theme and throw it out. In ordering the sub-topics, the theme again gave the applicants guidance and helped them to develop their outlines. In those themes with “because” statements, the clauses following the “because” served as the essays' sub-points. In writing your essay, be sure to support the sub-points by including specifics and details that put meat on the body of the essay.

If you are writing about different events in one essay, a paraphrased version of your theme, usually placed at the end of your lead, helps the reader know where the essay is going. As an extra reminder, you may consider also including it in your conclusion so that the reader will know where he or she has been. In both places, the theme serves as the common thread tying together a tapestry of experiences that unifies your essay.

Whether you use a “because” statement or have a different type of theme,   tell one story in your essay or provide a mosaic of experiences, your theme will help you write your essay and aid your readers in gleaning that main idea. And when finished reading your essay, they won't ask, “What's the point?”

Grad Admission News You Can Use

UCLA TA's Join the United Auto Workers

After a sixteen-year battle, UC President Richard Atkinson agreed to honor the 718 to 269 vote of UCLA teaching assistants to affiliate with the UAW. If teaching assistants at the other UC campuses follow UCLA’s lead and affiliate with the UAW, the UAW will represent 9,000 teaching assistants, tutors, and readers in the UC system. So far grad students have joined unions at eighteen other universities. The addition of the prestigious UC system will probably accelerate the trend.

The union plans to push for better health benefits, a more equitable distribution of the teaching load, better grievance procedures, and a waiver of all graduate school fees for TAs.

Law Admissions News You Can Use

Stanford Law has New Dean

Stanford Law School has a new dean, Kathleen Sullivan. Ms. Sullivan is not only the first woman to lead Stanford Law School, but the first woman to head any college at Stanford University. One of the country’s top experts in constitutional law, Ms. Sullivan has been a professor of law at Stanford since 1993.

Minority Applications Down at University of Washington Law

Washington State recently passed the ballot measure known as I-200, which bars public universities from using racial preferences in admissions. This year the number of African-American applicants to the University of Washington Law School has dropped 41%, while the number of Hispanic applicants has dropped 21%. Despite increases in applications nationwide, applications were down overall at the University of Washington.

MBA Admissions News You Can Use

U of Iowa B-School Receives $30 Million Endowment

Business Week Online recently reported that the University of Iowa College of Business Administration has received a pledge for a $30 million gift. Iowa alum Henry B. Tippie did not stipulate how the school should use the money, the fifth largest gift ever given by an individual to a business school.

Iowa’s College of Business, which will become the Henry B. Tippie College of Business, has been a consistently strong regional school. It is possible that the additional funds, which will enable the school to attract top professors, fund scholarships, create exciting educational programs, and build high-tech facilities, could propel Iowa into the ranks of the nationally recognized elite schools. If you do not quite have the background for those very selective top programs, you may want to consider Iowa. For the next couple of years, it may be easier to gain acceptance there, and you could then benefit from the school’s rising reputation when you graduate.

Med Admissions News You Can Use

How to Write an Outstanding AMCAS Essay

Accepted.com is planning a nuts-and-bolts chat on writing the AMCAS essay during the first two weeks of May. Based loosely on my presentation, “How to Write an Outstanding Personal Statement,” the chat is planned for 6:00 PM PDT on May 3, 4, 5, 11, or 12. Please write amcas@accepted.com and let us know which date works best for you.

Accepted.com will post the chat’s time and URL as soon as possible on the Web site and will also announce it in the May issue of Odds ’N Ends.

From Our Mailbox

“I am writing on behalf of my brother, who was not accepted to medical school. In college [he attended a good school and graduated with good grades] he was a philosophy major and was taught to write complex sentences. However, when he reads the essays of students who have been accepted to excellent schools, he realizes the essays are very simple. They basically tell a story. He was wondering how to write an essay that isn’t too difficult to understand for the reader, but also doesn’t lose the message he is attempting to convey.”

Thank you for your thoughtful question. I think your brother is halfway towards writing a good personal statement. He realizes that the good ones “basically tell a story.” That’s what they are supposed to do — tell a story about the writer that is revealing of his personality and values. That is what he should do. He also realizes that reading all complex sentences can detract from his story. He is right. A mixture of sentence structures is much easier and more interesting to read than monotonous passages filled with all complex or all simple sentences.

Finally, your message does not have to be complex, convoluted, or deeply   philosophical. Have a point in mind, (see this month’s Tip of the Month) typically something distinctive about you and important to you. And yes,  keep it simple.

Good luck to your brother!

Our Services

Writing a personal statement is a tough challenge. A former client, an NBC journalist with over twenty years of experience in the field, once said that his personal statement "was the toughest thing I ever had to write." He sought our help. Shouldn't you?

Accepted.com's editors are here to help you write your best essays — eloquent, compelling essays that distinguish you from the competition and transform you from a transcript and test score into a competitive applicant and unique individual.

Check us out. Complete information on our services, including prices, testimonials, and information about our top-notch professional staff, can be found at Essay Help. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at info@accepted.com or 310-392-1734.

We look forward to serving you.