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
MBA Admission News You Can Use
Grad Admission News You Can Use
Law Admission News You Can Use
Medical Admission News You Can Use
College Admission News You Can Use
Our Services
Deadlines Dead Ahead
Deadlines are here. We want to help you, but please give us enough time to do so. Don't wait to sign up for Accepted.com services at http://www.accepted.com/services/register.aspx or to contact your editor about additional editing.
Acceptances!
Those acceptances are starting to come 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 were admitted, how we helped you, AND how we can do better. E-mail acceptances@accepted.com or visit our Share-Your-Success page at http://www.accepted.com/services/shareyoursuccess.aspx .
Wait-listed?
Visit http://www.accepted.com/services for information on how Accepted.com can help you with your wait-list letters and strategy.
Admissions: Checklist or Mosaic?
Frequently, applicants approach admissions as if it is a checklist:
GPA
Test score
Extra-curricular activities
Relevant work or volunteer experience
Diversity element
Recommendations
If they can check off most of the items they assume they have a decent chance at their school of choice. Sometimes they're right. And sometimes they're wrong. The truth: the admissions process has elements of the checklist and all the above factors play a role, but admissions is much more than simply checking off items on a list. It has a highly subjective part to it that more closely resembles the creation of a mosaic. And the checklist approach can't even begin to explain this aspect of admissions, especially for highly competitive programs.
When adcoms evaluate your application, the boxes in the application, the stats, the transcripts - your checklist -- show if you are qualified. Once you prove you are qualified, you still have to answer with clarity and focus the fundamental question in admissions: "Why should we admit you to our school when X other qualified applicants are applying for the same position?"
When choosing among qualified applicants, the admission staff members resemble artists creating a mosaic more than auditors or underwriters ensuring certain criteria are met. They aren't looking for a bunch of identical checklists/stones - how boring! They want a class where each individual will add a different color or detail to the whole. In the words of an HBS admissions officer whom I spoke to recently, "We want different voices present in the classroom." She would much prefer dissonant cacophony in the classroom than monotonous agreement or even consonant harmony.
In their quest for individuality and personality, the admissions staff members look most closely at the essays. Make sure your essays demonstrate that you have something distinctive and individual to contribute. You don't have to come from an impoverished background or have climbed Mt. Everest, but you do want your application as a whole, and your essays specifically, to reveal personality and your inimitable reflections on your life experiences - your unique voice and singular tone. It's much tougher than a checklist.
How to Begin a Cover Letter
Read any how-to guide on writing cover letters and you're bound to get the impression that your cover letter should be about you. Some guides will suggest that you begin with the bland "Please accept the enclosed resume" or "I'm writing to express my strong interest in Position X." Other guides will tell you to start with something like this: "As an entrepreneurial finance manager who believes in using cutting-edge technology, I . . . ". Yes, this is more engaging, but it still makes the mistake of assuming that the reader cares who you are. The fact is, the reader only really starts caring when you can show him that you understand his problems and have the skills and experience to solve them.
How do you demonstrate such insight? Have the very first words of your cover letter establish that you really do know the reader's organization and grasp what problems it needs solved. Begin by researching the target company and finding out what issues it's grappling with. News articles, industry contacts, even direct phone calls to the organization itself can give you useful information to use in the first paragraph of your cover letter.
Suppose, for example, that you seek a research director's position with a mid-sized chemicals firm struggling in a competitive market. Your letter might begin: "Currently time-to-market and development costs in the specialty chemicals industry are increasing every year. An experienced research director with a track record of patented innovation and demonstrated new product development success can help you identify . . ." If you've correctly identified the reader's needs-and the job description and your research should tell you-then this kind of opening immediately signals the reader that you understand his organization's needs. Yes, this customized approach will take more time, but the results will be far more gratifying.
By Paul Bodine,
Accepted.com Senior Editor
Member, Professional Association of Resume Writers
Going Gets Tough for Foreign MBAs
Both Businessweek and The Wall Street Journal had articles this month on the American MBA program's declining appeal to international applicants. Facing increasing financial aid restrictions, tougher visa requirements, and shrinking job opportunities both in the U.S. and sometimes in their home countries, b-schools are anticipating fewer applications from abroad this year.
