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
Profit from Accepted.com's Affiliate Program
Accepted.com launched its new affiliate program this month. If you, your business or club have a Web site, you can earn valuable referral fees by linking to Accepted.com. Participation doesn't cost you a penny. Please visit http://www.accepted.com/affiliates/default.aspx to learn more.
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 http://www.accepted.com/services/shareyoursuccess.aspx or e-mail acceptances@accepted.com. Alternatively, let your editor know how you fared.
Wait-listed?
Visit http://www.accepted.com/services for information on how Accepted.com can help you with your wait-list letters and strategy.
Dinged?
If you received the skinny envelope and would like feedback and suggestions for next year, please visit http://www.accepted.com/services.
Wait-List Purgatory
It's that time of year. Applicants are hearing Yes, No, or Maybe. This month's tip focuses on those of you in the latter category: wait-lists.
I encourage you to seize the initiative and launch a campaign. Unless the school discourages additional contact, take a pro-active approach. You have already shown that you qualify for the school; otherwise you wouldn't find yourself on the wait-list. They like you. Now give the adcom additional reasons to admit you by writing a succinct wait-list letter:
- First of all, follow the instructions provided in the letter advising you of your wait-list status. If the letter says, "Jump!" and you want to go to that school, you should respond, "How high?" If applicable, agree to take any additional courses or follow any additional instructions recommended. Express your willingness to provide any additional information requested by the committee.
- Reiterate your interest in the school's program. Briefly thank the school for continuing to consider your application and mention how the school's philosophy and approach fit your educational preferences and goals. Don't dwell on your disappointment at not being accepted.
- Discuss recent achievements. Did you have a 4.0 during the last quarter? Have you led a project or organization? Volunteered? Have you taken your department, business, or club in a new direction? Have you had an article published? Earned a patent? Launched a business? Received a promotion or assumed additional responsibility? Succeeded in a particularly demanding class or project? You should bring out any recent accomplishments not discussed in your application and ideally tie them back to some of the themes or experiences you raised in your essay(s).
- Discuss how you have addressed shortcomings -- without highlighting them. For example, if you enrolled in Toastmasters to improve your English, inform the adcom that you joined Toastmasters two months ago, tell them of any awards you have won, and enlighten them as to how much you are enjoying the experience. BUT don't say that you are doing all this because you are concerned about your low TOEFL or sub-standard verbal score.
- If you are certain you would attend this school, make it clear that this is your first choice and that you will attend if accepted.
Keep the letter short and sweet -- two pages max. Don't succumb to the temptation to rewrite or even summarize your life history or essay(s). Stay focused on what you have accomplished since applying.
Then plan a campaign of regular, but not pesky, contact designed to demonstrate your interest in and fit with this program. Three to four weeks after you send in your initial letter, submit an additional letter of recommendation. After another three to four weeks go by, send in another update and/or another recommendation. Follow this with a phone call and offer to interview, either in person or over the phone. If you are informed of your wait-list status later in the application cycle, contact the schools at more frequent intervals than outlined.
If feasible, plan to visit the school and see if you can set up an appointment with a member of the adcom. If you haven't previously done so, ask for a tour, attend a class, and meet with students. Then write the school and say how the visit strengthened your conviction that you and School X are a match.
Show them that you are committed to attend, demonstrate that you are "new and improved" since you initially applied, and you'll increase your chances of moving from the Wait List to the Accepted List.
With the annual ramp-up to the summer internship season well underway, now's a good time for a quick review of some key points that may spell success.
- Know what you want. Career-changers viewing summer internships as opportunities "to see what marketing is like" may be disappointed. Today, recruiters regard the internship as an opportunity to "pre-hire" qualified applicants who already know their direction. Also, determine before you start your search whether you want your internship to focus on developing one or two areas of expertise or to provide a more varied, cross-functional experience. Similarly, do you want a heavily team-oriented environment or a more narrow, mentor-focused internship?
- Thoroughly research your short-list of target industries by exploiting your school's job-hunting resources. Don't rely solely on on-campus recruiting events, which are largely controlled by the large, household-name firms that aren't hiring. Consider the smaller firms that used to be elbowed out of your school's recruiting process by the Big Boys, but are now ready to nab top-school talent. The small size of these firms may give you more opportunities to make an impact during the summer.
- Conduct your own independent job search, which may require cold calling, setting up informational interviews, and flying to several cities for interviews. Seek out classmates who've worked at the firms you're targeting and mention your interests to faculty members -- you never know what they can do for you. In some industries, such as venture capital, formal internships are still rare -- you will have to create these opportunities.
- Understand that summer internship resumes are not the same as standard-issue job-hunting resumes. Include sections on Interests and Special Skills. Internships are all about establishing rapport, and your resume's references to your passion for snake charming or your fluency in ancient Urdu may help you connect with your interviewer.
