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
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

"Summertime, and the living is easy..."

Gershwin couldn't have been thinking of Accepted.com this summer when he wrote that lovely song. Med school applicants have been keeping us busy and the MBA applicants are starting to work on their essays. In addition, we have been diligently preparing to serve you even better during the upcoming application season:

Chats for Matriculants in 2001

Accepted.com is planning a series of chats with guest experts for Fall 2000. We have invited some guests to return and will add some new experts to our line-up of home-run hitting experts.

Pre-Meds - Q&A
Please join our Q&A on Tuesday August 22 at 7:00 PM (8:00 PM Mountain Time, 9:00 PM Central Time, 10:00 PM Eastern Time). Having a tough time with a secondary? Still struggling with your AMCAS essay? Come and share the pain. Better yet, relieve it. Accepted.com's experienced editors and I, along with fellow sufferers, will do our best to provide practical guidance and support.

MBAs - Admissions Strategies for H/S/W
We have our first chat of the year set for Wednesday September 13, 2000 at 7:00 PM Pacific Time (8:00 PM Mountain Time, 9:00 PM Central Time, 10:00 PM Eastern Time). The topic will be "Admission Strategies for H/S/W." If you have any interest in applying to MBA programs at Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton, please join us for a question-and-answer session with Maxx Duffy of Maxx Associates. Maxx is a Wharton MBA, former HBS admissions officer, and admissions consultant for many years. Mark your calendars and join us on September 13.

Please note the 7:00 PM Pacific Time start time, which is an hour later than previous MBA chats started. If you have a strong preference for the 6:00 PM or 7:00 PM Pacific Time opening bell, please let me know by e-mailing chattime@accepted.com.

Pre-Med Secondary Essays

They're here, and they're important. If you need your secondary essays edited, please contact your editor or Accepted.com at 310-815-9553 or secondary@accepted.com.

Price Increase

The early bird may or may not get the worm, but at Accepted.com that bird is certainly going to save money. To keep offering you the best editors and outstanding service, we must raise our prices ("Boo!!! Hiss!!!" I know. I know.) effective September 1. But you can beat the price increase. Pay for your editing packages by August 31, 2000, and you will pay current rates. Just register before August 31, 2000.

Essay Tip of the Month

What if somebody doesn't like my cause?

Or religion? Or hobby? Or nationality? Or height?

I can't believe how many times clients have said to me, "But what if the adcom doesn't like _________ [fill-in-the-blank: tennis players, Iranians, Christians, Republicans, other].

I'll tell you something. I can guarantee that somebody somewhere won't like something that is important to you. Does that mean you shouldn't write about it?

No.

Except for criminal pursuits, your distinctive interests, special experiences, and background distinguish you from your competition. Those singular passions tell the admissions committees that you can contribute a unique perspective to your class. Leaving out those exceptional elements from your essay and application may mean that you don't trigger a mildly negative reaction in a few individuals who "don't like" whatever it is you are writing about. The omission will also ensure that your essay(s), personality, and individual viewpoint blur into the great, gray mass of blob-like applicants. Far more damaging. Completely counter-productive.

Bring out your distinct values, causes, and motivations by discussing your initiatives and accomplishments in different arenas. I do, however, have one caveat: No soapboxes please. Don't preach to the adcoms.

Resume Tip of the Month

Mining Your "People Experience" for Qualitative Achievements

True, the first rule of resume writing is to quantify achievements, but numbers alone don't tell the whole picture, no matter what your line of work. Employers, investment firms included, care about your ability to interact productively with others. Your involvement with people on the job (or in volunteer service) will likely yield rich material for your resume. The following four "people" areas often contain achievements that you can encapsulate well in bullet form.

1. Feedback from peers and superiors. Capture the main phrase in a short bullet:
• Praised by lab director as "fastest learner" to join team since start of project.
• Described by manager to client's CIO as "most effective communicator with technical staff" among firm's consultants.
2. Helping someone make a positive change. Employers understand that the ability to positively influence others' lives is a component of leadership.
• Counseled colleague to pursue interest in law despite weak prior academic record; student is now taking additional courses, earning A's, and applying to law school.
3. Handling conflicts. Have you helped warring parties come to terms? Say so:
• Enabled senior editor and production coordinator to overcome conflict about missed deadlines by leading focused discussions on the interface between their departments.
4. Bringing good people onto the team or convincing them to stay. If you have been instrumental in bringing or keeping strong employees onboard, future employers will appreciate your interpersonal skills.
• Convinced accountant to remain with organization through peak period when he was pursued by competing practice.
• Referred two interns, who have since joined firm and earned promotions within a year.

Let these brief suggestions spark your imagination as you re-examine your "people experience" for similar qualitative successes. Most important, add enough detail in the bullet point to present a vivid and telling picture of your achievement.

Cindy Tokumitsu
Editor, Accepted.com
Member, Professional Association of Resume Writers

Grad Admission News You Can Use

Gradview.com

Gradview provides lots of tips and advice for the grad school applicant. It also has a search engine, but the search engine does not allow as focused searches as does the search engine at gradschools.com. Still, Gradview is a great place to start researching your graduate program and an even better place to explore employment options after you earn your degree.

