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
Subscriptions Top 1,000!
Accepted.com Odds ’N Ends started accepting subscriptions on October 11,
1998. Less than six months later it had over 1000 subscribers, and today that number is
rapidly approaching 1100 subscribers. Thank you for your support!
AMCAS Essay Chat
Pre-meds! Linda Abraham will be leading a chat on writing your AMCAS essay on May 3 at
6:00 PM PDT. This chat will consist of an introduction where Linda will provide invaluable
tips on writing this critical essay, followed by a question-and-answer period. We look
forward to "talking" to you then.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.accepted.com/medical/chat.htm
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 — Resume
Writing
We know that your need for writing consultants probably won’t end when you are
accepted into graduate school. In the coming weeks, Accepted.com will add a professional
resume writer to its talented staff to help you on that all-important job search. Look for
details in the next issue of Odds ’N Ends.
Tip of the
Month — A Dozen Questions
to Get Your Juices Flowing
Some applicants have a really tough time choosing their essay’s topic. Inability
to focus can be a real stumbling block. Therefore, this month’s tip deals with
choosing your topic.
Before you examine the specific questions, however, remember the golden rule of
choosing an essay topic: Focus on what is most important to you and distinctive about you.
Asking yourself the following questions will help you discern possible topics. Then
when you review the answers, keep the golden rule in mind and your options will become
even clearer.
- What experiences convinced you that you want to be a doctor (lawyer, consultant,
entrepreneur, etc.)?
- What talents and passion will you bring to your chosen field?
- Have you worked with or known anyone whom you consider to be a mentor or career role
model? If so, what is the most important quality you saw in him or her? What did you learn
most from him or her?
- What volunteer positions have you had that have reinforced your career decision?
- What kind of work experience do you have that is relevant to your career goal?
- Have you done any research? Been published? Earned a patent?
- Why did you choose your major?
- Do you have any liabilities academically that you need to address?
- Have you held any leadership positions in college or another organization that helped
prepare you for graduate school?
- What do you like to do for recreation?
- Have you traveled? Where?
- Have you participated in other community service activities?
Once you have completed this exercise, streamline your list of potential essay themes
by focusing on the few questions where you really felt you had a lot to say. Then, start
writing!
Grad
Admission News You Can Use
Faculty Salaries are Up
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the faculty members’ average salary
increased 3.6% in 1998 – 99, more than double the rate of inflation. Faculty members
at doctoral institutions received raises averaging 4.2%, the highest among different
faculty categories. Professors at comprehensive colleges, those awarding master’s and
bachelor’s degrees, received only a 2.6% increase on average, the lowest of any
faculty category.
While these increases are the highest since 1990-91, they have not reduced the gap
between academe and professionals outside the ivory tower. The report’s author, Linda
A. Bell, noted that faculty members earn about 30% less than the typical, highly educated
professional in engineering or law does. She also noted that the salary gap between highly
paid professors at private doctoral universities and faculty members at less prestigious
institutions has increased over time.
Non-Academic Careers for PH.Ds in the Humanities
Partially as a result of the gap reported in the previous item, academics are trying to
develop niches for themselves "within and beyond the academy." The Woodrow
Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has three grant programs with a total budget of
$100,000 designed to prepare Ph.D. candidates in the humanities to use their skills in a
non-academic setting.
The Chronicle of Higher Education interviewed Dr. Robert Wiesbuch, head of the
foundation and a former English professor, who feels that it is critical for academics to
have alternatives outside academe if they want to command higher salaries within it. Many
others in graduate education, including Dr. Elaine C. Sowalter, professor of English at
Princeton and former president of the Modern Language Association, and Kevin G. Boyer,
executive director of the National Association of Graduate – Professional Students,
support Dr. Wiesbuch’s efforts to broaden the opportunities available to Ph.D.s in
the humanities.
Law
Admissions News You Can Use
Admissions Help from LSAS ... Really
Newton is going high-tech. Big time. The people who torment you with games, analogies, and
the LSAT have developed a product that will actually make it easier for you to find
admissions information. Complete with GPA/LSAT statistics, tuition information, and a
searchable database, the LSA CD, available on CD or on the Web, will make it easier for
you to apply. Containing application forms from 181 ABA-approved U.S. law schools, the LSA
CD enables you to fill in the common information once on the program’s Common Form
and then print out your designated schools’ application forms using your printer. No
repetitive filling in of data required.
The CD costs US$59; the Web version costs $49. You can check it out at
http://www.lsas.org/lsacd.htm
MBA
Admissions News You Can Use
Stanford GSB has New Dean
The Stanford University Graduate School of Business has named Robert Joss, former CEO and
management director of Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp and a former Treasury
Department official, as its new dean. Joss, who received his MBA and Ph.D. from Stanford,
also served as Vice-Chairman of Wells Fargo.
What's Hot for MBAs?
Investment bankers and consultants, move over. The entrepreneurs are coming.
Entrepreneurship and the Internet are the two hottest areas for graduating MBAs today.
And their appeal is not unrelated. On one hand, the Internet is exploding and presenting
entrepreneurial opportunities unimaginable when graduates applied to B-school. On the
other hand, seasoned, professional, managerial talent is in short supply at the start-ups
that populate the Internet economy.
So what will Internet companies pay for MBA graduates from top schools? The Industry
Standard, an Internet economy magazine, asked three leading recruitment experts to value
the degree, experience, and resumes of twenty MBA graduates from leading schools. The
estimated base salary averaged $94,556, with the top recruit commanding a compensation
package of $133,889. These figures do not include signing bonuses or options.
The B-schools are responding to the changing demands of our economy. BusinessWeek
Online reports that as a result of student demand, the University of Chicago has increased
openings in its entrepreneurship classes by 40%. At least 90% of the HBS Class of 1998
took at least one class on starting a business.
Many schools are doing far more than increasing class offerings or size; they are
actually assisting students in launching their businesses. Business plan competitions are
common at top schools. For example, MIT’s Entrepreneurship Competition awards a
$50,000 prize to the winning team. For most participants, the competition’s value
stems from the experience of submitting a business plan to dangle in front of investors,
venture capitalists and other business people. A few schools, like Babson, the University
of Michigan Business School, and Columbia have actually established venture capital funds
for investing in student-run start-ups.
Med
Admissions News You Can Use
Stanford Medical School Criticized for Inadequate Facilities
The AMA Web site reported that the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the accrediting
agency for medical schools, nearly placed Stanford University School of Medicine on
probation. Citing Stanford’s antiquated classrooms, lecture halls, labs and computer
systems along with its "deplorable" library – lacking bathrooms and air
conditioning, LCME issued "a blistering critique" of the facilities’
condition. A LCME official said Stanford avoided probation by only one vote.
Stanford is currently pursuing a four-year, multimillion dollar refurbishing that it
believes will address the criticisms contained in the report.
AMSA Grades Primary Care Education
Which schools have the highest percentage of graduates pursuing residencies in family
practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, and pediatric internal medicine? The AMSA
Foundation took that information and compiled a Primary Care Score Card, published in the
April issue of The New Physician. Morehouse School of Medicine ranked first, with 75% of
its graduates going into primary care residencies.
The Primary Care Top Ten
- Morehouse School of Medicine
- Univ. of Minnesota — Duluth
- Wright State Univ.
- Univ. of Illinois — Rockford
- Univ. of Missouri — Kansas City
- Univ. of Nebraska
- Univ. of Massachusetts
- Mercer Univ.
- Univ. of Hawaii
- Univ. of New Mexico
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.aspx.
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