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Odds 'N Ends
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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,
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Index
What's New at Accepted.com
Essay Tip of the Month
Resume Tip of the Month
Law Admission News You Can Use
MBA Admission News You Can Use
Medical Admission News You Can Use
College Admission News You Can Use
Grad Admission News You Can Use
Our Services
Early Bird Services
Wondering what you can do to enhance your profile? Ask us now. Not next October when
you won't have time to take all our suggestions. For more information, please visit
our services section.
“Ding” Evaluations
If you received the scrawny envelope and would like an evaluation of your unsuccessful
application as well as suggestions for next year, please visit
our services section.
Wait-List Services
Visit
our services section for information on how Accepted.com can
help you with your wait-list letters.
GMAC Highlights Admissions Consultants
In a thoughtful article entitled “Admissions Consultants: The Pursuit of a
Competitive Edge” the Graduate Management News, the Newsletter of the Graduate
Management Admissions Council, explores this burgeoning specialty and cites
Accepted.com's Linda Abraham as a “longtime professional” in the field.
You can read the article online by clicking
here.
Acceptances!!!!
Those acceptances are rolling in! If Accepted.com played any role in your application
process, whether as an informative Web site or advisor and editor, please let us know
where you are admitted, how we helped you, AND how we can do better. Visit our
share - your - success or e-mail
acceptances@accepted.com.
Alternatively, let your editor know how you fared.
Publication Break
Accepted.com will not publish Odds 'N Ends in April. It will resume publication in May.
Standing Out And Fitting In
It's a paradox! You must show that you meet a set of vaguely defined criteria for
admission -- that you fit in. And yet, you also have to show that you can contribute
something distinctive to your class. You have to stand out.
How do you do both?
Make your resume/job description/or history section of your application work hand-in-glove
with your essays. If you are a typical traditional applicant, then your resume or history
will prove that you fit in. Consequently, your essays have to work harder at emphasizing
how you will add value to the educational environment and stand out.
For example, let's say you are a medical student with a competitive GPA and MCAT who has
done volunteer activities typical of medical school applicants along with extensive
volunteer work with handicapped children competing in the Special Olympics. Your personal
statement could focus on your unusual volunteer experience, but the vision essay and short
job descriptions would reveal the details of your clinical volunteer work. The combination
would show that you fit in and stand out.
On the other hand, let's say you are a non-traditional applicant, for example a teacher who
wants to go to business school and start an educational business. Your essays need to work
overtime to show that you have the quantitative skills and business savvy to make it in
business school and the marketplace.
Your resume would discuss your teaching responsibilities, but your essays must emphasize
that you have the qualities b-schools seek. You would discuss the team success you had as
head of an initially divided faculty committee on curriculum reform. You would reveal how
you led a city-wide fundraiser that raised $X thousand more than any previous campaign and
discuss the fiscal, marketing, and leadership challenges you faced. You would also write
about the small educational materials business you have already founded and how managing
it has influenced your goals.
In short, if you blend in easily, then make your essays stress how you will stand out. If
you stand out in your applicant pool, write essays emphasizing how well you will fit in.
Don't Muddy Your Resume's Message
Whether you are seeking a new job involving a broader, higher-level business role than you
have yet undertaken or applying to MBA programs, chances are you are coming from a specialized
background of some type. In preparing your resume to target your desired position, beware of
the risk of muddying the message you convey by mingling too much technical detail with
business-related information and accomplishments. If you are seeking a position that focuses
more on management, problem solving, and strategy than on the technical qualifications of your
specialization, then communicate your technical expertise swiftly and succinctly, but provide
more detail in the points that demonstrate your understanding of the business context and the
accomplishments that impact the business context.
It's easier said than done, for sure. There is a psychological element to making that
transition in your resume: while your future goals beckon, you are proud of your significant
accomplishments in your field. They have become part of your self-definition. But to move
on, you have to let those details go — at least in your resume. Rather than delineating your
development of a highly successful application platform, for example, show how your
understanding of the system's potential market impact drove your conceptualization of the
system. Your resume must resonate the message that you will make a clear business impact.
Too much technical detail will dilute that message.
If you are targeting a business or management position that will directly employ your
technical expertise, say CIO or CFO, the principle still applies. However, you can add a
bit more technical detail — just be sure to maintain the pre-eminence of the business message.
If you are applying for a range of positions, some of which will use your technical expertise
more than others, create a second resume with the technical additions.