- Prepare for interviews through mock interviews. Some MBA programs actually require first-year students to do mock-interview with second-years. Each industry offers its own wrinkle on the internship interview. Consulting firms offer the delightful case-study interview to test your ability to think on your feet. Private wealth management firms may expect you to pitch several well-thought-out stock ideas. Finally, come with questions: "Can I make a final presentation?" "Will I be formally evaluated?"
Good Luck!
2004 Applicants: The Time is Now!
Wondering what you can do to augment your profile? Ask us NOW, not next October when you won't have time to implement our suggestions. With a one-hour individual consultation, you can learn how to enhance your profile now so that you hit the ground running when the 2004 apps are published this summer.
To get started on the right foot, take advantage of Accepted.com's Spring Special. You can purchase one hour of Admissions Consulting and one Initial Essay Package for only $650 (Stanford $800) -- that's $110.00 off Accepted.com's regular price for these services when purchased separately.
For additional information, please visit http://www.accepted.com/services/servicesdetails.aspx?serviceid=204.
GMAT Volume Soars
GMAC reports that 2002 had the highest GMAT test volume ever. GMAC administered 249,632 GMATs last year. December 2002 set a record for the most GMATs administered in any one month: 16,392 in the U.S. and 10,726 outside the U.S.
For the complete article, please see http://www.gmac.com/gmac/TheGMAT/GMATStatistics/GMATVolume.htm.
New Chat Transcripts
February's chats represent the end of chats for the 2003 application season and the beginning of the 2004 season.
For 2003 applicants, we hosted a wait-list chat. To discover successful tactics that will move you from the Wait-List to the Accepted List, please visit http://www.accepted.com/chat/transripts/2003/mba02102003.aspx.
For 2004 applicants, find out what you can do NOW to improve your chances next year. Read this transcript: http://www.accepted.com/chat/transcripts/2003/mba02032003.aspx.
Grad Admissions News You Can Use
The Wall Street Journal reports that Bloomberg LP has ended its financial support for a business journalism program at NYU.
According to CNN,Bloomberg LP has contributed $26,000 for two fellowships to the business journalism program. It ceased providing funding after an NYU journalism professor raised ethical questions about an appointment made by Bloomberg's founder and New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg.
LSAT Test Dates
The LSAT will be administered on the following dates:
Monday, June 9, 2003
Saturday, October 4, 2003
Wednesday, October 8, 2003 (Saturday Sabbath Observers)
Saturday, December 6, 2003
Monday, December 8, 2003 (Saturday Sabbath Observers)
Saturday, February 7, 2004
Monday, February 9, 2004 (Saturday Sabbath Observers).
You can register with LSAC starting in mid-March.
Accepted.com Early Bird Special for Pre-Meds
Purchase selected Accepted.com 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/services/medicalservices.aspx.
AMCAS Application
AAMC has announced that the AMCAS application for the class entering in 2004 should be available at http://www.aamc.org/amcas on or about May 1, 2003.
New Test for Med School Grads
The National Board of Medical Examiners announced on February 25 that it will require all medical school graduates to take a Clinical Skills Exam (CSE) beginning with the medical school class of 2005. The NBME will begin administering the test in 2004.
The purpose of the exam is to test medical students' interpersonal and communications skills in a clinical setting. The test will be administered to students who will examine actors posing as patients and presenting with various symptoms. After the 15-minute exam, the students will have ten minutes to record a patient history, findings, diagnostic impressions, and initial plans for further evaluation.
NBME claims that the test has the overwhelming backing of the American public, which frequently complains that new doctors have great technical knowledge and few interpersonal skills. New doctors are quite concerned about the test's cost: $1,000, on top of the $1,500 that they already pay for the existing exams.
For more information, please visit http://www.usmle.org/news/cse/newsrelease2503.htm.
Temple U Medical School Risks Loss of Accreditation
The Liaison Committee for Medical Education, the accreditation body for U.S. medical schools, confirmed its earlier decision to place Temple University on probation when it rejected Temple's appeal of its earlier decision. Temple is the only medical school in the mainland U.S. to be placed on probation in the last 15 years. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, an aging physical plant and inadequate financial aid caused the probationary status. Temple is trying to improve its facilities and its financial aid program.
New Book Claims Early-Admission Program Advantage
You may be thinking, "That's not exactly news." True, but The Early Admissions Game by Christopher Avery, Andrew Fairbanks, and Richard Zeckhauser is based on analysis of admissions data at 14 elite schools over a five-year period, interviews with 400 college freshman, and data from the College Admissions Project, a survey of 3,000 applicants at over 400 prestigious high schools.
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the book shows that participating in binding early-admissions programs is statistically equivalent to raising your SAT score by 100 points.
Not surprisingly, some dispute the findings. The Chronicle also reports that William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard's Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, believes the study is flawed because Harvard's own research comes to different conclusions.
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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