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Odds 'N Ends
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Index
What's New at Accepted.com
Essay Tip of the Month
Resume 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
New
This Month
We are inaugurating a new, regular feature in Odds
'N Ends: Resume Tip Of The Month.
Upcoming
Chats
"Five Common Med School Application Mistakes
to Avoid
Dr. Cynthia Lewis of Lewis Associates, a medical school
admissions consultancy, returns to Accepted.com for a
chat focused on what NOT to do when applying to medical
school. Come to Accepted.com
Chat on Tuesday June 20 at 7:00 PM Pacific Time
(8:00 PM Mountain Time, 9:00 PM Central Time, 10:00 PM
Eastern Time) and discover the secrets to doing it
right.
The Definitive Chat on Medical School Admissions
Dr. Mark Goldstein, physician, Harvard Medical School
faculty member, pre-med Advisor at MIT, and author of
The Definitive Guide to Medical School Admissions, will
be available to answer your questions on medical school
admissions on Tuesday June 27 at 6:00 PM Pacific Time
(7:00 PM Mountain Time; 8:00 PM Central Time, 9:00 PM
Eastern Time) in our Chat
Room. Mark your calendars, bring your questions,
and get expert answers to your tough admissions
questions.
If you would like to purchase Dr. Goldstein's book
prior to the chat you can do so at
Amazon.com.
Please note the different times of these two chats!!!
New
Chat Transcripts Posted
The latest transcripts
from the lively wait-list chat
on April 12 and the Ace the AMCAS chat on May 2 are
online. Unfortunately, the transcript from the previous
medical school admissions chat with Dr. Cynthia Lewis
was lost. She and I will put our notes together and post
them shortly.
Presentations at CSUN and UCLA
I presented "Ace the AMCAS Essay" to the
pre-med societies at Cal State University at Northridge
and UCLA in early May. Both presentations were well
received.
Most of those in attendance have become
"Acceptees," by subscribing to Odds 'N Ends.
Welcome!
Acceptances
Please let us know about your application results by
filling out a short
form. Doing so will entitle you to a valuable congratulatory
coupon at UTBooks.
Congratulations!!!
NOTE: This promotion expired on December 20, 2000.
Coming Soon...
Accepted.com will soon add a resume section to the
Web site. So if you have benefited from our valuable
tips and news while applying to grad school, stay tuned.
Accepted.com's astute articles will help you as you
pursue that plum summer job or permanent position.
Essay Tip of the Month
Getting Started
Some of you will only write one essay and some of
you will write a plethora of essays. But you will all
start with a blank — screen or paper. How do you
transform that blank into a coherent, articulate
representation of you?
First ask yourself the following questions:
- Which experiences convinced you that you want to
pursue your chosen field of study?
- What leadership positions have you held and what
did you accomplish?
- What volunteer or internship positions have you
had? Were these positions memorable or
influential? If yes, how so?
- What kind of work experience do you have? Which
accomplishments at work would you like to
highlight?
- How did you choose your major? Is your major
important? Has it influenced your graduate
choices?
- Do you have any possible negatives to handle?
How can you address them?
- What do you like to do for recreation?
- Have you traveled? Where?
- Have you participated in community service
activities? Were these activities memorable or
influential? If yes, how so?
- Have you overcome obstacles or difficulties in
your personal life or in your academic or
professional career?
Answering these questions should provide you with an
inventory of material for the essays, probably much more
than you can use, especially if you are one of the lucky
ones who has to write only one essay.
For help choosing from the rich inventory you have
developed, read next month's tip, "The Essential
Laser."
Resume Tip of the Month
Is Your Resume ready for the Digital Age?
An ever-increasing number of employers are routinely
scanning job applicants' resumes into computerized
databases that automatically search for the keywords
that demonstrate you have the skills they need.
According to some estimates, there's at least a
fifty-fifty chance your resume will be scanned by
programs like Resumix and E-Cruiter. Whether you submit
your resume through one of the online resume
database services like monster.com or via "snail
mail," you owe it to yourself to have a cyber-ready
version of your resume.
What are the key differences between
"e-resumes" and the traditional variety?
From a design standpoint, your e-resume should be
stripped of highlighting features like boldface,
italics, tabs, and bullet points that might confuse the
employers' scanners. Also, choose a typeface like
Times Roman or Helvetica that the employers' scanning
software can read easily.
If you're sending your e-resume as an e-mail
attachment, your typeface choices are limited to ASCII
text, still the safest "platform-neutral"
character set. Make sure no line exceeds 60 character
spaces; anything over that may create spillover lines
that will make your e-resume look sloppy. Yes, even
stripped-down e-resumes should look clean and
well-formatted!