Trying to “balance” technical and business messages in your resume will only
produce a muddled message. Impressive as the technical accomplishments may be, their intricacies
will probably make a division manager's eyes glaze over. On the other hand, she will be thrilled
to read about how your contribution to the market simulator allowed you to add value to your
company's product development strategy.
By Cindy Tokumitsu
Editor/Writer, Accepted.com
Member, The Professional Association of Resume Writers
National Social Venture Competition Grows
Haas announced that its National Social Venture Competition, now in partnership with
Columbia and Goldman Sachs, has attracted 77 submissions, an increase of 140% over last
year. This competition is the only competition to incorporate financial sustainability
and quantifiable social or environmental returns.
Interview Service For Existing MBA Clients
Last month Accepted.com launched its Interview Coaching Service for our existing MBA
clients. Clients who have used the service report that it has helped them feel much more
comfortable and prepared when occupying the interview hot seat. Feedback such as the
following is typical:
“Yes the editor was very frank with his comments and provided a very good
feedback, which helped me preparing in a much better way for the actual interview.
In fact we covered about 80% of the questions that were eventually asked in the
interview.”
Or
“My Harvard interview went well and I received an acceptance call last Friday!
Thanks for your help.”
If you too would like to go into your MBA interview prepared, we still have a few
slots open for FREE coaching. Here are your options:
- Mock interview package: Have a twenty-thirty minute mock interview for a selected
school with an Accepted.com editor and then receive feedback and advice for the real
thing. Price: $150
- Interview consulting: Consult with an Accepted.com editor on approaches to interviews
at different schools for up to one hour. Price: $150
Wait a minute. If the price is $150, how can it be free? Simple, if you participate
in a second, ten-fifteen minute interview with your Accepted.com editor after your
MBA interview and provide your feedback, we will waive the fee.
Please note that the fee waiver offer is available to the first five clients per
editor who sign up for the service and provide the feedback. This offer is limited
to one free service per customer.
To sign up, please contact your editor.
It's A 10! Contest Reminder
If you have already interviewed, please take a moment to contribute your feedback to
this valuable MBA resource. Doing so before March 31 will enroll you automatically in
Accepted.com's It's a 10! contest.
You could be a winner!
Columbia Weighs Changes To Its MPA Program
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that heated controversy has greeted proposed
changes to Columbia's MPA program. Faculty, alumni, alumni and students criticize the
plan to create large lecture classes for core courses and reduce the number of required
statistics and financial management courses. The dean of the School for International
and Public Affairs, Lisa Anderson, defends the proposal as “a more efficient, effective”
approach to MPA education, which will give students more flexibility.
The school's Committee on Instruction will vote on the proposal in March.
LSAC Announces Test Dates For Next Year's LSAT
LSAC announced that it will begin accepting online registration for next year's LSAT
administration in mid-March.
The 2002-2003 LSAT test dates are:
- Monday June 10, 2002
- Saturday, October 5, 2002 (Monday, October 7, 2002 for Saturday Sabbath Observers)
- Saturday, December 7 (Monday, December 9, 2002 for Saturday Sabbath Observers)
- Saturday, February 8, 2003 (Monday, February 10, 2003 for Saturday Sabbath Observers)
Application Trends
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that applications to law school are up
21% compared with this time last year, which had about 4% more than the previous year.
AMCAS Tips For 2003 Applicants
AMCAS is striving to avoid last year's debacle. They have already prepared a list of tips
and suggestions to help you whiz through your AMCAS 2003 online application. You can find the
tips online by clicking here.
NW Med School Receives $75 Million And New Name
The Feinberg Foundation has given Northwestern University more than $103 million over the
last several years, including a new gift of $75 million. Northwestern has decided to name its
medical school the Feinberg School of Medicine. The money will be used to support research
and teaching.
NYU Receives $150 Million Gift
NYU announced this month that Julius Silver, who received $200-300 in scholarships before
completing his studies at NYU in 1922, left his alma mater a $150 million gift when he passed
away in January at the age of 101. The gift will create a fund, which will be used to endow
professorial chairs in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and to fund undergraduate scholarships.
For complete details, please visit
this link.
Forward this issue!
Please forward this issue to friends interested in graduate school admission.
They will thank you and so will we!
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 on our
Essay Help page.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at info@accepted.com
or 310-815-9553.
We look forward to serving you.
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