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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
Food For Thought
The Washington Times interviewed me last week about the growth of admissions essay editing services. The reporter asked me, “Do you think students who have their essays edited are, ah., cheating?” I replied, “No. Are you cheating when your editor edits your articles?” To which she responded quickly and emphatically, “No!” My next line is quoted at:
(http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020424-90414818.htm ).
Acceptances
We've been hearing lots of good news! Thanks for sharing. 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 http://www.accepted.com/forms/acceptance_survey.asp or e-mail acceptances@accepted.com . Alternatively, let your editor know how you fared.
New Web Site Coming This Month!!!!
Come check out our new Web site. In addition to a fresh look, the new site has an updated navigation system, easy-to-use catalog with complete descriptions of Accepted.com's services and a detailed FAQ, and search functionality. So you remember that great med school admissions chat with Dr. Goldstein, pre-med advisor at MIT, or the fascinating "Recipe for Disaster" article, or that great tip on wait-list strategies from a couple of months ago? With the new Web site, you will be able to find them all with a quick click. And after you check out the search function, please visit our catalog to discover the many ways Accepted.com can help you with your admissions needs.
Great Options!
You've been accepted at two solid schools. Great! Or, you've been offered admission to an OK school with a significant scholarship and you're #1 choice with no financial aid. Or, you've been admitted to a top-tier school, but you really wanted to go to Harvard. You should be celebrating, but instead you're worrying.
What do you do now? What criteria do you use in making your decision?
Well stop biting your nails. Here are the factors that should guide you.
Factor #1: Which institution best supports your future goals and most likely career path? This criterion is paramount when you have clear, well-defined goals, for instance, "I want to run an IT consultancy serving financial services firms." If financial aid is an issue, calculate whether the full tuition program will increase your earning power by more than the amount of the scholarship or whether your preference for the more expensive school is worth the difference in cost.
Factor #2: Which educational approach do you prefer This criterion is paramount when you have clear, well-defined goals, for instance, "I want to run an IT consultancy serving financial services firms." If financial aid is an issue, calculate whether the full tuition program will increase your earning power by more than the amount of the scholarship or whether your preference for the more expensive school is worth the difference in cost.
Factor #3: Where would you rather live for X years? Do you want to live in a big city or small college town? What region do you want to live in? Do you prefer a big university or a small college? Urban or rural? Religious or secular? Liberal or conservative?.
Enjoy your great options and use these criteria to guide you as you make your decision.
Finance Resumes
Every field has its own nuances that can separate the focused job hunter from the pretender in the eyes of employers. Resumes for finance careers are no different. Whether you are seeking a position as an investment counselor, CFO, portfolio manager, or financial analyst you must use your resume to communicate that you have the specific expertise, exposure, and technical tools to be taken seriously.
Finance resumes should emphasize concrete dollar figures and percentages since the industry places a premium on analytical skills and your ability to benefit the organization and its clients. Hard numbers communicate this best:
- Increased cash flow by $5 million by minimizing risk from
marginal customers, consolidating credit analysis function, reducing
outstanding receivables from 33 to 11 days.
- Played key role in growing revenue and income by 86% over
16-month period through acquisitions and organic growth.
Salting your resume with the industry keywords -- P&L, GAAP, A/P,403b -- appropriate for your experience can also help your resume survive the employer's scanning/screening software. You can also communicate your professional bona fides by including, if appropriate, finance-related exams/certifications for the CPA, CFA, Series 7, 31, 63, etc. If you are licensed by the State of Idaho in Life/Variable annuities, make sure your resume says so. Your resume should display any facility you have with finance technology, from the common spreadsheet programs to the less common Crystal Reports, Hyperion, ILX, Morningstar Principia, etc.
Finally, finance companies are usually conservative institutions, so your resume design should be straight-ahead and serious -- no wild fonts or creative graphics.
GMAT Volume Soars Over 2001
GMAC reports that the number of GMAT test takers in January and February 2002 increased 25% over the same period last year.
To read the entire article, please visit http://www.gmac.com/gradmanagement/news/default.asp?iIssue=29&iArticle=457&iDept=3.
TOEFL Changes
At the National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals' annual conference, which I attended last week, I heard a presentation about planned changes in the TOEFL exam. ETS is planning to add a spoken English component to the test using tape media in March 2003. In 2004, it plans to introduce an all-new computer-based exam designed to test language competency more thoroughly than the current exam does.