For more information, please visit http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_51/b3813112.htm
Upcoming Chats
Jan. 13: INSEAD with Johanna
Jan. 20: USC Marshall with Keith Vaughn
Feb. 3: Applicants with Linda Abraham and Accepted.com staff
Feb. 10: Wait-list Strategies with Linda Abraham and Accepted.com staff
New Chat Transcripts Posted
November and December were filled with valuable chats at Accepted.com with schools like Chicago, Darden, NYU, UNC, and Indiana, a newcomer to Accepted.com's chats, participating. Covering topics like housing, financial aid, the best profs, special programs and everything in between, the transcripts are helpful sources of information for applicants to these schools.
Let's look at a few snippets.
UT http://www.accepted.com/chat/transcripts/2002/mba11262002.aspx
"Hi Matt, I reapplied this year for Fall 2003 Full time program and I need to know if there are any stats as to how many people reapply?"
NYU http://www.accepted.com/chat/transcripts/2002/mba12032002.aspx:
"Can anybody share some thoughts on the "Describe yourself" essay in this year's application? Do you suggest sending in supplemental information?"
KFBS http://www.accepted.com/chat/transcripts/2002/mba12102002.aspx:
"What is KFBS doing to beat the rankings game?"
Indiana http://www.accepted.com/chat/transcripts/2002/mba12162002.aspx:
"What is a common mistake applicants make in their application?"
For the answers, please visit the URLs above.
Grad Admissions News You Can Use
Int'l Enrollment Increased in 2002
Despite predictions of decline in international enrollment for 2002-03, studies of international enrollment for the last academic year show a strong increase, especially from India. The Institute of International Education (IIE) reports that in 2002 international enrollment in American colleges and universities increased by 6.4%. Certain Middle Eastern countries reported a decline following September 11, but enrollment from India surged by 22% and surpassed China, such that India now sends more students (66,836) to the US than any other country, followed by China (63,211) and the Republic of Korea (49,046).
Deans Come and Deans Go
Dr. Jeffrey S. Lehman, dean of the University of Michigan Law School, will leave Michigan to become Cornell's president.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Boalt's dean, Dr. John P. Dwyer, has resigned in the wake of sexual harassment charges filed against him.
Law Schools Consider End Run Around US News
Law schools have long bitterly complained about the US News rankings and many have bemoaned the evil influence of rankings on admissions decisions, specifically the heavy weight given to the LSAT.
The Wall Street Journal reports that LSAC is considering a new proposal to mitigate ranking's influence on admissions: releasing only applicants' percentile placement within a school's applicant pool. Thus schools will neither consider actual LSAT scores nor release them to US News to use as a factor in its rankings. Consequently, LSAC feels that the test score will assume a lessened and more reasonable role in admissions.
Who are Physician Assistants?
The American Academy of Physician Assistants has published the results of the 2002 AAPA Physician Assistant Census Survey.
A few highlights for physician assistants who work full time (32+ hours per week) for their primary employer and graduated in 2001:
- Average total income is $63,198.
- 67% are female.
- Mean age is 32.
- 45% worked for a single or multi-specialty physician group practice.
- Worked an average of 45.9 hours per week.
For more information, please visit http://www.aapa.org/research/02pa-income-grads.html.
Striving for Diversity
The NY Times had a fascinating article last month on how admissions offices are responding to the potential end of race as a factor in admissions: They changed vocabulary.
Jacques Steinberg, NY Times education reporter and author of The Gatekeepers, an excellent book on college admissions, writes that when the courts ruled that UT Law School could not consider race in its admissions decisions, Rice University decided that it would be much safer if it too no longer used race in admissions deliberations. During admissions discussions, Rice's adcom members do not mention ethnicity. They refer to "an overcome" (hard-ship overcome) or "first-generation college" in discussing applicant strengths. They will not mention overtly a Hispanic last name and seemingly ignore another applicant's role in an African-American student group. Nor will they go into any details about test scores among different groups of accepted applicants.
Their commitment to diversity as a value in education is so strong that admissions professionals simply switch to ethnically-neutral vocabulary if a focus on ethnic diversity could cost their school in court. But they do not drop their own commitment to "cultural inclusiveness" in admissions.
Regardless of whether you love it or hate it and regardless of the outcome of the Michigan case now before the Supreme Court, diversity as a value in admissions is here to stay.
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 can be found in our catalog. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at http://www.accepted.com/services/generalinquiry.aspx.
We look forward to serving you.
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