Law Admissions News You Can Use

Applications to Law Schools Increase

The New York Times reported that for the first time since the 1980s, applications to U.S. law schools are up. Applications to law schools nationwide are up 3% over last year according to the Times. The increase is not evenly distributed, however. Some schools, like Duke, merely saw a much smaller decline (3%) than in the early 1990s. Others, like UC Berkeley, have experienced three straight years of increasing applications. Its acceptance rate plummeted from 20% in 1997 to approximately 14% last year.

MBA Admissions News You Can Use

Dot-Goes

BusinessWeek Online and the New York Times had articles this month on contradictory trends in MBA-dom.

1. The dot-coms' tarnished appeal to MBAs and MBA wannabes. The articles revealed that since the NASDAQ tanked, the MBA crowd no longer considers stock options glamorous or Internet jobs an e-ticket to wealth. No surprises there. Job applicants are now looking at cash flow, profitability, and stability. Bottom line: they want higher salaries and upfront perks, and they are more frequently finding their fortunes in the Old Economy, especially with companies that are adapting quickly to the New. Those companies typically value educational credentials, like MBA degrees.
2. This past application season also witnessed a different phenomenon: a decline in the number of applicants to top MBA programs. Earlier in the application season, Odds 'N Ends reported preliminary declines at a number of business schools, but figures revealed in a July 5 New York Times article and just released by UCLA's Anderson School for the class of 2002 confirm a distinct drop for the entire application season — as much as 24% at the University of Chicago according to the Times. Anderson, known for entrepreneurship, received 4,563 applications for its 330 slots in the class of 2002. That number represents a 7% decline from Anderson's all-time high of 4,926 applications in the previous year. The article attributed the decline to the overall strong economy and the Internet Gold Rush.

What does the blemished reputation of Internet firms mean to MBA applicants in light of last year's decline in applications? To the extent that the Internet Gold Rush drew would-be MBAs out of the schools and contributed to a drop in the number of applicants, last year's decline in applications is history.

Furthermore, as discussed in last month's Odds 'N Ends, business schools have decided to lower the experience bar in response to last year's decline in applications. Thus encouraged, younger applicants will apply in greater numbers.

The combination of younger applicants applying as their hopes are raised and dot-com refugees fleeing start-up carnage should make next year a more competitive one for MBA applicants.

BusinessSchools.com

Businessschools.com is an online directory of business programs, both undergraduate and graduate. Punch in your area of specialization and desired location, and its search engine will return the schools that match your specifications. It claims to list over 1500 programs worldwide. It also has an extremely extensive and valuable set of links along with advice pieces on gaining acceptance and on finding a job after you obtain your degree.

http://www.businessschools.com

Med Admissions News You Can Use

Chat Transcripts

From "The Definitive Chat on Medical School Admissions (06/27/2000)"

Linda Abraham (ID=26) (Jun 27, 2000 9:51:21 PM):
"How can applicants compensate for low grades or a low MCAT? At what point do they need to start compensating? Can a student compensate for a low score in one section of the MCAT?"

Dr. Mark Goldstein (ID=74) (Jun 27, 2000 9:53:03 PM):

"I think that at a certain point one cannot compensate for a low GPA. For example, below 3.0 at MIT and you are almost 100% sure NOT to get into medical school. Low MCAT scores can be compensated by a high GPA."

Want to see more of the transcript?

From "Five Mistakes to Avoid (June 20, 2000)"

Dr. Lewis (ID=32) (Jun 20, 2000 10:19:51 PM)
"If an earlier MCAT or the August MCAT is taken, one should submit the application as close to June as possible."

Linda Abraham (ID=26) (Jun 20, 2000 10:20:13 PM)
"Even if one is taking the August MCAT, you recommend submitting in June?"

Dr. Lewis (ID=32) (Jun 20, 2000 10:21:09 PM)
"Yes - there really are schools which will give you secondaries upon receiving your application — especially private schools — they probably will not interview until the scores come out — but getting the secondary in is HELPFUL."

Want to see more of the transcript?

An Argument for More U.S. Med Students

The New England Journal of Medicine published an interesting article in July calling for an increase in the number of U.S. applicants to medical school. The article notes that the U.S. graduates every year approximately 16000 medical students but employs just under 22000 first-year residents annually. That means it is hiring over 5000 foreign medical school graduates to fill the gap between the supply of new doctors and the demand for new doctors. The article argues that since there is virtually no unemployment among physicians, the residency market has been highly stable, and many more Americans apply to medical school than are accepted, the U.S. schools should train more doctors.

For the complete article, please visit
http://www.nejm.org/content/2000/0343/0003/0213.asp.

Excellent Discussion Thread

It's a little hard to find, but if you want to read a gem, this thread is worth the effort. The posts from Linda Costanzo are particularly valuable. Here are the directions:

1. Go to http://www.medschool.com.
2. Click on the "Student Community" banner.
3. Click on Discussion Forums on the menu on the left.
4. Scroll down to Pre-Medical, "Applying to Medical School."
5. Find the thread "What is More Important?" started by Esther Choo.

The discussion on this board is usually more constructive than discussions on most pre-med forums.

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