When it comes to the content of your resume, the
key difference between electronic and traditional
resumes is the use of keywords — the crucial terms the
employers' databases are programmed to hunt for. If
you're in the computer industry, your keywords will
often be the technical buzzwords that define your
niche — programming languages, computer platforms,
general industry terms — but even years of work
experience may be a searchable term. Some examples:
"UNIX," "Java,"
"object-oriented," "Sybase."
But employers in every industry will have a set of
keywords they're searching for (sometimes as few as
12; sometimes many more). For example, a firm seeking a
venture capital attorney might program their scanning
software to search for "mergers and
acquisitions," "licensing transactions,"
"private equity," and "IPO."
Needless to say, don't insert keywords unless they
accurately reflect your skill set! To find out what
keywords the employer you've targeted is looking for,
study the job description you're applying for,
classified help wanted ads, and industry sources such as
professional associations and newsletters.
Finally, while the employer's resume-scanning
software will find your keywords no matter where you put
them in the resume, it's a good idea to combine them
all in a Keyword Summary section at the top of the
resume after your name, address, and contact info.
Happy (job) hunting!
By Paul Bodine, Accepted.com
editor and member of the National Resume Writers
Association and the Professional Resume Writers
Association.
Grad Admission News You Can Use
Great Job Market for Geeks
In case you've been doing a Rip Van Winkle, it's a
great job market for techies. Perks abound, along with
very impressive salaries. For one of many articles
covering this story, see the LA Times, "
Geekdom is Awash in Perks".
Opportunities for Doctorates in Occupational
Safety
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that American
medical schools and universities are not producing
enough Ph.D.s and M.D.s trained in occupational safety
and health. The Institute of Medicine, which is
affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences,
produced the report which expressed dismay at the low
number of Ph.D.s - less than ten annually - trained
in occupational health and medical residents
specializing in occupational medicine, approximately 90
per year.
For the complete report and its findings, please visit
http://books.nap.edu/books/0309070260/html/R11.html#pagetop.
Law Admissions
News You Can Use
WSJ Reports Record Salaries for New Associates
The dot-coms are changing the face of professional
employment even at traditional law firms. Firms,
particularly those with high-tech business, have had to
jack up salaries for new legal associates in order to
prevent their defection to dot-coms. According to The
Wall Street Journal, in some big cities salaries for law
school graduates have leaped 40% to $125,000 plus
bonuses. With the bonus, a wet-behind-the-ears lawyer
can earn more than $150,000.
MBA Admissions News You Can Use
Great Job Market for MBA's
The press is falling all over itself covering the
outstanding job market and diverse options for talented,
young graduates, in particular, MBAs. If you have any
doubt as to the opportunities awaiting recent and
current graduates, here is a small sampling of the
latest articles:
Why Don't Women Pursue an MBA?
I have often wondered why the percentage of women
applying to b-school has plateaued at around 30%, while
the percentage applying to other professional and
graduate programs far exceeds that. Apparently others in
the business world wondered also and Catalyst, a
professional women's organization, the University of
Michigan, and the Center for the Education of Women
surveyed over 1600 MBAs from twelve top b-schools to
answer that question.
The good news: over 95% of men and women are
satisfied with their business school experience. So why
don't more women pursue MBAs? The study hints at some
reasons: Female respondents complained of a lack of
female role models (56 percent); incompatibility of
careers in business with work/life balance (47 percent);
lack of confidence in math skills (45 percent); and a
lack of encouragement by employer (42 percent) as
barriers they believe steer women away from pursuing an
MBA.
The high satisfaction revealed in the study, the
incredible opportunities available to MBAs, and the
current labor shortage all compel B-schools and business
to do more to attract women. The study also makes
recommendations as to how schools can encourage more
women to apply.
For further details, please visit
http://www.catalystwomen.org/home.html.
Med Admissions News You Can Use
Minority Pre-Med Summer Institute
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Duke University
have launched the Duke University Summer Biomedical
Science Institute. The institute will hold its first
session in June 2001 for college freshmen, sophomores,
juniors and some post-graduates from underrepresented
minorities. Boasting a web-based curriculum and a staff
composed largely of minorities, the institute will offer
classes in calculus, chemistry, biophysics, advanced
biology, basic sciences, written and oral
communications, and computer competency along with
supervised patient contact and exam preparation.
The RWJ Foundation, in conjunction with AAMC, has
funded similar programs at eight other colleges,
including Baylor, Vanderbilt and Yale.
New Chair at MCP Hahnemann
Dr. Michael D. Ezekowitz, a renowned authority on atrial
fibrillation and current head of Yale's Clinical
Trials Office, will become Chair of Medicine at MCP
Hahnemann. Administrators at MCP Hahnemann and Drexel
University hailed the appointment as further evidence
that Hahnemann is recovering from the 1998 bankruptcy
filing of its predecessor, Allegheny University of the
Health Sciences, and is reasserting its commitment to
excellence in patient care and medical education.
For
Your Enjoyment
From an English Paper
I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you
because someone has printed gibberish all over it and
put your name at the top.
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