In planning your testing date, keep in mind that ETS' plans, although presented as firm, are fluid. It was abundantly clear at the presentation that TOEFL is not popular among admissions people. It was equally clear that the audience is not happy about the proposed changes, or about ETS' recently announced closing of 84 computer-based TOEFL testing centers over the next fifteen months.
ETS wants to make the exam a more realistic and comprehensive measure of language competence, including speaking ability and comprehension. Consequently, for those of you who will need to take this exam and who have little experience with spoken English, the exam will probably be more difficult after March 2003. You may be wise to take it soon. For those international applicants who have strong verbal skills in English, the exam may be easier starting in March. While planning, remember that most schools only accept the score for two years.
GMAC Recruiter Survey
The name of the game for MBAs is the post-MBA job. That's what it is all about. Consequently, I encourage you to review GMAC's Survey of Corporate Recruiters, which appears at http://www.gmac.com/gradmanagement/news/default.asp?iIssue=29&iArticle=451&iDept=3.
It reveals recruiter attitudes towards hiring in a slow economy and recruiting graduates with little or no pre-MBA experience. It also discusses which segments of the economy have been least affected by the recession and suggests strategies for coping if the economy isn't booming when you graduate.
Hispanic B-School Ranking
The Top Ten according to Hispanic Business
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbyid.asp?id=6402
1. University of Texas at Austin
2. Yale University
3. Stanford
4. Kenan-Flagler at UNC
5. Florida International University
6. University of New Mexico
7. The Anderson School at UCLA
8. Marshall School at USC
9. McDonough School at Georgetown
10. Haas School at UCB
Early-Bird Special
Purchase Accepted.com's Essay and Letter of Recommendation Packages by July 31 and receive 10% off the package price. Get a head start on your applications AND save money!
http://www.accepted.com/pricelist.htm
Chat
On Tuesday May 14, 2002 at 6:00 PM Pacific Time (7:00 PM Mountain Time; 8:00 PM Central Time; 9:00 PM Eastern Time) Dr. Cynthia Lewis, medical school admissions consultant and former advisor at CSU San Diego, will return to Accepted.com for the first chat of the season on medical school admissions. Bring your questions. Dr. Lewis will provide the answers.
http://www.accepted.com/chat
Wake Forest Institutes Spanish Requirement
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Wake Forest University in North Carolina has become the first medical school in the country to require its students to study a foreign language. Fourth-year students are now required to take a class in medical Spanish so they can communicate on a basic level with Hispanic patients. The Hispanic population of North Carolina increased almost five-fold between 1990 and 2000.
"No!" To Florida State University College Of Medicine
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which accredits 125 medical schools in the U.S., rejected Florida State University College of Medicine's application for provisional accreditation. The school plans to focus on primary care, targeting the state's underserved populations, specifically the elderly.
The school will apply again and is confident that it will gain accreditation. It plans to graduate its first class in 2005.
AMSA's Top Primary Care Schools
AMSA's April New Physician presents its seventh annual Primary Care Scorecard along with advice on what premeds should seek in a medical school program if they are interested in a primary care specialty.
Schools with the greatest percentages of graduates entering residencies in:
Family Medicine
| Univ of Illinois -- Rockford | 35.7% |
| Univ of Minnesota - Duluth | 35.6% |
| Univ of New Mexico | 27.9% |
| Morehouse School of Medicine | 27.6% |
| Univ of South Dakota | 26.5% |
| Loma Linda Univ | 25.8% |
| Univ of Arkansas | 25.4% |
| East Tennessee State Univ | 23.1% |
| East Carolina Univ | 22.5% |
Internal Medicine
| John Hopkins Univ | 38.9% |
| Univ Central Del Caribe | 38.3% |
| Mt. Sinai School of Medicine | 32.7% |
| Univ of Rochester | 32.1% |
| New York Univ | 31.3% |
| UMDNJ - Robert Wood Johnson | 30.6% |
| Yale Univ | 30.4% |
| Harvard | 29.9% |
| MCP Hahnemann | 29.5% |
| Boston Univ | 29.0% |
Pediatric Residencies
| Marshall Univ | 23.1% |
| Albert Einstein | 21.7% |
| Univ of Illinois - Rockford | 21.4% |
| Texas Tech Univ | 20.2% |
| Univ of Nevada | 20.0% |
| Medical College of Georgia | 19.9% |
| UC San Diego | 19.6% |
| Univ of Utah | 18.1% |
| Loyola Univ - Stritch | 17.6% |
| SUNY - Buffalo | 17.6% |
Early-Bird Special
Purchase Accepted.com's Essay and Letter of Recommendation Packages by May 31 and receive 10% off the package price. Get a head start on your applications AND save money!
http://www.accepted.com/pricelist.htm
TOEFL Changes
At the National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals' annual conference, which I attended last week, I heard a presentation about planned changes in the TOEFL exam. ETS is planning to add a spoken English component to the test using tape media in March 2003. In 2004, it plans to introduce an all-new computer-based exam designed to test language competency more thoroughly than the current exam does.
In planning your testing date, keep in mind that ETS' plans, although presented as firm, are fluid. It was abundantly clear at the presentation that TOEFL is not popular among admissions people. It was equally clear that the audience is not happy about the proposed changes, or about ETS' recently announced closing of 84 computer-based TOEFL testing centers over the next fifteen months.
ETS wants to make the exam a more realistic and comprehensive measure of language competence, including speaking ability and comprehension. Consequently, for those of you who will need to take this exam and who have little experience with spoken English, the exam will probably be more difficult after March 2003. You may be wise to take it soon. For those international applicants who have strong verbal skills in English, the exam may be easier starting in March. While planning, remember that most schools only accept the score for two years.
Opportunity Knocks
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) reports that faculty salaries rose an average of 3.8% in academic year 2001-02, the fifth annual increase in a row and the highest one in eleven years. Unfortunately, the AAUP does not anticipate a similar across-the-board increase next year.
But opportunity still knocks in academia. As a result of the War on Terror, demand has increased for people with language skills, especially in Arabic, Korean, and Persian. Congress, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, approved a record 26% increase in the Education Department's budget for programs that support the study of foreign languages. Some of the $98.5 million appropriated will fund a doubling in the number of fellowships for students pursuing advanced training in the languages of Central and South Asia.
But if the "Stans" and their neighbors are not your destination of choice or area of interest, you may want to consider a Ph.D. in business. New doctorates in business and management teaching at colleges and universities take home salaries that averaged 11% more than last year, according to BizEd, the magazine of The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). In fact AACSB and its members are quite concerned about a looming shortage of business professors and Ph.D.s in business.
Hispanic Law School Ranking
The Top Ten according to Hispanic Business http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbyid.asp?id=6400
- University of Texas at Austin
- University of New Mexico
- University of Florida
- USC
- St. Mary's University
- University of Miami
- Southwestern University
- University of Illinois
- University of Colorado
- Nova Southeastern University
LSAC Publishes Guide For 2003
The Law School Admissions Council just published the new 2003 edition of its guide to American Bar Association (ABA)-approved laws schools in the United States. The Official Guide contains up-to-date admission criteria and other essential admissions information.
You can buy it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0942639847/acceptedcom
UNC Drops Early-Decision Program
UNC has decided to drop its early-decision admissions policy beginning next year, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, in response to research showing that early-decision admits tended to be less diverse than its overall pool.
UNC's chancellor, James C. Moeser, predicts that others schools will abandon early admissions in response to increasing criticism of those programs, highlighted in a recent Atlantic Monthly article. The article criticized early admissions for putting undue pressure on high school students to make a hasty decision as to which college to apply to and for favoring wealthy students with better access to counseling and admissions advice.
Tuition Heads North
Cornell announced that tuition will increase by 5% to $27,270 and noted that room, board, and student activity fees will also probably go up.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that some of the larger public institutions are anticipating significant increases for 2002-3. The University of Iowa has proposed a 19% increase to $4,191 annually for in-state residents. Penn State is considering a 10% increase, which will drive its annual in-state tuition to $7,700. UNC's Board of Governors approved an increase in in-state tuition of 8% and allowed each campus to impose additional increases. Ohio University will raise its tuitions by 9.9% for returning students and 15% for new students. Other schools, like CUNY, are raising "fees" instead of increasing tuition, but it all comes out of the same pocket - yours.
For complete details, please visit
this link.
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